Partly that was true. I didn’t want to hear it any longer. But really, I was only hurting his feelings on purpose to push him away. The cord needed to be cut. Matt just shook his head and walked off into the night.
Anna was making a big show of yawning and stretching. What was she up to?
“You know, I think I’m gonna call it a night myself,” she said.
“Geez, it’s only three a.m.!” I found myself shouting at her, even though it was incredibly rare for me to raise my voice. It wasn’t dignified.
“Fine, go home to bed like a little baby then. Go!”
I found myself alone on the street, my eyes stinging with tears of frustration, or maybe I was just overly tired… But after all this work, all this trouble, I was still no closer to figuring out who had killed Brett Falcon. And I was further away from being able to win the race than I ever had been. I couldn’t compete as a team of one.
Part of me just wanted to admit defeat. To go home, take my heels off, climb into bed, and try and pretend this whole treasure hunt had never ever happened.
But what would Matt say to that? It would just be proof to him that Alyson was more competitive.
The doors to the emergency room opened and out waltzed a girl with long wavy hair and cargo shorts.
“Alyson?” I called.
She walked toward me slowly, without the usual spring in her step, but when she saw me, she lit up a bit. “Where’s Matt?”
I had to explain the whole thing.
“So. Three becomes one,” she said with a raised eyebrow. But there was a plan brewing in her mind. I knew there was because I had the same plan brewing in mine.
It was just a matter of which one of us was going to swallow our pride and ask the question first.
Alyson may have been the more competitive out of the two of us, but I was the more stubborn. So, it was she who held out her hand first for us to shake on it.
“So, teammates?”
20
Alyson
“It’s quiet,” Claire said, walking slowly down the road while I lit the way with a flashlight. She looked frightened. “It’s like a ghost town.”
“It’s three-thirty in the morning,” I pointed out. “The witching hour where all the spirits of the dead come out because there’s no one out here watching.”
She ignored that in favor of more practical concerns. “Yeah, but it’s hunt night. The streets are usually still full of people.”
I shrugged and quickly came up with an explanation. “That only tells us that the next clue is leading us back out of the town center again.” Claire still couldn’t find out that the hunt had been called off.
After the kerfuffle at the hair salon, I had somehow managed to actually grab the next clue. I unzipped my bag and pulled it out. “Never thought I’d actually share this with you.”
“Gee, thanks,” Claire said.
She was rubbing her wrist a little. “I didn’t realize you got knocked over as well,” I said, frowning.
“Just an old injury. Sometimes it acts up.”
“Oh.” I remembered the accident well. Because if Princess had never fallen that day, she may never have left Eden Bay. She went super quiet as we walked along.
“You’re back now and that’s all that matters,” I said and kept walking. “Don’t worry about what happened in the past.”
We were almost at the end of the race and this was where the clues started getting trickier. And we still had eight hours left on the clock and at least another three clues to get through. I stopped under a street lamp and read the clue out loud. “Santa Clause is in pole position,” I said. “It indicates we need to go north.”
“It’s ambiguous,” Claire said and took it from me to read the clue again. “North? But that takes us out of town again. That doesn’t make sense.”
“Hmm, I don’t think it means north as in a map,” I said, nodding toward the roof of the pet shop we were passing. “I think it means ‘up’.”
“What?” Claire said.
“Clause means claws,” I said, noticing a familiar blue bucket on the top of the shop. “And we’ve just found our next clue.”
21
Claire
The sun was starting to break through, signaling the end of a very long night. “It’s one heck of a climb,” I said. There was a ladder propped up against the side of the shop for racers to use, but it still seemed like an unfair stop. What were the people who had a fear of heights supposed to do?
Alyson glanced over at me skeptically. “How are you going to manage with your wrist acting up?”
I shook my head. “It’s psychological, I think.” Like the very thought of having to climb to a great height could cause it to ache. I was starting to sound like Alyson, though. Talking about how our thoughts created our reality. “I can do it.”
“No,” she said, sounding worried about my safety. “I’ll do the climb and get the clue. You wait here.”
“O-Okay.”
The question was, though: did I trust her? Would she actually return to the ground with the clue or would she make a run for it?
I leaned against the side of the building, trying to remain out of sight in case another team spotted us. Not that there were any other teams around. Very strange. A little suspicious.
Then I heard footsteps.
The Swedes.
Was it possible that we actually were in front? Did we have a chance of actually winning? I started to think about the five grand and all the things I could do with it.
But the Swedes were the only people standing in my way.
I stood back for a moment, out of sight, wondering how to play this. It didn’t seem as though they had seen Alyson at the top of the building. If they hadn’t figured out the clue yet, we might be able to get away with it without being spotted.
But Alyson got a little too close to the edge of the building and yelped when she almost fell. The Swedes’ ears pricked up and they hurried over. Alyson looked down at me in shock as the clue fell out of her hand.
Oh no.
“Get the clue!” Mr. Swede yelled as Alyson quickly climbed back down the ladder.
