The Quincy Bay Quandary, page 13
“Thanks for getting dinner. I’m starving,” Allie said. “What do we have here?”
Drake placed the pizzas so they were next to each other, and flipped open the tops. “You can have a boring one with pepperoni, sausage, mushroom, and onion, or you can have the slightly less boring barbecue chicken with onion and bacon.”
“How about a slice of each?” Allie said. “And why are they boring?”
Drake reached for a plate and pointed it at Geneva. “Ask her. She wanted to get something called a seafood special. I talked her out of it.”
“Seafood? On a pizza? Yuck,” Allie said as Drake passed her a plate.
Geneva shrugged. “No worse than pineapple on a pizza.”
“I like pineapple on pizza,” Ingrid and Allie said at the same time. They looked at each other, smiled, and giggled like teenagers.
Drake folded a slice of the barbecue chicken pizza in half and took a bite. He chewed a few times and nodded, as if he were agreeing most heartedly with a point someone made. He swallowed and took a drink of Coke. “Oh my, that’s a good pizza,” he said a second before he moved in for a second bite.
“I told you so. Best in town. Worth the trip and the wait,” Geneva said. “How are you doing, Allie?”
Allie swallowed the bite she’d been eating and wiped her mouth with a napkin. “Much better, thanks. The rest did me a world of good. I’m sorry to you all that I had to give up my end of the pursuit.”
Drake shook his head. “Don’t worry about it. Splitting up was actually a good idea that you had. We all made a bad assumption that he had the hots for you, but it turns out I’m the one he’s interested in.”
“Are you sure? Did he follow you the entire way back?” Allie asked. “He never veered off, or kept on walking, or headed in a different direction?”
“Nope, he tailed me the entire time. At one point I slowed down, and he didn’t and came within twenty yards of me. Once that happened, it was easy to keep him spotted.”
“How did you do that? Do you have eyes in the back of your head?” Geneva asked.
“No. I used this.” Drake dug into his pants pockets and took out two items: a pair of tweezers, and a compact mirror. “No good geocacher leaves home without them. I tracked him in the mirror. He followed me all the way back to the hotel.”
“Perhaps he was headed to his bookstore,” Ingrid said.
Geneva shook her head. “Nope. The hotel is out of the way. He took the long route if he intended to go to his shop.”
“But why would he follow Drake and not Allie?” Ingrid asked. “It was Allie who went to his store, and it was Allie he was making lovestruck eyes at yesterday. Why Drake?”
The room fell silent as everyone considered the question while they ate, but no one could come up with any logical or illogical answer to the question.
Allie finished her third slice of pizza, picked up a second napkin, and thoroughly wiped her hands and mouth. She crumpled the napkin into a little ball and placed it on top of her plate. “Okay, I’ve got another question for you all. We’ve been following these clues for the last couple of days, and what I don’t understand is why all the hassle? Why bother going through the trouble of setting up all these convoluted clues in these random locations? Why not just have one cipher somewhere that tells the last location of the treasure, complete with a little X that marks the spot?”
Drake pushed his plate aside as well. “I’ve been thinking about that myself, and the conclusion I’ve come to is that I do not have a clue. Maybe it was a way to obscure the trail. It’s possible there were only one or two people who had the treasure’s hiding spot, and they backtracked it. You get it? They hid the treasure somewhere and told someone to hide a clue to get there. Afterwards, they got someone else to make a clue to find the previous person’s clue. That way not everyone realized where it was, but everyone contributed to the elaborate scheme to hide it.”
“Or more likely, it was a giant ruse to get the British to spend time and effort trying to track down a secret treasure that never existed,” Geneva said.
“That could be as well,” Drake admitted.
“Or it’s all an elaborate fairy tale,” Ingrid said.
“Could be that too,” Drake said.
“What’s the book say?” Geneva asked.
“Which book?”
