Lance casually shrugged as he unhooked himself from the rope. “It’s not my fault you’re too cheap to buy one.”
Adam growled as he freed himself from the ropes and pulled out a flashlight, and, wisely, stayed silent.
They both knew without being told to keep the lights away from the windows as they played the beams over the jumble of boxes and cabinets and tarps in the dark warehouse. The larger boxes were marked with their contents: Disneyland Memorabilia, Walt’s Office, Animation. Some of the items covered by tarps proved to be a bright yellow Autopia car, a blue Peoplemover car, a red and white Bobsled, and an orange Skyway Cab.
Adam’s gloved fingers slowly went over pieces of his Disneyland memories—rides that were either removed or had been changed. He itched to get into some of those boxes to see what was hidden.
No time. No time to explore. No time to remember. They had to get out as fast as possible. As far as they knew, only the doors and windows were alarmed. They didn’t want to delay in case they were wrong about any other alarms that might be in place.
Walking slowly through the irregular aisles between boxes, they looked for anything that indicated the Lilly Belle.
Adam found it near one of the doors. The train was in parts, each car in its own open crate. A tarp had been thrown partially over the crates, but the packing was incomplete.
“What do you make of that?” Adam kept his voice at a whisper when Lance joined him.
Lance shrugged, his face hot inside the mask he didn’t dare remove in case of hidden night-vision security cameras. “Maybe they’re getting ready to ship it somewhere for display.”
“That could be. You look over the car Walt sat on to drive the train. There should be some open space up under the padded seat. I’ll focus on the engine.”
Their flashlights did a slow scan back and forth across the pieces. Adam wished he could take the train out of the box and sit on it like Walt had done. Concentrate, Michaels, look for four screws.
Lance had his head inside the box so he could see under the little red seat. He saw no screws and no little gray capsule. Going to the next box which was the cattle car Walt’s friends would sit on, he began a sweeping search.
Adam was about to unwisely remove the train from the box. He hadn’t found any matching screws on the body. The smokestack was empty. The whistle wouldn’t be used for a hiding place. The wheels wouldn’t have been used because they would have to be replaced periodically. He went so far as to put his fingers under the little roof in the section where a conductor would stand if it had been a full-sized train. He was about to lift the roof when he noticed there was a discrepancy in the depth. “Lance! I think I found something.”
The second flashlight joined his. In each corner of the roof was an unevenness that Adam had missed. Each slight indentation was covered over with colored putty. Scraping the putty off with the edge of the screwdriver, Adam found his matching screws.
“I’m going to have to take my gloves off or else I’ll never to able to handle the screws.”
“I brought a cloth to wipe off the fingerprints, so go ahead.”
Adam used the least pressure he could on the delicate roof of the train. He was sweating profusely under all his dark clothes and, between the stress and the sweat, he dropped the first screw as it came out.
“Let it go.” Lance’s voice had an urgent tone when Adam stopped to look for it. “We don’t have time.”
Adam got the remaining three screws out and into Lance’s waiting hand. His hand was inches above the train, just about to lift the lid, when the sound of a police siren was heard faintly in the distance.
“Oh, crud! You think that’s for us!?”
“I don’t know. Hurry up!”
Adam lifted the roof and immediately saw a diary page and some kind of button inside the inch and a half deep tray. Handing them to Lance, he could tell the siren was noticeably closer. Trying to hurry, Adam put the roof back on the train and started putting in the new screws.
There was a second siren now. They couldn’t tell how far away it was, but the first one was definitely louder.
Adam willed himself to slow down and concentrate on the screws. If he moved the screwdriver incorrectly he could scratch the delicate lid. Lance’s flashlight had gone out and he was getting out the cloth to wipe off any fingerprints.
Two screws.
Three screws.
Four screws in. With a sigh of relief, Lance wiped off the train lid as Adam put his gloves back on.
The sirens could only be a couple of blocks away.
“Go up your rope, Adam. Get started! I’m almost finished here. Do you have the rope connected right?”
