by Peter Cox
Maybe they had to stay late at work, or maybe the car had broken down. It wouldn’t be the first time.
I raced over to the phone, but there were no messages from my parents. Just one from Mrs. Maplewood telling my mom that Mrs. Johnson’s cream had gotten stolen again and she was in a fit over whatever neighborhood rascal had pilfered it.
That gave me a chuckle, but just a small one. I was too concerned.
What if they’d gotten in a bad car accident?
I calmed myself down and told myself they were probably just at a neighbor’s having dinner. They would have left me a note on the fridge.
I turned around, and there was a note.
I breathed a huge sigh of relief.
I made my way over to the fridge, walking over something sticky on the floor. That was weird. My mom is usually pretty picky about keeping the house clean.
I stopped dead in my tracks.
“What’s going on?” Basset asked, concern certainly filling his voice. “Where are your parents? You’re white as a ghost.”
The note on the fridge was written on a silk sheet the size of a napkin.
I went closer, and snatched it. It was covered in the same sticky stuff that was on the floor, but I barely paid any attention to that.
The note said: “We have your parents. Stop sticking your nose in other peoples’ business or you’ll find yourself an orphan. Don’t tell the police. We have eyes everywhere. – The Masked Marauder”
My heart stopped and my hands got sweaty, making the note even stickier.
“What is it?” Basset asked. “I can’t read.”
I quickly shook the note off my hand and bent down and hugged Basset, a sob exploding out of my mouth.
“They took Mom and Dad,” I burst out. “They took them and it’s my fault. It’s all my fault.”
Basset leaned into my hug, as dogs love to do. “What do you mean they took them? They who?”
“The Masked Marauder and whoever he’s working with. He left the note. They took Mom and Dad because I’ve been digging around.”
I didn’t want to cry. I was 13 for goodness’ sake! But I couldn’t help it. I was scared, but more than anything I felt guilty. This had been a fun game, figuring out clues and putting together the puzzle pieces, but it wasn’t a game. My parents could get hurt.
“It’s okay buddy, it’s okay,” Basset said soothingly while I was petting his back. “We’ll find them. Once you’ve calmed down you can call the police and they’ll solve everything.”
“No!” I sobbed even harder. “The note said they’ll kill Mom and Dad if I call the police!”
“They might just be saying that to scare you.”
“Yeah, but they might not. I can’t risk that. I . . . I just can’t.”
“I understand.”
We were silent for a couple of minutes, a boy and his dog. There’s no better comfort when you’re sad, no better courage when you’re scared, and no better friend when you feel alone.
“What do we do?” I asked.
“We find them.” Basset sounded stern, tough, determined. “We find whoever took your parents and we bring them to justice. Together.”
Chapter 26
MAKING A PLAN
Basset and I got up and went upstairs to my room.
I knew the Masked Marauder didn’t want to hurt me. If he did, he would have waited at my house and grabbed me instead of my parents.
But I wanted to get out of there. I couldn’t sleep in the house knowing the Marauder had been there. I felt like I was being watched.
I packed a suitcase full of necessities (toothbrush, change of clothes, flashlight, some granola bars and other snacks from the fridge, and of course a book) and raced back downstairs.
On my way out the door I glanced around the living room. I didn’t know how long this would take. In fact, I didn’t know if I’d ever be coming back here again. Who knew if I’d see Mom or Dad again? And if they did come home, would our lives ever be the same? Could we ever go back to “family time” and quiet dinners after my parents got kidnapped because of me?
I looked over at the ugly lamp on the table, and even that made me sad. The whole house just seemed so normal, like it was teasing me about how not normal my life was now. Even the lamp reminded me of my parents.
I looked over at a family picture we had taken just before moving to Grant County, and I felt tears starting to well up in my eyes.
Before my stomach could twist itself into a knot I turned around, grabbed the door handle, and strode outside.
The night had gotten a lot colder, and thick clouds covered the moon so the only light was the sickly yellow of a streetlight way down the road.
Basset and I sprinted to the edge of the woods, and dove into the pitch darkness under the trees. I trusted Basset to lead the way, and kept my eyes on him as we ran. I had to trust him completely. He was the only thing I could see, a golden blur in a sea of black. A bottomless pit could have been two inches in front of me and I never would have known until I was plummeting down. So I kept my eyes on that golden blur and ran.
The cold was biting into my skin with sharp teeth. I hoped the fort was a little warmer.
I burst through the oak door and found the fort lit with an inviting orange glow and filled with cozy warmth.
Sam was tending a fire that crackled in the stove, and she had lit candles all over the room for some light.
“You’re early,” she said casually, not turning from the fire. “Probably a good thing though. If you came at midnight like we had planned you would’ve frozen. It’s getting cold out there.”
“What are you doing here already?”
“My old man came home in a mood, and then left right away to head down to the bar with some buddies. He won’t get home until late, and when he does he won’t notice I’m gone. Figured there was no reason for me to wait to come down here.”
