The Case of the Missing Deed Read Online Free Page B

by the soft brush of a kiss on his cheek. He opened sleepy eyes to see his mom and dad and remembered they were going home to Victoria, to work, and would be back in a week to pick him and Olivia up. He said goodbye and rolled over to go back to sleep. Beside him, in a sleeping bag on the floor, Sébastien snored softly.
    Alex closed his eyes, but he didn’t feel sleepy anymore. He tried to slide back into the dream he’d been having, about kicking the winning soccer goal, but it refused to let him in. He thought about how cozy he was in the sleeping bag and took slow, deep breaths. Nothing worked. He couldn’t get back to sleep, and he knew why.
    Grandma.
    She looked terrible. She wasn’t eating. She probably wasn’t sleeping. She was nervous and upset and sad – not like the old Grandma he knew and loved.
    Something had to be done. But what? They’d searched the cottage for the deed, and even though it had to be there somewhere, they were all stumped. Without it, Grandma would lose the cottage, and that would be –
    No. It was too horrible to think about.
    Again, his mind came back to the thought:
We’ve got to do something
. I’ve
got to do something
.
    But what?
    No clue.
    Oh, if only Grandpa were here, Alex thought, rolling onto his back and gazing at the ceiling. If he were, Alex would get him to go fishing, and while they were drifting in the canoe, the only sound the plop of their lines hitting the water, he’d say, “Grandpa, Grandma’s in trouble. What can we do?”
    And Grandpa would say …
    But that’s the trouble
, Alex thought, flopping over again.
Grandpa isn’t here, and there are no answers, and everything is a muddle
.
    Wide awake now, he slid out of his sleeping bag – careful not to wake Sébastien – put on his glasses, got dressed, and tiptoed downstairs. Passing the living room, he saw that the girls were still asleep, Geneviève on the couch and Claire and Olivia on the floor.
    Entering the kitchen, Alex spotted a box on the counter.
Heaven Preserve Us
it said.
Yum!
That was Muriel’s company. With the berries she harvested from her patch, she made jams, preserves, syrups – and delicious muffins. He opened the box. Twelve plump blueberry muffins sat in rows.
    For a moment, Alex stood there, puzzled. How had they got there? Had his parents gone to Muriel’s general store at the crack of dawn, driven back to the cottage, and then left again for the ferry? No, that didn’t make sense. But then …?
    A peal of laughter coming from the beach gave him the answer. He looked out the window. Yup – Aunt Eve and Charlie. They were strolling, hand in hand, near the water’s edge. He couldn’t hear what they were saying, but their laughter carried on the breeze.
    Alex knew that Sébastien didn’t like his mom’s new boyfriend, but Alex thought Charlie was okay. Although if
his
parents split up and
his
mom showed up with a new guy, Alex knew he wouldn’t like it one bit either. So he couldn’t blame his cousin.
    Alex took a muffin and bit in. Mmm … The blueberries were juicy and sweet. Muriel sure was a good cook.
    Of course, Alex thought loyally, she wasn’t the only one. Grandma was too. Or at least she used to be. Alex sighed, remembering how they’d all wander into the kitchen on summer mornings, sleepy and hungry, to find Grandma making fruit salad and omelets and cinnamon rolls, her cheeks flushed and her apron spotted with berry juice.
    Suddenly he had an idea.

    One by one the cousins straggled into the kitchen: first Claire, wide awake and instantly ready to go out and play; then Sébastien, his dirty blond hair hanging in his eyes, a book of Grandpa’s brainteasers tucked under his arm; next Olivia, her glasses smudged with charcoal fingerprints, her ever-present sketchbook in hand and a pencil tucked behind her ear; and finally Geneviève, her eyes bloodshot as if she hadn’t slept well, already flipping open her phone.
    Alex waited until each of them had discovered