Snatched (3 page)

“Fine, Dad.”

“Good, good.”

“I got suspended from school.”

His father smiled hazily. “School. Yes. Good. Hmm. And how is school going?”

“Wellll . . . my hydrogen sulfide generator got left on. It wasn’t my fault.”

“Hydrogen sulfide.” He blinked. “Very smelly, yes. Major component of intestinal gases, hmm, uh-huh, yes . . . cattle create a great deal of it.”

“They had to evacuate the school.”

“Yes, well, I’m glad to hear it. Good work, son.”

Brian was sure that nothing he had said had penetrated. His father’s head was still deep in
The Entomology of Bovine Pustules.
That was fine with him.

“Well, I gotta go snazzledorf my finkwalter.”

“I see, well, that’s nice, son. I’m glad you had a good day at school.”

“Thanks, Dad.”

His father’s head sank beneath the ocean of books.

“When’s Mom coming home? I need to ask her about a case she’s working on.”

He was interrupted by the horrible clatter of his father’s antique rotary dial telephone.

Brian’s father hated telephones above all things on earth. He shuffled through the books and papers on his desk, searching for the source of the ringing. Brian thought about running and answering the kitchen extension, but he was curious how long it would take his father to find his phone.

It took ten rings.

“Hello? Oh, hello, dear.”

It had to be his mother. Brian listened to one end of the conversation.

“Yes. Oh. That’s awful. Oh dear. Oh my. That’s very bad. Yes, no, yes, don’t worry about us, dear. We’ll just whip something up. Okay. Bye now.”

Brian heard the click of the phone being set back in its cradle, then a sigh, then the soft clatter of typing.

“Dad?”

His father’s head popped up.

“Brian? Back so soon?”

“I never left. Was that Mom?”

“Yes. She’s going to be running late this evening.”

“So is it tuna melt sandwiches for dinner again?” Tuna melt was the only thing his father knew how to make.

“I’m afraid so. She might be quite late. Apparently, something terrible has happened to one of your classmates.”

“Nick, you’re looking at this the entirely wrong way. Think of it as a time for me to find myself.”

Roni’s mother, Nicoletta Delicata, better known as Nick, was attempting to make dinner. Roni stared at the mess her mother was mashing together in a big yellow bowl. Nick was not a great cook. They ate grilled cheese sandwiches and tomato soup so often that Roni was thinking of buying stock in Campbell’s. But for tonight Nick was making something she claimed was “meat loaf.”

“You’ve been suspended from school for a week. How else can I look at it?”

“It’s not a week. It’s four days.”

“That’s hardly the point. I’m very disappointed in you, Petronella.” She stopped attacking the meat loaf mixture for a moment and pointed her wooden spoon at Roni.

“You are grounded. You are cleaning the house from top to bottom. You are keeping up with your schoolwork. The television is moving to my room and your laptop will be used for homework only for the next month.”

Roni didn’t like what she was hearing.

Then her mother severed the final line of communication with the outside world. “No phone.”

Roni whined and moaned. She knew that was what her mother expected. She didn’t point out how impossible it would be for her mother to enforce these new rules while she was at work all day long. As the mayor’s secretary, Nick took her job very seriously. The mayor, Buddy Berglund, spent most of his time on the golf course, so she had to make most of his decisions for him. In effect, Nick Delicata ran the city of Bloodwater.

“Whatever were you thinking, fighting with a fellow student?”

“I was investigating,” Roni said.

“Oh, so now you resort to beating information out of people?”

“I already told you. She started it.”

“Yes, I did hear that part. And what should you have done?”

“I just wanted her to listen to me. She acted like I was some pesky fly that she could swat away.”

Roni saw a small smile land on her mother’s lips for a moment. “Well, sometimes you are pesky.”

“I know. But now I won’t get anything out of her. I don’t mind the suspension, but this is a big story.”

“Maybe you should apologize,” her mother suggested.

“But I didn’t do anything wrong!”

“Saying you’re sorry never hurts.”

