Puddlejumpers (25 page)

In the kitchen, all eyes were on Ernie as he studied four closed doors. He recognized the one to the cellar and the one to the garage. Of the two remaining, he wasn't positive but he had a feeling it was the door on the right. He remembered the sound of Joey's voice as they were calling back and forth. Harvey Holsapple waited impassively, the wolfhounds well behaved at his heel. Dicky Cobb and the twins hovered like flies on a wall. Finally Ernie pointed. “That one.”

“You sure? You sure Joey went through that door right there?” asked the skeptical sheriff.

Ernie nodded.

When Holsapple grunted, Cobb limped over to open the door. Dashin waddled behind to scan the well-ordered pantry. The jars of snakes, centipedes, and eyeballs had been taken away. Even the smell had been scrubbed clean.

Dashin smirked. “And exactly where were you at this point?”

Ernie pointed to the other side of the kitchen. “Behind that door.”

“I thought you said you could see her. If you're behind that door, you must have X-ray vision.”

Ernie smoldered. He knew it didn't look good and the sheriff was making it worse.

“I know where she was, I heard her.”

“Oh really,” said Dashin, rolling his eyes. “Okay, then what?”

“I went down to the cellar,” Ernie said, then with a look to Holsapple, “all the way down.”

The sheriff smugly crossed his arms. “Then in fact, she could have departed the house at that time and left you to your own devices, isn't that possible?”

Ernie stared unblinking. “No.”

“So you say,” Dashin chided. “Mr. Holsapple—you got time to finish the nickel tour?”

Holsapple chuckled. “Sorry, Tom, the cellar's going to cost you a quarter.”

The sheriff clapped a hand on Ernie's shoulder. “All right, kid, lead the way.”

Holsapple opened the cellar door and allowed everyone to pass—everyone except Angus and Axel. He whispered something and they hurried away.

The search party descended the well-lit stairway. The tribal masks were still on the walls but, like the rest of the house, didn't seem half as scary as the night before.

In the cellar, all eyes were again on Ernie. Crouching by the storage bin, he noticed that the skull lock had been replaced with a simple latch. He glanced at Holsapple as if the old crooked man might stop him, almost wishing he would.

“Well, what is it, boy?” demanded the sheriff. “What happened then?”

“I opened this,” Ernie said, then opened the lid. He couldn't believe it. The iron ladder down to the oval chamber was gone. It was just a bin full of potatoes. He looked up at the adults pressing around him. They'd tricked him. He could see it in Holsapple's mocking eyes and Dicky Cobb's crooked smile.

Desperate, Ernie burrowed into the bin, tossing potatoes every which way, digging to uncover the ladder. Russ hauled him to his feet, restraining him.

“Oh my God,” moaned Betty, overwhelmed.

“No,” cried Ernie. “It's underneath! They hid it! It was like a spaceship or something. It's down there. It was…”

“That's enough, Ernie,” cautioned Russ.

“But, Russ…”

“We'll talk about it later,” he said, and he meant it.

Ernie glared at Holsapple. “If you hurt her, I swear I'll…”

Dicky Cobb stepped forward to grab him, but Russ stepped between them, standing nose to nose with the foreman. “We're sorry, Harvey,” said Russ. “We won't be taking any more of your time.”

“You got that right,” sneered Cobb.

Holsapple stooped down to latch the bin closed. “Tall fences do good neighbors make.”

“How true, how true,” chimed the sheriff.

To Ernie, it seemed like the stone Chimeras were sneering at him as the adults conferred by the massive front door.

“I'm sure these folks appreciate you not pressing charges,” said Sheriff Dashin. “Breaking and entering is a very serious crime.”

Holsapple shrugged graciously. “I'll have my boys check out the fields. It's possible she got into one of the old mine shafts.”

“Real good, and I'll keep you posted on any developments on our side,” said the sheriff.

“Please do. We'll all sleep a little better when Joey's back home,” reassured Holsapple.

Putting an arm around Betty, Russ ushered Ernie along the portico. The sheriff caught up with them by the pickup. “This kid really owes Mr. Holsapple an apology. And no offense, Russ, if he was mine, I'd have tanned his rear good, two or three times by now.”

“Well, he's not yours,” snapped Russ.

Betty, her temper flaring, added sharply, “And my little girl is still missing, so why don't you just do your job for once in your life.”

“Slow down, Betty, just slow down,” said the sheriff. “We'll find Joey. I got no doubt.”

“No you won't!” fired Ernie.

The sheriff grabbed the boy's arm. “I swear, if you don't shut your mouth pronto, I'm going to do it for you.”

“I don't think so, Tom,” warned Russ.

Ernie yanked his arm away and looked the sheriff in the eye. “Those people are lying—Joey's a prisoner somewhere inside that house!”

“Ernie Banks!”

Everyone turned to see Holsapple standing in the portico waving the Cubs cap. “You forgot your cap!”

Unnerved, Ernie looked to Russ.

“Go ahead, get it.”

