Shaking away the images of the past, she rang the bell. Two male voices called out, “I’ll get it,” then she heard a scuffling, a muttered oath, and Lance flung open the door while Adam scowled at him a few paces back.
“Bon jour, Captain, come on in.” Lance extended his hand to her, gallantly taking her arm as she entered the apartment.
She couldn’t help but notice Adam’s sour expression. “Did I miss something?”
Lance was all innocence. “No, no, you’re right on time.”
Grunting something about “his apartment,” Adam stormed back to his paper-covered desk.
“You want to see it?” Lance steered Beth to the far side of the apartment, her arm still tucked in his.
She didn’t need to ask what ‘it’ was. The dread of being back in Adam’s apartment and in his vicinity was overtaken by excitement: Excitement of a new discovery. Excitement of a possibly priceless piece of history. She wanted to see for herself what Adam had explained to her the day before at Disneyland.
Adam could see the gleam in Beth’s eyes as she looked at the small black book in his hands. She pulled away from Lance’s grasp and reached out to touch the cover with a finger. “That’s it, huh?”
He couldn’t resist. “Obviously, Captain,” as he handed it to her.
She didn’t seem to hear him. She turned it over in her hands to examine the front and back. Adam noticed she didn’t even look up as she went from the desk to the sofa, unconsciously walking around the armchair without even seeing it. She almost sat in Lance’s lap. Both men were silent, giving Beth her moment with the diary. She carefully opened the cover, found the first page with writing and began reading. The men watched her lips moving as she silently read the words they had already memorized. When she paled, they looked at each other with a grin. She was hooked. They now knew they had her help.
She read it again, more quickly this time. She found the glued pages in the back and the secret compartment. Then she tried to count the number of missing pages in the front. Murmuring, “can’t tell,” she sat there staring into space.
“What are you thinking?” Adam’s voice was like a foghorn to her.
“What?” Beth snapped back to the present, looking at him.
“I wondered what you thought of it.” He studied her face, seeing her wide eyes and heightened color.
“This is amazing. Have you had it authenticated?”
Lance and Adam exchanged an uneasy look. Lance answered in carefully chosen words. “We thought it best to keep it to ourselves at this point. We’ve followed the clues as far as we could. When we got stuck, we called you.”
Excited and unable to sit still, Beth paced around the room. “You said you found it in Walt’s apartment?”
“Yeah, during the Mouse Adventure race.”
“And no one saw you?”
Adam looked at Lance with a smirk. “Seems the cast member on duty couldn’t keep her eyes off Pretty Boy Floyd here. For once that came in handy.”
Unperturbed by Adam’s gibe, Lance just smiled. “Wendy.” At Beth’s blank look, he added, “She was the cast member. We had dinner a couple of weeks ago.”
She had to laugh at that and fondly shook her head side to side. “I’m sure you did. You’re too much!”
“What?” Lance gave a shrug. “You know I still love you the best.”
“Focus, people.” Before Lance could expound on his declaration, Adam had to cut in. “Considering where I found it, and how I found it, we decided to keep quiet. There was an article in the paper saying they’ve closed Walt’s apartment to the public now that there’s an investigation going on.”
Beth’s mouth fell open. “That was you two!!?? Oh my gosh. I saw that article. You did that? You destroyed the ancient shrine?”
“It was four lousy stitches in the back of a stinking cushion, for crying out loud!” Adam threw up his hands in protest. “Well, maybe eight.... But, they made it sound like we tore up the carpet and threw the sofa out the window. Heck, they aren’t even sure it happened during the Race.”
“Doesn’t matter. They’ll tar and feather you if they find out.” She looked from Adam’s red face to Lance. “And this Wendy didn’t suspect you guys?”
For the first time, he managed to look a little embarrassed. “Uh, no. She didn’t even remember Adam being there. She just remembers me.”
She knew enough about Adam and his pride not to laugh. “Well, that’s good. Wow, this is amazing.” Getting her mind back on the find, she excitedly started to pace through the room again. Stopping abruptly at the kitchen table which held Adam’s home-made model of Fantasyland, she pointed at the Matterhorn. “How old are these mashed potatoes?”
