Chelsea leaned down and sniffed it. “Oh yuck—that’s where the smell is coming from!”
“Yeah, the Jersey Devil has a serious body odor problem.”
Chelsea laughed. “No, duh. It’s because he’s all hot and everything, and when he touched it—”
Cooper rolled his eyes. “I know that, I was just trying to be funny.”
“You’re hilarious. So come on, uncrumple it!”
“Right, hang on a sec… oh wow! Check this out!”
It was a flyer from the Paterson Public Library advertising the Rutgers University 250th Anniversary.
“Whoa!” Cooper said, “this had to be his!”
“No doubt about it,” Chelsea agreed. “Let’s go show the others!”
They found the rest of the crew outside the interpretive center. Now that they were finished with their searches, they were eating ice cream cones and listening to the blind jazz guitarist.
Everyone was just as excited as Cooper and Chelsea when they saw the charred flyer—that is, until Jamal said, “But all that means is that the Jersey Devil was here. It doesn’t tell us where he went next.”
Gabby’s shoulders sagged. “Y’know, he’s right.”
“Yeah,” Simon said sadly. “That’s true.”
Silence fell over the group as their enthusiasm drained away.
“So what now?” Chelsea asked.
“Back to the drawing board, I guess,” Cooper said wearily. “No sense in keeping this, I guess.” He crumpled the flyer into a ball again and started toward the nearest trash can.
As he walked by the stage, the blind guitarist suddenly stopped playing. He lifted his head and inhaled through his nose a few times. Then he broke out in a smile.
