The Mardi Gras Chase (True Girls Book 1) Read online

  Melanie breathed a sigh of relief, but just as quickly felt a small stab of disappointment. Nothing was simple anymore.

  Later that afternoon, the parade began to roll. Melanie and her friends crowded the barricade along with everyone else. Lacey sneaked under people’s legs to find a good spot by her sister. Melanie’s parents stood just behind the girls.

  Float after float drove by, interspersed with marchers and truck bands. Music blared, and everyone danced along, paraders and spectators alike. Some floats were obviously homemade, no more than trucks and trailers dressed up for the occasion. A few groups had rented their floats from the established Mardi Gras organizations. Melanie jumped when she saw the Aztecs’ “Knights of the Round Table” float that she and her friends hid behind. The three girls met eyes and giggled.

  One particularly raucous float rolled through, and the riders dumped throws on the girls.

  Faye reached out to catch a teddy bear when a large bundle of heavy beads caught her in the cheekbone.

  “Ow!” she yelled, holding her hand to her cheek.

  “Faye! Are you ok?” asked Melanie.

  “No. I think I broke my face. Is that possible?”

  “Better get ice on that, dear,” said Melanie’s mother. “I’ll go grab some for you.”

  “That’s ok,” said Faye. “I’ll get it. When you get walloped upside the head, I think it’s a sign to quit.”

  She threaded her way back through the crowd toward her parents. Melanie saw Mr. Ryan put his arm around Faye while her mother ran for ice.

  “Poor Faye,” said Kate. “That looked like it hurt.”

  “For real,” said Melanie. She turned back to the parade and spotted a black bus coming down the street, loaded down with her favorite characters of the day.

  “Ooh,” Melanie heard Lacey say. “Who are they, Daddy?”

  “Those, little Lace, are Cain’s Merry Widows.”

  The Merry Widows were a staple of the Joe Cain parade. Riding down the street in their long black dresses and dark veils, no one knew their true identities. They looked out from their black bus, throwing black beads, black roses, and black garters to the crowd.

  She didn’t exactly know why, but the Merry Widows were one part of Mardi Gras that always appealed to Melanie. When so many of the Mardi Gras revelers felt garish and silly, the Merry Widows seemed to Melanie to hit the right note of mystery.

  “The Merry Widows pretend that they were married to Joe Cain,” her father explained to Lacey. “They start every Joe Cain day out at his grave and wail and cry over it.”

  “Oh, no. They’re sad.”

  “Not really, Lace. They’re just pretending.”

  “I like to pretend,” said Lacey. “Can I be a Merry Window?”

  Melanie and her father laughed.

  “Widow, not window,” he corrected.

  One of the Merry Widows leaned out of her bus window right then and tossed Melanie a set of black beads.

  Melanie waved in thanks, while the widow disappeared mysteriously down the parade route.

  The parade ended soon after the Merry Widows. A few more floats, some mounted policemen, and then the street cleaners barreled down the avenue. Melanie stepped back from the barricades as the crowd slowly began to disburse.

  All around her, people compared what they had caught. Children grinned from the excitement or lay passed out on their parents. Melanie’s mother stood and chatted with a group of women from their street. Her dad hopped along the road, making Lacey giggle as she bobbled from side to side on his shoulders.

  Melanie felt a warm glow of wellbeing that had been missing from her life the past several weeks. She felt no thrill of mystery right now, just the happy contentment from a day spent in the company of her family and neighbors, celebrating life in a way that was unique to her city. Melanie hadn’t even realized she’d been missing that feeling until its return.

  “Great parade,” said Kate, linking her arm through Melanie’s. “And I can say that, even with the gazillions of other parades we’ve seen this year. So it must be true.”

  “It’s hard to believe there’s only one left to go,” said Melanie. “I feel like we’ve been chasing down this mystery for months. But it’s only been a week. And now we’re down to the last one.” Her voice held a curious mix of excitement and regret.

  “Come on,” said Kate. She nudged Melanie. “No getting sad.”

  “I’m not,” said Melanie. “Not really.” She looked ahead to their families. “You’re right. It was a good day.”

