The Boy Detective Fails (28 page)
“I’m sorry … I’m so sorry.”
Billy nods, turns, climbing out, and stops, seeing Caroline’s message. He touches it and frowns. He stares and then smiles, his eyes filling with tears, turning away. Billy climbs out of the cave and sits down exhausted, beside the opening, too tired to stop himself from crying.
Imagine, if you can, a time-lapse photograph of several police officers arriving at the entrance of the cave, backlit by the flashing lights of an ambulance. The police officers are very serious and ask the boy detective many, many questions. He nods and points. He holds his head up and frowns, exhausted. It rains and it rains and it rains. The chief of police, with his pointy white beard, pats the boy detective on the back, excited, congratulating him. But Billy only stands, soaked by the rain, staring back at the cave.
Our evening newspapers report that every light in our town has switched on suddenly. Unplugging the plug or switching off the switch is useless. The lamps, nightlights, streetlights, flashlights, and headlights of our town all refuse to stop beaming. It is a lovely surprise: the soft song of one million light bulbs humming along in harmony. We stare at the beautiful glow of our small world and wonder w
hy,
content with the silent response gleaming there as an answer before our wide-open eyes.
THE CASE OF THE SECRET TREASURE
We have devised a theme song for the boy detective. It goes like this:
It is a spooky night / but don’t anyone be afraid
Because the boy detective / is close on his way
No case too big / no case too small
With his trusty kit / he will solve them all
Boy detective / detects every clue
Boy detective / solves every crime for you
Boy detective / he’s our favorite
Boy detective / ba-da-bum-ba
The boy detective stands outside Penny’s, covered in mud and water. He looks terrible. We mean
terrible
. He gazes up at Penny’s window and sees the light is on. He stands for a moment, just watching. What might he say? He does not know. He walks over to the buzzer and presses the appropriate button. Penny answers, nervously, her voice sad and resigned.
“Yes … who is it?”
“It’s me, Billy. May I please come in?”
“Of course, Billy.”
Penny buzzes the door open. Billy rushes in, his wet shoes squeaking like an alarm on the steps. He kicks them off and runs up the stairs barefoot and stares as Penny opens the door and lunges forward, attacking Billy with a flurry of kisses. She pulls him inside. Penny continues to kiss Billy, who smiles, holding her, exhausted.
“Look at you. What happened? What happened to you?” she asks.
“Please, I … I don’t want to be alone. Not tonight.”
Penny stops kissing him and holds him. She wipes the dirt from his face and begins undressing him. They resume kissing, falling onto the couch, knocking over a stack of stolen shoe boxes. From there the boxes fall, spilling over to the window, where Penny’s hand slowly draws the blinds. A lightbulb is suddenly made dark. Outside, two doves huddle in the rain, cooing.
The boy detective lies on the couch, asleep, with his head in Penny’s lap. Penny sits, staring down at him. He awakes and smiles.
“I thought it was a dream.”
Penny places her finger over his lips, hushing him.
“Shhhh, it’s OK now.”
“No, I should, I really ought to be going.”
Penny kisses him. She places her hand on his chest, then feels something underneath. Billy sits up, smiling. He pats down the small lump on his chest, feels inside his shirt pocket, and finds his notepad, opened to Mr. Lunt’s riddle. He reads it and smiles, handing it to Penny.
“How would you like to solve a mystery with me?”
“A mystery? What kind of mystery?”
“The best kind: one with treasure at the end of it.”
“How do you know there’s treasure?”
“I don’t know for sure, that’s the mystery of it, I guess. Would you like to help me?”
“If you don’t laugh. I get clumsy.”
Billy smiles, staring into her brown eyes.
“We can hold hands if it helps,” he says.
The boy detective and Penny walk along the street, staring down at the riddle on the paper.
At the beginning of a silver line, and the end of another made of twine, if you have old lungs, the treasure you will find.
Penny is excited, clapping her hands. Billy stares at her and grins.
“Yes, so, where do we begin to look?” she asks.
“A silver line, perhaps? That sounds like jewelry.”
“Or a machine of some kind.”
“Or a geographical place, like a mineral deposit.
The beginning of the silver line
. Perhaps in the mountains? Hmmmm,” he says.
Penny looks up and stares at the bus stop sign on the street corner.
“Or … the bus line.”
“The bus line?” Billy says with a smile.
“The silver line.”
There on the corner is a sign that reads,
SILVER LINE: Weekdays, Weekends, Late Hours.
Billy stares at the sign while Penny nods victoriously.
“The beginning of the silver line,” he says, impressed.
Billy and Penny hop on the next bus, excitedly. Trying to solve the next part of the riddle, sitting together, looking at the piece of paper, Billy realizes he cannot concentrate. He is counting the number of freckles on Penny’s nose. He blinks and counts again and realizes there are fourteen beautiful amber dots sitting there.
“
The end of another made of twine,
” Penny whispers. “That sounds like a rope, doesn’t it? The end of a length of rope. Well, we’ll have to wait and see about that.”
“Yes,” he says, sighing as he stares at her.
The city flies past the windows of the bus. Billy notices he is holding hands with Penny and his face becomes flush, watching as the town hurries by.
“What do you think we’ll find?” Penny asks.
“I don’t know. Maybe we won’t find anything,” he says seriously.
“Oh, we’ll find something. And inside, there will be a giant precious diamond. Or hundreds of rubies. Or a locket, with a photo of a lovely woman from long ago, maybe.”
