Clue Nine

(Half past four, by the war memorial. Everybody else is in the tea tent.)

Wilfrid: Read it one more time.

Anneli: Clue nine. Stop searching. What you want is already in your hand.

Wilfrid: Right. So the box is under the memorial. The solution’s under something. It always is.

Anneli: How is that in my hand?

Wilfrid: It’s a picture. Clues are always pictures. Hand — the hand on the clock, on the church.

Anneli: There are several clocks in this village.

Wilfrid: Then we try all of them.

(They search the long grass by the memorial for ten minutes.)

Anneli: There’s a gold star on the back of the card.

Wilfrid: That’s just decoration.

Anneli: And small writing under it.

Wilfrid: Every card has small writing. That’s the printer.

Anneli: What if there’s no box, Wilfrid? What if that’s the secret?

Wilfrid: There’s a box. There’s always a box. It’s a treasure hunt, and treasure goes in a box.

Anneli: Then answer me one question. Why is it already in my hand?

Wilfrid: Because you’re holding the card. Come on. Bring it.

(On the bench outside the tea tent, the woman who wrote the clues watches the last two hunters walk off to the church, carrying the prize.)