  “That’s the spirit.”

  “Let’s go see how Faye’s doing.”

  They found Faye talking with two of Kate’s younger brothers. She held a Ziploc full of ice to her cheek, water dripping down her arm and onto the street. When she saw her friends, she came to meet them.

  “Yikes,” said Kate. “How’re you feeling?”

  “Not bad, surprisingly,” said Faye. “The ice has numbed everything. But it’s not going to look great over the next couple of days. Hey, listen.” She motioned them to come closer. “Guess who I ran into while I was sitting here?”

  “Who?” asked Melanie.

  “Sasha Tipton!”

  “From the Mardi Gras museum?”

  “Yep. She stopped by to say hi and ask what happened. A face full of ice is kind of a conversation starter. She asked how we were doing on our float research.”

  “Float research?” asked Kate.

  “Have you already forgotten?” said Melanie. “That was our cover story at the museum.”

  “Oh, right. We’ve got so many secrets floating around, it’s tough to keep them all straight. What did you tell her?”

  “Well, I tried to be vague. I did say we were looking forward to the parade tomorrow, and she said she’d be there, too. She wanted to see Mr. Simmington’s last floats in person.”

  “Oh, yeah, I forgot,” said Melanie. “If he’s retiring, I guess these are his last floats.”

  “Looks like our parents are packing up,” said Faye. “We’d better go help out.”

  “We’ll do it,” said Melanie. “You sit down.”

  Faye tried to help anyway, but the adults shooed her away. Together, the families from their block cleaned up their surroundings. Chairs were folded, gumbo sealed up, and drinks grabbed for the ride home.

  Melanie waved goodbye to her friends and was about to hop into the van when Matt came running up.

  “Hey, Melanie, I caught a few of these and thought you might want them.” He held out a bunch of black roses, clearly caught from the Merry Widows.

  “Wow, thanks,” said Melanie. She took the roses and smiled.

  Matt grinned. “No big deal. Well, see you around.”

  “See ya.”

  Melanie climbed into the vehicle and leaned back into the seat. Her little sister sat beside her, drowsy from the day’s activities. Lacey slowly kicked her legs against the car seat as she fought sleep.

  Melanie watched the streets pass by outside the window as her mind drifted. Silently she fingered the black roses, her mind bouncing back and forth between Matt and the Mardi Gras code. She wasn’t entirely sure which posed the greater mystery.

  Chapter 12

  Melanie woke up slowly on Monday morning. The party the day before had been fun, but exhausting, and she had slept hard.

  She lay in bed, groggy for the moment, vaguely feeling that something interesting was supposed to happen that day. Suddenly, she remembered and jumped out of bed. Today, she would gather the final clues.

  Though it was a Monday, schools weren’t in session. All the area schools closed for the last Monday and Tuesday of Mardi Gras so that everyone could enjoy the festivities. It was a Mobile quirk that always made her out-of-town cousins jealous, but Melanie accepted it as normal. She found it stranger that kids in other cities actually attended school on Mardi Gras.

  Melanie ran out to the kitchen. Her mother was mixing up oatmeal for breakfast. Melanie sat dow
n at the table next to her little sister. Lacey bounced up and down in her chair while pretending to read a cereal box.

  “Mommy, I don’t want to go to school,” said Lacey.

  “Good news, then,” said Mrs. Smythurst, placing a bowl of oatmeal in front of each of her daughters. She ruffled Lacey’s hair. “You get to stay with me today. Except…” She sat down by Melanie and spoke to her. “Except for a couple of hours around lunchtime when I need you to watch Lacey for me.”

  Melanie almost choked on her oatmeal. That would be during the parade!

  “But, Mom, I can’t. I’m going to the Queen Hera parade today, and it starts at noon.”

  “You’re going to another parade?” her mother asked. “What has gotten in to you, Mel? Not one week ago, you were sick of Mardi Gras, and now suddenly you’re going to… what is this, the fifth parade?”

  “Only the fourth,” said Melanie. “Please, Mom. I’ve just got to go.”

