Case Closed #4, page 23
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TO ASK THE PROFESSOR HOW HARMONIA DIED, CLICK HERE.
TO ASK WHY EVERYONE KEEPS CALLING THE TUNNELS THE “CATACOMBS,” CLICK HERE.
* * *
“WHAT ABOUT THE necklace?” I ask Leech.
“What about it?”
“Are you planning on taking that?”
“Couldn’t, even if I tried.”
Eliza and I look at each other, confused.
“What do you mean?” Eliza says.
“First of all, have you seen the size of those catacombs, and have you seen the size of me? Mr. Bones, Professor Worthington, Dr. Mandible, and I have absolutely no hope of traversing those tunnels. We’re way too big. Same goes for Zip and Nadira—smaller than us, but still too big for the catacombs. Even Smarty Marty, the most petite in our ranks, is probably pushing the limit. Secondly, the catacombs seemed to be locked with traps and defenses. Until someone shuts that down, we’re not getting within a mile of the treasure, let alone an inch.”
Eliza presses her lips together. She’s formulating a question. At last she inhales deeply and says, “Mr. Bones believes that the person who stole the artifacts will try to steal the necklace too. Do you think that’s the case?”
“I guarantee,” Leech says, amused, “that anyone who says they aren’t after the necklace is lying to you.”
* * *
TO ASK LEECH WHO HE SUSPECTS, CLICK HERE.
* * *
“YOU SAW THE disk that Mr. Bones has?” I ask.
“Ah, yes,” Professor Worthington says, leaning over the book in front of him. He purses his lips in distaste. “The disk Mr. Bones couldn’t comprehend, no matter how hard he tugged and twisted.” His tone seems to suggest that he doesn’t think very highly of Orlando’s methods. “I told him that something like this requires your mind, not your muscle.”
“You think it’s a puzzle?” Eliza says excitedly.
“But of course!”
“Do you have a copy of what the translation said—around the side of the disk?”
“I thought Nadira already did a translation . . . ancient and powerful necklace, blah blah blah, lying dormant in a catacomb, blah blah blah, brave adventurers welcome to test your mettle.”
“What’s Greek for blah blah blah?” Frank says, suddenly interested.
I ignore Frank. “Do you have an exact translation?”
“I could, if I saw the disk again. Mr. Bones hasn’t let it go since we found it.”
“Well, with all the artifacts going missing around here, can you blame him?” Eliza says.
Professor Worthington simply peers at us over his glasses.
“Have you seen anything suspicious?” I ask. “Or anyone suspicious?”
“I’m afraid I can’t help you there. I mostly keep my nose buried in a book. My focus is solely on finding the Necklace of Harmonia. I have no interest in your job.”
I think part of our job is to find the necklace too. But I don’t tell Professor Worthington that. The last thing I need is for him to follow us into the catacombs. And speaking of that . . . I think it’s time we go check them out.
“What do you think—” Eliza says, but I interrupt her.
“Thank you so much for your time,” I say, standing up. Mom seems surprised, but she follows my lead. Eliza rises too, looking mildly irritated. Frank doesn’t get the picture until I waggle a candy bar. He almost always follows the chocolate.
“What was that about?” Eliza asks when we’re out of earshot. “I had more questions to ask Professor Worthington!”
“No need!” I say. “We have everything we need.”
“You have everything you need,” Eliza says. “I still wanted more.”
“Sorry,” I say. “I just thought . . . usually when one of us gets excited about a lead . . .”
She crosses her arms. “What lead?”
“The catacombs! I think we should go check them out. It’s where Bones thinks the necklace is—and where he encouraged us to go. I think we need to see them for ourselves. Maybe we can find something the grown-ups missed.”
“Well, I think we should go to where the house burned down with the necklace in it,” Eliza says. “If we go to the last known location of the necklace, we might be able to figure out what happened. We don’t know that the necklace is in the catacombs, but we do know—for sure—that it was at that house.”
