Outside, Nancy and her friends followed the path Megan had described for them. “Look, there’s the ice cream place,” Bess pointed out. “We’ll have to go there later.”
“And here’s the blue house,” said George. When they walked around to the back, the girls spotted an elderly couple in rocking chairs on the porch, looking at the water. “Megan sent us!” George called to the couple.
The woman said, “Who?”
“Megan Meaney! Abigail’s friend!” George explained.
And the woman replied, “Oh, Abigail! We miss her dearly. Enjoy the beach!”
The beach was on a small cove with a rock jetty on either side. Past one jetty, the girls noticed some boats docked. The blue water stretched as far as they could see, and the lighthouse shone brightly in the distance. It was a beautiful spot.
George spread out a beach towel and Bess put on some sunscreen. Nancy took the envelope from her backpack. “Ready to take a closer look?” she asked her friends. Nancy unzipped a secret compartment in her backpack and removed two things she used for solving mysteries: her magnifying glass and the special blue notebook her father had given her for writing down clues.
First Nancy looked at the note with her glass. “These letters must be from a newspaper—they’re definitely on newsprint,” she observed. “But the paper isn’t that old.”
“How do you know?” Bess asked.
“Because when newspaper is old, it turns yellow, and this paper is only a little yellow.”
Next Nancy turned to the map. It was drawn by hand, and not drawn very well. Nancy studied the map for minute. What could this map be a picture of? she thought to herself. Suddenly she had an idea. “Oh, look!” she said. “Doesn’t this map remind you of the area around the lighthouse?”
George was good with maps and directions. She leaned over to look more closely. “Hey, I think you might be right!” she said. “Here’s the lighthouse. Here’s the Webbs’ B and B. Here’s Maine Street and the blue house. Here’s the beach we’re on!”
“That’s what I was afraid of,” said Nancy mysteriously.
“Wait,” said Bess. “Can we back up for a minute? We have a map that is supposed to help us find something. But what do you think it is?”
Nancy took out her notebook and opened it to a fresh page. Then she uncapped a pen and wrote, “The Case of the Lighthouse Secret.” “We don’t know exactly what we’re looking for,” Nancy admitted. “But we do know that this is a mystery—and somebody wants us to solve it!”
“The note says we’ll find the key. That must mean the key to this mystery,” George said. “Maybe things will be clear when we find it. And we have three clues to go on already.”
“The puzzle piece, the note, and the map,” Bess said. “I’m with you so far.”
George looked at the note again. “Pieces at land and sea . . .,” she read. ”I wonder if that could mean more puzzle pieces.”
Nancy nodded. “That’s what I think. If we find more puzzle pieces, we can put them together—and find the key to this mystery.”
Bess sighed. “But where will we find them? We don’t even know where to start.”
“That’s where the map comes in,” Nancy said cheerfully, handing it to Bess. “See those small X’s? We should look in those places first. But that’s the confusing part.” Nancy pointed to the map and said, “If the lighthouse is here, and we are here, the X’s will be pretty hard to get to.”
“You’re right,” Bess said. She looked around to get her bearings. “One X is in the water and one is on the rocks. Not so handy,” she said with a sigh. “I thought this was supposed to be a vacation,” Bess said. “How about we take a vacation from solving mysteries?”
Nancy shook her head. “What kind of detectives walk away from a mystery just because they’re at the beach?”
Bess sank back down onto her towel. Nancy looked at her friend and said, “But let’s collect some seashells before we do anything else.”
The three girls walked to the water’s edge. It was as cold as Megan Meaney had promised. Nancy, George, and Bess waded along the edge of the water, collecting shells and sea glass.
“I found a sand dollar!” Nancy said as a seagull squawked overhead.
George nodded toward the blue house and said, “Did you guys think it was weird that the people who own this beach didn’t know Megan? They acted like they’d never heard of her.”
“They probably hadn’t,” Bess said. “Megan thinks she knows everything, but without Abigail, she’d just be a tourist—like us.”