“No way!” I yelled, lunging for it as I pushed Mr. Swede out of the way and Alyson reached the bottom. I was breathing heavily when I finally grabbed it, and I and started to run.
The Swedes looked at each other and started to climb the ladder.
“I should have pushed it over,” Alyson said as we started to run.
“Oh well,” I said. “We do want a fair fight, after all.”
Alyson nodded, but she went very quiet after that. I thought it was just because we were jogging, but even when we’d slowed to walking pace, she wasn’t talking much.
“I have to admit something to you,” she finally said.
I scoffed a little. “I already know that you sabotaged me and Matt back at the crab farm.”
She shook her head. “No, it’s not that.” She gulped and stopped. Wow. This was serious if she was actually coming to a complete standstill in the middle of the race.
“The race is canceled, Claire. It was officially called off hours ago by the mayor.”
My mouth dropped open. Was she kidding me? Troy was in the hospital. Anna was fed up and exhausted. Matt was angry at me. And this was all for nothing?
“Why did you do that, Alyson?” I asked with a groan as we continued, slowly, walking down the street. It was past dawn. At that point, it seemed like there was no other choice but to keep walking. Deep down, I knew why she had done it anyway. Stubbornness. Competitiveness. Ignorance. Any which way, I knew that her decision completely defied logic.
“I’m not sure there’s even any prize money now,” she said, kicking the sand as we got closer to the beach again.
“Well, of course there is no prize money now!” I stopped, my mouth agape. Just how deep in denial was she if she even thought there was a CHANCE the five thousand might still be up for grabs if we crossed the finish line first
?
I sighed and looked at the Swedes, who were gleefully running toward the beach, overjoyed that they had finally caught us. “I suppose we should tell them,” I said.
But Alyson was giggling. “Might be funny not to.”
“Alyson, that’s just plain wrong…” But I glanced at them, so happy and gleeful. What was the more wrong thing to do? Tell them the truth and ruin their fun, or let them continue on in a race that might never have an official ending?
I spoke quietly. “We should let them finish the race,” I said. “But not because it would be a fun prank. Because they are having the time of their lives, Alyson.”
She nodded. “Why ruin it now?”
“And we should finish the race too, Alyson.”
22
Alyson
What kind of dumb clue was this? It seemed to be leading us back to the skatepark, which was just, as I said, incredibly dumb. We had already had one clue at the skatepark. But this one was referencing graffiti. The only place in Eden Bay where that was ‘legal’ was down at the wall next to the half-pipe and the tunnel. “Nope,” I said, snatching the clue back off Claire. “The race never doubles up on locations. You’re wrong.”
We’d already gone forward two clues since our decision on the sand. This was close to the end now. One or two more clues and this would all be over.
Claire just stared at me. “I can’t believe we’re still arguing when the race isn’t even real.”
But it was real enough. It was a matter of pride by this point.
Claire’s pride was at stake too. “I’m going to the skatepark. You can either come with me or not.”
She was already at the graffiti wall by the time I caught up with her.
“What’s that in your pocket?” I asked her. She hadn’t realized I was right beside her. She had her hand in there. Looked like a wheel or something.
“Nothing,” she said, quickly burying it again. It was 9:30 am and kids had already started to make their way down, boards tucked under their arms, even though the skatepark was officially closed due to the investigation. Little rebels. I liked it.
“I really doubt the next clue is here,” I said. But Claire had spotted something—or someone—inside the tunnel.
We looked at each other. No one was supposed to be in there. And yet, a large, round person was in there.
I told the kids to scram, and so it was just us. We nodded at each other and walked back down the hill that would lead us back to the spot where this had all began.
“Mayor Strang?”
We were back in the tunnel. The only part of Eden Bay where the light didn’t fully reach. Okay, that sounds a little dramatic. I’m sure there were rabbit holes and dark rooms and other things where the light didn’t reach. Also, there actually was a little bit of light at the end of the tunnel. But it was mostly obscured by Mayor Strang’s rotund figure.
“What are you looking for?” Claire asked in a booming voice that echoed down the tunnel.
Mayor Strang was searching desperately behind a pile of rocks. He stood up with a start. “What are you two doing here?” He started to back away.
Claire subtly pulled the wheel out of her pocket and showed it to me. “Check the clue, again,” she whispered.
I quickly re-read it. It was about graffiti. But it also mentioned ‘spinning a tale.’ I looked back at Claire.
“Oh my gosh. The final item on the list to collect is a skateboard wheel.”
Claire nodded and turned her attention back to the mayor, while I pieced together the clues in my mind. “Are you looking for something?” Claire asked.
He glared at the two of us. “The race is canceled,” he said in a low voice.
I shook my head. “Only because you couldn’t afford to pay out the prize money.” I took a step toward him as I realized what had gone down the day before. Brett must have gotten here, first in the lead, the reigning champ.
But Mayor Strang had never intended for anyone to finish the race.