Adam was fumbling with the hooks that connected the rope to the harness. “Almost there.”
Lance ran over to him and shone the light on Adam’s harness to make sure he was properly fastened. “Go. Go. Go!”
Adam pushed with his feet and was sliding up the ascender in a smooth, rhythmic pattern.
“Don’t look back!” Lance called up to him. “Just get up there!”
The sirens were almost there. Was that a third police car that joined them?
Adam continued to struggle upwards. When he was within ten feet of the opening, in a whirl of movement, Lance shot up past him. Stopping at the edge of the skylight, Lance pulled himself over the edge, hauling up his rope and disappeared. Cursing to himself with aching arms, Adam grunted with effort and shoved the final feet upwards. Throwing himself over the edge, he pulled up his rope. As the skylight dropped back into place, he unhooked his harness, looking around but Lance was nowhere to be seen. Running to the edge of the warehouse, Adam didn’t bother with the figure-8 rings that would make the descent smooth and safe. He just grabbed the rope attached to the grappling hook and speedily rappelled backwards down the side of the old building.
The sirens were deafening. They must be on the front side of the building. Racing down the alley, Adam jumped into the open door of the idling car. With no headlights, Lance pulled out of their hiding place and headed down the alley. At the end of the alley, he let the car slow instead of using the brakes. The red brake lights would have been like a beacon even in this fog. Fortunately there was no oncoming traffic. Instead of taking the first street, he continued bouncing through the next alley, letting the fog envelope the black car. At the second street, he turned right towards the city and finally turned on the headlights.
The sound of the sirens faded as they headed away from the industrial part of the city. Adam was going to say something to Lance, but when he turned to face him, he realized they both still had on their ski masks. He reached over and pulled Lance’s off while they were at a stop sign and tossed them both onto the floor of the car.
At first startled, Lance figured out what Adam was doing. Pulling off his gloves, Lance ran a hand through his damp hair as he pulled into an empty lot. After switching the license plates back to the real ones, he carefully wiped the untraceable plates with the cloth and dropped them into a dumpster.
Getting back in the car, he dropped his head onto the steering wheel, taking a deep breath before sitting upright again. They could hear the sirens again, far away. Were the police searching for them now?
Lance started the engine again and followed the pleasant female voice of the navigation system back to their motel. Another jet screamed overhead preparing to land while Adam unlocked their door. Behind him, Lance held the bags with all their gear.
Inside the two men threw themselves onto their respective beds.
“Dang.”
“I agree.” It was all Adam could manage to say.
They both fell asleep without another word.
The fog still hadn’t burned off by the time they awakened late in the morning. Lance got up first and pulled off his clothes to take a much-needed shower. The tiny bar of soap was almost gone when he finally emerged, dripping and refreshed.
No one pounded on their door, so he figured it was a g
ood day so far. After getting dressed, he threw his wet towel over Adam’s face, awakening him. He was still shaving when Adam emerged from the bathroom.
“Thanks for leaving me no hot water and barely enough soap for my face. I had to use the shampoo.”
“Any time. Not my fault you didn’t get up first.”
There was no clock in the room. “Do you know what time it is?” Adam’s watch was on the other side of his bed. It seemed too far for him to walk over there and get it.
“I would guess around 10, 10:30. You hungry? I’m starved.”
“You’re always starved,” Adam reminded him as he got dressed. “Do you want to eat here in San Francisco or put some distance between us and the city?”
Lance thought about that. “You do have a point. I guess I can hold off starvation for a couple of hours. Should we grab a newspaper?”
“What for? You want to catch up on the comics?”
“My, aren’t we grumpy this morning. Just wanted to see if our exploits made the paper yet.”
“Ah. Isn’t that like returning to the scene of the crime?”
Lance chuckled as he put his shaver away. “No. Going back to the warehouse would fit that description. And I have no intention of doing that. I even erased the entry from my nav system. In fact, I erased all mention of San Francisco. I guess we can figure out how to get home from here.”
