by TOMMY DAVEY
It was not food that Calvin had discovered, it seemed, but some sort of card. A library card. Not a regular card, however; it had a big 'S' on it, right beside the barcode with no signature or name on it. Whoever broke into my room had left a very valuable piece of evidence behind.
"Calvin," I said. "You have just sniffed out a very important clue!"
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
As much as I wanted to bring him with me, I knew Calvin would not be allowed in the library, and I couldn't leave him tied up outside while I investigated.
I hopped on my bike and rode as fast as I could to the library, determined to find out who owned the card I'd found on my bedroom floor.
***
Mr. Burton, the librarian, was not at the front desk when I went in. This disappointed me, as I found him very helpful and would no doubt have looked up the name of the person who had dropped their card. The bigger disappointment was that in his place stood Marty Bass. Marty Bass happened to be the seventeen-year-old brother of Alex Bass, my classmate. Marty worked part-time in the library, but did not actually seem to do much work.
"Hi, Marty," I said. "Where's Mr. Burton?"
"Oh, hey Cora," he said, sounding half-asleep. "He's at lunch right now. He should be back in, like, ten or fifteen minutes."
"Maybe you can help me," I said, taking out the card from my pocket. "I found this and I wanted to return it to its owner. Can you tell me who it belongs to?"
He looked at the card and narrowed his eyes.
"You found this?" he said.
"Yes."
"Where?"
I began to fear Marty suspected something about the card, so I decided to lie in order to keep him from asking more questions. "I found it in the street."
"Oh," he replied. "It's just that... this is not a regular library card. You see the big 'S' on it? That stands for 'Staff'. This card belongs to a staff member."
"Are you sure?"
"I'm sure," he said. "Look."
He rifled through his wallet and took out his own library card, which looked just like the one I had found.
"Can you tell who this card belongs to?"
"Yeah, but there are only a few people this could belong to. I know it's not mine, but could be one of the other students who work here."
He took the card and punched the number into the computer and waited a second.
"It's Mr. Burton's card. He must have dropped it."
A horrible thought passed through my head. Mr. Burton could not have been the person to break into my house, could he? Was he the person who was trying to find the other half of the map?
"Marty, do you know if Mr. Burton lost his wallet lately?"
I thought perhaps the thief had stolen Mr. Burton's wallet and dropped the card in my bedroom.
"No," replied Marty. "He never mentioned it. In fact, I noticed he had his wallet with him this morning. He took it out and started looking through it. Come to think of it, he looked like he was looking for something, probably his card."
"Thanks Marty, but do me a favor. Don't tell him I have the card. I want to give it to him myself. I want to surprise him."
"Sure, no problem."
I knew it would be a big surprise when I showed the card to Mr. Burton, so I had to make sure it was at the right moment, but first I had something else to do.
I had to find the other half of the treasure map before Mr. Burton came back from lunch.
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
The library office was at the back of the building, in a secluded corner. I had seen Mr. Burton go in it a hundred times, enough to notice he did not lock it.
I slowly walked to the back of the library, making sure no one was paying very much attention to me as I made my way to the office. Luckily, there were not many people in the book stacks at the far corner of the room, so I was easily able to sneak into the office without being noticed.
Marty had said Mr. Burton would be back in ten minutes, so I had to act fast.
The office was very well organized with a large desk and a small filing cabinet next to it, which seemed to suit a librarian well. Aside from that, stacks and stacks of boxes filled with books lined every wall of the office.
As I started to rifle through the desk drawer, I remembered my friend Abby and me doing the same thing in Mount Topaz—searching for clues in Preston Thurgood's office about the supposedly haunted hotel!
The top drawer had only pens, pencils and other stuff you'd need in an office. No treasure maps, however. I started to look through the drawers one by one. The first one only had food in it: Granola bars, fruit rolls and toaster pastries. It was a wonder Mr. Burton left for lunch at all; He could survive on the food in his desk for several days.
The other desk drawers did not turn up anything of interest. I decided to move onto the cabinet.
Working quickly, I dug through the files to see if anything caught my eye. They appeared to be invoices from different publishers and book distributors— all somehow related to the business of running a library. Not interesting.
I sat back in Mr. Burton's chair and looked up at the ceiling, preparing to admit the map was not in his office. I noticed one of the ceiling tiles pushed up slightly at one corner. On a hunch, I decided to check it out.
I quickly scrambled on top of Mr. Burton's desk and pushed the ceiling tile up. The corner of a piece of paper stuck out from the tile beside the one I was lifting.
"Ah-ha. What's this?"
I took out the piece of paper and unfolded it. The other half of the treasure map!
Mr. Burton would be back any second. I quickly jumped down from the desk and ran to the small five-in-one printer/fax machine in the corner of his office. I put the map down on the glass screen and pressed 'COPY'.
The copy machine whirred as it warmed up and began to scan, then print, a copy. It felt like it took forever, and I was convinced Mr. Burton would walk in on me.
