A/N: In case you haven't been able to make this clear: this chapter takes place on Wednesday, so the week at Stevenson House is almost up. Just letting you know!

The Inexplicable Gift

"So let me get this straight," Ren said, waving her hands to stop Tawny from saying anything more. "You all think that Miss Pateer is out to sabotage this trip and we're all in danger?"

"Well, that's a little harsh," Louis pointed out.

"But still sort of true," Tawny cut in.

"I can't believe this," Ren said.

"I know, it's just awful," Twitty remarked. "You would think—"

"No!" Ren interrupted. "I can't believe that you would actually make up something like this just to scare everyone! That's really low, Louis."

"But—"

"You outta be ashamed of yourself!" Ren pushed herself off of Tawny's bed and started for the door. "In fact, I should let Miss Pateer know just so you don't try and pull—"

"Ren, STOP!" Louis dashed toward the door and blocked it just in time. "Please, Ren, I'm your brother. I would never lie to you about something like this. I'm serious. We're all serious!"

Ren shook her head and turned to look at Tawny. "I would have thought at least Tawny would have had good enough judgment not to get tangled up in one of your stupid pranks."

"Ren," Allison came to put her hand on Ren's shoulder. "You have to believe us. We—we have...um…"

"You have what?" Ren crossed her arms and narrowed her eyes.

"We have proof!" Tom exclaimed. "Allison, go get it!"

Allison nodded and headed to one of the closets. She opened the door and parted the clothes until the back wall was revealed.

"AH!" Ren yelped, nearly jumping a foot off the ground. "That's disgusting!"

Allison smiled and bent down underneath the clothes. When she moved to the left, everyone could see what was apparently so disgusting.

A little mouse hole had been dug into the wall.

Allison reached inside of it and felt around until she pulled out the folded note. She stood up and walked back to the doorway, where Ren still stood, a look of disgust still planted on her face. Allison held up the note until it was inches from Ren's nose.

"Read it."

Ren seemed to be a bit taken aghast by Allison's sudden assertiveness. She slowly took the note from her hand and unfolded it. As her eyes scanned the brief sentences, her face expression changed from startled to confused.

"What does this have to do with anything?" she asked, folding the note back up.

"We found it in a photo album," Tawny said. "It looks like it was written pretty recently, don't you think? And how old do you think these albums are?"

"Wait—what albums again?" Ren asked.

Tawny nodded to Louis and he shut the door. She took a couple steps around Ren to get to the dresser and once again dug out the album. She opened it to the page where she had found the note and handed it to Ren.

"So…this is where you found it, huh?" Ren asked, a tone of amusement in her voice.

"Yes," Tawny answered seriously. "I wish we had more to show you, but that's all we've got."

The room was quiet for a moment, that is, until the silent was broken by a quiet squeak.

"What was that?" Tom asked.

The squeaking continued, until they traced the source of the voice to be coming from the mouse hole in the closet. A few seconds later, a little mouse scurried out of the hole.

"Eek!" Ren yelled. "Not again!"

She dashed across the room and jumped onto Tawny's bed, her hand still gripping the note. The mouse made it's way around the room, inspecting each person it came to, until it finally stopped at Louis.

"Hey, little buddy," Louis said, gently lifting the mouse into his hands. "Whatcha got there?"

"Hey, it's that needle again," Twitty said, taking a step toward Louis.

He wrestled around a bit to get the needle out of the mouse's tiny fingers, but finally won the battle. Tawny quickly walked over to him and took the needle from his hand.

"How many of these things are there?" she asked, turning to Allison.

"What do you mean?" Louis asked.

"I stepped on one of these the first day we were here," Tawny said.

"Oh yeah!" Allison added. "It was a little hard to get out of your shoe, though."

Ren had recovered enough to step off of the bed and come to join the rest of the group. "How hard could that be?"

Allison took the needle from Tawny and stared at it. "Wait a minute—this isn't any regular sewing needle."

"What do you mean?" Tawny asked.

Allison closed her left eye and squinted at the needle. "I've never seen anything like it before, unless it's a Victorian model, but I don't see how this would sew clothing." She pointed to its tip. "It looks like it has two metal shapes attached to it. How could that get through a piece of cloth without tearing it?"