Adam looked up from the paperwork and clues he was organizing to show her what they had accomplished so far. “What? I don’t know. You hungry?”
Beth just shook her head and moved away. Returning to the wall next to the front door, she stopped to examine something. She took an eight by ten inch picture off of the wall, staring at it. Lance watched her study the picture, turning it this way and that to watch the light play over the photo. Adam was engrossed in what he was doing and didn’t notice. “So, how do you know the diary is authentic?”
Lance could see a familiar light in her eyes and waited for Adam to answer since she looked at Adam, not him.
Distracted, Adam looked up from what he was doing. He saw Beth held his autographed photo of Walt. Taken at the Burbank studio, it was an informal black and white shot, signed ‘To Georgie, Thanks for all your help! Walt.’ She wouldn’t have seen it before because it was one-of-a-kind. There was a hint of smugness as he shuffled through some of their notes, making a cross-reference in the margin. “Oh, I just know. I, uh, consider myself something of an expert.”
“Ah.” Putting the picture carefully back on the nail in the wall, she moved over to the trophy case filled with his cast member nametag collection from around the Disney world. She had gotten him started on that collection. They had had plans to travel to all the Disney Parks and fill in the missing tags. It didn’t take her long to notice her nametag was gone from the box. Batting down a sharp wave of hurt and remembrance, she hurried over to the huge ‘40 Years of Adventure’ Park map he had tacked up next to the trophy case. This was safer emotional territory. Beth had to clear her throat before she could speak. “Adam, do you still keep all your receipts?”
Adam looked up from the diary, frowning. “My what? Receipts?” He shrugged. His attention was only half there. “Yeah, I guess. Why?”
Lance had been unnaturally silent through all this, watching them as if he was at a tennis match. He took a swig of his soda, feet propped up on what he assumed was a coffee table and waited. Knowing Beth, he figured this would be good.
Moving casually, she walked over to Adam’s desk and took the diary from his hands. “Just wondered.… You are right, you know.”
Adam just looked expectedly at her and waited.
Beth waved the diary and then placed it reverently back on the desk. “This,” indicating the black book, “is real.” She walked back to the signed photo of Walt. “This.… well, this is worth about $9.00.”
Lance choked on his next swallow and started coughing. He knew Adam was proud of the fact that he won that picture in an auction for just under $3000. Adam’s mouth dropped open to protest and then it abruptly closed. It opened again, but he couldn’t say anything. He knew she meant it. And, more importantly, deep down, he knew she was right.
She moved over to Lance, helpfully pounding him on his back as he tried to stop choking and laughing. When he asked her to move her hand “lower, lower, a little more,” Beth suddenly realized she was almost patting his behind. She gave him ‘The Look’ and stopped. He just grinned and shrugged. “Worth a try.”
“Pampered Poodle,” she shot at him.
“Prima Donna.”
“Playboy.”
Adam, still staring at her in shock, automatically mumbled, “Will
you two knock it off?”
She went back to Adam’s desk and reached for the pile of clues they had deciphered. After looking over the various bits of treasure and memorabilia they had collected, she gazed longingly at the Conductor’s button. She had been trying to win one through an online auction. At her request Adam walked her through the steps he and Lance had taken to solve the clues and the places they had gone. As she pictured it in her mind, she nodded throughout his explanation. “Very good. Wow, you’ve been to a lot of places I would like to see. Like Marceline.”
“Yeah, they were fascinating. But then we get to this clue and we are stymied.”
Beth looked at the ancient coin, holding it up by the chain Lance had attached and let it slowly twist in front of her. “Any idea what the other half looks like? Have you found anything similar in your research?” At their negative reply, she took the folded clue and carefully opened it. She went through the same process they had used since their first paper clue in Kansas City. Yes, the paper matched the diary paper. One edge was rough, showing it has been ripped from the book. Yes, the ink and the handwriting matched. ‘Ride the cab to see the cup and walk 20 paces N. Sometimes my heart is like an island. Look for Jeremy B. He has the other half.’
