Castle Deadly, Castle Deep, page 23
I turned to Derek. “We wouldn’t have that restriction. What’s to stop you from doing a thorough search of the whole room?”
Derek shook his head. “First of all, I don’t have time to commit to a search like that. And if I hired someone to search, they’d probably have to take things apart, and I don’t have the resources to pay anyone for—well, anything.”
I grinned, lunged forward, and took his hand. “I know two people who would do it very thoroughly and for free.”
Derek began to laugh.
* * *
* * *
A COUPLE OF days after homecoming, my brothers, wearing their beloved “Castle Security” T-shirts stood in the Small Library, covered in dust and looking frustrated. They were both on step stools, taking the last of the books down from high shelves. I had decided to take the opportunity to catalog the books, so I was sorting them into piles on the table and floor.
“It’s not looking good, Norbert,” Jay said.
I sighed. “We can’t give up. If there’s no treasure, we have to will some to appear.”
Luke was texting on his phone. He had, in fact, persuaded Jade to attend homecoming with him, and apparently they’d had a very fun time. Now they texted each other several times a day. Jay was included in most of them, but some were for Luke alone.
“Lover boy, get to work,” Jay said sourly.
Luke smirked and put his phone in his pocket.
“And how are things with Penny?” I asked Jay’s back.
“Fine,” he murmured.
“He gave her a ring,” Luke said.
“What?” I yelled.
“It was from a gumball machine,” Jay joked.
“No, he spent real money on it. Penny is his redheaded goddess. They’re engaged now,” Luke jeered.
“Shut up,” Jay said, sounding bored as he flipped through the pages of a dusty dictionary.
The two of them continued to bicker in a mild way, as they always did, and soon the shelves were empty.
“Disappointed,” Jay said loudly.
“Let’s think about this while we finish dusting the shelves,” I said.
We dusted and sneezed for a few minutes. The wooden shelving looked lovely after I polished it with a wood cleaner. What a gorgeous study I was going to have!
We set our dusting equipment down in one corner and wiped our hands on our jeans.
“Okay, don’t give up. Think about the poem. The final phrase is ‘the door they cannot see.’ So we’re not supposed to see something. We’re supposed to figure out what it is despite the fact that there is no door. And it lies behind that.”
Jay looked at me with suspicion, and Luke laughed. “Behind what?” he said.
“That’s the mystery.” For that, I received two sardonic smiles.
“What about this: if it’s a door we cannot see, then maybe it’s behind something, like the hidden passage! Maybe it’s behind that hidden door”—I pointed to the recently revealed passage—“or under there.” I pointed at the carpet.
The boys shot into action. “I’ll take the carpet,” Luke said.
Jay went into the hallway and examined the sliding door, the floor behind it, the ceiling, the wall. “There’s nothing out here,” he said. “The outside wall is brick, and none of them is loose, and the inside wall is this thin paneling. No way to hide something in it.”
Luke was moving piles of books off the carpet, but that left a heavy table, which was also covered with books. “How do we do this?” he asked.
I sighed deeply. “We stack them in the hallway.”
Thanks to my brothers’ boundless energy, this job was accomplished within half an hour, and then the Small Library was empty and looked like a much larger room.
“Move the table to one side,” Jay instructed. We did so. “Now, Nora and Luke, you tip up that side, and I’ll pull out the rug.”
Once this task had been accomplished, Jay joined Luke and me in studying the floor for a trapdoor. We all sighed at once.
“Here’s why it doesn’t make sense,” Luke said. “Uncle Philip couldn’t have known if there would be a rug in this room when someone read the message. It doesn’t seem as though he’d have made his clue so tentative, does it?”
“No,” I said. “But you know what? That looks like vintage wallpaper. I think it might be original.”
We stood in silence for a moment, and then Jay said, “Can we rip it off?”
“No!” I cried. “It’s lovely.”
And it was—a gentle rose color with subtle greenery and hues reminiscent of a country garden.
“What we’ll do is feel along the wall, row by row, for anything that feels uneven.”
“I’ll take top on the south side,” Luke said, grabbing his ladder.
“I’ll do top north.”
“You two do all the top shelves, up to the fifth shelf down. I’ll start on the bottom ones from six down.”
We got to work, excited again, and I realized that I had been dishonest when I told Dorian that I could not sympathize with his desire to find treasure. He had been right: everyone dreamed of it. But he and Drake had gone too far.
Sighing, I crept along on my knees, feeling along the smooth, antique paper, wondering what year it had been applied to the wall by some early-twentieth-century craftsman. What had the workers thought of the castle as they were building it? Had they talked among themselves in the long hallways while they installed the carved newel posts and ornate trim? Had they wondered at the sanity of the man who paid them to create a fantasy?
The boys adjusted their ladders to start on another section. I moved awkwardly; my knees were beginning to protest my relentless kneeling. When I got to the end of the south wall and turned to the east one, I lay fully on my stomach. I could do the bottom shelves first, then move up. I reached into the first eastern wall shelf, rubbing my hand back and forth. I hit what seemed to be a covered outlet and almost moved on, until I realized that there wouldn’t have been outlets when this room was built. And if people had put outlets in later, they would have cut a space out of the paper.
