The Sleuth Squad (eBook)

The Whispering Tides

LaTonya T. Dudley (Autor)

eBook Download: EPUB

2025
440 Seiten
Publishdrive (Verlag)
979-8-9938512-4-2 (ISBN)

Infos

When glowing seashells begin to sing across Harbor Glen, Zoe and her friends uncover a hidden message carried through the tides-one powerful enough to change the world. With storms rising and the ocean's rhythm faltering, the Sleuth Squad must decode a mysterious lighthouse signal that leads them to a forgotten underwater city. A suspenseful STEM mystery filled with teamwork, ocean science, emotional intelligence, and adventure for ages 9-13.

Textauszug

Chapter 1 – The Return to Harbor Glen

The gulls were the first to spot them. They wheeled and cried above the morning sea as the Mariner’s Hope glided back into the harbor, its sails trembling in the breeze. After months at sea—after Isla Maravilla, the awakening of the True Flow, and the strange light that had filled the sky—the Sleuth Squad was finally home.

Harbor Glen looked smaller than Zoe remembered. The cottages huddled against the cliffs, their windows glowing gold in the early sun. The repaired lighthouse stood tall and white, its lantern shining a steady beam across calm water. Yet everything felt slightly different, as if the air itself hummed with a secret that only they could hear.

Captain Dory guided the ship toward the dock with practiced ease. “Hold the line, Leo,” she called.

Leo leapt to obey, looping the rope around a cleat. “Home sweet home!” he said, grinning. “If my mom’s cookies survived this long, they’re officially historic artifacts.”

Amira laughed, adjusting her glasses. “After everything we’ve seen, your cookies are the least mysterious thing in the world.”

Zoe smiled, leaning on the rail as Milo barked eagerly beside her. The compass hung from her neck, the metal warm against her skin. It hadn’t glowed since Isla Maravilla, yet she still felt its pulse—soft, steady, as if the sea was breathing through it.

The ship bumped gently against the pier. As they stepped onto the dock, the familiar scent of pine and salt rushed over them. Harbor Glen was exactly as it had always been—and yet, not at all.

A Strange Calm

Mr. Finch was waiting at the dock, hands tucked behind his back. “Welcome home, travelers,” he said, his smile genuine and proud. “You brought fair weather with you.”

Captain Dory chuckled. “Fair, aye—but restless. The sea’s been whispering ever since we left the island.”

Mr. Finch raised an eyebrow. “Whispering?”

Amira lifted her tablet. “We picked up low-frequency vibrations all across the Atlantic. They match the resonance from the True Flow—only weaker, like echoes.”

Leo frowned. “Echoes that whisper? That’s comforting.”

Zoe ran her fingers over the compass face. “Not echoes,” she said softly. “Messages.”

Mr. Finch looked thoughtful. “Then Harbor Glen may have more to say than you expect. Things have been… unusual since the aurora.”

He led them through the narrow streets toward town. People waved as they passed, smiling but curious. A fisherman paused to tip his hat. “You brought the light back,” he said. “The sea’s been calmer. Fish are schooling near the pier again.”

Zoe smiled politely, but her gaze drifted to the water. The tide lapped against the rocks in perfect rhythm—three slow waves, then one small curl. A pattern. She counted again. Three and one. Like the notes from the True Flow’s song.

The Museum Again

They stopped at the museum, where The Heart of the Sea mural filled an entire wall with color. The paint shimmered subtly, as though light were moving beneath it. Zoe reached out and touched the edge. It was warm.

Amira blinked. “It’s reacting to the compass.”

Indeed, the metal at Zoe’s throat had begun to hum faintly. The mural brightened, and for a heartbeat, the painted waves seemed to shift. When the glow faded, a new detail had appeared—a small, barely visible engraving at the mural’s corner.

Leo squinted. “Was that there before?”

Mr. Finch shook his head. “I’ve cleaned this wall a hundred times. That’s new.”

Zoe traced the mark. It looked like a shell with lines radiating outward—like sound waves.

Amira snapped a picture. “Maybe it’s a signal marker. A new node of the current.”

Mr. Finch studied the symbol thoughtfully. “Or an invitation.”

The Shell That Sang

Later that afternoon, Zoe walked alone along the beach. The wind carried the smell of salt and seaweed. She could hear gulls, waves, and something else—an undercurrent of rhythm, too even to be chance.

Milo bounded ahead, nose to the sand. Suddenly, he stopped, digging excitedly. When Zoe knelt beside him, she found a shell half-buried in the wet sand—a smooth spiral the size of her palm, pale pink with faint silver veins.

When she held it to her ear, she expected the usual whoosh of sea sound. Instead, she heard three soft notes—clear, bright, and deliberate. They played once, then again.

Her heart quickened. The same melody that had awakened the current.

“Milo,” she whispered, “they’re still singing.”

The compass at her neck pulsed once in reply.

Evening at the Lighthouse

By dusk, the town glowed with lamplight. The lighthouse beam swept over the harbor, slower than usual, its rhythm syncing with the tide.

