Molly Moon & the Morphing Mystery (17 page)

O
utside the French window, yet another flash of lightning lit up the hotel's winter garden. Hail began pelting down, ricocheting off the mossy paving stones and hitting the statue of the winged cupid in the center of the pond like ice bullets.

“This is only the beginning of it,” Black declared, sinking his hands into his trouser pockets and gazing up at the sky. A twig struck the window.

“I don't believe it,” said AH2, staring at Molly. “You're not an alien! You're a hypnotist. I saw. I saw you when you took my head over.”

Black threw a glance back at AH2. “Is he safe, Molly?”

Molly considered AH2. He was a fanatical person, but he was also very clever. If things were about to get
more dangerous, he might be just the person to have on their side. After all, he had been in Molly's head, so he understood things. And she had been in his head and trusted him.

“He's good,” she said. “Brainy, too. His name is Malcolm Tixley.” She nodded at their new friend. “You might be able to help us, Malcolm,” she said. Then she turned to Black. “So, Mr. Black, you'd better lay it out for us.”

As if addressing the clouds that hid the sun, Black began. “
Hypnotism, Volume Two
:
The Advanced Arts.
Where shall I start? Let me give you its story first. It was written and made by your great-great-grandfather Dr. Logan. It was kept in the library at Briersville Park. Logan died. And the book stayed in the family for years. Secretly. Then it was stolen. Stolen by a family of hypnotists called the Speals.”

“Speal said it had been stolen from
them
!” Micky exclaimed, moving closer to the fire to keep warm.

“Well,” carried on Black, “the Speals kept the book for a while. They were responsible for the terrible storms in England in 1953. Then the book was rescued back by the Logans. Again it stayed in Briersville, this time safely hidden. But next, a bad Logan cropped up—your uncle Cornelius. I knew him at school. That's where I come into the story. Miss Hunroe
knew Cornelius as well, you see. We were all at school together, a long time ago.”

“Ah!
That
must have been why Cornelius was so excited when Miss Hunroe arrived at Briersville that night,” Molly said to Micky. Black nodded.

“When his father died, Cornelius got the run of Briersville Park. I heard of his inheritance and guessed that he would have found the book. I knew it would be a disaster for either him or Hunroe to have access to the book. So…” Black stopped and looked awkwardly at the twins. “So I stole it.”

“You stole it?”

“Well, I had to.” Black paused and fiddled with a button on his shirtsleeve. “I had it for years, and no one guessed that it was me who had stolen it. So it was safe with me. In the fabulously secure casino building of my brother's. Lily said you saw the book. Well then, you must have seen the three flat colored stones in the corners of its front cover.”

“And we saw the fourth stone,” Molly said, popping a chocolate into her mouth. “Speal had it. It was blue. She treated it like some sort of super-precious thing. Mmm. Toffee.”

“Ah, so that is where it has been all these years. Well, Miss Speal is right. That blue stone is very precious. And that's why the book is extra precious. The stones
on its cover are the key. Each one of those stones can help change the weather on its own. If I was holding a stone now, for instance, I could change the weather near here. A stone on its own has limited power. All four stones together can make mammoth-scale, worldwide weather changes happen, but to do this the holder of the stones has to be in a very special place.”

“Where?”

“And you think that is where Miss Hunroe is going right now?” Micky guessed, opening a smart leather-covered atlas that lay on the table.

“I am sure of it.”

Black played with the heavy sashes that tied back the curtains as he spoke. “I think that Miss Speal has been manipulating the weather with the piece of blue stone for a long time. We've had monsoonlike downpours in London lately, and do you remember that mini cyclone that went over Primrose Hill?” As he spoke, a massive blade of lightning jagged across the dark sky. “Now Hunroe has the whole book and, so, all the weather stones. She has the power to cause typhoons, hurricanes, high seas, tidal waves, tsunamis, and droughts. She could drown millions in an afternoon. If she decides that the rain should stop, crops die, and then millions of people have nothing to eat. She could cause millions of people to die slowly, of starvation.”

Black sounded so serious that Petula whimpered and hid her nose in the crook of Molly's arm.

