House of Secrets

House of Secrets

They turned and hurried back down the steps. They knew they needed to make a quick getaway, otherwise they would get caught and they'd managed to go their entire lives without getting caught. Aiden and Eliza had been best friends and partners-in-crime since they were babies. They had grown up together on the same street in suburban East Norfolk, Connecticut. Their parents were friends, their siblings were friends, but Aiden and Eliza had a unique relationship. From the time they had been born, their parents had been bringing them together for play dates and the like. Neither could imagine life without the other, but all that was about to change at the end of summer. Aiden and Eliza were off to college and would be going their separate ways. It would be the first time they hadn't gone to school together since...well, since preschool.

In their neighborhood, a few streets over from where Aiden and Eliza lived was an old abandoned house. They discovered it when they were ten years old, while they were riding their bikes around the neighborhood. Actually, Eliza was the one that found it. She was the bravest of the pair and didn't let anything stand in her way. Aiden had always envied that about his friend, but as he got older he felt like she made him braver and more willing to go exploring.

"Hey Aiden! Look at this!" Eliza shouted from the steps. As usual, Eliza had gotten way ahead of Aiden while they were riding and he was just catching up to her. She had already dumped her bike in the yard and was poking around the house.

"What is it?" Aiden asked, trying to catch his breath as he dragged his short legs up the stairs to the massive wooden doorway of the house.

"It's a house, doofus!" said Eliza. She peeked in the window to see if there was anyone in it before trying the door.

The door slowly creaked open and Eliza stepped inside, leaving Aiden outside to decide for himself if he was going to come in or not. Aiden hesitated because his mom told him before he left to not do anything dangerous and he wanted to listen to her. The last thing he wanted was to spend the summer grounded because he'd disobeyed.

Finally he decided to just go for it. "What's the worst that could happen?" he thought to himself. "There's nobody around." With that, he followed Eliza into the house, hurrying to catch up. If he was going to do this, he definitely didn't want to do it alone.

The house was dark and smelled musty. It didn't look like anyone had lived there in at least a hundred years, yet it was as if the people that lived there had just up and left one day, not taking any of their possessions with them. The furniture was covered in stained sheets and some of the windows had broken panes.

Eliza had scampered halfway up the stairs by this time and Aiden raced to get there too. The stairs were made of dark wood and creaked with every step. Despite the brave face she had put on, Eliza was hoping that the staircase didn't fall out from under them.

Upstairs, there was a long hallway with what seemed like an endless number of doors, all of them closed. Eliza walked along the hall, trying doors, only to find them all shut tight against possible intruders. Both kids were wondering what could possibly be hiding behind those doors that the owners didn't want them to see. Finally, Eliza found a door that opened easily and when they walked into the room they found it to be empty, except for an old-fashioned writing desk that looked like something their grandparents or great-grandparents might have used.

"No wonder we could get in here," Aiden said. "This room is empty except for an old desk."

But Eliza didn't hear him. She was busy trying all the drawers on the desk, looking for a clue to something or a secret hiding place. None of the drawers opened, though. They had all rusted shut with age. After trying all the drawers, Eliza laid down to look under the desk. Taped to the bottom was an envelope. She pulled it off gently since it was starting to fall apart.

"I wonder what's in here," she mused, more to herself than to Aiden, who was looking out the window at the huge expanse of forest that was behind the house. He wondered where it led to. Eliza opened the envelope carefully, to find a key. It was a big key, nothing like the keys she was used to seeing. She wondered what it went to - there were no locks on the desk, so it didn't open any of the drawers.

She looked under the desk again to see if there was some kind of note that went with the key but she found nothing. In fact, she didn't see anything else in the room where there might be a note - the walls were bare, the floor was bare.

"Aiden!" she shouted, snapping him back to reality.

"What?" he replied, turning around to look at his friend, wondering how long he had been spacing out.

"Look at this key I found. What do you think it goes to?" Eliza asked, holding it out for him to look at.

Taking it from her, he examined it, saying "I have no idea. Does it go to something on the desk?" he asked.

