Wilma Tenderfoot: The Case of the Fatal Phantom by Emma Kennedy Page A

then she might not be in such a sticky mess. Again. That was two Golden Rules—following orders and NOT mucking things up spectacularly—broken in one! Wilma screwed her face up in thought. “Well, we did get a massive new clue about Tarquin Blackheart and the debt,” she said. “And I’ve got the diary—even if I don’t know what to do with it. And it’s up to us to warn Mr.Goodman about Barbu D’Anvers! Maybe those things will make up for the rubbishy bits. Come on, Pickle. We need to get a move on.”
    “Stuck here?” wailed Inspector Lemone, pacing around the drawing room. “I knew it! We shouldn’t have come! And now we’re trapped!”
    “Hopefully it won’t be for long, Inspector,” said Theodore with a small sigh. “But there’ll be no getting back to Clarissa Cottage tonight. Not in this weather.”
    “Mr. Goodman!” yelled Wilma, rushing into the room, Pickle on her heels. “Terrible news. Barbu D’Anvers is here with Janty. And guess what? They’re after the treasure! They’ve just arrived, so I don’t think THEY’RE the pretend ghosts, but nonetheless …”
    A deep frown set into the detective’s face. “Are you quite sure, Wilma? Nobody has mentioned him being here.”
    “I just saw Janty in the map room,” she panted. “He said they’re here to collect a debt. Apparently Tarquin owes him loads of money.”
    “Is that so?” said Theodore, reaching for his notebook. “How interesting.”
    “And Janty took the plans of the estate you asked me to fetch,” Wilma added quickly. “He beat me to them, Mr. Goodman. I’m very sorry.”
    Theodore let out a small exasperated groan and rested his hand on the mantelpiece above the fire, staring thoughtfully into the flames. “All right,” he said eventually, looking back up. “This changes everything. It is imperative that we find that treasure before Barbu D’Anvers. We can worry about the whos, whys, and wherefores after. The game is on, Wilma. The game is on!”
    Indeed it is. But WHO will get to the treasure first?

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    “Y es. The presence of Barbu D’Anvers,” re-peated Theodore, “has made finding the treasure our top priority. You can write that down in your notebook if you like, Wilma.”
    Wilma beamed and made a quick scribble. “This is like when you solved the Case of the Dodgy Duck. Do you remember? Barbu turned up then too, didn’t he? Disguised as a chicken.”
    “He did, yes,” answered Theodore, twitching his mustache. “But back to this case—without those plans we are at a disadvantage.”
    Wilma’s eyes flashed. “The thing is, Mr. Goodman,”she began, reaching into her pocket, “I have this. It’s Bludsten Blackheart’s diary.”
    The great detective dashed to her side. “Well done, Wilma. But where did you find it?”
    “In the library. Vic…I mean, I…It’s very hard to read…it’s full of funny symbols and pictures, but I did find these …” Opening the diary, Wilma thumbed her way to the page that was folded over and sealed at the top and bottom. Inside the improvised envelope were the three pieces of paper. Wilma hopped down from the sofa and laid them out on the floor. “The lines on the papers just look like random squiggles, but I think what you might call a Hunchy Instinct tells me Bludsten must have made them for something. And look—Cooper village names as well.”
    Mr. Goodman bent over to study the papers. “Interesting,” he murmured. “I wonder…if these squiggles are routes.”
    “Like on a map? Do you think it’s anything to do with the treasure?”
    “Yes. If we plotted these routes over an oldmap of Cooper, we might have ourselves a clue.” Theodore nodded. “Good work, Wilma.”
    Wilma beamed. She’d gotten something right at last.
    “What we need now,” continued Theodore, “is a map of Cooper that was drawn in the time of Bludsten Blackheart. Wilma, Inspector Lemone, we’re going to see Dr. Flatelly. We shall need snowshoes. Can you find Portious and