Nancy didn’t respond. She didn’t think Megan was so bad.
Luckily the girls had just come to one of the rock jetties. The sand at the base of it was covered in stones and shells. The girls filled their pockets with more beach treasures, then Bess clambered up on the jetty to look around. She reported to her friends: “Lots of boats are coming in!”
George climbed up beside her. “I hate to say it, Bess, but I think those are lobster boats.” She made her hand into a claw and pretended to pinch her cousin. But Bess didn’t see it. She was busy staring out into the water.
Bess said, “I just thought of something. Let’s take another look at that map, okay?”
The girls headed back to their towels, and Nancy pulled out the map. Bess pointed to it and said, “See that X there? The one that looks like it’s in the water? What if it’s on the water instead? Maybe it’s on a boat?”
Nancy looked at the map from a different angle. “I think you could be right,” she agreed, placing a finger on the map. “If this spot is the beach, that spot is where the docks are.”
“Maybe our next clue is right there!” exclaimed George. She pointed to the dock where lots of boats were tied.
The boats were full of lobstermen stacking traps and cleaning up. “I don’t think this is a good time for us to be looking around,” Nancy pointed out. “But why don’t we come back when the boats are empty?”
Since that wouldn’t be till evening, the girls took a long walk around the village. Later they had dinner at the inn. As she cleared plates Nancy asked her dad if he wanted to go for a walk on the beach.
“Matt and I were just thinking the same thing,” said Mr. Drew. “But let’s go soon so we’re back before dark.”
Nancy ran upstairs to get her backpack. The note, the puzzle pieces, and the map were all stored inside. But when she got to the room she stopped in her tracks.
Her backpack was gone!
4
The Floating Clue
When Nancy came back downstairs, she acted like everything was normal. She wanted to wait until she could be alone with her friends. But George and Bess could tell something was wrong. “What’s up?” George whispered when she thought nobody else could hear.
“My backpack!” Nancy whispered back. “It’s gone!”
She didn’t realize that Hayley was standing behind her. “You left it on the deck,” she announced. “I hung it on one of the pegs near the door.” Hayley looked curiously at Nancy. “Did you think someone had taken it?”
“No . . . I just wouldn’t want to lose it, that’s all,” Nancy stammered.
I don’t remember leaving my backpack there, Nancy thought as she left with the others for a walk.
Mr. Drew and Mr. Webb walked way ahead of the girls, lost in conversation. “They’re probably telling old stories,” Nancy told her friends. “Now we can search for clues!”
When they came to the beach, Nancy waved at her dad and motioned to the other side of the jetty. “We’re going over there for a minute,” Nancy called.
The girls climbed over the jetty and found themselves on a rockier beach. Three docks extended from the rocks into the deep water.
“Okay, we’re here. Now what?” said George. The girls walked along one of the docks until they came to several boats.
Nancy looked at the map. “The X is in the middle of this area, and we are on the middle dock. Maybe we should try one of the bo
ats that’s tied up right here?”
George was looking at the boats in front of them. “Hey! Look!” she said. “This one’s called the Abigail. At least we know the name. Maybe this is a good one to start with.”
“Let’s go and see!” said Nancy.
“We’re really going on board?” Bess asked. “Are you sure that’s a good idea?”
“It’s just for a minute,” George reassured her.
“And my dad is right over there—if anything goes wrong, we can yell,” Nancy added. “We just need to see if there’s any place a puzzle piece might be hidden. That’s the only way we’ll know if your hunch is right.”
Bess didn’t argue. George climbed aboard the Abigail, then helped her friends on after her. The boat swayed with the waves and Nancy almost lost her footing.
A pile of lobster traps was in a corner of the deck. Near it was a heap of buoys, a tangle of rope, and some other gear. Nancy and George poked around the pile. Bess gingerly opened a lobster trap and peered inside. The girls didn’t notice anything unusual.
George straightened up and said, “I don’t think we’re going to find anything on deck.”
