Skin and Bones Page 8

  Something very pale glinted at the left edge of the flashlight beam. Joe stopped suddenly and realized he’d been holding his breath. As he took in a gulp of air, he turned the flashlight. He aimed it to capture the ghostly vision.

  A thin stream of fog wove in and out of the tree trunks, and it almost seemed to blur Joe’s vision as he stared at the pale object. He squinted to get a clearer picture.

  As the fog drifted away, Joe’s breath caught again. Resting on rust-colored shards of bark was a human skull.

  13 A Werewolf Warning

  * * *

  As Joe stared at the human skull, a large brown spider slithered out of one of the eye sockets.

  “Looks like something out of the shop, Cody,” Deb added, standing next to Joe.

  “Let’s take a look,” Cody said, moving ahead.

  “Wait!” Frank ordered. “It could be a kind of trap.” He swung his flashlight around, but they saw nothing but tree trunks and ferns. “It’s probably not a setup,” Frank added. “But let’s be careful, just in case.”

  “You three stay here and keep your lights burning,” Joe said. “I’ll check it out.”

  Cautiously, he moved toward the skull. He took each step very carefully, tapping the ground with his toe first, then setting down his whole foot. When he got to the skull, he prodded it—very gently—with a stick.

  The skull rolled on to its side, and another spider skittered out between two teeth. Finally Joe knelt beside the skull and rolled it a couple of times with the stick. The others joined him then, kneeling on the redwood bark chips.

  “I don’t see any marks or tattoos on the skull,” Cody said. “Of course, you can remove marks pretty easily from bone. Most bones have a few knicks and dings in them anyway, so shaving off a mark is no big deal.” He carefully wrapped the skull in a rag and put it in his backpack.

  “Do we know where we are?” Joe asked, looking around. “We’ve come pretty far off the park trail.”

  Frank got out the Muir Woods map and laid it next to the map drawn by the courier. “We’re about here, I think,” he concluded, pointing to the Muir Woods map.

  “You’re right on, Frank,” Cody said. “In fact, we’re not far from a trail that leads to the beach. Dad used to take me fishing down there.”

  “I want to keep going this way,” Joe said. “Okay, it’s not a path exactly, but someone’s been through here—maybe someone who dropped the skull.”

  The trail led deeper into the forest about sixty yards, and then the air changed. The heavy dank smell of wood and forest undergrowth gave way to the crisper air of ocean and fog.

  Joe, Frank, Deb, and Cody followed the makeshift trail until they arrived at the edge of a bluff fringed with a wide stand of cypress trees. At last they could put away their flashlights. A steep path led down to a strip of beach.

  “Hey, that’s not my beach,” Cody said, gazing down from the edge of the bluff. The ocean rolled in around several enormous rocks to a small strip of sand. The rocks served as a windbreak, protecting the small inlet.

  “We’ve come this far,” Joe said, “I’m not stopping now.” He began the steep descent down the bluff. Frank, Deb, and Cody followed.

  When they reached the bottom of the bluff, they came to a wire fence. “This probably means this is private property,” Deb pointed out.

  “Maybe,” Joe said. “Maybe not.”

  “What’s this?” Frank asked, stopping suddenly. He reached through the fence. Something had blown up against the other side and was stuck. It looked like a piece of fabric, about six inches square. But Frank was pretty sure it was something much more exotic.

  “Cody, you have to see this,” Deb said.

  Gingerly Frank peeled the thin scrap off the wire and pulled it through to his side of the fence. It was tan with a light pink pattern like patchwork. “Snake-skin?” he asked.

  “It sure is,” Cody said. “Probably an Argentine pink aboma,” he added. “A pretty strange find out here.”

  “Why?” Joe asked.

  “They’re not native to California,” Cody said.

  “So how did it get here?” Frank wondered. “Come on, let’s get closer.” He was over the fence in seconds and walking toward a large rocky bluff.

  The others followed quickly. They continued walking along the fence, but on the ocean side. As they neared the bluff, Frank stopped, gesturing for the others to be quiet. “Listen,” he whispered. He could hear noises from around the bluff. There were no voices, just a few thuds and slamming noises.