  “Melanie, I need to meet with this client today. Your father isn’t off until tomorrow, and daycare’s closed. That just leaves you to watch your sister.”

  “Please, Mom,” said Melanie again. “Just this one last parade. I can’t skip it.”

  “Why is this one so important? There’ll be another parade tonight you can go to instead. I could really use your help today. And so could Lacey.”

  “Mom, I promise I’ll stay home all night and play with Lacey. Just let me go to the parade.”

  Melanie’s mother stared at her pleading eyes and relented.

  “Oh, all right. I’ll see if I can reschedule to later this afternoon.”

  Melanie jumped up and hugged her mom tightly from the side.

  “Ok, ok,” Mrs. Smythurst said, patting Melanie’s arm. “Don’t choke me.” Melanie pulled her arms off of her mom and returned to her oatmeal, her heart slowly stopping its pounding at her near escape. She hoped that nothing else would stand in her way.

  “It is so loud out here,” yelled Faye.

  The girls took positions for their final Mardi Gras parade. They arrived early enough to secure spots on the barricade, ensuring a good view of every float.

  The crowd was extremely dense. The early morning fog had burned off to reveal a blazing blue sky, and thousands had turned out to enjoy the festivities in the beautiful weather.

  Vendors marched up and down the street, rolling carts loaded down with noisemakers, glow sticks, and cotton candy for sale before the parade began. A loudspeaker blasted out the local WKGF radio station, while a group of little boys standing near Melanie each blew hard on their cheap plastic trumpets.

  “Let’s talk strategy,” said Faye, fighting to be heard above the overall din.

  “What?” yelled Kate.

  “Strategy,” Faye yelled back. “Kate. You run interference on beads, keeping them from knocking us in the face. Again.” She rubbed her cheek, which sported a large bruise from the day before. “Me and Mel will look for letters.”

  “Yes, ma’am,” said Kate, with a mock salute. “Nothing will get by me.”

  “Works for me, too,” said Melanie. She shifted from foot to foot restlessly. “When is this parade going to start? I can’t wait much longer.” She leaned out over the barricade and peered down the street. “I don’t even see police cars yet. Let’s go, people!”

  “You’re not excited, are you, Melanie?” said Kate.

  “Aren’t you?” said Melanie. “We’re so close!”

  “Ok, you got me,” said Kate with a laugh. “For real, let’s start this parade.”

  “I hear sirens,” said Faye. “It’ll be any minute now.”

  Slowly, two police cars drove down the street. The workers sealed off the barricades so that people could no longer cross the road. Only minutes later, the theme float came rolling through.

  “Countries of the World,” read Kate. “Good theme.”

  In between looking for letters, Melanie stopped to appreciate Mr. Simmington’s workmanship.

  He had clearly poured his talent into the last batch of floats that he would design. Every float seemed to be more beautiful than the one before it.

  The Italian float carried a huge replica of the leaning tower of Pisa and shimmering Venetian waters dotted with gondolas.

  Next came a gorgeous float covered with the Swiss Alps, its shining snowdrifts glittering in the sunlight.

  The next float depicted a Brazilian jungle. Monkeys swung on vines over rivers stocked with hippos, and leopards peered out from behind massive trees.

  Majestically, the floats sailed one by one down the street. Costumed riders tossed out beads, animals, snacks, and balls to the huge crowds below. Kate caught throw after throw, more than once saving Faye or Melanie from a face full of beads. And Melanie and Faye kept their eyes trained for funny letters, slowly growing their list of clues.

  When the last float passed down the street thirty minutes later, Melanie, Faye, and Kate smiled at one another. Clutched in Melanie’s hand was her phone, containing what they hoped were the last clues to the mysterious puzzle they had first noticed a week ago. Time to crack the code.

  The girls spread out at Melanie’s kitchen table. After carefully copying the final clues onto the sheet of paper, Melanie ran off two copies for Faye and Kate from her mother’s home office.

  Mrs. Smythurst left for her client meeting, and Melanie settled Lacey in front of a cartoon. Now, the three girls sat in relative quiet, each girl examining her list of clues.

