The Big Dig Read online

  She must have dozed off, because when she opened her eyes, Josie was standing over her, a concerned look on her face. “Can you breathe under there?”

  “Yes,” Lucy sighed and flipped the quilt off her head. She saw Josie was holding a wooden spoon. Uh-oh. She’s cooking.

  “Come on,” Josie said. “Supper’s almost ready.”

  Lucy looked at the clock, blinked a few times, and held up four fingers. “It’s only four o’clock.”

  “Lawrence Welk is on tonight,” Josie said, as if Lucy was an idiot not to know that. “I like to have supper over and everything cleaned up before it starts. That way I can have my Peek Freans and enjoy my show. You can join me. The reception is good today. A lot of the time it’s too fuzzy to watch.”

  Where have I been on all the other Lawrence Welk nights? Probably hiding out in my room, avoiding supper.

  “Get the lead out,” Josie ordered. “I’ll go down and simmer off the rest of the fat.”

  Lucy waited for Josie to leave then made a gagging face. Simmer off the rest of the fat? That doesn’t sound unappetizing at all.

  Josie was stirring something in a big cast iron pot on the stove. Lucy sniffed the air. It sort of smelled like hamburger. She looked over Josie’s shoulder. It sort of looked like hamburger, crumbled in some kind of liquid, maybe with some onion too?

  “Cut some bread,” Josie ordered. “We’re having mincie on toast. You probably know it as mince, but we always called it mincie.”

  Lucy shook her head at Josie’s back. Nope. Don’t know it as either. But she did as she was told, cut two thick slices of bread and popped them in the toaster. While she waited, she watched Josie and nervously chewed on a thumbnail. Josie had a cigarette in her mouth and seemed oblivious to how long the ash was getting. Again. It was dangerously long, dangerously curved. Again. If Lucy tapped her on the shoulder or made any move to alert her, it would only startle her, and game over. All she could do was cross her fingers.

  “Pass me an ashtray,” Josie said around the cigarette.

  How does that ash not fall? Lucy quickly grabbed one off the counter and set it on the stove beside the burner. Josie smoothly transferred the cigarette to the ashtray, intact. Lucy let out a sigh of relief.

  Supper turned out to be surprisingly not bad. It tasted better than it looked. Ketchup definitely helped.

  It wasn’t until they were sitting in the living room in front of the TV with their plate of Peek Frean shortbreads, four each, that it occurred to Lucy that Josie was watching a show about music—music she couldn’t hear.

  Josie answered her question before she could ask it. “I love watching those Champagne Ladies, with their beautiful hair and fancy dresses. I watch them dance, watch Lawrence move his stick, and I imagine the music. I still have songs in my head. I remember.”

  For a second Lucy was overcome with a feeling of sadness. What Josie said seemed so bittersweet, though she probably didn’t mean it that way. What was it like to lose your hearing? To have it for part of your life, and then have it taken away? She must miss it. Miss the music. Miss the dancing….

  Lucy moved closer to Josie on the couch as the Champagne Ladies swirled around the dance floor in their pastel chiffon gowns. “The girl in peach is my favourite,” Josie said, smiling and wrapping her arm around Lucy’s shoulder. “She’s the best dancer. And I think she’s in love with that tall fellow who’s her partner sometimes.”

  Lucy nodded in agreement. She seems so happy to have someone to watch her show with. Actually, she seems pretty happy all the time.

  There was no way Josie had moved that bunny of necklaces because she didn’t trust her, or thought she would take them. Josie didn’t have a mean or suspicious bone in her body.

  There must have been some other reason. Lucy wished she could ask her.

  Lucy stood at the edge of the hole watching Colin try to leverage out a large rock with the handle of his shovel. “Hey,” she said. “Why don’t we skip the digging and hike around the Cape?” She wanted to talk to him, but away from the hole, where he wouldn’t get distracted.

  Colin shook his head. “Nope. You made me go to the beach yesterday. I missed a whole day.”

  “That was because it rained! That wasn’t my fault!”

  Stubbornly, he kept shaking his head.