"No," Eliza replied, "there are no locks on the desk drawers and there wasn't a note in the envelope. I looked all around and there's nothing else in here except for the desk."

"Hmm," Aiden said. "I have no idea. It's starting to get dark, though. We should probably get out of here."

"Aww, don't be such a wimp, Aiden!" Eliza exclaimed. "It's totally fine."

"I still think we should go. Our parents are probably wondering where we are and I told my mom I would be home by 5," Aiden replied.

"Ok, ok, we can go." Eliza said. "But we're coming back tomorrow. I want to know what this key goes to. I'll take it home with me so it doesn't get lost."

They headed down the stairs and out the front door, making sure to close it behind them. Aiden hoped that nobody would find out they had been somewhere they obviously weren't supposed to be.

The next day, Aiden got up early and went downstairs to use the computer. For only eight years old, he was very adept at using Google - he wanted to see if he could find out anything about the house before Eliza came over. He put the address into the search bar and hit enter. He waited impatiently for the results to come up. When they finally did, he clicked on the very first link, which took him to a newspaper article about a murder that had taken place in the house in 1932. He skimmed the article before hitting print - he knew Eliza would want to see this.

He went through some of the other results that had come up but there was nothing that told him anything about the house other than the murder that had happened there. When Eliza came over later that morning, he showed her the article, which she read quickly, noticing one small detail that he hadn't - the names of the original owners of the house, Elias and Ruby Lindley.

The Lindley family was pretty well known in their small town of East Norfolk. The family had lived in the area for decades and was pretty much considered the founders of the town of East Norfolk. Elias and Ruby were long gone, of course, but some of their family still lived in town. In fact, Eliza's best friend was Elias and Ruby's great-great-great granddaughter. Maybe she would know something about the house.

As Eliza excitedly told Aiden about this, he wondered why he had never known this before. After all, he had lived here just as long as Eliza had. But, he thought to himself, Eliza's dad is the mayor so she knows a lot more about the town history than what we learn in school.

An hour later, Aiden and Eliza found themselves on Lanie's bed, listening with wide eyes as she told the story of how her great-great-great grandparents had come to East Norfolk in 1900 and built the town on a general store. Unfortunately, just as things were starting to take off for the family, which had grown to include the woman who would be Lanie's great-great grandmother, and the town, the Great Depression hit and East Norfolk took the brunt of it. Elias got very sick and the running of the general store fell to Ruby, in addition to raising the children. Understandably, Ruby was very stressed out and one stormy night, she sent the children to a neighbor's house, found Elias' shotgun and killed him, with no good reason, other than she was plain crazy. It's rumored that he tried to wrestle the gun away from her, but she was bent on following through. She dragged the body outside and buried it in the backyard, because she didn't want anyone to know what she had done.

When the children came home, she told them that their father had died. There was a funeral, but Ruby told everyone that Elias had wanted to be cremated, and she had filled an urn with ashes from the fireplace. Ruby and her family continued to live in the house, closing off all but two of the rooms and the kitchen. Eventually, the house was sold and the new owners restored it to its former glory. But the house was never the same - the tale told around town is that Elias was haunting the place to avenge his wife for what she had done to him. To this day, anyone who tries to live in the house is run out within a few weeks by the ghost of Elias. He doesn't want anyone messing with his hard work.

Lanie paused to take a breath and then went on. The house had been empty for years now. The town wanted to tear it down, but the family wouldn't allow it - they were fighting to get it listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Lanie had been told many stories about her great-great-great grandmother over the years by her mother and her grandmother. Her mother had even lived in the house for a few years when she was a kid.

Later that day, Lanie went with Aiden and Eliza to explore the house. Eliza had shown Lanie the key, but she hadn't seen a key like that before either. Eliza thought maybe if the three of them tried together they could figure out what it went to. For the rest of the summer, the three friends spent every possible minute combing the house, trying to find whatever secrets were hidden in it. Unfortunately for them, over the years, the house had been stripped of anything personal and many things had been lost in a fire that had happened several years ago. All that was left was the desk, which had somehow survived the fire.

