Detectives in Diapers: The Mystery of the Aztec Amulet

by Duane L. Ostler

CHAPTER SIX

  Discovery of a Tunnel

  The drive to Tolton took two hours. It normally would only have taken one, but they had to stop halfway there to change Mo, who had unwillingly made the inside of the car smell like they were riding in a sealed trash container. Then they had to stop at the store to buy some baby food, since Mama had forgotten to bring any.

  "Honestly, Mo!" said Flo reproachfully from her car seat once they were back on the road. "Couldn't you have waited until we got there?"

  "Hey, you know how it is!" said Mo defensively. "I think your next master's thesis should be on ways for infants to control their bodies at younger ages."

  "I'll look into it," said Flo. "But it's pretty hard to write convincingly about something I haven't mastered myself yet."

  "Here you are, babies!" said Elise, from where she sat next to their car seats in the back seat. She was holding two spoons toward them, each full of baby food.

  "What is it?" asked Flo apprehensively.

  "I think Mama said it was split pea," said Mo. "Not bad stuff, if I remember from the last time we tried it."

  "Well, I guess we have no choice but to eat it," said Flo. Both babies opened wide. With a look of delight, Elise put both spoons into their mouths at the same time. Mo smiled and gurgled happily at the taste, but Flos' face wrinkled up in disgust.

  "Great stuff, huh?" called out Mo, opening his mouth for more.

  "Sure, if you like the taste of mold," responded Flo. "But what else can I expect from a baby that likes the taste of dead bugs he finds under the couch?"

  "Can I help it if my taste buds aren't as sensitive as yours?" said Mo, swallowing his second mouthful of the goop. Flo on the other hand refused to open her mouth, and her next spoonful ended up slopped all down the front of her bib.

  "Mama's not going to be happy about having to wash that bib again," said Mo.

  "She'll just have to deal with it!" snapped Flo. "I am NOT eating that pasty stuff!"

  "Suit yourself!" said Mo, rolling his eyes in delight at his fourth mouthful.

  After another 45 minutes of driving during which Flo went through three bibs, they arrived at the outskirts of Tolton. It was a little town, with a population of 2,798 persons according to the sign as they entered.

  "You realize, of course, that they'll be expecting us," said Flo.

  "Certainly," answered Mo. "By now they've already been back to our house. It wouldn't be too hard for them to figure out where we've gone. Truth is, they may have staged this whole thing on purpose, to get us to come out here." He paused. "You're not worried, are you?"

  "No," answered Flo calmly. "At some point I'm sure we'll meet up with a 'welcoming committee' that will take us all captive. But we had to come here, to find more clues. And anyway, I don't think they have any idea who they're up against."

  "Well, here we are!" interrupted Dada from the front seat. "Let's see if we can find Uncle Elroy's address. What does it say, Cassie?"

  "His address is on Main Street which is this road we're on," said Mama. She was holding the driver license, and looking up and down the main street they were driving along. "There it is!" she said suddenly, pointing at a run-down Indian souvenir shop at the end of the street. It was called "Beads For All Your Needs," and looked like it had been there for at least a hundred years. A faded carving of a large black bear guarded the front door, while deer and antelope antlers were lined up in a row along the roof of the old building.

  "So, Uncle Elroy is a souvenir salesman," said Dada as he pulled to a stop in front of the store. There were no other cars parked there, and it didn't look like the lights were on in the store. A sign on the front door said 'Closed.'

  "It doesn't look like it's open," said Mama. "What should we do?"

  "Let's just take a look around," said Dada, getting out of the car. "Uncle Elroy should be around here someplace."

  Flo and Mo knew, of course, that Uncle Elroy had been kidnapped by the same people that had taken Elise's grandmother. But they were as anxious to get out of the car as Dada, to start looking for clues.

  While Mama pulled their stroller out of the trunk, Elise unfastened their car seats and pulled them each out. "There you go, my little dumplings!" cried Mama as Elise plopped each of them painfully into their seats (Unfortunately, Mama had taught Elise the proper way to 'plop').

  While Elise went over to look through the windows of the shop, Mama unexpectedly reached back into the car and pulled out the ivory amulet from the leather pouch she had been storing under her seat. She handed it unceremoniously to Flo. This time she didn't give Flo any option about using it as a teething ring. "Here, duckie," she said blandly. "For your teeth."

  Flo had no choice but to take it. "Isn't that thing going to get us into trouble?" asked Mo.

  "Maybe," answered Flo. "But it's probably good she gave it to me. When they capture us they'll be sure to search the car and find the other stuff, and they would have found this too if Mama had left it there. If this thing really IS important--and I think it is--then it's best that we hide it."

  "Hide it?" asked Mo. "Where are babies like us going to hide it?"

  "Where else?" answered Flo, slipping the amulet into her diaper.

  "The front door is unlocked," called Dada from the front of the store. "Let's go look around inside."

  "Oh, Clyde, are you sure?" said Mama. "Isn't that breaking and entering?"

  "No, we're just returning his niece to him," said Dada, before disappearing into the shop. The others quickly followed.

  Inside the air was stuffy and the shelves were packed. There were so many moccasins, warbands, leggings, feathered bonnets, bows and arrows, arrowheads and other Indian souvenirs that there was hardly room to move through the aisles.

  "I'm afraid this double wide stroller just isn't going to work," said Mama. Mo and Flo were thrilled as she unstrapped each of them, lifted them out and 'plopped' them onto the floor.

  "Now we can really explore!" cried Mo happily as he darted down an aisle.

