“Mick has been wonderful, Daddy,” said Smilla. “He steered the boat and got us all the way down here, just based on the instructions on that silly map of yours.”

  “I don’t care,” said Mr. Pinkerton, using what I was starting to see was his favorite expression.

  “Are they supposed to tie us up also?” asked Harriet. “If so, he really doesn’t have enough of those plastic thingies.”

  “I don’t think he cares about us,” said Shanille. “He only cares about the humans.”

  “Maybe we should attack him?” suggested Brutus. “You know, get that gun away from him?”

  “I agree with Brutus,” said Blizzard. “Let’s rush this guy—let’s take him down!”

  “Yeah, let’s take him down!” Storm added, going all gung ho on us.

  “Better not,” said Clarice. “A man with a gun is a dangerous thing. He’ll fire off a shot, and who knows where that shot will go. It might end up in one of our humans, or it might end up in one of us. I may be an adventurous eater, but I don’t think I’d enjoy eating a bullet.”

  We all gulped at the thought of eating a bullet.

  “I think it would probably be heavy on the stomach,” said Dooley. “It’s lead, isn’t it? And lead isn’t good for the digestion.”

  “Not to mention that it creates holes where you don’t want them,” Kingman added.

  “Look, all we want is for fifty pugs to be adopted by a nice family,” said Gran, going for the emotional approach. “Is that such a bad thing?”

  “I don’t care,” said the man, and checked his watch. “Okay, so the tide will come in soon, and this entire cave will flood. So the longer you take to tie each other up, the sooner you’ll all drown. If that’s what you want, so be it. No skin off my nose. But if you want to survive, I suggest you stop dawdling and get down to business.”

  “Done!” Scarlett cried as she held up her own hands, which were neatly tied.

  “You sure did your best,” said Ida.

  “I like things nice and tidy,” Scarlett said. “It makes all the difference, don’t you agree?”

  “All I know is that very soon now I will probably break out in hives. Tex has told me that it’s all in my head, but if that is the case, why do I break out in hives? And besides, when I get a second opinion, they always tell me I’m right and Tex is wrong.”

  “If you value Tex’s opinion so little,” said Gran, “why do you still keep seeing him?”

  “Because he’s always so nice to me,” said Ida. “Other doctors often lose their patience, but not Tex. He’s even told me that I can visit him at home in case of an emergency, and even though I don’t like to take him up on that offer, on account of Marge, who probably wouldn’t like to see a patient showing up on her doorstep in the evening, I still think it’s pretty great that he would do that for me.”

  “Tex is all right,” said Gran, which was high praise coming from her.

  “Okay, can you all shut up now?” asked Pinkerton, looking quite pained.

  He stepped forward and started checking the ties he’d doled out.

  “Maybe now we should attack?” Brutus suggested.

  “I do not want to eat lead,” said Harriet. “Lead doesn’t become me. It clashes with my complexion.”

  “Patience,” said Clarice. “As soon as this joker’s back is turned, we’ll start gnawing through these zip ties and get out of here. I don’t know about you, but I’ve done enough swimming for one day. I don’t want to see this cave flooded with us still in it.”

  She was right. Being in a cave while it was being flooded didn’t feel like a good way to spend our time, and so we all settled down for the moment while the man with the gun inspected our humans’ restraints.

  Finally, he seemed satisfied and stood back to inspect the wall that Mick and Smilla had been checking out.

  “We think we have it figured out, Mr. Pinkerton,” said Mick helpfully.

  “Shut up, you idiot,” said his girlfriend.

  “Oh, right,” said Mick.

  “I don’t need your help,” growled the girl’s father. He then took a picture of the wall with his phone and stood fiddling with the gadget for a moment before disappearing down a hole that I hadn’t known was there.

  “This place is full of holes, isn’t it, Max?” asked Dooley. “It’s so easy to get lost.”

  “It does seem to be a pretty big place,” I agreed.

  “So who is that guy?” asked Gran, turning to Mick. “And why did he tie us all up?”

  “He’s Smilla’s dad,” Mick explained. “And since it was his treasure map to begin with, I guess he didn’t like that we came out here without his permission to look for the treasure.”