As soon as the copier spat out my paper, I grabbed the original off the glass and folded it back up as I had found it. As quick as I had taken it, I replaced it back above the ceiling tile.
I folded up my copy and stuffed it in my jeans pocket, right beside the library card with the 'S' on it.
As I exited the office, I could see Mr. Burton enter the library from the front doors. Luckily, I was too far back in the building for him to see me, so I was able to walk up to the front without raising any suspicions.
"Cora," Mr. Burton said. "Back again? You've been quite a regular here. Did you find what you needed?"
"Yes," I replied. "I found exactly what I needed."
I walked out the front door and turned to look at Marty, who still stood behind the desk. After making sure Mr. Burton could not see me, I put my index finger up to my lips and winked at Marty, discretely making a "Shhh" sound that only he would notice.
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
No doubt about it, the map I had found in the office was the other half of the map I had found tucked into the book.
As soon as I got home, I pulled out my half of the map and put it together with the one I'd copied from Mr. Burton's office. The picture started to make sense. The river that wound through the map curved up at the top, just like the river in town. Buildings drawn on the map were obviously the buildings that would have existed at the time the maps were drawn. The Bank, the old brick storefronts on Main Street, it was all there on the other half of the map.
The most interesting part was written at the top. Words at the left side of the map read "THE TH" and "MEN KN" underneath. When I put the new part of the map beside the half I had found, I could read the whole message.
"THE THREE WISE MEN KNOW ALL."
I read it to myself a few times, not knowing exactly what it meant. Who were the three wise men? I know of the three wise men in the bible, but what did that have to do with the treasure? Who were they and where could I find them?
My mind shifted back to Mr. Burton. I couldn't believe I'd found his library card in my room. He had the other half
of the map, so it made sense that he would want to find my half, but it had been in the library the whole time! He could have found it any time he wanted... unless he hadn't known where to look.
"Bling!"
My computer announced an incoming video chat from Tricia.
"Hi Tricia," I said.
"Hi Cora. Any more luck with the treasure map? Did you figure it out?"
"Sort of, but I'm not sure of something."
I held up the two pieces of the map side by side so she could see the complete picture.
"There is a reference to the three wise men, I'm not sure what it means."
"The three wise men know all," read Tricia. "It's from the bible."
"I know that," I said, "but what does it have to do with this?"
"I'm not sure, but I know you'll figure it out. Hey, where did you find the other half of the map?"
I debated telling her what I'd done. She might not approve of my breaking into Mr. Burton's office to look for the map. If it had been Shelby, there would have been no problem at all.
"I found it," I finally said.
"Where?" she pressed.
After a few seconds, I replied with an answer that was, basically, true. "In the library."
"In another book?"
"No, I found it in Mr. Burton's office."
"Why was it in Mr. Burton's office?"
I decided to let her in on my secret, even if she judged me.
"I found something..." I began.
"Aarf!" Calvin interrupted.
"Sorry," I said. "Calvin found something that led me to believe Mr. Burton was the person who broke into my house."
"Mr. Burton? Cora, don't be ridiculous. Librarians don't break into houses."
"He dropped his library card in my room, it was under the dresser. Marty Bass looked it up and confirmed it was Mr. Burton's card."
"So you figured he must have had the other half of the map so you broke into his office to find it? Wow, that's crazy, Cora."
She was right; it was crazy, and dangerous.
"Do you think he knows you know?"
I hadn't even considered that, and the thought made me very nervous.
"I don't know. I don't think so, but maybe he still hasn't discovered he dropped his card. And I doubt he will realize he dropped it here."
"Just be careful, Cora, and you should tell your mom."
I knew she was right, but if I told my Mom, I'd never get a chance to search for the missing treasure. I had to hold out for just a few more days.
"Are you busy tomorrow?" I asked.
"No, why?"
"I'm going to need your help. We have to figure out what the three wise men have to do with this."
CHAPTER NINETEEN
"We're probably going to deny all of the claims in the bus accident case," my mother announced.
We had just finished eating breakfast on Sunday morning and were sitting at the table talking about her insurance case.
"I went to visit the Doctor who signed the medical forms for three of the people involved in the case and you'll never guess what I found out."
"What?"
My mom had a very excited look on her face. "The doctor has never heard of any of them! Their claims were falsified; they made everything up, including the signature on the forms. I compared it to the doctor's real signature and they are nothing alike! Next I'm going to start looking into the other claims and see if there is a similar situation, but it appears as though everyone on the bus was in on this together, I just have to prove they know each other somehow."
"When are you going to talk to the other people?"
"Today, and I'll need your help. Remember when I took this job I said I would need your help with Ethan from time to time?"
I could feel the hairs on the back of my neck standing up. I did not like where the conversation was going.
"Yeah..." I said.
"I need your help today. I need you to watch Ethan for a few hours while I conduct a few more interviews."
I was crushed. I had planned to do more work on my case, and this would change everything. Unless....
"Can I bring Ethan with me while I work on my project? I have to talk to Mr. French at the town hall."
"Of course," my mom said. "Just be careful. He's been a bit of a daredevil lately."