As Ernie reluctantly retraced his steps, Sheriff Dashin settled his wide girth behind the wheel of his cruiser. “Listen, folks—if you ever get the truth out of that kid, you know where to find me.”

A somber Russ and Betty watched him motor down the driveway.

Harvey Holsapple waited between the granite Chimeras as Ernie slowly approached along the portico. He stopped just short of the old crooked man. He was out of Russ' sight and didn't want to get any closer. Dicky Cobb leered from the threshold.

“Come here, son,” Holsapple said, motioning with his hand. “You don't need to be afraid. I got your cap right here.”

Ernie inched forward. In a flash, Holsapple hooked him by the neck with his cane, yanked him close, and snapped the cap home, forcing it snug on Ernie's head. “We know who you are,” he hissed.

Coming to life, the stone Chimeras snorted and flapped their wings, blasting air that would have knocked him down but for Holsapple's iron grip. The old man blew his terrible breath on Ernie's face and snarled, “Welcome home…Shawn Frazier.”

Ernie trembled as Holsapple unbuttoned his shirt, only to find scabbed claw marks on a bare chest. The Crystal Acorn was missing. When the old man saw that he was no longer wearing the Acorn, he smacked Ernie's chest and snarled angrily as thorns sprouted from his tongue, warts bubbled on his forehead, and his eyes boiled. But only for an instant. The gnarled old man spun him on his heels and whispered into his ear, “Joey tasted good.”

The Chimeras snapped their dragon tails against his back, knocking him off his feet. He sprawled in the gravel, scraping his hands. His back throbbed, and the skin on one leg felt hot. He looked down and saw a patch of black slime on his jeans. Trying to ignore the burn, he jumped up and sprinted under the portico to the courtyard.
Where did that come from? Holsapple?

Russ was waiting with an open door, but Ernie hopped instead into the bed of the pickup.

“Come on, Ernie. Sit with us,” offered Russ.

Afraid his voice would break if he tried to speak, Ernie waved off the invitation.

“Let him be,” snapped Betty.

Ernie wanted to tell Russ that Holsapple was some kind of terrible monster, but he knew he wouldn't believe him. Nobody would. If he tried to tell what happened, they'd think he was crazy.
Poor Joey.
He'd doubted everything she'd said about the Holsapples, but it turned out she was right.
Dead right

The pickup departed down the Holsapple driveway. Ernie stood on the flatbed, gripping the cab roof. He wiped away tears that leaked from the corners of his eyes, then reached into his sock and pulled out the Crystal Acorn. At least he'd managed to hide it and keep it out of Holsapple's hands. But
why does that wicked old man, or whatever he is, want it?

Ernie could feel the manse watching him from behind as he slipped the Acorn back around his neck and stuffed it under his shirt. He refused to turn around. He didn't want to see that evil house ever again.

At the bottom of the driveway, Holsapple's riggers were digging a trench in the field. As the pickup turned onto the highway, One Eye raised his shovel in the air and slowly swung it back and forth, as if he were waving goodbye. The trench looked just like a grave and, this time, Ernie couldn't turn away.

CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE

The Puzzle

I
T WAS A LONG
, windy ride down Highway 99. Crouching in the bed of the pickup, Ernie secretly cracked open the cab's panel window so he could hear what Russ and Betty were saying. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Russ reach for her hand. “I know it's a wild story, but what if he's telling the truth?”

Betty pulled her hand away. “What are you talking about? Now you think there's a spaceship in Harvey's basement?”

Russ clenched his jaw but didn't reply.

“Joey would never go inside that house on her own,” Betty declared stormily. “Look at his background—a dozen foster homes, no respect for authority, constantly in trouble. We don't know what that kid's capable of doing. What if he hurt her?”

When Russ' gaze shifted from the road to the rearview mirror, Ernie averted his eyes. He was surprised that Russ would still stand up for him after everything that had happened. “I just don't think so,” he heard Russ say. “I don't think he'd do that.”

“Well, maybe it's time you think again.”

Ernie's attention shifted from the distraught couple to the black Cadillac approaching fast from the opposite direction. He stood up as the Caddy zoomed past with the twins in the front seat. He watched even after the car disappeared around the curve. His back ached and his leg still burned from the black slime on his jeans.

The pickup was coming to a stop when Ernie hopped out and ran for the house.

“You stick close,” called Russ. “I want you right by my side, you understand? Ernie!”

Ernie bolted through the kitchen and down the hall. He banged open the door to the crib room and stopped in his tracks—everything was tossed and thrown and ripped and ruined, the bureau overturned and the crib destroyed. He searched madly through the wreckage until he found the shoebox torn in half, the eyedropper shattered. He pictured what must have happened and felt sick to his stomach.
The twins.

Ernie searched desperately, hoping against hope to find Runnel somewhere in the room. As he came along the wall, he saw a fragment from his baseball card sitting on the windowsill. He picked it up and realized he was looking into the eyes of Ernie Banks. Perplexed, he scanned the ground outside the window. There was another card scrap lying in the dirt. He hurried to the door and checked down the hall. He could hear Betty crying in the kitchen.