Eliza and Lanie had a feeling that the desk was a huge clue for that very reason, but they didn't know what the clue was and they certainly weren't sure how to go about figuring it out.

The trio spent many hours at the library, researching the Lindley family and looking at dozens of photographs online, hoping to get some clue as to where the key went and why the desk had survived the fire.

"There must be something in those drawers," Eliza said to Lanie one day as they were leaving the library. It was starting to rain and they wanted to get home before the downpour started.

"I'm sure there is, Lanie replied, but we've tried them all. Not one of them will open."

"I know," Eliza said, trying to keep the disappointment out of her voice. "But there must be some way we can get them open without breaking it."

"We can try again tomorrow," Lanie said. "I'll borrow a screwdriver from the toolbox before I come over."

"Ok, Eliza said, thanks."

Eliza and Aiden went home, talking the whole way about possibly getting into the desk tomorrow. Eliza just knew there was some amazing find to be had in those drawers and she was eager to get started. She had a mystery on her hands and she wanted to solve it.

When she got home, Eliza sat down in front of the bookshelf to look through her collection of Nancy Drew books for tips on solving mysteries. She wished Nancy were a real person and that she could help them solve the mystery in the old house. When Eliza went to bed later that night, she made a wish that they would be able to open the drawers and find some more clues about the house and Lanie's family.

The next morning, Eliza woke up early. Unfortunately, it was too early to get Aiden and Lanie. They had agreed to meet at 10, anyway. They didn't want their parents to wonder what was going on and try to keep them home for any reason. It was still gray and rainy out, although not the downpour that happened yesterday, so they would be safe to ride their bikes over to the house.

When the doorbell rang promptly at 10 a.m. Eliza breathed a sigh of relief, thankful to see Lanie and Aiden on the other side of the door.

"Mom, I'm going to go ride my bike with Aiden and Lanie!!!" Eliza shouted to her mom.

"Ok, honey! Have fun!" her mom shouted back.

"Thanks!" Eliza said, closing the door behind her, careful not to slam it. Her mom hated when Eliza slammed doors.

Arriving at the Lindley's house, the kids parked their bikes on the lawn and climbed the stairs leading to the massive front door. The door creaked open as they entered, with Lanie leading the group. They decided to explore the downstairs thoroughly first, starting with the living room. Aiden and Eliza hadn't paid any attention to the rooms downstairs when they were here yesterday.

On entering the living room, the kids found a big space that looked like a ballroom.

"People must have had parties in here," Lanie said, looking around. The room was empty and the floor was covered with dust and a few dead bugs scattered here and there. One of the windows was cracked and the light fixture was dangling from the ceiling.

"It must have been a beautiful room when the house was new," Eliza said, imagining all the wonderful things that must have happened in this room. It seemed such a shame that such an awful thing had taken place here and nobody could bear to live in the house.

Aiden had wandered away from the girls to see if there were any secrets in the room - a false wall or a trap in the floor, but he found nothing. Disappointed, the trio wandered into the kitchen. The kitchen was also big (it seemed as if everything in those days had been built bigger than it was today). There was a row of cupboards along one wall that must have been used for food storage over the years. The kids opened all of the cupboards, finding nothing but dust. The house could certainly use a good cleaning, Lanie thought to herself. Aiden looked the ovens but found nothing.

After exploring the living room and the kitchen, the kids decided to go upstairs and see if they could get into any of the rooms. Lanie had forgotten to grab a screwdriver from her dad's toolbox before she left so they would have to try again tomorrow anyway. Heading up the stairs, creaking all the way, the kids tried every single door to no avail. They wanted so badly to see what, if anything, was in those rooms. Finally they made it to the room where Aiden and Eliza had found the desk and the key the day before. Eliza showed Lanie the desk, who tried in vain to get the drawers open.

"I'm sorry you guys, I absolutely cannot get these drawers open. I promise to remember to bring the screwdriver tomorrow. We can pry them open with that, hopefully without doing too much damage," Lanie said.

"It's okay," Aiden replied, "it's not a big deal. We can do it tomorrow. In the mean time, I think you girls should come look at this."