“Wow, just think of the good things you could do with the weather stones,” Micky interjected. “You could make it rain where there were droughts. You could make a jungle grow in the Sahara Desert! These stones sound fabulous, Mr. Black.”

“Don't they? But remember, there is a flip side to the power of the stones. They can be used for enormous good or enormous evil.”

“And you don't have a set of time crystals?” Molly asked him, eyeing his vast collection of pendulums. “Because if you did, well, I could easily sort this all out.”

Black shook his head. “Sadly, I've never had my own.”

“Hmm.” Molly sighed, thinking how simple everything would be if she could use her time-stopping or time-traveling skills.

“I wonder whether Hunroe knows how to use your crystals,” Black said. “I don't think she could, or she would have used them by now.”

“Maybe, then,” Molly mulled, “we should just call the police and have her arrested. Then I might get my crystals back. And then we could sort everything out.”

“She'll be long gone from the museum by now,” Black said knowingly.

“How are you so sure that Hunroe wants to do bad things with the weather?” Micky said. “I mean, I know she's not exactly a cuddly doll, but maybe she's simply hoarding the book and the stones like an evil squirrel might.”

“I know Miss Hunroe,” Black said. “Believe me, she is as twisted as a person can be. She looks wonderful, like a superstar beauty, but underneath she is as rotten as a gangrenous wound. Underneath she hates everyone. She's a misanthrope.”

“A misanthrope?” Molly asked.

“A misanthrope,” said Micky, “is someone who hates other people.”

“Yes,” agreed Black. “And Hunroe is that sort of person. When she hates, she really hates. I remember once at school we had a lecturer come to talk to us about the world's population, about how there were too many people on the planet. And I always remember Hunroe in that class. She must have been about ten. She said, ‘Why don't governments just poison the water supplies of the major cities?' She wasn't joking, though the lecturer thought she was. With the book in her hands, the world is in serious danger.”

“Let's go back a bit,” Malcolm interrupted. “All this
stuff about the stones on the book's cover—
how
do they actually change the weather?”

Just then, Dot opened the door and came in with a tray of cups and a tall silver pot. On a plate was a pile of buttered crumpets.

“Hot chocolate and crumpets. You all look like you need it. Don't mind me,” she said.

“Ooh, thanks!” said both Molly and Micky, helping themselves.

“That is just what the doctor ordered,” said Black as Dot handed out linen napkins. “Hmm. Yes, where were we? Well, the book's stones, once taken from their places on the book's cover, can be rubbed, and as I said, the weather about them
where they are
changes. Each stone represents one of the elements. The blue stone represents water; the orange, fire and heat; the gray, wind; and the green-and-brown stone is earth. Each one of these stones affects the weather, but used in any old place like this the effects are haphazard. For
controlled
weather changing—to change weather in different countries thousands of miles away—there is a special place where these weather stones have to be taken. And this is where Miss Hunroe will be heading. In the chapter of the book called ‘The Logan Stones,”' Black continued, “where weather manipulation is explained, Dr. Logan refers to this place. Dr.
Logan found the Logan Stones, obviously, for they bear his name. They are great rocking stones, huge things. One is orange, one gray, one blue, one green.”

“Like the chips of stones on the book's cover?”

“Exactly. Logan describes in the book how the miniature pieces of stone dripped off the big Logan Stones. Apparently the giant stones are hard as diamond. Little pieces cannot be chipped off them. But
he
managed to cause the rocks to ‘drip' to produce the little stones for him. I have no idea how.
But
what I do know is this. In
Hypnotism, Volume Two: The Advanced Arts
, he states that if you stand in the very center of the ring of the stones, in the very center of the force field that the four big Logan Stones make, with the four colored stones in your hand, and if you rub the stones with your fingers, using your imagination, and going into a hypnotic trance to think up the weather that you would like to see in the world, that new weather will
happen
.”

“It sounds out of this world,” Molly said. “Amazing that our great-great-grandfather found this place a hundred years ago. It sounds like it's from the future.”

“Yes, or like some ancient place from the beginning of time,” Black remarked.

