Chapter Seven Benny #2
“Maybe his signature? I always thought it was a circle with letters that just faded from me rubbing the spot so much as a kid.” The stain had bled over whatever letters had once been visible, but Benny could still feel the identation when she ran her fingers along the circle, so tiny it was barely bigger than her pinkie nail.
Zara stared at it, squinting harder. “It must mean something…”
Benny gently took the bird back. “Maybe. Right now, we’re on a dragonfly mission.”
Zara grinned. “Right! Finding your dad will be our next Scooby mystery.” She got back down on the floor and began searching under the rug.
“But speaking of dads, I spoke to mine. He and my mom are going out on a boat for the day to some small island. I asked him to look into a Captain Jonas Kimble and Tesouro Eterno.” She rolled her eyes.
“He geeked out. He told me he’d call me again when they got back to where they were staying tonight. ”
“And your grandmother was okay with Gil?” Benny asked, lifting a framed picture off the wall.
“Yep. She’s in storm recovery mode—leading the charge to move the fundraiser to your vineyard, helping out neighborhoods without power, doing a food drive.” Zara lifted a blue vase on a bookshelf and looked inside it. “I didn’t exactly ask if he could stay with us, but—”
In the other room, they heard a crash.
Gil.
Benny and Zara rushed into the dining room. Gil was holding a cracked frame. “My apologies! I can take this to the blacksmith and see if he has a spare pane of glass to fix this.”
“It’s alright,” Benny took the picture from him. She didn’t have the heart to tell him the Greenport blacksmith shop was a museum now. She checked the back of the frame to see if anything was tucked inside. Of course, there wasn’t. Evelyn was smarter than that.
“I recognized the art style immediately,” Gil said. “Sparrow did this, didn’t she?”
It was a painting of the beach, all seagrass, sun, and clouds. There were no people visible in the photo, though it looked like a tiny island was offshore.
“She loved painting and reading.” He looked hopeful, his feet lifting in Zara’s dad’s too-big shoes. “Perhaps she left something in a sitting room or wherever you keep her books?”
“We already found one clue in the library and one in the attic,” Zara told him. “I doubt there are more in the same place.”
“What about the grounds?” Gil tried. “Sparrow loved being outside.” He smiled. “She was always barefoot. Drove her mother mad.”
“We haven’t looked outside actually,” Benny admitted. “Wally did say some of the trees have been here since Evelyn’s—your—time.”
Gil’s face lit up again. “She was always helping her papa with gardening. And she loved carving her initials into trees. Maybe she carved a dragonfly on one on the grounds.”
Gil might be onto something there. “Let’s head outside and look.”
The garden was beautiful, but there were no dragonfly carvings.
They walked the estate grounds, with no luck either.
By the time they neared the inn, the sky was darkening again, a mist starting to fall, just as they ran into some new guests—a family who had just arrived and were looking for the check-in desk.
“You want to go to across this path and to the larger building over there,” Benny started to explain as the rain fell harder. “Ask for Tim. He will help you get settled.”
“Thanks,” the dad said. He and the mom were holding the hands of a small boy. He was wearing a Greenport T-shirt and trying hard to get away.
“Noo!” the kid whined. “I don’t want to go inside! I want to see the island!”
Benny tensed.
“Kev, we told you. We aren’t staying on Shelter Island.” The dad looked at Benny apologetically. “Sorry. He’s just confused.”
“I’m not con-fuse! The island! See?!” He pointed out toward the waterfront with blueberry-stained fingers.
“Kevin, there’s no island out there, silly goose.” His mom smiled at Benny wearily.
“It keeps saying hi to me! I want to see it!” Kevin pulled harder and broke free of their grasp, running toward the water. His parents raced after him.
And that’s when Benny felt the whooshing in her head start again and suddenly heard voices calling, Welcome, Everly Benedict! Welcome! She took a step toward the water and looked out at the churning waves and saw a flash. The island. Then it disappeared.
Zara grabbed her arm. “What is going on? Now a kid has seen the island too?” She squinted hard. “I don’t see anything. Wait. I think maybe I see something, or is that a buoy? I’m not sure now.”
“I only saw it for a second but I heard it.” Benny focused on her friend, waiting for her breathing to slow. How many other people could see it? She tensed at the thought. By the water, she could see the boy’s parents grab Kevin before he reached the small dock. “I wonder if Gil—where is Gil?”
“Benny! Zara! Come quick!”
Gil waved frantically from the front door. They ran and met him on the front steps.
Gil’s eyes were gleaming as he pointed to the stone sign on the brick wall next to the front entrance. “I think I found the dragonfly.”
Benny looked at the stone sign, etched in a thread of gold leaf, the words fading.
Evelyn Terry Estate, Established 1836
Below the words was a small gold dragonfly.