The Secret of the Shadow Bandit

by Singleton, Linda Joy

  “Want to wear my gloves?” I wiggle my gloved fingers.

  “No. You can keep looking but be thorough. I’m not leaving without that chess piece.” She aims the flash cap on the pile. “I’ll help by shining the light.”

  “Ooookay,” I say uneasily.

  I go back to work, wondering why she’s being so bossy when we both want to find the emerald to complete the chess set. I push aside ripped papers, cloth, and fur until my gloved fingers touch the floor.

  “It’s not here,” I murmur to myself. “I was so sure it would be since this nest is closer than the one in the tree house.”

  “What tree house?” Angel’s voice rises excitedly.

  Oops, I shouldn’t have said that. “Um…nothing.”

  “Tell me!”

  “I-I can’t…it’s a secret.” My thoughts move in slow motion, piecing together her puzzling words. She knew RJ didn’t steal the chess piece but she let him take the blame. And she didn’t show her boss a letter from his daughter.

  I squint into the glare of my flash cap on Angel’s purple head. Something isn’t right. She’s acting so weird…not friendly and sweet but kind of scary.

  Does she want the chess piece for her boss or herself?

  As I’m wondering this, Angel suddenly lunges forward. She snatches my spy pack and jumps out of the wine vault. She slams the door—locking me inside.

  “Angel, what are you doing? “I run to the bars, clasping my fingers around cold metal. “Is this some kind of joke?”

  “No joke.”

  Panic rises inside me. “Let me out!” I demand.

  “I will if you tell me how to find this tree house,” she says coolly.

  “Unlock the vault and I’ll take you there.”

  “Ha!” she snorts. “You’ll run off and steal my emerald king.”

  “But why are you doing this? You’re my friend. You showed me your room and even gave me a gift.” I touch the aquamarine necklace around my neck. “I thought you liked me.”

  “I do—but I like me more.” She giggles. “It’s nothing personal. I would look terrible in prison orange, so I have to leave. And I’m taking the emerald king with me.”

  “Why do you want it?” I ask so softly she has to move closer to hear me.

  “Because it’s gorgeous and—”

  I make a sudden grab for her but she jumps out of range.

  Smiling, she wags her finger at me. “Good try, Kelsey, but you’ll have to be quicker to catch me.”

  “The police will catch you if you steal the emerald king,” I retort.

  “It was never reported stolen. I can keep or sell it and no one will care.”

  “But it doesn’t belong to you,” I say confused, even though locking me in a wine vault proves she’s the opposite of an angel.

  “It’s not my fault I can’t resist pretty things.” Her sigh is heavy with self-pity. “This is the best job I’ve ever had. I’d really hoped to stay longer. But Irwin suspected me and searched my room until he found the crystal. He’s probably telling Mr. Bragg right now. I saw him talking with you—what was that about?”

  “He confessed to stealing the crystal pepper shaker.”

  “Poor sweet guy lied to protect me.” She shrugs. “I told you he was too nice. Too bad I’m not the nice girl he deserves.”

  “You mean…Irwin isn’t a kleptomaniac?”

  “Kleptomaniac would be me,” she says proudly. “Call it an obsession or an illness but when I want something, I have to take it. As a kid I learned not to count on anyone but myself. And when I take something, no one ever suspects sweet little Angel. It was just bad luck Mr. Bragg’s daughter found out.”

  I reel back against the hard concrete wall.

  “No one understands how hard it is to have a stealing addiction. It’s so unfair.” She pouts like a toddler. “I almost had to leave a few months ago when darling daughter Deidra was going to tattle to Daddy just because I borrowed her sapphire earrings. But I stopped her with the perfect revenge. She was always bragging about her precious son so I was going to take the emerald and ruby chess set—RJ’s favorite game—as a parting gift to myself.”

  It’s cold in the cellar but the chills crawling up my skin have nothing to do with the temperature.