“Well, what are we waiting for?” Micky asked, with a mouth full of crumpet. “Why don't we just go there?”

Black looked beaten.

“The book doesn't hold exact directions,” Black said. “It simply has a clue in it. A riddle.”

“A riddle?”

“Yes. In the back of the book there is a line that says, ‘Where there is a quill, there is a way. Muse o' life, and you will find.' Muse means ‘think' in Old English. Muse o' means ‘muse on.' In other words, ‘Muse o' life, and you will find' means ‘Think about life, and you will find the answer.' It could be anywhere.”

“No,” said Micky, wiping his mouth. “It couldn't be anywhere. That riddle must mean something extremely specific.”

“Yes, well, you're probably right,” Black admitted. The hopelessness that he felt was evident in his voice.

“And lucky for you, Mr. Black,” said Micky, “I happen to have a fondness for riddles.”

“He does,” Molly agreed, stroking Petula. “Micky's really into crosswords and word puzzles.” Black gave a halfhearted smile.

“In fact,” Micky went on, “half of the riddle is obvious to me already.”

“What half?” Black asked, perking up.

“The second part.”

“What, ‘Muse o' life, and you will find'? What does it mean to you?”

“Well,” Micky went on. “I think you've got the O wrong. You think it means ‘muse o' life,' as in ‘muse
on
life,' as in ‘think about life.' But I think the O means ‘of,' and it says ‘muse
of
life.' And I think muse is short for museum.” Micky bit his lip and smiled. His smile was infectious. “What museums are there?” he asked.

“Art museums,” Molly suggested. “Science museums, history museums…and…”

“And?”

“And natural history museums!”

“Yes. They have the history of the planet, of animals and minerals, and of humans, don't they? A natural history museum is a museum of life, isn't it? Yes, I think, ‘muse o' life,' Mr. Black, might be the same thing as ‘museum of life.' I wonder, is it one big coincidence that Miss Hunroe and her horrid cronies hang out in the natural history museum?”

“You're a genius!” Molly exclaimed. Quickly she cast her mind back to Miss Hunroe's library. She remembered the painting that hung above the fireplace. She had thought it of a strange, uprooted, pointed poplarlike tree. “The picture!” she said. “The picture over the library fireplace! It wasn't of a
tree
—it was of a feather quill! What was the first line of the clue, Mr. Black?”

“Where there is a quill, there is a way.”

“Your turn to be a genius,” Micky said. The twins looked at each other. This was turning into a treasure hunt. And both knew that venturing back to the museum and sneaking about in Hunroe's rooms was a job that would be best done by them alone.

“Hopefully,” Micky said, “Hunroe and her friends are already miles away from London, on their way to these Logan Stones.”

Molly nodded. “The rooms in the museum will be empty. I don't expect they will have left the book behind, but maybe the next clue to where the Stones are will be there.” Molly sighed. “Only a few days ago I was wishing my life was more exciting and adventurous.”

“You have to be careful what you wish for,” Micky said.

Molly gave Petula a squeeze. Outside, a rumble of thunder boomed out of the now charcoal sky, making the windows of the hotel rattle.

“D
o you really think Petula needs to come?” Black asked.

It was properly dark now. Micky, Molly, and Petula were sitting in the backseat of Black's old Mercedes that was parked by the corner of the natural history museum, near its second entrance. Malcolm Tixley was in the passenger seat beside Black. His eyes followed the journey of the half-bent wipers as they swept left and right at the sloshings of water that pelted down on the windshield.

“Petula's good luck,” Molly explained. “She's like a mascot. In fact, she has often helped me. She's been all over the world with me, forward
and
backward in time, too. She's part of the team, isn't she, Micky?”

“Absolutely,” Micky replied. “Wow, it's wet out
there.” A rumble of thunder rolled through the sky as if in agreement.

Black turned off his engine. “Here are a couple of flashlights for you. You may need them. We'll wait for you here.” He consulted his watch. “Remember, if you're not back by midnight, I'm coming in.”

Molly read the luminescent clock on the dashboard. It was ten fifteen. “We'll be fine,” she said, far more confidently than she felt. “Don't worry about us. Anyway, Malcolm, your red box can still track me, right?”