At first Roni thought her mother’s suggestion was ridiculous. But then she thought about it more. A reason to go over to Alicia’s house. Her mother couldn’t object—she had suggested it.

“She lives at the old Bloodwater place, all the way over by the park,” Roni said. “Can I use the car?”

“I was thinking you could simply use the phone.”

“I thought the phone was off limits.”

“In this case, I would make an exception.”

“I think it would be better if I apologized in person. I could drive over there right now.”

Nick frowned at her daughter, then shrugged. “All right, but I don’t want you gallivanting off on any of your auxiliary adventures, dear. This is a onetime exception—you are still grounded.”

Things were looking up. Roni told Nick about the other thing that had happened that day. “Some kid had a chemistry experiment go stink bomb today. They evacuated the school. So actually I’m suspended only for three days, since everybody got out early today anyway.”

“That sounds dangerous,” Nick said. “Were there toxic gases?”

“You could say that. I met the kid who did it. He’s Chinese or Hmong or Tibetan or something. Maybe I’ll write a piece on him, too—the mad scientist of Bloodwater High.”

Her mother’s eyes lit up. “He sounds interesting. A Tibetan chemist!”

Roni laughed. “I just meant he’s Asian, Mom. Besides, he’s a freshman, a geek, and he only comes up to my navel. Don’t get your hopes up.” She added, “Anyway, you wouldn’t approve of him. He got suspended, too.”

Brian felt as if a giant electromagnet were pulling him toward Bloodwater House.

He hadn’t really planned on going there, but once he started walking, his feet just naturally pointed in that direction. It wasn’t every day that somebody got abducted in Bloodwater. He had to know more, and the answers would be at the home of Alicia Camden and her younger brother, Ted Thorn.

If anybody could tell him more about the abduction, it would be Ted.

Brian knew Ted from science class. Ted was a year older than Brian, but he never lorded it over him. They had collaborated on a science fair project building a solar-powered potato gun. Brian had designed the gun. Ted had supplied the potatoes. The potato gun had worked great, but it had been confiscated when a slight miscalculation caused a large dent to appear on the fender of Principal Spindler’s Buick.

Brian was about six blocks from Bloodwater House when a car pulled over to the curb next to him. It was Roni Delicata.

“Hey, Stink Bomb, where you headed?”

“Bloodwater House,” said Brian.

“That’s where I’m going. Hop in!”

Brian got into the car and Roni took off, wheels spinning.

“How come you’re running around loose, Stink Bomb?” she asked. “Didn’t your parents put you under house arrest?”

“My name’s not Stink Bomb. It’s Brian.”

“Really? You don’t
look
like a Brian.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Brian didn’t like it when people made assumptions. She probably thought his name should be Chin, or Hop-Sing.

“I mean, you look like a Quincy. Or maybe a Hector, or a Zigmund. I expected you to have a really weird name, like a mad scientist. You being a mad stink bomber and all.”

Oh. That was okay, then. The girl wasn’t prejudiced—she was simply deranged.

Brian said, “I’ll probably be grounded when my mom gets home, but my dad’s clueless. How about you?”

“I’m going over to Alicia’s to make the big apology. One way to get out of the house. Maybe she’ll be cool and talk to me about what happened.”

“I doubt it,” Brian said.

“You don’t have to be so negative.”

“Well, I’m pretty sure about this. Alicia just got snatched.”

The boat cabin was smaller than the smallest closet in Bloodwater House. The only light came from two filthy portholes. Paint flaked from the walls and floor, and there were spiders everywhere. Alicia sat on the edge of a thin, rippled foam mattress. The cabin wasn’t quite tall enough to stand up in, and it smelled of mold.

How long would it be before her mother knew she was missing?

Not long, Alicia thought. She would miss having someone she could order around. She would miss having someone to drag around on her stupid shopping safaris. She would miss having someone to show off to her friends: “Isn’t she
adorable
? Why, she looks
just
like
I
did when
I
was her age, but she’s
so
much more
athletic
! Alicia, dear, show Mrs. Wentworth your calves. Look at that. Aren’t they so muscular? Can you imagine?”

