Chapter 14
Dude, open it!” Luke said, his eyes wide with anticipation.
Quinn looked at the safe’s combination. Instead of numbers, he found alphabet letters from A to Z. He spun the lock around a few times, trying various words—Skelton, the name of the street, Francis Scott Key, even Abracadabra and Open Sesame.
Nothing worked.
“I don’t suppose anyone knows the combination,” Quinn said, giving up.
Cody grinned. “Actually, I think I might.”
“Yeah, right,” Quinn said.
Cody knelt down, handed Punkin to M.E., and turned the combination lock. The others watched as she worked. “First to the right…to ‘F’ …then to the left… ‘S’ …then back to the right… ”
“To the letter K!” M.E. said, petting the cat. “The cat’s initials.”
Cody stopped at the letter K and gave a tug.
The safe creaked open.
“Yes!” M.E. said.
Quinn frowned and asked, “How did you know?”
“Lucky guess?” Cody stifled a smile.
Luke elbowed her gently in the ribs. “No way, dude. How’d you do it?”
Cody couldn’t keep the secret any longer. “Well, I just figured, since everything so far has been about Francis Scott, the cat had to be the key to the combination lock.”
“Brilliant,” M.E. said, grinning.
Cody reached into the safe, felt around, and pulled out a piece of paper. Her smile disappeared. “There’s no money in here. Just this piece of paper.”
“Oh great. Another code.” Quinn sighed.
Cody unfolded the paper. After taking a deep breath, she read the handwritten note aloud. Again, some of the words were darker than others.
“INSIDE LIES a puzzle,
Where there should be cash.
WILL you find THE money?
Or be left with ASH?”
“Oookaaay,” Luke said, scratching his head and readjusting his hat. “Now what?”
“Can I see the note?” Quinn asked. Cody handed it over. “That’s weird…. ”
“What’s weird?” M.E. asked.
“This note. It’s a lot like the first one—that poem—we found inside the case, remember? Something about ‘behind the frame.’”
“Quinn, hand me the case, please,” Cody said.
Quinn pulled it from his pocket and gave it to Cody. She lifted the unlocked lid and reread it to the group.
“WILL you find THE money?
No, it’s not INSIDE.
LIES are in the ASHes.
Not a place to hide.”
No one said anything for a few moments. Then Luke spoke up. “I still don’t get it.”
Quinn reread both messages to the others. “The riddles are similar,” he said, once he was done. “See how some of the same words are used. But the lines of the poem are different.”
Cody nodded, excited. “The same words in both messages are darker—and written in capital letters. There’s got to be a reason.”
“Okay, sooooo…,” Luke said, thinking aloud. “It says, ‘The money’s not inside’ and ‘The lies are in the ashes.’ It still doesn’t tell us anything.”
“Maybe not in the actual riddle,” Cody said. “But maybe the highlighted words are the key.” She handed her codebook to M.E. “Write this down.”
M.E. flipped to a blank page. “Go.”
“Okay, let’s see. Write down will, the, inside, ashes, and lies. Those are the exact same words— the highlighted words—used in both notes.”
M.E. printed the five words neatly on the paper, then read them aloud. “Will…the…inside…ashes …lies.”
Luke made a face, clearly puzzled. He took the metal case from Cody. “Wait a minute. This reminds me of my grand-mère’s puzzles. She loves anagrams—those mixed-up letters that make a word when they’re unscrambled. She makes anagrams out of my spelling words to help me learn them. Like this.” He wrote the letters Z. U. L. Z. E. P. on Cody’s notebook paper.
“Zulzep?” M.E. asked, reading the letters together.
“Unscramble the letters,” Luke said, and handed her the pen.
Once he explained it, M.E. took only seconds to rearrange the letters. “Puzzle!”
“Yezzil!” Luke high-fived her. “So maybe the words are anagrams—all scrambled up—instead of the letters. Let me try rearranging them.”
Luke took the notebook and pen from M.E. and went to work. He wrote out his first attempt.
“Will the ashes lie inside.”He shook his head and drew a line through the sentence.
