Chapter 6

Chapter 6 Dink waited until Yvonne went back to the kitchen, then told the others what he'd just seen. "But the office is locked," Josh said. "Maybe she has a key," said Dink. "Where would she get a key?" Josh asked. "You have one, and James Pride has the other."

丁克一直等到伊冯娜回到厨房，然后把他刚刚看到的告诉了其他人。 “但是办公室是锁着的，”乔希说。 “也许她有钥匙，”丁克说。 “她从哪儿弄到钥匙呢?”杰克问。 “你有一只，詹姆斯·普赖德有另一只。”

"The question is," Ruth Rose said, "why did she go up there now, when nobody's around?" Dink stood up. "We need to find out," he said. "Maybe she left a clue! Let's go before Yvonne gets back." The kids hurried out into the rain. They scooted next door and slipped through the green door. "Look," Dink said, pointing at the carpet. "Wet footprints!" They hurried up the stairs. At the top, they saw more wet spots. Dink's hand was shaking so badly he could barely unlock the door. The office was dark except for the light over the fish tank. The only sound was the tank's bubbling filter. "This place is creepy," Josh whispered. Dink checked the floor. "No wet footprints in here," he said quietly. "Maybe Regina Wu wiped her feet before she came in," Ruth Rose whispered back. "Maybe," Josh said. "But why are we whispering?" He flipped up the wall switches, and the lights, ceiling fan, and music all came on. Dink squinted in the sudden brightness. "Okay," he said, "let's look around."

“问题是，”露丝·罗斯说，“她为什么现在去那儿，周围都没有人?”丁克站了起来。 “我们需要找到答案，”他说。 “也许她留下了线索!”趁伊冯还没回来，我们走吧。” 孩子们匆忙跑到雨中去了。 他们飞快地跑到隔壁，溜进了那扇绿色的门。 “看，”丁克指着地毯说。 “湿脚印!”他们匆匆上楼。 在山顶，他们看到了更多的湿点。 丁克的手抖得很厉害，他几乎无法打开门。 除了鱼缸上方的灯光外，办公室里一片漆黑。 唯一的声音是水箱过滤器的冒泡声。 “这地方真令人毛骨悚然。”乔希低声说。 丁克检查了一下地板。“这里没有湿脚印。”他平静地说。 “也许吴瑞吉娜进来之前擦了脚，”露丝·罗斯小声回答。 “也许吧，”乔希说。“可我们为什么要小声说话呢?”他拨动墙上的开关，灯、吊扇和音乐都亮了起来。 丁克在突如其来的亮光中眯起眼睛。 “好吧，”他说，“我们四处看看。”

"For what?" Josh asked. "I'm not sure," Dink answered. "But Regina Wu came up here for some reason. Either she took something or she left something behind." "I'll go through the stuff in the crate," Ruth Rose said. "Dink, why don't you check out James's office? Josh, you take the trash can." "Why do I have to go poking through the trash?" Josh asked. "Because you're a good detective, and good detectives always check the trash," Ruth Rose said. "Cool!" Josh said. He headed for the trash can next to the desk. Dink walked into Mr. Pride's office. There was a small desk with locked drawers. A framed picture of three people stood on the desk. Dink recognized James Pride. The woman and child must be his wife and daughter, he thought. Dink checked a gray file cabinet in one corner. It was locked. Then he ran his fingers across the bookshelves. He checked inside some of the books, not knowing what he was looking for. He even peeked under the rug. He couldn't tell if anything was missing, and he found no clues.

“为了什么?”杰克问。“我不确定，”丁克回答。 “但雷吉娜·吴(Regina Wu)来这里是有原因的。 她要么拿了什么东西，要么留下了什么东西。” “我要检查一下箱子里的东西，”露丝·罗斯说。 “丁克，你为什么不去詹姆斯的办公室看看?” 乔什，你去倒垃圾桶。” “为什么我要去翻垃圾?”杰克问。 “因为你是一个好侦探，而好侦探总是检查垃圾，”露丝·罗斯说。 “酷!”杰克说。他走向桌子旁边的垃圾桶。 丁克走进普莱德先生的办公室。 有一张小桌子，抽屉上了锁。 桌子上放着一张三个人的相框。 丁克认出了詹姆斯·普赖德。 那女人和孩子一定是他的妻子和女儿，他想。 丁克查看了角落里一个灰色的文件柜。 门锁上了。然后他用手指在书架上摸索。 他翻了几本书，不知道要找什么。 他甚至偷看了地毯下面。 他不知道是否有什么东西不见了，也没有找到任何线索。