  “Only that sneaky ferret snatched the emerald king and raced out the window,” she gripes. “What good is a chess set with a missing king? So I got even with that goody-goody. I told Mr. Bragg I saw RJ steal the emerald king. RJ had already gone home so Mr. Bragg confronted his daughter and accused RJ of being a thief. ‘Don’t you trust your own grandson?’ she shouted. And Mr. Bragg said, ‘Return the chess piece or leave my home and don’t come back!’ That night, Deidra, her husband, and son moved away.” Angel grins slyly. “And I made sure they didn’t come back.”

  It was Angel all along? Pitting daughter against father and blaming an innocent boy. She played them like pieces on a chess board, using RJ, Irwin, and now me as pawns. The queen has the most power, and the king never knew he’d been checkmated.

  “Where is the tree house?” Angel asks calmly, as if we’re girlfriends hanging out and not enemies separated by iron bars.

  I press my lips together.

  “It’ll get very cold in here. Someone might find you…in a day or two.” Angel shrugs, my flash cap swaying on her head. “By then I’ll have the emerald king and be out of the country sunning on a tropical beach. What a shame you have to stay here alone. Or you can tell me how to find this tree house and I’ll let you out.”

  I don’t believe her. She’s told me too much to let me go. So I say nothing.

  “Fine, stay locked up. And thanks for this nifty backpack and the cool lighted hat.” She slips my spy pack over her shoulders then climbs up the staircase. At the top stair, she looks down. “I hope you’re not afraid of the dark.”

  She turns off the light.

  - Chapter 26 -

  The Mystery Name

  I’m not afraid of the dark, but I don’t like it much either.

  Sinking to the cold floor, I wrap my arms around myself. I was right about the ferret nest but wrong about Angel. Of course I wasn’t the only one she fooled. It’s easy to fall for her lies because she’s so cute and petite like punk-girl Barbie. And I was flattered she gave me a gift—which she probably stole from someone else who trusted her. I reach up and rip off the aquamarine necklace. Crumpling the necklace in my fist, I throw it across my prison.

  I have to get out of here! I think in despair, hugging myself in the dark. I’m alone in a dungeon-cellar. I don’t have my spy pack or flash cap. No one knows where I am…except Angel.

  Think, Kelsey, I tell myself. There has to be a way out.

  I feel my way over to the bars and try the lock again. Maybe I’ll get lucky and hit the right combination. It’s just four numbers.

  But four numbers might as well be four million I realize after a lot of failed tries. I sink back to the floor, shivering.

  Thin plastic gloves can’t warm my icicle-cold fingers. I blow on my hands and imagine being in front of a blazing fireplace or snuggling beneath my heated blanket with my soft kitten snug in my arms. But thoughts of warmth make me colder, and I feel more alone than ever. Despair is a different kind of cold, stabbing my heart and stealing all hope.

  Faint light shines from my watch but there’s no comfort from watching seconds tick. And to add to my misery, I start to notice the sound of rustling behind the towering columns of wine bottles, and the corners are so dark that I can only imagine the creepy crawlies that dwell there. If a ferret can sneak in here, other creatures can too.

  Rats? Spiders? Snakes?

  The noises sound amplified as if the shadows have weight and move with whispered breaths and shuffling steps. A shadow shifts from behind a wine rack, and the sounds draw closer…

  I back into the wall, trapped and terrified.

  “Are you here?” a voice calls out. “Kelsey?”

  Jumping to my feet, I
shout, “Leo! Over here!”

  I hear footsteps approach and a bright light shines in my face. “Why are you sitting inside a wine vault?” Leo asks in a puzzled tone.

  “It wasn’t my idea,” I say wryly. “Lower your flashlight—you’re blinding me.”

  “This isn’t a flashlight—it’s a flash app on my phone.”

  “Just get me out of here.” I rattle the bars. “We have to stop Angel from leaving with my spy pack and the emerald king!”

  “Angel has your spy pack and the emerald?” He stares at me like he thinks I’m losing my mind.

  “It’s a long story. I’ll explain after you open the door.”

  Leo aims the beam on the lock. “Do you know the combination?”

  “If I did, do you think I’d still be here?” I blow out a shaky breath. “What I mean is thanks for coming to my rescue. How did you find me?”

