Crying, “Cody!” Weezy ran to him and he fell into her arms. “Jack!” she said,
lifting the boy. “Look!”
And then he saw it: a six-foot-wide hole in the front lawn—the sinkhole Mr.
Drexler had mentioned.
“I noticed the lake was lower on the way in,” Mr. Drexler said. “And when I saw
that sink hole, I instantly realized what was happening. But I had no idea …” His words drifted off as he stared in Cody?s direction.
“Why did you come back?”
“Hmm?” His attention returned from wherever it had been. “I didn?t at first. We?d
stopped for a bite to eat when I realized we?d left something behind.”
“The pyramid.”
“No.” He gave Jack a look. “That belongs here. Now I suppose it?s lost forever,
thanks to you and your girlfriend.”
Jack wasn?t going to let that pass. “Just as lost as it would still be if we hadn?t
found it in the Pines.”
Mr. Drexler stared at him, and Jack stared right back.
“And she?s not my girlfriend,” he added.
After a moment Mr. Drexler said, “Be that as it may, I sent Eggers back and he found the door unlocked. When he returned to me and reported that the pyramid was missing, I knew exactly who was to blame. But I wanted to see for myself before visiting your and the Connell girl?s parents. Upon my return I noticed the basement
lights on. You know the rest.”
Jack jumped at a loud crunching, sucking sound to his right. He looked and saw
a section of the street?s asphalt caving in not thirty feet away.
Another sinkhole.
“You can expect many more of those in Old Town before the night is over. The
lost town is crumbling beneath us.”
“Will there be anything left of it?”
“I doubt it.”
Jack pointed to the original hole. “So … we say we fell in there and found Cody.
How did we get out?”
“The flood waters floated you high enough to climb out. The revised story is
essentially true. All you are changing is the location of your ingress and egress. In exchange, I do not press charges.” He gave a small, condescending smile. “That way
the two of you can become big heroes in your little world.”
Jack didn?t want to be a hero, and was already working on ways to play down his
role, reducing it to just happening to be in the right place at the right time. The real hero—at the end, at least—was the animal. It had died saving Cody. Of course, Cody
wouldn?t have needed saving if it had left him alone in the first place.
The animal … Jack had a feeling Mr. Drexler knew something about it. “What do we say about the animal down there?”
Mr. Drexler fixed his gaze a thousand miles away. “Say what ever you wish.” “Not much to say since none of us saw it.”
“Then perhaps the less said, the better. The child?s story will be confused and
garbled, and will change again and again. No sense in causing undue alarm over a
creature that is undoubtedly dead.”
“What was it?”
Mr. Drexler kept his gaze averted. “I have no idea.”
“Yes, you do. You reacted when we told you about it.”
Finally he looked at Jack. “I assure you I do not know what it was. I have an
idea what it might have been, but …”
“But?”
“What it might have been should have died a long, long time ago. It seems
impossible that it could have survived this long.”
Frustration flooded Jack. Mr. Drexler was answering the question without telling
him anything.
“But what „might? it have been?”
“Let?s just call it a bear … an unusual breed of bear.”
What ever Jack had seen of the creature could be considered bearish … except
maybe for that tentacle thing. Okay … a mutant bear or some such.
“Could it or one of its ancestors have been caged in that stone pyramid out by
the mound?”
Mr. Drexler stared at him for a long moment. “You do get around, don?t you.” The wail of a siren filtered through the night. Jack looked down Quakerton Road
and saw flashing red lights heading their way.
“Do we have a deal?” Mr. Drexler said.
Jack nodded. “Deal. I?ll fill Weezy in. And I guess I?m fired, right?” The dark eyebrows lifted.
“Fired? Why would I fire you?”
“Well, I thought—”
“Oh, no. I want you where I can keep an eye on you.”
FRIDAY
1
“I should have stayed with you guys!” Eddie said for what had to be the thousandth time as they walked toward the bus stop. He was toying with his Rubik?s Cube, absently twisting it back and forth without looking at it. “Why didn?t I
“?Cause you?re a wimp,” Jack told him.
“I am! I am! Wimpacious maximus!”
They?d told him pretty much the same story they?d told everyone else, but with a
special variation since Eddie knew they?d been in the Lodge. They told him they hadn?t found the pyramid and had fallen into the sinkhole after leaving the building. “I could be a hero now like you guys!”
“Not until you straighten out that cube—or let a genius like me do it for you.”
“And let you be a Rubik?s hero too? As if.”
“We?re not heroes,” Weezy said. “Please stop saying that.”
“But you are! Man, if I?d been with you guys when you found Cody, I?d be wearing a
Superman cape to school today.”
“Then I?m glad you weren?t,” she said, glancing at Jack.
Yeah. Jack was glad too. There?d be no way of keeping a lid on Eddie. Sooner or later he?d spill the beans about being in the Lodge, ruining their deal with Mr. Drexler.
Jack and Weezy had quickly discussed it last night during the turmoil of the ambulance?s arrival. Neither wanted the attention that was coming, so they agreed to minimize their role in Cody?s rescue.
When they were questioned—by Tim, who?d shown up even though it wasn?t his shift—they told him they?d fallen through the sinkhole, heard Cody?s cries, and climbed back out with him.