“Yes,” said Malcolm, pulling his gadget out of his pocket and switching it on. It bleeped reassuringly.

“Good. And you never know, we may find my time-stopping crystals and time-traveling gems in there somewhere. Then, wow, everything would be really cool. Ready, Micky?”

Standing in the rain outside, Micky rang the bell. Water seeped under the elastic wristband of Molly's jacket. She held Petula tight.

A light came on inside the building and the night watchman, an elderly, whiskered man with a blue uniform, came through the inner safety door of the museum and peered out through the football-sized peephole of the main door. He couldn't see much as the glass was so wet, but it was clear that the two people
outside were children. He knew how dangerous the London streets could be at night, so he reached behind him to lock the safety catch of the inner door, and then he reached for the bolt of the main door.

“Hello, are you two all right?” he asked. “It's raining cats and dogs out there.”

The little girl came forward.

“We're lost,” she said in a wobbly voice. “We're lost. We ran away from home, see, and now we're lost.”

“Ran away from home? Lost? Dear me!” The night watchman glanced out at the empty, black, glistening street that bounced with rainwater. Then he looked at the two straggly, sodden children and their black pug. They were harmless.

“Come on in, then,” he said kindly, beckoning them inside.

“I'm very sorry,” said Molly as the old man led them through the second door into the museum, toward his office. “And thank you very much.”

“What on earth are a nice couple of kids like you doin' runnin' away from home?” the watchman asked. “That's what I want to know.”

Molly considered the man. Hunroe would have definitely hypnotized him, she thought. Hypnotized him not to be hypnotized by anyone else. Hunroe would have locked her hypnotism in with a password.
But if Molly
found out the password
, then she could override Miss Hunroe's hypnotism. So, using the skill that no one else knew she had, she opened a thought bubble over the man's head, and she asked him, “What is the password that Miss Hunroe used to lock in your hypnotism?” The old man frowned.

“I'm sorry? I don't think I understand your question, dear. Come into the office and have a hot chocolate or a cup of tea or something. We'll sort everything out there.” But as he spoke, a picture of an apple appeared above his head. Then she switched on her eyes.

As the hypnotic lasers of her pupils beamed into the old man's, she said, “I unlock your previous hypnotism with the word ‘Apple,' and now, I'm sorry, I mean, you are a very nice old man and all that, but until I set you free, you are now completely and utterly under my power.” Like a creature born to obey her, the old man stood obediently in front of Molly.

“How did you know the password?” Micky asked incredulously. Molly shrugged casually.

“No, that's weird, Molly. How did you know?”

“Intuition,” Molly fibbed. Micky held her gaze and tilted his head as though he found this difficult to believe.

“Really?” he said.

Minutes later, Molly, Micky, and Petula were
being led by the hypnotized night watchman through the museum in a passage lined with stuffed birds. Ahead, in the musty gloom of the main hall of the museum, they could see the massive skeletal legs of the diplodocus.

“We'll see you later, then,” Molly whispered to the old man. “Wait by the side door to let us out.”

The watchman nodded and smiled.

“Right…you…are,” he whispered back in a halting tone.

Molly and Micky paused and surveyed the dark, cathedral-proportioned space with its grand staircase that split into two, curving around to join the first-floor balcony. Petula sniffed the air and tried to read its swarms of smells. The overriding odor was floor polish. Under this was the smell of ancient bones, and old fur, and the smell of that afternoon's visitors' footsteps, which had brought in scents from the street. And Petula could detect that onions and garlic had been fried a few hours before and a croissant had been eaten upstairs. The scent of lavender blossom flickered through the hall as though someone wearing it had recently walked by. Sensing that the coast was clear now, though, Petula tapped Molly on her leg with her paw, nodded, and stepped forward.

“Petula seems to think it's all right. Glad we brought
her.” Molly put her hand under Micky's elbow, and they both crept forward. Cautious as timid mice, they slipped through the shadows and climbed the staircase. They moved quietly along the upper balcony until they were finally up at the door to the botanical library.

