Mayflower Treasure Hunt (6 page)

Dink had never heard Ruth Rose sound so frightened. He could feel her pulling something from her sweatshirt pouch. She dropped it in the darkness, and he heard her fingers scrabbling to find it again.

A basket appeared over their heads, tied to the end of a rope.

It landed on the mattress pile.

“Do it now,” the voice said. “Or you’ll miss your Thanksgiving dinner!”

Ruth Rose crawled over to the basket. “Okay, the necklace is in the basket.

Now you have to let us out!” Ruth Rose yelled toward the opening.

The kids watched the basket rise and disappear.

Ruth Rose came back and huddled on the mattress. “Sorry guys,” she said. “I had to give it to her or we’d never get out of here!”

They heard laughter from above. A moment later, the rope ladder flew down. It smacked loudly on a mattress.

Dink heard something else land. Whatever it was bounced from the mattress to the wood deck. Dink hoped it wasn’t the rat looking for more of Josh’s M&M’s.

The kids stared at the rope ladder. No one moved. Dink felt sick at the thought that the old woman was still up there, watching for them to climb out of the hold.

They waited in the dark.

“Should we go?” Ruth Rose asked.

“Yeah, I’m outta here!” Josh said. “She must’ve taken off by
now.”

Dink held the bottom rung of the rope ladder as Josh and then Ruth Rose climbed up. Dink went up last, the ladder swinging as he climbed.

They pulled the ladder up and piled it next to the opening. Then they tugged the grate back into place.

“It must be after six by
now,”
Dink said as the kids scrambled off the
Mayflower II.
“My mom is going to freak.”

They climbed the fence and ran toward the hotel for the second time that night. Now that the snow had almost stopped, a bright moon shone from between the clouds. Dink would have enjoyed the scene if he hadn’t been so scared.

This time the woman waiting inside
the hotel lobby was Dink’s mother.

She ran toward the kids as they burst into the lobby out of breath and dirty from being in the hold.

“Donald David Duncan, where have you been?” his mother asked. Her voice shook with worry. “I’ve been looking all over town for you. Do you remember we agreed on five o’clock?” She checked her watch. “It’s well after six!”

Dink felt his face turn red. He didn’t know where to start with his story. “I’m
sorry, Mom,” he finally said. “Could we go upstairs? I’m really tired and hungry. We have a lot to tell you!”

Dink’s mother wrinkled her nose, then she grinned. “You three smell!” she said. “Hot showers first, then I’ll call down for some food.”

Wearing clean jeans and a sweater, Dink sat with Josh and Ruth Rose on the sofa. Ruth Rose had changed into her pajamas, yellow from top to bottom. Josh was wearing fresh sweats. All three still had damp hair.

While Dink was showering, his mother had sent out for pizza. Dink grabbed a slice and began eating. He started to talk and nearly choked.

“Finish eating,” his mother said. “Now that my heart is beating at its normal rate, I can wait a few more minutes to hear your story.”

Ten minutes later, after the pizza box had been emptied and cleared, the kids told their story.

“We went to see the
Mayflower II”
Dink said. “A woman on the boat told us about some jewels that got stolen from a passenger.”

“Do you mean a jewelry theft on the actual
Mayflower
?” his mother asked. “In 1620?”

Dink nodded.

“That’s when the whole story really started,” Josh put in. “A crew member on the
Mayflower
stole the jewels, then he disappeared and they were never found!”

Dink, Josh, and Ruth Rose took turns describing everything that had happened to them that day.

Dink’s mother’s eyes got wide when they told her how they dug up the decaying leather bag and the necklace.
But her face turned white when they described how they got trapped in the
Mayflower II
hold and what happened next.

“So Ruth Rose had to give the jewels to the old woman who’d been following us,” Josh said. “After she got the jewels, she threw down the rope ladder so we could get out.”

“And then we ran back here,” Dink said. “So that’s why we were late, Mom.”

“That is the most amazing story I’ve ever heard!” Dink’s mother said.

“Actually, we left part of the story out,” Ruth Rose said. She glanced at Dink and Josh. “There’s something even you guys don’t know.”

Ruth Rose went across the hall to her bedroom and came back holding a sock. She reached a hand into the sock. “I didn’t give the old woman the
Mayflower
necklace,” she told them. “I switched it with that cheap toy one I got out of the machine this morning.”

She pulled her hand out of the sock. She was holding the necklace they’d dug up in Rock Park.

Josh leaped up and gave Ruth Rose a bear hug. “You are awesome!” he cried. “How’d you ever pull it off?”