"What did you find?" Lanie asked.

"It's in the backyard," Aiden said. "Do you see that patch of grass that's greener than all the rest? That must be where your great-great-great grandfather is buried, Lanie."

"You're right!" Eliza said. "I wonder if there is anything buried with him?"

"Who knows?" Aiden replied, "We could go look, though."

"I am NOT digging my dead relative up, Aiden!" Lanie exclaimed, shuddering at the mere thought of seeing the skeleton of her great-great-great grandfather.

"Ok, ok," Aiden said. "It was just a thought."

Since they weren't able to get into the desk or any of the rooms that day, the friends decided to go to Lanie's house and see if there were any pictures in her family's photo albums of the house or her relatives. Maybe the pictures would give them some clues.

When they got to Lanie's house, they grabbed juices out of the fridge and got to work, relieved that Lanie's mom and dad were at work. They didn't want any of their parents to know what they were up to. Not yet, at least. Luckily, Lanie's mom was really good about keeping the family photos organized and they were able to find the pictures of her great-great-great grandparents easily.

"Your grandmother was so pretty, Lanie," Eliza said. "It's hard to believe that she went crazy and just randomly killed your grandfather."

"I know," Lanie replied. "Nobody in the family ever talks about them, though. From the stories I've overheard, the family got shunned for quite a while after the funeral. People came to the funeral just because they felt they had to, especially once the rumors started going around about what actually happened."

"I wish my family had a juicy secret like this," Aiden said. "It would certainly make my life more exciting, although this is giving me my fair share of excitement for the summer."

As the summer wore on, Aiden, Eliza, and Lanie went to the house as many times as they could. They also continued to do research in hopes of finding something they might have missed. But all they found was what they already knew and they still hadn't figured out what the key went to. They looked through all of the desk drawers, but found nothing. Of course, they weren't exactly sure what they were looking for, but they thought maybe they would find a diary or letters or pictures; something that would give them more clues as to what had happened.

The day before school started, Lanie called Eliza, breathless and excited. "Can you and Aiden come over?" she asked. "I found something you might be interested in."

"Yep," Eliza said. "We'll be right there."

Aiden and Eliza ran the three blocks to Lanie's house, where she met them outside as they sat on the grass trying to catch their breath. "What...did...you...find?" Eliza asked, breathlessly.

"Well, I told my mom that we had been looking through the old photo albums the other day, but I didn't tell her about going to the house, and she got all excited that I was interested. She pulled down a huge box that was full of letters and pictures."

Lanie paused to give her friends a chance to respond.

"That's awesome!" Eliza exclaimed. "What did you find?"

"Well, that's the thing," Lanie said. "The letters didn't tell me much because they're from before Ruby and Elias got married, so of course they are full of love and give no indication that my grandmother would eventually go crazy and kill her poor husband. But, I did find a journal that Ruby must have been keeping for quite a while. She wrote a lot about how unhappy she was, especially now that her husband was ill. She felt like she was the one doing everything - the house, the store, the kids, the garden."

"Wow!" Aiden said. "She must have been pretty unhappy for a really long time to even consider doing what she did."

"Pretty much," Lanie replied. "That's why she went crazy and then felt like she had to cover it up and say that my grandfather had died of whatever illness he had. She knew that the family had a reputation to uphold in town and there were enough rumors going around as it was. She certainly didn't need to deal with the consequences of a murder on top of it."

She never told anyone the truth?" Eliza asked, incredulous that the beautiful woman they had seen in the photos had concocted such an elaborate lie to protect everyone.

"Not as far as I can tell," Lanie said. "The journal ends, though, almost immediately after my grandfather died."

"But we still have no idea what the key goes to, right?" Aiden asked.

"Well, no, but I might have an idea about that," Lanie said. "When we left yesterday, I noticed there was a shed in the backyard. How we didn't notice it before I don't know, since it's in a pretty obvious place, but there could be stuff in there."

Let's go check it out!" Aiden and Eliza said, in perfect unison.