“Okay,” I said, not sure what else to say. How do you bring up the fact that your parents have been kidnapped? It’s not a conversation you cover when you’re learning about good manners.
Sam turned from the fire to say something, and she stopped dead in her tracks.
“What is it? What’s happened?”
“My parents are gone.” I tried to sound brave, but I ended up sounding kind of angry.
“What do you mean gone? You mean like, out at a restaurant or something?”
I shook my head. I was shocked at how I felt when I said it out loud. I didn’t feel scared or alone. I felt livid. Someone had stolen my parents, and I had to get them back.
“No. I mean that monster the Masked Marauder took them.”
Sam jumped up. “My gosh. This . . . this is serious. But I’m with you. We’ll get them back.” She looked over at Basset. “The three of us.”
I nodded, the anger simmering inside me.
“What do we do?” Sam asked. “Want to call the police?”
I explained everything to her, about the note and the warning on it.
“I agree with both of you,” Sam said looking from me to Basset and then back to me. “The Marauder is probably bluffing. It’s extremely unlikely he’ll know if we call the police. But it’s too risky to tell the cops, or to talk to anyone else really. The safety of your parents, the birds, this village, and maybe even the entire world is up to us.”
“No pressure.”
“Yeah. None. Piece of cake.”
“Easy as pie.”
“You’re both making me hungry,” Basset said. He looked kind of embarrassed at having said that.
“I know, me too,” I said. “Neither of us have had dinner.”
“Me neither,” Sam said. “Not much in the fridge, but I have a few things lying around this place.”
“I feel bad stopping to eat with my parents out there.”
“Look, we have to know where they are before we can get them. We have to be very careful about this and think it through. And I don’t know about you, but I d
on’t think very well when I’m hungry.”
That was true.
I pulled out my granola bars and some hot dogs, holding out a hot dog for Basset, which he quickly gobbled up.
Sam opened a cupboard made from old house shutters and pulled out some graham crackers, marshmallows, and chocolate.
“It’ll be like camping out,” she said. “We’ll make s’mores and hot dogs over the fire and we’ll stay up all night if we have to to figure this out.”
I liked the sound of that. I’d always wanted to do a campout like this. I just wished my first campout didn’t have to be because my parents had gotten kidnapped. I don’t think “how do we rescue my parents from a madman” is the standard campout conversation.
We put our food on some sticks and held them over the fire. We soon had quite a feast for ourselves.
“We have a lot of clues,” Sam said while we ate. “A lot. We just need to use them.”
“I know,” I said. “I feel like we have all the puzzle pieces, we just have to figure out how they all fit together.”
I felt frustrated. We really had done a lot of investigating, but everything seemed so scattered, so hazy.
We knew what the Masked Marauder had stolen (Indian artifacts, hardware, pet supplies, comic books). We knew where he was hiding out (Baskertonn Manor). We had the ID card with a few readable letters, and we had a melted hunk of glass and metal. Lastly we had the clues from the masked phantom at my window: a rhyming riddle and some numbers.
“You don’t think the masked man at my window is the Masked Marauder, do you?”
“That seemed like the obvious answer at first,” Sam said. “But why would he give you clues to catch himself?”
“Unless he’s trying to throw us off the trail?”
“I don’t think so. There’s easier ways to do that than repelling off someone’s roof and giving them cryptic riddles.”
“Yeah,” I said.
We talked a bit more about each of the clues, trying to fit them together.
“When the indoor sun is upside down
And the smile becomes a frown
Then the answers will appear
Never known to be so near.”
“Upside down sun could mean ‘nighttime,’” I said. “And that part about a smile becoming a frown could be talking about tonight. I mean, I was excited when I got home, and now at night I’m really upset.”
“Yeah, but the next part is ‘Then the answers will appear.’ I don’t see any answers around here.”
After a lot more conversations like that – coming up with ideas that ended up not really making sense – I asked if we should just try a stakeout at Baskertonn Manor after all.
“We might have to,” Sam said. “If we can’t think of anything else. That might be where your parents are.”
“That’s far too dangerous,” Basset said from where he was lying beside me in front of the fire. “We don’t know if that’s where they are. It could be a trap, and I don’t want you wandering into something unprepared.”
“Yeah, but what else can we do?” I asked.
“If there’s too much traffic on a highway you want to cross, you don’t just rush out there anyway,” he said. “That’s a good way to get hit by a truck. You wait until everything’s right.”
“That’s true, I guess.”
Eventually, when we had hit yet another dead end, I decided the time was right to tell them my Guster Liberman theory.
“Look, I know it sounds like I’m just trying to get revenge on him because he’s so mean to me,” I said after telling them my evidence. “I know I’m biased. But I think it makes sense.”
“You’re right,” Sam said. “All the pieces fit together perfectly. The letters are right on the ID, the glass and metal could be a melted magnifying glass, and he sure hates birds. If anyone at school could be a criminal, it would be him.”
“I’d love it if it was him,” Basset said. “I want him out of your life as much as you do. And we could take him, the three of us. But do you think he’s smart enough to do all this? To figure out how to chase the birds away and kidnap your parents?”
