The Haunted Lighthouse

by Penny Warner

  M.E. took a deep breath and walked down the hall. The others pulled back around the corner so they wouldn’t be spotted. If the maids saw them, they might think the four kids were up to something.

  Cody pulled out her cell phone, tapped her Spanish-to-English dictionary app, and listened for M.E. to say a few words in Spanish. After a few moments, she heard, “Disculpe. Perdí mis llaves. Por favor permítame entrar?”

  Cody looked up the words as fast as she could and guessed that M.E. had said something like: “Pardon me. I’ve lost my keys. Could you please let me in?”

  “Dónde están tus padres?” the maid asked. (“Where are your parents?”)

  M.E. said something that Cody couldn’t make out.

  “Cuál cuarto?” the maid asked. (Which room?)

  “Cuatro dos dos,” M.E. replied. Cody recognized the numbers. Four two two—the room number. After a few seconds, she heard M.E. say, “Gracias.”

  Had she really done it? Had she actually gotten the maids to open the door of the haunted room?

  Moments later M.E. appeared from around the corner. “Come on!” she whispered. “After they opened the door, I left some paper stuck in the lock so we could get back inside. Hurry before they finish cleaning one of the other rooms. And be quiet!”

  “You’re brilliant!” Cody whispered, then tiptoed as she followed M.E. back to Room 422.

  M.E. pulled the door open and waved the others inside. She closed the door gently, then let out a big sigh of relief.

  “Your hands are shaking,” Cody said.

  “I know! I can’t believe I just did that!” M.E. said, her cheeks rosy with excitement.

  Quinn looked around. “Okay, we don’t have much time. The people staying in this room could come back any minute.”

  Cody scanned the room. The beds were made, but clothes were piled on top of the dresser drawers and strewn on chairs. “I don’t think they have kids,” she said, not spotting any toys or small outfits.

  The kids looked at each other for a sign of what to do. Even though she didn’t believe in ghosts, Cody felt a chill just being in the room that was supposedly haunted. But they had a job to do. “Let’s get this over with and get out of here before we’re caught,” she said. “Look for something shaped like a circle, with … little sticks … and dots …”

  They did a quick search of the bedroom and bathroom. The bedspread was a deep red velvet that matched the drapes, and the furniture was antique—nothing unusual. Cody sat on the bed and ran her fingers over the soft comforter. She lay back to gather her thoughts and looked up.

  That’s when she saw it.

  A circle directly over her head, with, well … little sticks in it.

  “The chandelier!” she said, sitting up and gazing at the overhead light. The dangling cherry-size crystals sparkled in the sunlight coming in through the open window. “See the little sticks? They look like candles, arranged in a circle.” She got out the picture she’d drawn and compared it. “How many candles does the chandelier have?”

  M.E. counted them aloud. “Thirteen!”

  Cody counted the number of sticks on her drawing.

  Thirteen.

  She slipped off her shoes and stood on the bed to examine the chandelier. Each of the candle-shaped lights was topped with a large teardrop crystal, made to look like the candle’s flame.

  Suddenly, the door slammed open.

  M.E. hadn’t removed the paper wad from the lock.

  “Hold it right there!” a deep voice boomed from the doorway.

  M.E. screamed. They all spun around.

  There stood the man Cody had described—long coat, black baseball cap, glasses, and a mustache. Somehow he had followed them—and they had not seen him!

  In one hand the man held a mean-looking croquet mallet. “Get off that bed. Those diamonds are mine. And I appreciate you leading me right to them. I knew you kids were smart.”

  Cody jumped off the bed and moved against the wall, along with Quinn, Luke, and M.E. The man entered the room and closed the door behind him.

  Grabbing at his face, he ripped the mustache from his upper lip, then removed the glasses and threw them to the floor. Instantly, Cody recognized him: it was Geoff, the guard from Alcatraz. The one who had let the Code Busters into the lighthouse. He must have heard their conversation at the lighthouse … and the Campanile … and in the lobby … and followed them!

  He raised the mallet.

  The kids recoiled against the wall.

