The Big Dip

by Melanie Jackson

  But who was the bulky guy? And where was he now?

  Behind Baseball Cap, I saw a panel of switches and a large lever—the control booth.

  Baseball Cap was still a silhouette, but there was something weird about his head. It was all smooth.

  He had a nylon over his head, I realized, to disguise himself.

  He hissed, “So? Where’s the Margaret Rose?”

  “Where’s Ellie?” I demanded.

  Baseball Cap pointed to the first car on the track. I could just make out a slumped form inside. “What have you done to her?”

  He whispered, “Shhh, Mojo. Don’t want to attract attention, do we? She’s sleeping, with a little help from me. Not to worry, it’s just sleeping pills.”

  I started toward her.

  “Not so fast, Mojo.” Baseball Cap reached a hand back to clamp the lever.

  The nylon twisted his face into a leer. Or maybe he was leering. There was a note of pleasure in his whispery voice. He was enjoying himself, the sicko.

  “One wrong move,” he said, “and little Ellie gets the big dip—without a safety bar. You can imagine what would happen then, huh, Joe? The car drops and Ellie goes flying.”

  He clenched the lever. I was hypnotized by the sight. I couldn’t pull my eyes away.

  I said dully, “I don’t have the Margaret Rose with me. But I know where it is. I can tell you, if you’ll just let Ellie—”

  “Not good enough, Joe.” Baseball Cap stepped back into the control booth. In the light, his nylon-distorted face was grotesque.

  Realizing I was staring at him, Baseball Cap muttered a curse, and switched off the control booth light. “The Margaret Rose, Joe.”

  He glanced over at Ellie.

  He flexed his fingers on the lever.

  What to do? I couldn’t bluff. He knew I didn’t have the Margaret Rose— Wait. Rewind. He’d said, So? Where’s the Margaret Rose?

  How did he know I didn’t have it?

  If he knew about the Margaret Rose, he would know how easy it would be to carry.

  Something didn’t compute here. If this guy had been involved in the gallery break-in, he ought to be familiar with the Margaret Rose.

  I needed to buy time. I needed to think.

  I held my hands up. “Okay, okay, you win. I stashed the Margaret Rose nearby. I’ll get it for you.”

  Maybe he wasn’t working with Babs Beesley, after all. That would explain why Babs had come after me. She hadn’t known about Baseball Cap kidnapping Ellie.

  But Baseball Cap had been at the roller coaster when Babs had shot Jake. They’d fled together. That couldn’t be coincidence.

  If it wasn’t coincidence, what was it?

  “Hand it over now, Joe,” snarled the figure in the control booth. “Or Ellie wings it to the stars.”

  I glanced at my sleeping sister. She looked so little. My eyes stung. I couldn’t think anymore. I was petrified with fear for Ellie.

  But something knocked at my brain. It hovered just out of reach.

  Words. That’s what the something was. The kidnapper’s words on the phone.

  It’ll be dark then. Dark as my soul.

  By the light of the…shivery moon, shall we say?

  And just now:

  Hand it over now, Joe. Or Ellie wings it to the stars.

  That wasn’t thug talk. It was clever talk.

  I stared at the figure in the control booth. Rage and realization filled me with the hot urge to kill. No wonder Ellie had been grabbed so easily from my house. She’d opened the door.

  I lunged forward and tackled Skip, throwing him to the ground.

  Chapter Eleven

  I kneed Skip in the throat. He was choking as I tore the nylon off his head.

  “You were supposed to be in the Okanagan,” I shouted, shaking him. The back of his head crashed against the pavement. I wanted to kill him.

  I glanced at Ellie again. She was safe. And I knew I wouldn’t kill Skip. I wouldn’t give Ellie a murderer for a brother.

  Skip coughed. His voice came out ragged, frightened, un-Skip-like. “Please understand, Joe. I wouldn’t have hurt Ellie. I just wanted to cut loose, y’know?”

  I shifted my knee back from his throat. I held him down, but I didn’t bash him around anymore. “No, I don’t know. You tell me.”

  Skip’s voice gained strength. “Last night I heard Dad telling Mom about the gallery thefts. He said something about the Margaret Rose, and I remembered what Jake gasped out to you. I wasn’t sure what the rose was, but I knew it had to be worth a bundle.”