“I certainly hope so. I didn’t think I would ever be so anxious to see Orange County again.” He paused and was deep in thought a couple of minutes. “Lance?”
Lance looked up from packing the clothes he had worn. He could see Adam was in his serious mode. “What?”
Adam sat back on the bed, his clothes packed and ready to go. “I know why we did what we did last night. But, it bothers me a lot.” He held up a hand when Lance was going to interrupt him. “No, wait a minute. What we did was illegal, whether or not we damaged anything or stole anything. I don’t believe Walt for one minute would have sanctioned our action. Even though his hiding place made it necessary, I don’t think he would have liked us breaking and entering.” He broke off a minute and took a breath. “I don’t want us to be in that position ever again. I conduct my business legit. I try to treat people fairly and give them what they pay for. I feel I’m an honest man. I don’t want to have to break the law again. I don’t think you do either.”
That was a long speech for Adam; Lance agreed with it. The adrenaline rush was a great high, but Adam was right. It was legally wrong. Their luck couldn’t hold out forever, no matter what precautions they took. They needed to play it by-the-book from here on out. “You’re right—as much as I hate to say that out loud. You know what a big head you get. We’ll keep it legal. Now, let’s get out of here before we get all mushy and have to hug or something.”
Adam gave a laugh at that. “Say, where’s the clue and that button? I can look them over on the drive.”
He saw Lance’s face go slack as he patted his shirt pocket, then frantically unzipped his bag and started to fling the clothes out of it.
“You lost the clue!” Adam yelled. “Did you leave it at the warehouse?”
Lance was going through each pocket in the jacket he had worn. “Didn’t you take it from me? Don’t you have them?”
“Lance! I handed them to you right before I set the lid back on the train. What did you do with them?” Adam started going through Lance’s clothes, pulling out every pocket. Then he noticed Lance just stood there with a cocky smile on his face.
Reaching into his shirt pocket, Lance slowly pulled out the clue and the button. “Just kidding.”
The color started coming back into Adam’s face. Then more color came and he became very angry. “That’s not funny!”
Lance proved him wrong by breaking out in a hearty laugh. He looked at Adam’s red face and laughed even harder. Then it seemed he couldn’t stop.
Nobody has ever been able to keep a straight face in the presence of someone else’s hilarity. Adam tried to hang onto his anger, but it didn’t stand a chance at the sight of Lance laughing, holding his sides as tears ran out of his eyes. Lance’s humor erased all the stress and strain. He was purged and it felt good.
When he finally could stop, he sat on the bed, wiping his eyes. “Should have seen the look on your face!” He was threatening to start laughing again, and his stomach hurt too much for that. “Oh, gee! Ouch. Man, that was funny.”
He could tell Adam was going to get angry again if he continued. “Let’s get out of here.”
Adam knew he was being maneuvered out of being mad again. But that was all right. What good would anger accomplish? They loaded their bags in the car, shoving the climbing gear into the back. There was more room without the grappling hook and ropes they had to leave behind. The motel room had been paid in cash when they arrived, so they simply got on the freeway and headed south. The city of Alameda was just half an hour to the south and would be a good place to look for a restaurant.
“So, what does the clue say?”
Adam looked up from the gold and black button stamped with the letters SFDR that he was studying. He read the clue to Lance: “This canyon isn’t so grand, but you are on the right track. Bring a rope. You probably have about 5 minutes.”
Back home, the men met at Adam’s apartment on Monday. As they talked, Adam fingered the gold button with the raised black lettering. SFDR. Santa Fe and Disneyland Railroad. It could be nothing else. This button was no longer used since Santa Fe had pulled out of their Disneyland sponsorship in 1974. Amtrak had moved in on their passenger train business in 1971 and Santa Fe could no longer justify the expense. The little button was now a much-sought after collector’s item.
“You agree, Lance?”