  He swung it—to Cody’s surprise—not at the kids, but at the chandelier. The light fixture shattered, raining pieces of broken glass candles and sparkly gems onto the floor.

  Geoff dropped the mallet and knelt down, scrambling for bits of the chandelier. While he ran his fingers through the debris, Cody had an idea. She slowly finger-spelled her plan to her friends, being careful not to attract the attention of the guard:

  Code Buster’s Key and Solution found on this page, this page.

  All three nodded—message received. She began inching her way toward the door, hoping the man was too distracted to notice.

  He lifted up one of the crystals that had once been a candle’s “flame.”

  “I wanna thank you kids for helping me figure out where Diamond Dave’s pals hid those stolen diamonds all those years ago. That’s the only reason I’ve been working on the Rock, you know. I’d heard the stories, and I had a feeling they were true. And here they are.” Geoff grinned, revealing his crooked, yellowed teeth. Cody wondered how anyone could look bad smiling, but this guy clearly did.

  While the other Code Busters remained frozen to their spots against the wall, Cody moved closer to the door. Geoff continued to pick through the shattered chandelier parts and glass, collecting the crystal flames.

  He held one up to the light coming in from the window. But instead of grinning again, his face tightened, and his smile turned to a grimace. Suddenly, he threw the crystals back onto the floor, then jumped up, spun around, and faced the kids, his face red with rage.

  “Where are they?” he yelled.

  In one quick movement, Cody snatched up the mallet Geoff had dropped on the floor and threw it at the angry man, hoping to hit him, or at least distract him. In the brief second it took him to dodge the mallet, she yanked the door open and ran.

  “Oh, no, you don’t!” Geoff the guard said. He lunged after her, grabbing hold of her hoodie.

  Cody slipped out of the jacket and fled down the hall, screaming, “Help!”

  The two maids appeared at the doors of the rooms they’d been cleaning.

  One of the maids pushed her cart in front of the man as he tried to catch Cody. The other maid swung her mop at him, knocking him to the floor with a wet slap across the face, and smacked him again and again with the mop head. The maid with the cart pulled out her walkie-talkie and called, “Seguridad!”

  Quinn, Luke, and M.E. appeared at the doorway, quickly took in the situation, and ran to the guard. Luke grabbed one of the hotel sheets and threw it over the man as he lay on the floor holding his face. Meanwhile, Quinn shoved a cart up against him, blocking him against the wall.

  M.E. just screamed.

  Moments later two security guards stormed in from the stairwell.

  The police—including Officer Jones, Cody’s mother—arrived moments after the two security guards had cuffed Geoff. The maids were talking to an officer who knew Spanish, while a few hotel guests gathered behind a police line, hoping to see what all the commotion was about. Cody and the other kids stood by and watched as two officers took the handcuffed man away. As Geoff passed by Cody, he glared at her, sending a cold chill down her spine.

  Cody’s mother approached the kids, who were huddled together, watching the scene.

  “Ooookay,” she said, hands on her hips and standing at attention in her uniform. “You want to tell me what happened here?”

  Cody looked at the others, hoping they’d step up and explain the situation, but they re
mained mute and stared at the floor. Cody took a deep breath. “We were …”

  Cody’s dad suddenly appeared from down the hall. “Dakota! What happened? What are you doing here? I thought you were at the Berkeley campus working on a school project.”

  “I was just asking her the same thing,” Cody’s mom said to him.

  “Dad, what are you doing here?” Cody asked, repeating her dad’s question.

  “Your mother called me. What’s going on?”

  “I’m trying to tell you,” Cody said, feeling frustrated at the interrogation. “We were looking for … diamonds.”

  “What?” her dad asked, his face a picture of disbelief.

  “It’s a long story, Dad,” Cody began to explain. “It started the day before our trip to Alcatraz. I got this strange e-mail message. It was a poem that hinted about there being some kind of treasure on the island. So when we went on our field trip the next day, we looked for clues.”

  Mr. Jones seemed to go pale. He slapped his hand on his forehead. “Oh, no … I didn’t mean …”

  Cody squinted at him. “Dad? What’s wrong?”