  “Oh, come on,” she pleaded. “It’ll be fun. Josie said it’s kind of like a race. You have to make it all the way around before the tide comes up.”

  “I’ll take a break in the afternoon, but I can’t skip another day.”

  “That won’t work; the tide’ll be wrong. And I hate to rain on your parade, but I don’t think your plan is working. I mean, has your mom ever been out here? Has she even seen the hole?”

  The shovel handle slipped out from beneath the rock. “No!” Colin snapped.

  This was not going the way she’d hoped, but it was now or never. “Listen. I kind of want to talk to you about something.” She’d decided to stick with the necklaces, because it was sort of intriguing, like a mystery. He probably wouldn’t be much interested in her feelings about her dad. And now her mom.

  He looked up and wiped his forehead with his arm. “Okay. Talk.”

  Since he made no move to get out of the hole, she lowered herself over the side and got in the hole with him. “See, I—well, I found something in Josie’s drawer.” She was trying to tell him without letting on she’d been snooping.

  “You were snooping,” he said.

  “I wasn’t.” She quickly shook her head. “I was looking for Noxzema.”

  “Hi, guys!”

  They both whipped around at the same time. There was Kit, looking down on them in full-on Princess Leia regalia, her white bedsheet fluttering in the breeze.

  “What is she doing here?” Colin whispered without moving his lips.

  “I forgot to tell you. I kind of invited her,” Lucy whispered back the same way.

  Colin’s head slumped forward.

  “What are you two doin’ down there?” Kit said loudly.

  “Nothing.” Lucy sighed and hoisted herself up out of the hole. “So, you decided to come.”

  “Yeah.” Kit plunked down on a grassy patch. “Mom wanted me to clean my room, so I thought it would be a good time to pull a disappearing act.”

  Lucy nodded and sat down beside her.

  “Aren’t you hot in that thing?” Colin asked, still in the hole.

  “No!” Kit snarled. Then she flapped her arms. “The air circulates through perfectly.”

  Colin rolled his eyes.

  “Oh. That’s good,” Lucy said politely.

  “Look.” Kit pulled something from beneath the folds of her sheet. “I bought treats.” She held up a package.

  That seemed to win Colin over. “Red licorice! I love red licorice.”

  “Well.” Kit stuck her nose in the air. “That’s a common misnomer. These are actually strawberry Twizzlers. Licorice is a distinct flavour, and always black.”

  Colin pressed his lips together as if to stop words from coming out. He pulled himself up and sat on the edge of the hole. “Okay then, can I have some strawberry Twizzlers?”

  Kit squinted at him for a second, then held out the package. “Help yourself.”

  Except for the intermittent crinkling of the plastic when pulling out a fresh Twizzler, they chewed in silence for a while.

  “Hey,” Colin said to Lucy. “You never finished telling me what you found.”

  Lucy turned and stared at him.

  Colin’s eyes got real big. He cringed and mouthed, “Sorry.”

  Too late. Kit pounced. “You found something? What? What did you find?”

  “Nothing.” Lucy dragged her hand down her face. “It’s nothing.”

  “Uh-uh.” Kit shook her head. “I saw him say sorry. He let the cat out
of the bag about something. ’Fess up.”

  Lucy squeezed her eyes shut and pinched the bridge of her nose.

  “Come on,” Kit said. “I’m your cousin, for Pete’s sake. I can keep a secret. Oooh. Is it a secret?”

  There was no way out at this point and Lucy knew it. “I, uh, found this ceramic bunny of my mom’s in Josie’s drawer.”

  “So you were snooping,” Kit said.

  “No! I was looking for Noxzema!” How many times was she going to have to explain that?

  “Don’t get offended,” Kit said. “There’s nothing I admire more than good snooping skills.”

  Lucy clenched her jaw. “Anyway. I found this bunny in Josie’s pantyhose drawer. It’s part of my mom’s collection. But this bunny opens up, and inside there were six necklaces. All exactly the same.”

  “Okay. I’m confused,” Colin said. “You want to know if they’re real?”

