The Shirley Link Box Set: A Middle Grade Mystery Series

by Ben Zackheim

  "That's odd," I say. "I'll head over. She might be working on her garden."

  "I'll come with," Marie says. We don't need to ask Wylie if he's joining us. He's already up, storing slices of bacon in his mouth, while cramming more into his jersey's pocket.

  Everyone stares.

  "Forry."

  Dad comes to his defense. "He's a growing kid!"

  "Yuh! I'm a grawring kig!"

  "Be right back." I grab the (estimated) $250,000 briefcase, and we're out the door.

  ***

  "We should check the tunnel," Marie says.

  "Ats uht I wud gonna fay."

  "Chew, Wylie."

  When we get to Mrs. Smiley's house, I notice the silence. It's like a cemetery. There are no lights on inside. Her screen door is slightly open and bangs on the frame in the wind.

  But most ominous of all, there's a Cadillac parked out front. That's not a local. My biggest fear was that the banker had shown up early to wrap up the sale.

  My biggest fear is now real.

  I hope my plan works.

  "Hold on. I'm going to peek in the house first," I say.

  I poke my head through the front doorway. "Hello?" Not too loud. I don't want to startle anyone. I walk up the stairs. The smooth wood of the banister mesmerizes me. I have to stop and look around. This home has been roughed up, but it's also been loved. Mrs. Smiley belongs here.

  The heft of the treasure on my shoulder makes me smile.

  "Shirley?" At first I think she's a ghost at the top of the stairwell. Mrs. Smiley comes from nowhere and she's so pale. But she's alive. And she's in pain.

  And the source of that pain stands behind her. The banker is like the anti-Smiley. He frowns when he's offered lemonade, and smiles when there's misery. I don't dislike many people. Even when they're criminals, I don't make it personal. But right now his smirk is like a big target for my wrath. "We were just doing a walk-through of..."

  My grin interrupts her. Her hand goes to her mouth as her eyes glow.

  I hold up the briefcase. She comes down the stairs faster than she probably should. She wraps her arms around me, then holds me at arms' length.

  "Really?"

  "Really."

  "What is that?" the banker asks.

  "Your money, plus some more if you get out of here. Now," I say, trying to hide my disdain. I don't want to make a scene. I just want him out of this house.

  "Sweetheart, it doesn't work like that." The smirk is back on his face. "All the paperwork is in place. We don't need Smiley's signature and we don't want your sack of money."

  "That's Mrs. Smiley to you," I say. "In case you didn't know this, banks live to make money."

  "There are always special circumstances."

  It's a good thing Wiley is outside. He'd probably tackle this jerk right about now.

  Fine.

  I pull out my iPhone and send the text that I've prepared. It's time to call in my insurance policy and end this once and for all. I hope he shows up fast. I bet the buyer will be here for an inspection soon, and I'd like to avoid a mess.

  "So, let's check out the basement, shall we?" the creep asks. "The buyer is big on wines, so he wants to verify that it has the proper humidity." He passes by Mrs. Smiley and me. "You know how it is," he chuckles.

  "HELLO!" comes a voice from the entry way.

  Jacob must have been in the neighborhood. He made it fast.

  Mr. Anti-Smiley loses the grin again. "Mr. Graham. What are you doing here?"

  "I think bank guys like to call it applying pressure."

  "Or killing the deal," I add.

  "Yeah, that might be more appropriate." Jacob winks at me.

  "Jacob..." the banker starts, then he sees Jacob's expression shift into rich-person-not-happy mode. "Mr. Graham, there won't be any deal killing today. We own this house. We will sell this house."

  "Your call. But if you do that, you'll be losing my dad a looooooooot of moolah, Harry."

  Wow, that was a good button to push. It's like Jacob found the controls for the banker's face and squeezed all the air out.

  "How would... I would never lose your father's..."

  My turn. I reach into Dad's briefcase and pull out the treasure. I let it run through my fingers. The gentle tink-tink of gem-on-gem, gold-on-silver echoes throughout the entry hall.