  I didn’t think it was possible to loathe anyone as much as I did Skip at that moment. “Go on,” I said.

  Skip’s voice grew almost cheerful. He was so sure that good old, not-too-bright Joe would forgive him. Skip could clever-talk his way out of anything.

  He said, “I thought, what if I could get hold of the Margaret Rose? I wasn’t sure how I’d manage it, but I knew I didn’t want to go to the Okanagan. I told Dad and Mom that I wanted to sign up for an advanced-math summer course. They went for that, easy— they love it when I show initiative. They’re always saying I’m too lazy.”

  Skip chuckled. “If they only knew! The deal was, my aunt would come to stay with me. But as soon as Mom and Dad drove off, I told Auntie I was visiting you for a few days. She didn’t need to come till later in the week.

  “When you phoned, I pretended to be heading to the Okanagan. But all the time I was at home, right across the street.

  “After our conversation, the old brain kicked in. If I pretended to kidnap Ellie, you’d tear the planet apart to find a Margaret Rose. Like I always tell you, Mojo, you’ve got this intense ability to concentrate, even if you don’t realize it.”

  Skip grinned—and even now, hating him, I felt the old infectious encouragement. The guy had charisma. That’s what made him so dangerous.

  I clenched my teeth. “Talk.”

  Skip explained, “When I knew you’d be busy talking to the cops, I slipped across the street. I tapped quietly on your front door and told Ellie to go over to my house right away. We were going to plan a surprise party for you, I said. She skipped ahead like an excited puppy. The kid loves me, Joe.”

  “All the girls do,” I said bitterly.

  “Then I twisted your front lock off with a screwdriver so you’d think a stranger had forced his way in.

  “At my place, Ellie started to whine about her dumb backpack, so I gave her hot chocolate laced with Mom’s sleeping pills.

  “Know how I got Ellie here?” Skip’s tone was warm, confident. “I drove her in Mom’s car, the one we keep the wheelchair in for my gran. Once I parked, I simply wheeled Ellie into the fairgrounds.”

  Skip paused. I think he was waiting for congratulations on his brilliance.

  Good thing he couldn’t see my face. I wanted more information from him. “Who were the other guys?” I demanded. “The guy with the baseball cap, and the bulky guy I saw a while ago.”

  “Never saw any baseball-capped guy.” Then Skip chuckled. “But the bulky guy is one of the attendants. I paid him to unlock the control booth after everyone left. I pretended I wanted a free ride. Instead, he got a free crack on the skull. He’s over there”—Skip jerked his head toward the trees—“sleeping it off.”

  “I saw Baseball Cap by VanDusen Gardens,” I said. “I thought he paged me. But it was you.”

  “You bet.” I could hear the smugness in Skip’s voice. “I followed you to VanDusen.”

  I could have pointed out that Skip wasn’t as brilliant as he thought. He’d been thinking of the wrong Margaret Rose all along. But I felt very, very tired. I didn’t know what to do. I couldn’t hold Skip down for hours on end, and I couldn’t pummel him into unconsciousness either—tempting as that was.

  He was weak. He wouldn’t have any fight left in him. I figured I could let Skip up while still holding on to him.

  Then something totally unexpected happened.

  Skip
’s grin wavered. His face crumpled. Tears poured down his cheeks.

  This, from Skip—confident, nothing-fazed-him Skip?

  Shocked, I released him. He sat up. The tears flowed on. They had a more powerful impact than if he’d punched me.

  “I’m so sorry,” Skip wept. “So sorry, Mojo. I screwed up big-time. I went too far. I wouldn’t have hurt Ellie. You’re my best friend. You know I wouldn’t hurt your sister.”

  Maybe I knew that. Or maybe I didn’t know Skip at all.

  “I’m gonna let you go for now,” I said. “I want you to get outta here. Away from Ellie and me. I’ll decide what to do about you later.”

  I stood up. He struggled to his feet, swayed and staggered off.

  I rushed over to Ellie. She was slumped against the safety bar. Jumping into the car, I put my arms around her. “Wake up, El.” I stroked her face. “You gotta wake up.”

  She moaned.

