The Curse (Seacliff High Mystery Book 2) (10 page)

“Everyone get back,” Trevor warned. “I think he just started a car.”

They edged back into the cover of the trees, farther from the road. Tucker began to growl again when headlights filled the night sky. Alyson leaned down next to him and the growling became softer, barely audible, but definitely threatening.

“Where do you think he’s going?” Eli whispered.

“I have no idea,” Devon said, “but what I’m really interested in is when he’ll be back. I’d love to get a look inside that house.”

“It looks dark,” Trevor observed. “Let’s go take a look.”

“Alyson, do you have cell service here?” Devon asked.

Alyson took her phone out of her pocket and looked at it. “Barely. Maybe one or two bars.”

“That should be enough. Eli, Trevor, and I are going to check out the house. Same rules as before. If ten minutes go by and you haven’t seen any of us, call the cops. If you see returning headlights, call me on my cell and we’ll get out quick.”

“Okay.” Alyson didn’t even bother to argue this time. “Be careful.”

“And the waiting begins,” Mac droned, sitting down cross-legged on the ground when they’d gone.

Alyson sat down too, and Tucker lay down beside her. “Maybe we should try to find a place to wait where we can get a better view of the road in case the man comes back.”

“Good idea.” Mac looked around. “We need to get higher but still be hidden, and we need a good view of the house.”

“Maybe over by that outcropping of rocks? We could hide behind them, but I think we can still see the house pretty well from there, and there won’t be any trees in the way to block our view of the road.”

“Let’s try it.”

The girls cautiously made their way through the trees to the rocks beyond. Finding comfortable positions behind them, they settled in to wait.

The guys had made their way to the house. Devon had snuck up on one side and was looking in the window where they’d seen the light. They saw him wave for the others to join him at the front of the house.

“You’d better check your watch,” Mac instructed as the guys crept in the front door.

The girls watched the house in silence, turning every few minutes to check the road behind them. Tucker panted beside Alyson. The air was totally still, not even the slightest breeze disturbing the night. It was as if time had stood still. As if even Mother Nature was holding her breath.

Alyson glanced at her watch. She held up three fingers to indicate how many minutes had passed. The light from the moon dimmed, and suddenly the night was dark. Alyson saw a flash of light against the dark sky, but then it seemed to fade into the shadows. Alyson looked up at the moon, covered by a cloud. The light was gone. It had only been a flash. Or maybe it had just been her imagination.

The waiting was really getting to her. She let out her breath and scratched Tucker behind the ear. The sky began to lighten as the cloud moved away. Suddenly a shrill cry shattered the silence of the night. Alyson opened her mouth to scream, but Mac put her hand over her mouth to silence her.

“It’s only a coyote,” Mac whispered.

“It sounded like someone screaming.”

“Coyotes sound that way.”

“It sounded close.”

“Don’t worry. Coyotes hardly ever attack people. Especially people with big dogs.”

Alyson could hear Tucker growling. He was tugging at the leash, looking around, as if seeking out the danger.

“It’s okay,” Alyson whispered. Tucker continued to growl but remained sitting at her feet.

“How long has it been?” Mac asked.

“Eight minutes.”

“What could they be doing in there for that long?”

“I wish I knew.”

Mac looked down the road for the hundredth time since they’d been waiting. “Come on, guys, hurry up.”

Alyson looked at her watch. “Nine minutes.”

“This is nuts,” Mac whispered, “We never should have let them go in. What if there’s more than one person involved and creepy guy number two was waiting for them?”

“Nine and a half minutes.”

“Do you think we should go down there?”

“They said not to.” Alyson got out her phone and flipped it open in preparation for dialing. “Ten minutes,” she said as her thumb pressed down on the number nine.

“Wait, I think I see someone coming out. It’s Eli. He’s waving at us, or at least he’s waving at where he left us.”

Devon and Trevor joined him on the front porch.

“Cutting it close, guys,” Alyson muttered under her breath.

