Vampire Lodge

“We’ve been driving around for over an hour, trying to find you,” Jimmy added.

Well, so much for Kevin’s abduction plot. But still, there were plenty of things that weren’t right around here. Aunt Carolyn, he thought just then. She’s a vampire, and once I prove it to them then—

But before Kevin could even finish the thought, the passenger door on Wally’s car thunked open.

Kevin looked up, completely astonished.

It was Aunt Carolyn who’d gotten out of the car. And here she stood now, right in front of him.

“Kevin!” she exclaimed. “What on earth has gotten into you? We’ve been worried sick! We thought you fell off the bluff!”

“I—” Kevin said, but that was about it. What could he say now? Aunt Carolyn was standing right in front of him, right now, in broad daylight. Overhead, the clouds parted even further, and the sunlight beamed right down into her face, yet here she was, unaffected. Vampires can’t be in sunlight, Kevin realized. Then he realized something else.

I was wrong. She’s not a vampire. She can’t be…

“I-I thought you were a vampire,” he said next.

“Kevin!” Aunt Carolyn exclaimed.

“What a nitwit!” Becky laughed. “You’re like the Three Stooges all wrapped up in one! I can’t wait to tell dad about this!”

Then Jimmy said, “You know, Kevin, you really were getting carried away with all that vampire stuff.”

Kevin stood there before them all, feeling like a perfect fool. Boy, did I make an idiot out of myself! he realized, his face turning pink in embarrassment.

“I wish I knew what was going on here,” Wally said, brushing some of his long hair out of his eyes.

“Wait a minute!” Kevin said. Wally reminded him! “You’re in on it! You’re in on it with Bill Bitner! I know you are!”

“In on what?” Wally asked.

“I’ve seen you in the woods, digging for Count Volkov’s gold brick treasure!” Kevin exclaimed. “By the forked trees!”

Wally held his hands out, looking at Aunt Carolyn. “I don’t know what he’s talking about. True, Mr. Bitner’s sent me out to dig, which was kind of strange. But I wasn’t digging up any treasure. Bill told me to dig for a broken water pipe.”

“A broken water pipe?” Aunt Carolyn asked suspiciously.

“Yeah, that’s what Bill said.”

“Well, that’s funny because he never told me anything about any broken water pipe,” Aunt Carolyn said. “And all the water’s running fine at the lodge. There isn’t any broken water pipe.”

Wally shrugged. “I have to admit, it sounded pretty funny to me, digging for a water pipe in the woods. But that’s what he told me to do, and since he’s my boss, I had to do it. And one thing he did say, he told me that he wasn’t sure where the county water lines ran, but he knew the junction ran by a forked tree, just like the kid here said. And that’s what we’ve been doing for the past few weeks, digging holes at every forked tree we could find in the forest.”

“That’s baloney, Aunt Carolyn!” Kevin jumped right back in. “He’s lying! I know because I saw Bill Bitner painting crosses on some forked trees—in blood!”

“Kevin!” Becky said. “You’re an idiot! Listen to what you’re saying!”

Wally laughed, still addressing Aunt Carolyn. “Look, I don’t know what this kid’s talking about. Sure, Bill marked the forked trees in red, any tree that we dug at but didn’t find a water pipe. We’d mark the tree so we wouldn’t accidentally dig at the same tree twice. But it wasn’t blood, it was just red paint.”

Kevin stalled again. Red paint? Well, actually he had to admit it. He never examined the markings closely enough to be sure that it was blood. So far, Wally’s explanation was making sense. I guess it was just red paint, Kevin realized. I guess I’ve made a big mistake. But, then, he thought of something else. “What about the wooden stakes?” he remembered. “I found a box of wooden stakes, and everybody knows that’s what you need to kill vampires with.”

Aunt Carolyn rolled her eyes. “Kevin, there are boxes of wooden stakes all over the lodge. I’m running a campground here, remember? Those stakes you’ve seen are tent stakes. We have to have lots of them to loan to campers so they can pitch their tents.”

But then Kevin remembered something else that also went back to vampires. “Tell me this then,” he said to Wally. “Every time I saw you digging, it was during the rain. Everybody knows vampires can’t pass through running water, or rain either.”

Wally laughed. “We dug in the rain because the ground is softer when it’s wet. That’s all.”

Tent stakes, Kevin glumly thought. Soft ground. So he’d made yet another error in judgment. He felt absolutely stupid now. How could he have been so wrong about so many things?

But then—

He remembered one more thing.

“All right,” he challenged. “Maybe I was wrong about that other stuff, but what about the forked trees?”

“I told you,” Wally replied. “Bill Bitner instructed me to dig only at forked trees because he said that’s where the broken pipe would be.”

“Broken pipe my eye!” Kevin shouted back. “That’s where Count Volkov’s treasure is buried! At a forked tree! I know because I read it in his diary!”

“Count Volkov’s diary? “ Aunt Carolyn questioned.

“Yes! I read it!”

“Where?”

“In the secret room!”

“What secret room?” Aunt Carolyn asked.

“You mean you don’t know about the secret room behind the panel?” Kevin asked. “At the end of the hallway behind the kitchen?”

“Kevin,” his aunt responded. “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

Kevin looked at her. She’s telling the truth, he realized. If she was lying, he’d be able to tell by the sound of her voice and the look in her eye.

“Kevin?” Aunt Carolyn asked more slowly this time. “Are you telling me that you’ve seen Count Volkov’s diary?”

“Yes! I found it just a little while ago. And it said his treasure was buried at a forked tree! The diary is in the secret room behind the panel!”

“I don’t know anything about any secret room,” Aunt Carolyn said, tapping her foot. “Either Kevin has a wild imagination, or Bill Bitner has been keeping things from me.”

“That has to be it!” Kevin exclaimed. “Because I’m not lying—there really is a secret room.”

“All right, Kevin,” Aunt Carolyn agreed. “I’ll give you the benefit of the doubt. Show me this secret room.”

CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE

“Follow me!” Kevin wailed, and ran back across the court. Everyone else followed, and only a minute or two later, Kevin was guiding them down the hallway behind the kitchen.

“This sounds pretty silly,” Kevin,” Jimmy said. “You’re going to be in a lot of trouble if there’s no secret room.”

“There is!” Kevin insisted.

“Aunt Carolyn,” Becky whined. “My bother’s a dope. He’s making all this up because he wants attention.”