The Investigators, Inc. The Mystery of Balding House. Chapter 11. Decoded.

The girls are still busy with trying to decode the letters on the back of that silver heart that Jenna’s Dad had given her some years ago. The answer will lead us to some hidden treasure of some kind to help Jenna and Roxie live comfortably. At least, that is the hope, though her Dad never really told her what was hidden or what it is for. However, it is important enough that Jenna’s parents and husband were killed over it, so it must have great value, or at least Dancer and his crew believe it is valuable.

I believe it is too, but exactly what this treasure is, kind of escapes me at the moment. It was getting late so I told the girls to stop and continue on the puzzle tomorrow. They complained, a little, but then they agreed that a rest might be the best thing right now, then they can continue right away after breakfast. That way they will be nice and fresh to start the day. As they walked past me I held out my hand. Cynthia sighed and handed me the silver heart and the paper they were using to figure out the letters.

“Thank you Cynthia,” I said, smiling. She sighed again and went off to bed. In the morning, after breakfast, I asked Pacca to join the other girls since she too is a great problem solver and will bring in some fresh ideas. Hopefully they will get things going on this decoding so we can start looking for this hidden treasure, whatever that might be. “Okay, this item, or items, is in a hidden room,” began Pacca, “so perhaps it’s hidden in a safe, which some people refer to as their personal Bank. The M could be telling us something that is in this ‘Bank’. We know that those people have talked about the Big man, or perhaps Big Boss, which they are afraid of, so he must be dangerous, so the first B could be something like Beware, giving us Beware of the Big Boss.”

“Hey, that does make sense,” said Cynthia, “and that X is smaller then the other letters, so I think it’s more like a plus symbol, not a true X, so we would have Beware of the Big Boss + Dancer, because they are Dangerous! Okay, that gives us Behind Winter painting, Tunnel, turn Left, then go Down, head Straight, turn Right, go Down again, do through Door to Hidden Room, find Bank (or safe), M, Valuables. Then Beware of Big Boss + Dancer because they are dangerous!” “Great, but what is that M?” asked Celestine.

That had all of them stumped and they thought about it for over an hour when Carmeline suggested calling Steffie and Roxie for more ‘expert’ advice. They all sighed at one time, but they called the two young girls. They came running and the sentence was read out to them and the girls asked them what they thought the M might be for. Roxie just shrugged, but Steffie jumped onto a big, comfortable chair and thought for a few minutes. “That it!” she exclaimed, “When looking for hidden treasure, follow map!”

Then her and Roxie went out quickly, sliding down the stairs, shouting with glee! The older girls just looked at each other and put the word Map into their sentence. “But that would mean there is a map inside that ‘Bank’, said Jenna, “which means we won’t be finding this hidden treasure anytime soon.” Once they had the whole sentence they came and presented it to me. “Well done girls!” I said, “And it only took 5 of you.” “Um, well, Steffie helped a bit too,” said Cynthia sheepishly. “Oh, I thought so,” I said.

I then called the two girls. “Steve, those two kids will never hear you call like that,” said Jenna, “you have to yell loud!” Just as she finished Steffie and Roxie came running into the library. “What up Daddy?” asked Steffie. “Thank you for helping solve this puzzle about Jenna’s heart,” I said, “and that goes for you too Roxie.” I then hugged them both and off they went to play with the cats. I wonder if the cats have found a new hiding place yet? Steffie keeps finding them no matter where they hide.

Meanwhile, back at the old house. I sent the clues back to Kat and they began right away to follow them. It didn’t take them long to find the door, or I should say, doors, at the end. There were three doors but the clues didn’t say anything about that little problem. Opening the wrong door could have deadly results, so I told Kat that only the ghosts could be there, everyone else had to go outside and across the street for safety. The first door had a stone wall behind it, the second door had a room, but it was completely empty, the third door opened into a fully furnished room, actually 3 rooms.

The ghosts called the girls to come look, except for some guards upstairs. Some of the cats came down too, and some helped with guarding upstairs. They looked all over but could not find a safe, or anything that might look like a bank, even boxes and tins. “This is amazing,” said Kat to me, “there is nothing here at all that could be used for a bank except for what I have already told you. We have checked everywhere and everything.”

“How about mattresses?” I asked. There was silence. “Why would anyone put money in a mattress Steve?” she asked. “People who don’t trust banks,” I replied, “it was quite common years ago, at least in Canada, I don’t know about other countries.” There was silence again. “Maybe it’s the cold weather,” said Kat, “it affects people’s brains, or something.” The girls then checked after the cats went over them sniffing and said that something was in one mattress, but it wasn’t money. They cut open the old mattress and there it was!

To Be Continued. ©2026 Steve McLeod.