"I can't today," Lanie said, disappointed that she had to let her friends down. "We're having company for dinner and my mom needs me to help her. Plus, school starts tomorrow."

"Well, maybe we can go after school tomorrow" Aiden said.

"Let's do it!" Eliza exclaimed, once again excited about the prospect of what they might find in the shed that they had overlooked all summer.

"Ok" Lanie said. "We can go right after. Tomorrow is a half-day anyway, so we'll have plenty of time before our parents get home from work."

The next day, the friends were anxious with anticipation about what they were doing after school. They were excited to be back at school, but thankful that the first day was short so that they could get on with their sleuthing. Finally, the bell rang and Aiden, Eliza and Lanie met out in front of the school, as they had agreed on the night before. They grabbed their bikes and took off, arriving at the house in record time. They dumped their bikes on the lawn and went around the house to the gate that would let them into the backyard. Eliza pulled the key out of her pocket where she had put it for safe-keeping as they walked up to the shed, which looked as if it might fall down at any moment. There was a big padlock on the front of it. Eliza handed Lanie the key so she could do the honor of seeing if it fit.

With shaking hands, Lanie grabbed hold of the padlock and angled it so she could fit the key into it. Aiden and Eliza held their breath, anxious to see if there was a match. It took some elbow grease, but finally Lanie heard the lock click. The key fit!!!

"Yes!!" Lanie said, excitedly. "Now let's hope that we can find something good in here, after all that work."

Lanie pulled open the door of the shed carefully so that it didn't fall off. She put the lock and key in her pocket so they didn't get lost. Then, she stepped back so that Aiden and Eliza could see into the shed. They just stood there, staring at a wall of boxes.

"How are we ever going to go through all of these boxes?" Aiden asked. He wanted to solve this mystery just as much as the girls did, but now that school had started there just wouldn't be time to come here everyday.

"We're going to take it slow," Lanie said. "We start at the top and work our way down, doing one box at a time for as long as it takes. We'll mark the boxes as we go through them so we can remember what we've done and what we haven't."

"Let's get started then," Eliza said eagerly, reaching to pull down the first box.

She set it on the grass and the kids sat in a circle around it. She opened it slowly - the boxes were old and dusty and there might be bugs in them. Luckily, there wasn't anything creepy crawly in this box. On top was a blanket of some kind. Eliza pulled it out and set it on the grass. Underneath the blanket was a smaller box marked "Jewelry". She pulled that out and handed it to Lanie, who opened it up to find rings and necklaces.

"These must have belonged to my great-great-great grandmother," she said, pulling out piece after piece of what looked like very expensive jewelry.

"It's pretty," Eliza said, trying on one of the necklaces. "Your grandma had good taste."

"She sure did," Lanie agreed. "I wonder if this stuff is worth anything."

"Who knows?" Aiden said eager to see what else was in the box. Sometimes he hated being a boy with two female best friends. Aiden peeked into the box, disappointed to find that it was empty. He sat for a few more minutes while the girls pawed through the box of jewelry. Finally he got bored and stood up.

"I'm going home," he said, bringing his friends back to reality.

"Ok," Eliza said. "We'll go with you. We just have to put this stuff away and lock up the shed. We need to figure out when we can come back and go through another box."

"Maybe over the weekend," Lanie said. "Don't forget we have dance class starting on Wednesday, Eliza."

"Oh, that's right," Eliza said, slapping her palm to her forehead. "Thanks for reminding me!"

Lanie couldn't stop thinking about the stuff that had found in the shed. She wanted so badly to ask her parents about the house and about her great-great-great grandparents. Even though playing detective had been fun all summer, she really wanted to know the real story and she didn't think she and her friends could figure it out on their own. But, she kept her thoughts to herself. She knew she at least needed to mention to Aiden and Eliza that she wanted to spill the story to her parents. On the other hand, she thought, it's my family and I should be able to learn about them however I want. She tried to put the entire thing out of her head for now. She knew she needed to focus on school and dance.