“Sounds like Walt was getting a little poetic here.” With a soft smile, she was still unable to believe she was holding in her hands something actually written by Walt Disney himself. Pacing the room as she thought, she ended up at the desk to look at all the other clues. She finally shook her head. “You know what? I need some time to process everything you’ve shown me. I’m a little overwhelmed right now. There’s so much to think about.”
Adam looked up from his work in surprise. He somehow expected her to snap her fingers and lead them to the right destination. “You want to leave?” He sounded a little desperate. Now that she was here, he didn’t want her to go. Ever.
“I guess I’m hungry.” With a grimace, she looked over at the kitchen table and the mashed potato Matterhorn. “Why don’t we go out for lunch?”
Always ready, Lance immediately bounded off the sofa and shoved Beth’s purse into her hands. “I’ll drive.” He took her arm and herded her towards the door.
“You still have your Benz?”
“The black one?”
“Yeah.”
“No, I traded it in.”
She looked disappointed. “Aww, I liked that car. What’d you get?”
He smiled at her. “A Benz.”
“What color?”
“Black.”
She started laughing as they headed for the street. Silent during the friendly banter, Adam got in the back seat.
“So, where do you want to eat?” Lance checked the side mirror as the car pulled away from the curb.
“I don’t care.” Beth gave a shrug.
“No, really. Where do you want to eat?”
“I…don’t…care,” she answered again, very slowly.
“And just where is ‘I Don’t Care’?”
“Right across the street from ‘I Don’t Give a Darn’. Of course, ‘I Don’t Care’ is a lot more popular than ‘I Don’t Give a Darn’.”
“I suppose it would be.” With a laugh, Lance pulled into an expensive French bistro. When he saw her hesitation, he patted her hand. “My treat, sweetheart.”
“No, we can’t. It’s too expensive, Lance. Adam, back me up here.”
Adam slammed his door shut with more force than necessary. “He said it’s his treat, Beth.” He then made a lunge to open her door to hand her out, beating Lance by seconds.
She smiled her thanks to Lance. “Trust Fund Brat.”
He held the bistro door open for them. “You’re welcome.”
All through lunch they discussed the clues and how the men had arrived at their solutions. When they told her what they had done in San Francisco, Beth got really quiet. “That’s pretty serious, guys.”
Lance and Adam exchanged a look. “We know.” Adam expelled a long breath. “We also agreed never to do anything like that again.”
“Adam doesn’t know this yet, but we made the San Francisco Chronicle.” With a hidden smile, he noticed Adam’s face go pale. “Well, ‘we’ didn’t make the paper.” Lance stopped to take a drink just to make Adam wait longer. “The article said ‘two bungling burglars’ broke into a warehouse but didn’t manage to steal anything. It reported there were ropes left behind—which you still owe me $100 for, by the way—and a grappling hook, but nothing was taken. The owners couldn’t believe it, considering how valuable everything was. All they could find misplaced inside was one little screw. They are getting a new security system, by the way, in case you want to go back.”
“Bungling burglars!” Mouth open, Adam could only sputter. “We…we didn’t bungle anything!”
“I think you’re missing the point, Adam,” Lance said as if he were talking to a slow child, “we are not in trouble and we are not suspected. And nothing was harmed.”
It took a moment for that to sink in. Once Adam was finally appeased, they could refocus on the last clue which had the men stumped.
Beth took the lead in getting the discussion back on track. “To me, there’s no doubt it refers to Disneyland and riding the Skyway to see the Mad Tea Party. But, you didn’t have to ride the Skyway to see that.”
“True.” Adam paused to organize his thoughts so he could explain as he thought he saw it. “But it seems to me like we’re going on a journey with Walt. We’ve gone to all these places in his history. I think he wants us to really appreciate his life and his work, like Disneyland. That’s just as important to him as getting to the final destination—wherever that is.”
She nodded, taking a final sip of the buttery Chardonnay Lance had ordered with lunch. It was from Fess Parker’s Vineyard, Marcella’s Reserve, 1999. “Seemed appropriate.”