“You think we’ll find something thousands of years later?” I say skeptically. “Eliza, crime scenes don’t last that long. It’s not like they put caution tape on the ruins for all of history. I’m sure anything that we could have found there is long gone by now. I’m certain the catacombs are the key to this mystery—we have to go there.”
“Well, whatever you want,” she says coolly. She’s shutting down.
I look at Mom for advice, and she raises an eyebrow at me. I’m not sure if that’s the expression for “Follow your gut, Carlos!” or “Trust your friend, Carlos!” and I wish I could read my mom’s face better.
* * *
TO INVESTIGATE THE CATACOMBS, CLICK HERE.
TO INVESTIGATE THE LAST KNOWN LOCATION OF THE NECKLACE, CLICK HERE.
* * *
“WHAT WERE YOU doing in the tunnels?”
“I wasn’t in the tunnels.”
Eliza and I look at each other.
“Yes, you were!”
“No, I was not.”
I frown. “I know what this is. It’s called gaslighting.”
“I like to light up with gas too!” Frank says.
“Please don’t,” I beg of him. I turn back to Dr. Mandible. “You’re trying to make us doubt ourselves by pretending something we know to be true isn’t true. But it is true.” My head is spinning.
“Does it have something to do with what’s in your drawer?” Eliza asks.
Dr. Amanda Mandible holds her fake smile so perfectly. It doesn’t falter for an instant.
* * *
TO ASK HER ABOUT THE INGREDIENT LIST, CLICK HERE.
TO ACCUSE HER OF STEALING ARTIFACTS, CLICK HERE.
* * *
I CLICK ON the voicemail. There’s one missed call and one voicemail waiting for him from a number he didn’t save in his phone.
I play the message on speaker.
“Hi, Richie Rich, my man! This is Chad DuPont. Just wanted to let you know we’re all set for the opening of your private collection. Your artifacts are looking great. I told you—it’s nice to own them, not borrow, yeah? When you return, let’s hope you bring a few more trophies with you. Especially that necklace, man. That legendary—” He curses very emphatically, and Frank gasps. “—necklace! That would be such a draw. If you manage to nick that, you can double—no, triple—the cost of admission. But if it’s too high-profile to keep, you can sell it. I know some other collectors who would bid a pretty penny for that necklace. Either way, you’re going to make bank. Keep me posted on your new gets. See you stateside!”
The voicemail ends.
We look at each other, stunned. My hands are trembling, and I grip the phone tighter. I can’t believe we just cracked this case! “This is proof,” I say, breathless.
“Maybe,” Eliza says, unconvinced.
“What do you mean, maybe?”
“I’m just wary. Until we find the artifacts, this case isn’t over.”
“So let’s go confront Leech!”
She looks at me like she doesn’t think it’s a good idea. But I’m tired of her disagreeing with me all the time. I walk out of the tent, and I just have to hope she follows.
Outside, the dig is quiet. I guess everyone is in the pit, and it’s too early for lunch. Being by ourselves, with just the towering columns and the scattered ruins, is creepy. I miss the flurry of activity and noise.
We wander over to the excavation pit. I’m thinking we’re going to have to call into the catacombs for Leech, but as we look down, we see the special task force climbing up the ladder.
“Stupid map,” Smarty Marty grumbles as she reaches the top. “Absolute incompetence.”
“What’s wrong?” Eliza asks her.
“Nothing! Just Zip messing up the map for the fifth time.”
“Messing up how?” I ask.
“We ran right into a wall. Literally. I wish Mr. Bones would let me take over for Zip!” Then she storms off.
The mood of the team is down, except for—curiously enough—Zip. They don’t seem as depressed or embarrassed as I would be if I had just made the same mistake five times in a row. They look very even-keeled. And is it just my imagination, or is there the smallest upturn at the corners of their mouth?
Zip disappears, following Smarty into their work tent. Professor Worthington, Dr. Mandible, and Nadira Nadeem come up the ladder next. And Leech is last.
