"I know all the girls have alibis, but Sheriff Cooper admitted that some of those alibis were weak." Annie said. "And I still think the best bet for the thief is a Ridgemont student," Annie ended ominously. "Hey!" Beth squealed suddenly, interrupting whatever Annie was going to add. "Do you all here that?" "Hear what?" Katie asked, listening hard. "Silence." Beth said simply. "No more thunder."
The girls rushed to the window. The leaves on the trees were still, the sky was now clear and the stars were popping out and glowing brightly above. Suddenly, there came a sharp rap on the door. Annie hurried to answer it, but with more than a little nervousness. Bedtime was eight o'clock on school nights, and Katie and Trisha were still in Annie and Beth's room.
Annie took a deep breath while her friends stared anxiously at the door, then she opened it to find Sheriff Cooper standing in the hallway. "Ruthie said she'll show us the entrance that leads to the office now." Annie, Beth, Trisha and Katie all squealed with delight.
Ruthie was waiting for Sheriff Cooper and the girls at the office door, Miss Leighton standing beside her. "Girls. You do have classes tomorrow," she said, addressing them directly. Then she turned to Ruthie. "Sheriff Cooper can investigate as long as he deems necessary of course. But I want the girls back in their rooms at 9:00," she ended sternly. The sheriff stifled a chuckle and Ruthie said a respectful, "Yes. Ma'am."
"But Miss Leighton, don't you want to see it?" Annie asked her. "Another time," she said with a slight smile. "I'm rather tired. I'm retiring early tonight. See you all tomorrow," she ended, walking away. The group called a collective goodbye, but Annie eyed her headmistress' figure wonderingly as she departed.
"Shall we go Ruthie?" the sheriff ask her. "Follow me." she said, leading them out of the front doors. Ruthie walked around the side of the building, her charges in tow, the shadow of the tennis courts behind them. She stopped between the dogwood tree and the corner of the building. The others stared at the basement window as Ruthie unlatched it. It swung open on it's hinges and Ruthie led the way down a set of rough hewn steps into darkness.
Sheriff Cooper flipped on a large flashlight he'd brought with him and shone it on the path before them. The walls on either side of the dirt pathway were made of varied sizes and colored stones. Sticky cobwebs hung from the well-worn wooden beamed ceiling. "yuk," Beth said in a disgusted tone, brushing one from her blond hair. Annie covered her mouth to keep from giggling.
It was a short distance to a wooden ladder leaning against the far wall. Everyone looked in unison above them at the rusted, metal trap door, held in place by two aged hinges. Ruthie stood on the bottom step of the ladder and reached up to undo the crumbling latch. "Here we go!" she said, as she watched the board fall to the side of her, swinging wildly.
Ruthie then climbed up the remaining six steps, the others following, pushing a rug aside and stepping up into Miss Leighton's office. When the group arrived in the room above, they all stood around the opening, just staring at in silence for a few moments. Then Annie spoke. "Well, that was sort of cool...in an odd and scary way." Everyone laughed.
Sheriff Cooper immediately walked over to the safe, place at the far wall a few feet from Miss Leighton's desk; the others followed. "Since the safe was unlocked,"....the sheriff cringed, remembering Miss Leighton's shame in neglecting to make sure it was secure before she left. ...."the theft would only have taken a few minutes with such a ready escape." "Yep," Annie agreed.
"Well, we're now pretty sure how the thief got in to do it, all we have to figure out is who did it." Ruthie said gruffly. "You know, we didn't really look around in the....tunnel, dungeon,..."giggles from the group...."or whatever you want to call it...."Beth said, "There might be a clue lying down there somewhere." She said wisely. Her friends and the sheriff agreed they should take a look.
But Ruthie said, "You girls have a half an hour left to search and then it's off to bed with you." "We'd better get going then," Annie said, heading for the hole in the floor. Ruthie elected to remain up top, saying she was claustrophobic. She said it was all she could do to go through it the first time.
The sheriff led his detectives back down the ladder and they began searching immediately by Sheriff Cooper's flashlight. They had only been at it for a few minutes when Katie squealed and flipped on a switch and a light flickered on, bathing the pathway in a golden glow. "Good job Katie!" Trisha praised her. "Why didn't I think of looking for a light switch?" Sheriff Cooper berated himself, looking up at the light fixture on the wall just a few feet away from the ladder.
The group again began scouring the dirt floor. Just when the group was ready to call it quits, Beth shouted, "I've got something!" Everyone hurried over and surrounded her. She was holding a small something in her hand. "It's a pen." Katie said in a subdued voice, thinking this was not such an amazing discovery.
"There's writing on it," the sheriff said, taking it from Beth and rolling between his fingers and then stopping at the place where the words were written in elegant script. Sheriff Cooper gave the girls a dumbfounded look as he read off, "Ridgewest Academy."
End of Chapter 11
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Book 1-Annie Adams and the Mystery Club Detectives
Mystery / ThrillerAnnie Adams was orphaned at two years old. Her mother's last wish was that Annie be placed in the care of her mother's sister and her husband. Annie was very happy with them on their farm in Hopskinville Tennessee. But at age thirteen Annie learn...
