Cult of Crime Read online

  A light glowed above them. “Take this,” Rosie called. He dropped a flashlight into the shaft, and Joe caught it. “I’ll be right - “

  His words were cut off by bursts of gunfire followed by a dull thud. “Rosie!” the three of them cried at once. No answer came. “They must have gotten him,” Joe said over the gunshots. “All because of us.” He turned sadly, swinging the flashlight up.

  He jumped back, nearly knocking over Frank and Holly. A man stood before them, his long hair matted over his bearded, smiling face.

  “I had to jump,” Rosie explained. “That’s bad. No time to latch the trap door. They’ll find it as soon as they stop shooting.” He took the flashlight from Joe and shone it into the darkness.

  They were in a cave. Frank had been right about the motor. A small engine chugged and purred in a corner, and boxes filled with dried foods were stacked near it. Nearby were a small cot and a cooking stove. This was Rosie’s real home, he realized. The cabin above was just for show.

  Down a long corridor was a big-wheeler Jeep, the kind that was specially made for off-road travel. Rosie ran for it, and the Hardys and Holly followed. “Hop in,” Rosie said. They scrambled aboard. It was old, they could tell, but in perfect shape. The engine started up as soon as Rosie turned the key.

  “Ride out!” the giant cried, and the Jeep shot forward. Joe, Frank, and Holly screamed, and the Hardys both lunged for the steering wheel.

  Rosie laughed wildly, the look of madness creeping back into his face.

  The Jeep careened straight at the cave wall.

  Chapter 10

  IT WAS TOO late for Frank or Joe to move. The Jeep smashed head-on into the wall.

  To their surprise, it kept moving. The wall had come down, and it was flapping on the front end of the Jeep.

  Rosie chuckled. They had run through a canvas sheet that had covered the mouth of the cave. “I’ve had that up for years, to keep people from seeing where I live. From the outside, it looks just like a moss-covered rock.” He laughed again. “Riding through it gets them every time.”

  “Them?” Joe said. “You’ve done this before?”

  “Back during the Vietnam War, I’d drive draft dodgers to the Canadian border,” Rosie replied. He stared wistfully at the sky. “We’d go all the way to the Saint Lawrence on back roads and off roads. A guy ran a speedboat out of Morristown into Canada. I wonder what ever happened to him. Those sure were the days.”

  He reached out the driver’s window, grabbed the canvas, and pulled it back over the hood until it was all inside the car. The Jeep whipped between and around trees as if it were a dirt bike. It bounced over rocks and ditches. It was evident that nothing fazed Rosie, and he would stop for nothing. .

  “So what’s your story?” Rosie asked. “Run a stoplight in Keller’s county?”

  “It’s a little more complicated than that,” Joe said. “We rescued Holly from a commune this evening.”

  Rosie cocked an eyebrow, and his face filled with a new respect for the Hardy boys. “The Rajah’s spread, huh? Mean guys up there. They took some shots at me once just for hunting within a hundred feet of the place.” He leaned over to Joe and winked. “I had to crack a few skulls over that one.”

  Then he straightened up, tilting his head back to talk to Frank and Holly. “How’d you get hooked up with that mob, missy?”

  “You’re mistaken,” Holly said. She suddenly sounded cross. “The Rajah doesn’t believe in guns. He’d throw anyone using them out of the commune. ” “Wise up, Holly,” Joe said in disgust. “Those guys took shots at me, and someone killed Vivasvat. They didn’t do that with prayer.”

  “Joe,” warned Frank.

  “Get real, Frank,” Joe shot back. “She sounds like she still believes in that creep.”

  “I don’t!” she insisted. Tears welled up in her eyes. “I just want to go home! I just want to go home… .”

  She buried her face in Frank’s shoulder and sobbed. He slipped a comforting arm around her; softly smoothing her hair.

  “Look what you’ve done,” he scolded Joe. “Hasn’t she been through enough?”

  Joe scowled, but Rosie just grinned. If he had heard the conversation, he showed no sign of it.

  Steering the Jeep through the trees, he was lost in the fantasy world of his memories, dreaming of a life that had vanished more than a decade before.

