The Mystery of the Hichcocke Inheritance (3 page)

Jupiter held the notebook with the strange
message in front of him and stood up, pacing back and forth. “No,”
he said finally, “there doesn’t appear to be a reference to
anything being buried.”

“Maybe the ‘Skip the H20’ part is a clue to
where we’ll find the box,” suggested Bob.

“An excellent deduction, Records,” said
Jupiter stiffly – he was just about to suggest that himself. “I
guess we probably should have tackled that first to see where it
leads us.”

“Perhaps it means to skip a rock,” offered
Ben. “You know, like on a pond.”

“Yeah,” said Pete. “A pond would be H20! Is
there some kind of pond on the property, Patricia?”

“Not that I know of,” she said. “Although
behind the house there is a golf course. There might be some kind
of water hazard out there – although I never knew father to play
golf, or any other sport, so that doesn’t seem very likely.”

Jupiter agreed with her. “No, I’m sure he
must have meant some kind of water here on the property.” He began
pacing again and the room fell quiet as they each tried to guess
what ‘Skip the H20’ might mean.

Suddenly Jupiter’s eyes lit up and he
smacked himself on the forehead with the palm of his hand. “Of
course!” he cried. “Patricia, did your father own any other
property besides this house? Specifically, did he own a home in a
different country?”

Patricia thought for a moment, but then Ben
exclaimed. “Great scott! Grandfather has the summer house in
England, remember Aunt Patty? It was where he and Grandmother Alma
sometimes vacationed!”

“Why yes!” she cried. “Ben’s right! Father
and mother did have a house just outside of London. I had forgotten
all about it!”

“How does that tie in with the riddle,
Jupe?” asked Bob.

Jupiter looked triumphant. “What does it
mean to ‘skip’ something?” he asked.

“To go across – or maybe to go over
something,” answered Pete.

“And what is H20?” asked Jupiter smugly.

“Water!” cried Bob. “Go over the water!
That’s what the first part of the riddle means! Go over the water –
meaning the ocean – and on my estate you’ll find the crate!”

“Ben, how soon will you be returning to
England?” Jupiter asked quickly.

“In two days,” the English boy answered.
“Once Aunt Patty’s legal affairs have been put in order.”

“Jupe, are you thinking what I think you’re
thinking?” asked Pete.

“What do you have in mind, Jupiter?” asked
Patricia Hichcocke O’Connell.

“That The Three Investigators move this
investigation across the Atlantic,” the chubby boy replied. “That’s
where the treasure is hidden, and that’s where we need to go!”

“But what of your parents?” Patricia said.
“Certainly you can’t go off to England by yourselves!”

“We won’t be by ourselves,” said Bob. “We’ll
be with Ben. Besides, we’re off on summer break right now. I’m sure
our parents will be okay with it if we tell them we’re helping out
Mr. Hichcocke’s family!”

Patricia considered this for a moment.
“Well, if you can get permission from your parents,” she said, “I
will pay for your plane tickets and act as your chaperone while
we’re away.”

Jupiter held up his hand and shook his head.
“We can’t allow you to do that,” he said. “Plane tickets to England
will be much too expensive. With what we have from our savings
working at the salvage yard, only one of us can afford to go.”

“I insist!” she said
stubbornly. “If this is what father had planned, then
all
of The Three
Investigators are going! Besides, money won’t be an issue with the
inheritance he left me.”

Jupiter looked to Ben as if for help, but
the tall boy just folded his arms across his chest in agreement
with his aunt. Finally, the stocky Investigator looked to Bob to
Pete and then shrugged his shoulders. “Okay,” he grinned, “let’s go
ask our parents!”

The boys and Ben raced for the door and the
waiting Rolls Royce. As they climbed into the plush interior,
Jupiter spoke up. “It appears, Ben, that when your Aunt Patricia
has made up her mind there is no changing it! It’s easy to see that
she’s a lot like her father – Alphred Hichcocke!”

London Calling

TWO DAYS LATER, The Three Investigators’
plane was touching down at London’s Heathrow Airport. The boys had
easily gotten permission from their parents to fly to England, once
they had explained that they would be helping out Alphred
Hichcocke’s daughter.

The flight had been an uneventful one, with
only mild turbulence from an approaching storm over London that
threatened to make Pete sick. Finally, the plane touched down and
the group of five climbed into a waiting limousine, chatting with
enthusiasm.