Little did she know that Aiden and Eliza were considering doing the very same thing - telling their parents, that is. Perhaps this mystery was bigger than all of them and it would do them good to enlist some help. They decided they would let it go for now and talk to Lanie about it the next time they had a chance.

As the weeks wore on, summer turned to autumn. Autumn turned to winter and the snow came. School got tougher. Dance got busier, with preparations for the winter show starting not long before Halloween. Going to the house to explore became less and less of a priority for the friends, and they forgot all about even telling their parents what they had found. There just wasn't time to worry about what was in the boxes or in the desk. Eliza kept the key hanging on her bulletin board so she didn't lose it, but eventually it just became second nature that it was there and she didn't even notice it. Eventually the kids stopped even talking about the house.

One day over winter break, Lanie and Eliza were over at Aiden's house when Aiden mentioned that it had been a while since they'd been to the house. Lanie and Eliza had been so busy with dance that they hadn't had time, and of course, Aiden hadn't wanted to go by himself. Lanie brought up that she had considered discussing it with her parents and letting them know what had been found, but had decided against it. Aiden and Eliza told her that they had been thinking about doing the same thing, but decided to leave it alone for the time being. They wanted to wait until they had had a chance to explore the stuff in the shed before they involved their families, or involved Lanie's family, at the very least.

The friends agreed that they would go finish up in the shed the first chance they had. Christmas came and went - Eliza and Lanie were away on vacation and Aiden's family had company for New Year's. They didn't know when they would be able to go again.

The days wore on. School started again. Finally, about a week after school had resumed after winter break, there was a break in the snow and the kids were able to go to the house after school one day. They stopped at Eliza's house on the way to get the key and made it to the house in record time. They wouldn't have much time to get through the mass of boxes before it started to get dark, so they'd have to work quickly.

When they arrived at the house, they made a beeline for the backyard and opened the shed, only to discover that it was completely empty. Every last box was gone; including the one they had marked "jewelry".

"What happened?" Lanie exclaimed, staring in disbelief at the empty shed before her.

"I don't know" Aiden said. "The shed was stuffed full last time we were here and none of has been here in months."

Eliza shook her head. "Someone has been here and it certainly wasn't one of us. Someone doesn't want us to know what was in those boxes."

Suddenly they heard a loud thud that made them jump. "What the heck was that?" Aiden said with a worried look on his face.

"I don't know" Lanie said. "It sounds like it came from inside the house."

"We should go find out" Eliza said, glancing wearily toward the house. It was growing darker by the moment outside, which meant it would be really dark inside and nobody had thought to bring a flashlight.

"There is no way I'm going in there!" Aiden said, moving close to Eliza as if he were seeking protection against whatever had happened in the house. "I bet it was just some furniture or that light fixture in the living room that was hanging by a thread. I think we should just get out of here."

"Come on, Aiden, don't be a wuss" Eliza said, pushing her friend toward the house.

"No, I think Aiden's right" Lanie said. "It's starting to get dark and nobody brought a flashlight so we wouldn't be able to see. I think we should get out of here and come back some other time when it's light out."

"Ok, ok" Eliza said, not wanted to admit that she was just as scared as her friends. Eliza had always been the toughest of the group and often fell into the leadership role, especially when it came to things like this, but this time she was grateful to defer the decision making to the others.

The friends grabbed their backpacks and got out of the yard as quickly as they could. Because of the snow, they hadn't been riding their bikes to school. They were able to get away faster on foot anyway. Aiden glanced back several times to make sure nothing (or nobody) was following them, but so far the coast seemed clear.

Panting, they reached Eliza's yard and ran into the house, collapsing on the floor. "That was close" Lanie said, as she tried to catch her breath.

"It sure was" Aiden said. "It seems like there's someone or something that doesn't want us exploring the house."

"Oh, come on, Aiden" Eliza said, "I'm sure it was just some furniture or something in the house that fell over."

"I don't know" Aiden said nervously.

"Well, whatever it was" Lanie said, "we can figure it out later. Right now, we need to find out what happened to all of the boxes in the shed. I can't think who would have known we had been going through them."

