Baby, You're a Rich Man

Chapter 15

"Radio edit," I muttered. "Of course." I had been thinking that Milford had been referring to a particular song, but I realized, as I looked at the now-usable radio set, that Ritchie had "edited" the machine in a sense. And Milford had promised that the next clue would lead us to a location—well, this was the location.

"It still doesn't explain how the clue got in a cassette player," Patty said thoughtfully. "I mean...I don't even think they had cassette players back then. But it's another clue, and that's what we needed."

"Charlie, do you know where Milford is referring to?" Ritchie asked.

I shook my head. "There are lots of places he could be referring to."

"Let's take it to Bryan and Mary and see what they think," Patty said excitedly.

We found Bryan and Mary doing homework in the common room...or, to be more specific, Mary was doing homework while Bryan distracted her with pointless chatter.

"We found another clue," I announced.

They both looked up intently, clearly shocked.

"I wasn't convinced we'd find that fortune before school got out," Mary said seriously.

"Well we haven't found the fortune," Patty reminded her. "But thankfully, I think we're getting close."

"What does the clue say?" Bryan asked impatiently.

I cleared my throat and read: "To the left and in the heart...now that's a good place to start."

"We think there are lot's of places that would work," Ritchie added. "It might be hard to narrow down."

"Where did you find this clue?" Mary asked.

"The library," Patty replied.

"Then I think there's only one place it could be referring to," Mary continued.

"Where?" Bryan said.

"Think! What's directly left of the library?"

"A staircase," I said.

"And where does that staircase lead?" Mary prompted.

"The detention basement!" Patty blurted. "The fortune is in the detention basement!"

"Great, let's go!" I told them.

Ritchie shook his head. "It's not that simple."

"Yeah," Bryan agreed. "We aren't allowed down there unless..."

"Unless what?" I asked blankly.

"I guess...unless we have detentions," Bryan finished.

My heart sank. I was willing to go pretty far in order to find this fortune, but I didn't know if I could bring myself to earn a detention on purpose.

The other four, however, looked enthused.

"Great, so over the next week, we earn ourselves detentions," Patty said simply. "Detentions are held Friday nights, and they lock us in separate rooms, so that will allow us to search each room."

I shook my head. "How about you guys get detentions and I stay in my dorm."

"The more rooms we can search, the better," Ritchie said. "We've gotta all commit to this if we wanna find the fortune."