Ben Hichcocke was eager to show the boys the
historic city and all of its wonders. “Shall we take a day to see
the city, chaps?” he asked his new friends with excitement.

“I’ve always wanted to see the Tower of
London!” cried Bob.

“I want to see Big Ben!” exclaimed Pete.

“I want to see Mr. Hichcocke’s second home
just outside of London,” said Jupiter sternly. “We’ll have time to
see those things once we’ve solved the riddle. We’ve only got a
week here, so we better make good use of our time.”

Pete nudged Ben with his elbow. “Get used to
being outvoted by Jupe,” he said. “It happens to Bob and I all the
time!”

“Is that really how a democracy works back
in the states?” Ben joked.

The boys and Patricia all laughed as the
limousine zoomed off into the chilly London fog. An hour later the
car had left the busy city behind just as the sun was beginning to
set in the evening sky. Between flickers of lightning, the boys
could see that they had entered a quaint countryside of rolling
meadows and simple cottages. Here, the roar of city life was left
behind for a more picturesque and quiet existence.

“It sure feels weird driving on the wrong
side of the road,” Pete remarked.

“That’s how I felt in your country,” said
Ben. “Here, the left side of the road is the right side, if you
take my meaning.”

“Father’s summer home is just up this road,”
said Patricia. “It won’t be long now.”

The limousine turned up a narrow gravel lane
that was guarded by carefully manicured topiary hedges shaped like
lions.

As they approached the
house, Pete gasped. “Now
that’s
how I pictured Mr. Hichcocke’s house!” he
cried.

Jupe and Bob crowded close to Pete’s window.
The house before them was not really a house at all – in fact it
looked more like a small castle! The towering walls were of smooth
gray stone and covered in thick ivy, the tops mounted with imposing
parapets. The windows were a stained glass that looked as if they
had been recovered from an ancient church centuries ago. With the
sky turning a gloomy shade of purple, and standing in the midst of
a rolling fog, it was easy for the boys to imagine all kinds of
ghosts and ghouls roaming about the halls of the great house.

“Jupe, Pete, Bob...Welcome to Hichcocke
Manor,” grinned Ben.

“I liked his other house better,” Pete
shivered. “This one gives me the creeps!” Far off in the distance,
thunder rumbled as if in agreement with the wary Second
Investigator.

Patricia patted Pete on the shoulder as they
climbed out of the car. “Father always claimed the house was
haunted, but it’s really not as bad as it looks,” she said
reassuringly. “It’s actually quite cozy inside. You’ll see.”

“It ‘tis haunted!” a voice with a thick
British accent growled in the growing darkness.

“Who’s there?” Patricia called out into the
gloom. “Winston, is that you?”

From around the corner of the house, a
scruffy man of about fifty, with a thick, wild mustache came
limping out. He wore a shapeless tweed cap on his head and held a
gnarled cane in his right hand. The steely grey-black whiskers on
his face came down his cheeks in thick mutton-chops. He pointed his
twisted cane at the group.

“The house ‘tis haunted! By the ghost of
Molly Thibidoux; a maidservant who hanged herself from the great
willow tree out on the moors over one hundred years ago,” he
croaked. “Her fiancé left her for another woman, you see. In her
grief, young Molly took her own life. Now her spirit wanders the
halls of Hichcocke Manor, waiting for her lover to return to her
arms!”

“Jebediah O’Connell!” snapped Patricia. “You
will stop with that rubbish immediately. Is that any way to greet
our guests?”

“Surely, I’ll greet your guests,” Jebediah
O’Connell scoffed, “but ‘tis for their own safety that I warn ‘em
of the ghost! She’s a malicious one, aye! What the German’s call a
poltergeist!”

Patricia turned to the boys with her hands
on her hips. “You’ll pay no mind to my cousin, Jeb,” she
instructed. “He’s a grade-A troublemaker and is only trying to put
a fright into you – he’s never been terribly fond of kids.”

“I’ll say,” whispered Ben to Jupiter. “Quite
frankly, I don’t trust Uncle Jeb. Mark my words – he’s up to
something fishy!”

“Come on boys,” said Patricia, “let’s get
our bags inside.”

“An excellent suggestion,” Jupe agreed. “I
was hoping to make some progress on your father’s riddle before
bedtime.”