“They’re headed over to the barn,” Mac observed. “I’m not sure I can take another ten minutes. The last one about did me in.”

“Eli’s waiting at the door.” Alyson watched the other two go in. “There aren’t any windows, so he’s holding the door open to let some light in.”

After several minutes Devon and Trevor came out. Devon was holding something, and after a short but intense conversation with Eli, they started running toward the spot where they’d left the girls. Alyson and Mac came out from their hiding place behind the rock so the guys could see they’d moved.

“Come on.” Devon grabbed Alyson’s hand and pulled her after him. “We have to get out of here.”

“What’s in the bag?” she asked as she ran along beside him, trying to keep up.

“I’ll tell you in the car.”

They retraced their steps at a much faster pace. By the time they’d reached the car Alyson could hardly breathe. Gasping for air, she leaned forward, her hands resting on her knees.

“Get in!” Devon commanded.

Everyone climbed in and he started the SUV barreling down the road at a much faster clip than the trip up.

“Okay, what gives?” Mac demanded.

Devon tossed the heavy bag to Mac. “It’s full of money. Lots of money. And there are more bags in the shed. The stolen decorations are in there too. No sign of Spyder’s truck, though.”

“Why would anyone keep bags of money in an open shed?”

“I don’t know,” Devon answered, “but I have a bad feeling about this. Anyone who leaves this much money lying around is either totally nuts or totally confident in his ability to protect it. I wish we knew where he went.”

“Oh, God. Caleb and Chelsea,” Alyson gasped. “What if he went back to the barn? They could be in danger.”

“Exactly,” Devon confirmed. “Call the police and tell them to get out to the barn ASAP.”

Alyson called the police while Devon drove as fast as he could on the narrow, rocky road. The ride back probably only took minutes, but it felt like hours.

“We shouldn’t just go racing up to the barn,” Alyson cautioned. “If he’s there he might panic and shoot someone. If he’s not there a few extra minutes won’t matter.”

“You’re right.” Devon eased off the gas. “We’ll park where the driveway forks off and walk from there.”

They snuck quietly through the trees. When they got close enough they saw Caleb and Chelsea sitting by the fire, laughing about something. They picked up their pace as they realized the pair was all right.

“Hey, guys,” Chelsea called. “Where’s the Expedition? It didn’t break down, did it?”

“I’ll go get it; you explain,” Devon said.

Alyson, Eli, and Trevor filled Chelsea and Caleb in on what had happened after they’d parted company.

“Oh my God,” Chelsea screeched. “We were sitting ducks. That wacko could have come by at any time.”

“I wonder where he went,” Mac said. “If he didn’t come here I wonder where he went.”

“We didn’t see anyone come by. Not even on the road,” Chelsea ventured. “He must have turned off somewhere.”

Devon pulled the car in front of the barn, a police car following behind him. Devon grabbed the bag from the front seat of the Expedition and went over to talk to the officers.

“How’d they get here so fast?” Alyson wondered. “I only called a few minutes ago.”

“They must have had someone on this side of town,” Eli ventured. “Now maybe they’ll believe us about Spyder and V and do something to find them.”

“If this guy kidnapped them,” Trevor said, “where could he have them stashed? We’ve checked out all the buildings I know about.”

“Good question.” Alyson sat down on a log across from Chelsea. “We still haven’t found Spyder and V, and that’s the main thing we set out to do.”

“Maybe if the police catch this guy he’ll tell them where he’s hidden them,” Chelsea suggested.

“Let’s hope so.” Alyson put her head in her hands in complete exhaustion.

The police got back in their car and continued down the dirt road toward the old farmhouse.

“What’d they say?” Mac asked Devon when he came back to them.

“They’re going to check it out. They think the money is probably stolen, but they have no idea from where, or when it might have been taken. They’re going to wait until the guy comes back and take it from there.”

“Did you tell them about the stolen decorations in the shed? There must be some connection between Spyder and V,” Alyson said.