  Jacob whistles. He looks over my shoulder and into the briefcase.

  "What is this? What's going on?" the banker whines.

  "Shirley is my partner! Well, Dad's partner. From what she told me on the phone late, late, late last night..."

  "Sorry," I mumble. I did have to wake him up to fill him in. It was an emergency!

  "She's found some pirate treasure! Can you believe it? Lots of it, too, right?" I nod. "And she's asked the Graham family to help her get fair market value for a 10% cut."

  "Mr. Graham, I don't think you ..."

  "Unfortunately for you, she'll only do business with the Grahams, if you do business with Mrs. Smiley." Jacob winks at the owner of this gorgeous home, who flushes red. Half indignation, half charmed. He has that effect on people when he's behaving.

  "Let me finish this, Jacob," I say. "Harry, is it? Mr. Harry, you'll have to take my word for it, but my best guess is that the treasure will be worth millions. The money that the Graham family, and thus your bank, will make from doing business will be a lot more than you'll make on this lovely house."

  His eyes flick back and forth between me and Jacob. Wow, he hates us. But we're about to test the old saying "money talks" in real-time.

  A car is pulling into the driveway. It must be the buyer. Possibly the former buyer. Come on, Harry. Make the right decision.

  "If you'll excuse me," he growls, pushing past us to get to the front door.

  Yup. Former buyer!

  We watch him intercept a middle-aged man and his wife in the driveway. I hate to step on their dreams, but that's real estate for you. It's a tough business.

  Especially when pirate treasure is involved.

  ***

  Mom and Dad have come over for lemonade. We sit in the kitchen, around a huge circle table. And, boy, are there ever smiles. Lots of smiles.

  I turn to Jacob. "Your dad sounded upset on the phone last night."

  "He always sounds that way. Don't worry. He was awake. Everyone was, except for me. Besides, he was as happy as I've ever seen him when I told him about the treasure and your offer."

  "Everyone? Your whole family was up at 2 AM?" Mom asks, horrified.

  "Yeah, my brothers and sisters get their best work done at night. Dad stays up to watch over their projects. That's one of the reasons he let me go to school in town. I'm not a night person, so he couldn't handle the schedule anymore."

  Everyone does their best to be polite, but we're all thinking the same thing. What is going on in that house?

  "What, are you all planning on taking over the world or something?" Marie asks. Ah, Marie. I can always depend on her to ask the awkward questions.

  "Robert and Michele are all about world domination, yeah. Max and Amelia want to save it in one way or another."

  Marie gives me an exasperated look. I shrug. Hey, she asked, he answered.

  "And what about you, Jacob?" Mrs. Smiley pries. She slides another glass of lemonade to Wiley, who's rolling his eyes at everything Jacob says.

  "I just want to have fun," Jacob beams. As everyone takes an uncomfortable moment to sip their drink, he gives me the mischievous smile.

  "What counts as fun?" Dad asks.

  "Well, no offense, Mr. Link, but it's fun to beat Shirley at her own game."

  "That'll be the day," I say.

  "But I just did!"

  Here we go.

  "Come on, Shirley. Who do you think put that treasure book on your shelf? I knew you'd fall for it. You can't touch a book without flying through it!"

  I stare him down. He really wants me to be surprised. I won't give him the pleasure.

  My da
d breaks the silence. "So you're saying this whole thing was set up by you?"

  I answer for him. "Not everything. The treasure is real. The treasure's history is real. Mrs. Smiley's home is saved. But think about it--I did stumble into this adventure a little too easily. How likely is it that I would be mapping out the town's sewers and stumble on a hook that just happens to be part of a scheme to hide a hidden treasure? How likely is it that I would then find a library book that pulls me into a quest for that treasure?"

  "Not likely!" Jacob exclaims in his usual manner.

  "So you read the treasure book first and saw our family name written in it," I say. It's a statement. Not a question.

  "Correct."

  "And you put it on my shelf so that I would find it and be intrigued."

