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CHAPTER NINE

The Case is Solved

“Do you think that was really Mr O’Neil’s body?” asked Nick.

“If it was, this is like a horror movie” said Bill. “What if the other statues were bodies?”

Michelle said weakly.

“Oh, please, Michelle” said Nick. “Devereau reminds me of Dr. Frankenstein!”

“When will we find out something?” asked Bill.

“I’m going to call Sergeant Walters in a few days,” said Michelle.

Bill, Michelle and Nick did not have to wait long. On Wednesday the O’Nell case was on the front page of The Miami Times: O’Neil Case Finally Solved

The O’Neil Case was finally solved by the Miami Police this week with the help of three teenagers - Bill Martin, 16, his sister Michelle, 15, and Nick Chan, 16.

These young people showed great determination and courage.

The police discovered the waxed, embalmed body of Peter O’Neil, a 45-year-old high school teacher and expert scuba diver, in the Montego Bay Wax Museum. The macabre discovery was a big shock for everyone because he went missing in June of this year.

The owners of the wax museum, Julian Devereau, 46, and his wife Gertrude, 42, made a terrible confession. They killed Peter O’Nell.

Peter O’Nell was working for Professor Dan Ortega, who is the director of the Florida Historical Museum. Professor Ortega asked him to find the ship with the five artifacts that disappeared in the Bermuda Triangle.

The ship left the port of Naples, Italy, but never reached its destination in Miami. All radio contact was lost when the ship entered the Triangle. The museum bought these valuable artifacts in Greece and Italy to add to its beautiful art collection.

Julian Devereau owns an art museum in Houston and a maritime museum in Charleston. He knew about the lost artifacts and wanted to find them for his museums. He followed O’Neil’s boat during his trips to sea.

On June 8, when O’Neil was scuba diving, Devereau went on his boat and stole O’Neil’s maps. These important maps showed where the ship and the artifacts were.

O’Nell returned to his boat before Devereau could leave it. He shot and killed O’Neil with his gun.

With the help of his wife he brought O’Neil’s body back to his yacht, the Blackbeard. They had to eliminate the body so they took it to the wax museum that night.

Julian Devereau is an expert chemist and he embalmed the body. Then he put it in a bath of hot wax and made it look like a statue - the wax statue of a slave merchant of the 1600s.

With a patch over one eye, a dark beard and a red bandana it was almost impossible to recognize O’Neil. But the expert chemist forgot to eliminate the tattoo on O’Neil’s arm.

With O’Neil’s maps Devereau found the five artifacts in the Triangle and hid them in his museum in Houston.

The priceless artifacts will return to the Florida Historical Museum next week. The Montego Bay Wax Museum is closed for now.

On Saturday morning there will be funeral services for Peter O’Nell. All the students and teachers of Montego Bay High School will be present. O’Neil’s dog Rover, who helped to solve this case, found a new home with Nick Chan and his family.

After reading the article several times, Bill, Michelle and Nick couldn’t believe that they solved the case. But they were sad about O’Neil’s terrible death. Now Michelle had a big story for the December issue of the school paper. She was suddenly the most popular member of the Journalism Club.

“The Devereau’s almost committed the perfect crime,” she said.

“Yeah, but they forgot about a dog’s Instinct and his sense of smell,” said Bill, grinning at Rover.

“Let’s celebrate at my restaurant” said Nick and Rover barked.

“That’s super” exclaimed Bill.

“Hey, let’s walk down to the port and invite Francisco,” said Michelle. “After all, he’s part of this too he was the first one to give us clues.”

At that moment Michelle’s phone rang and she saw Mike’s number on the display. Now everything was really perfect.