Sammy Keyes and the Power of Justice Jack (26 page)

“Oh, man!”

“What?”

“Did you hear that?”

“Hear what?”

“That whistle?”

And there it goes again:
Ah-ee-ah-ee-ahhhhh
.

“What is that?”

“That’s Casey looking for me.”

“You guys have your own whistle?” She shakes her head and rolls her eyes. “Sounds like the call of the wild.”

“Yeah, well, I’m supposed to whistle back.”

She gets the skateboard dislodged and says, “Probably don’t want to do that until we figure out if this is the softball statue. If it’s not, we’ll just bail off and you can whistle all you want.”

So we dig at the tarp, but it’s hard to get underneath it, especially with the straps cinched down tight. And I start to panic that we’re totally wasting time because we’re already jostling onto Sandydale Lane. “Man! I wish I had a knife!”

But Marissa’s found an end of the tarp and is pulling it up. So I jump in and help her, and all of a sudden out pops a big brass hand holding a big brass softball.

“Yes!” Marissa whispers, pumping her fist.

Now, in the back of my mind I had thought that the tow truck would make a pit stop at Mama Jack’s mobile home. I don’t know why. I just did. And even if it didn’t, I
thought I could signal Casey with the whistle and get him to sneak on board with us. Trouble is, as soon as we hit Sandydale Lane, the truck starts
moving
.

I look at Marissa. “What’s our plan?!”

“To get the reward!”

“But what’s our
plan
? What if Tow Truck Tony’s got a gun?”

Normally, this would have sent Marissa into Nervesville, but something about the reward is making her brave. “Justice Jack’s mom knows you, right? She won’t let him shoot you. It’s just a stupid statue!”

“Which the most powerful man in the city wants back!”

“Which is why we’ll be swimming in five thousand dollars!”

I hear Casey’s whistle again, and this time I cup my hands together and whistle back. And as we barrel past Pair-a-Dice, I spot him on the side of the road.

Ah-ee-ah-ee-ahhhhh
, I whistle again.

“Hey!” he shouts as we go by, but I’m afraid to shout anything back. And instead of doing something smart, I figure, Okay. When we get to the stop sign at the bottom of Sandydale, I’m jumping off.

But Marissa
is
apparently thinking, because she’s got her backpack off and open and she’s tossing a piece of rumpled yellow paper at Casey. It doesn’t go anywhere
near
him, but he does see it and races to pick it up.

“What did you write?”

“Call the cops!” she tells me.

“Wow. That was quick thinking. And you were fast! But I’m bailing off at the stop sign.”

“No, you’re not!” she says, pointing her yellow pad at me. “We won’t know where they’re going! We’ll lose the reward!”

“Marissa, this is crazy. I’m getting off!”

Trouble is, Tow Truck Tony doesn’t even slow down at the stop sign. He just barrels through it and veers to the right, away from the main road.

“Oh, great!” I moan. Then I snatch Marissa’s yellow pad from her, rumple up a piece of paper, and toss it over the side.

Then I do another.

And another.

Marissa gets all excited and starts helping. “Oh! Like Hansel and Gretel!”

I shake my head. “You are never this calm and collected when we’re in danger.”

“There’s never been a reward before!” she says, all happy-faced. “And so far the only danger is the way this guy drives!”

After a few more turns and dozens of wadded papers, the eucalyptus trees have thinned way out and I have no idea where we are.

Plus, it’s definitely dark now.

Plus, I don’t see any houses.

We keep wadding papers and tossing them overboard, but I’m getting more and more worried about being hauled into the middle of nowhere.

And then all of a sudden we slow down and turn off the road.

“Oh,
man
,” I whisper, and start wadding up papers like
crazy. “Casey and the cops’ll never see these papers in the dark!”

“Those two will never see
us
in the dark,” Marissa says. “Which means the minute they stop, we’ll jump off and hide. And we’ll know where they stash the statue
before
Jack miraculously finds it, and—ta-da!—we’ll be rich.”

Now, even though it’s dark back where we are, I don’t want to risk being spotted in the side mirrors. And since we’re slowing way down and I’d really like to be able to see what’s going on, I stand up, lean across the statue, grab onto the big red W brace, and look over the top of the cab.

