Read Online Finding Fortune by Delia Ray - Free Book Online Page B

there. Otherwise the box would be in the safe too, right? And she wouldn’t be worrying about stuff like electric bills.”
    â€œBut she can’t give up yet!” Hugh said. He dug in the side pocket of his shorts for his index card and fished the pencil from behind his ear. “We should be taking notes. So we can help her solve the mystery.” Then before I could stop him, he plunked himself down on the swivel chair next to the desk and started writing.
    I groaned under my breath and glanced down at the letter again. There was a date at the top that I hadn’t noticed before. June 30, 1950—the same year Hildy had graduated from high school and the very same month she had been crowned Fortune’s button queen. When had Tom been killed? I wondered. Hildy had looked so carefree in her parade picture, smiling and waving to the crowd. I was sure it must have been taken before she found out her brother was gone forever.
    Hugh twirled his chair around to face me. “What does that one word mean?” he asked. “ Frittered  … Whatever that thing Hildy’s father was doing with the treasure.”
    â€œI think it means he was wasting it,” I said. “Basically, Pop doesn’t sound like he was very good with money.” Hugh twirled back to the desk and hunched over his index card again.
    I folded Tom’s letter along its worn crease and slid it back into the envelope. “Come on, Hugh. I’m serious. Let’s go.”
    The words had barely left my mouth when I heard the crunch of tires on gravel in the parking lot outside the window. “Somebody just pulled up!” I yelped as I darted away from the window. “Hurry! It’s probably your mom back from the store.”
    I lurched for the closet. My hands were shaking as I pushed the letter inside the safe, slammed the door closed, and turned the lever. I almost forgot to switch the light off, but then scrambled back to yank the string. When I burst out of the closet, Hugh was on his knees peering over the edge of the windowsill. “Dramn it,” I heard him say.
    I froze halfway to the door. “What’s going on?”
    â€œThe carnivores are here,” Hugh said. “And they don’t look very happy.”

 
    NINE
    I DIDN’T GET A SINGLE GLIMPSE of Hildy’s relatives. By the time they rang the buzzer, I was already sprinting up to the second floor and Hugh was scurrying to the library to file his notes in the card catalog and wait for Mine to get back. I spent the afternoon in Room 26, nibbling on my smushed peanut butter sandwiches, thinking about the missing treasure, and trying to decide what to do next. Hopefully Hildy had forgotten all about me in the flurry of her company arriving. To keep from reminding her, I made up my mind to stay out of sight for as long as possible.
    At least my window looked out on the old baseball field, and watching Garrett helped to distract me for a while. He had made a wall of shells around the diamond, and now he had a large coil of rope slung over his shoulder. He marched to the center of the open space and pounded a stake into the ground. After that, there was a lot of pacing back and forth, kicking up little clouds of dust with his giant boots and stopping to stroke his beard. I finally turned away from the window, shaking my head. It was hard to imagine how Garrett was going to turn the rest of those sloppy piles of shells into any sort of tourist attraction.
    I had just stretched out on my cot to read another chapter of Little Women when Hugh came tearing into the room. “Hey, can you come help us with dinner?” he panted. He held up his pointer finger. It was wrapped in a bloody Band-Aid. “I cut myself trying to peel potatoes and Mine’s acting like she might have one of those, you know, those nervous breakdown things.”
    â€œWhere’s Hildy?” I asked. I pushed myself up from the cot.