Chapter 9

Chapter 9 Lucy dropped the kids off, and they traipsed into the hotel. "What are we gonna do about Byron?" Josh asked. "I think he dug up those graves, and I think he was the guy we saw in the cemetery last night!" "Let's talk upstairs," Dink said quietly. They took the elevator. On their floor, Ruth Rose unlocked the room she shared with her grandmother. "Here's what I think," Dink said, sitting on the carpet. "The man we saw in the cemetery last

night might have dug up those two graves, but we don't know that for sure." Josh and Ruth Rose plopped down next to Dink. "And we don't know if the guy we saw was Byron, either," Dink went on. "Well, I think it was Byron," Josh said. "Who else could it be?" "How about Jack?" Dink asked. "He's tall, and he has light hair like the man in the cemetery." "Jack?" Ruth Rose said. "But he was sleeping in his hammock." "Did you actually see him in the hammock when we left?" Dink asked. "Jack could've gone to the cemetery-after we were asleep and made it back to the campsite before we did." Josh shook his head. "Why would Jack be down inside that grave?" he asked. "I don't know," Dink said. "But I don't know why Byron would, either." "I just thought of someone else with light hair," Ruth Rose said. Dink and Josh looked at her. "That man we passed on the trail with Lucy," she said. "He was wearing that funny hat, but

underneath, his hair was kind of grayish white." "And you know what else?" Dink said. "He and another guy were sitting in the restaurant when we had lunch with your grandmother yesterday!" "So?" said Josh. "Well, they seemed pretty interested when we were talking about zombies and stuff," Dink said. Josh laughed. "Who wouldn't be?" he said. Just then the kids heard a light thump coming from the hallway. They froze, all staring at the doorknob as it slowly turned. Suddenly the door swung open and Ruth Rose's grandmother walked in.

"What's the matter with you three?" she asked, setting down her paint box. "You look like you've seen a ghost!" "Gram, you scared us!" Ruth Rose cried. "Me? I'm just a harmless old lady! So how was the sleep-out with Jack?" she asked. "We had a nice time, Gram," Ruth Rose said. "We've just been trying to figure out who robbed those graves." Ruth Rose's grandmother sat on her bed and kicked off her sandals. "Can I help?" she asked. Ruth Rose told her grandmother all about going to the cemetery last night, and about the man they saw crawling out of the grave. "My word!" her grandmother said. "Did you tell Jack what you saw?" "Yes," Dink said. "He said it was probably one of the men from the village guarding the cemetery." "Dink thinks the guy we saw was Jack," Josh said. "I didn't say it was Jack," Dink responded. "I said it could be. The person in the grave was tall and he had light hair and dark clothes. Just like Jack."

"And just like Byron," Josh said. Ruth Rose's grandmother looked at Josh. "Now, who is Byron?" she asked. "He's this man we met after Jack took his wife to the hospital this morning," Ruth Rose said. "Yes, Jack kindly called me and let me know you'd be staying in the village with someone called Myrna Sanchez," her grandmother said. "But you decided to go back to the cemetery, right?" "We wanted to look for clues," Ruth Rose said. "But the villagers were all in the cemetery, so we followed some footprints. They led right to a cabin in the woods. That's where we met Byron and his owl, Bill." "I think Byron's the guy we saw in the graveyard," Josh interrupted. "I think he stole those coffins, too, because there was red dirt on his shovel just like the clay in the cemetery!" Finally, Ruth Rose told her grandmother about the man they had met on the path. "It could have been him, too," she said. "He had light hair, and he seemed pretty interested in the village." Dink mentioned that the same man had been eating lunch near them yesterday. "I think he was

trying to hear what we were saying," he said. "Okay you've mentioned three different men who are tall with light hair," Ruth Rose's gram said. "One of them could be the man you saw last night. What I don't understand is why any of them would have any interest in that cemetery." "I just thought of something," Dink said. "When we walked down to the water with Jack, he told us he'd love to buy a piece of that land." Everyone was staring at Dink. "What if Jack put up that sign and dug up the graves to scare the villagers?" Dink continued. "If they left, maybe he'd be able to buy their land."