“I didn’t know you were a gun person,” I said to Clara.
“The Dazzles have been locked and loaded since before the Revolution.”
“Did you check on Gramps?”
“Yes. He’s not at home, and he’s not with his caregiver.”
Glo was perched on a stool. “These people are sick,” she said. “Gramps is such a sweetie. I hate to think he was kidnapped. Did you tell the police?”
Clara and I exchanged glances.
“Not yet,” I said. “I was hoping Diesel would return with the coin, and we could make a trade. I’d rather not explain this whole bizarre mess to the police. I doubt they would even believe me. Martin Ammon has money and power, and I just have cupcakes.”
“Yes, but they aren’t ordinary cupcakes,” Glo said. “Your cupcakes are extraordinary.”
“Yeah, I don’t want to have to explain that to the police, either,” I said.
Baking exceptional cupcakes, it turns out, is my other ability that is slightly beyond normal. So I wasn’t kidding when I told Ammon that the ingredient I’d left out of the cupcakes recipe was magic.
There was a lot of loud banging on the front door to the bakery, and Glo went to investigate.
“It’s Josh,” she said, unlocking the door and letting him in.
Josh was soot smudged and sweaty. His puffy pirate shirt was untucked and streaked with black grime, his striped pants had a hole in the knee, and his hair was an unruly mess.
“They’re freaking crazy!” Josh said. “They set a match to the Pirate Museum. I barely got out alive. Had to crawl out the basement window.”
Broom smacked Josh in the head.
“Ow!” Josh said. “That hurt.”
“It was Broom,” Glo said.
“It was you,” Josh said. “You’re holding Broom.”
“Were you the only one in the museum?” I asked him.
“Yes. The museum manager got a call to pick up a package, so I shut the doors for a spell. Too difficult to run the show alone. It’s a slow time for us anyway. People are thinking about dinner and not pirates. It picks up again when the ghost tour starts.”
“How did the fire start?”
Josh got whacked with the broom again.
“Okay, I get it,” Josh said to Glo. “You’re mad at me. I’m sorry. I was a jerk. I don’t know what the heck I was thinking.”
“About the fire,” I said.
“We were all locked up, but someone was knocking and knocking and knocking, and, like an idiot, I went to the door. It was three guys in suits. They pushed me back into the museum, and one of them hit me on the head with his gun. When I came around there was fire everywhere. Lucky I was near the trapdoor that goes to the basement. It’s just a crawl space down there with the rats and the spiders, but I got to the small half window that’s on the back alley side and managed to squeeze out. The police were out front and the fire trucks were pulling up, but all I could think of was putting distance between me and the men in suits. I figured they were lurking somewhere close, waiting until someone discovered my charred remains.”
“They kidnapped Clara’s grandfather,” Glo said.
“That’s horrible,” Josh said. “Is he okay?”
“We don’t know,” I said.
Rutherford called on my cellphone. “Good evening,” he said. “Mr. Ammon would like to speak to you.”
There were some scuffling sounds and Ammon came on the phone. “I trust you’ve heard the news by now that there was a fire at the Pirate Museum. I thought the symbolism was appropriate since we seem to have a theme of fire and brimstone. Rrrruff, ruff. Excuse me. Remnants of my concussion. I trust you’re working hard to find the coin for me. We’ll have a wonderful future together once you’ve found the coin. Aaarooo.”