  His heart tripping in anticipation, Frank led the others around the bluff. When he reached the point where he could see the other side, he stopped again, holding the others back.

  A large speedboat bobbed in the water, tied to a pier next to a small boatshack. As they watched, someone carried a wooden box from the shack onto the boat and disappeared belowdecks.

  Using rocks and scrubgrass as shields, Frank, Joe, Deb, and Cody crept toward the shack. But before they could reach it, the boat zoomed away.

  Joe led the way to the shack. The door was padlocked. One window was locked, the other warped tightly shut. After a few minutes Frank and Joe pried it open, using sheer strength and Sergeant Chang’s screwdriver.

  A faint smell hit them immediately. It was the sweet sickening smell of meat that was old and going bad. It wasn’t strong enough to make them gag, but it hung in the air, mingling with the fog that stole in through the window.

  “There have been specimens stored in here,” Cody said in a low voice.

  “We get stuff sometimes from overseas that isn’t cleaned well before it’s sent,” Deb told the Hardys. “This smell reminds me of that.”

  “Wood shavings—excelsior,” Joe said, picking up a few shreds off the floor.

  “Some countries still use this for packing. We get it sometimes with bones,” Deb told him.

  “Look, here’s something,” Deb cried out from the corner. She shone her flashlight on a piece of paper. It was shaped like a triangle, with two cut edges bordered in navy blue and one ragged edge.

  Frank peeled the scrap of paper off the floor and held it under his light beam. “It looks like a corner torn off some kind of label,” he said.

  “There’s something on it,” Deb pointed out. “A lowercase g and a number two.”

  “B-two-g,” Joe said in a whisper. “The code at the mailing station,” he said to Frank.

  “Let’s get back to town,” Frank said. He was shot through with adrenaline. He felt as if he were straining to look at something from far away and if he could just get closer, he would see it clearly.

  The four climbed out the window and retraced their steps down the beach and over the wire fence.

  “We can catch Redwood Creek Trail over this way,” Cody said. “It’ll get us to the car quicker.”

  It took them half an hour, but they finally reached Cody’s SUV, still parked safely in the eucalyptus grove.

  Back in town, they picked up sandwiches for lunch, and then headed over to Skin & Bones.

  There was a faint odor from the fumigation but not enough to bother anyone. They ate quickly, and it was two o’clock when they finished. Cody and Deb took the skull to the lab to clean it to see if they could find any identifying marks.

  Joe got on the phone to check with Cody’s network to see whether anyone knew anything about the boatshack, b2g, or a missing human skull.

  Frank booted up the computer in Cody’s office to check online public records that would tell him who owned the beach property they had found.

  No one made a connection that helped the case.

  About three o’clock Dave knocked on the shop door, and Joe let him in. Cody and Deb came down, and they all gathered in the kitchen of Cody’s flat.

  “Man, it is great to get Mike Brando back behind bars, isn’t it?” Dave said. “That weasel.”

  “Yeah, but someone else has to be helping him,” Cody reminded Dave. He was interrupted by a loud tapping
on the door of Skin & Bones. Deb let in a frantic Jennifer Payton.

  “Cody!” Jennifer called up the stairs. “Where are you guys? I need you desperately. You’ve got to come over to help me finish getting set up. The dress rehearsal’s in less than two hours.”

  “Remember, Cody,” Frank whispered to his friend, “we’re going to check her out while we’re over there. Don’t let her know how you feel—or even that you know about her buying your building or her plans for the future of this area.”

  “What’s going on?” Dave asked. “Don’t tell me you suspect Jennifer Payton of something.”

  “Cody, where are you?” Jennifer called again.

  “Later,” Cody said to Dave. “It’s showtime.”

  Cody led the Hardys and Dave down to the shop. “Jennifer, I’m sorry,” he said. “We’re on our way.”

  “Okay,” she said, hurrying back to the door. “Don’t forget your costumes.”

  “Costumes?” Dave repeated. “Is this for the charity fund-raiser? Do you have room for me?”

  “We always have room for more volunteers,” Jennifer said without turning around.