  "Half correct," Jacob replies. "I read the book several months ago and saw your last name written in it. I did some research on the Link family to see if the person who wrote your name thought you were part of the pirate treasure's history somehow. And lo and behold, you're related to Lock, the pirate's best friend! No one had ever checked the book from the library, so I asked Ms. Conway, who gave it to the school, and she told me it used to belong to Mrs. Smiley. A little Google here, a little phone call to a genealogist in Boston there and I found that Mrs. Smiley used to be Ms. Stringer, a descendant of the Pirate of Leisure! I put two and two together and realized she had written your name in the book. I had no idea if the two of you had shared this connection with each other, but I did see a chance to match wits with Shirley."

  Mrs. Smiley is furious. "How...heartless..." she seethes. It looks like Jacob may be beyond my help. It is heartless. I'm disappointed in him.

  "Heartless?" he says, visibly thrown off. "Why would you...? OH! You mean your house? That's the great part! Sorry I didn't make that clear up front. I did all of this to save your house!"

  Everyone glares. They don't believe him. I'm not sure what I think yet.

  "My family was informed about your house being for sale eight months ago. Dad's always liked it and knows a solid investment when he sees it. He and I visited the house. Remember, Mrs. Smiley?"

  She nods, withholding judgment until she's heard the whole story. Which is very kind of her.

  "I'd read the treasure book and determined that you were a descendant of a wealthy pirate who did something mysterious with his treasure. So you can imagine how excited I was to take a look around and see if there was any sign of it. That's when I saw the Labanotation on the wall. I recognized it from a show I once saw on PBS. I wondered if the symbols actually documented any kind of movement, so I took some pictures with my phone. I had them checked out by the Dance Notation Bureau in New York City. When they told me that the notation appeared to be meant to be done underground, I knew it was a clue to the treasure's whereabouts. I told Dad everything, but he knew that he'd be branded a bad neighbor if he bought the house. He doesn't like to stir things up where he lives, so he wrote it off."

  "Does Mr. Graham make it a habit to include you in all his business deals?" Mom asks.

  "Nah. I knew about Mrs. Smiley's troubles because all of his kids make it our business to know Dad's business. None of my siblings cared, or if they did they had bigger fish to fillet. Not me. I don't like the idea of the bank taking an old lady's home away from her, just because her husband left her penniless. No offense, Mrs. Smiley."

  Mrs. Smiley, for her part, seems to be less mad now. She even smirks. Jacob doesn't have tact but he's right about Frank Smiley. It wasn't wise of him to leave his wife without anything, even "the clue to the clue" to treasure!

  "I was curious why you didn't just cash in some of the treasure to save your house. I deduced that it was either because the treasure was gone, spent, history--OR you didn't know where it was. I took a chance that it was the latter. That's when I checked out every underground tunnel I could find in town. I had no idea if the treasure was nearby, but I had nothing better to do. The entrance under the bridge was a tough one to get to, since people are always admiring the waterfall, but I finally slipped in and found the hook down there. I knew right away that it was the hook that was documented in the Labanotation!"

  "Then why didn't you just look for the treasure yourself?" Marie asks.

  Jacob's confused. "Where's the fun in that?" Marie rolls her eyes. "Anyways, at this point I knew that Mrs. Smiley was in trouble. She needed money to keep her home. I suspected that she didn't know where the treasure was, or else she would have used it. And I knew that Shirley would not be able to resist an adventure."

  "So when you spotted me sneaking into the tunnel below the bridge you figured now would be a good time to plant the book on my shelf."

  "Bingo!"

  "That's my line, Jacob."

  "Sorry, Shirley. I knew that your name being inscribed in the book would be a mystery that could only lead you to Mrs. Smiley, whose horrible situation is tailor-made for your nose for adventure, and justice, and all that stuff."

  "Clever," I murmur.

  "I thought I'd have to keep things moving along, but you kept hitting the clues like a watermelon-sized baseball. It was amazing!"

  "Did you plan to save Mrs. Smiley's home whether or not I found the treasure?"