Was there anybody in the entire universe as egocentric as her mother? She would probably assume that Alicia had walked home from the hospital, or gotten a ride from a friend.

She’d gotten a ride all right. And ended up stuck on this boat.

With a shudder, Alicia brushed a spider off her leg, hugged her knees to her chest, and stared at the heavy wooden door.

She heard something scurry across the deck. A river rat, or something worse. Waves lapped against the sides of the boat, rocking it gently. Every now and then it would bump up against the dock and she would jump, thinking that she was hearing the thump of his heavy foot stepping onto the boat. She imagined the door opening . . .

What would happen to her?

“Snatched?” Roni said. “You mean abducted? When?”

“This afternoon, I suppose. I mean, you got in a fight with her at lunchtime, so it must’ve been after that.”

“Where?”

“I don’t know.”

“How? Who? Why?”

“I don’t know, I don’t know, I don’t know,” Brian said.

Roni’s heart was hammering.
Abducted!
The same person who had beaten Alicia in the park must have come back to kidnap her.

“I thought maybe Ted would know something,” Brian said.

“Who’s Ted?”

“Alicia’s brother. He’s kind of a friend of mine.”

They rounded a curve and Bloodwater House came into view. Normally there was little traffic on Riverview Terrace, but today the road was lined with vehicles—two police cruisers and several other vehicles, including a bright yellow KDUK-TV van.

“You ever been inside?” Roni asked, looking up at the house.

“Just once. It’s huge.”

“No kidding.” Bloodwater House was the biggest home in Bloodwater, and one of the oldest. It had been built in the 1890s by James J. Bloodwater, the son of Zebulon J. Bloodwater, who had founded the town back in 1867. Built entirely of native limestone, Bloodwater House had four enormous pillars on either side of the front door. Roni had heard that there were more than thirty rooms inside. The house was completely surrounded by a ten-foot-tall wrought iron fence. Each vertical bar was topped by a large iron spear point.

Since James J. Bloodwater’s death, the house had passed through a dozen owners. The house had a bad reputation. No one ever stayed for more than a few years. The latest in the long line of owners were Arnold and Alice Thorn, Alicia Camden’s parents.

“Think they’re gonna let us in?” Brian asked.

“Why not?” Roni said. “I’m here on official business. This is a big story.”

Two policemen stood near the front gate talking to a woman with big blond hair and a microphone. Roni recognized her as Kerry Berry, the anchor for KDUK Channel 7 News. Several other reporter types were milling around, looking bored and frustrated.

The best strategy, Roni decided, was to just go for it. She pulled out her notebook and pen and walked up to the nearest policeman.

“Excuse me, I’m P. Q. Delicata, from the
Bloodwater Pump.
I wonder if you could answer some questions for me.”

The cop looked down at her with an amused smile. “The
Bloodwater Pump
? I remember that paper from high school. Sorry, we aren’t supposed to talk to the press.”

“You were talking to her.” Roni pointed her pen at the blond news anchor.

Kerry Berry gave her a disdainful look. The cop shrugged. Roni decided to use an old reporter’s trick she had read about. She said, “Is it true that Alicia Camden was kidnapped in broad daylight?”

The cop looked startled. “Where did you hear that?” he asked.

“I never reveal my sources,” said Roni. She leaned in close to the cop and said in a low voice, “Yes or no? If you don’t answer, I will take it as a yes.”

The cop said, “Sorry, kid. Can’t help you.”

Roni frowned. Kerry Berry was looking at her with a smirk. Just then, through the gates, Roni saw Brian inside the fence standing beside a boy with thick blond hair. Brian saw her and waved, then pointed toward the gate at the back of the lot.

Roni looked at her watch and said to the cop, “I’d love to stay and chat, but I’m on deadline.” She winked at Kerry Berry, then ran back along the iron fence.

“She was waiting for our mom to pick her up in front of the hospital after her doctor appointment. Then somebody pulled up in an SUV, and Alicia got in, and they drove off. That was three hours ago. Nobody’s seen her since.” Ted Thorn offered this information unemotionally, as if he were giving an oral report at school.