A moment later, the lights dimmed. It triggered a buzz from the crowd. Everyone seemed to know what was coming. The sound of beating drums soon followed. The room began to vibrate. Then a musical fanfare of deafening proportions could be heard. I held my ears. Crowd members started cheering. A spotlight fell on an empty stage. Then a trapdoor on the stage floor slid open and out of it rose a figure dressed in a brilliant white uniform—it was Colonel Culpepper. Before I knew what had happened, I was in the midst of a standing ovation. I jumped to my feet. I had to appear to be a member of this elite group.
As the music faded out, the colonel motioned with his hands for us to be seated. You couldn’t help but be impressed with this presentation. The colonel obviously knew how to put on a show.
“Good evening, my friends,” he began. “It’s so good to be with you—my chosen ones—once again.”
The audience members sat on the edges of their seats in anticipation of the colonel’s next words. It was as if they were in some hypnotic trance.
“In a few moments, you will leave this auditorium and make your way to the adjacent conference rooms, where you will receive your next assignments,” Colonel Culpepper said. “But before that, I would like to tell you about some upgrades that we are making here at Camp Phoenix.”
Every eye in the room was glued to the speaker.
The colonel reached into his pocket and pulled out a shiny silver object. “Tonight you will each receive your own…smart phones.”
Thunderous applause followed.
“We want to be able to stay in contact with you at all times. But that’s not all.” The colonel motioned to someone offstage. Sergeant Stanley ran out and handed him something. The colonel immediately held the object over his head. “Following your next successful assignment, each of you will receive your own…computer tablet—the latest model from Magnatech.”
Audience members jumped to their feet and applauded loudly. I found myself thinking about Henry. He would kill for some of these toys.
“And there’s more,” the colonel said with a grin. “We will soon be removing the fifty-inch LCD TV from the Resurrection Hall lounge and will replace it with a seventy-inch LED screen.”
The kids were having a difficult time containing themselves.
“And now our last bit of good news,” Colonel Culpepper said. “As soon as we are able to reach our next fiscal goal, we will begin construction on a new coffeehouse here on the compound. And like everything else at Camp Phoenix, all of the mochas, lattes, and cappuccinos will be, of course…free of charge.”
The kids in the audience cheered uncontrollably and began stomping their feet.
The colonel calmly held up his hands and motioned for everyone to quiet down and take their seats again.
“There is one more bit of news—disturbing news—that I must share with you,” the colonel said. “A few minutes ago, following bed check, I was informed that one of the residents from Repentance Hall is missing.” His voice became deadly serious. “This young man disobeyed orders and left his room. He will face severe consequences for his actions.”
My heart suddenly began to race. I could feel it beating right through my chest. I was fairly certain that he was talking about me. I had to remain calm. If I looked even the slightest bit guilty, one of these kids would figure out that I didn’t belong here and turn me in.
“If any of you have information about this individual,” the colonel continued, “it is your sworn duty to inform the proper authorities. Failure to do so would place you in a very precarious position. Trust me—you don’t want this to happen.”
Most of the kids started looking around the auditorium trying to spot the intruder. I kept feeling that many of the stares were directed my way. In an effort to avoid suspicion, I decided to join the others. I glanced in all directions, as if I was also looking for the uninvited guest.
“Here are the rooms in which you are scheduled to meet immediately following this forum.” The colonel pointed to a large screen that was in the process of descending from above. “Look for your number and room location.” On the screen was a series of numbers under room names.
I looked for Josh’s number—one nineteen. I decided that I would try to slip into the same conference room he was headed to. I assumed I would learn a lot by watching the campers receive their various assignments. After a few seconds, I spotted Josh’s number under the Fort Dearborn conference room. I just needed to stay as cool as possible in order to pull this off.
“And one more thing,” the colonel said. “Because of the security breach, as you enter each meeting room, be certain to show your Camp Phoenix ID card. We just want to make sure that our friend is not in this very room with all of us.”
Once I heard that, I knew there was no way to follow Josh into his meeting. I would have to kill time some other way and then wait to talk with him after the meeting had ended. As the crowd emptied out of the auditorium, I couldn’t help but think of Sam Solomon. I seemed to remember an episode where Sam had become the hunted one, like me tonight. Which one was it again? Oh yeah—Episode #36—The Whine and Roses Caper.
In this story, Sam had been hired by a man whose sister had mysteriously died a day after her thirty-fifth wedding anniversary. A coroner’s report found that she had been poisoned. The brother suspected her husband, who would endlessly whine and complain about his wife, but the police were unable to tie him to the murder. Sam soon determined that the woman had been poisoned after having pricked her finger on a thorn from a bouquet of roses. Sam found traces of arsenic on each of the thorns in the vase. But before he was able to inform his client or the police, Sam discovered that the husband had become the hunter and he was the prey. The P.I. soon found himself running for his life. But in time, Sam got the drop on his suspect and was able to bring him to justice.
Is that what I was in for tonight? I wondered. Although I was hoping to maintain my deception, I had to prepare myself for the worst in the event that my cover was blown. I watched the others file into conference rooms adjacent to the auditorium. And as badly as I wanted to know what was happening in those rooms, I knew that without a camp ID card, there was no way I would dare venture anywhere near that area.