  He looked at Cody’s mom, then glanced at the four kids. “I’m the one who sent that e-mail message. Since you kids love secret codes and messages so much, I thought it would be fun to send you on a sort of treasure hunt around the prison island. But you were never meant to end up here.”

  Officer Jones glared at her ex-husband. But before she could speak, Cody asked, “You wrote that poem? You sent us looking for those seats? And inside the lighthouse?”

  Mr. Jones nodded until she asked the last question. “Inside?” he asked. “No. The clue was on the outside. It was supposed to lead you to another clue, and that clue was to lead you to the exercise yard, then the gardens, and then the gift shop. The last code said, ‘Surprise! Love, your dad.’ I hid it under a book about Alcatraz in the shop.”

  Cody frowned, remembering the note about ringing a bell—and that she hadn’t had a chance to read the rest of the message before the guard snatched it out of her hands. She glanced at her friends.

  “I didn’t see that note until we were leaving the lighthouse, and then I forgot about it because we assumed it had something to do with the Campanile bell tower. When we first came to the lighthouse, the door was open, so the note was hidden. The guard said we could go inside if we were quick—so we climbed up to the top. We found a message carved into the wall that gave us directions to the Campanile. He must have overheard us talking about finding the diamonds during the tour—and again in the lighthouse—and followed us to the campus, then here. I thought it might have been Matt the Brat or even Diamond Dave following us, but it was the guard. He thought we would lead him to Diamond Dave’s stash.”

  “Cody, you told me you needed to go to the campus to work on a class project.”

  Quinn spoke up. “It was a project, just not a class project. Then when we got another clue at the Campanile tower, we wanted to follow it.”

  “Another clue?” Mr. Jones asked.

  “Yeah, the one that sent us here, to the Claremont,” Luke said.

  “But that guard followed us,” M.E. added, nervously twisting her long hair into a spiral.

  “So who is Diamond Dave?” Cody’s mom asked.

  Her dad spoke up. “The ranger told the kids a story about Diamond Dave on the tour. I’d read about him online—that’s where I got the idea for a treasure hunt. But I had no idea it would lead them here. With a maniac following them.” Her dad suddenly looked tired. Cody knew that look: extreme worry. No wonder. She’d given her dad—and her mom—quite a scare.

  “I’m sorry, Mom, Dad,” Cody said. “We thought we were just following clues to an old mystery. We figured if the diamonds were still there, it would be cool to find them.”

  “And maybe buy some new night-vision goggles or a high-tech GPS for our club,” Quinn added.

  “All right,” Officer Jones said. “I’m sure I’m going to have more questions for you later, but for now, I want you to go down to the restaurant and wait for me there while we finish up here. I’ll give you guys some money. Buy yourselves something to eat. And stay there!”

  “I’ll go with them,” Mr. Jones said.

  Cody’s mom nodded her thanks.

  The kids headed for the elevator in silence and rode the car down to the lobby level with Mr. Jones, who kept glancing from one Code Buster to another, saying nothing. When they reached the café, the kids returned to the table they’d occupied earlier, and Cody’s dad pulled up an extra seat. She glanced out at Alcatraz, where all of this mess had really started.

  “Dad—”

  “Mr. Jones—”

  “Kids—”

  Everyone spoke at once. The kids stopped talking; Cody’s dad continued. “Look, guys. This is partly my fault. I shouldn’t have made up that treasure hunt. I had no idea you’d miss my clue and find clues to a treasure hunt more than fifty years old! But next time, let us know where you’re going. You were lucky this time.”

  The Code Busters nodded.

  The same waiter who had waited on them earlier—Delmar Morris—appeared and stood at attention, once again holding his hands together in front of him. Cody noticed the ring again and wondered if it was a university class ring, like her dad’s.

  “So, you’re back for more lemonade and french fries,” the waiter said, a small smile playing at his lips. “And you’ve brought a guest?”

  “This is my dad,” Cody said glumly.

  “A pleasure to meet you, sir. What can I get for you all this time? Another round?”

  “How about lunch?” Mr. Jones asked the others.