But the paper was still intact. And now that I felt it again, the diameter of that rectangular thing was much wider than that of an outlet would have been.
“Boys,” I said in a weird voice.
“What?”
I had their full attention, and the silent room crackled with intensity.
“Go get Derek and Paul.”
* * *
* * *
DEREK AND PAUL arrived, as did Connie, who was holding Derek’s hand.
“So you found our bag of diamonds?” Derek said good-humoredly.
Paul, for reasons unknown, was taking pictures: of the books stacked in the hall, of the nearly empty Small Library, of me lying on the floor, of the twins in their matching Castle Security T-shirts.
“Not sure about that, but I may have found the ‘door they cannot see.’ Come and feel.”
Derek squatted down and felt the wall where I pointed. “Interesting,” he said.
He pulled out a pocketknife and lay down next to me. Paul snapped another picture, and Connie giggled nervously.
Carefully, Derek trimmed the paper around the mysterious rectangle. “Peel it away,” he said, and I did so.
The twins were so close behind us, I could feel them breathing on my neck. I pulled gently, not wanting to rip the paper more than I had to, even if it was just a section in a place no one was ever likely to see.
When the pretty rose covering came away, we were looking at a wooden door, complete with a tiny mullioned window and a tiny glass doorknob.
“Oh, how charming!” I said. “How absolutely delightful!”
Connie bent down and began to exclaim, as well. Paul told us to move so that he could take a picture. Everyone scooched back.
“Not you, Nora. I want to get a photo of you discovering the door. Even if there’s just a dead mouse back there, the door alone is good enough to put on our website and blog and Instagram. It’s pretty amazing.”
The others had moved back toward the library door, and when the boys started to move forward again, Derek held them back with one arm.
“Nora, you found the door, and you are the one who encouraged us to look. You get to be the one who opens it. Break it to me gently, okay?”
I felt a momentous weight on my shoulders as I turned the tiny knob and peered into the darkness behind. And that was what I saw—darkness.
“Hang on. I need illumination.”
I grabbed my phone from my pocket and swiped on the light. I shone it inside. There was something there: a long tray on which were rectangles that looked like Balfour Bars or children’s blocks. But then one of the rectangles gleamed in the fragile beams from my phone, and I realized what I was seeing.
“Derek,” I breathed. I was on the verge of tears or a scream or a gasp of joy.
“Derek,” I said again, my voice quavering now.
“What? Is it something weird?” said Derek, visibly nervous.
“Come on, Nora,” said Jay, who was clearly dying of suspense.
“No, it’s not weird.” I turned to them. “It’s wonderful.”
The moment hung suspended; everyone seemed to take a deep breath at the same time.
I pulled out the tray and smiled at them. “It’s gold.”
22
The Door They Cannot See
HALLOWEEN WAS A crazy affair. It was only three days after Derek and Paul Corby had experienced a reversal of fortune in the form of twenty gold bars, a gift from their uncle Philip Corby. Each bar had been valued at approximately two hundred sixty thousand dollars. The story had made the news after Paul put the picture on our website and our social media. He had taken a video of the moment of discovery, with a close-up on the tiny little door. The news outlets had picked it up, and for two days straight, Derek and Paul were doing interviews: in front of the castle, in the castle hallway, in the Small Library (now filled once again with newly categorized and dusted books), even in front of the fountain behind the castle, where the gentle naiad presided over the now quiet water.
Paul had insisted that Derek let him invest some of the money so that it could keep multiplying; as the CFO, he said, it was his job to spend some of it responsibly, because he knew that Derek would use some to buy gifts and give life to his lavish visions.
“It’s just like I said,” Connie told me as she lay dreamily on my bed. “Derek was meant to be a king. And you helped him find his treasure!”
I nodded, happy. Then I looked at my watch. “I can’t wait until the castle show is over. Gen should be getting here around five, and she said she and Paul have a great costume for the castle party.”
Connie sat up and bounced on the bed. “Derek and I have one, too. Did you and Dash go for a couples costume?”
“Maybe.”
“Okay, fine, keep your secrets.” She grinned. “I’d better go get ready. Aren’t your brothers coming out tonight?”
“Yeah, but they’re going straight to Jade’s party so her parents can finally meet Luke,” I said. I felt nervous for him somehow. “Then they’ll come back here and camp in the Small Library.”
“Nice. So Dash can stay over if he wants to?”
“I suppose. The boys know—that he does sometimes. I doubt it will shock them. I doubt anything shocks them.”
Connie jumped up and said, “See you in the dining room.”
This was where the actors gathered before meeting the Inspectors for the revamped fall show. Then we argued in the main hall, led them down to the library, pointed them to a multitude of clues, and gave them pondering time in the great hall. Then they joined us for dinner and any accusations that people had ready (with evidence).
The winner on Halloween night was an elderly gentleman who had enjoyed the entire evening so much he said he wanted to send all his relatives to the castle. He went home with a little haunted-house trophy, and everyone left with Castle Dark T-shirts—a new addition that Paul said was relatively cheap publicity with an unfathomable reach.