  “I tracked your GPF.”

  “My what?”

  “Global Positioning Finder. I shot it in your hair when you ran off from the shed to chase Bandit. I didn’t want to lose track of you.”

  I remember Leo raising the silver tube and yelling something I couldn’t understand. When I reach up to feel my head, I find a sticky GPF. It takes three firm yanks to pull it out of my hair. I toss it at him.

  Leo catches it. “Becca and I were almost to the tree house when I looked at my tablet and saw your green light go underground. It flickered on and off because the signal underground isn’t strong.” He gestures to his tablet sticking out from his pocket.

  “But how did you get into the cellar?”

  “The outside door. I couldn’t squeeze through the crack like Bandit, but my latest version of the key spider opened the lock. Luckily it wasn’t electronic like this.” He shines his cell light on the lock.

  “Forget the lock and call for help.” I point to his phone. “Call 911 or Mom.”

  He glances down at the screen. “The signal keeps cutting out. I’ll have to go outside to make the call.”

  “Hurry.” Sinking back to the icy concrete, I wrap my arms around myself.

  “I don’t want to leave you,” he says. “I should be able to get this open.” He studies the lock. “Four numbers between zero and nine. According to my calculations, with a total of ten numbers that could be repeated, there are ten thousand possible combinations.”

  “Is that all?” I groan. “I’ll never get out of here.”

  “Never is an infinite concept and illogical. But math is solvable.”

  Leo tilts his head as if accessing new data from his mental computer. In a way, it’s like watching my dad when he’s baking—a blend of concentration and inspiration.

  Leo came because he was worried about me, I think with a rush of gratitude. He can be annoying sometimes but he’s 100 percent a true friend. No one else knew I was in trouble but he figured out I needed help and came to my rescue. It hits me that I like him a lot…maybe more than a lot. But Becca is the one he likes best, and someone needs to warn him she doesn’t feel the same way.

  I clear my throat. “Leo, there’s something I…um…should say…”

  He doesn’t look up from the lock. “There are approximately 9,950 more combinations to try.”

  “Yeah…So what I have to tell you…” I hesitate. “You and Becca are my best friends, but we don’t know everything about each other.”

  “Maybe zeros,” he murmurs then glances up at me. “What?”

  “I’m trying to say that even friends who know each other really well don’t know everything. We all have secrets.”

  He grins. “And you write them down in that book of yours.”

  “Not all of them,” I say, wishing I could avoid breaking his heart.

  “True. You still haven’t guessed my middle name.”

  “You’ll tell me if I guess right,” I remind him.

  “I will—in the unlikelihood that happens,” Leo says confidently. “Go ahead. Guess.”

  I’d rather talk about names than feelings. “I tried lots of boy names—maybe it’s a girl’s name. Nannette, Nancy, Naomi, Neecy, Norma, Natasha—”

  “Stop!” He groans like he’s in pain. “Absolutely not a girl’s name.”

  I pause to think. “Nadair, Naheem, Nate, Nash, Navarone, Nathan, Neil.”

  “No, no, no, no, no, no, and no.”

  “Nelson, Nemo, Nevan, Newt—”

  “You’re starting to repeat names,” he says.

  I throw up my hands. “But I’m running out of N names.”

  “It’s inevitable. You will not guess ever,” he says with absolute certainty.

  I refuse to give up. Besides what else can I do while I’m trapped in a vault?

  “Nimbus,” I guess.

  “That’s not a name. It’s a rain cloud.”

  “Nino, Nolan, Nye, Nuri, or Norvin.”

  His fingers tap the number pad as he shakes his head. “Incorrect.”

  “But I’ve tried every name I can think of!” I stomp my foot on the concrete. “I’m beginning to think you don’t even have a middle name. That’s it…None!”

  He stares at me like I’m lightning and I just struck him. Slowly he nods.

  “I’m right?” I ask, astonished. “You don’t have a middle name?”

  “Oh, I have one.” He grimaces. “When I was born my parents couldn’t decide on a middle name. Mom wanted to name me after her father and Dad thought I should be named after him. They finally decided not to give me a middle name. So when the nurse asked for my middle name, Mom answered, none—which the nurse wrote down on an official document so it became my legal name.”

