I find the flyer and put it on my desk. Julia’s notebook goes on top. I open the box to make sure everything’s inside: the encrypted poem, the drawing on the scroll, the necklace with the key—
Wait a second.
I bring the oval pendant closer and inspect it. On the left side there’s a tiny lump of metal sticking out. It looks almost like…a hinge.
“Holy hell.”
This isn’t just a pendant. It’s a locket.
I flip open Julia’s notebook and find the last two transcribed lines of the poem:
If you seek the lock and key
You will have to dig down deep
Lock and key. The necklace has both a key and alocket.
I shake my head. “Gilbert Baker, you tricksy minx.”
I slide a fingernail between the thin layers of metal on the right side of the oval and pop it open, expecting to find another note or maybe even a photo of where to dig. But instead, inside the locket itself is…a mirror.
“If you seek the lock and key,” I say, studying the locket. “So you need toseethe lock and key before you know where to dig. But the locket is a mirror. Which means…to know where to dig…you have to look in…”
I lay the necklace down on my desk and pull out the scroll.But this time I don’t look directly at it. I unroll the page in front of my mirror and study its reflection.
Nothing jumps out from the picture at first. It’s still the samewoman in the boxy floral dress pointing. The same bear and snake battling the octopus. The clock, the sink, the Shades…
The two boys with sailboat hats.
“Golden Gate Bridge,” I say.
The craziest idea comes over me. Slowly, I rotate the scroll clockwise, still looking into the mirror. If the sailboat hats are the Golden Gate Bridge, then that clock-shaped fountain on the Greenwich Steps should be…
“Here,” I say, pointing exactly where the grandfather clock falls in the picture.
The Union monument is just south of the steps, matching up with the drawing of the bear, snake, and octopus perfectly. And there’s the Legion of Honor in the northwest corner, whereThe Three Shadesare depicted in the corner of the scroll.
I can feel the little hairs rising on the back of my neck. Goose bumps travel down my arms, from my shoulders to where my fingers are now digging into the paper.
“Holy shit.” I shake my head.
Gabriel and the others were right. The scroll reallyisa map of San Francisco.
Cam and I just had it backward.
We needed to look in a mirror to see it properly.
I look over at the woman in the floral dress, and suddenly, as if it only appeared in the last ten seconds, I notice it. Within all the flowers roping across her dress is a single strawberry over her rib cage. Exactly where Strawberry Hill is.
The womanisthe aerial view of Golden Gate Park.
I read through the whole poem again.
Congratulations! You have found
The San Francisco Bonus Round
For of my treasures, far and wide