"What if someone was spying on us?" Eliza asked. "I know it sounds crazy, but what if someone has been following us to the house and is watching us without our knowing it?"

"Who could possibly have known that we were there, though?" Lanie asked. "None of us told our parents or any other adults. We never talked about it at school, where our teachers could overhear."

"I have no idea" Aiden said. "I never said a word to anyone, even when my mom kept asking me where I'd been spending all my time. I always told her that I was with you guys riding bikes."

"I wonder if we should tell our parents" Lanie wondered out loud, more to herself than to her friends. "I'm afraid now that something bad might happen if we keep going there."

"We could at least tell your parents, Lanie" Eliza replied. "After all, it is your family and they should know what's going on."

"Eliza's right" Aiden agreed, nodding his head. "At least for now, your parents should be the ones to know."

"All right" Lanie said. Her friends were right. Her parents should know what was going on. She had been feeling bad about keeping it from them. And besides, maybe once she and her friends told them what was going on, they could help them solve the mystery of the desk and why the boxes had suddenly disappeared. Maybe her parents could even tell more stories about Ruby and Elias.

The friends agreed that they would talk to Lanie's parents over the weekend. Lanie and Aiden went home and Eliza headed upstairs to start on her homework, but it was hard to concentrate. She was distracted by the missing boxes and nervous about telling Lanie's parents what she and her friends had been up to, even if they were able to help.

The rest of the week passed slowly and uneventfully. The kids didn't go to the house at all - they wanted to hold out until they talked to Lanie's parents. They thought maybe they could get her dad to go with them and help them figure out what was going on.

Finally, after what seemed like an eternity, Saturday came. Lanie had invited Aiden and Eliza over so that the three of them could talk to her parents about the house together. Lanie wasn't sure how her parents would react to the fact that she and her friends had been exploring the house. Lanie had her fingers crossed the entire time that her parents would be willing to help and that the kids wouldn't be in trouble for what they'd been doing all summer.

When Aiden and Eliza got to Lanie's house, Lanie went upstairs to get her parents. When they came back downstairs, the kids told the whole story about finding the house, finding the key, going to the library to find out about what had happened to Lanie's great-great-great grandparents, going through the pictures. When they got to the part about the finding the boxes in the shed and going back the next day to find the boxes gone, they hesitated. This was the part that had been least looking forward to sharing with Lanie's parents, but they knew they had to tell the whole story if they wanted to solve the mystery.

When the kids had finished telling the story, Lanie's parents started laughing. "What's so funny?" Lanie asked.

"We already knew that someone had been there. Your dad was working on cleaning stuff out of the house, which is why the boxes were missing, so that we can get it ready to sell" Lanie's mom said.

"That crashing sound you heard was probably me" her dad replied. "I dropped a bucket that I had been using."

A sense of relief came over the kid's faces and they started laughing, too. "So the house isn't haunted?" Eliza asked.

"Nope, Lanie's mom replied, unless you consider Lanie's dad a ghost."

"We just wish you had told us you'd been going there. I was worried that someone was trespassing that shouldn't have been." Lanie's dad said, giving each of the kids a stern look.

"We're sorry" Aiden said, hanging his head sheepishly. "We just wanted to try to find out what happened to Lanie's great-great-great grandparents."

"We would have been glad to tell you, if you had just asked" Lanie's mom explained. "We weren't keeping the family history a secret on purpose. We just didn't think Lanie would really be interested until she was a little older."

"Oh" Lanie said. "Well, we'd like to know now. We had hoped we might find some cool stuff in the shed, but we didn't have a chance to finish going through the boxes."

So, Lanie's parents told their daughter and her friends the true story of what had happened to Ruby and Elias. The kids listened carefully, enthralled by the story, and glad to finally have the mystery solved.

Since Lanie's parents were getting the house ready to sell, they wouldn't be able to go there anymore, but they could help get it ready. The boxes from the shed were in Lanie's garage and the kids were more than welcome to go through them and see what was there. As it turned out, the key not only went to the lock on the shed, but to a trunk that was in the shed...a trunk that had lots of old papers and diaries, creating even more mystery.