“Maybe we should look in here,” Nancy suggested. She pointed at the glassed-in cabin where the boat’s controls were. She opened the door and walked in.
George sat at the wheel and pretended to steer the boat for a minute. Then she turned to her right. “Check this out!” she said. Nancy and Bess ran over. George had found some low shelves where odds and ends were stored. On one shelf were two books of crossword puzzles. “Whoever sails this boat likes puzzles,” George said.
“Maybe we’re getting warmer,” said Nancy.
Bess held one puzzle book upside down and shook it, but nothing fell out. George turned the pages of the other to see if it contained a clue. She had no luck either.
Nancy sat down on a tackle box by the door to the cabin. Just then the next wave rocked the boat and tossed her to the floor! “Uh-oh,” said Nancy. “I don’t think I have my sea legs yet.” As she turned the box right side up, Nancy heard a rattle. She opened the box and found it full of puzzle pieces. “Somebody around here must really like puzzles. It’s got to be hard to do a jigsaw on a boat!”
“Could our clue be in the picture?” Bess wondered.
“Let’s put it together and see,” said George.
The girls assembled the small puzzle on the driver’s seat. It pictured a lighthouse on a sunny day. The scene was perfect and no pieces were out of place. “I think we’re out of luck,” said Nancy. “Maybe we should head back.”
“Wait a minute!” said Bess. “Here’s another tackle box.” She gave it a shake. “Sounds like something’s inside this one too.” Bess undid the latch—and found a lone puzzle piece!
It was red, like the first piece, and about the same size. But it had a hole drilled in the middle and a chain through the hole. It looked like a puzzle piece necklace.
“I don’t get the necklace part,” said George. “But let’s see if it fits the other piece.”
Nancy drew the original piece from her backpack and put it together with the one Bess had found. It fit perfectly! “One piece down, one to go,” Nancy announced, putting the new piece around her neck. She tucked it under her shirt and said, “Can’t be too safe. Until we know what the ‘key’ is, I think we should keep the mystery to ourselves.” She paused, then added, “We’d better get going. My dad will be worried.”
As the whole group headed back to the B and B, the girls had a chance to talk about their case some more. “I guess the next clue will be on land,” said George. “But if we follow the map to that other X we’ll land on a pile of rocks!”
“Let’s look at the map again when we get back,” Nancy said. “Maybe it will shed some more light on the mystery now that we’ve found a new clue.” She paused, then added, “Speaking of light, look at the moon!”
A full moon was rising over the beach. The sky was growing darker, but the girls could see their way clearly by the moon’s bright light.
Bess drew in her breath. “A full moon!” she whispered dramatically. “You know what that means!”
“No. What?” asked her cousin.
“The fisherman’s ghost could come out tonight!” Bess reminded her.
“I don’t think we need to worry,” Nancy soothed her friend. “We’re not going anywhere.”
“Just to our room,” said Bess, “which is right across from the lighthouse. That’s ghost central! Maybe one of us should keep a lookout.”
“That’s right!” exclaimed George. “Look out!” She began to chase Bess toward the lighthouse. Bess ran as fast as she could, looking back from time to time to make sure no ghost was behind her. Nancy kept up with her friends, and the three arrived breathless at the B and B.
The Meaneys were on the deck. Mr. Meaney was taking pictures of the bright purple sky. Hayley was painting her toenails. Megan was nowhere to be seen.
Nancy went upstairs to put away her sleuthing gear. On her way back down, she ran into Megan Meaney. Megan was carrying a video and said, “Mrs. Webb will let us watch this in the living room. Want to come?”
Then she stopped and stared at Nancy. At first Nancy thought Megan was looking at her hair, which was wild and messy from her run to the inn. Then she realized Megan was looking at her neck. Nancy reached up, but it was too late. The puzzle necklace had flown out, and Megan Meaney had spotted it. Megan said, “Nancy, why are you wearing Abigail’s necklace?”
5
Detective Meaney?
Nancy didn’t like to lie. But she didn’t know what to say. Luckily her friends had just come up the stairs. She hoped they could help.
