By the time I reached the hotel, it was fully dark outside. Bess, George, and Riley were sitting in the hotel lobby on the comfortable couches near the front desk, and they appeared to be talking and laughing. Eventually Bess spotted me walking toward them.

“Nancy!” she called. “How was the visit with your aunt?”

I reached the couches and sat down, balancing on one of the armrests. At first I had no idea what Bess was talking about. But then I remembered she had said she was going to think of a cover story for me, something to tell Riley. That must have been what she came up with.

“Oh,” I said. “Yeah, she’s great. It went really great.”

Bess and George both grinned at me. They clearly understood that I meant my conversation with Beverly had gone well, even if we couldn’t discuss it in front of Riley.

The four of us spent a few more minutes hanging out in the lobby. Eventually, though, Riley yawned loudly and said that she was going to head upstairs and go to bed. She was just about to leave when I asked her to wait a moment.

“I wanted to ask you a favor,” I said.

“Sure, Nancy,” she said. “What is it?”

“I need to borrow your camera.”

Riley’s hands flew up to the camera that was perpetually hanging around her neck. I knew this was a big ask; it was probably the most precious thing Riley owned. But I also really needed to borrow a film camera.

“Why?” asked Riley.

“I think I can figure out what’s going on at the DeSantos exhibit,” I said. “I can find the missing people and stop these recent events from tarnishing DeSantos’s name. But I need your camera to do that.”

Riley still looked reluctant to hand the camera over. But finally she lifted the strap up over her head. “Just be really careful with it, all right?” she said.

“I promise,” I said. “I can give it back to you tomorrow. Thank you, Riley. I really appreciate it.”

She nodded and began heading to her room again. When she reached the stairs, she turned back for one last look at her camera before disappearing.

“Nancy,” said George. “What was that about?”

“Yeah,” said Bess. “Why do we need Riley’s camera?”

“Because I got the combination from Beverly,” I said. “And we’re sneaking into the museum. Tonight.”

CHAPTER TEN Night at the Museum

THE THREE OF US WAITED until it was nearly midnight to be certain no one would be at the museum. We spent the time hanging around our hotel room. Bess was reading and George was on her laptop, though I wasn’t sure what she could be doing without an Internet connection. I was studying Riley’s camera and making sure I knew how it worked.

Once it was late enough, we set out on foot toward the museum. I had Riley’s camera hanging around my neck, and it was bumping up against me as I walked. I could feel a kind of nervous energy fluttering near my heart. There were so many things that could still go wrong, and I couldn’t help but consider each one of them. Someone could be at the museum, for some reason. Beverly could have just given me a fake code, so I would get out of her house and leave her alone. And I could be totally wrong about Grace and Jacob being trapped in the museum at all.