Marissa jumps up, too, and as we jostle side to side over some potholes, she says, “What is this place?”

We come to a sign that says
SVENSEN’S DAIRY
, and straight ahead there’s a really large rectangular building.

“If this is a dairy, where are the cows?” She sniffs. “I sure don’t
smell
any, either.”

“It must be abandoned? Or out of business?” We’ve slowed down even more, so I grab my skateboard and tell her, “Let’s get off while we can.”

“Already?”

“Marissa! Get scared, okay? This is not a good situation!”

She comes down from her perch. “All right, all right.”

So we do a quick butt-scoot to the end of the bed, dangle our legs over the edge, and push off while the truck jostles forward over potholes. And both of us do land on our feet, but somehow we wind up falling over anyway.

“That was still a lot easier than getting on!” Marissa laughs, dusting off.

“Wow,” I say, shaking my head at her. “The lure of money has a powerful effect on you.”

“I’ve been broke since summer!” she says.

“I’ve been broke my whole life,” I grumble. Then I grab her and start to head back the way we’d come.

“Wait—where are we going?”

“Back to the road! We need to either find a house or flag someone down and call the police.”

“Casey’s already found some way to do that, don’t you think?”

“And told them what? Follow the wads of yellow paper?”

“But don’t you want to spy on them and see where they hide the statue?”

“They’re not hiding it, they’re
planting
it so Jack can make his amazing discovery.”

“What kind of amazing discovery will it be if it’s clear out here? No one will know!”

“Oh, I’m sure they’ll call the TV stations and the newspaper and have a huge entourage of paparazzi documenting his do-gooder phoniness.” I shake my head. “What a con. What a
fake
.”

“He’s like the wizard behind the curtain.”

I snort. “He’s not Justice Jack, he’s Joker Jack.”

“The Sham Man.”

“Captain Con.”

She laughs. “That’s a good one.” But then she looks over her shoulder and yanks me to a halt. “So where’d they go?”

I look over my shoulder, too, and at first it does seem like they’ve vanished, but then I spot the truck pulling around the far side of the barn. “Over there! See them? They turned off their headlights.”

“So maybe they’re not going into the barn? Maybe they’re going out … out there! What if they hide it in a field? What if we know it’s around here somewhere but aren’t sure where? What if we lose the whole reward because we don’t actually
know
where it is?”

“Marissa! Get a grip! We’re in the middle of nowhere by an abandoned dairy farm. Who do you think would find us out here? How long would it take for someone to discover our vulture-pecked bones, huh?”

She blinks at me.

That’s all.

Just blinks.

So I grab her again and march her back to the road, and almost right away I see a light coming toward us from the left.

At first I’m excited because out in the middle of who knows where you might not expect a car to show up for ages.

But then I realize that it’s not a car.

Well, unless it’s missing a headlight.

“Is that a bike?” Marissa asks.

We watch another minute, and finally I say, “Maybe it’s someone with a flashlight?” because the beam of light is kind of jerking around. The light is yellow, too. And flickery. And I’m getting the sinking feeling that whoever it is
won’t be able to help us call the police when I realize there’s a
sound
getting closer, too.

A sound I recognize.

And, really, it can only mean one thing.

We’re in some deep, dark, middle-of-nowhere doo-doo.

“It’s Justice Jack!” Marissa cries.

Like this is a good thing.

“He’s
in
on this, don’t you get that?” I grab her by the arm and haul her off the road and behind the
SVENSEN’S DAIRY
sign, and then we watch the headlight jerk to the side from time to time as the High Roller roars toward us.

Finally Marissa says, “So what are we going to
do
?”

“I don’t know! I sure hope Billy’s not with him. He’s driving like he’s drunk!”

They’re getting close now, and over the roar of the High Roller I hear someone shout, “There’s another!”

It’s not Billy’s voice.

Or Jack’s

“Oh no!” I groan. “Casey’s using our trail of paper balls to lead Jack right to us!”

But then we hear, “Dude! Over there! On the right!”

“That’s Billy!” Marissa squeals.

And then, booming over the roar of the bike, we hear, “Never fear, young champions! We’ll find them!”

