Inside, Duke walked around the statues, peering over and under the table, examining every inch of the exhibit.
“Nothing,” he said. “No notes. No sign anyone’s been here recently. Dead end.”
He stopped and stared into the face of the March Hare statue. It looked like every other statue. Cute. Whimsical. Brightly painted concrete. Empty eyes that held no secrets.
“Wrong March Hare again?” I asked.
“Perhaps so, love. Still…” He stood up and looked around. “Any chance there’s another hare around here? Or even a rabbit?”
“Maybe? I have to confess I don’t exactly know the difference between a rabbit and a hare. Color? Size?”
“They’re different species entirely,” Duke said. “Easiest way to tell them apart is that rabbits are charming and hares are slightly terrifying. They’re also larger, have longer ears, longer bodies, and stronger back legs.”
If it sounds like Duke was reading from a book, he probably was in his mind. This was another of his fictional detective superpowers—the ability to remember obscure facts and recall them on command.
“Do they come in white?” I asked.
“Arctic hares do. Hares with albinism…”
“Follow me.”
We jogged back up Storybook Lane and took the path to the merry-go-round.
“Is this a hare?” I asked, standing next to the large white creature with the long, long ears and—
“Very troubled eyes,” Duke said. “Thousand-yard stare. Perhaps he served in the Great War.”
“It looks mad as a March Hare, but the question is…is ittheMarch Hare?”
I patted it on the nose.
It said nothing. It did nothing. It offered us no answers.
“Guess not,” I said.
Duke leaned back against a small pony and crossed his arms. “I’m afraid I’m out of ideas. Shall we go?”
I hated to leave without trying everything.
“Maybe if I rode it? If I’m on the hare, then it’s Rainy March’s hare…And you could follow it? I’m grasping at straws.”
“Why not try?” he asked.
Duke went to the controls while I slung my leg over the hare’s saddle.
I screamed.
“Rainy! You all right?”
“Sorry, sorry. It’s just…it’s wet. I have a wet butt. A cold wet butt, and I don’t like it.”
Duke put his hand on his heart. “I thought you’d been electrocuted.”
And that’s when we heard the man’s voice shouting.
“Don’t move!”
Chapter Twenty-Two