  With a sudden lurch, the train was in motion. Light flooded out of the control booth. Skip grinned at me.

  He’d pulled the lever.

  The train clattered along the rails. If I was alone, I could have jumped free—but not with Ellie.

  “Sorry, Joe,” Skip laughed—a crazed, gleeful laugh. “I couldn’t let you tell anyone. Think about it. There’s no way I could let you spoil my life.”

  “SHUT IT OFF, SKIP,” I yelled.

  Still laughing, Skip shook his head. “I always could get the better of you.”

  The train started its climb up to the top of the big dip.

  I hauled Ellie off the safety bar, then yanked it up. If I could just pull the bar down over us…

  It was too late. The train had reached the peak.

  It crashed down the big dip, pitching Ellie and me forward, out of the car. I clung to the bar, stopping us from hurtling off. I braced my feet on the floor and jammed a hip into the side of the car to weigh us down.

  The rails flew past. Below I saw Skip laughing. My hand, clutching the bar, was stiff with pain.

  The icy air whipping into our faces woke Ellie. Not knowing where she was, she screamed and tried to shove me away.

  My hand slipped from the bar. My feet left the car floor. We slid over the front edge. The black wind, spinning up echoes of Skip’s crazed, dark-soul laughter, sucked us forward.

  Chapter Twelve

  Then, with a jolt, the train hit the bottom of the big dip. As it climbed the next hill, we smashed back onto the floor of the car. The safety bar slammed against my skull.

  Ellie screamed and punched me. She still didn’t know who I was.

  We kept climbing. Ahead of us, gold fireworks torched the sky. Their strands seemed to urge us to plunge toward them.

  I was dizzy, and for an instant I thought I was in a race. I thought that I’d run my heart and lungs out and couldn’t go any farther. I stared at the fireworks. They were saying, Why struggle? You’ll never make it anyway. Give up. Relax…

  But I couldn’t give up, not till the finish line flashed below me. I was a runner, not a quitter.

  I hoisted Ellie up as far as I could. I was able to bring the safety bar down under her chin. It was the best I could do. If Ellie didn’t choke to death, she’d have great horror stories for her grandchildren.

  We reached the peak and crashed down. I gripped the sides of the car and pressed my weight against the safety bar. I couldn’t be sure I’d secured it.

  “Joe!?” shrieked Ellie, scrunched up beside me. “Where are we? What are you doing?”

  The train plunged to the next valley. She screamed.

  “Think of it as tough love,” I yelled.

  I’d been on this coaster a million times. I figured we had seven, eight, more dips ahead of us. The good thing was, none of them was like the big dip.

  The bad thing was my head was ringing, and I was getting confused about what was up and what was down. My hands were ice blocks. The wind seared into my skin. I felt like I was going to pass out.

  The fireworks were now white-hot and blinding. They filled the fairgrounds with light.

  Skip was yelling. He hadn’t given up. When the train slid up beside the platform, he would be waiting.

  One last dip and the train slowed to a glide, smooth as a swan on a lake. In a second it would stop.

  I was battered and sick. My mind wandered in and out of racetrack hallucinations. And now I’d have to take on Skip again.

  I squeezed my eyelids shut to make the dizziness go away.

  The train stopped. A hand closed over mine.

  Fists clenched, I pulled away from it and forced myself to stand. “I’ll kill you,” I told Skip.

  I tried to swing a punch. Instead, I swayed.

  Nothing happened. No one punched back.

  I blinked hard against the blinding white lights. There was a face in front of mine, but it wasn’t Skip’s.

  “I’d prefer not to be killed, if you don’t mind,” said Baseball Cap.

  Amy had been right. Bad guys popped up like Hydra heads.

  I swung my fist back. I’d hammer Baseball Cap, all right. I’d hammer them all. Bring ’em on.

  Baseball Cap raised a hand to ward me off. With his other hand he calmly tossed a coin up and down.

  I couldn’t hit him because now there were two Baseball Caps, two coins going up and down. I was hallucinating again.

  I stared hard at Baseball Cap, willing him to come into focus. I thought of how he’d shadowed me to VanDusen. How he’d grabbed my wrist at the Horror House.

