Monsters and Mischief (11 page)

“What are they up to?” Rosie asked.

“Maybe they’ve made a discovery,” said Sylvester.

“Can I see that?” Woodrow asked, reaching for the notebook. Viola handed it over. After brushing his fingers against the blank first page, he glanced at the rest of them. “I think I’ve made a discovery too. This notebook tells us exactly where Clea’s Troop went.” He nodded at the dark space at the bottom of the cliff. It was just tall enough for someone to crawl inside on their hands and knees.

“
How did a blank piece of paper clue you in?” asked Sylvester, looking like he didn’t want to know the answer
.

Woodrow held up the notebook. “The first page has been torn out. But Shanti’s pen mark left an impression on the second page. Look closely and you can see that she wrote down
‘The Devil’s Armpit’
.” He pointed at the dark space. “She also drew what appears to be a map of the cave. She probably copied it from the Moon Hollow Hills Park website.”

“Do you think the entire Troop went in there?” asked Rosie, hugging her arms across her chest. “Why would they do that?”

“They must be looking for something,” said Sylvester.

“What are we waiting for?” said Viola, taking back Shanti’s notebook. Pulling a pencil from her own backpack, she carefully rubbed the graphite over the impression Shanti had left on the notebook’s second page. Shanti’s drawing stood out white against the gray. “We’ve got their map now. Let’s see if we can learn what they already know.”

“You want us to follow them?” said Sylvester. “Is it dangerous?”

Woodrow nodded at the Devil’s Armpit sign. “This is a ranger marker. If we stick to the route the park mapped out, we should be fine.”

“Should be?” said Sylvester.

“Come on,” said Viola, tightening her bag straps against her shoulders and peering beyond
the jagged mouth of rock. “There’s no way I’m going to let them win.”

The entry was tight, but after a few feet, the ceiling of rock expanded enough so that the four could all stand comfortably. Dim light filtered in through the cave mouth behind them, barely bright enough for the group to make out one another’s faces. Luckily, Viola’s key chain light still had enough battery power to illuminate the map. When she shined it at the walls, another ominous entry revealed itself just ahead. “This way,” she said, squeezing into the passage, heading toward the darkened depths. The other three reluctantly followed.

The smell of damp earth was mixed with another strong, nearly overpowering scent. Sylvester gagged as he got a good whiff of it. But the stench was the least of their concerns.

With every twist of the cavern, the group knew they were moving farther away from the light of day and closer to some great unknown. The history of the place was almost tangible, like you could breathe it in and suddenly know more than you did before.

After coming through one particularly tight squeeze, Sylvester, who was trailing the rest, yelped. “Something dripped on my neck.”

“Bat droppings, probably,” Woodrow said.

“There are bats in here?”

“It was water, silly,” said Rosie. “Look, we’re practically walking through a stream of it.” Viola shined the light at their feet, revealing a small trickle of moisture that followed them deeper into the earth. “How much farther, Viola?” Rosie asked.

“I’m not sure,” said Viola. “There’s nothing on Shanti’s map that says where the Troop was going to stop.”

“Shh,” said Woodrow. “Listen.”

Sure enough, they all heard voices, whispering from somewhere ahead. Viola turned off her flashlight. In the distance, light glowed dimly. “I think we found them,” she whispered as quietly as she could. “Come on.”

The four treaded softly, trying to keep their presence a secret from the Question Troop. The light ahead grew brighter. They were almost upon Clea and her friends when there was a flash and they were blinded. None of them had a chance to cry out before another flash lit the tunnel. It was immediately obvious that someone up ahead had just taken a picture.

“A little warning would have been nice,” came Paul Gomez’s voice from around the bend.

“Sorry,” said Thomas Kenyon. “Just doing my job.”

“Have we got it, then?” said Clea. “The proof we came for?”

“Seems good to me,” came another girl’s voice. Shanti Lane.

Clea shushed them. After a second, she said, “I thought I heard something.”

Before any of the Question Marks could move, a beam of light was shining upon them.

“I should have known,” said Clea, peering at them. “We’ve been followed.”

“Oh no,” said Shanti. “I forgot my bag at the entrance of the cave.”

“Nice,” said Clea, turning away. “You tipped them off.”

“Sorry,” said Shanti.

With their own cover blown, Viola led her group into the space where the Troop had gathered. This new cavern was about the size of her bedroom, and it seemed to be just as cluttered. The tunnel continued into the opposite wall, but it had been blocked off by a single metal bar cemented into the stone. It was the Park Service’s way of telling would-be explorers
Do Not Enter
. But that wasn’t what captured the Question Marks’ attention.