  "Look for anything to do with the Coatl League," called Flo after him. Then she quickly took off down a different aisle to do some exploring herself.

  "Uncle Elroy's got some great stuff here," said Dada, coming up to Elise and his wife wearing a feathered headdress that stretched down to his knees. "This one's only fifty bucks!"

  "Will you stop fiddling around!" cried Mama, pulling off the headdress. "We're supposed to be finding Uncle Elroy! Start calling for him. Maybe he's in the back, or something." Then she cupped her hands to her mouth and called out in an annoyingly sing-song voice, "Uncle Ellrooooy! Your niece is heeeeere!"

  "I think I found something," came Mo's voice into Flo's brain, above the mindless shouts of Dada and Mama calling for Uncle Elroy. "Come to the back of the shop!"

  Flo darted toward the back at top baby speed. In a second she was sitting next to her brother in front of a large wall mirror. He was smiling and pointing at himself as if he was the most beautiful baby in the world.

  "You handsome baby, you!" he said with a toothless smile.

  "Is this what you found?" scoffed Flo. "Another way to preen yourself and show off?"

  "Now, just keep your diaper on," answered Mo. "Stop your yapping and feel for a minute."

  Flo instantly perceived what he meant. "There's a draft of air coming from under this mirror!" she cried. "That means it's not really a mirror at all, but is a--"

  "--door!" agreed Mo. "With a hall on the other side of it. Now it's just a matter of convincing them of that, and getting them to open it."

  "Oh, there you are!" came Elise's voice from behind them. "I wondered where you two had gone!" Her timing couldn't have been better.

  "Let's both start pushing on the mirror," suggested Mo. "Hopefully she'll get the message and open it for us."

  Both babies reached up and pushed with all their puny baby strength against the mirror. It didn't budge, of course,
but they were surprised to find that it did give way slightly beneath their pudgy fingers.

  "It moved!" said Mo excitedly.

  "I know!" replied Flo. Then she said, "Oh, drat! I got too excited, and now I need a diaper change. I hope the amulet hidden in there doesn't get stained."

  "What are you pushing on that mirror for?" asked Elise with a laugh. Curiously, she pushed on the mirror also, and was amazed when it gave way before her, swinging inward to reveal a secret hallway.

  "I think I found something!" she called out to the others in the shop.

  "Quick!" cried Flo. "There's no time to lose. You're the faster crawler, so you go."

  "Right," agreed Mo, instantly understanding her intent. If one of them darted down the hall, everyone would be sure to follow. And that was the only way to guarantee they would go through the hall to find more clues.

  Mo shot off down the hall like a rocket. "Hey!" called Elise after him. "Come back here!"

  "Try and make me!" called Mo over his shoulder, even though only Flo was able to hear him.

  "My baby!" cried Mama, arriving at the secret door and seeing her pudgy offspring disappearing down the dark corridor. "Clyde, do something!"

  "Right," said Dada. "I'll get him. Lucky he found this door. Probably leads right to Uncle Elroy."

  Mo had reached a point where the tunnel branched out to the left and to the right. Without any hesitation he took the right fork. His agile mind remembered that outside the shop there was a river to the left, so the tunnel in that direction probably didn't go far (or became very wet).

  "Clyde, he's disappeared!" cried Mama in a panicked voice. "Hurry!" From the shuffling sound Mo heard, Mama had apparently shoved Dada from behind, making him go faster. In light of the strength Mama had shown ripping that board out of the floor yesterday, it was a wonder Dada was able to keep his footing.

  Mo suddenly reached a landing at the top of a long flight of stairs going down. A single light bulb lit the darkness for a short distance down the stairs. Beyond that was total darkness. Yet once more, he didn't hesitate. As anyone who has ever had a baby knows, they absolutely LOVE stairs, and can move up and down them at amazing speeds. Mo did so now.

  "Oh, Clyde!" screamed Mama behind him as she and the others came up to the stairs. "He's going down the stairs! Get him before he slips and falls all the way to the bottom!" Mo didn't have to look behind him to see Dada dive quickly down the stairs to avoid being shoved from behind again by Mama--which would surely have made him lose his balance and bounce all the way down to land on top of Mo.

  As anyone who has ever had a baby knows, parents of babies absolutely HATE stairs, since they are convinced their baby will lose their balance on them and tumble to their injury at the bottom. Which almost never happens of course, since babies are usually far more sure-footed on stairs than people think.

  "Great job, Mo!" came Flo's jealous voice into his mind. She loved stairs too, and wished she could go down them now. But Mo was clearly the faster of the two, and was the obvious choice to lead the group down the passageway.

  And lead he did. At the bottom of the stairs, Mo darted down one of three hallways that stretched in different directions. This time he just guessed which way to go, since he could feel Dada bumping and bumbling close behind him. The old man might be mentally slow, but he was pretty quick in a chase like this!

  Darting swiftly down the hall, Mo noticed a series of windows suddenly appear along the side of the wall on his left. Unfortunately he was too short to look through them and see what was on the other side. There was obviously a light on the other side of the window, which spilled over into the hallway.

  Mo heard Dada stop abruptly when he reached the windows. "Well, I'll be!" Dada exclaimed in amazement. Glancing back, Mo was surprised to see that Mama had stopped too, and was staring through the window. Whatever they saw through that window had to be pretty fantastic to make her temporarily forget about him and overcome her mother instinct! Elise also stopped, right behind the two adults. All of them gaped through the window with eyes so wide it looked like they would soon pop out and go rolling along the floor.