Total pages in book: 72
Estimated words: 70524 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 353(@200wpm)___ 282(@250wpm)___ 235(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 70524 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 353(@200wpm)___ 282(@250wpm)___ 235(@300wpm)
I shrug. “What about the first riddle? Maybe there’s something there.” I pull out the sheet of paper that was placed in my jacket pocket back at the club. “A figure of black, with points to its rank…”
Alissa hovers over me, pointing at the third-to-last line. “Beneath flower and shrub. That’s what we’re looking for. We were told to bring our spades, so I imagine we’re supposed to dig. And we should dig in a place marked by flowers and shrubs.” She shines her flashlight around the grove. “Flowers and shrubs… Flowers and shrubs…”
“Wait.” I hold up a hand. “Look in that back corner, beyond the last picnic table.”
She shines her light in the direction I’ve indicated. A row of rose bushes, alternating in red and white, line the back of the picnic grove.
Alissa kneels and shines her light on the soil beneath the bushes. “We need to find a place that looks like it’s been freshly dug up.”
I lay the shovels down, get on my hands and knees, and crawl up and down the row of bushes. Finally, right in between a white rosebush and a red one, I spy a spot where the soil is looser and more crumbly. A few earthworms are crawling across the surface, and some roots are exposed.
“Alissa,” I call over. “I think this might be where we want to dig.”
“Sounds good,” she says. “Hand me a spade.”
We place the flashlight on the ground pointing at us so that we have a little light, and then we both sink our spades into the earth. Within a few moments we have a square hole about a foot deep. Nothing so far.
Alissa wipes a bead of sweat from her brow. “Digging is harder work than I thought.”
“Yeah, soil is heavier than you’d think.”
“Do you think we’re in the right spot? How deep do you think they could bury something?”
I frown. “If it’s something they don’t want anyone finding, I think it will be pretty deep.”
“Right.” She returns her attention to our hole and continues digging away.
We keep going until we’ve gotten another few feet down.
“We should widen the hole,” I say. “I’ll work on that while you keep going down.”
I place my shovel on the side of the hole and press my foot into it, taking a new sliver of soil out.
“This is getting us nowhere, Maddox,” Alissa finally says. “I think we’re digging in the wrong spot.”
“We can’t be.” I look down at the soil. “This area was clearly dug up recently.”
She presses her lips together. “The original riddle said the evidence was hidden beneath flower and shrub. Not next to it.”
I widen my eyes. “So you think…?”
“It’s under one of these rosebushes. Not in the soil next to them.”
I bite my lip. “But if we dig up a bush, it’ll be a lot clearer that someone was here looking around.”
“All the more reason for them to place a rosebush over what was buried. But we can replant it once we’re done. I’ve done that in my friend Dinah’s garden a few times.” She kneels again, grabbing the flashlight. “It looks like the soil is fresher near the white rosebush, so I’m thinking that’s the one we need to dig up.”
“Well, shit.” I place my shovel at the base of the rosebush and press it into the earth.
Alissa gets to her feet. “Ouch!” she cries out.
“Everything okay?”
She places a finger in her mouth. “The thorns. I wasn’t thinking.” She examines her finger. “Just a little cut. I’ll live.”
“You need a bandage or something?”
She chuckles. “No. It’ll stop bleeding on its own in a bit.” She grabs her shovel and digs in, grimacing slightly. A small line of blood trickles down the wood, but she continues.
Within fifteen minutes or so, we’ve dug underneath the rosebush enough to pull it out by its roots. We each stand on one side, taking care not to get pricked by the thorns of the bush itself, and lift it out of the ground, placing it gently near the picnic tables. We’ll want to replant it once we’re done.
Now we’re cooking. Just digging up the rosebush created a pretty sizeable hole, and, if the riddle isn’t leading us astray, we should be able to just dig straight down.
Several more minutes pass until my shovel hits something solid. It has a little give, so it’s not made of metal. Maybe hard cardboard.
I look up at Alissa, grinning. “Oh my God, I think we found what we’re looking for.”
She grabs the flashlight and peers down. “Whatever it is, it’s red,” she says.
I poke my spade over it, prodding gently until the soil begins to give again. “Looks like it’s about a foot across.” I feel around the perimeter of the object. “Feels like it’s round.”
We dig around the objects until we’ve gone deep enough to pull it out. It’s a box, round in shape like I guessed. I pull it out. It’s heavy. I place it on the nearest picnic table.