  Frank, Joe, Cody, Dave, and Deb grabbed the costumes Jennifer had given them and went next door to Reflections. The transformation of the club was wonderfully spooky. Under the black draped ceiling with red twinkle lights, cubicles were set up and connected in a mazelike pattern, almost like train cars opening from one to the next. Each had a scary scene inside. Visitors would be ushered through the scene and past the costumed figures, who would interact with them.

  The Hardys and the others joined the gang of volunteers to finish setting up the scenes—ghostly parlors and attics, sunken ships, alien spaceships, witch kitchens, crazy scientist labs, caveman lairs, vampire crypts, werewolf forests, pirate cabins, and monster basements. All had been reproduced. When the setup was finished, everyone got in costume.

  “So, what do you think?” Joe asked, flashing his werewolf fangs and stroking his hair-covered face. “Pretty scary, hmm?” He was dressed in his own T-shirt and jeans, but mats of hair hung out from under the long sleeves.

  “Awesome,” Frank agreed. He wore a neon blue jumpsuit. A pale green skullcap matched his alien makeup.

  “So, when are you going to get in costume, Deb?” Cody asked as she emerged from the dressing room. She was an apparition in ghostly blue-white with pale fluorescent makeup.

  “Very funny,” she said with a crooked smile.

  “Be careful or I’ll make you walk the plank.” Cody whipped off his large plumed pirate hat and made a courtly bow.

  “What about you?” Cody said to Dave. “Did Jennifer decide you are so scary as Dave Cloud that you don’t need a costume or makeup?”

  “You are funny,” Dave responded. “I was too late to be a character—I’ll take tickets or something like that. But for the dress rehearsal, Jennifer is going to have some of us pretend to be visitors. We’ll walk through the gauntlet to make sure you guys are scary enough to be fun, but not enough to cause permanent damage.”

  Jennifer also had choreographed surprising confrontations between some of the characters, which would take place on the stage in the corner.

  The dress rehearsal filled the room with a jumble of howls, moans, screams, and cackles. Jennifer finally took the microphone. “Okay, everyone, time to stop. I want you to have plenty of spooky spirit left for tomorrow. Report here at four o’clock. But right now, let’s party!”

  Jennifer had planned a party with lots of food, music, and fun for the volunteers. The deejay fired up his sound system, and the music was deafening.

  Frank, Cody, and Deb met up near Jennifer’s office. “Have you seen Joe?” Frank asked.

  “Not yet,” Cody answered.

  “He’s still rehearsing with the vampire,” Deb said. Werewolf Joe was locked in a wrestling match on the stage. He was acting out the skit Jennifer had cooked up, pitting the two most famous biters in horror history against each other.

  “Okay,” Frank said. “Jennifer’s pretty distracted as it is. But you two keep an eye on her and keep her away from her office. I want to look around. When you see Joe, send him here.”

  Deb and Cody wove through the noisy crowd. Frank stood in the office door, but he couldn’t take his eyes off the stage. “Come on, Joe,” he muttered. “Get it over with. You can take him.”

  For a minute he was dazzled by what seemed like a thousand lights dancing around the room. He looked up to see a mirrored ball dangling and revolving from the ceiling. He thought of the piece of mirror that Joe had found on Cody’s roof.

  Then he remembered all the sports and fitness photos, awards, and certificates he had seen in Jennifer’s office. He raced to the wall and scanned it eagerly. His eyes rested on one framed display, and he felt his pulse stop and then quicken. Hanging on the wall was a certificate attesting to Jennifer’s championship karate skills.

  “Excuse me,” a young man said, coming into the office. Frank could hardly hear him over the noise. “Are you Jennifer’s manager?”

  “No, I just—”

  “Tell her someone stole my costume,” the young man said. “I was in the dressing room getting ready to change, and someone took it off the counter. It was the vampire costume she had made special for the fight with the werewolf, so she’s not going to be happy about it. Had a full head mask and everything.” He gave Frank a little wave and then rejoined the loud party.

  Frank felt a wave of foreboding cascade through him. “Joe!” he yelled as he left the office and focused on the stage in the corner. As he watched his brother struggling to take charge, the vampire got a stranglehold on Joe.

