The mystery of Saganash.

The hidden room.

The three of us entered the house and saw Tess leaving the lounge area looking worried.
"Did Kate and Erik come back?" Sal asked making her shake her head and he gave an upset look. "Oh."
"What are you doing home?" Tess asked us.
"Researching Saganash." I told her.
"That's what I'm supposed to be doing."
"How's that working out?"
"Not well, there's nothing on the internet." She admitted.
"Exactly."
"The three of us apparently caught your cold. So we might as well help now." Sav pointed out to her.
"We're gonna look in the library. Did you know there are things out there that aren't on the internet?" Sal questioned making Sav face palm at him just learning that. "How crazy is that?"
"You can come with us if you want. You know, help us look through all those books." I told her.
"Really? I have your permission? Thanks." She sarcastically told making me panic.
"Oh, no, I didn't mean, like... you know, hey, do whatever you want, I don't care."
"I'm coming."
"Great." I told before she remembered something.
"No, I'm not."
"That works for me too."
"I can't leave Daniel alone with Simone." She informed us.
"Simone is here?" Sal and Sav whispered in a panic.
"Who's Simone?" I whispered to follow along.
"It's this cop that Daniel has a huge crush on and who know what he'll tell her?" Tess explained in a whisper.
"Okay, so get rid of Simone and then come to the library." I told making her nod. "Or don't, you know, whatever."
Of course as Sav and Tess gave me a confused look over how I was acting, we all heard Anika speaking making us look to see she was on a tour of sorts.
"This painting is based on my favourite cartoon, 'Pudgie and Budgie'." She told to the group before waving at us. "Hey, guys, say hi to my tour group."
"You're leading a tour all by yourself?" Tess asked her.
"Mm-Hmm, they're from up north."
"Be sure to count the silver before they leave." I joked,
"Especially the knives." Sal added making Anika chuckle while the tour group shared a look.
"Come on!" She told her group before continuing the tour and the four of us went our separate ways.

We walked into the library and I was still shocked by all the books they had in just this room alone.
"Whoa. There are a lot of books in here." I pointed out.
"That is why they call it a library, you know?" Sal told.
"I know, there's just... so many."
"For a library to actually be counted as a library, you need at least 1000 books." Sav informed me.
"I think I might find library's cool now."
"Only real library fact I know." She admitted making us smile.
"Yeah, from me." Sal told.
"Never mind that, how are we gonna check 'em all?" I questioned.
"One at a time."
"Where do we start?"
"I'll start with the A's, you start with with Z's and we'll work our way towards the middle." Tess told Sal and Sav as she entered.
"What about me?" I asked since I assume it was usually easier to pair Sav and Sal up for group things.
"I'm sure we have some comic books somewhere." She told with a smile.
"Oh, ha, ha. I'll take the middle of the alphabet." I informed the three.
"So m and n?" Sav asked.
"Yep. M's here I come." I told them and headed off.
"I'm gonna help him with it." Sav told the others and we went ahead with research.

(Sav p.o.v)