  "I don't have that kind of money. But I did plan on declaring victory and explaining everything to you, if you were too slow."

  Mrs. Smiley clears her throat. "Well, I don't know where helping me save my house comes in on your fun measurement, but I thank you. And you, Shirley, Wiley, Marie. You are exceptional people. I can never thank you enough."

  Wiley puts his hand on her shoulder. "You helped me feel like I belonged in this town, Mrs. S. I'll always owe you."

  "And I was just doing my job," I say. Dad knows what I mean, but everyone else is a little confused. "Only a Link should make arrangements to cash in the Stringer treasure."

  Not the end!

  Thanks for reading Shirley Link & The Treasure Chest.

  Oh, one last thing. Did you know that Shirley was aware of Jacob's plan almost from the beginning? It's true!

  Can you find the clues that tipped her off?

  Can you guess why she wouldn't tell Jacob that she knew all about his shenanigans?

  For the answer, go to this page!

  Did you enjoy Shirley Link & The Treasure Chest?

  Please leave a review for Shirley here!

  If you'd like to get news, deals and exclusive (free) stories, be sure to sign up for the newsletter. Sign up here!

  Shirley's adventures are also available in softcover:

  Shirley Link & The Safe Case

  Shirley Link & The Hot Comic

  Shirley Link & The Treasure Chest

  Shirley Link & The Black Cat

  Plus, enjoy 100 new riddles in Shirley Link & The 100 Riddles!

  And if you like Fantasy books, try out The Camelot Kids! Here are a couple of reviews from Fantasy-lovers like you.

  "If you've been waiting for a book that will take you back to the day when you first read Harry Potter, then your wait is over."

  - A Chick Who Reads review (5 Stars)

  "I don't think I have had such a fun time with a book since I read Percy Jackson."

  - Belle's Beautiful Books review

  The Camelot Kids: Book One

  Here's a little extra fun!

  Shirley Link's Puzzles and Riddles

  1) I'm the part of the bird that's not in the sky. I can swim in the ocean and yet remain dry. What am I?

  2) Put me in a bucket, and I'll make it lighter. What am I?

  3) I'm where yesterday follows today, and tomorrow's in the middle. What am I?

  4) I fly, yet have no wings. I cry, yet have no eyes. Darkness follows me!

  5) I can be cracked, I can be made. I can be told, I can be played. What am I?

  6) What kind of coat can only be put on when wet?

  7) What 3 letters turn a boy into a man?

  8) One word is spelled incorrectly in the Oxford
dictionary every year. What is it?

  9) If you put a coin in an empty bottle and insert a cork into the neck of the bottle, how could you remove the coin without taking the cork out or breaking the bottle?

  10) Why are manhole covers round and not square?

  11) What word changes both gender and number when an 's' is subtracted?

  12) The first two letters of this word refer to a man, the first three letters refer to a woman, the first four letters refer to a great man and the whole word refers to a great woman. What is the word?

  13) Before Mt. Everest was discovered, what was the highest mountain in the world?

  14) Provide two words that include the following string of letters. Atula

  Answers

  1) A shadow.

  2) A hole.

  3) A dictionary.

  4) A cloud.

  5) A joke.

  6) A coat of paint.

  7) Age.

  8) Incorrectly.

  9) Push the cork into the bottle and shake the coin out.

  10) A square manhole cover can fall into the hole diagonally. A round manhole cover can never drop into the hole.

  11) Princess.

  12) Heroine.

  13) Mt. Everest.

  14) Spatula and congratulations.

  That wraps up the Shirley Link Boxed Set #1. If you'd like to see what Shirley is up to next, be sure to sign up for the newsletter! Sign up here.

  About the Author

  Ben Zackheim lives in Massachusetts, at 42.5098° N, 72.6995° W, surrounded by the Forbidden Forest, with his wife and son.

  Ben is also the author of:

  Shirley Link & The Black Cat

  Shirley Link & The 100 Riddles Activity Book

  The Camelot Kids: Book One