  “I should have known he’d find out,” said Smilla. “When I paid him a visit and saw the map, I figured I’d snap a picture. And then when I showed it to Mick he thought it’d be cool to look for that treasure together.”

  “Did you take all the food from our backpacks?” asked Ida. “That was a rotten thing to do. I have a form of diabetes, so I need to eat at regular intervals or I might fall into a coma.”

  “We didn’t take your food,” said Smilla. “That must have been my dad. It sounds just like the kind of thing he would do.” She sighed. “Look, that guy may be my dad, but apart from sharing the same DNA, I don’t have anything to do with him, all right? He left my mom before I was born, and I don’t even like to think of him as my dad. He showed up out of the blue a couple of months ago, claiming he wanted to reconnect. And then immediately he hit me up for a loan. So I’m not the guy’s biggest fan either.”

  “Which is probably why he tied you up,” said Mick. “My dad would never tie me up.”

  “Exactly,” said Smilla. “What dad would? But then I guess this guy only thinks about himself—and about finding that treasure.”

  “How did he get hold of the treasure map?” asked Gran. “It was in the safe of Bramwell Eiderduck, wasn’t it?”

  “My dad dated the Eiderducks’ daughter,” said Smilla. “He even boasted about it to me, said she was my age, and she was a catch.” She rolled her eyes. “The guy disgusts me.”

  “So he dated Anthemia Eiderduck?” asked Scarlett.

  “He did. Said it was such a coup, especially since her parents were loaded. And then of course there was the treasure.”

  “When Smilla heard about the treasure map, she figured she’d try and have a pop at finding it herself,” said Mick, causing Smilla to give him another reproachful look. “So she roped me in, so to speak, and here we are. On a treasure hunt!” He grinned like a little boy living his wildest fantasy. “I’ve always wanted to go on a treasure hunt. It’s so exciting, isn’t it? An actual pirate treasure!”

  “Only now we’ll never get to see it, will we?” said Smilla. “Since my dad will get his hands on it, and he’ll probably leave us here to drown!”

  “He wouldn’t do that, would he?” asked Scarlett.

  “Oh, wouldn’t he? That man is pure evil. My mother warned me about him, but of course I didn’t listen. And now here we are.” She shook her head. “I knew I should have brought a gun. Didn’t I tell you to bring a gun, Mick?”

  “Those guns are police property,” said Mick. “We’re not allowed to take them on a private trip like this.”

  “What a cop you are,” said Smilla. “Here I thought, I’ll bring along Mick Harper, hero of Hampton Cove. He’ll protect me. But instead you’re going to get us all killed.”

  The accusation clearly stung, so Mick tried to wriggle his hands free from the restraints. It was to no avail, though, and he soon gave up.

  “What I don’t understand is how we got the wrong map,” said Gran.

  “Where did you get it?” asked Smilla.

  “From my granddaughter, and she got it from Anthemia Eiderduck.”

  “Then Anthemia must have given her a fake. The one we have is the real deal.”

  “Okay, let’s get to work, you guys,” said Clarice. “We’ll each take one human, and try and get those restraints off them. And then let’s get out of here as soon as we can, because if I’m not mistaken, I can already hear the water sloshing at the gates!”

  CHAPTER 49

  “You know,” said Harriet between two nibbles on the plastic cable tie that restrained Mick Harper’s hands, “what the worst part is of all this treasure-hunting business? That I haven’t had a chance to practice balancing a ball on the tip of my nose! Not one second! And I’ll bet that Gran hasn’t even brought my ball.”

  “Oh, I have brought your ball,” said Gran, realizing belatedly that she wasn’t supposed to talk to her cats in front of strangers like Mick and Smilla. But since those two were too busy arguing about why Mick hadn’t brought his service handgun, they hadn’t even noticed. “You can play with it right now, if you want. Though I’d advise you to choose your priorities wisely, young lady. Play with the ball, or get out of the cave before we all die!”

  Harriet thought about this for a moment, then nodded. “I see your point. There is a time and a place, and this is neither the time nor the place to balance a ball on my nose.”