“I know,” Sam said. “He’s either a secret genius, or he’s not doing this alone.”
“If Guster’s a secret genius we might as well start believing a band of flying pigs will come and rescue my parents. It’s just as likely.”
“Then he’s not working alone,” Basset said. “And that makes him dangerous.”
“Even worse, it means we don’t know who or what or how many we’re up against,” Sam said.
I gave a very frustrated sigh and turned to look into the fire.
“Okay, let’s go over the riddle again,” Sam said.
“Oh my gosh! How many times can we go over it?” I shouted. “We’re not going to figure it out! We’re getting nowhere!”
I threw the rest of my hotdog into the fire, sending sparks flying.
Basset started licking my hand, and I jerked away. I didn’t want to be comforted right now.
“Sit down, Nate,” Basset said forcefully. “Sit!”
I sat. He’d never told me what to do before.
“I know you’re angry. I know you’re scared. I know you’re frustrated. I’ve been all of those things myself. But you can’t let your emotions control you or get the better of you. You just can’t. You’re a human. You’re better than that. You can ignore your emotions and choose how you act. And right now, you need to choose to act calm. You need to choose to think this through, or your parents are goners.”
“Look,” Sam said cautiously. “I get mad at my old man. A lot. But I don’t let that control me. I choose to be nice to him because that makes our lives a lot easier. When I get frustrated, I just act calm. I fake it until I make it. I can’t control how I feel, but I can control how I act, you know?”
I felt embarrassed. Like when I got so frustrated that I threw a video game controller at the floor and broke it. Over a game.
This was no game. But I still felt foolish for throwing a temper tantrum.
“Sorry,” I said. “Let’s go over that riddle again.”
“It’s okay,” Sam said, looking at Basset. “We both understand. Believe me. Basset probably understands frustration better than anyone. It’s hard, but we have to do this together.”
I tried to think, but it was hard. I was tired, and all those other emotions were still blurring my thoughts.
“I know I said we could stay up all night,” Sam said. “But I’m starting to think we need to try and sleep. We need to get a fresh start in the morning.”
I agreed. I felt guilty sleeping while my parents were trapped somewhere waiting for my help, but I didn’t think I could help them with my eyelids as heavy as lead.
Sam went over to another cupboard (this one made from an old wooden icebox) and pulled out two sleeping bags. They were really old and ratty, but they were clean and extremely warm. Sam and I rolled them out next to the fire, and we settled down with Basset curled up between us.
“Try to sleep, buddy,” Basset said. “I know you don’t want to, but you need to rest.”
“I know,” I said. I really didn’t think I’d be able to. I was so worried about my parents and feeling guilty and scared.
“I’ll keep watch over you tonight,” Basset said. “You know I’m a light sleeper, and if anything makes so much as a whisper outside I’ll jump right up and investigate.”
“Thanks boy. I know you’ll look out for me.” I scratched him behind the ears and he smiled.
I settled my head down, and watched as the fire burned lower. To my surprise, I fell almost instantly asleep, with the image of the embers playing in my eyes and the words of the riddle echoing in my ears.
Chapter 27
THE UPSIDE DOWN SUN
I awoke with a start around dawn, after a nightmare about my parents caught in a giant spider’s web. It was a perfect metaphor for how I felt: trapped in a web.
The embers
of the fire were still burning a deep orange color, and Sam and Basset were still asleep.
I felt rested, but stiff and a little groggy. I knew I’d never be able to get back to sleep after that dream, but I didn’t want to wake up my friends until they were ready.
I sat watching the light in the embers ebb and glow while the words from the riddle still swam around my brain.
As I slept, the last line of the riddle had been especially loud in my head. “Never known to be so near. Never known to be so near.”
We hadn’t really gone over that part much. It didn’t seem as important as the rest of the riddle. After all, the first two lines told us how to get the answers, the last line was after we had already found the answers.
But now it seemed important. I figured it was probably because my unconscious brain had been focusing on it, but I couldn’t shake the nagging feeling I was missing something right in front of my face, just like how I had missed the riddle itself on the window at first.
The meaning was obvious now that I really thought about it. The answer is near. That must mean somewhere close by, maybe even in my house.
While I watched the light of the fire, I started running over things in my house that could hold clues: my mom’s china cabinet, under my bed, in the basement. The most obvious place was behind the crawlspace door, but there was no way to get in there.
It was funny. The light from the fire was almost the exact same color orange as that ugly lamp my dad loved so much.
“The lamp!” I shouted, making Basset and Sam both jump to their feet in an instant.
Basset barked loudly, and then realized there was no intruder, just me.
Sam looked groggily at me.
“What’d you say? A ramp? Where?”
“No! The lamp! My parents’ old lamp!”
“The ugly one you said your dad found in the basement? What about it?”
Basset was looking at me like I might be sleepwalking. And sleeptalking.
“Think about it! It’s big and round and a unique color orange. Like…”
I trailed off, seeing if they could figure it out themselves from there.
It was too early in the morning.
