“So what now?” asked George. “What evidence do we have?”

I looked back over to where Mrs. Park was still sitting at the front counter. “I was really hoping to see Mrs. Park’s records,” I said. “Emily said that Lucas had written his name down here. It would be the most concrete piece of evidence we have. Especially if he wrote down what kind of project he was working on.”

The three of us thought about this for a moment, before Bess got a determined look in her eye and began walking back in Mrs. Park’s direction.

“What is she doing?” George whispered to me, but I could only shrug in response. Mrs. Park had already told us that she couldn’t help us.

When Bess reached the front desk, she said, “Hi, Mrs. Park,” in a sweet tone of voice.

George and I looked at each other and then hurried after her. We stood on either side of Bess and leaned up against the counter.

“Hi, dear,” said Mrs. Park. “But like I told your friend, I just can’t let you see my records.”

“No, I know,” said Bess. “That’s okay. But maybe you could just tell us, did a boy named Lucas ever come in here? Maybe he did a photography project, something like the nice plates you have on your wall?”

Mrs. Park was fidgeting and looking a little uncomfortable about answering the question. But eventually she seemed to give in. “I suppose there’s no harm in answering that question,” she said. “Yes, he did. He came in a few different times, as a matter of fact. Three times, I believe.”

CHAPTER THIRTEEN A New Exhibit

AFTER PUTTING TOGETHER ALL THE clues we’d gotten in Mrs. Park’s arts and crafts store and finally figuring out who was behind the mysterious photographs, the three of us rushed over to the police station to find Officer Patty. It took a little convincing to get him to listen to us, but once he heard everything we had to say, he had no choice but to bring Lucas in for questioning.

As soon as they saw Lucas entering the police station, Grace and Jacob immediately caved and told the police officers everything. They must have known there was no way out for them, now that Lucas had been caught. The two of them told Officer Patty that they were all cousins, the last living descendants of Terry Lawrence. They told him how it had all been Lucas’s idea. There had once been a fire in a museum that had housed some of DeSantos’s photographs, but all of the incidents after that, the missing people and the museums shutting down, had just been rumors started by Terry Lawrence. In his will, Lawrence even set aside a sum of money for any of his family members willing to keep the idea of the curse alive.

The police held Lucas, Grace, and Jacob overnight. Bess, George, and I went back to the hotel for some well-deserved rest. Almost as soon as we made it back to the Elder Root Inn, Bess and George were in their beds and fast asleep. The lack of sleep had finally caught up with me as well, and I couldn’t help but follow soon after them.