“Inside will lie the ashes.”He scratched out another line.
“Ashes lie inside…”
Quinn held a hand up. “Wait, Luke. It’s not ashes. Only the word ash is highlighted. Try again with just ash.”
“Inside the ash lies will,”Luke wrote, then he shrugged. “It still doesn’t make sense.”
“Maybe it’s a question,” Cody said. “Try starting with ‘will.’”
“Will the ash lies inside…Will inside lies…Will lies inside the…ash?”Luke tried some other combinations, ending with the nonsensical phrase, “Ash the inside lies will.”
“I think I got it!” Quinn said. He’d been standing opposite Luke and reading the message upside down and backward. “How about ‘Will lies inside the ash’?”
“The will …,” Cody slowly repeated, “lies … inside the ash…I think you’re right, Quinn. It’s will—a noun, not a verb, like in Skeleton Man’s will. ‘It lies’—it’s hidden—‘inside the…ash’?” The excitement in her voice faded. “But if the will lies inside the ashes—”
“Then it’s burned to a crisp,” M.E. said, finishing her sentence.
Quinn frowned. “It doesn’t say ‘ashes,’ remember? It says ‘ash.’”
“Why not ashes?” Cody insisted. “You can’t have just one ash.” She looked out the broken window, trying to think what Skeleton Man could have meant. As her eyes moved from sculpture to sculpture, she went over the possibilities in her head. Where could Skeleton Man have hidden the will, if not in the ashes? In the ash can? In the ash tree…
Her eyes locked on the only tree sculpture in the yard that didn’t look like the others. In addition to the cat sculptures, there were at least a dozen metal trees in the yard. They all looked pretty much the same—except one.
She pointed out the window. “See that tree out there?”
The others followed her finger.
“Notice how it’s different from the others?” she continued.
Quinn shrugged. “Maybe Skeleton Man got tired of making the same old tree over and over. That one sort of looks like the one in your yard, Cody, only made out of metal.”
Cody’s eyes brightened. “Exactly! And guess what kind of tree that is.”
Quinn frowned. “An ash tree?”
Luke’s eyebrows lifted. “Dude! You think Skeleton Man’s will is hidden in that tree sculpture?”
“I think we better find out before that crazy lady and her sidekick show up,” Quinn suggested. “They said they’d be back. I’m guessing we don’t have much time.”
They raced outside to the sculpted ash tree. While the other trees had thin trunks and wide leaves, this metallic work of art had a broad trunk, spindly branches, and dangling leaves that tinkled in the breeze. Cody marveled at the effort that had gone into creating it. Skeleton Man, er, Mr. Skelton, might have been a strange hermit, but he was also quite the artist.
Quinn knelt down and checked the base of the tree. The others examined the branches and leaves, searching for some kind of secret opening, hidden compartment, or engraved message.
“I found something!” Quinn said. “Look, this part is loose, and it slides. There’s a hole underneath.” Quinn slid the metal plate at the base of the trunk aside and reached into the opening. Seconds later he withdrew a large envelope. On the front were the handwritten words, Last Will and Testament of Jake Skelton. Quinn held it up to show the others.
“OMG, you found it! Skeleton Man’s will,” M.E. said. “Open it. Hurry!”
“Do you think we should?” Cody asked. “Maybe we should take it to my dad, since he’s a lawyer.”
“Good idea,” Luke said.
But Quinn didn’t appear to be listening. He’d already lifted the back flap of the envelope and was pulling out a handful of folded papers.
“Quinn!” Cody said, shaking her head.
“I’m just taking a quick peek. Then we’ll take it to your dad.” Quinn unfolded the papers and scanned the top sheet for a few seconds before he spoke.
“Whoa,” he said, refolding the papers and stuffing them back into the envelope. “You’ll never guess how much money he has. And who he’s giving it to!”
“Shhh!” Cody said. She glanced around. “Those strangers might hear you. Let’s get out of here.” The kids checked one last time for spies, then ran from the yard.
None of them noticed the beat-up old car parked across the street, nor the two passengers scrunched down in the front seats.