by Kin Platt
CHAPTER 34
Not In The Ground Nor In The Air
While Sinbad and me were puffing and grunting and swimming around the bend to Scuttle Point, that Frankie Shorten could have made a few more passes and things a lot tougher. But he didn’t, so he wasn’t a hundred percent rat after all. Just a dumb tough kid who thought he had to get even.
Anyway, he’d cost me the boat and a chance to get inside the cave. So don’t think I was considering him any kind of a great humanitarian.
Sinbad and me are both strong swimmers so we landed on some rocks at Scuttle Point, without any further trouble. We climbed up on a little rocky ledge over a sand bar and congratulated each other. Sinbad shook himself and I took off my sneakers, kind of damp by now, and let a little water out.
Then we scrambled up the hill and headed back through a heavy wooded area and then over a low wall into a clearing. I could see my sense of direction was working fine, because almost before I realized it we had come up on Captain Billy’s castle, from the other side. We followed the high curving stone wall that guarded it, and got to the same main gate where we’d been the other day with Minerva. The chains and padlock were still on it and I wished I had that big black iron key so I could do some investigating inside that house.
Then I heard the whine of a powerful motor coming up the curving hill in low gear. Fortunately there was a dead end there and the car would have to curve around so I retreated with Sinbad. The car that drove up and stopped was that tan Jag, the XKE!
I looked around fast for a place to hide. South of the clearing we’d hiked through was a small orchard with one gnarled apple tree that had three thick limbs making a saddle. I sat Sinbad there. He looked at me as if I was crazy.
“It’s okay,” I said. “You always wanted to climb trees so here’s your chance. Only be quiet and listen instead.”
Then I got up behind him and held him tight. We had a perfect view of the car and the gate. The reporter Defoe got out and opened the door on the other side for the tall red-headed girl who loved to type in that real estate office.
She wasn’t in a happy mood this time either. “Come on. Let’s make it snappy. You’re going to cost me my job.” Out of her bag came a long black key. She waved him aside with it.
Defoe laughed. “Don’t be so nervous. We’re not robbing a bank. You’re just showing me a house. Besides, nobody knows you have the key.”
“How do you know?” she snapped. “My boss, Mr. Mints, might just decide to open the safe and look for it today. Then what’ll I do?”
Defoe smiled calmly. “You’ll just find it where you evidently misplaced it. You wouldn’t get fired for that.”
“Maybe not,” she admitted. “But what if they ever found out? You’re trespassing, you know. So am I. It’s private property.”
“I’m a newspaper reporter,” he reminded her. “I’m investigating a mystery. Two mysteries, in fact. The mystery of the River Queen. The mystery of Captain Billy Murdock’s secret treasure.”
“Make it three mysteries while you’re at it,” she said.
“What do you mean?”
“The fact that you’ve got me believing all this. That’s another mystery.” She didn’t sound happy at all.
He laughed. “All right. So it’s a gamble. But it’s worth a million dollars if I’m right.” He pointed to the big padlock on the gate. “Make with the key.”
She shrugged and put the key in the lock. But she didn’t turn it. She was still debating with herself. Out loud. “A million dollar pirate treasure,” she said. “I gotta be out of my mind to fall for a fairy tale like that.”
“It’s in there, all right. I can’t tell you everything but my family’s had a personal stake in this for generations.”
“Yeah,” she said. Now her voice went into a strange singsong chant:
“Not in the Ground
Not in the Air
The Secret Is Found
Inside the White Square.”
She shook the key in his face. Her voice was mocking. “What white square? Where? The ceiling’s a white square. Are we going to take down the ceiling? This house has a lot of them.”
He said calmly, “They’re not squares. They’re rectangles.”
“Oh, pardon me.” She said. “Well, that’s a relief anyway. I’d hate to come back late and have to tell my boss a house fell down on me.”
He patted her shoulder. “Now, Vera, don’t get dramatic. We’ll find it. And when we do, you won’t have to worry about losing your job. You’ll have a fortune and live like a princess. Maybe you’ll even marry the prince who found it for you.”
“Yeah,” she sighed. “Me a princess. And maybe I’ll have my head examined too. Are we going to look for that stupid white square till I’m old and gray?”
Sinbad had been awfully good, not a whine or sniff out of him. He was stretched out on the big thick limb in his favorite prone conference position. Listening.
Defoe finally got a little impatient. “I’m supposed to be on my lunch hour, too. Make with the magic key, dear girl. Today might be our lucky day.”
“Yeah,” she said sarcastically. “I’ll bet.” She put the key back into the lock. This time she turned it and snapped the lock open. “How do you know you’re not being kidded? That riddle isn’t just wild, it’s crazy.”
He made an impatient gesture and took the chain off. “Because Captain Billy Murdock liked riddles. You saw this one in writing yourself, when we found his old log book.” He stopped her hand before she could put the key back in her bag. “You’re getting too nervous about this. I can have a copy made and look for the treasure in my spare time.”
She jerked her hand away. “Nothing doing.” She tried to smile and make up for it. “Now, Don. You know I can’t let you do that. If my boss ever found out–or Mr. Pickering–that’s all I’d need!”