  They nodded vigorously; they were all very hungry after having only a few fries and a drink earlier.

  “How about five cheeseburgers,” Mr. Jones suggested to the kids. They nodded.

  The waiter bowed slightly, then asked, “Did you find the laundry chute?”

  Cody shook her head. “You were right. They’re gone, except for an opening in the wall that’s been sealed up.”

  “But we found a message there,” Quinn spoke up.

  “Really?” the waiter asked. “A message?”

  “Yeah,” Luke said. “There was a drawing and the number four twenty-two—the same number as the haunted hotel room. When we got to the room, we realized that the drawing was of the chandelier in that room. We thought maybe there were diamonds hidden in there …” Luke trailed off.

  “Ah, the diamonds,” the waiter mused. “You’re referring to that story I heard as a kid. When my father was the maintenance man back then, there was a fellow who insisted on staying in the haunted room—Room Four twenty-two—and paid quite a lot extra for it, I understand. The next day, my father was sent to the room to replace the chandelier. When he arrived, he found the fixture had been completely removed from the ceiling and had vanished, along with the mysterious fellow. He had to install a new one—not half as nice as the original. And he didn’t like being in that room. The ghost rumors, you know.”

  “Did he see the ghost of the little girl?” M.E. asked.

  “No—at least, he never mentioned it.”

  “What about the diamonds?” Luke asked.

  “He didn’t see any diamonds, but he found a crystal from the old chandelier, buried in the carpet. He had it made into a ring as a memento of the biggest theft ever to occur at the Claremont.” The waiter held up his hand. “He gave it to me before he died. I plan to give it to my son someday.”

  Cody blinked when she saw the ring. The crystal in the middle of the bronze setting sparkled in the light. Could it be …?

  “Well, if you’ll excuse me, I’ll get those cheeseburgers going.” The waiter hurried off.

  Cody looked at the others. “Guys!” she whispered. “Did you see that ring on his pinkie finger?”

  “Yeah, what of it?” Quinn asked.

  Luke turned to Cody. “You don’t think …”

  M.E.’s eyes brightened. “Do you
think it could be?”

  Cody’s dad held his hands up. “Whoa. Wait a minute. What are you kids talking about?”

  “His ring!” Cody said. “What if it’s not a crystal, but a real diamond that was hidden in the old chandelier?”

  The waiter returned with their drinks. As he set them in front of each place, the kids couldn’t take their eyes off his ring. After he placed the last drink on the table, Mr. Jones leaned over to read the older man’s name tag, then said, “Excuse me, Mr. Morris, have you ever had that ring appraised?”

  The waiter chuckled. “Oh, no. It just has sentimental value, from my dad. I’m sure it has no monetary value.”

  Mr. Jones met the waiter’s eyes. “I highly recommend that you do.”

  The waiter’s eyes fluttered as he looked down at his ring. He cocked his head, smiled, and left the table.

  Cody grinned at her dad. Something good might come out of this after all.

  A few days later, Mr. Jones arrived unexpectedly at Cody’s mother’s house. The Code Busters were studying in Cody’s room when he entered. Quinn was on the floor, working on a math paper. Luke sat in the beanbag chair, reading a skateboarding magazine. M.E. was at the computer, and Cody lay on her stomach on her bed, looking over her spelling words.

  “Hi, Dad!” Cody said. “What are you doing here?”

  “Hey, can’t a dad come see his daughter and her code-busting friends when he wants to?” he asked.

  “Uh … sure, I guess. So what’s up?”

  Mr. Jones sat on the edge of her bed.

  “I got a call,” he said.

  Uh-oh, Cody thought. More fallout from their misadventure over the weekend. She tensed up, waiting for the bad news, certain her mother would ground her until she turned eighteen. “Yeah? From who?” she asked. “The hotel said they weren’t going to press charges against us, and they were actually glad that their security guards and maids had helped to capture Geoff.”

  “No, not from the hotel, exactly. From the waiter, Mr. Morris.”

  Cody sat up. “What did he want?”

  “He had the ring appraised yesterday.”