“Because there are so many times when you need to be a spy and hide something from another one?”
“You’ll see. This will all come in handy. Maybe not on this mystery, but I’ll need to know it sometime.”
By now they had reached the edge of the parking lot. Sophie stared at the outside of the building for so long that Jessica wondered if they were going to start attracting attention.
“Soph, we need to move on.”
“Maybe we should go inside and wait to see if that man comes through the lobby. You’d remember him, wouldn’t you?”
“In a place where most people dress very simply and casually, a man in a suit would stand out. Of course, if he only wore the suit for his helicopter ride and then changed into jeans or something like that, I’m not sure I would recognize him.”
Sophie started toward the resort’s entrance. “Let’s wait in the lobby. Mom’s not expecting us for a while.”
“But Sophie”—Jessica hurried after her—“what’s our reason for being here? Two twelve-year-olds can’t sit in a fancy resort’s lobby for no reason at all.” Jessica had caught up to Sophie, and they were almost to the doorman outside the resort.
Sophie checked the time on her watch. “I would ask if you wanted a milkshake—”
“With our chocolate samples, I’ve had too many sweets already today.”
“I agree. But I remember hearing Mom tell Dad not too long ago that the resort is now serving ‘light lunches.’ I’m not sure what that means, but it’s lunchtime, and I still have money left from my allowance. I wouldn’t if Mom didn’t keep giving us money for the deli.”
“Then let’s get lunch.”
A “light lunch” turned out to be small things that cost a lot of money. So, instead of that, Sophie and Jessica each got a glass of iced tea, sat in the lobby, and waited.
Jessica glanced around at all the adults coming and going. “We’re the only kids here. We can only stay here so long.”
“Sip your tea slowly, and we’ll go to Great Finds after this.”
When they’d almost finished their drinks, they had to tell the waiter that they didn’t want anything else when he came to check on them. Jessica said, “I think we’re going to need to go soon, Sophie.”
“I know.” Sophie took a big drink from her tea and started to push it away.
Jessica noticed Mr. Pleckenpoll coming through the doors. “Sophie, there’s Mr. P. Maybe we should go say hi to him on our way out.” Jessica started to rise to her feet, but Sophie reached out and pushed down on her shoulder, and she sank back into her chair.
Sophie said, “That’s Mr. P., all right, but are you noticing anything strange about him?”
“No.” She watched him. “Wait! He’s moving more quickly than we’ve seen him do before. In fact, he isn’t moving like an old man.”
“That’s what I thought.” When he stepped into an open elevator, Sophie stood. “Let’s watch the numbers on the elevator and see what floor he gets off on.”
The two of them hurried over to the elevator doors and watched the display until the elevator stopped.
Sophie said, “Five.”
They hurried up the stairs that were beside the elevator, racing up toward the fifth floor. By the third floor, Jessica was panting. She felt like she’d climbed a mountain by the time they reached their destination.
Sophie pushed open the door to the fifth floor an inch or so. No one was in the hallway, so she opened it a bit more. Still nothing. Opening it all the way, she stepped out and peered around it.
Jessica whispered, “Anything?”
“No. The elevator moved a lot faster than we did. He’s already in his room.”
The carpeted hallway stretched before them in both directions. Hotel room doors lined the hallway on each side. A window at the end of the hall let in light, and the elevator sat at the other end. “Sophie, every door’s closed.”
Sophie started walking down the hall.
“Sophie, what are you doing? Someone might see us. And I don’t think we’re supposed to be here.”
“We need to find out what room he’s in.”
“What are you proposing? That we knock on every door?” Jessica laughed.
“Not a bad idea.”
“I was kidding! What reason could we give for knocking on doors?”
Sophie paused for a moment before speaking. “Maybe we can say we want to tell them about Mom’s antique shop. While they’re visiting, they could go there.”
“Oh, right. Your mother would love that. And I’m saying that in a sarcastic way because she would hate it if we used her shop’s name for this. And I don’t think the hotel would appreciate it if someone from the town came in and started knocking on doors. It might get your mother in trouble with the resort.”
