"You have the original Silence Dogood letters?"

Riley had pulled off into the park. Abigail sat on the floor with her legs sticking out of the open back door of the van. Riley and Ellie stayed in their seats in the front. Ben was pacing back and forth, trying to figure out what to do.

"Did you steal those, too?"

"We have scans of the originals. Quiet, please."

"How did you get scans?" Abigail ignored his request.

"Oh, I know the person who has the originals. Now shush."

Another moment of silence. Riley looked over at Ellie and tried to take her hand. She pulled away and pulled her knees up to her chest. She was so tired she could have fallen asleep right then, if Abigail didn't start talking again.

"Why do you need them?"

"She really can't shut her mouth, can she?"

Ellie shrugged. She worked with Abigail every day, and it was true: she was kind of a know it all who didn't stop talking.

"I'll tell you what, look." Ben held the Declaration out to her. "I will let you hold onto this if you will promise to shut up! Please! Thank you."

He went back to pacing. Riley didn't take his eyes off of Ellie when he spoke up.

"Ben, you know what you have to do."

"I know. I'm just trying to think of anything else we could do."

"Well, not to be a nudge, but do you realize how many people we have after us? We probably have our own satellite by now. It took you all of two seconds to decide to steal the declaration of independence-"

"Yeah, but I didn't think I was going to personally have to tell my dad about it!"

Abigail seized her opportunity and took off, clutching the tube holding the Declaration to her chest. Ben caught her quickly.

"Hey, not cool!"

"Let me go!"

Ben wrenched the tube from her and handed it to Ellie.

"Okay, you're let go. Shoo."

"I'm not going. Not without the Declaration." She reached for it.

"You're not going with the Declaration." Ben pulled it back.

"Yes, I am. I'm not going to let it out of my sight, so I'm going."

In the next quiet moment, Ben looked at Abigail and Riley looked at Ellie. They were all trying to figure out where they were up to in the argument; who was staying and who was going?

"Wait a minute," Ben said, "You're not going with us with the Declaration."

"Yes I am."

"No you're not."

Abigail smirked. "Look, if you wanted to leave me behind, you shouldn't have told me where you were going."

Ben looked over at Riley and Ellie. They both sighed and buckled themselves in.

When the party got to Arlington, the streets were already silent in the suburbs. Riley crept down the streets at a snail's pace, and Ellie had to fight the urge to scream at him to hurry up.

"Looks okay," Riley said.

"He's not going to let you guys in. And it wouldn't do you much good if he did."

"What do you mean? Park a couple of blocks away, Riley."

"I've been helping Grandpa to-"

"You know, I think it's pretty funny that you call him Grandpa but you won't call me Dad."

"Well, he didn't ruin my life, so..."

"I guess that's fair."

Riley tried to break the awkward tension in the air. "How long do we have?"

"I'm gonna give them a couple hours at least. I hope."

"What are we gonna do about her?" Riley answered. "I've got some duct tape in the back."

"No, that won't be necessary. She won't be any trouble."

"And Ellie?"

"I'm sitting right here, Riley."

"She won't be any trouble either. Promise you won't be any trouble?"

Ellie didn't know whether she was lying or not when she said, "I promise."

"See?" Ben said, with an all-knowing smirk. "She's curious."

Riley parked the van, and he put his jacket around Ellie's shoulders for the two blocks they had to walk to her grandfather's house. She wanted to shrug it away, but she was cold. And she could only admit to herself that she had missed the smell it was giving off. Ben went first when they got to the house. He took a deep breath before he rand the doorbell. Patrick answered.

"Where's the party?"

"I'm in a little trouble."

Patrick surveyed the four people standing on his porch. He glared at Riley, and Riley shrank back a little bit. His eyes finally landed on Abigail.

"Is she pregnant?"

Ben didn't miss a beat; his dry wit matched that of his father and his daughter.

"Well, if she is, do you really want to leave the woman carrying your second grandchild out in the cold?"

Patrick begrudgingly opened the door so they could all come in. Abigail stopped Ellie.

"I look pregnant?"

Ellie shrugged and stepped into Patrick's open arms.

"Hi, Grandpa."

"Hi, sweetheart. Are you alright?"

"I'm fine. Well...I'm not hurt, anyway."

Patrick put his arm around her shoulder and ushered her into the house.

"This better not be about that dumb treasure."

"Of course it is. What else?"

Patrick rolled his eyes and kissed her cheek. Ellie sat down in the living room and took her shoes off.

"Have a seat. Make yourselves comfortable. There's some pizza there. It's still warm, I think."

Riley sat next to Ellie and opened the box. He offered her a piece, but she declined.

"Dad, I need the Silence Dogood letters. Yeah, it's about the treasure."

Patrick fumed. He looked around at the others.

"And he dragged you three into this?"

"Literally," Abigail said.

"I volunteered," Riley retorted.

"Well, unvolunteer before you waste your life. Wasn't it enough that he made you leave that girl at the altar last year? Wasn't that enough for you, son?"

"Grandpa, that's not-"

"You weren't hear to see her. To see what you did to her. Both of you. Heartbroken. Dying on the inside. And for what?"

Ellie knew that she couldn't stop them. She looked at Riley.

"I'm going to go and change clothes."

"You still keep clothes here?"

"Shut up." Ellie got up and went to the guest room, which was her room when she lived in this house. She kept a few changes of clothes there in case she decided to spend the night. She took care of her grandpa sometimes, worried that he might get lonely without her. She put on a pair of jeans and a t-shirt, and was just slipping into a pair of sneakers when she heard more shouting from the living room.

"And that will lead you to another clue. And that's all you'll ever find is another clue. Don't you get it, Ben? I finally figured it out. The legend says that the treasure was buried to keep it from the British but what really happened was that the legend was invented to keep the British occupied searching for buried treasure. The treasure is a myth."

"I refuse to believe that."

Patrick realized that Ellie was standing in the dining room with them. He put his arm around her shoulders.

"Well, you can believe what you want. You're a grown person. What am I doing? I only raised your daughter for you while you were out hunting for a make believe treasure."

"You did not raise her!"

"Oh, really? Who did she live with, nine months out of the year? Who bought her school books, and her prom dresses, and helped her with her homework and moved her into college? Who taught her how to drive? Tell me, Ben! You couldn't be bothered!"

"Grandpa..."

"And then I went and paid for her wedding, only to have you convince her fiance that he needed to leave her. And why did he need to leave her? To hunt for your stupid treasure!"

"Stop this! Stop!" Ellie yelled.

Ben and Patrick stepped away from each other, and Abigail stepped in.

"He's probably right. You don't even know if there is another clue."

Ben stood resolute, staring at Ellie intensely. "Well, I can think of a way we can find out. And we can find out right now."