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."

"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."

"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.

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.

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."

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!"