Chapter 6

Chapter 6. Dan had always wanted to ride in a police car, but not like this. His chest still hurt from the smoke. He sat in the backseat of the police car with Saladin on his lap and tried not to wheeze, but every breath was like inhaling sand. "If you'd just brought your inhaler …" Amy chided. But he hated his inhaler. It made him feel like Darth Cahill or something. Besides, he hadn't had an attack in forever, and he didn't know they were going to get caught in a stupid fire. He couldn't believe the family mansion was gone. He'd woken up this morning sure that Amy and he would inherit the place. Now there was nothing left — just a smoking mountain of rubble. The police detectives hadn't given them many

第六章。丹一直想坐警车，但不是像现在这样。 他的胸口还在被烟熏痛。 他坐在警车的后座上，腿上坐着萨拉丁，努力不让自己喘气，但每一次呼吸都像是在吸入沙子。 “如果你带了吸入器……”艾米责备道。 但他讨厌他的吸入器。这让他觉得自己像达斯·卡希尔之类的。 再说，他已经很久没有发作过了，他也不知道他们会被一场该死的大火困住。 他不敢相信家族的豪宅不见了。 今天早上醒来时，他确信艾米和他会继承这个地方。 现在什么都没有了——只剩下一座冒烟的瓦砾山。 警探们并没有给他们多少

answers. It looked like arson, they said. The fire spread too quickly to be an accident. They said William McIntyre would be okay. Amazingly, no one else had been hurt. Dan had told the police about Alistair Oh leaving the mansion in a big hurry. He figured he might as well try to get the old creep in trouble. But Dan had said nothing about the thirty-nine clues or the secret library or the strange guy with the binoculars. "Who was the man in black?" Amy whispered, like she'd been thinking the same thing. She had Grace's jewelry box on her lap, and she was twisting her hair the way she always did when she was nervous. "Don't know," Dan said. "Alistair?" "He couldn't have been in two places at once." "Mr. Holt?" "Mr. Holt's not that old, and he's a lot more buff." "Aunt Beatrice dressed as a man?" Personally, Dan liked this idea, because Beatrice definitely had the "evil" factor going for her. After all, she'd just left them at the mansion without a second thought. But Amy rolled her eyes.

的答案。他们说，看起来像是纵火。 火势蔓延得太快了，不可能是事故。 他们说威廉·麦金太尔会没事的。 令人惊讶的是，没有其他人受伤。 丹告诉警察阿利斯泰尔匆忙离开了大厦。 他想他不妨试着给这个老家伙找麻烦。 但丹对那三十九条线索、秘密图书馆和那个拿着双筒望远镜的奇怪家伙只字不提。 “那个穿黑衣服的人是谁？”艾米低声说，好像她也在想同样的事情。 她腿上放着格蕾丝的首饰盒，她像往常一样，一紧张就扭着头发。 “不知道，”丹说。“Alistair ?”“他不可能同时出现在两个地方。” “霍尔特先生吗?”“霍尔特先生没那么老，而且他要健壮得多。” “比阿特丽斯姑妈打扮成男人？”就个人而言，丹喜欢这个主意，因为碧翠丝绝对有“邪恶”的一面。 毕竟，她刚刚把他们留在了豪宅里，没有多想。 但艾米翻了个白眼。

"He wasn't anybody we know, Dan. At least, I'm pretty sure. But he was watching us, like he wanted to see if we got out. I think he set that fire to trap us." "Mrrp," Saladin said. "I agree with the cat," Dan said. "After that man in black and Uncle Alistair, I say we make a new RESOLUTION. Stay away from old guys." "We'll have to be more careful about everybody." Amy lowered her voice even more. "Dan, our mother was involved in the thirty-nine clues. That writing —" "Yeah, but that's impossible. The contest just started!" "It was Mom's writing. I'm sure. She said, Follow Franklin, first clue. Maze of Bones. We have to find out what that means. This is just the kind of mystery Mom would've loved!" Dan knew he shouldn't have felt annoyed, but he hated that Amy remembered more about their parents than he did. He would never have recognized their mom's handwriting. He had no idea what kind of person she'd been. "We lost the book," he grumbled. "We kind of

“他不是我们认识的人，丹。 至少，我很确定。 但他一直看着我们，好像想看看我们能不能出去。 我想他放那场火是为了困住我们。” “先生。”萨拉丁说。“我同意猫的看法，”丹说。 “在那个黑衣人和阿利斯泰尔叔叔之后，我建议我们做一个新的决定。 离老家伙远点。”“我们必须对每个人都更加小心。” 艾米把声音放得更低了。 “丹，我们的母亲参与了这39条线索。 那些字——”“是的，但那是不可能的。 比赛才刚刚开始！”“是妈妈的笔迹。 我肯定。她说，跟着富兰克林，第一个线索。 迷宫的骨头。我们得弄清楚那是什么意思。 这就是妈妈会喜欢的那种神秘感！”丹知道他不应该生气，但他讨厌艾米比他记得更多关于他们父母的事。 他肯定认不出他们妈妈的笔迹。 他不知道她是个什么样的人。 “我们把书丢了。”他抱怨道。 “我们有点

failed already, didn't we?" Amy traced the monogram on top of Grace's jewelry box. "Maybe not. I have an idea, but we're going to need an adult. Alistair was right about that. We'll never be able to travel without one." "Travel?" Dan said. "Where are we going?" Amy glanced at the cop. She leaned closer to Dan and whispered, "First, we need to find a chaperone. And quickly. Aunt Beatrice is going to call Social Services soon. We need to get home, get our stuff, and get out. If the police find out we've been disowned, they'll take us to a foster home or something. We'll never be able to find the thirty-nine clues." Dan hadn't thought about this. He didn't know much about foster homes, but he figured he didn't want to live in one. Would a foster home let him take his collection? Probably not. "So how do we get an adult?" he asked. "Rent one?" Amy twisted her hair into a noose. "We need somebody who'll let us do what we want without asking too many questions. Somebody old enough to look like we're being chaperoned, but not strict

