Olly, and Izzy each grabbed a piece of the emerald ring design from the box lids.
“What’s inside?” asked Leila.
“Only one way to find out,” said Carter.
Ridley felt slightly nervous, as if she were sticking her hand into the mouth of a wild animal. To her supreme disappointment, she felt nothing inside the box. “It’s empty?”
“It is not,” Theo answered. Pinched between his forefinger and his thumb was a scrap of yellowing paper. The paper looked ancient. Weathered. There appeared to be writing on it in faded black ink. “This was stuck to one side of the box. Check again.”
The others followed his directions, and a moment later, each of them was clasping a similar scrap. “What are they?” Leila asked, holding the paper closer to the light. Her jaw went slack. “This says, ‘Sincerely, Dante Vernon.’”
“It’s a letter,” said Ridley.
“From my dad,” said Leila.
“Torn into six pieces,” said Carter.
“Addressed to whom?” asked Theo.
“Let’s put them back together,” said Izzy. “Just like a jigsaw puzzle.”
Olly scowled. “Izzy, this is no time for games!”
“It’s not a game, silly,” Izzy answered. Then she reconsidered, “Well, it is. But it’s also not. Never mind! Hurry!”
The Misfits each placed their scrap onto the table, matching up the lines of ink just like Ridley had matched the inlay on the boxes. Moments later, the letter was whole again.
Leila leaned forward and began to read the message aloud. “Dear Kilroy—” She gasped. “It’s a letter to Kalagan!”
Leila stared at the page in her hand. “I don’t understand,” she said. “My dad would never have written this. He would never have done this. Starting the fire at the Grand Oak that killed those people?”
“It’s got to be fake,” said Carter.
“But his handwriting—”
“That is one of the easiest things to fake,” said Theo.
Olly and Izzy glanced at each other with worry.
Ridley took a deep breath. “Let’s forget about the content of the message for now.”
“How?” asked Leila, her voice quivering.
“By considering where it came from. The complicated steps that someone took to make sure it reached us. This is obviously Kalagan’s doing. And it’s obviously another ploy to hurt us. To hurt Mr. Vernon. To drive us all apart.”
“But what if it’s true?” asked Carter. “What if Mr. Vernon is the real villain?”
Leila’s eyes brimmed over. “Carter!” she cried out.
“We’ll deal with that when it matters,” Ridley said, reaching for Leila’s hand. “Right now, we need to figure out the trick. Six puzzle boxes. All of them open only when they are placed side by side. Whoever had this letter, whoever tore it into six pieces, once must have had all the boxes. That’s the only way those paper scraps could have ended up inside them.”
“It must have been a really long time ago,” said Theo.
“I’ve had my father’s box with me since I was a toddler,” said Carter, nodding.
“Tell me again how we came by the rest of these?” Ridley asked.
“I found Sandra’s in the basement of the West Lodge,” said Leila.
“Me and Izzy found Bosso’s up at the resort,” said Olly.
“Yeah, but only after someone led us to it,” Izzy added. “Remember that scavenger hunt?”
“Not really,” Olly answered with a shrug.
“Mick Meridian’s box was in his empty music shop,” said Theo.
“Right,” said Ridley. “And didn’t Emily send you a key so that you might find it there?”
Theo nodded slowly, sudden suspicion etched onto his brow. “Could Kalagan have forged that letter? Made sure I got the key to the shop?”
“Yes,” said both twins. “He could have.”
“Then that leaves the final two,” said Ridley. “Mr. Vernon’s and Kilroy Kalagan’s. Which, as we know, came to us yesterday evening. Doesn’t it seem like someone timed it so that we would receive this letter right now?”
“However it got to us,” Leila said, “shouldn’t we bring it to my dad?”
“Do you really want to confront him?” Ridley asked. “What if he tells you something you don’t want to hear?”
“That he did start the fire? He could just as easily tell us the letter’s a fake!”
“How would we know if he’s telling the truth?” Ridley asked.
“My dad is not a liar!”
Ridley took a deep breath. “I’m not saying he is. I don’t want to believe any of this either.” The thought of their beloved mentor doing something so horrible made her feel sick to her stomach. And she knew that if she upset Leila further, the Misfits might scatter. Maybe that’s exactly what Kalagan had been hoping for. “I’m saying… we need to be careful. Maybe it would be better to learn