“They said they’d look into it. All we can do at this point is wait. I think we all need to get some sleep. The sun will be coming up in a few hours. I’ll go into town in the morning to see what I can find out at the police station.”

“I’m coming with you.” Alyson got up from the log and stretched her arms over her head. “You’re right about needing to get some sleep now, though.”

They doused the campfire and went into the barn and the waiting tents.

“Wow, you’re not a morning person, are you?” Devon asked Alyson the next morning as he handed her a cup of coffee.

Alyson had dressed in a pair of jeans and a heavy sweatshirt, but her feet were bare and her hair was tousled, falling haphazardly around her shoulders. She sat down on the log nearest the fire and took a long sip of the coffee Devon had provided. Finishing off her first cup, she handed her mug to Devon for a refill and was well into her second cup before she finally spoke.

“I didn’t sleep well. I’m not always this groggy in the morning. In fact, usually I’m quite the morning person, rather perky, some might even say peppy.”

“I see.” Devon looked at her skeptically. “Where’s Tucker? I haven’t seen him more than five feet away from you the whole time we’ve been here.”

“Sleeping. Poor baby must have been exhausted. He’s usually awake long before I am. This morning, though, I quietly stepped over him and he never even budged.”

“Speak of the devil.” Devon pointed to a panicked-looking puppy, who had wandered out of the barn and made a beeline straight for Alyson when he saw her.

“Careful, you’re going to spill my coffee,” Alyson said to the rambunctious dog, who was dancing around her and covering her with kisses.

“He looked a little scared when he first came out of the barn. Maybe next time you should wake him.”

“What time do you want to leave to go into town?”

Devon looked at his watch. “There’s probably no one around who knows anything about what’s going on this early. I say we make some breakfast first. Do you know what your mom sent along for this morning? I can get something started after I make another pot of coffee. I’m betting the rest of the gang will be up soon.”

“Bacon and scrambled eggs, I think. She figured that’d be easy to make in those cast-iron pans.”

“Bacon and scrambled eggs it is.” Devon went into the barn to search for the supplies they’d need.

Devon started frying the bacon, and the other campers filed out one by one. Alyson knew she should volunteer to help Devon get the meal ready, but she was too exhausted to get up from her perch on the log. Trevor went in search of more wood for the fire and Eli made yet another pot of coffee.

“Is Chelsea still sleeping?” Alyson asked Mac, who had just wandered out of their communal tent.

“Like a baby.”

“I wonder how her ankle’s doing. It looked pretty swollen last night.”

“Yeah, I hope she’s okay. I guess you could give her a ride into town when you go to the police station if it’s still bothering her.”

“I hope the police found Spyder and V.” Alyson took a long drink from her fourth cup of coffee.

“I’m sure they found them.” Mac tried to comfort her friend. “And if they didn’t we’ll all pitch in and look today. They have to be around here somewhere.”

“I think I’ll get cleaned up so we can head into town right after breakfast.” Alyson headed into the barn to finish dressing and find her comb and toothbrush. Chelsea woke up when Alyson crawled back into the tent and started rummaging through her duffel bag.

“How’s your ankle?”

Chelsea turned it back and forth a few times. “Okay, I guess. What time is it anyway?”

“Early. Before seven, but everyone is up so we’re making breakfast. You’d better hurry if you want some. Everyone seems to have quite the healthy appetite this morning.”

“Thanks, but I never eat breakfast. I wouldn’t turn down some coffee, though.”

”I’ll get you some while you get dressed,” Alyson offered, comb and toothbrush in hand.

As soon as breakfast was over, Alyson, Devon, and Tucker headed into town. Chelsea’s ankle was doing better, so she decided to stay, which sort of surprised Alyson. She’d had her pegged as the type to milk an injury to its fullest extent. Of course Trevor was staying out at the camp, so it stood to reason Chelsea would choose to stay to be near him. He was the reason she’d joined the campout in the first place. It was odd, though, that she had spent the morning talking to Caleb instead.