My mom was absolutely right. Ethan had only been on his feet a short time, but had quickly progressed from walking to sprinting. He would disappear the minute you turned your head. I had my work cut out for me.
"I'll be extra careful," I said.
This made my mom happy. Her face relaxed a little bit.
"Thank you," she said. "You know how much this means to me."
CHAPTER TWENTY
Since Ethan was such a slow walker, I decided to put him in his stroller to keep us moving at a decent pace. I tied Calvin's leash to the stroller to make sure he kept up with us as well.
The Town Hall was one of the tallest buildings in our town, but that is not saying very much. It was only tall because of the large dome that stood on the top of the roof. When I was really little, I used to think that the mayor lived in the dome. I later learned this was not, in fact, true and that it was actually empty up there; it was just a façade.
Once inside the town hall, it was not hard to find the "museum," housed entirely in a glass case at the back of the room.
I pushed the stroller to the glass case and told Ethan and Calvin to stay put. There was no one around so I started to examine the contents: a bunch of photos, mostly from the twenties and thirties, of the old storefronts and people who used to live in the town; a picture of a big fat guy with a big necklace around his neck, the kind a mayor would wear. It did not take much to deduce that he was, probably, the mayor at the time.
Next to the photos sat a large piece of rock, smooth on two sides.
"That's a brick, or what's left of one," said a voice.
I spun around to see Mr. French behind me. He had a full head of grey hair, cut very short, and wore a button up shirt and nice dress pants. He took pride in the way he dressed and from his smile, he was obviously pleased someone had taken an interest in local history.
"A brick?"
"Yes," he explained. "From the original town hall, which burned down in the 1940s. This one was built to replace it, and we kept one of the bricks to remember the building that stood here."
"Oh," I said. "Did you live here at the time?"
I did not want to risk insulting him, but he looked to be in his seventies, so I knew it was a reasonable shot that he may have been alive.
"Yes, but I was just a boy. I remember the fire, though. It was terrible. We didn't have modern fire pumpers like we have today, we only had men with hand pumped water hoses. I don't think that old building stood a chance, being mostly made of wood."
"Was anyone hurt?"
"I don't think so. Not from what I recall, but my parents would not have said as much, I suppose. I do remember that there was talk it had been arson, but I don't think they ever got to the bottom of it."
"What a terrible thing for someone to do," I said.
"Aarf!" interrupted Calvin, reminding me to get to the reason we were here.
"Oh," I said. "Do you know anything about the boat that went missing?"
"You mean the S.S. Guppy? Why, yes, of course. It was full of gold bars from upriver. Went missing on its way out of town."
"Do you know what happened to it?"
"There were rumors that the crew hijacked the boat and took off with the gold. People said they were probably living the lives of kings somewhere in South America, but I can't see that at all. My family knew a few of the sailors on that boat, and I can't see them doing anything like that. They were good, upstanding citizens. They didn't have enough greed in their system to attempt something like that."
As much as Mr. French's character witness said of his belief in the sailors, I could not discount the possibility that the rumors were true. I had to ke
ep it under consideration.
I decided to switch gears and ask about the treasure map, but not in an obvious way.
"What do you know about the Three Wise Men?" I asked.
"You mean from the bible?"
"No, I mean around here. Is there something around here called the Three Wise Men?"
"Oh! Of course, I should have guessed. The Three Wise Men are over in Beggar's Bluff. It's a formation of three rocks, side by side, that people always thought looked like three men with crowns on, so they nicknamed them the Three Wise Men. It's way over on the other side of the bluffs, but the water is so choppy and dangerous on that side that most people avoid it."
It was all making sense now. The map pointed to Beggar's Bluff, and the clue said "THE THREE WISE MEN KNOW ALL." That probably meant that the treasure was somewhere near the Three Wise Men.
"Can anyone get there by land?" I asked, imagining myself pushing the stroller and dragging Calvin all the way to the cliffs.
"Oh, good gracious no," he said. "There is no way to get there by land, only by boat. And you have to be a very experienced sailor to get there."
I only knew two experienced sailors, and one of them was Tricia's father. I doubted he would be willing to take me there, at least not without asking permission from my mother. Permission that she would never give. The other was Gerald Pape. I had to ask Gerald to take me to the Three Wise Men.
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
Later that afternoon, I video chatted with both Shelby and Tricia. I would need all the support I could get from them when I went to Beggar's Bluff.
"No way, not a chance," said Shelby. "That is too dangerous, Cora. You'll get us all killed."
"I hate to agree with Shelby," Tricia added. That was true, she hated to agree with Shelby. "My Dad won't even sail there, he said it probably caused at least a hundred shipwrecks."
I was so disappointed in both of them. I thought they would be really excited when I asked them to come.
"It's a treasure hunt!" I yelled.
"Still no," said Shelby.
"Sorry, Cora," said Tricia.
"I think you're both overreacting," I pleaded. "Boats today are capable of sailing in very dangerous waters now, it will be fine."