The bus driver calls out, from over his shoulder: “OK, it’s the beginning and end of the line, folks. Everybody off.”
At the bus station, which is old and silver and dilapidated, Penny and Billy get off the bus and look around. There are some woods, train tracks, a field. Their hearts are pounding. They look around happily.
“Now what? The end of a length of rope. Where would that be?” Penny asks, peering about. She spots something, then grabs Billy’s hand and begins running.
There is a small, rusty gray sewer grate at the end of the train tracks which has caught Penny’s attention. There are several rail ties and rusty lengths of track surrounding it, and she quickly moves them to one side.
Penny and Billy stare past the metal grate, down into the murky sewer. It is dark and dank. Billy shakes his head, still unconvinced.
“It’s down there, I’m sure of it,” Penny says.
“Do you think so?” he asks.
“Yes. That’s exactly where I’d hide something—if I had to, I mean. It’s very close to the bus. You could hide something and hurry back without anyone noticing.”
“Well, I don’t think it’s such a good idea to go down there,” Billy says.
Penny takes off her glasses and hands them to Billy. With one forceful tug on the sewer grate, she lifts the metal covering aside and places it near Billy’s feet.
“Look,” she says. “They left the rope.” Just as Penny claims, there is a worn-looking yellow rope knotted to a sturdy black pipe, which is caked in rust and grease. Without another word, Penny grins widely and begins to lower herself down the well.
Billy shouts: “Just a minute! Just a minute!”
But Penny is at the bottom of the well, already, shouting back up.
“It’s not very deep at all, just dusty!”
“Be careful!”
“What’s the next part of the riddle?”
“It says, ‘
If you have old lungs
… ’”
“Maybe they mean the dust? It makes you cough like you have old lungs!”
“What else do you see down there?”
“Well, there’s some change. And an engineer’s cap. And there’s also an old accordion down here. It looks very old. And broken.”
“That’s it!” he shouts, clapping his hands.
“OK!”
“I’ll pull you up!”
Billy pulls Penny up in a hurry. She hands him the broken accordion, which is red and gold and withered. He fiddles with it, pressing the dusty white keys. It doesn’t make any noise at all
.
“Well, it seems to be broken, all right,” he says.
Penny gently lifts the accordion, hits a key, then shakes the accordion and smiles.
“There’s something inside of it, I think.”
Billy and Penny carefully find a way to open the bellows, detaching a series of small springs, and there they find a note, which has been blocking the air valves inside. They stare at the note and read it together, silently:
To the boy or girl that finds this:
Mr. Howard Lunt, aged 9, hid this April 24, 1902. Congratulations! Put back in spot so others might find.
Signed,
Mr. Howard Lunt, President, League of Amateur
Whodunit Enthusiasts.
Billy and Penny look at each other and smile. He nods, quite pleased. The boy detective slips the note back into the bellows, seals it up, and lowers the accordion back into the drainpipe. They walk back toward the bus station. The sun begins shining over their shoulders.
We would really like to think that you were holding hands with somebody while you read that last part. If not, you might read it again and ask someone to hold your hand right now. You might then write that person’s name somewhere here on this page with a heart glowing around it. Why not? It might be fun.
Billy and Penny sit on the bus, smiling, side by side. Billy looks across the aisle and sees a young boy with glasses in a red cardigan sweater doing a crossword puzzle, sitting beside his mother. Billy eyes him, smiling, and, digging into his pocket, pulls out his pad and pencil, and begins scribbling something down.
It is this: a treasure map with a big
X
marking the spot.
Billy finishes and tears the drawing from the pad of paper. He hands it to Penny, who smiles at it. Billy nods toward the child across the aisle. Penny looks from Billy to the boy and nods, understanding. She stands and very carefully slides the treasure map into the kid’s sweater pocket without anyone noticing. She sits back down and winks at Billy.
Billy and Penny sit side by side, slightly dirty but smiling, staring straight ahead. In a moment, Billy frowns and Penny notices.
“What is it, Billy?”
“It’s all over now. I’m not young anymore. No more adventures, no more mysteries, no more secrets.”
Penny hugs him. Billy smiles at Penny, holding her hand.
“We’ll make our own secrets now, maybe.”
THE END
NURSE ELOISE’S ANGEL FOOD CAKE!
You will need
4 c. egg whites
4 tsp. cream of tartar
3 1/2 c. sugar divided into 1 1/2 c and 2c.
2 c. cake flour
1/2 tsp. salt
1 scraped vanilla bean
Put egg whites and cream of tartar into mixing bowl. Using your mixer’s whip attachment, whip until soft peak. Gradually add 2 c. sugar and scraped vanilla bean and beat until stiff peak. When beater is pulled out and held upside down, a curl should hold its shape.
Sift flour, 1 1/2 c. sugar, and salt.
When whites are ready, slowly and gently fold in dry ingredients—
don’t over mix!
Dollop into two angel food cake pans—
ungreased
!
Run a knife around the pan edges to get rid of any large air pockets.
Sprinkle top with sugar.
Bake at 350° F approximately 35-40 minutes, until cracks in top no longer look moist.
Eat and enjoy—
yum!
BOY DETECTIVE PUZZLE!
The boy detective needs your help! Assist him with escaping the mystery of the haunted maze.
BOY DETECTIVE CONNECT THE DOTS!
Help the boy detective face his darkest fears! Connect the dots to reveal what is hidden.