As he started to leave, Dink suddenly noticed that one wall seemed different from the others. He stared at it, trying to figure out what looked odd about it. Then he realized what it was: this wall had no bookshelves, no file cabinets, no pictures, no anything! It was completely bare. Dink stepped closer and ran his fingers over the striped wallpaper. Just above his head, he felt a thin crack. He followed the crack with his fingers until he felt another crack, this one running down toward the floor. Two feet in the opposite direction, a third crack ran to the floor. The cracks were almost hidden in the wallpaper. Dink jumped back as if his hand had been burned. "Guys!" he shouted.

当他准备离开时，丁克突然注意到一堵墙似乎和其他的不一样。 他盯着它看，想弄清楚它有什么奇怪的地方。 然后他意识到这是什么:这面墙没有书架，没有文件柜，没有照片，什么都没有!它完全光秃秃的。 丁克走近一些，用手指抚摸着条纹墙纸。 就在他的头顶上方，他感到一声微弱的裂缝。 他顺着裂缝的方向用手指摸索着，直到他感到另一道裂缝，这道裂缝一直延伸到地板上。 在相反方向两英尺处，第三道裂缝通向地板。 裂缝几乎藏在墙纸里了。 丁克向后跳了跳，好像他的手被烧伤了。 “伙计们!”他喊道。

Josh and Ruth Rose came running into James's office. Dink showed them his discovery. "I think it's a secret door!" he said. He tried to force his fingers into the cracks, but the door wouldn't budge. "If there were stairs behind this wall," Ruth Rose said, "they would lead right to the secret door in Yvonne's kitchen!" Josh's eyes opened wide. "That would mean she could get in here without a key!" "Do you think she was coming here when I saw her downstairs?" Dink asked. "Maybe she met Regina Wu!" Ruth Rose said. "Yvonne could have let her in." "Maybe," Dink said, walking back to his uncle's office. "But why? We gotta keep looking. Did you find anything in the trash, Josh?" "Zilch," Josh said. On the floor where Ruth Rose had been sitting was a pile of packing peanuts. She had unwrapped each artifact, then put it aside. "All I found was the same treasures we looked at yesterday," she said. "I don't think anything is missing."

乔希和露丝·罗斯跑进詹姆斯的办公室。 丁克向他们展示了他的发现。 “我想这是一扇暗门!”他说。 他试图把手指伸进门缝里，但门就是不动。 “如果这堵墙后面有楼梯，”露丝·罗斯说，“它们会直接通向伊冯厨房的秘密门!”乔希睁大了眼睛。 “那就意味着她不用钥匙也能进来!”“我在楼下看见她的时候，你觉得她正往这儿来吗?”丁克问道。 “也许她遇到了吴君如!”露丝·罗斯说。 “伊冯可能让她进来的。” “也许吧。”丁克边说边走回他叔叔的办公室。 “但为什么?我们得继续找。 你在垃圾桶里找到什么了吗，乔希?”“什么也没有。”乔希说。 露丝·罗斯坐着的地板上放着一堆包装花生。 她拆开了每件文物的包装，然后放在一边。 她说:“我发现的都是昨天看到的宝藏。” “我不认为缺了什么。”

The kids continued to search. Behind curtains. Under the Oriental rug. They pulled out everything from every desk drawer. They even dug in the dirt in the potted plants next to the windows. "Nothing but a secret door that doesn't open," Josh muttered. "And we can't check out the door downstairs with Yvonne in the kitchen," Ruth Rose said. "So now what?" Josh asked. "I don't know," Dink said. He looked at Josh and Ruth Rose. "But my uncle is counting on us to find something up here, and I'm not gonna stop till I find it!"

孩子们继续寻找。 在窗帘后面。在东方地毯下。 他们把每个抽屉里的东西都翻了出来。 他们甚至在窗边盆栽里挖土。 “只有一扇打不开的暗门。”乔什喃喃地说。 “伊冯在厨房里，我们也不能检查楼下的门，”露丝·罗斯说。 “现在怎么办?”杰克问。 “我不知道，”丁克说。 他看着乔希和露丝·罗斯。 “但我叔叔指望我们在这里找到点什么，不找到我是不会罢休的!”