I slipped down one of the hallways to look for a hiding place until the meetings ended. Then I figured I would just blend in with the crowd and head back to Resurrection Hall—and a rendezvous with Josh, I hoped. Most of the doors in the main hallway were closed up tight. Even the doors to the restrooms were locked. The overhead lights were bright. If anyone came by now, they’d spot me for sure.
Then I heard a door open about thirty feet ahead. A man carrying a broom and pushing a large trash basket on squeaky wheels emerged. He soon disappeared around a corner. The man was obviously a member of the cleaning staff. This was my chance. The janitor had left the door open, so there was a good chance he’d be back. But since it was the only room available at the moment, I decided to proceed. I slipped in and looked for a place to hide.
The room turned out to be a huge, plush office. The desk, in the center of the room, was massive. The walls were floor-to-ceiling bookshelves. There was a long, glass conference table on one end with cushy chairs all around it. The person who belonged to this office was certainly living large. When I heard the squeaky wheels from the trash can right outside the door, I scrambled for a place to hide. I ducked down behind a large copy machine and hoped for the best.
I could hear the workman sweeping up and moving trash around in the room. The area behind the copy machine was filled with dust. I held my nose, fearful that I might sneeze and give myself away. A few minutes later, the room went dark, and I could hear the door close. At first I was afraid to move. The colonel had sounded pretty serious about the consequences if the person at large—namely me—were caught.
I counted to one hundred before standing—and even then, I was nervous. The light under the door from the hallway allowed me to tiptoe over to the light switch and turn it on.
My first instinct was to search the place, but I didn’t exactly know what I was looking for. I figured that if I could convince Josh to talk to me, then I’d find out everything I needed to know anyway. Then I thought about calling Gram. I had promised that I’d stay in contact with her. It might be a good idea to bring her up to speed on the investigation and ask her to update Eugene. I plopped down in one of the cushy chairs and reached for the receiver. I had my hand on the phone when I found myself admiring the room. Pretty sweet digs, I thought. I tried to imagine an office like this in the future. It sure put our garage, or Eugene’s office for that matter, to shame. Who knew—maybe someday I’d have a successful practice and be able to furnish an office in a similar fashion.
I was just about to lift the receiver when I heard voices in the hallway and a key being inserted into the door lock. I ran over to turn off the light and slipped back behind the copy machine. I was hoping it was only the cleaning staff. But when I realized who had entered the office, I knew that I had bigger problems on my hands than being discovered by a janitor.
CHAPTER 21
The Quiche of Death Caper
I closed my eyes and dared not make a sound. Now I knew why this was such a glitzy office. It belonged to the Man—and if he found me, my days on this planet were numbered.
“Colonel,” a voice said, “should I put this in the safe?”
I peeked around the copy machine to see Colonel Harvard Culpepper and his man Friday—Sergeant Stanley.
“Did you count it?” the colonel asked.
“Yes, sir. It’s a little over twelve hundred dollars.”
“That’s it?” the colonel said. “The boys are slipping. Go ahead and lock it up.”
The sergeant carried the sack of cash to the far wall and set it down on a file cabinet. Then he reached up and removed a large painting of General George Patton, which had been covering up a wall safe. He fingered the tumbler and had it open in seconds.
It was a large safe—at least a foot and a half square. From my vantage point, I could see that it was nearly full. The sergeant reached in and pulled out what looked like a mink jacket.
“Colonel, do you think it’s safe now to fence these furs? We’re running out of room in here.”
The colonel walked over and took the mink from the sergeant. He rubbed his fingers across it and smiled.
“This is prime stuff,” the colonel said. “I forget—who got this for us?”
“Don’t you remember?” the sergeant said. “It was one nineteen.”
“One nineteen?”
“The kid with the limp. You know, Colonel, he’s probably our best earner.”
“You don’t say.”
Oh my God. They were talking about Josh. Their best earner? What did they mean by that?
“Well, let’s be sure to keep him happy, then,” the colonel said.
“Not a problem. The kid’ll do anything we say,” Sergeant Stanley said, “as long as he thinks he’s saving the planet.” He chuckled. “Steal the furs, kid, and you’ll stop the senseless slaughter of minks and chinchillas and whatnot. Steal from the pet stores so they can’t buy any more animals from the puppy mills. And my favorite,” the sergeant said with a grin, “rob the beauty salon so they stop using chemicals that’ll eat through the ozone layer.”
The colonel laughed. “That kid is such a sap.”
“Speaking of saps, what about the mayor and council members?”
“They’re even dumber,” the colonel said.
And all at once, everything became crystal clear. Colonel Culpepper wasn’t rehabilitating these boys. He was assembling his own personal army of thieves. It was the perfect cover. All the recent robberies in the area had to have been his doing. He must have sent his troops out into the streets to steal for him, and then he rewarded them with smart phones and computer tablets and big-screen TVs and whatever else they wanted. What a life. What kid could pass it up? And if any of his troops got caught, the police would arrest them, and then the next day the Camp Phoenix bus would pick them up—and the whole cycle would start all over again. I had to give the colonel credit. His plan was sinister, all right, but it was brilliant. And poor Josh was just an unsuspecting pawn in this chess match. He’d do anything to help save the environment, and the colonel just happened to have figured out how to make it work to his benefit.
