Emma was in her bedroom, playing Crokinole with her younger brother, Max. Instead of the regular pieces, though, the round wooden board was covered with Smarties. Every time one of them got a Smartie into the ground hole in the centre of the board, they got to eat the candy-coated chocolate piece.
Emma was very, very bored. Her parents had taken a working holiday to Los Angeles, and she was stuck babysitting for the entire week.
She was just about to tell Max that it was time to get ready for bed when Emma heard something rattle against her window.
Elle allait dire à Max qu’il était temps de se préparer pour aller au lit quand Emma entendit quelque chose racler sa fenêtre.
“What was that?” Max asked. He sounded excited. Her brother was obsessed with adventure stories—he probably thought this was just like the beginning of one of his favourite movies.
“C’était quoi ça?” Demanda Max. Il avait l’air excité. Son frère était obsédé par les histoires d’aventures—il pensait probablement que c’était juste comme le commencement d’un de ses films préférés.
“I don’t know.” Emma got up and went over to the window. Then she laughed. “Jacob!” She opened the window, and Jacob climbed inside. He looked winded, and he was holding an old wooden box awkwardly under one arm.
“Hey.” He kissed her quickly, and nodded to Max. “Hey buddy. You’re up late.”
“Mom and Dad are out,” Max explained. “And if you tell me I have to leave I’ll tell Mom and Dad that Jacob crawled in your window,” Max told his sister importantly.
“Brat! Mom and Dad won’t care that Jacob came to visit,” Emma said.
“At eleven o’clock at night?” Max said, pointing at the clock.
“Why are you here?” Emma asked her boyfriend. “Not that I’m not glad to see you,” she added with a smile.
Jacob smiled back, but it was quick and faded fast. He held out the wooden box he was holding for Emma to see. “I think…someone’s after this. Or me. But I think it’s this.”
Jacob lui sourit aussi, mais son sourire s’effaça rapidement. Il tendit à Emma la boîte qu’il avait pour qu’elle puisse la voir. “Je pense que…quelqu’un est après ça. Ou après moi. Mais je pense que c’est ça.”
“What do you mean, after it?” Emma asked, her smile wobbling.
“Ça veut dire quoi, après ça?” Demanda Emma, en souriant timidement.
“My dad. Um…” Jacob clenched his jaw for a second, fighting back some strong emotion that Emma couldn’t name. “He…died.”
“Mon père. Euh…” Jacob serra la mâchoire une seconde, refoulant une forte émotion qu’Emma ne pouvait pas connaître. “Il est…mort.”
“Oh my God. What? Jacob, I’m so sorry.” Emma reached out for a hug, but Jacob caught her hand instead, squeezing it.
“Oh mon Dieu. Quoi? Jacob, je suis tellement désolée.” Emma tendit la main pour lui faire un câlin, mais Jacob prit sa main à la place, et la serra.
“He was looking for a hidden treasure,” Jacob said. “And I think….maybe whoever killed him is after it, too.”
“Il cherchait un trésor caché,” dit Jacob. “Et je pense…peut-être que la personne qui l’a tué est après ça, aussi.”
“Someone killed him?” Max gasped.
“Yeah. And they broke into my house tonight.”
Emma gasped. “Are you okay?! Jacob, we should call the police!”
“Yeah, no, we should, but… I just want to understand what this is, first. If we call the police they’ll take it away as evidence.” Jacob sat down on the ground, putting the box in front of him. Emma came to look, and Max edged closer, too.
“It’s…a puzzle box,” Emma said, surprised. There were two small circles etched into the box. Sixteen small round spheres in different colours of wood were set into tracks carved into the lid, so the spheres could be moved around the box.
“The treasure belonged to a man named Levi Boone Helm. I don’t know if this box is his, but my dad was looking for that treasure, and this was in his stuff.”
Max reached out and pushed a few of the spheres around the tracks, but nothing happened. “How do we unlock it?”