我们已经失败了，不是吗？”艾米在格蕾丝的首饰盒上画出了字母组合。 “也许不是。我有个主意，但我们需要一个成年人。 阿利斯泰尔是对的。 没有它我们就无法旅行。” “旅游?”丹说。“我们要去哪儿？”艾米瞥了警察一眼。 她凑近丹，小声说：“首先，我们得找个监护人。 和迅速。比阿特丽斯阿姨马上会打电话给社会福利机构。 我们得回家，收拾东西，然后离开。 如果警察发现我们被遗弃了，他们会把我们送到寄养家庭什么的。 我们永远也找不到那39条线索。” 丹没有想过这些。 他不太了解寄养家庭，但他觉得自己不想住在那里。 寄养家庭会让他带走他的收藏吗？ 可能不会。“那我们怎么找个大人呢？”他问。 “租一个?”艾米把头发缠成一个套索。 “我们需要一个人，他会让我们做我们想做的事，而不会问太多问题。 年纪大到能让我们看起来像被监护人，但又不严格

enough that they'll try to stop us. Somebody kind of pliable." "Does 'pliable' mean we can lie to them?" "Mrrp," Saladin said, like that sounded good to him as long as he got fresh fish. The police car turned onto Melrose Street and pulled up in front of their weathered brownstone apartment building. "This is the address?" the cop asked. She sounded bored and annoyed. "Yes," Amy said. "I mean, yes, ma'am." "You sure there's somebody home? Your guardian or whatever?" "Nellie Gomez," Dan said. "She's our au pa—" His eyes widened. He looked at Amy, and he could tell she was thinking the same thing. It was so obvious even a Holt could've seen it. "Nellie!" they said together. They got out of the police car with their cat and the jewelry box and raced up the front steps. Nellie was just where Dan figured she'd be — sacked out on the sofa with her earbuds in, bobbing her head to whatever weird music she

足够让他们阻止我们了。 一个比较柔韧的人。” “‘柔顺’是不是意味着我们可以对他们撒谎？”“Mrrp。”萨拉丁说，好像只要他能钓到新鲜的鱼，这听起来就不错。 警车转到梅尔罗斯街，停在他们那栋饱经风霜的褐砂石公寓楼前。 “这是地址吗？”警察问道。 她听起来又烦又烦。 “是的，”艾米说。“我的意思是，是的，夫人。” “你确定有人在家？” 你的监护人之类的？”“内莉·戈麦斯，”丹说。 “她是我们的爸爸——”他睁大了眼睛。 他看着艾米，看得出她也在想同样的事情。 很明显，连霍尔特家的人都能看到。 “耐莉！”他们一起说。 他们带着猫和首饰盒下了警车，跑上前门的台阶。 内莉就在丹认为她会在的地方——躺在沙发上，戴着耳机，随着她喜欢听的任何奇怪的音乐摇头

was listening to while she punched text messages into her phone. A stack of cookbooks sat next to her on the couch. The top one read Exotic Mandarin Cuisine. Dan let Saladin down to explore the apartment. Then he noticed the empty carton of Ben & Jerry's Cherry Garcia — his Cherry Garcia — sitting on the coffee table. "Hey!" Dan protested. "That was mine!" Of course, Nellie didn't hear him. She kept jamming out and typing on her phone until Amy and Dan stood right over her. Nellie frowned like she was annoyed she had to actually work. She pulled out one earbud. "Back already? Whoa — what happened? You're all grungy." "We need to talk," Amy said. Nellie blinked, which was pretty cool to watch since her eyes were done in blue glitter eye shadow. She had a new nose ring shaped like a silver snake. Dan wondered why she wanted a snake curled inside her nostril. "What do we need to talk about, kiddo?" she asked. Amy looked like she wanted to hit Nellie with

她一边听一边往手机里打短信。 她旁边的沙发上放着一叠烹饪书。 最上面的是“异国情调的中国菜”。 丹放下萨拉丁去探索公寓。 然后，他注意到咖啡桌上有一盒Ben & Jerry's樱桃加西亚的空盒子——他的樱桃加西亚。 “嘿!”丹抗议。“那是我的！”当然，内莉没听见。 她不停地用手机打字，直到艾米和丹站在她身边。 内莉皱起眉头，好像很生气，因为她不得不工作。 她拿出一个耳塞。 “回来了吗?哇——发生什么事了？ 你们都脏兮兮的。”“我们需要谈谈，”艾米说。 内莉眨了眨眼睛，看起来很酷，因为她的眼睛涂了蓝色闪光眼影。 她有一个新的鼻环，形状像一条银蛇。 丹想知道为什么她想让一条蛇蜷缩在她的鼻孔里。 “我们要谈什么呢，孩子？”她问。 艾米看起来像是想用