“How are they
all
on that contraption?” I ask, because the only thing we can really see is the headlight. But then
Casey shouts, “There’s one!” and as the High Roller turns onto the dairy property, we see that Billy’s in the sidecar while Jack is scooted way up on his seat with Casey crammed in behind him.

I race out from behind our hiding place and shout, “Casey! Billy! Wait!”

The High Roller nose-dives to a halt and Justice Jack cries, “Hark! The sound of damsels about to be rescued!”

“We’re not damsels and you’re not rescuing us!” I shout at him. “I know exactly what you’re up to!”

He totally ignores how I know exactly what he’s up to and says, “You weren’t abducted?” and even in the dark I can see the phony innocence behind the mask.

Casey swings off the High Roller and runs over to me. “What happened? Where’s the truck?”

“Down there!” I say, pointing toward the abandoned dairy barn. “They’ve got the softball statue!”

“The softball statue!” Jack roars, and before I can explain a thing, he cries, “Thieving fiends! Prepare to be Jackhammered!” and tears off in the High Roller with Billy still in the sidecar.

“NOOOO!” I shout after him. “BILLY, GET OUT!”

“What’s going on?” Casey asks, chasing after me as I chase after the High Roller.

“Jack’s mother stole the statue!”

“His
mother
did?”

“Her and her boyfriend! Well, we think it’s her boyfriend. And Jack has to be in on it!”

“Jack does? Why?”

“Everything he’s done has been staged so he could get a reality show!”

Now, let me tell you, it’s not easy running with a backpack bouncing around and a skateboard in your hand. At least Marissa can hold down her straps and keep her pack from bouncing. But I’m all bumping around and it’s slowing me down, which is frustrating because it feels like Billy’s in danger and I just want to get to him and warn him that he’s sidekick to Captain Con.

And then it hits me that Casey doesn’t have his backpack
or
his skateboard. So I ask him, “Where’s your stuff?”

“I dumped it at Pair-a-Dice.”

And just like that I’m dumping mine. “Marissa!” I shout, because she’s a little ahead of us. “Ditch your backpack!”

She spins out of it and,
clomp
, it falls without her even slowing down.

“What’s up with her?” Casey asks, because it’s definitely not like Marissa to lead a charge.

“There’s a big reward for the statue!” Then I add, “And maybe she’s kicking herself over Billy?”

Since all Jack heard me say was, “Down there!” he doesn’t go around the back of the barn where the tow truck had disappeared. Instead, he roars right up to the big barn door, leaps off the High Roller, and bashes the door in with his boot.

“Billy!” I shout. “Billy, he’s a fake! He’s conning you right now!”

But Billy either doesn’t hear me or doesn’t believe me,
because he leaps out of the sidecar and follows Jack inside the dairy barn without even looking back.

“The tow truck didn’t go into the barn,” I call over to Casey. “It went behind it.”

“But we’re following Billy, right?” Casey calls back.

“I am not getting cheated out of that reward!” Marissa shouts over her shoulder. “I didn’t risk life and limb for nothing!”

So we charge over to the barn door—which turns out to be two big swinging doors—and all of a sudden there we are, inside this massive building that has a dirt
road
down the middle and long rows of open-sided stalls. The stalls are made out of metal pipe, and all together they look like some kind of stainless-steel rib cage.

Like the carcass of a huge alien robot, or something.

The reason we can see this is that headlights are shining toward us from the other side of the barn. At first I’m surprised that Tow Truck Tony did come inside, but then it hits me that of course Jack knew where to look. He’s been in on the whole thing!

Jack’s in the middle of putting on a big show, too. “Don’t move, villains!” he cries as he strides commando-style toward the headlights. “You cannot escape the Golden Gloves of Justice!”

We can’t see beyond the headlights very well, but I can make out a big waddling movement between the truck and the cow stalls.

Jack whips out his slingshot and commands, “Unhand that statue and move away or prepare to be pummeled by the Pellets of Pain … 
t
.”

Like a good sidekick, Billy whips out a slingshot, too.

“Billy!” I call as we move in on them. “He’s a fraud! He knew they had the statue!”

“I knew no such thing!” Jack cries, and
boy
is he sounding indignant.

Billy pulls back the band of his slingshot and doesn’t even bother to look over his shoulder at me. “A superhero has honor and valor! And he never lies!”