Fellowship & Fairydust

Hey, that looks like one of the keys to the employee lockers!” blurted Don. 

The girls glanced at each other. “Well, that’s interesting,” said Nancy slowly. 

“But are you sure?” asked Jenny. “It looks like one of the keys used for the lockboxes at my dad’s bank!” 

“Well, we’re here now,” said Nancy, rising. “We can check if it belongs to one of the lockers before heading to your dad’s bank.” 

Mr. Quincey rubbed his chin thoughtfully. “Yes, we could check to see if it belongs to one of our lockers,” he said slowly, “though I’m of the opinion that Miss Jenny is right and this belongs to her father’s bank.” 

“May I ask why you would say that?” said Nancy. 

“Because I’m pretty sure all of those keys are accounted for. The only thing Josiah left with me was that special ball. I mean, we can still check them pretty quickly, just in case, but I’m positive that key doesn’t belong here.” 

Nancy shrugged. “Well, let’s hurry up and check, just to say that we did check it and leave no doubt in our minds.” 

Mr. Quincey nodded. “Fair enough. Follow me please.” The group followed him to the employees room. Nancy handed him the key, and he went around trying the key in each lock with the teens following. None of them opened. 

Don snapped his fingers. “I was so sure that key opened up something here. It looks remarkably like our keys to the lockers!” He pulled out his key to show them. 

“Wow!” said Jenny, her eyes widening. “You’re right, they are very similar!” 

Nancy thought for a moment. “Mr. Quincey, are there any other lockers, or anything locked that doesn’t have a key?” 

Mr. Quincey shook his head. “I have all the keys that I didn’t hand out to my current employees.” 

Nancy nodded. “Thank you, Mr. Quincey, you’ve been a great help. Now we’ll go try the bank.” 

Don grabbed her arm. “You’ll, um, you’ll let us know what you find?” 

Nancy pulled her arm away. “I’ll think about it.” 

“Please Nancy!” blurted Richie, his hands pressed together and giving her his best puppy eyes. “I really want to help!” 

Nancy blinked in surprise at him, but then laughed. “Oh, alright, I’ll let you both in on it.” She grinned. “Having a posse of my own might turn out for the best.” 

“Then let’s exchange numbers,” said Don, pulling out his phone. 

“Alright, let’s make it quick.” The girls quickly exchanged their numbers with the boys before dashing off to the car. 

Emily squealed as Nancy pulled away from the minigolf course. “I think we’re finally getting somewhere!” 

“It certainly seems like it,” said Nancy with a smile. “Jenny, can you call your dad and let him know we’re coming?” 

“On it!” said Jenny before getting out her phone and calling her father. She quickly explained to her father what was going on before hanging up. “He said he’ll be waiting for us.” 

“Good, thank you.” 

“We still have three other clues to figure out,” said Helen. “How are we going to figure those out?”

Nancy took a quick glance at Emily in the rearview mirror. “Is there anything else about Josiah that you remember? Any other favorite places?” 

Emily thought long and hard on that one before shaking her head. “I’m not remembering anything else in particular.” 

“What was the third poem about, anyway?” asked Jenny. 

Nancy came to a stop at a red light, pulled out her phone, and put in her password. “Here, Helen, you can read it to her. Heck, maybe even reading them all again will help us, and maybe Jenny will notice something we’ve missed.” 

Helen nodded as she took the phone and began scrolling through the pictures. “Got it.” She read each poem out loud, starting with the most recent one they found, the one from Riverview Manor, and ending with the one they found at Lilac Inn. The four sat in silence for a while after Helen read the poems, each to her own thoughts, and thinking hard about the clues, Nancy in particular. The first one they figured out led them to Moonlight Gests MiniGolf, the fourth one was definitely Shakespearean. Did they have to go to a theater? Maybe she should look up the local theaters and see if there was, or had been, any Shakespearean plays that were performing around the time of Josiah’s death. But the other two? The second one had cats and dogs. A shelter or a vet clinic? And the third one was all about math problems, along with a bell. Ring which bell at three o’clock? Or was it only figurative and they didn’t have to ring a bell, which would not have been hard as there were only two churches in River Heights with bells. She let out a soft, exasperated breath. Josiah’s riddles were a little harder each time she looked at them. Especially now that she was finding more clues. So maybe the poems were meant for two clues? The first poem led them to the key, the second poem was the number combination lock on his box in the bank. The fourth poem had to be for the number combination of his safe at Riverview Manor. So, what about the third one? Wouldn’t the fourth one make more sense for something else since the third one was mainly about numbers and the fourth was obviously about Shakespeare? Nancy snuck a glance at Jenny in the rearview mirror. Maybe having someone else take a look at them would help, like Hannah did. Her eyes widened. “Oh!” 