“Excuse me, Mr. Leech, but we need to talk to—”
“No,” he says, stomping past us. He practically runs to his tent to avoid talking to us. But when he gets inside, I hear a furious scream.
Uh-oh.
Richard Leech comes storming out of the tent. “Somebody’s been through my stuff!” he bellows. “Someone’s gonna pay for this!”
He pulls out his phone. Is he calling the police?
Suddenly my pocket starts ringing at full volume. Richard Leech is using his first phone to call his second phone! I try to silence it, but it’s too late—
Leech swivels in our direction. He glares at me. He is seething.
* * *
TO RUN FROM LEECH, CLICK HERE.
TO FACE LEECH HEAD-ON, CLICK HERE.
* * *
IF THERE’S ONE thing I know about mysteries, it’s this: always start with the suspects. Motive, means, opportunity. Figuring this out will give us the key to who might be behind the thefts.
“You seem to think someone is going to steal the treasure,” I say. “Who might want to?”
“ME!” Frank says.
“Oh, I don’t know,” Orlando says, throwing his hands up in the air. “I’m not sure who I suspect.”
“You don’t have any suspicions at all?” Eliza says.
He rubs the stubble on his chin. “No.”
Eliza sighs, frustrated. I’m beginning to think she wishes we’d kept Nadira Nadeem in the room for this conversation, since Nadira had many suspects in mind. Eliza looks at me with an annoyed expression, but she can’t be mad at me for that, can she? I made a call, just like I always do when we’re on a case.
I don’t really have time to worry about it. It’s in the past. Now all we can do is focus on Orlando Bones.
“Look, the stakes are high,” Bones says. “We can sit here all day and talk about the members of the special task force, but that’s not the important thing.”
Eliza shakes her head, incredulous. “How can you say that? The whole reason we’re here is because you don’t know which of your teammates you can trust!”
“The whole reason you’re here,” he says excitedly, “is to help me keep the treasure at the end of the tunnel safe. It’s more valuable than all the missing artifacts combined.”
“But if we know who took the artifacts,” Eliza argues, “then we’ll know who’s going to take the treasure, right? Which leads us back to this conversation—talking about the suspects!”
I know Eliza’s super logical and methodical, but I don’t know why she’s being so combative. It’s like she’s trying so hard to take the lead that she’s forgetting not to annoy the client. I stare pointedly at her, hoping she understands my glance, but she opens her mouth to argue again.
Time to jump in quick with a new topic of conversation!
* * *
TO ASK ABOUT THE MISSING ARTIFACTS, CLICK HERE.
TO ASK WHAT’S AT THE END OF THE TUNNEL, CLICK HERE.
* * *
WE HAVE TO grab the necklace. It’s sitting on the podium . . . right there. I throw my flashlight at Bones. He ducks. I lunge forward and grab the necklace.
“GOT IT!” I cry.
The room starts hissing. Fire is rising between the columns, one flame at a time, going around in a circle. We have to get out of here before we’re surrounded!
“Let’s go!” I cry, running for a gap where the fire hasn’t yet appeared.
“Oh no you don’t!” Bones shouts, grabbing me by the ankle. “Give me my necklace!”
Woosh! Woosh! Woosh! The flames go up in every archway, trapping us in the room. With Orlando Bones.
“Well,” he says. “Good thing I have a deck of cards with me. We can pass the time and play for the necklace.”
“You want us . . . to gamble with you?” Eliza says.
I snort. “No dice!”
“Yeah! Go fish!” Frank shouts.
But after five hours of the fires blazing, he deals us in for rummy. We agree . . . reluctantly. But since this fire doesn’t seem to be stopping anytime soon, we might as well turn a crummy time into a rummy time.
CASE CLOSED.
“WHAT ARE YOU doing down here?”
“Isn’t it lovely in these catacombs?” Bones says, as if he’s talking about the weather in September and not some creepy, cold cave. “I hope you’ve come to enjoy it. And if you haven’t, you will have at least a few days to learn to love it before you dehydrate. Oh, or is the river freshwater? Then you’ll have a few weeks before you starve.”