  “Leopold None Polanski?” I grin.

  He hangs his head. “Humiliating, but that’s my name. Please don’t tell anyone.”

  “I won’t,” I promise, pleased that he trusts me with his secret.

  Leo’s quiet as he works on the lock, and I think about his crush on Becca. Why did he have to go and fall for a club mate? It’s going to ruin everything. And he’ll be heartbroken if he sees her with Trevor.

  “Leo, I really do have to tell you something.” Although we’re separated by bars, he’s close enough to hear my pounding heartbeat.

  “A secret?” he asks with a curious glance at me.

  “Sort of…it’s about you and Becca.”

  He stops working the lock. “What?”

  I take a deep breath, suck in courage, then spit out the truth. “Becca likes Trevor.”

  “That’s not a secret.” He shrugs. “She’s so obvious even I knew. And it has nothing to do with me.”

  “Aren’t you heartbroken? I mean, I thought you liked Becca.”

  “Of course I like her.”

  “More than like her,” I try to explain. “That day in the tree house when you wanted to tell me something, when you said you couldn’t talk in front of her, well, I knew you really liked her.”

  “Oh, that.” It’s dark but even in the faint shine from his cell phone I can tell he’s blushing. “Yeah, I did want to ask you something. But it wasn’t about Becca…it was about you.”

  “Me?” I gasp.

  Now I’m blushing and don’t know what to say. I mean, how does a girl ask a boy if he likes her? If he says yes, and I don’t feel the same way, our friendship gets awkward. If he says no, our friendship gets awkward. And just thinking about it makes me feel awkward. I really like him, but what kind of like am I feeling?

  I glance away, hoping he can’t see my face.

  “The reason I didn’t want to talk in front of Becca was that I wanted to ask you a question,” Leo goes on in the most serious tone I’ve ever heard him use.

  “What?” I brace myself because his next words could change everything.

  - Chapter 27 -

  Treasure Quest

  “I wanted to ask you out,” Leo says, and my fears rock like an earthquake.

  “Ask me out?” I repeat to make sure I’m hearing right.

  “Yes. You’re easy to
talk to, and we share many interests like science, robots, and drones. So I hoped you might like…” He rubs his forehead. “I’m saying this all wrong. Remember when you found out my real age?”

  I nod. “Your mother was planning a surprise birthday party and I overheard her say you were over a year younger than me. That was weeks ago. But you haven’t mentioned anything about a party.”

  “There isn’t going to be a party. I convinced Mom to give me a different kind of birthday celebration. So she bought me tickets to the World Robot Tournament—where robots wage battle until there’s only one champion. And she said I could bring a friend with me.”

  “Me?” I guess.

  “Affirmative. But I worried Becca might be mad I asked you and not her. I waited to ask you alone…then got nervous that you’d say no.”

  Leo wanted to invite me—not Becca. It’s crazy that I care but I do.

  “I would have said yes.” I smile at him through the bars.

  “Really?” He grins. “You’ll go with me?”

  “Sure. It sounds fun. And just so you know, I never told anyone about your real age. Not even Becca knows your birth date…birth date!” I exclaim, snapping my fingers. “I just remembered that Angel told me the lock combination is King Bragg’s daughter’s birthday!”

  “Doesn’t he know he should never use a family birthday for a password?” Leo shakes his head as he taps his phone. “It’ll be easy to find. I’ll go outside where the signal’s stronger to check. Wait here.”

  “Like I can go anywhere else?” The light from his phone vanishes, and I’m alone in the darkness again.

  But it isn’t long before he’s back.

  “The code is zero-eight-three-one!” Leo exclaims as he taps his fingers on the lock.

  There’s a click and my barred door slides open.

  “I’m free!” I cry as I step out of the prison. I think of Angel getting away and I grab Leo’s arm. “Now, let’s go find the emerald king!”

  I follow Leo around the tall wine racks to the far side of the cellar where outside light shines through the edges of a door at the top of the other staircase.