Sophie’s shoulders drooped. “You’re right. It wasn’t my best idea.”
Jessica didn’t say anything, but she had to agree.
“I guess we’ll have to wait here until Mr. P. comes out of his room. Before you say it, I realize that’s a bad idea too because someone might want to use the stairs and we can’t explain why we’re here.”
A door halfway down the hall opened. Sophie jumped back into the stairwell, leaving the door open a crack. A man with dark hair peered out the door, looking first to the right and then to the left. Then he stepped out, closed the door, and hurried in their direction. Jessica hoped he was on his way to the elevators, not the stairs. She wanted to do a happy dance when he passed them. When he reached the elevator, he pushed a button, waited until the doors opened, and got on.
When the elevator doors closed, Jessica blew out a big breath. “That was close, Sophie.”
“Tell me about it.” Sophie turned and started descending the stairs. “We’d better hurry and get over to Great Finds so we can help Mom.”
“And eat lunch!”
“That too.”
“Let’s follow Mr. P. after class on Monday and see if we can figure out his mystery.”
“He seems like such a nice old man,” Jessica said. “I hope he’s not a bad guy.”
When they arrived at the front of Great Finds, Sophie and Jessica peered in the window. Sophie said, “Mom is helping one person, and there are two—no, I see three other people waiting. I don’t think we should bother her. She’s going to be busy for a while. Let’s go home and have something to eat there.”
As they started toward home, she added, “And maybe we can have a piece of the chocolate in this box.”
At Sophie’s house, they made peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and sat down to eat them at the kitchen table. After eating a peach for dessert, Sophie opened the wrapping paper on the box of chocolates. A computer-printed note was taped to the box. It read:
Please make sure these end up with the right person.
Sparkling Surprise
“SOPHIE, THIS BOX OF candy might not have been for your mother,” Jessica said as she stared at the note.
“You may be right, but we’ve already opened it, and if it’s a gift for someone, we’ve ruined it. Maybe we should call the factory and ask Uncle Sal about it.”
Jessica nodded. “Very good idea.”
Sophie looked up the phone number and dialed the chocolate factory. After five rings she hung up. “Mrs. Clayton must have left for the day, and no one else is answering. We can’t return it today. Uncle Sal promised Mom a box of candy, and we have one right here.”
“I guess we may as well eat what’s inside. He can make a new box for the other person on Monday,” Jessica said
Sophie lifted the lid. “Twelve pieces of candy, half dark chocolate and half milk chocolate. I’ve decided that I like milk chocolate more.” Sophie reached for a piece of the lighter brown candy.
“I’m for dark chocolate all the way.” Jessica reached for the darker chocolate. “Now the question is, what flavor is it?” Jessica took a little nibble off a corner. Then a slightly larger nibble. “I think this one is oran
ge-filled.”
Sophie broke hers in half.
“I wish you wouldn’t do that. It makes a pretty piece of chocolate ugly.”
Sophie laughed. “And a bite out of the corner doesn’t?”
Jessica stared at the piece of chocolate in front of her. “I suppose you’re right.”
Sophie poked at the filling oozing out of one of her chocolate halves. “It’s caramel, I think. You’re the chocolate expert. It shouldn’t have a red center, should it?”
“Only if Uncle Sal is trying one of his strange combinations again. Caramel and jelly filling is weird.” Jessica leaned over to see it.
Sophie stared at the jelly-filled center. “Jessica”—she reached into the gooey center and pulled out something hard—“this isn’t jelly.” She rolled the hard candy center in her fingers and held it up. A red stone, something that would be in a ring or a necklace, caught the light coming through the kitchen window.
She looked up in time to see Jessica about to take a bigger bite of her piece of chocolate. She shoved her cousin’s hand away from her mouth. “Don’t eat that!”
Jessica rubbed the spot on her hand where Sophie had pushed her. “Ouch. Why did you do that?”
