Tangled Up in Nonsense by Merrill Wyatt

Author:Merrill Wyatt
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Margaret K. McElderry Books
Published: 2022-11-29T00:00:00+00:00

11 INTO THE WOODS

Amelia marched all the way out of the mansion, mainly because she needed room to breathe. She was sick to death of the smell of peonies. Why was it totally normal for her family to get all competitive about some flower competition but totally weird for her to be into detective work and old movies? The rules felt completely random to Amelia, and the unfairness of it weighed as heavily on her as the mansion did on the grounds of Tangle Glen.

Sloane hurried after her friend with her arms full of muffins and fruit.

“So, I take it we’ve definitely decided to check the grounds for Ma’s missing money?” Sloane asked, biting into an apple as they walked around the side of the house and toward the formal rose garden.

“It has to be out here somewhere. It just has to be.” Amelia gestured toward the woods with her muffin.

“What’s that, then?” a voice asked as Sloane and Amelia pushed open the white gate and went through the brick archway into the garden.

Looking down, they saw Mr. Lindsay on a wooden bench next to the long reflecting pool. As usual, he didn’t seem to be sitting on it so much as growing out of it. His brown clothes matched the wood and his floppy hat looked more than ever like a mushroom cap. He was leaning on his walking stick and watching the Koi fish flit about beneath the lily pads. Chiave lay at his feet, sopping wet and panting, a lily pad sliding from her ear. Mr. Lindsay’s socks, shoes, and shorts were wet too, and he looked completely exhausted from fishing his bloodhound out of the reflecting pool.

Peering up from beneath his grubby hat, he asked, “Did the two of you lose something?”

Sloane and Amelia exchanged a look, not sure how much to tell him. Mr. Lindsay did not seem the most likely person to have shut them in the old bootlegger hiding spot simply because he couldn’t move very quickly. However, someone had done it, so maybe Mr. Lindsay was looking for Ma Yaklin’s missing money too.

Maybe that was why he’d posted information about it on Tangle Glen’s website.

Maybe he wanted his guests to look for that money.

Maybe he was using them the same way Sloane and Amelia had been used when the whole seventh grade was looking for the long-lost Hoäl jewels.

Maybe he was just faking his injured back. Pretending to be helpless so no one would suspect his nefarious plan.

Then Chiave sneezed, leaped to her feet, and took off running. Her leash slipped easily from Mr. Lindsay’s damp fingers, and before anyone could stop her, the dog shot out of the garden gate and back toward the front of the house.

“Chiave, no!” Mr. Lindsay cried, struggling—and failing—to get to his feet in time. He fell heavily back onto the bench with a whimper of pain.

“Don’t worry! I’ll get her!” Sloane sprinted after Chiave, determined that some bloodhound was not going to get the better of Slayer Sloane the Volleyball Queen.

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