“So, you thought that if you came and collected the final item and clue in the treasure hunt then no one could win, no one could claim the prize money.” He must have come and collected all the wheels and clues, not realizing one had fallen out of the bucket, and then when Brett had spotted what he was up to, he had paid the ultimate price.
Mayor Strang stared at us. “That’s right. And now no one can win the prize. Because no one can get that final clue.”
“Oh, that is where you are wrong,” Claire said, and pulled the wheel out of her pocket. “You’re only back here to make sure you got all of them. Well. You didn’t.”
He went white when he realized we could still win. What was he more concerned about? Being arrested for murder, or the outcome of this race?
Ha. I kind of understood the dilemma. Sometimes, it was hard to decide which was the more important of the two goals.
“Give me that!” he said and grabbed the backpack off me.
“Hey!” I screamed and tried to hang on to the straps for dear life. My knuckles were white as I gripped onto it. He was going to take my backpack off me over my dead body.
But I lost my grip and he ripped the bag away. I gasped as he ripped open the zipper and emptied the contents onto the ground—my precious treasure hunt items, the very ones I needed to prove I’d taken part in the hunt. “NO!” I said and started to kneel to scoop them up again. I pushed him away and grabbed the bag back, but he had already grabbed one item and it wasn’t one of the treasure hunt items.
It was the pocket knife.
There was another figure blocking the light at the end of the tunnel.
“It’s Anna!” I said and scrambled to my feet.
“A friend of yours?” Mayor Strang said, a gleam in his eye. He grabbed Anna and held the pocket knife to her throat. Now I was regretting ever packing that. Couldn’t he have picked up one of the protein bars instead?
At least I had my treasure hunt items back.
But Claire didn’t care. She was already running.
23
Claire
I squinted at the bright light as we exited the end of the tunnel. I had to pause. Mayor Strang had used that split-second to get away, still holding on to Anna. “How did he move so fast at his size?” I asked in frustration. Though he had the advantage that he had gone home and had a good night’s sleep. Alyson and I were running on pure adrenaline, and that adrenaline was about to run out.
“Maybe he’s gone to the next stop,” I said.
“But where is that?” Alyson panted, looking around.
I frowned. “Every other year, the race has finished on the beach… Why is it any different this year?”
“Hmmm.” Alyson was deep in concentration. “I knew that it didn’t make sense that we were being led back to the skatepark! The mayor didn’t just steal the last treasure hunt item, he also changed the location on the second last clue!”
I nodded. “I think you’re right. Doubled up for insurance.” There were probably a bunch of ‘real’ clues hidden somewhere that led to the beach. No one else would have figured that out. Except that the Swedes might have, if they were really clever. They could have stumbled upon the real bucket.
We ran toward the sand and looked down at the beach from the hill. There on the sand was the sign with “Congratulations!” to signal to the winning team. And there was the finish line, the tape still intact. No one had run through it yet.
“Oh no…” I could see two very tall, very blonde people jogging toward it. The good thing was that they looked just about as exhausted as we were.
“Oh, no way! I am not letting them win!” Alyson yelled and sprinted down the hill. We arrived on the sand. If we ran quickly, we could win the race.
But there was Anna and the mayor on the one side, and the Swedes about to cross the finish line on the other.
“Come on!” Alyson called to me.
I shook my head. I’d already let down one of my skater friends. I couldn’t d
o it to another.
“You cross the finish line,” I said, tossing her the skateboard wheel. “I’ll go to Anna.”
“Are you sure?”
I nodded.
I was more than sure.
“Oh, great,” I groaned as I watched Mayor Strang panic and drag Anna back to the skatepark.
I followed them back and watched in horror as Mayor Strang climbed up the side of the half-pipe and stood there at the top. A growing crowd was watching and gasping. He was going to push Anna over the side, holding her hostage as the police arrived. He had nothing left to lose.
I took a deep breath and started to climb. Then I heard a familiar voice as the mayor was about to push Anna down the ramp. I glanced around. There was an abandoned skateboard to my left.
Matt screamed out to me. “No, Claire, don’t! It’s too high! You can’t make it.”
I stared down at him. Ten years earlier, I had not been able to make it. But even if I crashed and hurt myself again, I had to do it.
I positioned the skateboard just right, right on the edge. If this was the only way to save Anna, then I had to do it.
But as I went down the ramp at what felt like the speed of light, I greatly regretted my decision. I was about to crash right into Anna, who had been pushed by now. I braced myself for impact. Thankfully, I missed her, but I still went down hard.
“Claire?” Matt’s voice called out as the police and ambulance arrived and raced over to Anna, who was still alive, my stunt all for nothing. Well, except to prove a point. To prove that I could do it. That I wasn’t scared.
I stared up at him as he reached out for me and for a moment, I wasn’t even sure where I was, let alone what had happened, or what was broken. My heart started to beat way too fast. I couldn’t feel my wrist. “Oh no…”
Hang Ten Australian Cozy Mystery Boxed Set Page 54