“With what?” Lance was stretched out on Adam’s beige sofa, the papers once carefully piled on the cushions now littered the floor. They had been discussing the possibilities of the clue for a couple of hours.
“Button. Train. Remember?”
“You have any beer? Never mind.… Yes, but I was thinking about the canyon and rope part. It sounds more like spelunking than rappelling like we did in San Francisco.”
Adam hoped not. “I don’t know any caves deep enough at Disneyland for that.” Mentally picturing the topography of Disneyland, he suddenly gave a light laugh. “We could rappel down the Matterhorn. That would be fun since we now have so much climbing experience.”
From the look on Lance’s face, Adam could tell he was actually considering it. He was relieved when Lance finally shook his head. “No, it all points to the train, the big train. And considering we found the clue inside Walt’s little train, it follows a certain logic. My guess is that the trains come along every five minutes at certain times of the year—depending on how many are running, of course.”
Looking back at the clue’s ‘this canyon isn’t so grand,’ Adam felt it couldn’t mean the Grand Canyon Diorama that was installed in 1958. Since it was secure behind glass, they couldn’t get to it from the front. An obscure bit of trivia popped into Adam’s mind: “Did you know the Diorama was painted on one huge sheet of canvas? There aren’t any seams in it.”
“And all the trains were blessed by a Hopi chief when it opened. Common knowledge.” Lance didn’t skip a beat.
“Oh, I forgot about the chief. You remember his name?” Adam threw that out there hoping to stump him.
“Yes.” Lance just gave him a smug smile.
“Too bad that didn’t come up on the Mouse Adventure race. That would have been worth some points.”
Lance’s answering chuckle lacked his usual humor. “Maybe next time we can actually finish the race. Are we doing it again this fall?”
Distracted by the clue, Adam didn’t notice. “Don’t know. Probably. Why do you think we need a rope for this?”
“Maybe we need to go up on the roof of the Diorama building and drop inside the display. Do you think the roof is alarmed?”
“How in the world would we get down there a
nd back up in less than five minutes? Plus search for a clue? The area is huge. It can’t be that.”
Lance sat up and stretched. “The only way to know is to go to the Park and ride the train. Check out all the tunnels on the ride and be prepared for anything. Including jumping off if need be. You have any rope? I took all the equipment we used back to Hans.”
”Wait a minute.… You rented that automatic ascender? You didn’t shell out $8000 like you told me?”
Lance gave him a wry grin. “Now why would I pay that much money for something I’d only use once? You didn’t say for sure you wanted one….” Seeing the look on Adam’s face, he wisely broke off. “So, do you have any rope or not?”
Adam nodded and bit back the remarks on the tip of his tongue. He knew it would make no difference. “In my truck. I have some pretty strong line left over from a job. It’s a thin nylon that’ll hold either of us.”
“Not both of us?”
“I ain’t hanging on to you and jumping off a cliff.”
Chuckling, Lance asked when he wanted to start.
Adam checked his clock and saw it was a little after 3 p.m. “What do you think? If we go now rather than in the morning, the employees might be a little drowsier after working all day. Might help if we have to jump or dive or whatever.”
“There are shift changes to consider, but you’re probably right. Are you going to jump or do you want me to?”
Adam knew his friend and his effect on people. “You’re better at distractions than I am. When you’re around, people tend to ignore me. I’ll do the jump.”
Lance shrugged his indifference. “What are you going to wear?”
“What do you mean ‘wear’? A prom dress?”
“No, smart aleck. If you don’t want to be noticed doing whatever you’re going to be doing, you should probably be wearing something darker and less obvious than your bright yellow Michaels Construction shirt.”
“Oh.” Adam looked down at his clothes. Yes, the yellow shirt did stand out in a crowd—which is why he had them printed for his crew in the first place. “Fine. You go ahead to the Park and check out the trains while I change,” Adam suggested. He looked at his watch. “Let’s meet in an hour, at four o’clock, at the Main Street station and start at the beginning.”
Sometimes Dead Men DO Tell Tales! Page 21