“Which book? Come on, Drake, the book that started this whole baffling adventure. What does it say? Are we on the right track? Are the places we’ve been to even in the book?” Allie said.
“I’m not sure. I’ll go get it,” Drake said.
Drake disappeared into his room and returned a minute later, carrying his backpack. He placed it on the floor, opened it up, and rifled through it. He pulled out two empty water bottles and placed them on the table and underneath those found the book. In the process of putting the book on the table, he knocked the bottles, and they fell to the floor and bounced away.
Drake took a drink of Diet Coke, shook the can to confirm it was empty, and set it on the table. He opened the cover, then in dramatic fashion for the enjoyment of the others, he licked his finger and turned the page. He started reading, then started scanning the pages, flipping through them in a hurry, and skipping large chunks of information. Finally, he pushed the book across the table.
“Engaging reading?” Geneva said as she picked up the book.
“From what I can tell, it’s mostly rumors and theories. Paul Revere is in there, but not a word about William Dawes. They mentioned the Old North Church, and Bunker Hill, Faneuil Hall, the USS Constitution, but only just in passing.”
Geneva picked up the book and started going through it. “That wasn’t much of a book report. I’m sure Ingrid wouldn’t give you a good grade on that one. What do you think? A ‘D’?”
Ingrid smiled. “D-plus, at best. Could have been a C if he pronounced Faneuil correctly.”
Geneva slowly paged through the book. “Okay, according to this, John Adams and Samuel Adams had the brainchild of hiding the treasure to prevent it from falling into British hands. From what this says, George Washington himself decided where to hide it, and sent Paul Revere to pass the message.”
“If the treasure was so valuable, why not simply take it with them?” Ingrid asked. “You know, when Washington left town and started moving his headquarters farther and farther down the east coast? Clearly, he had the troops to make it happen.”
Geneva shrugged without looking up and kept reading. “There are several theories in here, but all of them seem to agree that they buried the treasure on an island in the Atlantic Ocean. However, where the island is seems to be anywhere from the coast of Gloucester in the north to Martha’s Vineyard in the south, and about a dozen points in between.”
“Is there any information at all in there to narrow it down?” Allie asked.
Geneva continued through the last few pages, then closed the book and passed it back to Drake. “I don’t think so. Even by my amateur eye, it seems to contain a lot of conjecture and a fair amount of sloppy research.”
“How can that be?” Allie asked. “I thought that Hailey person we met with is one of the premier authorities on the American Revolution this side of the Mississippi. And she’s on here as the co-author. You would think with all the documentation she has at her fingertips; she could figure this thing out without an issue.”
“I don’t know,” Drake said. “I still think we’re missing something on that end, but I don’t know what. Either way, what about going to Salem tomorrow?”
“That depends. Are we going as tourists, geocachers, or treasure hunters?” Geneva asked.
Drake looked across the table. “Allie? What do you say?”
Allie got out her phone and checked her geocaching app. “It looks like there are four virtual caches up there, and a handful of traditional caches. Have y’all done any of these?”
“I haven’t,” Geneva said. “Have you done any caching up there, Ingrid?”
Ingrid shook her head. “No.”
“Alrighty then. It looks like some of these caches correspond with historical locations anyway, so we’ll go as geocachers first, tourists second. If we accidentally run into anything that would give us the next step to the treasure, then we’ll do that,” Allie said. “Oh, and lunch. We need to stop for lunch. How long will it take us to get up to Salem?”
“On a perfect day, a half hour. On a usual day, maybe an hour. All depends on how bad traffic is,” Geneva said.
“Why don’t we do breakfast at seven and try to be on the road by eight? Is that too early?” Drake asked.
No one objected.
“Next concern,” Drake said as he stared down Allie. “Are you going to be okay, or should we take a rest day and hang out by the pool?”
Allie rolled her eyes at him in the most mocking manner she could. “I’ll be fine. We’ll have a car tomorrow, right? So, if I get tired, or the knee acts up, I’ll just hang back and take it easy. It would also be helpful if we didn’t do what amounts to a death march tomorrow.”
