Detective Camp (6 page)

The kids entered the dining room. Mademoiselle Musée was standing at the table with her back to them.

“Um, excuse me,” Ruth Rose said.

Mademoiselle Musée turned around.

Dink looked past her at the box of latex gloves. The ring was gone.
Good
, he thought.

“We wondered if you found your ring,” Ruth Rose asked.

The woman stared at the three kids. “Yes, I found it here this morning,” she said. “I—I must have forgotten where I put it.”

“Great!” Ruth Rose said. “You said you might show us how you clean paintings, so we …”

“Yes,” the woman said. “Come closer, but please touch nothing.” The kids gathered around her.

The painting was still there. Dink could see a barn, children playing in the snow, and the yellow house with smoke coming from the chimney, all under a bright blue sky.

Mademoiselle Musée pulled off her gloves, dropped them into a basket under the table, then pulled a fresh pair on.

“I have finished this painting,” she said, sliding it to the center of the table. “But I will demonstrate on one that I have not yet cleaned.”

She walked quickly into the great room and returned with a painting only as large as a book. Flipping the small painting over, she pulled out a few nails with pliers. She slid the canvas out of the frame and laid it on the table.

The kids looked at the soiled painting. It was impossible to tell what was beneath the dirt.

Mademoiselle Musée picked up a cotton ball and wet it from one of the bottles. “As you can see, this painting is covered with years of soot and smoke,” she said. Moving her hand in a small circle, she began gently wiping the damp cotton ball over a small section of the painting. Slowly the dirt disappeared
until the green branches of a tree became visible.

“That’s amazing!” Ruth Rose said. “Who painted this?”

“I won’t know until I clean the entire painting,” Mademoiselle Musée said.

Then she pointed to the winter-snow scene. “But that one is a Grandma Moses.”

“Who’s she?” asked Josh.

“My grandmother loves her paintings!” Ruth Rose said. “She was real old when she painted, right, Mademoiselle Musée?”

“Yes, she started out as a simple farmer’s wife,” Mademoiselle Musée said, “and now some of her paintings are worth millions of dollars.”

“M-millions?” Josh said.

Mademoiselle Musée nodded at him. “Grandma Moses was becoming well known before she died,” she said. “Now that she’s been dead for years, she’s very famous!”

“How come she painted on wood instead of canvas?” Dink asked. He pointed to the smoothly cut edges of the Grandma Moses painting.

“That is not wood,” Mademoiselle Musée said. “Grandma Moses lived in the country and could not buy artist canvases. But she had fiberboard in her
barn, so she often used that. It is thin, but very hard.”

“How long does it take you to clean a painting?” Josh asked.

“Perhaps two days for one this size,” Mademoiselle Musée answered. “Longer if I have to make repairs.”

“How do you do that?” Dink asked.

“The canvas can become cracked or even ripped,” Mademoiselle Musée explained. “Or when it’s on fiberboard, the paint sometimes flakes off. I make the repairs, then paint over the damaged places.”

“Guys, we’d better get back to our cabins,” Ruth Rose said. “Thanks a lot, Mademoiselle Musée!”

“It is nothing,” the woman said.

The kids hurried out of the lodge and ran toward the cabins. “It’s time for chores,” Ruth Rose said. “I’ll see you later, okay?”

The guys nodded and walked to their own cabin. They found Buzzy taping a paper on the door, next to the schedule.

“Hi, guys,” he said. “This is a chore list. All eight of you have to pitch in, but it shouldn’t take more than fifteen minutes.”

Dink and Josh read the list. Next to Josh’s name they read
SWEEP FRONT PORCH
. Dink saw that his job was to straighten up the books and games shelf.

“Where are the brooms?” Josh asked Buzzy.

“In the closet inside the washhouse,” Buzzy told him. Josh hiked over while Dink began organizing the games and books. The other six boys were sweeping, dusting, smoothing out sleeping bags, and straightening their cubbies.

Ten minutes later, everyone was finished.
“Super job, you guys,” Buzzy said, He looked at his watch. “It’s time to head back to the lodge for your clues to find the mystery map!”

They all ran to the picnic tables. When everyone was there, Angie stood on a bench and held up a paper bag.

“We’ve already hidden the twenty-six map pieces,” she said. “Now you can pick your clue cards that will help you find them.”

She walked around and let each kid put a hand in the bag and pull out a card.

Dink’s card had a big
B
written on the front. He turned the card over and found a feather taped there.

“What did you get?” Dink asked Josh and Ruth Rose, showing them his card.

“I have a
G
,” Ruth Rose said. “With a flower petal on the back.”