“Did you notice Chelsea seemed to be sticking rather close to Caleb this morning?” Alyson asked Devon, giving voice to her thoughts. “She barely acknowledged Trevor’s presence.”

“Now that you mention it, it does seem they were a little cozy. Do think something happened last night while the rest of us were gone?”

“Between Caleb and Chelsea? No. He so isn’t her type. There’s no way there’s anything between them. At least I don’t think so. Caleb and Chelsea . . . who’d have thought?”

“If they did hook up at least it would get her off Trevor’s back. He should be relieved.”

“I don’t know.” Alyson turned in her seat to face Devon. “I think he kind of likes her. Not that he’d ever admit it, but he doesn’t seem to be protesting too much these days when she monopolizes his time.”

“I see your point.” Devon pulled into a parking space in front of the Cutter’s Cove Police Station.

They got out of the SUV, after telling Tucker to wait. The office was totally deserted, so Devon rang the buzzer on the counter.

“What are you doing here so early, Devon? I thought you finished inputting the files into the new computer system,” a uniformed officer asked as he walked toward the counter from somewhere in the back.

“I did. Actually, we’re here to find out if you can give us any information on the stolen money we reported last night, and the guy who may have stolen it. We think the incident might be connected to the missing students from Seacliff High.”

“They arrested the guy you’re after, but I don’t have a recollection of any kids being involved. Hang on; I’ll check.”

The officer went over to a desk and sorted through a pile of files until he found the one he was looking for. “Says here that the man in question admitted to being in possession of stolen money from a bank robbery and breaking out of prison. He’s one third of a gang that robbed several banks around ten years back. Two of the three bank robbers were eventually caught, tried, and sentenced, but the money was never recovered. This guy escaped from a transport car about three weeks ago while he was being taken to another facility.”

The officer flipped a page to reveal additional information. “Seems the man testified that he didn’t know anything about any missing kids. He said some kids had been hanging around the last week or so, but he’d steered clear of them.”

“He has to be lying!” Alyson shouted in frustration. “The two incidents are way too related to be coincidence.”

“His story checks out,” the officer said. “Our officers did a complete check of the place and didn’t find any kids or any evidence of anyone else having been on the property.”

Alyson opened her mouth to argue, but Devon grabbed her by the hand and led her to the door. “Thanks for your time,” he said as they exited the building.

“That guy is so lying.” Alyson pulled her hand from Devon’s in frustration. “I can’t believe they aren’t investigating this further.”

“I don’t know, Aly.” Devon put his arm around her shoulders. “We had a pretty good look around last night and didn’t find any evidence that Spyder and V or anyone else was around. All the evidence points to the fact that they simply took off. I really think it’s possible the two are separate incidents.”

“Maybe. But I still have a bad feeling about this, and my bad feelings are usually pretty right on.”

“We’ll look around some more when we get back.”

By the time Alyson and Devon returned to the barn Caleb’s helpers had arrived and everyone was busy with the final preparations for the following night’s event. Caleb hadn’t been kidding when he’d said a lot of work went into staging the hayride. In a way it seemed like too much work for an event that ran a single night, but Alyson supposed the preparation was part of the fun.

“So what happened?” Mac ran up to them as soon as the Expedition came to a stop.

“They got the guy who stole the money,” Alyson began as she stepped down from the front seat. “It turns out the money came from a bank robbery that happened ten years ago. The frustrating part is that the police didn’t find any evidence that Spyder or V were anywhere around even though the missing decorations were in the same shed, so they’ve decided their disappearance has nothing to do with it. My intuition tells me differently, so Devon and I are going to look around some more, just to be sure. Want to come?”

“Sure, and I’ll get Trevor and Eli. They should be around here somewhere.”

“I’ll come with you.”

“I’ll go find Caleb and let him know what we’re doing,” Devon offered.

“Do you have any idea where Trevor and Eli might be?” Alyson asked Mac.