“Aye, funny riddle, that,” said Jebediah as
he followed the group inside. The strange man closed the massive
oak door behind the group with a “boom” that made them all jump.
“’Tis always best to let the spirit know that you’re home,” he
grinned mischievously.

Patricia glared at her cousin. “Enough is
enough, Jebediah! You never know when you’re pushing things too
far.”

Jeb shrugged his shoulders, stuffed his
hands into his pockets, and sulked up the ornate staircase. “I’ll
be in my room should ye be awakened by anything,” he grumbled.
“Living or dead!”

“I’m sorry boys,” said Patricia.

“There’s no need to apologize, ma’am,”
Jupiter replied. “We don’t believe in ghosts anyway, do we
fellows?”

“Jupe’s right,” said Bob with a smile. “We
don’t scare that easily – isn’t that right Pete?”

“Speak for yourself,” Pete said, his voice
cracking. “I may not sleep until the plane ride home!”

“Ah, sleep,” said Ben dreamily. “I don’t
know about you chaps, but I’m positively beat.”

“Jet-lag,” said Jupiter with a yawn. “The
changing of time-zones has made our sleep patterns irregular. It’s
only eight-thirty, but I suppose we’ll have to wait until tomorrow
to figure out the next line of the riddle,” he said reluctantly.
“Come on, fellows. Let’s hit the sack.”

The boys and Ben grabbed their bags and
trooped up the enormous, dimly lit staircase. They had just reached
the top of the first landing when a man’s scream froze them in
their tracks.

“That sounded like Jebediah!” cried Ben.

The boys dropped their bags and raced up to
the second floor, followed closely by Patricia. At the landing
between the second and third floors, they found Jebediah O’Connell
cringing on the floor. A fresh burst of lightning and thunder made
him cower like a small child.

“The ghost!” he panted, pointing a shaking
finger up the dark stairs that lead to the third floor. “Ye gods if
I didn’t see the ghost right up on the next landing of steps –
glowing in the darkness with a noose about her neck!”

Patricia looked visibly upset. “Cousin, if
this is some kind of joke...”

“’
Tis not a joke, Cousin
Patty!” he gasped, pointing his finger up the steps again. “I saw
it plain as day, I did!”

“What’s on the third floor, ma’am?” Jupiter
asked Patricia.

“My parents didn’t use the third floor for
living,” she explained. “It’s only used for storage. It’s not even
heated anymore.” She clicked the light switch at the bottom of the
stairs, but the great steps remained dark. “Burned out. The bulbs
probably haven’t been changed in years.”

“Do you have any flashlights?” Jupiter
asked, advancing a few steps into the darkness.

“I’ll get them,” volunteered Ben. The older
boy raced downstairs. They heard cupboard doors slamming in the
kitchen and then footsteps running back upstairs. “I could only
find one,” he said, handing it to Jupiter. “But here’s some candles
for the rest of us.”

The search party lit their candles, and,
with Jupiter in the lead, proceeded up the creaking steps. Outside,
the thunder crackled and boomed, making them huddle close
together.

A half an hour later, they had made a
thorough search of the third floor and found nothing but dusty
boxes and cob-webbed steamer trunks. They checked the trunks to
make sure no one could be hiding inside, but found all of them to
be either locked or filled with clothes.

“If something came up these steps it must
still be up here,” said Bob. “Because there is no way out except
for the stairs.”

“Unless it was a ghost!” said Pete.

“Aye,” agreed Jebediah. “Just as I
said!”

“There are no such things as ghosts,” said
Jupiter stubbornly. “There must be some some other way out of here.
A secret entrance of some kind. Ben, Patricia, do you know of any
secret passageways in this house?”

“I know there are some,” said Patricia. “I
used to play in them when I was a very little girl. But that was so
long ago that I don’t even recall where they’re at anymore. We
would have to ask Julia, father’s maid. She has been here for
almost thirty years. If there was a secret entrance on this floor,
she would know about it.”

“We’ll inquire first thing in the morning,”
decided Jupiter. “Now – let’s go to bed for real this time. I’m
overly fatigued.”

“Who’s sleepy?” said Pete. “I don’t think I
could sleep even if I wanted to!”

But Pete was wrong. As soon as their heads
hit their pillows, they were all fast asleep.