Chapter 8

Chapter 8 "Who?" asked Josh. "Us! We could look for more clues," Ruth Rose said. "How do we get out there?" Josh asked. "By swimming?" "Morris usually comes by around nine-thirty" Abbi said. "You can hitch a ride with him. He brings hikers and bird-watchers out to the islands all the time." Fifteen minutes later, Dink, Josh, and Ruth Rose were sitting on Wallis's dock waiting for the

mail boat. Josh was carrying food in his backpack. Ruth Rose wore a smaller pack holding Abbi's tape recorder. "Why are we bringing the tape recorder?" Dink asked. "Abbi said we should ask Morris to go by those rocks where the seals live," Ruth Rose said. "If we get close enough, I'm going to try to record their voices." "There's Morris!" Dink said, standing and waving. A white flat-bottomed boat chugged up to the dock. A man wearing a sea captain's hat waved at the kids. "Need a lift?" he asked as he pulled his boat up to the dock. "We're friends of Abbi, sir," Ruth Rose said. "She said you might take us out to one of those small islands." "Sure thing, and everyone hereabouts calls me Morris," the man said. "But which island? There are about thirty of them." Dink pointed toward the island where they'd seen the woman tie her boat up to a dock. "It's one of those," he said. "The dock has a blue awning at the end."

"Yep, I know that one," Morris said. "Some rich gentleman lives out there. His estate takes up half the island!" Morris looked at the kids. "I don't think he welcomes visitors," he said. Josh held up his pack. "We're just going to have a picnic," he said. "Great place for a picnic," Morris said, "as long as you stay off private property. Come aboard!" When the kids were zipped into life vests and seated on a bench, Morris pulled away from the dock. He directed his boat toward a cluster of three small islands. Each had a different-colored awning stretched over the water at the end of a dock. "What are the awnings for?" Josh asked. They protect the boats from the sun and rain," Morris explained. "You step into your boat, you don't want to sit on a hot seat, or a wet one!" Morris headed toward the smallest of the three islands. He pulled up to the dock, and the kids stepped out of the mail boat. They dropped their packs in the shade under the blue awning. Tied to the dock was a motorboat painted the same blue.

The kids slipped out of their life vests and passed them to Morris. "Thanks for the ride," Ruth Rose said. Morris handed Dink a magazine and some other mail. "Would you mind leaving this inside the gate?" he asked, pointing toward the other end of the dock. "Sure," Dink said. "I'll swing by here for you in about a half hour," Morris said. "Can you be finished with your picnic by then?" "No problem!" Josh said. Morris gunned his engine. "Okey-dokey see you later." The kids watched Morris pull away. Soon his boat was just a speck on the water.

The dock was quiet and cool under the awning. The only sound was made by the water gently slapping against the small blue boat. "Now what?" asked Josh. The kids turned away from the water. The dock was as long as two school buses. At the other end was a small sandy beach. The whole island was covered with trees and bushes. But part of it was fenced off. Behind the fence, among tall trees and thick shrubbery they could see a chimney and part of a roof. "That must be where the rich guy lives," Josh said. He glanced down at the boat. "I wonder if that blond woman lives there, too." "We can't go inside the fence," Dink said. "No, but we can peek through the gate when you leave the mail," Ruth Rose said. "Let's go," Dink said, reaching down for his backpack. "We've only got a half hour." "What's that stuff?" Ruth Rose asked, pointing to a blue smudge on the gray dock. Ruth Rose knelt down for a closer look. She touched the smudge, then smelled the tip of her finger. "What is it?" asked Dink.

Ruth Rose looked up at Dink and Josh. "It's blueberries!" she said.