“Okay, so what do y’all want to do with the rest of tonight?” Drake asked. He looked from Allie to Ingrid to Geneva, but no one spoke. “We could play cards. Or go to the movies. Or just hang out.”
“What about the club? Why don’t we go dancing?” Allie asked.
“Are you serious?” Drake asked.
Allie laughed. “Of course not, you goofball. Actually, I’d just like to curl up with a book and get some rest. That way I’ll be ready for tomorrow.”
“I get it,” Drake said. “I’m good if we call it an early night.”
Drake looked down at the pizza. “You want the leftovers with you?”
“Nah, you can have it,” Allie said.
Drake consolidated the remaining five slices into one box and closed it. “I’ll put it in my room fridge. If you get hungry during the night, just knock on the door and I’ll slide a slice under.”
Allie smiled. “That’s so nice of you. Don’t worry, I’ll be good.”
“Okay. Party’s over. Geneva, can you help me with the chairs?”
Drake and Geneva each grabbed a chair that belonged in Drake’s room and carried them through the door. While they were gone, Allie and Ingrid cleaned up the used plates and napkins and dumped them into the empty pizza box. While Ingrid took the trash and removed it from the room, Allie put the clean plates and napkins into a sack. She withheld a couple of cans of soda and put the rest in the other sack, then looked around. Satisfied everything was in order, Allie took a seat.
Drake came back into the room and gave Allie a hug. “I’m sorry about your knee. I still feel bad about that, you know.”
Allie hugged him back. “You really shouldn’t. I was the one who was careless on that hill, and I’m the one who has to pay the piper. I just need to accept the fact that I need to slow down for a while and try not to be super-woman all the time.”
“Hey, I can help by not pushing you so hard, but you know how I get when I have a goal in sight. I just can’t help myself.”
“I know. That’s how you always end up with briers on your pants, poison ivy on your hands, and random bloody holes from thorn encounters. You never look before you leap, but that’s okay. We balance each other out that way.”
“We do,” Drake said. He released the hugs and grabbed the sacks. He said goodnight, then stepped through the door into his own room.
“Are you sure you two are just friends? You seem much closer than that,” Ingrid said as she stepped back into the room.
Allie turned and smiled at her. “We are close. But just friends. I think I told you a long time ago that he’s not my type.”
“What is your type?” Ingrid asked as she moved closer.
Allie reached out her hand, and Ingrid took it. “To be honest, I prefer blondes. Preferably smart ones, with a good sense of humor. Oh, and someone who’s easy to talk to.”
“Anything else?” Ingrid asked as she took a step closer.
“Hmm. Sparkling blue eyes. A kind heart.”
“You have quite a laundry list of expectations,” Ingrid said. “I’m not sure that person exists in real life.”
“I think they do,” Allie said.
Ingrid took a step closer and wrapped her arms around Allie. “Are there any other qualifications?”
Allie smiled. “A good kisser. They need to be a good kisser. Are you a good kisser?”
Ingrid batted her sparkling blue eyes and whispered into Allie’s ear. “Kiss me and find out for yourself.”
Chapter Fourteen
“Is this a traditional or a virtual?” Ingrid asked.
Geneva checked the app. “It’s a virtual. We need to either take a photo showing ourselves with the stones in the background, or—”
Drake interrupted Geneva in mid-sentence. “Hold that or, darling. I’m not sure why anyone would ever go beyond the photo part and actually do the task. The photo is so easy to take. Snap one shot, and you’re done!”
“Not everyone likes to post a picture of themselves on the Internet, you know,” Geneva said.
“True, but it’s not like you’re posing nude or anything. And most people post nothing besides selfies, anyway.”
Geneva shook her head and snuggled close to Drake and snapped a picture with him. “There. Satisfied?”