  “No,” Lucy sighed. “I think they are. But, like, are they my mom’s? Are they Josie’s? And why were they moved from my room?”

  “How do you know they were moved?” Colin asked.

  “Well, I’m pretty sure that bunny was on my dresser when I got here. But there are bunch of bunnies on the dresser, so I didn’t notice it was gone till I saw it in Josie’s room.”

  Colin nodded thoughtfully. “And you think Josie moved it.”

  “Yeah. Who else?” Lucy said. She scraped a fingernail against her front tooth, thinking. “What are they for? Why would someone have six of them?”

  “Maybe they were on sale,” Colin suggested. “Or maybe they really are Josie’s. The bunnies, too.”

  “Or maybe,” Kit, who had been unusually quiet, said, “they’re stolen.”

  “What?” Lucy exclaimed. “Why would you say something like that?”

  “It’s like you said. Why would you have six necklaces all the same? What other reason could there be? The only thing you have six the same of is socks and underwear.”

  “Let me get this straight.” Colin tugged on his chin. “Are you saying Josie could be some kind of jewel thief?”

  Kit shrugged. “We don’t know what she does in her free time.”

  “That’s ridiculous,” Lucy said.

  “Yeah,” Colin said. “I don’t think there’re many deaf jewellery thieves. Don’t you have to listen for noise, so you don’t get caught?”

  “Yeah,” Kit said. “But doesn’t being deaf heighten your other senses? Maybe—”

  “I think we can safely rule out Josie as a jewel thief,” Lucy said firmly.

  “Oh, all right,” Kit said, but she didn’t look happy about it. “Besides, the necklaces are really probably your mom’s. Because they were inside her bunny.”

  Lucy narrowed her eyes. “Are you saying my mom’s the thief?”

  Kit shrugged again.

  How dare she. “Well…well, maybe they’re not hers. Maybe she was just keeping them for somebody.”

  Kit looked doubtful. “Like who?”

  “Like, like….” Lucy’s thoughts raced. Aha! “Perhaps a sister?”

  “Hey!” Kit stood and jammed her hands onto her hips. “Are you saying my mom’s the thief?”

  Lucy crossed her arms and didn’t say anything.

  Colin put both his hands up. “Let’s everybody calm down now. We don’t even know if they’re actually stolen. You two are acting nuts.”

  They both glared at him.

  “Wait a second,” Kit said slowly. “My mom told me”—she pointed at Colin—“that your mom was friends with”—she pointed at Lucy—“your mom. Maybe she was holding them for, say…a best friend?”

  “Hey!” Colin frowned. “Are you saying my mom’s the thief?”

  Lucy couldn’t help but remember how Esther herself admitted she used to be a little wild.

  The three of them stood in a circle, more like a triangle, staring each other down like they were in a standoff.

  Lucy blinked first and took a step back. “Okay, guys. This is getting pretty silly.”

  “You’re right,” Kit said. “This isn’t getting us anywhere.”

  “Yeah.” Colin reached for his shovel. “I’m just gonna go back—”

  “You know you’re going to have to bring them to us,” Kit said.

  Lucy jerked her head. “What?”

  “The necklaces. We need to see them.”

  “Why? And no way,” Lucy said. “I’m not going back in Josie’s drawer and just taking them.”

  Kit sighed dramatically. “Lucy, it’s not like she’s going to catch you. You could drag that dresser down the stairs and out to this field and she’d never be the wiser.”

  Colin scratched his head. “Well, she’s not blind. And she’d feel the vibrations….”

  “You know what I mean!” Kit shouted at Colin, then to Lucy. “You could easily take them without her noticing. Once we see them, we might be able to figure out where they came from. Then we can decide what to do next.”

  “Do next?” Lucy echoed.

  “Yup. We’re going to do our best Nancy Drew impression and solve this mystery.” She snapped her fingers in the air. “The Mystery of the Ceramic Bunny. No, no…The Clue in the Ceramic Bunny. Or, I suppose the word ‘necklaces’ should be in the title, huh?”