“I did it when we were hiding down in the hold,” Ruth Rose said. “I took my necklace off and rubbed it around in that slimy stuff on the floor so it would look like it had been in the ground.”

“May I see it?” Dink’s mother asked.

Ruth Rose carefully handed her the necklace.

“These stones look like sapphires,” Dink’s mother said. “I’m sure this necklace is very valuable.”

“The passenger who brought them onto the
Mayflower
was Emma Browne,”
Ruth Rose said. “Maybe we can go online and see if she has any relatives, then we can return the necklace.”

Dink’s mother nodded. “That’s a lovely idea,” she said. “But for tonight, this is going in the hotel safe. Tomorrow morning I’ll call the local police. They may know the old woman who tried to rob you.”

That night, Dink dreamed that he was being chased through a blizzard. In his dream, dark, grasping fingers were reaching for him out of the snow. The faster he ran, the more hands appeared, until there were hundreds of fingers, all trying to grab him.

Dink bolted upright, with the bedcovers twisted around his trembling legs. When he realized he’d been dreaming, he lay back down. He looked over at the next bed. Josh was sound asleep.

Dink thought he knew why he’d had that nightmare. The hands belonged to the old woman who’d followed them. Ruth Rose had given her the wrong necklace. And now in Dink’s dream, she was coming back for the right one.

Dink felt certain that this dream would come true. Somehow, the woman would come after Dink, Josh, and Ruth Rose again. And this time, she wouldn’t be fooled. This thought kept him awake for hours.

Dink’s mom and the kids were finishing breakfast in the hotel dining room when two police officers appeared. They all moved into the lobby, and the kids told their story again.

Dink was asked to describe the woman, and he did. The baggy clothing and scraggly hair, the fingerless gloves, the cheek mole.

“Where did you first notice her?” one officer asked.

“On the ferryboat,” Dink said. “Then everywhere we went, she seemed to be there, too.”

“And as far as you know, you’d never seen her before?”

Dink shook his head. “But she did look familiar,” he said. “I mean, there was something about her that reminded me of someone else. I just can’t figure out who.”

“Did she ever speak to you?”

Dink looked at Josh and Ruth Rose. “Just when we were in the
Mayflower II
hold,” he said. “Her voice sounded hoarse, kind of whispery”

“Could you get her fingerprints off that basket she lowered to us?” Josh asked.

“We can try,” one of the officers said. “Is it still aboard the
Mayflower II
?”

Josh nodded. “It was there when we left,” he said.

“These jewels, where are they now?” the other officer asked.

“In the hotel safe,” Dink’s mother said. “I called my attorney this morning. He told me they should remain there until we figure out who the rightful owner is.”

After a few more questions, the officers left. They said they’d put the word out to watch for this woman.

“I have to go to the restaurant,” Dink’s mother told the kids. “Altogether there will be twelve of us for dinner tomorrow, and I want to talk to the chef. Then I have to do a few more errands. I shouldn’t be too long.”

Dink’s mom looked him in the eyes. “Please stay around town. No more ferryboat rides to who knows where!” she said firmly.

When they were alone, Dink told Josh and Ruth Rose about his dream. “I think that woman will come back looking for the real necklace,” he said.

“Well, I don’t know about you guys,” Josh said, “but I don’t feel like waiting for her to come and find us. I say we go find her first!”

“We don’t know who she is,” Ruth Rose reminded them.

“I’ve been thinking about her,” Dink went on. “And now I don’t think she really is old. There was something weird about her hair, and that mole on her face looked fake. And she managed to get places faster than we did. I think she disguised herself so we’d think she was old.”

“Then who is she?” asked Ruth Rose.

“I don’t know,” Dink said, “but she must know we could recognize her without the disguise.”

“We talked to two women yesterday,” Josh said, holding up two fingers. “One was working on the
Mayflower
, and she was dressed like a Pilgrim. But she didn’t know we were going to Province-town on the ferry, so she couldn’t have followed us.”

“And the other woman was in the museum,” Ruth Rose said.

Josh nodded. “She gets my vote. I borrowed the magnifying glass from her, and she could’ve overheard us when we were talking about the jewels.”

“We should go talk to her,” Dink said. “If she doesn’t know we suspect her, she might drop a clue!”

The kids trekked up the street to the museum. When they walked through the door, Clint came right over to see them.

“Back so soon?” he asked. “How are things at the Governor Bradford Hotel?”

“Fine thanks,” Ruth Rose said. “Our families are coming tomorrow.” She glanced around but didn’t see the woman they were looking for.

“That woman who was working with you yesterday was real nice,” Josh said. “We wanted to thank her. Is she around?”