She showed him the picture, and when he nodded his approval, she sent it to him and logged the geocache as a find for herself. “You guys want a picture, too?” she asked Ingrid and Allie.
“No. I’m already done with this one,” Ingrid said, “and Allie seems preoccupied.”
Geneva looked to her left and noticed Allie studying the nineteen names engraved into stones. “Allie? You want a photo for the cache requirements?”
Allie looked up from the marker she was reading. “No thanks. I took care of that the minute we got here. Can you imagine hanging nineteen people here for being witches? I mean, with no evidence other than the wayward claims of young girls? I can’t wrap my brain around that.”
“Well, it was three-hundred years ago. Definitely a different time,” Geneva said.
“How did people let that happen?” Allie asked.
“I don’t know,” Geneva answered. “I’m sure when we get to the museum, someone could probably answer that question for you.”
“Drake, do you think... what are you doing?”
Everyone turned their attention to Drake, who was looking at his phone and comparing it to the markers. “I’m looking to see if any of these people had the initials G.C., like what we found in the crypt yesterday.”
Geneva passed her gaze quickly along the stones. It only took a few seconds to determine no one there had those initials. “I don’t see a match.”
Drake frowned and shoved his phone back into his pocket. “I didn’t either.”
“Wouldn’t matter if you did,” Ingrid said. “You wouldn’t find any treasure clues here.”
Drake looked up. “How do you know?”
Ingrid pointed to a small sign nearby. “Because they did not dedicate this park until 2017. I doubt the patriots would have had the foresight to hide clues in a location that wouldn’t have a memorial until two hundred years later.”
“Okay, that’s a valid point.”
“Besides, we’re treasure hunters third today, remember?” Geneva said. “Let’s get in the car and move on to the next geocache. It’s only a half mile from here.”
They all got back in the car, and Geneva drove a few blocks, found street parking, and they all got out again. Drake checked his app and pointed to a stop sign fifty feet ahead of them. “I’ll bet it’s there,” he said.
The four walked to the corner, and Drake checked all over the sign and the pole from as high as he could reach to the ground. Despite his search, he had no luck in finding it. He was about to give up when Ingrid handed him a small plastic box meant for hiding spare keys.
“Where was it?” he asked as he slid open the box and removed the paper log.
“Over there, behind the downspout attached to that building. You only missed it by less than fifteen feet,” Ingrid said.
Drake signed the log and passed the sheet to the other three, and Ingrid put the geocache back together and returned it to where she found it.
Five minutes later, they parked outside of a three-story white mansion.
“Cool house,” Allie said.
“Wait until you discover the garden around back,” Geneva answered as she turned off the engine. “Unless plants aren’t your thing, and in that case, we can grab the cache and leave.”
“I’d vote for cache and go,” Drake said.
“Me, too,” Ingrid agreed.
“Okay, okay, I’ll come back and enjoy the flowers on my own. This is another virtual. We need to find the sundial in the garden. The gnomon points to an information sign, and we need to grab the fifth word from the second sentence on the sign.”
“What’s a gnomon?” Drake asked.
“I think it’s the pointy part of the sundial,” Geneva answered. “Let’s go find out.”
The four walked into the maze. While Geneva stayed a step behind to take pictures of the vegetation, the other three quickly found the sundial. Sure enough, the point of the sundial led to the sign with the answer they needed.
For their next stop, they visited the statue of Roger Conant, who was the person credited with founding the community of Salem. Together, they took a group photo for the requisite picture and logged the virtual geocache. Afterwards, Drake pointed to the large brick building across the street that resembled an old Gothic cathedral.
“Can we go over there?” Drake asked.
“The Salem Witch Museum?” Allie clarified. “Sounds fun, let’s do it.”
The quartet headed across the street and stepped into the museum. Lucky enough to secure a spot, they passed through the presentation that gave an in-depth examination of the Salem witch trials in 1692. They spent an hour going through the museum, then left the building and found a seat on the bench.
“Did you see what I did?” Drake asked.