  “Thanks for getting us out of there, Rosie,” Frank finally said. “I’m sorry you’ll get into trouble for it.”

  “What?” Rosie drifted out of the daydream. “Oh, don’t you worry about that. Keller never saw you in my place, and there’s no evidence you were even there. If they shot up my cabin enough, I’ll even get some money from the county out of this.”

  “How long before we hit the highway?” Joe asked.

  Rosie laughed. “You don’t know much about being on the run, partner. The cops’ll be all over the highway, waiting for you. You’ll never get where you’re going that way. You’re getting out right about here.”

  Joe peered into the night. The woods had thinned into meadow, but they were still in the mountains. There were no signs of civilization there. “There’s a road around here somewhere, right?” Joe asked.

  “Nope,” Rosie said. “Better.” The Jeep screeched to a stop at the edge of a sloping cliff. “Look down there.”

  Joe climbed out of the Jeep and stared down the cliff. Far below was a rushing torrent of water - a river. But Rosie was wrong. It was too far below. There was no way to reach the river, and no way to travel on it if they did.

  Rosie had led them to a dead end. Frustrated, Joe kicked a stone down the cliff side and listened to it roll. It hit something flat, bounced twice and rang as it bounced, then rolled the rest of the way and splashed into the water.

  It rang! Joe thought excitedly. But it’s stone. There’s something else down there, something metal. He squinted. Partway down, almost hidden in the darkness, ran a set of train tracks. “Where do they go?” Joe called.

  The others left the Jeep and joined him. Holly’s eyes widened in horror. “You don’t expect us to walk back to Bayport, do you?” “If you want, sure,” Rosie said with a chuckle.

  “Or we could wait for a train, couldn’t we?” Frank said. “These would be cargo train tracks, since no passenger trains come through here. The train would slow down around this bend, to avoid throwing itself into the river. If it’s going slowly enough, we should be able to hop on with ease.”

  He turned to Rosie, whose mouth dangled open with surprise. “That’s why you brought us to this particular spot, isn’t it?”

  Rosie smiled cunningly. “You’re pretty smart, all right. Except I bet you don’t know when the next train’s coming by.” “Nope,” said Joe. “When?”

  From the distance came a faint rumbling and the ground began to quiver. “In about two minutes,” Rosie said, laughing. “Come on!” Frank shouted, grabbing Holly’s hand. “We’ve got to get down to the tracks.

  Quick!” They scrambled down the slope, sliding instead of staying on their feet. “Thanks again,” Frank called to Rosie.

  “Anytime, sport,” Rosie called back. “If you’re ever in these parts … “

  His words were cut off by the roar of the train. It rumbled toward them, slowing as it hit the curve. They threw themselves against the hill as the train drew near.

  Then it was passing them. Frank tried to yell orders, but the noise drowned his words. He strained his eyes, looking for the right boxcar to jump. Two cars filled with cattle passed, followed by cars full of coal and corn. Then he saw what he was looking for. Coming up was an open, empty boxcar.

  He grabbed Holly’s wrist again and pulled her along. From the corner of his eye, he could see Joe on the move already, heading along the tracks the other way.

  Nimbly Joe grabbed the handles on the side of the empty car as it eased past him, He was in his element, moving the way he had learned in the gym, pulling himself up the row of handles the wa
y he would pull himself up a rope. It was child’s play for him. With the grace of a trained gymnast, he swung from the handles through the open door. He was inside.

  As the boxcar caught up to Frank and Holly and pulled past them, Joe held the frame of the door and stretched his arm out. Holly’s fingers touched his and slid off.

  “I can’t do it!” she cried. “I can’t! I can’t!” She stopped, clenching her fists. She started to curl up like a child.

  Frank clutched her around the waist and lifted her into the air. Without pausing to think, he tossed her bodily into the boxcar. She smacked the floor and rolled across it, dazed.

  The boxcar moved on, leaving Frank running beside the train.

  Joe howled and leaned out of the car again, hoping to give Frank a hold it was no use. Frank stopped running and tried to catch his breath. Throwing Holly aboard had used up the last of his strength. It was too long since he had slept.