“What are you talking about?” Eliza says, her voice shaking.
“From the tremor in your voice, I would bet that you already know what I’m talking about. I’d put good money on it. Now. Hand over the necklace, young man.”
Frank backs up a step.
“You,” I say. “You’re the artifact thief.”
“Bingo again!” he says.
“But you hired us!”
“I did.”
My head is spinning. “So you stole the artifacts, then hired us to find the artifacts you stole? But why would you want us to investigate a crime you were committing?”
But Eliza gets there a second before me. She gasps. “The path up ahead is really tiny. You needed us—or people our size—to get to the necklace. There was no artifact thief. You made it up so you would have an excuse to hire us.”
“And all this talk about the necklace being in danger?”
Bones smiles. “I was the danger. Keira Skelberry falling into an ancient trap gave me the idea to set up modern ones to ensure that I was the only one with true access to the catacombs.”
“But why?” I ask. “Why go through all the trouble of stealing the necklace when it was literally your job to retrieve it?”
“This is the most priceless artifact in the world, and . . .” He hesitates for a moment. “Now that I have no need for you anymore, I suppose I’ll show you my hand. Not that it’s any of your business, but I . . . I have a gambling problem. I have debts and debt collectors—the shady kind.”
“That’s who you were on the phone with!” I realize.
Bones nods. “I lied, and you didn’t call my bluff. I’m in more trouble than you could possibly imagine. I need more money than I will ever have. If not, I will surely not survive.”
“So to be clear,” Eliza says coldly, “you’re totally okay being responsible for the death of the three of us and Carlos’s mom, so long as you get out of your problems unscathed?”
“Speaking of my mom, where is she?”
Bones chuckles. “Not in the tunnels. I wrote that letter from ‘a friend’ to get you to come down here. That was my ace in the hole.”
He takes a menacing step forward, and I step back. My sneaker dips into the water, which is shockingly cold. We can’t let him have this necklace. But we also don’t want to get hurt protecting it either.
* * *
TO THROW THE NECKLACE INTO THE WATER, CLICK HERE.
TO RUN BETWEEN HIS LEGS, CLICK HERE.
* * *
IF I PRETEND to faint, I won’t have to answer Mr. Bones’s question. I start swaying like I’m woozy. Then I crumple to the floor, my cheek on the dirt.
“Carlos!” Mom yells. “Carlos!”
“He died,” Frank says.
“He’s not dead!” Eliza says, putting her fingers on my wrist to feel my pulse. “He’s just fainted.”
“Someone help him!” Nadira says.
Strong arms lift me up, and I’m tossed like a towel over Orlando Bones’s shoulder. It isn’t until we reach Dr. Amanda Mandible’s medical tent that I pretend to wake up.
“Thank you, Mr. Bones. I think a little rest and water, and I’ll feel better. You should go back to Nadira.”
He ignores me and gingerly places me on Dr. Mandible’s patient chair. She takes my temperature, pokes and prods me, makes me drink a bottle of water, has me lie down. It’s all getting to be too much. I need to ditch them and get back to work.
“Thank you. I feel fine—really. I’ll just take it easy the rest of the day.”
“Hush,” Dr. Mandible snaps. She continues her examination. Then finally she takes off her gloves and looks at Orlando Bones. “It could be heat exhaustion. Or perhaps it’s indicative of a larger ailment. He needs an MRI and a CT scan. I’m ordering him a full medical diagnostic.”
“So . . . can I go?”
She shakes her head no. “I wouldn’t feel comfortable, ethically, as a medical professional, letting you continue on.” She turns to Bones. “If he gets injured or sick on the dig, then you could be liable financially. You need to send him home immediately.”
Nooooooo! I guess my feint was too convincing.
CASE CLOSED.
WE HAVE TO search through Nadira Nadeem’s desk.