He shrugged, unruffled. “Okay. I just thought it would simplify things.”
“And have us both in jail. No, thank you. When I get back, the key goes into the safe until I get another chance, and feel brave enough. Then we’ll try again. That’s the deal.”
“It just takes a little longer this way,” he said.
“You’re telling me,” she said. “You can’t blame me for being nervous. Also I didn’t like that kid snooping around the other day. What’s with him and this house anyway?”
The reporter swung the gate open. She walked through and he closed the gate and put the padlock on it again and clicked it shut. “You don’t have to worry about the kid,” he said. “He just happens to be a nut about old houses, that’s all. You sent him to see Pickering? Well, that ends it. Pickering wouldn’t let him come near it. He’d stall the kid forever. Come on. Let’s go fortune hunting.”
“Yeah,” she said. “Lead on, prince.”
They walked up the path. I heard the front door open and close.
I didn’t have my old reliable notebook with me this time. Which was a good thing, too, as it would have been soaked, from that dunking we took.
“We got a brand new Captain Billy riddle!” I told Sinbad.
“‘Not in the Ground
Not in the Air
The Secret Is Found
Inside the White Square.’”
I felt pretty sure now Captain Billy had really been murdered. I explained why to Sinbad.
“He probably just told somebody one riddle too many.”
CHAPTER 35
One Dark, One Light, One Future Not Bright
After we got home I dried Sinbad off and changed my soggy clothes.
“Wait here,” I told him. “I’m going up to see Mrs. Teska.”
Sinbad let out a big moan. It was like I was telling him I was going to help him kick the dog-bone habit. “Okay, okay. You can come. But I’m not so sure either one of us is going to be welcome so don’t complain to me later.”
I let him pull me up the hill to Steamboat Road. Sometimes I just can’t get over how powerful he is. The
store was closed, the little blue sign in the window. But there was a light on upstairs in her apartment.
She didn’t answer when I knocked. I knocked again and waited. Sinbad sniffled and whined.
“It’s me, Mrs. Teska,” I called out. “Can I talk to you for a minute?”
It was quite for a few seconds. Then I heard her say in a low harsh voice, “Go away. Go away.”
I shrugged and looked down at Sinbad. He started to paw at the door and whimper. “Sinbad is here too,” I said. “He wants to say hello.”
I thought maybe that might do it but I was wrong. “Both go away,” she said through the door. I heard her breathing hard and starting to shuffle away.
“Mrs. Teska,” I said, “I’ve got to talk to you. It’s about that big key you got. You know, the one to Captain Billy’s castle.”
I heard her shuffling stop, then only her breathing.
“I’d like to borrow it for a while,” I yelled. I hated to broadcast like this but there wasn’t anybody else around.
I heard her come closer to the door with that slow shuffling step. Then she opened it a crack. Sinbad tried to nose his way through but she kept her foot and weight behind the door and didn’t let him.
“What that you say?” she said hoarsely. I couldn’t see her face at all. Just the one baleful eye behind the silver-rimmed eyeglass.
“The key,” I said again. “The big one to the Murdock house. I know you’ve got one.”
Her one silvered eye glittered. I could hear her breathing hard, and I smelled something burning in there. A funny smell.
“There’s supposed to be only two keys, the lawyer Mr. Pickering told me. One for him and one for that real estate office. But I know there’s three. You have the other one.”
She said slowly: “How you know that? Why you say such bad things?”
“Because I saw it,” I said, “that time, after whoever it was broke in your store. In your back room.” She didn’t even try to deny it. “I wouldn’t bother you but there’s some other guy over there now who’s not supposed to have the key either. He’s looking for Captain Billy’s treasure, too.”
“How you know that?” she said.
“I just came from there,” I told her. “I got a pretty good idea where the treasure is hidden myself. After all, if you were once married to the guy, like you said, probably half belongs to you anyway.” I wasn’t sure of that but I knew a wife was always entitled to something. “So if you loan me your key maybe I can beat him to it. That way you can pay off Frankie’s IOU,” I added for a final coaxer.
I shouldn’t have said that.
She made a terrible groaning sound, and mumbled a few words about her kum again. Then the door swung back a fraction like she was considering opening it wide to take another poke at me with her old cane. I saw more of her face now and it really looked old and haggard. Her lips twisted and her voice sounded very shrill. She was almost crying.
“Go away! Now kum strike you dead for sure! I tell you before we no more friends. I tell him! Now you get Mrs. Teska’s bad luck curse. Stupid boy! Stupid little boy!”
Then she slammed the door in my face and I could still hear what she said bouncing around in my brain or whatever it is I got up there. Also I now knew a good reason for her being so excited and what that funny smell was in there. Stale cigar smoke.
Mrs. Teska was doing a lot of strange thing lately. But I was pretty sure it didn’t include smoking cigars.
I dragged Sinbad home and made us something to eat. Then I got to wondering if my folks were coming home tonight. My Mom had left the number, so I tried the long distance operator. I couldn’t get her. I couldn’t even get the local operator. I couldn’t get anything at all. Not a sound. That’s because the phone was dead.
