Free Bailey and the Santa Fe Secret by Linda McQuinn Carlblom Page B

it.
    “Of course it is,” Elizabeth replied. “Pots have to be hollow to hold anything.”
    “Not like that,” Bailey said, irritation creeping into her voice. “The actual side of the pot is hollow, like it has a pocket or a secret hiding place or something. There’s a space only about a quarter of an inch wide between the two walls.”
    Elizabeth raised her eyebrows and stood to look at the piece Bailey was inspecting. “Wow! I see what you mean!”
    “Why do you think they made it like that?” Bailey asked.
    Elizabeth ventured a guess. “Maybe to hold something important, like today’s safety deposit boxes do?”
    Bailey had her eye right up to the hole. “I can’t see if there’s anything in there.”
    “You need a flashlight or something.”
    Once again, Bailey rummaged through drawers and cabinets. “It’s no use. I can’t find one.”
    “How about if I shine my cell phone light on it while you look in?” Elizabeth suggested.
    “It’s worth a try.”
    Elizabeth opened her phone and shone the light just above the hole in the side of the pot, but Bailey’s head kept blocking the light. “Your head’s in the way,” Beth told her.
    “That’s where it has to be if I’m going to be able to see in,” Bailey said. “Why don’t you move the light?”
    “‘Cause I don’t have anywhere else to move it to where it will shine into the hole!”
    Bailey thought for a moment. “How about if we stick something in there to see if we feel anything inside?”
    “Great idea!” Beth said. “We need something small, but long enough, like a pencil or pen.”
    “I think we should use a pen so we don’t risk making marks on the inside with a pencil.”
    Elizabeth nodded. “That wouldn’t be good.”
    Bailey stuck a black ballpoint pen down into the hole and moved it around.
    “Feel anything?”
    “I’m not sure.” Bailey moved the pen again. “Maybe.”
    “Let me try.” Bailey stepped aside and Elizabeth pushed the pen into the hole and wiggled it. “I see what you mean. It’s hard to say for sure since there’s not much wiggle room, but I think something’s in there. It sounds different than if the pen were just hitting against the clay pot. Muffled.” She pulled the pen out, and powder from the dry surrounding clay came out with it.
    “You just made the hole bigger!” Bailey said. She put a gloved finger at the edge of the hole between the two pocket walls and brushed more powdery clay out.
    “Do you think we should really break this pot more than we already did just to satisfy our curiosity?” Elizabeth asked. “I mean, isn’t that what got us into trouble in the first place?”
    Bailey peered into the little hole, not hearing Beth. “Almost there …” Another brush with her finger and a couple more with the paintbrush. “I can see it!”
    “See what?” Elizabeth squealed. “What is it?”
    “I don’t know, but there’s definitely something in there.”
    “So now what do we do?” Beth asked.
    “We brush away more of the side until we can get it out.” Bailey kept working on it, and Elizabeth did her part by blowing the dust out of the way. Finally, Bailey tried to put her index finger and thumb in the hole to pull out whatever was inside, but they wouldn’t fit.
    “We need some tweezers,” Beth said.
    “Oh! I saw some in the drawer.” Bailey was up in an instant. “I figured they probably used them for adding beads and stones to the pottery.” She retrieved the tweezers and twisted them this way and that to try to grab onto the hidden contents. “I think I have it!”
    “Be careful,” Beth said. “Don’t let it go.”
    Bailey pulled the item to the hole and they saw for the first time that it was something resembling folded dark brown leaves. “What in the world?”
    Elizabeth tilted her head to try to determine what it was. “Pull it out.”
    “I’m not sure I can without ripping it or damaging it somehow,” Bailey said. “But I have a feeling this