Secrets from the Deep
Page 18
Lulu’s cook, Bridey, came in from the kitchen just after we started to eat. “I’m sorry to disturb your dinner, Commissioner, but you’re wanted on the phone.”
“That will have to wait,” Lulu said. No one came between Lulu and her dinner.
“But, Ma’am,” Bridey said in her thick Irish brogue, “it’s the governor of Massachusetts who wants to speak with Ms. Blaine.”
I tossed my napkin on the table. “I can take it,” I said. “It must be for me.”
“Not this time,” my mother said. “Stay put.”
“Yes, darling,” Lulu said, “why don’t you tell me more about this yacht?”
“The Twilight?” I said. “It’s the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen. It’s just enormous and decorated like it was an apartment in this building. There were paintings everywhere—one of them must have been a van Gogh, and—”
“Booker, is she exaggerating again?” Lulu asked.
“Not this time,” he said with a laugh. “You’d be right at home on that yacht.”
“Tell me about the owner,” she said to me.
“The owner?” I asked. “We didn’t meet him.”
“Hmmm,” she said. “Well, what did the crew say about him?”
“That he’s really nice,” Booker said. “They love working for him.”
“Did they tell you whether he’s married or not?”
“Oh, Lulu,” I said, “I love your spirit. I’ll call Cutter and ask him.”
“Think of it,” she said, “Becca and I could charter the Twilight and take you all on a cruise.”
Booker shook his head. “It’s not for charter, Mrs. Atwell. It’s just the owner and his friends and family who use it.”
“What a good friend to have,” she said. “He seems to appreciate the finer things in life, and he has such a thoughtful crew.”
My mother came back from the kitchen and looked really happy, for the first time all evening.
She stood next to Lulu and picked up the doubloon.
“The governor of Massachusetts has been made aware of your adventures,” she said, looking from Booker to me. “And he’s very grateful for your hard work and good judgment.”
“I hope you held your tongue, Blaine, when he talked about their judgment,” Lulu said.
“I did,” my mother said, smiling at Booker. “I told him that I agreed with him.”
“They’re wonderfully bold, you know,” Lulu added. “That’s a quality I admire in young people.”
“A quality,” my mother said, patting my grandmother on the back, “and a challenge at the very same time.”
“You both would have been so amazed by the way Dev got the answers from all those grown-ups today,” Booker said. “She rocked.”
I waved him off. “C’mon. I’ve watched my mom do it dozens of times in a real courtroom,” I said. “You could probably set a broken leg, too, if you watched your mother in surgery.”
“Will the governor’s lawyers figure out who really owns the coins?” Booker asked.
“He assured me they will,” my mother said. “And even the DNA results they get may help them figure it all out.”
“Splendid,” Lulu said. “What else?”
“The reason for the call tonight is quite simple. The little park that surrounds the East Chop Lighthouse is public property,” my mother said, “and because the coin was found in Massachusetts territorial waters, the governor told me that he has already made his first decision.”
“What is it?” I asked. “What did he say?”
“The governor is going to announce tomorrow that he would like to award the coin to—”
She paused just to tease us.
“He would like to give the coin to Ezekiel Dylem, who scooped the sand and raised the doubloon up from the water, where it had been lost or abandoned.”
“Zee!” I shouted. “Go, Zee!”
Booker had his hands in the air, clapping for joy.
“Can we tell him, Aunt Blaine?” Booker asked.
“Right after dinner,” she said, resuming her place.
“How thrilling,” Lulu said. “You two should be quite proud of yourselves.”
“Your grandmother is right,” my mother said. Words I hadn’t heard her say very often. “We’re proud of you, too. Enormously proud.”
“Thanks,” I said.
“After you call Zee, we’ll get Booker to his house and go home ourselves. We can throw your clothes in the washing machine and call it a day.”
“You can’t wash my clothes!” I practically shouted out.
“Don’t give your mother orders, dear,” Lulu said. “It doesn’t become you.”
“I’m sorry. I just meant that I’m going to send my shorts and shirt to the lab on Cape Cod,” I said. “Wouldn’t that be a great end to my essay? I must have just about every fish scale from the Hudson River on my clothes.”
“Flounder, catfish, perch, eels,” Lulu said. “That’s a revolting thought, really.”
“We already know we had a Ditchley Dolphin in the water,” my mother said. “I don’t think we need any more fish scales.”
“You know,” Lulu said, talking to Booker and me, “with your help, we can plan next summer’s vacation.”
“Oh, Louella,” my mother said, “you’re getting way ahead of yourself here, just when I’m trying to calm things down.”
“But suppose we can convince our friends who own this yacht—what is it, the Twilight?” she said. “Suppose we can convince them to cross the ocean with us. Is it big enough to do that? Could we get to Scotland on it?”
“You bet,” Booker said. “I like your thinking.”
“You two could do a science project and solve the mystery of Nessie,” Lulu said.
“Nessie?” I asked.
“Surely you’ve heard of the Loch Ness Monster?” she said, grinning from ear to ear. “It’s some kind of aquatic creature that’s rumored to live in a huge lake in Scotland.”
“Isn’t she a myth?” I said.
“Well, you two can finally prove whether she exists or not,” Lulu said.
“Fish scales of the Loch Ness monster,” I said. “How cool would that be?”
“Myth,” Booker said, “or mystery.”
“Let’s hope it’s a mystery,” I said, high-fiving him across the table. “Then you and I might be able to solve it.”
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Sometimes you just get lucky.
I was sitting next to a very nice man at dinner one night at a friend’s home, and he started talking to me about the most interesting things. His name is Jesse Ausubel, and he’s an incredibly smart environmental scientist who works at the Rockefeller University in New York City.
Like me, Jesse has a home on Martha’s Vineyard, and knows so much about fish and their DNA that I learn something every time I see him. Do you know anyone who has discovered a new species of animal life? Well, there’s actually a deep-sea lobster named for Jesse! It’s got a Latin name, but it’s known as Ausubel’s Mighty Clawed Lobster. Very cool.
One of the projects that Jesse talked to me about involves the study of water—water scooped out of oceans or rivers or ponds—to see what kinds of fish or birds or animals have left traces of their DNA behind. The minute I heard about it, I knew it was the kind of thing that would capture the imagination of Devlin and Booker.
Jesse also introduced me to some of his brilliant colleagues at Rockefeller University. Dr. Mark Stoeckle was extremely generous with his time and knowledge, and taught me some fascinating things about fish and DNA. Kate Stoeckle, his daughter, and her high school friend Louisa Strauss, solved a great mystery by using the DNA of fish when they were teenagers! Those two sleuths are truly the inspiration for this adventure of Devlin Quick’s.
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