Illuminated by the other group’s bright lights, the cave was filled with several satchels, a sleeping bag, and piles of half-eaten food. A few fast-food burger wrappers had been tossed haphazardly around.

Someone had been living in here.

“What is all this stuff?” asked Woodrow.

“What’s it look like?” said Clea. “A camp. We’ve discovered the secret of Tall Ted. Sorry to say, we beat you to the prize, kids.”

“I don’t get it,” said Rosie, still unsure of what she was looking at. “What exactly is the secret?”

Viola wandered through the site, peering closely at the strewn detritus. Bending down, she lifted what appeared to be a pale rubber mask from the dirty sleeping bag. The mask was the head of a strange, bald creature, with dark, deep-set eyes. The mask looked like something out of a horror movie. Tall Ted?

“Isn’t it obvious?” said Clea. “We found the lair of the thief who’s been terrorizing the students of Moon Hollow Middle School.”

Woodrow peeked into one of the satchels. “She’s right,” he said. “This looks like the stolen stuff.” He reached into the bag and pulled out a couple of wallets.

“And check this out!” said Viola. Underneath the monster mask, she’d located an even more revealing clue: the twin of the walkie-talkie they’d found in the boiler room. “I guess this pretty much settles it.” Viola looked so disappointed, Rosie thought she might have been on the verge of tears. “They’re right. Whoever set up this camp is the guilty one. The thief was masquerading as Tall Ted, scaring students, then taking their stuff while they were distracted. Isn’t
that what happened to Paul in the dressing room when we heard the growling sound near the boiler?”

Paul perked up, then nodded enthusiastically.

“So then … who is it?” Sylvester asked. “Who is the thief?”

“We think it’s the escaped convict everyone is talking about,” said Paul excitedly. Clea threw him a threatening glance. It was obvious that she felt this was her story to tell.

“The convict has been hiding out here?” Rosie asked, glancing around. “What if he comes back?”

“He just might,” said Clea. “That’s why we should probably get going.” She nodded at her Troop and they stood at attention, like loyal subjects.

“Wait a second,” said Viola. “How did you figure out the convict’s hiding place was up here at Purgatory Chasm?”

Clea paused, as if gathering her thoughts. “We … followed clues. We don’t have to tell you what they were. That wasn’t part of the rules.”

Viola, Rosie, Sylvester, and Woodrow glanced at one another skeptically.

“That’s true,” said Woodrow. “But
we
followed some clues too. And our clues indicate that you four are lying.”

“Lying?” Clea’s ice-blue eyes widened. She scoffed. “We are
not
lying. We’ve just uncovered the biggest scandal Moon Hollow has ever seen.
We’re gonna be heroes as soon as we tell the police what we’ve found. I’d be surprised if they don’t give us a medal.”

“A medal?” said Woodrow, amused. “Really?”

“Why wouldn’t they?” said Clea, her anger building. Her friends looked nervous, but the rest of the Question Marks only looked confused.

Still, Woodrow continued. “Because as soon as you mention an escaped convict to them, they’ll laugh in your face.
Don’t you know why
?”

Clea didn’t answer. She only stood there, looking defeated. So Viola spoke up instead. “Being a lawyer down in New York City, Woodrow’s dad has connections to the state police. I’m guessing Mr. Knox did some checking up,” Viola said hopefully.

Woodrow nodded.

“There haven’t been any recent prison breaks upstate, have there?” Rosie asked.

“Nope,” said Woodrow. “So that leaves the question … whose lair is this?”

“It must still belong to the thief,” said Sylvester. “Here’s all the loot.”

“Exactly,” said Rosie, as an idea struck her. “The loot that was stolen from the lockers. Lockers that were not broken into. A seemingly impossible task. Unless the thief had access to locker combinations. I know someone like that.
Don’t you guys
?”

“Gina Denucci!” said Sylvester. “She volunteers in the office. She must know where the locker combination files are stored!”

“She might,” said Rosie. “But I was thinking about someone else. In fact, this other person happened to be one of the thief’s victims.”

“Thomas,” Woodrow said with a smile. “You work with Gina, don’t you?”

Even in the warm flashlight glow, Thomas’s face blushed almost purple. “I do, but —”

“Don’t say another word,” Clea interrupted.

“Why not?” said Viola. “Don’t want to incriminate yourselves?” Every member of the Troop all stared at their feet, except for Clea. She looked defiantly into Viola’s eyes. “It all makes sense,” Viola continued. “You four were the first victims of the robberies. In fact, that’s what supposedly brought you together — the fact that someone had stolen from you. You formed your ‘troop’ in order to catch the thief. But what if you stole from yourselves to make it
seem
like you were victims? You were all friends before any of this started, weren’t you?”