She held the stone where Jessica could see it. “I’m guessing, but aren’t rubies red?”
“Yes! What have we gotten in the middle of this time?” Jessica picked up the piece of chocolate that had been knocked out of her hand and had fallen to the floor. She pulled it in half. “This one only has a normal filling in it. Jewels inside chocolates are a good reason for criminals to be in Pine Hill. I would think that a real ruby this size—if that’s what it is—would be worth a lot of money.”
Sophie reached for another piece of chocolate, but Jessica put her hand on Sophie’s. “Maybe we should leave these all alone.”
“I want to see what’s in the rest of them, and we already have two of them open.”
Jessica stared at the box for so long that Sophie wondered what she was going to do or say. When her cousin reached for a piece of milk chocolate, Sophie knew that Jessica had decided to break them open.
A minute later, a dozen pieces of chocolate, now in half, sat in front of them on the table.
“Only your first piece had the gemstone in it, Sophie. If it is a ruby, it’s worth a lot of money.”
“It must be real. Why would someone hide a fake gemstone inside a piece of chocolate?”
“Maybe as a surprise for someone?” Jessica said.
“It sure would be a surprise if someone bit into a piece of chocolate and had their teeth hit something hard. I don’t think that would be a good idea. If their teeth didn’t hit it, they might choke on it. That’s a bad idea all around.”
“You’re right. But if that’s the case, then we have somehow stumbled upon some major criminals. Because I have a feeling that this gemstone is worth more money than even you and I can imagine.”
Sophie stood. “Let’s rinse it off so we can see better what we found.” She went across the kitchen, opened the cupboard, and pulled out a fine mesh strainer. “My mom uses this to drain the juice off canned pineapple and other stuff. We won’t lose the stone down the drain if we put it in here.”
“Great idea.”
At the sink, Sophie ran hot water through the strainer. “I want to make sure it doesn’t wash away by accident.” She removed the gem from the strainer and patted it dry with a kitchen towel. Then she held it up to the sunlight, and it sparkled even more than before.
“That’s beautiful! I remember when we went to see the crown jewels in London. They’re the jewelry from kings and queens. This is pretty enough to be in a crown. We have to take it to Sheriff Valeska.”
“I won’t argue with you this time, Jessica. We do need to get this to the sheriff as fast as we can.”
She took out a small plastic zipper bag from a drawer and slipped the stone inside. While she did that, Jessica picked up the pieces of chocolate and the box and put them in a larger plastic bag that Sophie stowed in her backpack. With the zipper bag tucked in Sophie’s front jeans pocket and the backpack over her shoulders, they went out the door, down the steps, and started on the trail through the woods toward town.
Every once in awhile, Sophie patted that pocket with her right hand. Finally, Jessica asked, “Are you worried you’re going to lose it?”
“Yes! I don’t want to have to search through the woods to find one red stone. I put it in my pocket because that felt safer.” Sophie chewed on her lip. “Jessica, I keep feeling like Sheriff Valeska is going to be upset with us because we have the gemstone, but—”
“Sophie, it isn’t our fault. Uncle Sal promised you a box of chocolates. We picked up a box of chocolates. End of story.”
“Then let’s think about the next step in solving this mystery.”
“I don’t know if we have a next step, Sophie. The sheriff will say to stay out of it now.”
“No, we’re inside the chocolate factory. She may need us to keep our eyes open or do something else. She knew something was going on, or she wouldn’t have asked you to spy.”
“That’s what keeps going through my head. But she said it wouldn’t be dangerous. Even when she told me to stop watching, she said it wasn’t dangerous.”
The two of them walked a couple of minutes without saying anything. Then Sophie stopped right in the middle of the trail and turned to Jessica, who barely managed to stop before running into Sophie’s back. “We still don’t know what’s going on. Why would she ask you to spy for her if it didn’t matter?”
Jessica tugged on Sophie’s arm, and they started moving forward again on the trail. “Maybe we’ll get some answers today. I don’t think Sheriff Valeska was expecting us to find a box of chocolates with a gemstone in it.”