Louis, still holding the mouse closely in his hands, cut in, "Then I would say it's not just any sewing needle."

Tawny sighed and rolled her eyes at him. "Oh, well spotted, Louis."

"What do you think it could be?" Tom asked.

Allison shook her head. "I don't know. My brain is fresh out of ideas. How about you guys?"

Everyone else shook their heads.

"Who knows? It might not be anything at all," Tawny said.

"The mouse seems pretty attached to it, though," Louis said, smiling at the little critter.

"I think we should let it go now," Tawny said. "But we should keep the needle."

Louis sighed. "Fine. But we'll see him later."

The second he placed the mouse on the floor, it quickly scurried back to the hole in the closet wall and disappeared out of sight.

"Well, we have two pieces of something," Tawny said. "Or maybe just nothing."

"Okay," Ren said. "You all have lost it. What is really going on here?"

"Ren, please believe us," Tawny said, taking Ren by the hands. "You have to. We need your help. How could you say that Miss Pateer is doing nothing out of the ordinary when she locked Louis and Twitty in a room?"

Ren's eyes opened wide as she stared in disbelief at her brother and his friend. "She locked you two in a room?"

>>>>

It was midnight, but despite the many people asleep in their bedrooms, getting recharged for the next day of mystery solving, there was still one room that, while still dark, was still very active. Louis, Twitty, Tawny, Allison, Tom, and now Ren sat in a small circle in the area between the two beds. Only a flashlight could help them see the worn pages of the photo album.

"What are we looking for?" Ren whispered.

"Well, there has to be something about this house that Miss Pateer must be interested in," Tawny replied just as quietly. "You said that Sophie knew the Stevensons, didn't you?"

"Yeah," Ren said.

It was quiet for a bit before Tawny asked, "How old would you say Sophie might be?"

Ren thought for moment. "I would say late 80's."

"But that would mean she was born in the 1920's," Tawny said. "That doesn't make sense."

"When did the Stevensons move into this house?" Allison asked.

"I think Miss Pateer said 1906," Ren replied. "And Eleanor was born a few months afterward. So if she were still alive now, she would be almost 100 years old."

"But she wasn't killed soon after, because if her bones weren't developed enough, she couldn't have been even a year old," Tawny said. "So maybe Miss Dunlap was talking about descendents."

"Who do you think the descendents are?"

"Well, the Stevensons, of course," Louis cut in.

"Louis!"

"Oof!" Louis gasped as Tawny elbowed him in the stomach. "Sorry, sheesh."

"Okay," Tawny said, as if Louis hadn't even said anything. "We have to find out what year these photo albums date up to."

"In old pictures like these, aren't there always dates written on the backside in a corner?" Allison asked.

"Yeah!" Ren said. "But how could we know without ruining them? They're all pasted down."

"Except for the one with the note, of course," Allison said, "but there's still hope."

They began searching random pages, carefully lifting up different corners of pictures, trying to find where the dates were written, and then lifting up those specific corners for each picture.

After about 10 minutes, the group was about ready to give up.

"Just a few more," Tawny tried to say as she held back a yawn. "1908…1912…1904…1921…1942…"

"1942?" Ren nearly shouted.

Tawny snapped awake. "That's it! It goes up to the 1940's!"

She studied the picture that the date had been hidden underneath. It was a picture of another baby with two stern-looking parents. "It's labeled Patty Stevenson. Oh, her again. I still haven't seen a picture of Eleanor. I guess she died too soon before they could get many photos of her. This picture must a couple of generations later."

"Let's just try a few more to make sure that the album really goes that late," Tom added.

It was a good five minutes before they found more pictures toward the end of the album that were dated in the 1940's.

"So Sophie must have known some Stevensons," Tom concluded. "What do we do now then?"

"We find out what Miss Pateer might be trying to do," Tawny said, snapping off the flashlight. "Until then, we have a quite a mystery on our hands."

A/N: Hope you liked this chapter as well! I have the entire story planned out, and I should be getting the next chapter out some time this summer (preferably this month)!