The other three glanced at her in shock. 

“What? What is it?” asked Helen worriedly. 

“Maybe I should ask Frank and Joe about the poems! Maybe they can think of something we haven’t!” Emily and Jenny glanced at each other, blinking in confusion, while Helen was grinning like the Cheshire Cat. 

“Yes! I like this idea!” 

Nancy shot her a little glare. “We are not going to contact them so you can gush about your ship. We are only going to ask for help.” 

Helen giggled. “Any time you contact them is a chance for me to gush about it. You can’t stop me from thinking that you and Frank Hardy are the absolute cutest and belong together!” 

Nancy blushed slightly, but there was a warning tone in her voice. “Helen.” 

Helen waved her hand. “I know, I know, mystery first, fangirl later.” 

“Why don’t we exhaust every one of our ideas before going to the Hardys for help?” suggested Jenny. 

“So, do you have any ideas?” asked Nancy. “Now that you’ve heard all of the poems.” 

“I’m still thinking,” said Jenny with a huff. 

“Well, the fourth one is definitely Shakespearean, like you said,” said Emily. “So, a theater, or one of his Shakespeare books?” 

“Now that’s an idea we can work with,” said Nancy. “I was already pondering that. But I was wondering mainly about the third poem. We were able to figure out the first one thanks to Hannah, the second one is supposed to be for the combination of Josiah’s safe at the bank and Mr. Archer had surmised that the fourth poem would contain the combination for the safe at Riverview Manor.” 

“And that’s the Shakespearean one,” pointed out Emily. 

Nancy nodded. “Right. So, does that mean each poem has two solutions? If so, this is turning out to be longer than I had originally anticipated.” 

Emily let out a breath. “It’s turning out longer than any of us anticipated, and a bit more complicated.” 

“Yeah, no kidding.” Nancy drummed her fingers on the wheel as she drove. “Emily, were there any particular theaters that Josiah liked?” 

Emily shrugged. “He seemed to like them all and donated to them all, I think. I know he donated to the classical radio station a lot.” 

Helen turned in her seat. “There’s a classical radio station?” 

Emily nodded. “Oh yes, Josiah was always singing its praises. They operated mostly on donations, so he donated quite a bit. They do have a few programs that sought to teach people to appreciate the classics.” She laughed. “There was this one time Josiah came into Lilac Inn and turned on our radio to the classical station. They were playing the original recording of War of the Worlds. He told us that it was so well done that everyone panicked, thinking there really was an alien invasion. At least of the few people who were listening to it. I knew it wasn’t real, but Josiah told me that it seemed very real to people listening to it for the first time. This was the first book ever read out loud, the first audiobook, if you will.” 

“Which station is it?’ asked Nancy. 

“89.7, WCHM, home to the classical music in River Heights and the surrounding towns.”

“Helen, can you please turn the radio to that station?” said Nancy, nodding at the radio. 

“Yup,” said Helen as she turned on the radio and flipped through the stations before finding the station Emily was talking about. 

“Nice advertisement,” said Jenny, giving Emily a little nudge. 

Emily grinned. “Thanks!” 

“What were you hoping to hear?” asked Helen when she stopped fooling around with the radio, she had found the station.

Nancy shrugged. “Not sure, maybe not going to hear anything. Maybe this will just help us clear our minds. I did hear that infants listening to classical music are typically smarter than those that don’t.” 

“Well, we’re not infants,” quipped Jenny. 

Nancy laughed. “No, but listening to music, classical especially, tends to help our brains function properly. Besides, you never know if there is a clue hidden at the radio station.” 

“Maybe we should head over there and check it out!” blurted Helen. 

“Well, not right now,” said Nancy. “We’re still going to the bank. Besides, I’m pretty sure that we would need to schedule our visit way in advance.” 

Emily nodded. “I think you do too. You just can’t have people mulling about in a radio station.” 