  “So nice of you to agree with me,” said Gran with a touch of acerbity. All of this being tied up must be hugely stressful to the old lady, I thought. “I really need that treasure.”

  Okay, or maybe it was the fact that she wasn’t going to get her hands on that treasure. As she said, life is all about priorities.

  “We’ll save those pugs some other way,” said Ida. “Maybe a generous donor will give us the money we need. Or a family will suddenly turn up out of the blue and adopt them. Miracles do happen.”

  “We need to pray for the pugs,” said Shanille. “Pray hard, and everything will be a-okay.”

  “Maybe Ida can adopt those pugs herself?” Minnie suggested. “Or you guys? You’ve got plenty of space, right?”

  “We don’t have plenty of space,” I said. “Though if Odelia and Chase make good on their threat to move to Hampton Keys, they might find a bigger place and adopt those pugs after all.”

  “Odelia and Chase are moving to Hampton Keys?” asked Shanille, this news making her pause her praying for a moment.

  “Yeah, Chase quit his job, and now he wants to become chief of police of Hampton Keys.”

  “But why? I thought he loved his job.”

  “He does—or at least he did. But that was before Mick Harper showed up and made a name for himself as Hampton Cove’s number-one detective. Now Chase is out of the picture and Mick is Supercop.”

  “He looks like Supercop,” said Kingman. “He’s got the whole square jaw and muscular physique down pat. It wouldn’t surprise me if secretly he’s Superman. You know, Mick Harper by day, Superman by night. Though he doesn’t have glasses. Clark Kent has glasses, doesn’t he?”

  “Yeah, it’s part of his disguise,” said Brutus.

  “Got it!” said Dooley, who had been steadily working on removing Gran’s restraints.

  “Well done, Dooley,” said Gran as she rubbed her wrists.

  Before long, we all managed to remove those annoying plastic ties from our humans. Minnie needed a helping paw from Blizzard and Storm, as her bite was as dainty as her bark and she couldn’t quite manage to free Ida.

  “Well done!” said Ida finally, and inspected her wrists for a sign of that dreaded rash.

  “Okay, let’s find that treasure,” said Smilla, getting up. “I hope my dad hasn’t taken off with it.”

  “We can’t look for that treasure,” said Mick, pointing to the mouth of the cave. He was right. Water was already lapping at the rocks there, and it was gradually rising. “We have to get out of here.”

  “I’m not going anywhere until I’ve seen that treasure,” said Smilla. “And you’re coming with me, Mick. You promised!” she added.

  “I know I did, but the water—it’s rising!”

  “I don’t care! I want to see that treasure!”

  At that moment, suddenly a gunshot rang out. It seemed to come from somewhere beyond the nearest wall, its echoes reverberating around the cave.

  “What was that?” asked Scarlett.

  “A gunshot,” said Wilbur. “It came from that direction.”

  All of a sudden, the rising water levels were all but forgotten, as everyone hurried in the direction of the sound of the shot. And since we didn’t want to leave our humans behind, we decided to tag along. Also: our curiosity had likewise been piqued. It’s not just humans who want to know what’s going on when gunshots suddenly sound.

  It wasn’t long before we found ourselves in yet another maze of corridors—only this time we had a guide in the form of Smilla. When Mick had told her dad that they had cracked the code, he hadn’t been lying. Her phone in hand, consulting her notes from time to time, and also certain strange markings on the walls, she kept up a steady pace, until finally we arrived in yet another large cavernous space.

  The moment we burst in, the first thing we saw was a body lying on the floor right in front of us. And in spite of the fact that the man was lying face down, it wasn’t hard to recognize him as… Mr. Pinkerton—Smilla’s dad.

  As we all gathered around, and Smilla pushed him over, we saw that he had been fatally shot in the chest, and even though he was badly wounded, he was still alive—barely.

  “Dad!” said Smilla. “Who did this to you?”

  The man shook his head and a vague smile curled his lips. “Get… treasure,” he croaked. “Behind… wall!” A tear suddenly trickled down his cheek as he focused on Smilla. “I’m sorry,” he whispered. “I was… lousy father. I… love… you.”