“Like we’d really do that,” said Clea, with a smirk. “Steal from ourselves? Ha!”

“I think you would,” said Rosie. “You do have a fondness for storytelling, Clea. Remember the Lady in Green?”

“That stuff really happened!” Clea insisted. “Everyone knows about her.”

“Just like everyone knew about the legend of Tall Ted?” said Sylvester. “If I remember correctly, it was you who told the story on the bus ride after the field trip. You also planted the thought that whoever took a stone from Purgatory Chasm should watch out — the monster would come after them.”

“It did the trick,” said Woodrow. “Everyone at school has been jumping at shadows for the past few weeks. But no one’s actually
seen
a monster — except for you, Thomas. Of course, no one would realize you’d lied if the thief left behind a Tall Ted mask. Were you the one doing the walkie-talkie growls too?”

Thomas cleared his throat, but said nothing.

“A little paranoia works wonders when you’re trying to manipulate people,” said Rosie.

“Speaking of which,” said Viola, “where did the rumors of the escaped convict begin? I first heard about him during play rehearsal. Did you start that one too, Clea?” Clea remained stone-faced. “You needed to tie the legend of Tall Ted to a real-life thief, someone you could blame, someone you could reveal as the true villain at the center of the web. That’s why you’re up here, taking pictures. When the truth is, Clea, you’re the villain. As obvious as it now seems, you did a pretty good job of tricking all of us.”

“Gosh,” said Rosie, shaking her head, “who knew the lengths you’d go to just to get us to
drop out of the play? You assumed Mrs. Glick would give you one of our parts?”

“You can’t prove any of this,” said Clea, stepping closer to her friends. “Come on, you guys. Let’s get out of here.”

“We’ll make sure this gets back into the right hands,” said Sylvester, picking up the satchel of loot.

Clea grabbed Paul’s wrist and began to pull him toward the tunnel from which the Question Marks had come. Thomas and Shanti shuffled along behind them. They disappeared through the natural doorway, taking their flashlights with them.

A few seconds went by before Viola remembered to click on her own key chain light. “I guess we should —” she began, but she was interrupted by a tremendous roar that echoed through the cavern. This was followed by sounds of wild screaming. The Question Marks froze, wide-eyed in the cold blue light.

Through the tunnel entrance, they watched flashlight beams bob as the Troop ran back toward the fake campsite. Clea and her friends burst into the room, wearing looks of pure terror. “Help us!” she shouted. “Something’s up there.”

“We heard,” said Rosie, trying to control the shaking of her own voice. “Did you see what it was?”

“I saw a large shadow coming toward us,” said Shanti. “After that, we all just turned and ran.”

“Tall Ted is real,” whispered Sylvester, sounding half-pleased and half-horrified at his realization. They all moved away from the mouth of the tunnel.

“We’ll worry about that some other time,” said Woodrow. “Right now, we have to find a way out of here.”

“We can’t go back in that direction,” said Paul. “The creature’s waiting.”

“But that’s the way out,” said Clea. “What are we supposed to do?”

They had no time to answer. The sound of something sharp scraping against stone echoed through the passage. Whatever the Troop had seen had followed them. If they didn’t make a move, and soon, they would come face-to-face with a true Purgatory beast.

“This way,” said Woodrow, pulling Viola and her key chain light toward the opposite wall — the one with the barred-off hole that led to who knew where. No one argued. All eight of them were suddenly a single unit, leaping the bar one at time, then moving deeper into the darkness of the cave system.

They shuffled away as quickly as they could, slipping and sliding through the damp labyrinth, trying to put as much distance as possible
between themselves and the creature on their tail. After several minutes of barreling through the darkness, with nothing but shaky flashlights to guide their way, they paused. Listening carefully, none of them heard anything except a soft trickle of underground water flowing somewhere nearby.

“Are we safe?” whispered Clea.

“From the beast?” said Woodrow. “I’d say yes. But from the darkness, I’m not so sure. Was anyone paying attention to the direction we were running?”

Everyone shook their heads.

“Oh my gosh,” said Shanti. “How are we going to find our way back? My map doesn’t cover this part of the cave.”

“We’re lost,” said Sylvester. “Lost and doomed.”

Viola rolled her eyes. “And to think I once promised myself I’d never die in a cave with a bunch of drama queens.”

“I’m pretty sure I can get us out of here,” said Rosie. “And we won’t even have to backtrack.”

“How are you gonna do that?” asked Clea, with a sneer. “Are you suddenly psychic?”

“No,” said Rosie. “But there’s something in these caverns that can tell us which direction to go. And it’s not a monster, if you were wondering. I bet my friends know what it is.
Right, guys
?”