The Absent Author

Dink, Josh, and Ruth Rose leave Mavis at Ellie’s Diner and go to Dink’s house for a picnic in the backyard. They go over the information they’ve collected and track Wallis Wallace’s confirmed whereabouts. Josh says he believes Mr. Paskey, Maureen the cab driver, Mr. Linkletter, and Olivia Nugent are in on the kidnapping together. Dink restates that the trail ended at the hotel. Ruth Rose pulls out three Wallis Wallace books. She says Josh reminded her of something she saw in the Wallis Wallace book The Mystery in the Museum, in which Wallace wrote, “[T]he more you know about the victim, the easier it is to figure out who did the crime” (61). The group reads the back cover of the book and find out that Wallis Wallace likes to work in the garden and that his favorite color is green. Another book says the author lives in a castle called Moose Manor in Maine. Ruth Rose says that something is bothering her. Dink reads from the back of his book. It says that Wallis Wallace gives money to wildlife conservation. Josh reminds everyone that no one has yet checked Room 302.