  Moments later, the last car in the train, a caboose, pulled alongside him. It’s now or never, he thought, gritting his teeth. He took a deep breath and leaped. His hand caught the back steps of the train.

  Gasping for breath, he pulled himself aboard and collapsed on the caboose’s back platform. No one else was aboard the caboose. It was being used for storage, with big sacks of grain piled inside.

  Frank leaned out over the edge of the platform and looked along the train. He could see Joe in the open car, smiling and waving. At last they were safe. They could rest.

  A bullet splintered the wall above Frank’s ear. At the sound of the shot, loud even against the roar of the train, Joe leaped back to the door. Figures lined the hilltop they had just climbed down. Flames spat from their hands as the thunderclaps exploded.

  It was Keller and his men. Rosie hadn’t lost them after all, and they were shooting at Frank.

  The train rounded the mountain, allowing Joe a view of the back of the caboose. He could see his brother trying to stand and get a view of the shooters. “No!” Joe cried.

  A shot rang out, driving the’ figure on the caboose platform backward. It swayed on the opposite side for a second and then plunged off the train.

  Joe scrambled to the other side of the boxcar and wrenched the door open. He saw the moon reflected in the water below. Next he saw a cloth covered lump bob twice in the river, then sink beneath the swirling waters. Frank was gone.

  Chapter 11

  “HE WAS THE only one who loved me,” Holly said through her tears.

  Joe looked up wearily and shook himself awake. He sat crouched over his knees against the wall of the boxcar; he had been sitting that way for hours while Holly cried herself to sleep on and off.

  “I don’t want to talk about Frank anymore,” he said. A lump about the size of a fist rose in his throat and choked him. He had always known that danger might one day take one of them. But not yet, he thought. It shouldn’t have happened yet.

  Holly was so grief-stricken, though, that she couldn’t see how upset Joe was. “I know he loved me,” she repeated. “If he didn’t love me, he wouldn’t have gone into the commune after me. Poor Frank.”

  “He didn’t love you!” Joe shouted in exasperation. Holly sat up stiffly and stared at him, pain and doubt in her eyes, and Joe softened. She’s not to blame. There’s no reason to yell at her.

  “That’s just the way he was,” he said gently. “He knew you were in trouble and he came to help.”

  She smiled. “You’re a lot like him. Not in the way you walk or dress, of course. He was quieter than you are, and a lot less physical. But both of you believe in the same things, don’t you?”

  “Yes, I guess we do,” Joe said. “Or did. Look, I’d rather not talk about Frank anymore. Not until I have to explain to Mom and Dad.” “So what do you want to talk about?”

  “I’d like to sleep,” Joe replied, “but if you want to talk, then let’s talk about you.” …… “Me?” Holly said in surprise. “I’m … there’s nothing to talk about.”

  She’s hiding something, Joe realized suddenly. It was in the way her voice trembled, the way she wrapped her arms tightly around herself. “Let’s talk about the Rajah, then,” he said, playing a hunch.

  “What about him?” Holly asked coldly, and he knew he was on the right track. She didn’t want to talk about the Rajah.

  He had to coax the information out of her. How would Frank have handled this? He wondered. He smiled and bent his head so she would not see. When he raised his head again, his expression was bland, as if he weren’t really interested in their conversation.

  “What made you run to the Rajah?” he asked.

  Her relief at his question was noticeable, but there was still a darkness in her eyes and a chill in her voice that bothered Joe. “My father,” she said slowly. “I had to get away from my father.”

  “Why?” Joe asked. “He seems like a nice enough guy to me. Did he hit you?”

  “No. He never laid a hand on me. He never even touched me. That was the problem.”

  “I don’t understand.”

  Holly’s eyes flashed angrily. “You’ve got a family! You hug, don’t you? You do things together, like a family should.” “Sure.”

  “We didn’t. My father and I, I mean. Not since Mom died. He didn’t love me much before that, but afterward, he never had time for me. I didn’t even see him at meals.