As I crouched behind the copy machine, fighting off the dust bunnies, I thought about what had occurred a minute earlier. I was excited about uncovering the colonel’s scheme, but I was also angry with myself. I should have figured this out before—after the first robbery. As was usually the case, Gram was right. When she witnessed the beauty shop heist, she had noticed that one of the robbers had a limp. I now knew for certain that it was Josh all along. And Gram was right about something else—she somehow knew that I would inevitably be drawn into this case and would eventually get to the bottom of these unsolved burglaries.
I now knew exactly what had to be done. Once the colonel and the sergeant left, I would use the office phone and call Gram and Eugene. I was sure they’d run on over. And then, while waiting for them to arrive, I would somehow try to sneak out of here and blend in with the other kids one more time. I’d try to find Josh and explain to him how he had been duped by the colonel. Armed with new information, I was certain that he would want to leave the camp now. But for some reason, I knew that rescuing Josh just wasn’t good enough. I had been hired to find him and bring him home, but I now had an even bigger assignment facing me—I needed to somehow thwart Colonel Culpepper’s scheme and bring down his evil empire. It was my duty as a law-abiding citizen.
At that very moment, I knew exactly how Sam Solomon must have felt. There were a number of times when Sam not only solved the case for his client, but also reported his findings to the police. He hadn’t been paid to do so, but Sam was a law-and-order guy. Take, for example, Episode #37—The Quiche of Death Caper.
In this mystery, Sam had been hired by a woman whose husband had become violently ill one night after dinner. The woman asked Sam to determine the cause of his illness since doctors were baffled. The master detective soon discovered that a recipe the woman had followed on that fateful night was to blame. Sam immediately sought out the author of the cookbook. But upon further investigation, he learned that a disgruntled employee—the cookbook’s editor—and not the author was the real culprit. Before the book had gone to press, the editor had altered the recipes just enough to produce deadly results. The spiteful editor had apparently been passed over for promotion and was determined to seek revenge against the publisher. Sam eventually brought his findings to the authorities—a gesture he considered to be his civic duty.
And now it was my obligation to report my findings to the police. I kept still, just waiting for an opportunity to escape. Seconds later, I knew I’d have my chance.
“Colonel, the boys should have received their next assignments by now,” the sergeant said. “Should I release them?”
“I’d like to do it myself,” the colonel said. “I want to see the looks on their faces when they receive their new phones.”
A minute later, the lights went off and the door slammed shut. It was now time to get to work.
I ran over to the phone on the colonel’s desk and picked up the receiver. But just as I was about to dial, I was stopped in my tracks.
“Did you want to place a call, Colonel?” an operator said.
I immediately hung up the phone. I had underestimated the security at Camp Phoenix. There was no way I’d be able to call out from any of the phones here. The operators apparently placed each call. I had to think of another way to arrange for reinforcements. I turned the lights off, opened the door, stuck my head out, and glanced down the hallway. I could see some of the kids milling about in the lobby. It appeared that the meetings had ended. It was now time to slip in with the others.
I casually strolled into the lobby, all the while oozing confidence. I had to look as if I was a bona fide
member of this group. Since they were all now on the lookout for an intruder, I couldn’t take any chances. I circulated for a few minutes but was unable to locate Josh. I decided it would be best to head back to Resurrection Hall and try to track him down there. I followed the others out of the auditorium and across the field. The footlights in the grass guided us back to the hall.
When I reached the front steps, I hesitated. I wasn’t sure which room Josh was in. I noticed a kid standing a few feet away.
“Hey, I’m looking for one nineteen,” I said. “Would you happen to know what room he’s in?”
The kid made a face and folded his arms. “One nineteen?”
“Yeah.”
“Duh,” he said. “Why don’t you try room one nineteen? How long have you been here? Any idiot knows that.”
I shook my head and smiled. “I am an idiot.” I patted the kid on the back. “Sorry, thanks again.”
I knew I had played that badly. I proceeded up the stone steps. When I glanced back over my shoulder, I noticed that the same kid was now standing with two other campers. He seemed to be pointing at me and telling them something. That wasn’t a good sign. I scooted down the first-floor hallway and searched for Josh’s room. I found it near the end of the hallway. I doubted that he’d be happy to see me, but it was important that I find him. I had to tell him how he had been deceived by the colonel. I knocked lightly. A few seconds later, the door opened slowly.
“Collier!” Josh cried. “What the heck are you doing here? I can’t be seen talking to you. You have to get out of here right now.”
“Josh, I gotta talk to you. It’s really important. It’ll only take a minute.”
“Are you crazy? Do you know what’ll happen to me…to both of us…if we’re caught together? These people don’t mess around.” He slammed the door shut.
So now what? What could I say that would convince him I just wanted to help? I knocked again—this time more forcefully.
The Camp Phoenix Caper Page 19