After however long of us searching each book for something based on Saganash, we were coming up with nothing.
"Anything, anybody?" Sal asked over at the fireplace.
"I saw sapsuckers four books ago. That was pretty close." Tess explained over at the desk in the room.
"I breathed a bunch of dust from the 1800s." Max told before giving a fake cough as him and I took over the couch and were resting our legs over one another.
"Maybe it really is a code and not the one Sal told me you thought earlier, Max." I suggested making him hide his face in the book, causing Tess to get a look like Alice had done earlier, which was confusing.
Of course Anika came rushing in looking upset, making the four of them worry.
"I need help. The north people hate my tour." She informed us.
"Why?" Tess asked her.
"I maybe told them stories that were kind of slightly totally made up."
"Heh, nice." Max told with a smile, making me use my foot to kick his book forward, making him do the same back.
"They're really mad." She told Max, as the two of us were now throwing our scraps of paper at one another and she focused towards Sal. "Sal, you know everything about the museum. Can you go talk to them?"
"I can't leave now, we're in the middle of this." He told making her sigh and he went over to her with a tablet and I got Max in the face with one of my paper balls.
"Score!"
"Oh I am so getting you back." He told me before throwing another ball, which I used my book to block.
"Here." He told her as he handed it to her.
"Sal's Professional Hunter Museum Audio Tour." She read out before getting excited. "Thanks, Sal."
As she skipped to leave, Max let out a sigh and closed his book, which allowed me to somehow get the ball I threw down his shirt.
"I'm ace's at this game." I told making him give me a fake annoyed look.
"I need a break." Max informed us.
"How do you take a break from doing nothing?" Tess asked in confusion as Max began to walk around.
"This is useless. It's gonna take years to go through all these stupid books." He told tossing his book onto the part of the couch he was sitting on.
"Whoa, easy on the antiques." Tess told him.
"Well, I've just finished all of the R section." I told as I put my last book down into the complete pile.
"You started that like 20 minutes ago." Max pointed out.
"Sav is a fast reader mixed with having a bit of a edict memory when reading." Sal informed him.
"Something my father trained me into handling when he homeschooled me for a bit." I admitted as I went and stood next to Max, making us lean against the bookshelf at the same time.
When we did, the bookshelf moved back and we both looked to see it was in fact a secret door.
"Uh, you guys?" Max spoke to Tess and Sal, who were also shocked by our discovery.
The two of us placed our hands on it and lightly pushed, opening it up and revealed the small dark, covered in cobwebs and dust room. Thankfully there was a light switch next to the door and Max flicked it to reveal the lights still worked. We made our way in and just took it all in.
"A secret library? This is awesome!" Tess told in excitement.
"More books... yay." Max whined as Tess ran over to one of the shelves and looked at all the new books she could read.
We could hear water dripping making us all look up to see there were photos lined up on the top wall, showing all the previous Hunters.
"What's up there?" Max asked not knowing.
"I see dead people." I joked making him smile in amusement at my reference.
"I'm not sure. But it's the perfect habitat for my favourite animal species. Myotis emarginatus." Sal told with a smile making Max chuckle.
"For a minute, I thought you were gonna say bats." He told before looking at the stack of papers he had and Sal gave him a serious look.
"Myotis are bats." He informed him, making him give a worried look.
"It's ok, I'll protect you." I quietly told him.
"My hero." He whispered back making me chuckle.
As the four of us quietly looked around, Tess began to speak over at her section.
"These aren't just any books. This is the history of the Hunter family going all the way back to the 1300s."
"Whoopee." Max sarcastically cheered.
"Could this Saganash actually be a family member of sorts out for some revenge?" I suggested with a slight head tilt.
"Sounds a bit far fetched, don't ya think Sav." Max pointed out.
"It was just a suggestion." I told before Tess spoke up again.
"Check it out. It's a ship's log." Tess informed us of the book in her hand and me and Max moved to join her. "It's a voyage to Indonesia over 300 years ago. Erik's great-great-great-great-great-great... how many greats is that?"
"Six." Sal told as he looked at another book.
"Great-great grandfather was the captain." She informed us as Sal blew dust off of another book.
"That's pretty cool, I guess." Max told.
"My mother would joke that nothing is as smooth sailing as it seems." I told making Max chuckle.
"I like that." He told before seeing the looks Tess and Sal had, making him clear his throat and they stopped.
'Weird.'
"These books are about more then just the Hunters." Sal informed us with a smile on his face.

Once we saw what Sal was on about we all rushed to the kitchen to see Daniel and Anika already there.
"We found Saganash." Sal excitedly told the others.
"Well, what is it? Don't leave us hanging." Daniel told us.
"For starters, it's not a what." I told before Max took over.
"It's a who."
"Saganash is the name of an old merchant family just like the Hunters. They used to do a lot of business together." Sal told as Tess got the photo her and Anika found the other day next to the page of the book Sal had.
"Hey... it's the same guys." Anika pointed out.
"When was this?" Daniel asked.
"1647." Me and Sal told as one with me mostly going off of my memory for the date while Sal read it from the book.
"Wow, that's, Uh..." he started before he began to count with his fingers how long ago was that. "That's a really long time ago."
"370 years." I told surprisingly the others. "My dad was very about math when I lived with him."
"So, what does it mean? How will it help us find Kate and Erik?" Daniel asked, making us realise we had nothing on that part.
"I don't know." Sal admitted.
"At least it's a start." Tess pointed out.
"It's definitely a start." Max added.
'This is a complicated mystery.'