Skin and Bones (11 page)

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. He 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.”

Frank believed her. “I don't know of
anything right now,” he said. “Except report the stolen vampire costume and
get the police here to interview everyone before they leave. Maybe someone knows the
thief or saw him and can give a description. If you come up with anything, let us know
or call Sergeant Thomas Chang, Cody's dad.” He rushed out the back door with
Cody and Deb close behind.

They raced through the parking lot, up the passageway between the
buildings, around to the front, and into Skin & Bones.

Frank led them straight up to Cody's flat. He peeled off his
jumpsuit and skullcap and washed off the alien makeup. Cody went into his bedroom to
change. Deb stayed by the phone in the office, still dressed as a ghost.

“One of us has to stay here from now on,” Frank said, joining
her. “If Joe can call, he'll call here.” He took out the triangular
scrap of paper with
b2g
printed on it. He knew it held the
answer, but he couldn't figure out how to break the code.

“Couldn't we call the bureau of public records and find out
who owns that property with the boat shack on it?” Deb suggested.

“I thought of that,” Frank said. “We've done it
before in other cases. But in a metropolitan area of this
size, it
would take days to get the job done. They're always backed up with requests. We
can have Cody's dad get the information for us much quicker. I wish he'd
call—or better yet, Joe.”

Like magic, the phone rang. But it wasn't Joe or Sergeant Chang.
Dressed in a red sweater and jeans, Cody came out of the bedroom to take the call. When
he hung up, he turned to Frank and Deb. “That was the dry cleaners,” he said
with a puzzled expression. “Joe's sweatshirt is ruined, and they can't
fix it. But get this—it wasn't blood. It was a red paint glaze!”

“Why would Dave have red paint all over his jacket?” Deb
wondered.

“The real question is why did he tell us it was blood?” Frank
asked. He felt as if his mind was zooming around a track, circling and circling the
clues. Then one of them jumped out at him. “Did Dave have a set of keys to your
car?” he asked Cody.

“Sure. We both used the SUV for pickups, so I got him a set of his
own.”

“Did he ever return them to you?”

Cody thought for a moment. “Now that you mention it, I don't
think so. Why?”

“Does Dave have a boat?” Frank asked as he turned to
Cody's computer.

“Yes, he does,” Cody answered.
“I've never seen it though. Why all the questions?”

“You said Dave started an online auction site for computer
equipment, right?” Frank asked. “What's his company's
name?”

“ComputerCloud-dot-com,” Cody said.

Frank typed in the name. Nothing came up. Then he typed
b2g.
Nothing. “Okay,” he muttered. “Let's start with
this.” He typed
2g.
An alphabetical list of
2g
names started running down the screen: ads2getresults.com,
ask2getanswers.com, attorneys2go.com, avocados2go.com.

When he got to the last two, Frank stopped the search immediately and
refined his search. He typed 2go.

Again, a long list of names started cascading down the screen. The names
starting with
a
tumbled off the bottom of the screen, and then
the
b
's started. He felt a quickness in his breath that
matched the rapid pumping in his temples. There it was: bonz2go.com.

Frank read aloud. The website explained that this site was owned by Dave
Cloud, also owner of ComputerCloud. Bonz2go auctioned hard-to-find animal, fish, bird,
and human bones and other body parts.

“It's Dave,” Frank told the others.
“He's been sabotaging you, Cody. Taking your merchandise, intercepting
deliveries, and selling them on the Internet.”

“Deb, keep beeping Sergeant Chang until he calls,” Frank said,
grabbing his jacket. “Tell him we've gone to Dave's.”

Frank and Cody raced to Cody's car. Cody was in shock but
didn't doubt Frank's deduction. “It's a perfect setup for
him,” Cody said. “He's got all my contacts, all my network available
to him.”

“That's why we couldn't find him at the party tonight.
He'd stolen the vampire costume to kidnap Joe.”

“But why?” Cody said. “I'm the one he's
trying to ruin.” He drove the car up onto the Golden Gate Bridge toward Sausalito,
where Dave lived. It was dark, and a thick fog was rolling in through the arches of the
bridge.

“To get us off the case,” Frank guessed. “Also, Brando
was the perfect dupe. Dave could throw suspicion on him. Now that Mike's back in
prison, Dave has to keep the idea alive that Brando has an accomplice on the
outside.”