  “It was like he didn’t want me there. Like he wanted me to vanish, to be a non-person. There’s nothing worse you can do to somebody, Joe. Nothing!

  “Nothing,” she repeated softly, then she started to cry again. He stood and pulled her to him, hugging her. She clung to him like a child, and after a few minutes, her sobs quieted.

  “That explains why you left home,” he said gently. “But how did you, get hooked up with the cult?”

  She pulled away from him, suspicious again. “You’re working for my father, aren’t you? He’s the one who sent you.”

  “No. He sent our dad. You know him. Fenton Hardy, the detective. He couldn’t do anything for you, so we decided to give it a shot.” “So you are working for my father.”

  Joe shook his head. “He doesn’t know what we were doing. Neither does our father. We did it for you, not them. So why don’t you trust me?”

  “Why should I?” She turned away, arms wrapped around herself. “I trusted Frank. But he’s gone now. Why did he have to go?”

  “Blame it on the Rajah!” Joe shouted. “He sent his goons after us.” Joe calmed himself down. “Look, I’ll tell you everything I know. When I was in the Rajah’s‘ home, I heard him talking about big plans. You were at the center of them.” Holly gasped. “Me? What do you mean? How could I-?” “I don’t know,” Joe replied. “That’s why you’ve got to talk.” She stared at him for along time. At last she said, All right.

  “It was horrible,” she began. “I had to leave home. I couldn’t stay there anymore. But I had nowhere to go. My mother had left me some money, so I took it with me. I thought I could live off it for a long time, if I was careful.

  “I went to New York. My father probably didn’t even notice. By the end of my first day, I had found a cheap hotel to live in. They made you pay by the day, which would make my money run out quicker, but I was going to get a job. There are a lot of acting jobs in New York. I think I’d make a good actress, don’t you?

  “I would have, too,” Holly continued without waiting for Joe to answer. “Every day for a week, I went out and looked for a job. But there were lots of other girls looking, too. I never got to prove myself. It was awful. And I always had this feeling I was being watched, like someone was waiting to get me. “The first time I noticed any of the Rajah’s people, they were dancing outside my hotel. I guess that was three or four days after I got there. They seemed so happy and … and loving. And loved. It made me think of everything I wanted and never had. They were a family.

  “One day I came back to my room and found I’d been robbed. I’d hidden my money, but it was gone. All of it.
So I complained to the manager, and she accused me of trying to get out of paying the rent. She took all my stuff and threw me out. On the street! Where was I supposed to go? All I could do was cry and cry and cry.

  “Then he was there.

  “He brushed away my tears and called me little sister and told me there was always a place for me among his children. He said that with him, I would be free and safe.

  “And I knew I was home.

  “I spent the night in the Rajah’s center in Manhattan. The next morning, a Rolls-Royce arrived-for me. It was the Rajah’s, too. He was there to escort me personally to the commune. The others said that marked me as a special follower, and I was. I knew I was.

  “For the first time in my life, I felt special and loved. The Rajah treated me like a princess. To this day, I don’t know why he did it. But I know I’ll always love him.”

  “Joe?” Holly whispered, but he was asleep. His head bobbed as the train rumbled along, but his eyes didn’t open. With her soft, droning voice, she had stopped him when all the Rajah’s agents couldn’t.

  Holly smiled and peered out the door of the boxcar. The train slowed as it neared a railroad yard. They weren’t in Bayport, she knew, but they were close enough. It was another of the look-alike, semi-industrial, semi rural towns that dotted the banks of the Hudson River. The sweet country smell of the upstate air had been replaced by the odor of sulfur and exhaust.

  Holly had hoped she would never see a city again, but there she was.

  Joe mumbled, startling her. She watched him carefully to make sure he was still asleep. He murmured something else and rolled onto his side.

  Holly studied the empty car, as she had studied it every minute of the long trip. There was nothing in it but Joe and her. She chewed on her lip.

  There’s got to be something here I can use, she thought.

  Her eyes lit up, and she moved quickly to one of the doors. It slid shut easily, and much more quietly than she expected. On the door was a metal bar, a support used to keep the door closed.