Turning the doorknob, they went through, tiptoeing down the dark archive room, past its shelves of books and towering filing cabinets, to the column of drawers at the end that hid the secret entrance to Miss Hunroe's lair. Molly pushed the filing cabinet and the secret door opened and they went through.

Petula wondered what the twins were looking for. She supposed it was the book. If it was a bottle of lavender perfume, they were heading in the right direction. The scent was drifting through the cracks along the edges of the door in front of them like heat escaping from an igloo.

Molly gripped the filing-cabinet handle and got ready to push. “Here goes,” she said.

The door nudged open, revealing another dark room—this time, the library. Nothing had changed. The layout of the furniture was the same. The three sofas stood in a horseshoe configuration with the book-laden coffee table between them. There was the tall window with the stained-glass patterns on it.

Micky tapped Molly on the shoulder. “Look,” he
whispered, “there's the feathery tree picture. And it's not a feathery tree, is it? You were right, Molly—it's a quill.” He turned on his flashlight.

Molly joined her brother beside the fireplace. “Where there is a quill, there is a way,” she said. “Do you think there's something behind it?” She reached up to lift the old picture from the wall. Micky helped her as they hauled it down. As they did, they saw that the wall where it had been was plain, without writing on it or a safe embedded in it.

“It's heavy!” Molly whispered.

“Do you think there's something
inside
it?” Micky suggested.

“Crumbs. Bet there is,” Molly agreed.

The twins turned the picture over and, in the light of Micky's flashlight, saw that the frame's wooden back was taped down. Quickly they stripped off the tape and peeled the wood away from the frame, revealing the back of the quill drawing.

“Nothing here,” Micky decided, disappointed. The dark sky outside seemed to growl, as though warning the children to behave themselves. Micky pulled out the paper. It was simply a drawing. Nothing more. “Maybe it's got secret writing on it.” He shone his flashlight through different parts of the parchment,
to see whether any watermarked writing was hidden there, while Molly picked at the frame itself.

“Perhaps something's hidden inside the wood,” she said. “Shall we break it and see? I'll take the glass out first. I mean, I know it's not good smashing things up and all that, but this is an exception.”

Petula watched with interest as Molly put her sneakered foot on the picture frame and broke it in half. Outside, a distant crack of lightning seemed to echo the splintering noise.

Molly studied the wood. “It's solid. Not hollow. Nothing in it.” She sat heavily on the sofa. “It was only a hunch, wasn't it? I mean, there are quills and feathers everywhere. Maybe we should be looking down in the stuffed-bird rooms.”

Micky sat down beside her and glanced up at the hundreds and hundreds of books.

“Why would there be a quill picture? It must be to show that this room is special. There's something in here, there
must
be.”

Minutes later Molly and Micky were up on the balcony level of the room, rifling through the library's shelves for a box that might hold Molly's crystals or a book that might contain a good clue as to where the Logan Stones were. The books were organized
alphabetically. Molly and Micky ran their flashlights along their spines, reading their titles.

“Ancient Civilization,”
Micky read. “
The Andes. Annihilation of the World's Population and Other Extreme Ways Forward.
” Micky shook his head in revulsion. “That sounds like a Hunroe sort of book, but not the next one.
Apple Picking. The Aztecs. Botany of the Amazon.
” Micky frowned while he thought.

“Damn!” Molly despaired. “This is hopeless. The clue might be in a map or in a poem, or it might be deep in a math book written in a code in numbers!”

Micky turned around and leaned over the ledge of the balcony, surveying the mess of the picture frame below. They'd never be able to cover their tracks now, for the frame was unfixable.

At that moment a huge flash of lightning exploded in the sky. Petula froze with fear. And, as though some sort of giant hundred-foot-tall paparazzi photographer had his camera directed at them from outside the window and had detonated its flash, white light blasted in through the window. It flooded the room, and something
extraordinary
happened.

Passing through the window's stained glass, where the strange shapes were, and using the etched lines there, the light and shadows formed a
picture
and some
words
on the white wall, where the picture of the quill had been.

The apparition was on the wall for only a second, but it was enough.

“WOW!” Micky gasped.