  Lucy really had no response. She was starting to feel like she was on Candid Camera.

  “Ugh.” Colin made a face. “Can’t we be the Hardy Boys instead?”

  “No,” Kit said flatly. “No, we can’t.”

  Colin turned to Lucy. “Who put her in charge?”

  “I think she did.”

  Chapter 13

  Kit was right. It had been easy to sneak the necklaces out of Josie’s room. They were safely tucked in the back pocket of Lucy’s shorts. She finished up her waffles and carried her plate to the sink, careful to walk sideways, convinced that somehow Josie would see the lump in her pocket and ask what it was. Thankfully Josie was preoccupied flipping through a Good Housekeeping magazine. Which Lucy found kind of funny. Basically because the place usually looked like a bomb went off. There were always fabrics and tissue-paper patterns strewn all over the living room, not to mention straight pins scattered everywhere. Thank goodness they had coloured nubs on top that made them easier to spot. And Lucy was pretty sure she hadn’t seen a duster or vacuum since she’d arrived.

  Shoving the pouch down deeper into her pocket, she tapped Josie on the shoulder. “I’m going to the field.”

  Josie blew out a cloud of smoke. “Nice to have a chum, isn’t it?”

  Lucy nodded, inching towards the door. She just wanted to get out of there.

  “You know,” Josie said. “I noticed something.”

  Uh-oh. Lucy’s heart rate sped up. She kept her hand over her back pocket.

  “Your shoulders are peeling awful bad,” Josie said.

  Lucy’s heart rate slowed.

  “There’s probably a jar of Nivea or Noxzema in the linen closet,” Josie continued.

  Lucy’s heart rate sped up again. “Thanks,” she squeaked and backed out of the kitchen, practically falling down the front porch steps.

  Noxzema? She knows! She knows I was in her room looking for Noxzema. Lucy shook her head as she walked along the path. No. How would she know? She’d have to have superpowers. Wait. Didn’t Kit saying something about the other senses being heightened? Lucy shook her head faster. No. That’s insane. Heightened senses don’t include mind-reading. It’s a coincidence. She took a deep breath. Yeah. It’s just a coincidence.

  Colin was already hard at work digging when Lucy reached the hole.

  He looked up. “Did you get them?”

  She nodded.

  He dropped his shovel. “Can I see?”

  Lucy pointed to a flat rock by a heap of dirt. “Come over here
.” She pulled the pouch from her back pocket then looked around. “Should we wait for Kit?”

  Colin scrunched up his face. “No. Besides, she might not even be coming.”

  “Are you kidding me? Did you hear her? There’s no way she’s not sticking her nose in this as far as it’ll go.”

  “We still don’t have to wait for her. She’s not the boss of us.”

  “If you say so,” Lucy muttered under her breath. She knelt down, unsnapped the velvet envelope, and lined up the six tiny plastic bags in a row on top of the rock.

  Colin wiped his hands on his shorts, then opened one of the bags and slid out the chain. He held it up and let it hang from his finger, studying it like he was some kind of jewellery expert.

  “There’s a stamp on the clasp,” Lucy pointed out. “Ten K. It’s ten-karat gold.”

  Colin studied it for another minute, then put it back in its bag and returned it neatly to the row. “I don’t know what to tell you. I’ve no idea why someone would have six of them.”

  Lucy tapped her finger against her lips. “You don’t think Kit’s right, do you? That they’re stolen?”

  He shrugged. “I suppose anything is possible. But by who? And then that puts us right back to what happened yesterday. Because there’s no way my mom stole them.”

  “And there’s no way my mom stole them.” But Lucy noticed her voice wasn’t as loud or as firm as Colin’s. She really had no idea what her mom had been like, had been capable of in her life before becoming “Lucy’s mom.”

  “And you know Kit’s going to say the same thing about her mom,” Colin said.

  Suddenly Kit was there. “Let’s see them, then,” she demanded, wedging herself between the two of them.

  “Jeez!” Lucy slapped a hand to her chest. “How do you keep sneaking up on us?”