فصل سی و سوم

chapter-33

“Let’s put the two new cards on the table,” said Charles.

He and his so-called teammates, Andrew and Haley (Charles planned on dumping them both right before he made his glorious solo exit from the library), had scoured the library together for hours looking for more book cover matches.

Peckleman wasn’t nearly as good with the Dewey decimal system as he had claimed to be. And Charles needed someone to do that sort of thing for him. His father always hired tutors or research assistants for him whenever Charles had to do a major paper or report.

Finally, around six in, coincidentally, the 600s room, they scored twice, finding Tea for You and Me (641.3372) and Why Wait to Lose Weight? (613.2522).

Now their picture puzzle had only four blanks remaining: “Okay,” said Andrew, “I think it’s pretty clear. ‘Woolly BLANK walk up the skinny BLANK BLANK house Indian and nineteen BLANK.’ ” Charles nodded and said, “Interesting,” even though he knew Peckleman was way off.

“Uh, hello?” said Haley. “That doesn’t make any sense.” “Sure it does,” said Andrew.

“Uh, no it doesn’t.”

In his head, Charles had decoded the clues so far as “Ewe (a female sheep) BLANK walk out the (t+h+e) way (weigh) BLANK BLANK Inn in passed (past) BLANK.” But out loud, he said, “I think we just need to tweak Andrew’s translation a little.” “Fine. Go ahead. I don’t care.” Andrew slumped down in his seat to sulk.

“How about ‘She BLANK walks out the skinny BLANK BLANK house five hundred and past BLANK.’ ” “Where’d you get ‘she’?” asked Haley.

“From ‘sheep.’ The card you gave us.”

“Actually, I think the sheep is supposed to represent ‘you.’ Because a ewe is a female sheep.” “Fascinating,” said Charles. “I didn’t figure that out.” What he did figure out was that Haley Daley was much smarter than he had assumed. She could be a serious threat. And no way was Charles sharing his prize with anybody, especially her.

“And how did you get ‘five hundred’ from Indiana?” she asked.

“Simple. Indianapolis, the capital of Indiana, is home to a race known as the Indy 500.” “Okay. So how about ‘You BLANK walk out the skinny BLANK BLANK in’—because the Nancy Drew book was about an inn—’five hundred pass, or past, BLANK.’ ” Now Peckleman piped up. “That makes more sense than what you said, Charles.” “Indeed,” said Charles, sounding magnanimous. “Perhaps the clues are telling us to locate a secret skinny passageway five hundred paces past some landmark here in the library.” Andrew was excited. “This is like the pirate map from Treasure Island!” “Or,” said Haley, “maybe these clues are telling us we need to go out and find the four books we haven’t found yet. We should split up. I’ll go back to the four hundreds room.” “We’ve already been there,” said Andrew.

“Well, you guys might’ve missed something.”

“Good idea,” said Charles. He figured if Haley Daley wasted time retracing steps he and Andrew had already taken, she would find nothing new and become less of a threat. “Let’s meet back here at, say, seven.” “Fine.”

Haley left the meeting room.

Charles went to the door and closed it.

“You know what we really need?” he said to Andrew.

“Chocolate milk and maybe some cookies?”

Charles shook his head. “No, Andrew. We need whatever clues Kyle Keeley and his team have found. Especially if they have our missing cards.”