Days passed. Tess’s mom and Detective Clarkson interviewed people and made calls and conducted searches, while Tess, Theo, and Jaime looked through the ledger. They analyzed the figures in every possible way, they tried to find some sort of relationships between the lists of words, they examined each page, and came up with nothing. Jaime, who now carried Ono everywhere, would take the little robot out of his pocket and set it on the floor as they worked. Sometimes, Ono would seem to follow their analysis, its eyes shining, other times, it would explore the twins’ room, bumping into boxes and shoes and walls. Still other times, it would fall over with a thunk and appear to sleep, making a slight buzzing noise like a fridge.

“Tyrone adores it,” Jaime said. “And she doesn’t like anybody. I think it speaks hamster-hog. Or she speaks Ono.”

One afternoon, more than a week after Nine first vanished, Tess, Theo, and Jaime were sprawled on the floor with the ledger in the middle. They had researched the families who’d owned the Kingsland house and surrounding properties; they had studied lumber outputs of mills in the early 1800s; they had tried to pin down the identities of Young Bob, Old Bob, and Wiley Dan; they had racked their brains and racked them some more, and could still not come up with a way to make the clue reveal itself.

“All right. It’s official. I hate this book,” Jaime said.

“Me too,” Tess said.

Jaime took off his glasses and cleaned them on his T-shirt. “Maybe we took a wrong turn somewhere?”

“Yeah, but where?” Tess said. “Maybe every turn was a wrong turn. What if the wrong turn wasn’t with this clue, but three clues ago?”

Theo put his hands behind his head. “We need a fresh pair of eyes,” he said. “A different perspective.”

“I don’t know about you,” Jaime said, “but my eyes are shot.”

Ono, who had been dozing in a pile of Tess’s stuffed animals, roused itself. It sat up, then got to its feet. As if it had taken Theo literally, its jeweled eyes flashed, then glowed. It marched over to the ledger, turning its tiny head this way and that. “To the Land of Kings!” it said.

“Been there, done that, bro,” Jaime said.

“To the Land of Kings!” the robot insisted. It marched in a circle: “To the Land of Kings to the Land of Kings to the Land of Kings.” It marched so fast it tripped and fell on its face. “Oh no,” it said.

“Hmmm,” Jaime said. He crawled to where the robot lay and then pressed himself to the floor to observe the ledger from Ono’s point of view. He pressed down on the pages, fanning the edges. Then his eyes snapped wide.