When they reached a remote hillside residential area, Pete turned sharply and aimed the car up a hill. Ram! A sign indicated that they were taking a scenic route up to one of San Francisco’s most famous tourist attractions — Twin Peaks. From the tops of these two mountains, sightseers had a panoramic view of the water, the city lights, and the entire Bay Area.
But as the road curved upward, Pete found that they were driving right into the doughnut of fog ringing the mountains. Ram!
“I’ve never seen fog like this,” Pete said desperately, slowing the car. In fact, it was so thick that they couldn’t see more than a foot in front of their headlights. Ram! For a moment, Pete thought about turning around and going back down the mountain. But there wasn’t room — and they knew Mr. Sweetness wouldn’t allow it. Ram!
Jupe looked nervously out the back. He couldn’t see the Cavalier at all. He couldn’t even see another set of headlights. But he felt it each time Mr. Sweetness rammed into them.
Then, for what seemed like many minutes, nothing happened.
“Do you think he stopped?” Pete asked Jupe in a tense, thin voice.
“I don’t know,” Jupe answered. “I can’t see a thing. Just keep driving.”
Pete gripped the wheel even tighter. They were coming to a curve in the road, and Pete didn’t want his concentration to break. It was almost impossible to see the road right in front of the car, let alone the edge where the ground dropped away sharply.
Suddenly, just as Pete was nearing the sharpest part in the curve, the purple Cavalier appeared out of nowhere, driving on the left side of the two-lane road. He was swerving from side to side, trying to push Pete and Jupe over the edge!
“Watch out! We’re going over!” Jupe shouted.
Pete pulled the wheel to the left, tires squealed, and they felt the car jerk back onto the pavement from the shoulder. Then Pete held his breath and sped forward blindly. No matter how terrifying it was to drive in this fog, it was better than sticking around for another encounter with Mr. Sweetness.
At the top of the hill the fog disappeared. They had driven high enough to be above it.
With his heart pounding, Pete backed into one of the parking spaces in the curved parking lot overlooking the magnificent vista below. His hands shook as he wiped his forehead.
“Now let’s just wait for Mr. Sweetness to show up,” Pete said in a furious, let’s-get-tough tone of voice.
Pete and Jupe sat silently on top of Twin Peaks with the motor running. They were waiting for the purple Cavalier with Mr. Sweetness in it to burst through the fog to the top of the hill. Now that they were out of the fog themselves, and surrounded by a few dozen sightseers who could back them up, Pete felt less frightened and a whole lot more angry. In fact, he was burning mad.
“The guy’s got a lot of nerve,” Pete said, hitting his fist repeatedly on the steering wheel. “I’d like to meet him in a fair fight, I’ll tell you that.” Pete mentally ran through all the karate moves he knew and would use on Mr. Sweetness if he got the chance. “Why doesn’t he show up? What’s he doing on that road, anyway?”
“I don’t know,” Jupe said thoughtfully. “There are a lot of possibilities. ”
They waited about thirty minutes and still the Cavalier didn’t show up.
Suddenly Jupe slammed his fist into the dashboard. “We’ve got to get to the airport,” he said.
“But what about Mr. Sweetness?” Pete said.
“He’s not coming,” Jupe said. “He probably turned around and went back down the hill.”
Pete slapped the steering wheel with his palms and put the car in gear.
“Look on the bright side,” Jupe said. “Now at least we know exactly what he looks like.”
Pete drove quickly to the airport and pulled into the Rental Car Returns area. They left the keys in the car, as instructed, and then rushed into the rental office to pay. But just before they got to the office, Pete spun Jupe around by the arm.
“Look!” he said, pointing to a returned car parked near the front.
“A purple Cavalier!” Jupe exclaimed. “But is it the one we’re looking for?”
They walked over and circled the empty car.
“It’s the right license plate,” said Jupe. “Quick! Go into the office and see if he’s still in there, and stall him. If he’s not there, try to find out from the clerks what Mr. Sweetness’s real name is. I’ll be there to help you in a minute.”
As Pete left, Jupe opened the purple car’s passenger door and leaned inside. Was there something in the car that might be a clue? Jupe started searching, meticulously checking the carpeting behind, under, and in front of the seats. He checked the ashtrays and the glove compartment, and even squeezed his hand into the narrow space between the pedals to check under the floor mats. Then he stood up, puffing a little from being bent over for so long.
But it had been worth it. He had found something, something crucial. It didn’t tell him who Mr. Sweetness was. But it told him the next best thing — where he might go to find out. Jupe rushed to the rental office and met Pete coming out.
“What did the clerk say?” asked Jupe.
“Have a nice day,” Pete said.
“About the purple car,” Jupe said impatiently.
“Have a nice day,” Pete repeated. “That’s all it says. It’s a computer.”
“Look what I found,” Jupe said, pulling out a small crumpled piece of paper, shiny foil on one side and plain white on the other.
“A candy wrapper,” Pete said, smoothing it until he could read the name written in silver ink. “Miracle Tastes! It’s like the candy Don Dellasandro handed out at Big Barney’s party!”
“Yes, exactly,” Jupe said. “Free samples of a product not on the market yet. This creates two possibilities. Mr. Sweetness could have been at the party and gotten candy samples as we all did. Or — and this would be considerably more interesting—perhaps Don Dellasandro and Mr. Sweetness are in league together.”
“We’re just a plane ride from finding out,” Pete said. “Let’s go home!”
It was midnight when Jupe returned to the junkyard and too late to do anything except work on his latest electronic project — the lock combination decoder. When he got too tired to tinker with it anymore, he turned off the workshop light and started to lock up.
Just then the phone rang.
“Hello?” Jupe said in the darkness.
“Hello, Jupe, it’s Pete. Kelly wants to talk to you. Tell him, babe.”