It was a little after dark when I heard the car pull up. I ran to the door, yelling to Sinbad: “Wake up! It’s them!”
It was two people all right. Only the wrong two. One dark. The other light.
The dark one just chewed on his half cigar. I guess he’d smoked the other half up there at Mrs. Teska’s when I was putting on my recent coast to coast broadcast.
The light one spoke. His voice was light too. “Come on, kid. Let’s go.”
“Go where?” I asked.
He showed me a long black iron key.
“Hey, how’d you get that?” I asked. But it was a dumb question. He knew it was a dumb question too so he didn’t even bother answering it.
“We also got this,” he said in the light flat voice. It was a big black automatic. It looked menacing and scared heck out of me. He handled it carelessly, as if it was something he used every day, like a ball point pen.
So now I knew I had been right about these guys from the very beginning. Sinbad was right too. A lot of good it did us.
CHAPTER 36
Mystery Of The Secret Passageway
I grabbed Sinbad by his thick studded collar. But, it was a funny thing. He didn’t get the least bit excited, make threatening rumbles in his throat or flatten his ears. I guess he’s so used to giving visitors a big joyous welcome that he couldn’t understand these two were gunmen, finally come to get us.
I don’t know if he saw the gun or not but I was glad he didn’t get tough. It was like he’d forgotten that incident at Mrs. Teska’s store. He didn’t wag his tail or try to kiss them or anything, however. I was glad about that, too.
The men looked at one another. They were trying to make up their minds about something. Sinbad.
While they were about it I slipped the leash on Sinbad, and choked it short, just in case. That turned out to be a good idea.
The moonfaced black-haired one with the busted nose said: “You two always go together, huh? Like buddies?”
I nodded.
He turned slightly to the other man. “Maybe we better. He’s liable to make too much of a racket if we leave him here alone.”
The light blue-eyed man thought about it too. “Could be.” He addressed me. “Just keep him on tight leash, you hear?”
“Okay,” I said, “but what—”
He said flatly, not letting me finish, “If you can handle him, okay. If not—or if you try anything yourself—” He patted his gun and held it low. “I’ll let him have it right between the eyes.”
My eyes stung.
“Okay? You got it?” he asked.
And I mumbled: “Okay.”
There aren’t any other houses on our street so nobody saw us get herded into the car. The dark one sat in the back with his gun on us. The light man drove. I sat next to him, Sinbad near the window. It was a big dark green Buick. The Riviera.
“What happened to the other car?” I asked.
The answer took some time.
“Oh, that one?” the blond man chewed on his lower lip a second and didn’t look at me but in the rear view mirror at the man in black. “What happened to the other car, Phil?”
“Some wise apple kid gave us a bum direction,” he said tonelessly.
“This one got Florida plates on it too?”
The blond one laughed but not with his lips. “Stop trying to play detective, kid,” he said.
“How much does this one cost?” I asked.
He shook his head like he couldn’t get over all these dopey questions. “About five grand,” he said.
“Boy, that’s a lot of money,” I said.
“Yeah, you’re right,” he said. “But it don’t matter. We’ll make it up when we get that treasure you’re gonna lead us to. Right?” Now he looked at me keenly.
“I guess so,” I said.
I figured this wasn’t a good time to let him find out I still didn’t know where the treasure was. He’d never believe me. And, for another thing, that gun he had still scared me. Maybe it wouldn’t have bothered that Rick Battles. But that’s only because he’s used to everything going against him all the time.
The driver must have used his time getting good directions from other people because he found C
aptain Billy’s place without any help from me. In the dark, too.
Our town is pretty well deserted at night, this section near the water even more so. Naturally I wasn’t surprised to find we were the only car. I was so excited about the idea of finally getting inside Captain Billy’s castle, I almost forgot what we came there for.
The big iron key fit the padlock with no trouble. So I was right about that third key, too.
I thought the blond fellow would park the car below the gate to avoid suspicion but he didn’t. I guess he figured they’d have all this treasure to carry and didn’t want to strain their backs.
He put the padlock and chain on again and locked the gate from the inside. That took care of that. I couldn’t break away with Sinbad, even if I saw a good chance.
We followed the curving path in the dark. There was still a full moon out so he didn’t need the flashlight until we got near the doorway. He held the beam steady for a quick look, then flicked it off.
I saw enough to know right away it was a Georgian house. Early Georgian at the start, but some changes had been made. The portico had white Doric columns. Federal! But the doorway was balanced and centered. That made it Georgian. It was flanked by pilasters. Georgian, too. The side lights inside the pilasters made it Late Georgian, as did the fanlight over both the door and the side lights. But it was elliptical. Federal, again.
I took a quick look up and saw the big Palladian window on the second floor. Late Georgian. I could make out the cornice and modillions, the brackets, underneath the roof. That was Georgian, too, usually Early Georgian but sometimes it overlapped. The roof seemed to be low pitched, possibly hipped, but I couldn’t be sure from this angle. Anyway, I could tell this house was built around 1750 or 1760, and later other improvements had been added. Like the Palladian window, for instance.