Sophie stopped again, and this time Jessica did ram into her back.
“Sophie! Stop doing that.”
“Sorry. I wondered again if this is a real stone. If it’s fake and someone put it in the candy . . .” Sophie shook her head. “That doesn’t make any more sense now. Why would anyone hide fake gemstones?” Sophie started on her way again, and Jessica stepped beside her as the path widened nearer to town so she wouldn’t hit Sophie if she stopped.
They continued walking and soon could see the town in front of them. Continuing down the sidewalk, they quickly arrived at the sheriff’s office. Sophie pushed the door open and entered with Jessica behind her. Sheriff Valeska sat at her desk, working on her computer.
The sheriff looked up, spotted them, and said, “Oh no. What now, Sophie?”
Sophie glanced over her shoulder at the secretary, Clare Morton. She still didn’t feel comfortable speaking in front of her. And one of the deputies was working in the back at a filing cabinet. “Sheriff, we have something to show you, but it’s kind of a secret. Could we step into one of those rooms?” Sophie gestured with her head toward the room they’d been in the other day.
Sheriff Valeska pushed back from her desk and stood. “Today is busy, so I hope it’s important.” The sheriff waved her hand at the room’s open door. Sophie and Jessica walked in, the sheriff came in behind them and left the door partly open. “What is it, Sophie?”
Sophie glanced around them to make sure no one else was there. Then she reached into her pocket, pulled out the zipper bag with the ruby, and handed it to the sheriff.
Sheriff Valeska stared at the bag, her eyes growing wider and wider as she realized what was inside it. In a serious tone of voice, she slowly said, “Sophie, Jessica, where did you find this?”
Danger!
CHILLS WENT DOWN JESSICA’S spine. She quickly explained to the sheriff about the box of chocolates Uncle Sal had promised them and how Sophie had found the stone in one of the chocolates in the box they’d picked up from the receptionist’s desk.
Sophie pulled the pieces and box out of her backpack and handed the bag to Sheriff Valeska. “Do you have any idea why the ruby was in here?”
The
sheriff slowly shook her head from side to side, then suddenly nodded up and down as if she’d realized something. “There’s a man here in town who I believe can tell us more about this. I thought he was mistaken about what he expected to find in Pine Hill, what he trailed to this area. But”—she rolled her finger over the gemstone, flipping it around in her hand—“I think you’ve proven his theory to be correct.”
She slowly raised her gaze from the ruby and looked at the two of them. “Will anyone suspect one of you when this box of chocolates comes up missing?”
Sophie and Jessica looked at each other, and Jessica said, “Oh no.”
Sheriff Valeska said, “I take that as a yes.”
Jessica said, “Yes. It’s a definite yes. As we told you, Uncle Sal said there would be a box of chocolates sitting there. It was the end of the day, so maybe no one has tried to find them yet.”
Sheriff Valeska glanced from one girl to the other and paused, seeming to mull something over. “I’m going to let the two of you in on a secret—”
“Is this more about why you asked me to watch things at the factory?”
The sheriff said, “No, Jessica. That was completely because of the recipe. I felt that Sal Donadio’s factory was the least likely place to have danger, and that’s the only reason I asked you to watch. Let me go make a phone call. I’ll be right back.” The sheriff left the room and closed the door behind her.
“What have we accidentally gotten ourselves into, Sophie?”
“I’m not sure, Jessica, but it sounds like it could be something dangerous. Maybe the most dangerous thing we’ve been in the middle of yet.”
“I wish you hadn’t said that. We’ve had so many things happen this summer, scary things, that I don’t want this one to be any worse. I don’t want there to be another mystery at all.”
The sheriff came into the room a few minutes later. “I spoke with that person and learned more. He thinks there’s a criminal band working in this area, people who are involved with a gemstone theft ring. He hoped to contact me to make an arrest soon at the chocolate factory because he’s become suspicious about things going on there and has been watching the front of the building every night.”
The Chocolate Spy Page 9