“And you went twenty paces north, which was....”
“Storybook Land Canal Boats.” Lance gave a disgusted groan. “We’ve ridden that silly ride a dozen times now. I can’t take it one more time!” He paid the bill and they headed for his car.
“Did you take into account that some of the houses are in different places now? Like Toad Hall used to be where Aladdin’s Palace is.”
“Yeah, I tried that too, but nothing. I just don’t see what he apparently wants us to see.”
“You made a model of Fantasyland.” Beth grimaced, thinking about Adam’s Matterhorn. “Do you also have the locations of everything in the Canal Boats?”
“Well, I started taking pictures of all the houses when Lance started whining.”
“Hey, man, I rode it twelve times. There is a limit.”
Beth thought it all over. “Well, I’d like to see those pictures—in order. Something doesn’t add up.”
“We even snuck up to the old Skyway Chalet in Fantasyland to get a bird’s eye view of the run all the way to the Matterhorn.”
She looked envious. “Aww, I’d love to see that again! I miss that ride.”
“We almost got caught.”
“Oh, really? What happened? You charm your way out?” Beth smiled fondly up at Lance.
Adam choked out a laugh. “It was a guy cast member this time. But, yes, he did. I told you, Brentwood, you’re just too pretty.”
This time Lance was embarrassed. “Never mind that. We didn’t get thrown out and that’s what’s important.” He just kept his eyes on the road as he drove.
When they got back to Adam’s apartment, Beth went straight to his Fantasyland display. She shook her head at the Matterhorn. “Ever hear of Styrofoam?”
“Didn’t have any.”
Looking at the coffee mug, she knew that would be the Tea Cup Ride. The rubber ducky (an old joke present from herself) proved to be the Storybook Land Canal Boats. A silver foil horse-like shape was the Carrousel. Beth picked up a small picture of Lance. “What’s this? Prince Charming from Sleeping Beauty’s Castle?”
“That would be Prince Phillip f
rom Sleeping Beauty’s Castle, but no. It represents Dumbo.” It was Adam’s turn to have a smug grin.
“Boys, boys, boys,” she muttered as she looked over at the map on the wall. “I don’t see why you built the model when you have the map.”
“To get a better feel of it.”
Beth nodded. “Makes sense.” For Adam, she added silently. She went over to the map and looked from it to his model. “What year is this map?”
“It says 40th anniversary right on it. You should know that would be 1995, Captain. That much is obvious.”
Deep in thought, she didn’t reply. Yes, that was obvious. But something about it wasn’t right. Yes, the map was right. For 1995. But it wasn’t right for today, 2002, as some attractions had changed. His model was right. For 1995 and for now. But something just wasn’t right. She was missing something. The key.
But, what was the key?
Sighing in frustration, she went back to the diary and just stared at it. It was old, cracked with age. More age than the map showed. The age of the two items didn’t match. The map was wrong for the diary. The diary had to have been written around 1964 or 1965. It had to be…the map. The map needed to be older.
“What are you thinking?” Adam tried to break into her concentration as he watched her move from the desk to the kitchen table, hands on her hips as she ignored him. She picked up the foil horse and moved it to the left. “Hey!” he objected, “I have that just right.” Then she moved the picture of Lance up where Adam had put the horse. He stopped when he saw she wasn’t listening. She picked up the coffee mug and looked at it. A smile slowly spread over her face as she put the mug to the left of where the picture had been.
Beth then stood back, her confident smile fading. No, that wasn’t right either. “Adam, can I use your computer a minute?” She walked around Lance who was behind her watching.
Adam was staring at what she had done to his model. “Sure. You know where it is.… Why did you mess up my model? I don’t see.…” He stopped complaining as he stared at what she had done, arriving at the same conclusion Beth had a moment earlier. “Oh, shoot, that’s it! The rides were moved,” he muttered. “I never even thought of that.” He looked up at Lance, a wide grin on his face. “The rides were moved! Brilliant!”
Sometimes Dead Men DO Tell Tales! Page 25