  People talk about puzzle pieces falling into place. In this case, it was more like a piece being taken away. I’d assumed Baseball Cap was a thief and a kidnapper. I saw now that I’d been wrong.

  I lowered my fist. Baseball Cap reached out, took hold of my elbow and steadied me.

  “Thanks, officer,” I said.

  Baseball Cap, known better as Vancouver Police Detective Mike Gagel, had already called a couple of ambulances. They waited, red lights flashing, behind the searchlights the police had targeted on the roller coaster.

  I saw a smaller flashing red light in the distance. It was the police car that was taking Skip to the station.

  Before switching on the searchlights, the cops had crept up on Skip and pounced. That’s why Skip had been yelling, Detective Gagel explained.

  As I thought, Amy had told the police everything. At least, everything she knew.

  “Lucky for you, we got a warrant to search your house,” the detective told me. “That’s how we found out about your meeting tonight. Skip’s instructions were still on the answering machine.”

  I remembered grabbing the phone just as the machine clicked on. Thank god for Ellie dumping her Owl magazines on top of the phone.

  Thank god for Ellie being safe. I heaved a huge ragged sigh. As far as I was concerned, she could chant about alligator purses 24/7 if she wanted to.

  I couldn’t speak for a moment. Detective Gagel tossed a coin up and down, pretending not to notice that I was teary-eyed. He was lean but maybe not so mean, I decided.

  “I don’t want to go to the hospital,” my sister wailed. Pulling away from an ambulance attendant, she ran up and threw her arms around me. She was half scared, half excited. “What’s going on, Joe? How come we were on the roller coaster? I wanted to go to Skip’s party. Skip said I could.”

  Then Ellie rocked her head in her hands and moaned. “I dunno why I have such a headache, Joe. And my stomach feels queasy. Maybe it was something I ate.”

  “Maybe it was something you drank,” I said. I grinned at the ambulance attendant, who was looking warily at my sister. I guessed he didn’t spend too much time around female eight-year-olds. Yakkety-yakkety-yak.

  “You need to go to the hospital,” I told Ellie. Remembering how mean I’d been earlier, I lifted her and gave her a hug that made her squeal. Then, gently, I unfastened her arms from around me. “We both need a trip to the hospital. I’ll join you soon. First I gotta talk to the nice detective.”
/>
  Ellie wrinkled up her nose at Detective Gagel. “Mister, your breath would clobber an army.”

  “Yeah, yeah.” The detective flipped his coin some more. “So I forget my Tic Tacs occasionally. We all have bad days.”

  I would have grinned, but that would have made my skull ache even worse.

  Chapter Thirteen

  Ellie trotted off, still jabbering, to the ambulance. Detective Gagel spun the coin. “I understand you and your friend figured out that Jake was a police plant.”

  Your friend. Amy. Was she here? I squinted past the searchlights.

  It was more likely she’d followed Skip to the police station. It was Skip she’d be worried about.

  Detective Gagel explained, “Jake Grissom was working undercover to catch Babs Beesley, who specialized in robbing galleries and museums. Jake convinced Babs he could fence the loot from the PNE gallery.

  “He told Babs he’d get millions for the Margaret Rose. Babs handed it over—but then she had second thoughts. Maybe someone tipped her off. We’ll never know.

  “Jake and I were meeting here to return the Margaret Rose to the gallery. Jake arrived ahead of me. The roller coaster was his favorite ride. He must’ve decided he had time for a spin on it.

  “He didn’t realize that Babs was following him. “When I arrived on the platform, I saw her hunch down behind you and Skip.”

  Detective Gagel stopped tossing the coin. He clenched it till his knuckles turned white. “I blame myself for not putting a tail on Jake. If only I’d protected him…”

  “You did your best, sir.” Now I knew Detective Gagel hadn’t been running with Babs. He’d been running after her.

  He managed a smile. “And you did your best, son. In fact, you did better. You caught Babs Beesley for us. When VanDusen security phoned, I rushed over. But by the time I got there, you’d scrammed.”

  I said ruefully, “I saw you talking on the phone. I thought you were Ellie’s kidnapper. It took me a while to figure out what the Margaret Rose was.” I shook my head. “At first I thought it was a flower. Then I realized it couldn’t be.