“Mine is
M
,” Josh said. He flipped the card over and found some brownish hairs taped in place.

“Okay, everyone has a card now,” Angie called out. “The letter is one clue, and the item on the back is a second clue. Have fun!”

“This is so cool,” Ruth Rose said. “But I think mine is too easy.
G
must stand for
garden
.”

“Yeah, but which garden?” Dink asked. “There are flowers planted everywhere!”

Dink took another look at his card and the feather on the back. “What do
you guys think?” he asked.

“Easy,” Josh said.
“Birdbath.”

“It could also be
birdhouse
or
bird-feeder
,” Ruth Rose said. “Whose clue should we do first?”

“Mine,” Dink said.

“Why you?” Josh asked.

“Because these are alphabet clues, and
Dink
comes before
Josh
and
Ruth Rose
in the alphabet!” Dink announced.

“Okay, let’s go see where the birds hang out,” Ruth Rose said.

The kids walked around the lodge. They waved to other kids wandering around with white cards in their hands.

They found a hummingbird feeder, but saw no ripped piece of map.

They peeked inside a birdhouse, but saw only twigs and dead grass.

“Look,” Josh said. He pointed to a few birds splashing in a birdbath.

The kids rushed over, scaring the
birds into a nearby tree. The birdbath was made of a concrete bowl standing on a pedestal.

“I don’t see a piece of map,” Josh said.

Dink tipped the water out and removed the bowl. Underneath, stuck there with masking tape, was a piece of paper. “I found it!” he cried.

They all looked at the fragment of paper. Its edges were torn on all sides but one. That side had a dark blue line. Some pencil lines had been drawn on the paper, but they made no sense.

“One down, twenty-five to go,” Dink said.

“Let’s look for a garden,” Ruth Rose said, glancing at her own card.

“Wait a sec,” Josh said. He found a hose attached to the lodge and filled the birdbath with clean water.

The kids roamed around the lodge, checking out flower beds. They saw plenty of flowers, but no map pieces.

Ruth Rose studied the petal that was taped to the back of her card. She smelled it and rubbed her finger across its surface. “This looks like some of my grandmother’s roses,” she said. “Let’s look for roses.”

On the south side of the lodge, in full
sunlight now, stood three rosebushes. Each held several pink blossoms. Ruth Rose compared the living blooms to the petal on her card. “I can’t tell if they’re the same,” she said. “This petal is drying up.”

There was a ring of smooth rocks surrounding the small garden. Ruth Rose began looking under each rock. She found the map piece under the last one.

The kids stared at the piece of paper in Ruth Rose’s hand. It was the same kind of paper Dink had found under the birdbath. This piece had four letters written on it in block letters.

“E-T
and
F-R,”
Josh said. “They must be parts of words.”

“I wonder if the other kids are finding their pieces,” Dink said, looking around. Kids were all over the camp, each one carrying a card.

“Let’s look for yours now, Josh,” Ruth Rose said.

They studied the hairs that were taped on his card.

“
M
could stand for a lot of things,” Josh said. “Like
marshmallow
.”

“Marshmallows don’t have hair,” Ruth Rose reminded him.

“Duh,” Josh said.

“Do you think these are human hairs?” Dink asked. “Oh my gosh, they could be from Mario’s mustache!”

“Or Mademoiselle Musée’s hair!” Ruth Rose said.

“No,” Josh said. “These hairs are light brown with a little white. She has black hair, and Mario’s mustache is very dark brown.”

“They could be bristles from some kind of brush,” Dink said.

“I saw a lot of paint cans in the barn, and there are a bunch of brushes
hanging on the wall,” Ruth Rose said. “We could try there.”

“But what about this
M
?” Josh asked, tapping his card.

“Maybe the brushes have labels,” Dink suggested. “We might find an
M
on a label.”

“It’s worth a look,” Josh said. The kids ran to the barn and peered in. A few other kids were in there, searching through stuff.

“Any luck?” one of Ruth Rose’s cabinmates asked.

“We found two,” Ruth Rose said.

“Cool!” the girl answered. “Some of the boys in Bear Cabin have found four already!”

Josh stood on a box and examined the row of upside-down paintbrushes. Some of the brush handles had labels, but none of the labels had an
M
. And the hairs on his card didn’t match
any of the brush bristles.

“What about some other kind of brush?” Dink said, studying Josh’s clue card. “My dad used to have a shaving brush made of badger hairs. I wonder if Mario uses one.”

The kids raced to the kitchen. They found Mario stirring a big pot.

“How’s your treasure hunt going?” he asked.

“We found two, but we’re having a hard time with this one,” Josh said. He showed Mario the
M
on his card and the hairs on the back.