After the Halloween dinner, we ran back upstairs to get ready for the castle party—the one just for us, a delayed celebration of Derek and Paul’s good news.
It was chilly out, but not freezing, so Derek had made a fire in the firepit and Zana had set up a buffet table and a hot chocolate station. I donned my costume, which consisted of bell-bottoms and a midriff top, a couple of long necklaces, and some hoop earrings. I left my hair loose and straight, then ran down the back stairs to meet Dash when he texted his arrival.
He wore sunglasses and some gold chains, a half-unbuttoned shirt, a vest, and jeans. His brown hair was a bit longer (he’d been growing it since we’d decided to be Sonny and Cher).
I flung open the door and said, “You look perfect!”
“So do you. And delectable. But your tummy’s going to be cold.”
“I’ll let everyone see my costume and then put a jacket on,” I said. “I’m too practical to freeze for fashion. That mustache is outrageously sexy.”
He beamed. “Yeah? I kind of liked it, too.”
I kissed him. “But it’s kind of prickly.” I tugged him inside and up the back stairs. “I don’t know what anyone else is wearing, but I want to get some good pictures.”
“Speaking of good pictures,” Dash said, “those pictures on your website are amazing. You’re the talk of Wood Glen. The talk of the whole country if I can believe today’s Twitter trends.”
“Paul says our website is getting a lot more traffic, too. So things are just looking up for the Corby clan.” I looked at my watch. “Could you feed the cats? I just need to put on my lipstick and grab my jacket.”
“Sure.”
Dash bent to play with the Brontës, then filled their bowls. They had received a Halloween present of three cloth mice, and they were nearly exhausted from playing all day.
“Okay, I’m ready,” I said.
“The lipstick is nice.” He was looking at my mouth; his eyes were distracted, and they flicked briefly to the bed.
I laughed. “Later. Right now I want to go to a party!”
The Bee Gees were singing “Jive Talkin’ ” when we came down, and we immediately spotted Derek and Connie dressed as the king and queen of hearts.
“Well, if that isn’t the most perfect costume,” I said. “Did Elspeth make it?”
Connie grinned. “No. I wouldn’t give her a rush order like that. I ordered them online.”
Derek walked up and slid his arms around Connie. He looked so natural in a crown that I laughed.
“Absolutely perfect,” I said. “You must have been a royal in another life.”
He grinned, and I realized he had started on the champagne; he seemed a bit tipsy.
“I’m a king in this life, too. The king of Connie’s heart.”
She smiled and leaned back against him.
“I’ll be back,” I said, “but I’m starving. I didn’t eat much at the dinner because I had to answer so many questions. And then there were all those people who wanted selfies with us.”
“Sure, we’ll be here.” Derek smiled serenely. He had deep lines around his mouth from all the smiling he’d been doing for the past several days.
Dash took my hand and we went to the buffet table, almost tripping over Hamlet on the way, who strode nobly through the crowd wearing a Shakespearean ruff and occasionally accepting surreptitious treats. Zana stood by the hors d’oeuvres in a parka, eating some food off a paper plate, stabbing cheese with her little toothpick and dancing to the music.
“You enjoy disco?” Dash asked her in an unrecognizable accent that made me laugh.
Zana smiled. “I do. Any dance music, I’m there. Try the meatballs in that pot. They’re supergood.”
We did, along with a pasta salad and some kind of Mexican casserole.
Zana watched me wolf down food and said, “Desserts are on the next table.”
I laughed. “I’m good for now. But I will have some hot chocolate.”
Dash helped me put on my jacket, and I felt much warmer, but the liquid Zana handed me warmed me even more.
“I’m hoping Dorian might come by,” Zana said.
I froze. “What? He can’t.” I turned to Dash. “Isn’t he in jail?”
Dash swallowed his food and said, “Robin’s team arrested both of them earlier this week. But they were bailed out almost immediately.”
“What? Who—”
“Derek,” Dash said.
I stared at him, my mouth open. “Why—?”
“You know Derek. The guy can’t hold a grudge. He said the Pierces ultimately did him a favor. If it hadn’t been for them, you wouldn’t have been so convinced there was treasure and persuaded Derek to let you search.”
My mouth was still open because I was still shocked. “So they are just—walking around?”
“For now. They have a court date coming up. Derek is also paying for a lawyer.”
“Unbelievable! No wonder Paul insisted that some of the money be invested. Derek just can’t stop being generous.”
“Wouldn’t you want him to bail you out of jail?”
“Yes, but I would never be there.”
“Famous last words,” my boyfriend said, and kissed me.
When I pulled away, significantly less indignant, I saw my sister. She was dressed as Cupid in a pink tutu and matching top, along with white tights and ballet shoes. She held a bow and arrow, and Paul stood beside her, dressed vaguely like a mythological character with a tunic, some tights, and a garland around his hair. The shaft of an arrow stuck out of his chest, and the arrowhead protruded from his back; Cupid had shot him in the heart.