  And with these words, his head lolled sideways and we all turned away.

  Except Clarice, who seemed quite fascinated by the whole scene.

  “I’ve never seen a human die,” she explained. “I’ve seen rats die, and mice, and birds and dogs and cats, but never a human.” She shrugged. “It’s much the same thing, really. But with a lot more fuss.” She directed a curious look at me. “Probably I won’t be allowed to eat him?”

  I shook my head. “Nope.”

  “It’s just that I’m quite hungry. And he’s dead anyway, so he’s not much good to anyone.”

  “Better not,” I advised.

  “Just a nibble? A teensy-tiny nibble?”

  “No, Clarice. Humans don’t like it when you eat their loved ones. They’re very sensitive about that kind of thing.”

  She scoffed, “Nobody loved this guy. From everything I’ve heard, he was a horrible person.”

  “Still. You’ll only get in trouble.”

  She sighed. “This trip is such a bust. No piranhas, no giant spiders, and now I can’t even take a nibble out of the dead guy. What a drag.”

  CHAPTER 50

  “This is a real mystery,” said Gran. “A guy is in a cave, alone, and yet he gets shot dead. No gun. No sign of the killer. What is going on here!”

  Smilla turned to Mick. “Fortunately, we have Hampton Cove’s greatest detective in our midst. You’ll figure it out, won’t you, Mick? You’ll catch my father’s killer.”

  We all turned to Mick, who looked extremely uncomfortable under all of that scrutiny.

  “Well…” he said finally, as he helplessly glanced around. “You see, the thing is… I don’t have my equipment with me.” He shrugged. “Forgot to bring it. Very careless of me, I know—but then, who expects a murder when they’re on a treasure hunt, right?”

  “What equipment are you talking about?” asked Gran. “Chase doesn’t need any equipment, and neither does my granddaughter Odelia. They just get on with it.”

  “I would,” said Mick, “but first we need to have the body examined by a medical examiner. An autopsy, you know, to figure out what killed him? It’s protocol.”

  “How about the big-ass gunshot wound in his chest!” Gran cried.

  “He could have been killed by something else, Vesta,” said Father Reilly. “You know how the obvious cause of death isn’t always the actual cause of death? Maybe that gunshot wound isn’t a gunshot wound at all, but merely a graze. And what killed him is an attack by a deadly snake.”

  “A deadly snake!” Gran cried, throwing up her hands. “How about a deadly spider bite?”

  Clarice perked up at this. “Spiders? Where?”

  “No spiders,” I told her, and she settled down again.

  “There are no snakes here!” said Gran.

  “Maybe there are,” said Wilbur. “Aren’t there always snakes in caves like these? Have you seen Indiana Jones? There’s always snakes, and some of them are deadly, just like Francis says.”

  “Look, we don’t have to discuss this,” said Smilla. “My dad was killed and Mick will figure out who did it. In the meantime, how are we going to get out of here?”

  As our humans discussed the logistics of getting out of a cave that was on the verge of getting flooded, I decided to take a look around. Dooley joined me, and together we did the rounds, making sure to give a wide berth to the dead man. Clarice may like dead people, but I don’t.

  “I wonder how he died, Max,” said Dooley. “Do you really think it was a snake?”

  “Possible,” I said. “Though the gunshot we heard is the more likely explanation.”

  “Oh, right,” said my friend. “I’d totally forgotten about that.”

  We had circled the cave once and had almost reached the location where our humans were gathered in an impromptu crisis meeting, when I saw that the floor was starting to get wetter and wetter. Looked like the water level was rising.

  “We better get out of here before this cave gets flooded,” I said.

  Suddenly something fell from the ceiling—right on top of my head. It was a small piece of rock that must have gotten dislodged. When I looked up, I saw that someone was looking down at us. I couldn’t see who it was, and the moment I looked up, the person quickly retreated again.

  “Did you see that, Dooley?” I asked.

  “What?”

  “There was a person up there just now—they were looking at us.”