Zoe, Amira, and Leo climbed the narrow path to the keeper’s cottage. Captain Dory was outside, mending nets. “Found something new already?” she asked, her eyes twinkling.

Zoe held out the shell. “It plays the melody. The same three notes.”

Dory frowned slightly, examining it. “These veins—silver like the old compass filigree. I’d wager this shell didn’t grow here.”

Amira pulled out her recorder and pressed it to the shell. The tones played again, clear even without wind. “It’s sending a signal,” she murmured. “Repeating, like a beacon.”

Dory looked toward the sea. “Then someone—or something—is calling back.”

Leo exhaled slowly. “Guess retirement’s off the table.”

Zoe gazed at the horizon, where the last light of day met the rising tide. She felt the rhythm again: three slow waves, one small curl. The same pattern from the mural. The same heartbeat from Isla Maravilla.

“The True Flow isn’t done,” she said quietly. “It’s changing.”

Dory nodded. “Then we’ll have to listen carefully.”

As night settled, the sea shimmered faintly beneath the moon. The lighthouse beam pulsed once—twice—then paused, just long enough for Zoe to hear it: a whisper carried on the wind, soft as a sigh.

“Harbor Glen, home of the Flow.”

Milo barked once in answer.

Zoe’s heart lifted and a thrill ran through her chest—the mystery had returned, and it was already speaking their names.

Harbor Glen comes into focus through a skein of briny fog, the coastline scalloped and blue with morning, as if the ocean means to reclaim the town with one measured breath. The Sleuth Squad drifts in slow, close enough to count the paint chips on the dock’s edge and watch their battered reflection ripple beneath the hull. Zoe stands at the bow, bare-knuckled hands gripping the wet rail, as if bracing herself against the ordinary.

Amira, wedged under a salt-stained tarp with her knees to her chin, is mumbling into a battered notebook. “Tide height consistent. Salinity up point-three percent, but ambient temperature’s two degrees off projections. Don’t act like that’s not weird.” Her pen scritches frantic, jittery with the kind of excitement that doesn’t fit words.

Leo, flopped over a coil of rope and feigning sleep, peeks through one eyelid. “You know what’s weird? People who measure the ocean for fun. Put the pencil down, Doc.”

“I’m not—” Amira starts, but Milo, Zoe’s half-mutt, half-saltwater dog, beats her to it with a soulful yawn and a nudge of his sodden nose against Zoe’s thigh.

Zoe draws a shivery breath and closes her eyes for three heartbeats, letting Harbor Glen’s shoreline slide into memory. The buildings cluster in their predictable crescent: the two churches—one steepled, one squat—straddling the neat row of shops, the squat huddle of cottages, the elementary school’s bell tower leaning like a drunk sailor. Beyond that, the lighthouse stands sharp and ghost-pale atop the northern bluff, its lens catching stray sun and hurling it out to sea. The tower used to be ruined, abandoned to gulls and salt. Now, as the Mariner’s Hope lists in on the incoming tide, Zoe can see the fresh paint, the winking restoration of its glass, the bright new catwalk wrapping the lantern room. Someone’s been busy. The town looks preserved and varnished, as if bracing for a museum tour.

Zoe feels the compass before she remembers she’s carrying it. It’s a comforting pressure against her sternum, a low-grade vibration that thrums in time with her pulse. She clutches her navy messenger bag, not out of paranoia but habit; she’s learned that the world is mostly safe, unless you’re carrying the wrong questions.

“Land ho, by the way,” Leo drawls, propping himself up on an elbow. “Just in case the big chunk of earth ahead is ambiguous.”

Zoe ignores him, but her lips quirk. The last seventy-two hours have been wind, waves, freeze-dried curry, and the inexorable homeward pull. She expected it to feel triumphant, a return from quest, but instead it feels like oversleeping an alarm: more confusion than relief. The old Zoe—pre-True Flow, pre-Otherworld—would’ve been desperate to talk, to show off the brass disc in her bag, to narrate every discovery for the town’s open-mouthed audience. Now, the words refuse to line up. There are secrets even she’s not sure she wants to tell.

Leo slides up beside her as the dock approaches. He’s more faded than she remembers, all angles and calluses, his cheekbones undercut by the sun and weeks of not eating right. He grins anyway, because that’s what he does. “So, Captain. Ready to face the horde?”

She knows he means the cluster of Harbor Glen’s...

Produkt-Details

• Erscheint lt. Verlag: 16.11.2025
• Reihe/Serie: Harbor Glen Mystery Adventures Series
• Illustrationen: Ai generated
• Sprache: englisch
• Themenwelt: Kinder- / Jugendbuch ► Kinderbücher bis 11 Jahre
• Schlagworte: detective story • friendship and emotional intelligence • glowing seashell mystery • kid detectives series • STEM fiction for kids • teamwork and problem solving • underwater city adventure
• ISBN-13: 979-8-9938512-4-2 / 9798993851242