“Not really, but I saw them head off that way.” Mac indicated with a nod of her head. “We’ll ask around to see if anyone’s seen them.”

“I think they headed toward the mouth of the canyon,” a slender girl with dark braids and a bright yellow T-shirt responded to their inquiry. “They said something about setting up some rigging for the hayride.”

“Thanks; we’ll take a look,” Mac responded as she and Alyson set off once again down the dusty road.

“It figures they couldn’t be conveniently working around the barn,” Alyson grumbled several minutes later. “I feel like we’ve walked a mile and I think I have a pebble in my shoe,” she added, sitting down on a rock and unlacing her sneaker.

“I think I see them over by that wagon.” Mac pointed into the distance.

“You go ahead. I’ll catch up.”

Mac set off down the road. After Alyson had fished out the pebble and was retying her Nike, she looked up to see a beautiful girl with long dark hair staring at her from about a hundred feet away.

“Hello,” Alyson greeted her.

The girl continued to stare at her for a minute before walking away without saying a word.

“Weird,” Alyson said out loud as she stood up and brushed off the seat of her pants. She looked toward the grove of trees where the girl had disappeared, shrugged, and set off to find her friends.

In the end, Trevor and Eli agreed to go with Alyson, Mac, and Devon, but Chelsea volunteered to stay behind to help Caleb. After making sure they had everything they might need, they headed up the dirt road to the old farmhouse where they’d found the money the night before.

“Alyson, Tucker, and I will start off looking in the house,” Devon decided. “The rest of you search the barn and shed. Remember, anything could be a clue.”

“So where do we start?” Alyson asked as they entered the house.

“Let’s start at the bottom and work our way up.”

The pair worked side by side, looking through drawers and behind furniture. The farmhouse was furnished with worn-out pieces of furniture that had obviously been left behind by the previous owner.

“Hey, look at this,” Alyson said, holding up a yellowed parchment. “It looks like some kind of map.”

“Here, let me see that,” Devon said, reaching for the rolled-up parchment. “It looks like the map of a tunnel. Or maybe a mine.”

“Do you think it could be a map of the caves we found near my house?”

“Maybe. The topography on this map looks similar to the landscape near the farm, although the caves could go on for miles, so they may be one and the same.”

“We should tell the others,” Alyson said. “Maybe this guy stashed his money in the caves ten years ago, then came back to get it when he escaped from prison. Maybe that’s where we’ll find Spyder and V.”

“Makes sense, but this tunnel system seems quite extensive. How are we ever going to figure out where to start looking for an entrance?”

“Let’s look around the house some more to see if we can find any other clues.”

“The entrance to the tunnels must be somewhere between here and the barn,” Alyson speculated as she continued to go through drawers and cabinets. “We saw the bank robber leave, but Caleb said he never heard the car pass by on the road. And he was here for the police to arrest, but none of us heard his car return. He must have turned off before he got to the barn.”

“It makes sense that the tunnels would be somewhere within the hills bordering the west side of the farm.”

“I saw a light last night while we were waiting for you. It was just a flash, but maybe it was from headlights or a flashlight. I think if we go outside I can get a general location. At least it’s somewhere to start.”

“Okay. Let’s go get the others. Where’s Tucker?”

“Tucker,” Alyson called. “Come here, boy.” She was answered by the sound of barking coming from the kitchen. “What’s he doing in there?”

“I don’t know. I’ll go check,” Devon offered. “Hey, Tucker, what’s up?” he asked the dog, who was scratching furiously at an old rug that sat beneath a battered table.

Tucker stopped to look at Devon but didn’t move from his spot.

“What’s he doing?” Alyson asked, coming in behind him from the living room.

“I have no idea. He was digging at that carpet like he was trying to make a hole. Maybe some food fell underneath and he was trying to get to it.”

“No, he wouldn’t ignore my call just for food. He always comes when I call him. I think we’d better check it out.”