They all stood around staring in wonder at the green key.
“No way,” Yuuma said. “It’s real. That has to be it! This is crazy!”
Mayuka couldn’t even speak.
Akane’s porcelain-white skin was flushed. She kept looking back and forth between Hinata and the key in his hands.
“This is incredible. No one has ever been able to find the key, and you did it in a single day!”
Hinata felt himself swell with pride. I did it, Chris! I found the key…
“Hold on a minute!” Mayuka said, stopping everyone in their tracks. “Yes, it’s amazing that he found it, but this still isn’t the treasure. It’s just the key that opens up the place where the treasure is. The question now is what this key unlocks.”
Everyone exhaled.
“…You’re right, Mayuka,” Akane said, the flush gone from her cheeks. “So what does this key open? It looks like we’ve got ourselves another mystery…”
Hinata considered the question. When they figured out where the youngest chicken was, it had led them to the key. Was the keyhole also an egg…? But there hadn’t been anything else that resembled an egg…
Chris reached up with a paw and placed it against Hinata.
“Woof!”
“I’ve been really bored! When do I get to do something? Am I being left out of the fun?” Chris seemed to be chiding him.
“Hmm.”
Hinata stared at the key. It was very old, but it wasn’t rotting away. It felt firm and solid. It must have been specially made for this purpose. Maybe it was formed from some unusual alloy.
Was the keyhole made of the same metal?
“Chris!” Hinata said, holding the key up to the dog’s snout. “Smell!”
Excitedly, Chris hopped to attention and began to sniff the key.
“Hey, what are you doing?” Yuuma wondered aloud, trying to sneak in closer, but Mayuka shot him a stern look.
“Shh! Don’t interfere.”
Again and again, Chris sniffed the key. Then, at last, he glanced up at Hinata.
The boy looked his dog in the eye and gave the order.
“Search!”
This time, Chris didn’t press his snout to the floor. Instead, he kept it raised, searching for the scent in the air. Even so, he didn’t waver. With confident steps, he made his way across the hallway and down the stairs.
“What’s the doggy doing?” Akane asked Mayuka in wonderment.
“He’s looking for the place where the key goes. Stay quiet.”
“He can tell?”
“Chris is an amazing dog. He’s a former police dog, you know. And now he’s a canine detective.”
“Huh…?”
Akane froze for a moment, stunned. Mayuka grabbed her sleeve and pulled her along.
“C’mon, let’s follow him!”
Chris descended the stairs and pressed his snout against the door to the back room.
Hinata silently opened it for him. The determined Shiba Inu walked right through the doorway and along the left wall toward the fireplace.
He stopped to the left of the hearth, placed his paw against the wall, and pointed his nose upward.
“Woof, woof!”
“All right, there we go! Good dog,” Hinata said, giving Chris plenty of praise before he stopped to examine the wall for himself.
It was the same decorative relief paneling from before.
The chrysanthemum-like flowers were everywhere, with a few chickens scattered here and there. But where was the keyhole…?
✦ ✦ ✦
“Mayuka,” Hinata called out. “I think there’s a keyhole somewhere around here. Help me search!”
Even Yuuma and Akane helped, walking up to the relief panels and feeling around with their fingers for anything out of the ordinary.
Suddenly, Hinata had a realization. All the carved flowers were like daisies, with petals surrounding a circular center. But one of them had a more oblong shape in the middle, like an egg!
Hinata pressed the center shape. He felt it click and depress. Once pressed in, he could slide it to the side. And what should appear beneath, but a keyhole!
There it is!!
Hinata held his breath. With trembling fingers, he put the key into the lock.
Thump! A panel below the decorative relief came loose from the wall and fell onto the floor.
“Whoa!” Hinata jumped backward out of the way. Chris skittered back, too, startled.
“Are you all right?!”
“What happened?!”
The others crowded around and stared in shock at the big hole in the wall.
There was a metal door behind the panel. It was about three feet to a side.
“Is this…the safe with the treasure inside…?” Yuuma murmured, falling to his knees. “I don’t believe it. This is crazy…”
He inched closer to the hole, then reached for the handle on the metal door.
“Uh, Akane, can I open it?” asked Yuuma. She nodded. Her face was pale. “Here goes…”
Creaaak…
It opened noisily, revealing a space packed with wooden boxes.
“Tr-treasure! Treasure!” Yuuma exclaimed, pulling the boxes out and setting them on the floor.
As everyone watched, he removed a total of twenty old wooden boxes and arranged them in a line.
Yuuma was grinning from ear to ear. He was practically drooling. “Open one up, Akane,” he said. “This is your great-grandpa’s treasure!”
With trembling fingers, she reached for one of the boxes. It was tied with an old purple string. She carefully undid it, then she lifted the lid…
“It’s a teacup…”
What emerged was a melted-looking dark-brown teacup in a traditional Japanese style.
Yuuma was stunned. “Wh-what about this one?” He tried a flat box and found a large old plate with a piece missing. It was white ceramic detailed with a blue pattern.
Hinata giggled. “I think they’re antiques. They’re probably worth a whole lot of money…”
“Aw, man!!” Mayuka lamented. She was utterly disappointed. “I don’t care how much they’re worth—these are boring! I was hoping for jewels and gold coins… You know, sparkly stuff!”
The rest of the boxes contained pots, vases, and so on.
“After all the hard work Hinata and Chris did, this is so boring,” Mayuka lamented.
Akane, who had seemed so alive and excited moments earlier, appeared to have put on her mysterious blank mask again.
“Indeed. What a shame… And after that former police dog worked so hard.”
For some reason, Hinata felt a shiver run up his spine.