“That’s not Abigail’s necklace,” said Bess. “Nancy’s had it for . . . forever.”
“Or at least since her birthday,” George corrected. “I, um, gave it to her.”
Megan came closer. She lifted up the necklace, and took a good look. “I don’t think so,” she said. “I’ve seen this necklace before. Abigail’s oldest brother gave it to her one Christmas—both of them loved puzzles.” Megan pointed to a small scratch on the back of the puzzle piece. Nancy hadn’t noticed it before. “See that?” Megan asked. “Abigail got that scratch on the necklace last summer.”
Megan glared at the girls. “Are you going to tell me where you got it?”
Now Bess and George were tongue-tied. So Nancy did the only thing she could do: She told the truth. Megan seemed surprised when she heard about the note. “Well, you’re staying in Abigail’s old room,” she said. “And now you’ve found Abigail’s necklace. Maybe Abigail wrote the note and hid it behind her dresser.”
“Hmm,” said Nancy. “I hadn’t thought of that.”
“See?” said Megan. “I’m a detective too! How about I help you guys look for the next clue? After all, I know my way around. I can think of a million places to hide more clues. You need me on your case!”
All of a sudden, Bess could speak again. “Oh, we solve mysteries on our own all the time,” she said.
Nancy glanced at her friends, then turned to Megan and said, “We’ll show you the map after the movie. We’re trying to keep a low profile, you know.”
Megan winked and said, “Meet you upstairs.”
The girls settled into the Webbs’ living room to watch the video with Hayley. Nancy had seen the movie before, but she kept quiet while the others watched. Megan, on the other hand, talked through the whole thing. “This is my favorite part!” she shouted, pointing at the screen. “Wait till you see what happens next!”
“Do you mind?” said Hayley. “Some of us want to hear what happens too.”
Megan paused the movie for a second and said, “Some of us know something you don’t know, Hayley.” Megan looked meaningfully at Nancy, who looked the other way. She didn’t want to start a fight. Megan and her sister seemed to argue all the time.
Nancy went back to her room before the movie was over. Bess and George arrived a l
ittle later. Now they were just waiting for Megan.
Bess flopped on a bottom bunk and said, “How could you tell her?”
Nancy shook her head. “I’m sorry!” she said. Nancy had been looking at the map, which she showed to her friends again. “I just can’t figure out how we’ll find this next clue. We got lucky the last time, but this time we need some help. And Megan really does know her way around.”
George threw up her hands, and Bess looked at the floor. Nancy took their silence as a good sign. She reached for her notebook, traced the shape of the puzzle necklace into it, and wrote “Abigail’s necklace.”
“So Abigail left that note,” Bess said as if nothing had happened. “But why? What kind of secret could she have?”
“Maybe Megan knows,” George replied. “That’s one good reason to have her on our team.”
Nancy smiled. Just then there was a knock at the door, and Megan Meaney walked into the room.
“Here I am. I don’t think I’ve been followed,” she whispered, laughing. “When do I get to see the map?”
Nancy unfolded it again and showed it to Megan. “Here’s where we found the first puzzle piece,” she explained, pointing to the X near the docks.
Megan began talking. “You went on the Abigail, right? How did you like it? That’s Abigail’s brother’s boat. He used to take us out in it all the time. We’d do puzzles if the water was calm. He still lives around here.”
Nancy tried to keep Megan on the subject. “The boat was nice,” she said. “Now, here’s where the next clue could be.” She pointed to the X near the base of the lighthouse. Even Megan was stumped for a minute.
“It’ll be like looking for a needle in a haystack,” she said.
“Did you ever go down there with Abigail?” Bess prompted her.
Megan brightened up. “Actually, yes, I did. We had the best time! We packed a picnic and rode our bikes to the end of the peninsula. Then we hiked down the rocks to a bunch of caves at the water line. Abigail said nobody knew they were there. Then later we were going to go up in the lighthouse, but . . .”