  “I need paper,” said Faye after several minutes. “Just something to write on.” She turned to Melanie. “Do you have anything we could use?”

  Melanie jumped up and returned moments later with three legal pads and three pens. She passed them out at the table and sat back down silently.

  Faye’s pen began scratching at her legal pad. Kate leaned her chair back and propped her legs up, holding her piece of paper up in the air in front of her to read. Melanie simply stared at her paper, willing the pattern to show up in front of her eyes.

  Nothing happened for Melanie. No pattern jumped out at her. She only saw a collection of random letters.

  “Melanie.” Melanie looked down to see Lacey leaning onto her lap. “Melanie, I want you to play with me.”

  “Not now, Lacey. I’m trying to work.”

  “Mom said you’d play with me.”

  “No, Mom said I’d watch you. I’m busy right now. Go back to your TV show.”

  Lacey sighed and trudged out of the room. Melanie heard a loud crash a few minutes later, suggesting that Lacey had dumped out all of her blocks. She gritted her teeth. She’d have to clean it up before her mom came home.

  Melanie stared at the letters. She remembered hearing in a spy movie one time that you needed a cipher to unlock a code. The cipher would show you what letters or numbers really stood for. Unfortunately, she was a little fuzzy on how a cipher actually told you that, and, besides, she didn’t have one.

  She began to write out the letters one at a time, transforming them one letter further into the alphabet. So, A’s became B’s; B’s became C’s, and so on. After trying this on the first set of letters, she quickly ended up with… “Gibberish,” she said.

  “What?” asked Kate.

  “Nothing,” said Melanie. She tried transforming the letters again, this time going backwards. So, A’s became Z’s; B’s became A’s, and so forth.

  Nothing again.

  “Melanie.” Lacey was back.

  “Lacey,” said Melanie in exasperation. “I am trying to think here.”

  “But I’m bored.”

  “Sorry, I can’t help you. I’m trying to solve a problem.”

  “Oh, do you have a problem?” Lacey asked. “I know what to do with that. Princess Mia taught me.” She began to belt out a song.

  A problem will not scare you,

  If you learn what to do.

  Start at the top and take it step by step,

  And you can solve them, too!

  Lacey to
ok a deep breath to continue her song. “Oh,” she bellowed, “a problem will not scare you–”

  “Lacey!” yelled Melanie, stopping her. “Seriously, I can’t think. No more singing. Please, just go play. I don’t care what you do. Just. Go. Play.”

  “I’m gonna tell Mom.” Lacey stomped out of the room, her blond curls bouncing with each step.

  “Go ahead,” grumbled Melanie.

  “Siblings,” said Kate, while Faye smiled at Melanie sympathetically.

  They settled back to work, but Melanie had difficulty concentrating. That ridiculous Princess Mia song was stuck in her head now.

  She caught herself humming it once or twice before resolutely falling silent again. Still, it kept replaying in her mind.

  “Start at the top, take it step by step…”

  Melanie froze. Her eyes widened as she stared at the paper.

  That was it. That stupid song had given her the answer.

  She started at the first parade, first letter. “Start at the top.” She wrote the letter on her legal pad.

  She then moved on to the next parade, top letter. “Step by Step.” She wrote this letter as the second letter on her legal pad. She continued this pattern, scrolling through the five parades letter by letter, going back to the first parade when she reached the last one.

  Slowly, words started emerging from the lists of letters. She could hardly believe it.

  “Guys,” she said shakily as she wrote. “Guys, come look at this.”

  “Have you found something?” asked Faye, as she and Kate hurried behind Melanie’s shoulder.

  “I was making it too hard,” said Melanie. “It’s a simple pattern that was there in front of us the whole time. It just took Lacey’s goofy song to make me see it.” Melanie’s heart raced as she continued to work out the code.

  Finally, all three girls stared at a message, a message transmitted in secret through the Mardi Gras parades to anyone with wits enough to see it.

  “‘Find the intertwining letters in Church Street Cemetery,’” read Faye aloud. “‘Uandm. Mardi Gras Day p.m.’ What’s uandm?”