The Dead Season by Franklin W. Dixon Page B

the money. The hotel itself had less to do with what was happening than we all thought."
    "I do hope you can explain these things," said the detective, "because I'm afraid young Mr. Jamison isn't doing any talking."
    "And Heather?" asked Callie.
    The sergeant said, "We have placed her in the hospital as a precaution for her wound, though it is quite superficial. She may be willing to talk eventually, but I'm not so sure she knows all that much."
    "I suspect she knows very little," said Frank. He looked at his brother and hoped this bit of news would make things a little easier for Joe.
    Gary said, "Well, then, Frank, why is it you think the hotel didn't have so much to do with all of this? After all, Brady Jamison was pretending to be a ghost, and that hurt business."
    "The ghost routine was his cover so that he could snoop around the tunnels and hidden passageways more easily," Frank explained. "If people saw him, as they occasionally did, he wouldn't run the risk of being recognized."
    "That makes sense," said Janet, who had returned from the kitchen with a plate of food for Joe.
    "That was Brady's main goal. He wanted the jewels. I suspect that if he'd found them sooner, he'd have left here and your troubles would have ended."
    Callie looked puzzled. "How do you explain the snake in my bedroom that first night?"
    "My guess is that it happened one of two ways," said Frank. "It might have been an accident. Brady's snooping around roused the snake in the tunnels, and it could have crawled up into the room, or more likely, he did put it there to scare us away."
    "Well, it worked on me." Callie laughed a bit nervously.
    "And the piano playing?" asked Gary.
    It was Joe's turn to answer. "That was Logan," he said. "Although I have to admit, I'm not quite sure what he hoped to accomplish."
    "Yes," said Sergeant Wrenn, looking up from his notebook. "That part has puzzled me also."
    Frank smiled. "You have to remember that Earl Logan completely accepted the legend of Wiley Reed and believed to his dying moment that it was Wiley's ghost that was haunting Runner's Harbor."
    "But why play the piano? That doesn't seem to make any sense," said Janet.
    "It does, or did, to him," said Frank. "Logan spent nearly half his life in prison just thinking about the legend of Wiley Reed and all those jewels. He was obsessed with the idea of finding the gems and being rich. He played the piano in hopes of luring Wiley's ghost out into the open. He thought the ghost would then lead him to the treasure."
    "That's sad," said Callie.
    The people at the table were silent for a moment.
    Gary said, "But how did Logan learn about Wiley and the hotel and the jewels?"
    Joe said, "He said his cellmate hardly talked about anything else."
    "Did he say who that was?" asked the sergeant.
    "No," said Joe. "He died before he answered me."
    Frank said, "Well, we can verify it later, but I'm almost certain his cellmate had to be John Jamison."
    "Brady's father," said Callie.
    Frank nodded.
    The sergeant asked, "How did Wiley get his boat in and out of the secret cave if the only entrance was through the boathouse?"
    "I'll take this one," said Frank. "It had us confused until we remembered the night of the storm and the boathouse flooding with water. Wiley couldn't take the boat in or out - except on a flood tide. He'd have to plan his trips around the tides, but it obviously worked."
    It was Joe's turn to look puzzled now. "Wait a minute," he said. "Was Logan responsible for the song I heard in my room the second night?"
    "No." said Frank. "That was Brady again."
    "But how?" asked Callie.
    Frank pulled a tiny tape recorder out of his pants pocket and set it on the table. He pressed the Play button and "Someone to Watch Over Me" began to play. "I found this in the tunnels the other night. Brady made the mistake of leaving his initials on it. He planted it in a convenient place and turned it on."
    "But why?" asked Joe.
    "So that you would see Heather and think she was