Jenny chuckled. “True that.” The girls became silent as Nancy pulled into the parking lot of the bank. They quickly got out and dashed into the bank. Mr. Archer was waiting for them by the front door. He smiled at them when they entered. 

“So, our friendly neighborhood detectives are making some progress, huh?” 

“Slowly but surely, Mr. Archer,” said Nancy with a grin. 

He nodded. “As to be expected. May I see the key you found?” 

“Of course!” Nancy reached into her purse and pulled out the key. She handed it to Mr. Archer. 

He took the key and turned it over, scrutinizing it. “It really does look like one of our keys . . .” 

“And it looks like one of the keys to the employee lockers in Moonlight Gests!” blurted Emily. 

Mr. Archer glanced between the girls. “That is odd. Did you check to see if this belongs to any of those lockers?” 

The girls nodded. “Yes sir, we did,” said Nancy. “It couldn’t open up any of the lockers.” 

“Hmm, well, that’s a bummer, because I don’t think this key belongs to this bank.” 

“What?!!?” blurted the girls at once. 

“But it looks so much like the keys you use for the safes!” said Jenny. 

Mr. Archer nodded. “I know, and it really does. But take a closer look. See both sides?” The girls nodded. “There’s no number on them. In order for this to be a safe deposit key, it has to have the corresponding number of the safe.” 

Jenny gasped. “But, but, I was so sure . . .” 

“I’m sure you were, I would be too if I saw a key that looked similar to a safe deposit box key. But, this key just isn’t one of ours, honey.” He kissed Jenny’s forehead. “Good try, though.” He handed the key back to Nancy

Helen threw up her hands. “Great, a key that doesn’t have a lock!” 

Nancy looked over the key. “No, it does have a lock, we just haven’t found what lock it goes to.” She placed it back in her purse. “Looks like we’re going to have to do a little more searching to find out what this key unlocks.” 

Mr. Archer rubbed his chin. “Maybe try looking at Riverview Manor?” 

Nancy nodded. “That will be our next place to try, once we can get the Tophams to let us in.” 

Mr. Archer grinned nervously. “Good luck with that.” 

“Thanks.” 

“Now, how about we open up the safe box we have the number combination for?” 

“Really?” said Emily, Helen, and Jenny. 

“Why?” asked Nancy. 

Mr. Archer shrugged. “Why not. Maybe it could help you find out what that key unlocks.” 

Nancy nodded. “Good point.” 

“Right this way, then.” The girls followed Mr. Archer to the back of the bank, where hundreds of safe deposit boxes were lined up along the three walls. One wall had safes that needed keys to open them. The other two walls were comprised mostly of number combination locks. Mr. Archer went to the farthest wall. He took out the piece of paper with the numbers and punched them into one. The box opened with a soft pop. Mr. Archer took out a container and placed it on a table in the middle of the room. He opened the container. 

“What, seriously?” blurted Helen as the girls looked into the box. 

Nancy reached in and pulled out a book. “‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’” she read. 

“Well, there’s Shakespeare,” muttered Jenny as Nancy flipped through the book. 

“Whoa,” breathed Nancy, her eyes wide. “This is a very old book. According to the inscription, this was printed in 1939!” 

Mr. Archer whistled. “That’s sure to bring in a pretty penny from avid collectors!” 

“But something tells me Josiah didn’t mean for this book to be sold,” said Nancy as she continued to flip through the book. 

Mr. Archer nodded. “I quite agree.” 

“But, now what?” asked Helen. “We’re just going around in circles at this point!” 

Nancy closed the book and began to think. “No, I have a hunch we’re getting closer,” she said slowly. She glanced at each of them in turn. “We are going to have to get back into Riverview Manor. Maybe the safe there holds the final clue that will make this all clear.” 

Helen huffed and crossed her arms. “You’ve been saying that ever since we got the first clue!” 

Nancy grinned. “Well, it could be true. We just need that one clue that will really blow this whole case wide open.” She paused. “We are also going to need a bit more time to think this all over.” She glanced at Mr. Archer. “May we take this with us?” 

He nodded. “Of course! If it’s part of the treasure hunt, you’re going to need it.” 

Nancy smiled. “Thanks.” She carefully put it in her purse. “Alright girls, let’s head to my house. Looks like we have a few clues we need to really look at, and we need to do it without distractions.”

 

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