  “Joe!” Frank yelled again, charging through the dense crowd. His voice was just one more in the crowd of party monsters.

  14 Fear in the Fog

  * * *

  Frank barreled through the mass of costumed volunteers—some eating and drinking, some dancing. No one paid any attention to him as he yelled to Joe.

  Still calling as he pushed through, Frank saw Joe dragged off the stage and into the wings. He spotted Cody and Deb and motioned them to follow him.

  At last the three made it backstage. But neither Joe nor the vampire was there. Frank rushed to the back door of the club, a metal double door that led to a parking lot. One of the doors was being held open by a kickbar. There was no Joe, no car peeling away.

  Frank went back in, saying, “Cody, call your dad. I think Joe’s been kidnapped. Deb, find Dave. We need all the help we can get.”

  Then Frank went to the deejay and told him to have Jennifer meet him backstage immediately. He also put out a call for Joe, just in case.

  Frank paced the wings while the deejay’s voice blasted through the sound system. “Jennifer, we have an emergency,” he said. “Please report to the stage now. Joe Hardy, come to the stage.”

  Breathless, Jennifer was there in minutes. “What?” she said to Frank. “What’s happening? Please—I can’t take any more emergencies and disasters.”

  Quickly Frank told her about the stolen costume and the scene on the stage.

  “Come on,” she said. “So they fought and one of them won. It’s over. They’re probably out there scarfing up food now. Relax. Your brother will turn up.”

  “Listen to me,” Frank said, his eyes narrowing as he glared at her. “This is not a joke. This is not a false alarm. Joe would have been here by now if he’d heard that announcement. He is either hurt and unable to respond or he’s been taken away.”

  “What do you want me to do?” she asked. He could see the sparks of fear in her eyes.

  “Were you on the roof of Skin and Bones Monday night?”

  Jennifer’s eyes widened and for a minute, he thought she was going to run. Then, still tense and looking as if she were going to sprint away any minute, she answered him.

  “Yes, I was,” she said. “But I wasn’t trespassing. I own that building.”

  “We know that,” Cody said, joining them. H
e turned to Frank. “Dad was out,” he said, “but they’ll find him. I also beeped him. He’ll be in touch as soon as he can.”

  “I’ve been overwhelmed by this fund-raiser,” Jennifer said to Cody. “Honestly, I wanted to tell you but decided to wait till this was over to sit down and talk with you.”

  “I know about your plans,” Cody said. “And I bet they don’t include my shop.”

  “Yes, they do,” she said. She seemed to relax a little and not be so ready to jump away. “You’re just the kind of quirky offbeat business I want to encourage here. In fact, I want you to move into the building on the other side of Reflections. It’s bigger, and I’ll let you have it at the same rent for a year if you’ll stay.”

  “Why were you on the roof?” Frank asked.

  “I didn’t think anyone was in your building that evening. If Skin and Bones moves to the other side, I want to put a restaurant in your building, one with a rooftop café. I was just checking it out.”

  “But you attacked Joe,” Frank said.

  “Wait a minute,” she said. “Is that what this is all about? You think because I kicked him then that I’ve done something to him now? You’ve got to believe me.” Her tone changed as she pleaded. “I don’t know what’s happened to your brother.”

  Frank kept his eyes on her as she spoke.

  “Monday night he surprised me and I panicked,” Jennifer continued. “I didn’t want to get into all this expansion stuff yet, so I just wanted to get away without being identified. I was defending myself. He was creeping toward me, and I didn’t know who he was until I turned around. Then I pulled my kick so he wouldn’t be hurt. Hey, I’m a champion. If I’d wanted to really hurt him, I could have. Is that how you figured out that it was me up there? The karate?” she asked.

  “And a piece of mirror you left,” Frank said.

  “The mirrored ball.” Jennifer nodded. “I’ve had trouble with pieces chipping off. I get them on my feet, and then I carry them around until I can reglue them. Look, if your brother’s been hurt or kidnapped, I swear I don’t know anything about it. But I’m ready to help any way I can.”