Amos's Killer Concert Caper (5 page)

“How early is early?”

“Not too early.”

“Dunc.”

“A few hours. You can take your flowers and tux with you. It'll be fine. You wanted to get there before Melissa. What's a few
hours? This way at least you'll be on time.”

“I'd have to get ready for my date in a public bathroom.”

“I'll stick an ‘out of order' sign on the door. It'll be fine. Trust me.”

“You had to say that. ‘Trust me.' You had to say that, didn't you?”

•
11

“How do I look?” Amos stepped out of the civic center bathroom carrying an armful of flowers and a large box of candy.

Dunc walked around him. “Where did you get the tuxedo?”

“Ace's Rent-A-Tux. It took almost everything I made from cleaning this place. Why? Is something wrong?”

“It looks like it would fit your dad. The tails almost drag on the ground.”

“Ace told me they were having a big dance at the college, and this was the best he could do on short notice. He even helped
me roll up the sleeves. Do you think anyone will notice?”

Dunc crossed his fingers behind his back and shook his head. “No. You look fine.”

“What about these?” Amos held out the flowers he had picked from Mrs. McGillis's garden. “Aren't they great?”

“Real nice. But next time, you might try cutting them instead of pulling them up by the roots.”

“So that's how they do it! Oh well, if she doesn't go for them, there's always the candy.” Amos took the box from under his arm.

“Gee, Amos. Now I'm impressed. Those chocolates must have set you back a few bucks.”

“Not really.” Amos took off the lid. “I borrowed the empty box from my mom's closet and filled the holes with jelly beans from our candy dish downstairs. Want some?”

“I'll pass. We better get back out front if we're going to keep an eye on Mange. So far he hasn't been able to make a move.”

“Do you think he knows we're watching him?”

“I can't tell. But it doesn't matter as long as it keeps him from trying anything.”

It was still forty-five minutes until showtime. The lighting and sound crew were making last-minute adjustments onstage. So far, nothing unusual had happened. Mange had come out of his office twice to check on things. Each time, he gave some orders and then went back in the office and slammed the door.

The office door opened again. Mange stomped past the stage and headed for the exit.

“Now's our chance.” Dunc motioned for Amos to follow him.

“Our chance for what?”

“To get those insurance papers. If we can show them to Roy, he'll have to believe us. You guard the door while I look for them. If Mange comes back, signal me.”

Amos grabbed his flowers and candy and positioned himself in front of the door. “Hey, Dunc.”

“What? Is he coming?”

“No. I just wondered if you knew what to do for wilting flowers? These are starting to look pretty sad.”

“Throw them away and give her the candy.”

“I can't. You made me miss my dinner and I was starving. I just ate all the candy.”

Dunc was searching through Mange's briefcase. He found an envelope with the name
Grenfield
on it. “I think this is it. Keep watching while I make sure.”

Amos was trying to prop up his sagging roses. He stuck them under the drinking fountain and turned it on. It didn't help, and now he had wet, sagging roses. He was about to shake the water off when he looked up. Mange had come back and was standing in front of the stage talking to one of the hands. Amos ducked inside the office and pulled the door shut behind him. “Quick, hide. Mange is right outside.”

Dunc stuffed the policy in his shirt and searched for a place to hide. There wasn't any. The office was too small.

The boys looked at each other in panic. They could hear Mange's heavy footsteps coming toward them. He was talking to someone. “Give me a minute, Fred. I forgot to lock the office.”

Dunc held his breath. He watched the doorknob turn. Then he heard a click and the sound of footsteps walking away.

“Whew!” Amos wiped the perspiration off his forehead. “That was a close one.”

Dunc slumped down in the armchair. “Don't look now. But I think we're locked in.”

“What? We can't be locked in. I have a date with Melissa in”—Amos looked at his watch—“exactly thirteen minutes.” He tried the door. It wouldn't budge. His shoulders drooped. “I knew it,” he said. “It never fails. Every time I go along with one of your stupid plans, something goes wrong.”

Dunc was studying the ceiling.

“Are you listening to me? The girl of my dreams is out there, and I can't get to her. My life is ruined.”

Dunc stood on the chair. He pulled on the air-conditioner vent. It came loose in his hands.

“I hope you don't think I'm going to climb up there.” Amos backed away from him. “You can just include me out. This is a rented outfit.”

“Suit yourself.” Dunc jumped and grabbed the edge where the vent used to be. He pulled himself up and in. He turned and looked down. “Plenty of room in here for two.”

Amos sat in the chair. He looked at his flowers, thought about Melissa, and sighed. “She'll wait outside for a while and then realize she's been stood up. It'll break her heart. She'll probably go straight home and cry her eyes out. It'll scar her for life.” He stood on the chair and pulled himself up into the shaft.

“I thought you weren't coming.” Dunc was already a few feet down the shaft.

Amos scrambled over the top of him. “Do you think I'd let Melissa wind up a total wreck over this?”

“Wait up, Amos. How do you know which direction to take?”

“I can hear talking. They must be letting people in now. We'll head in this direction until we find another vent, drop out, and find Melissa.”

They crawled in the dark passage for what seemed to Amos like years.

“Maybe we should have turned left at that last side shaft,” Dunc said.

Amos sat down. “It's no use. We'll never get out of here in time for the concert.”

“Wait.” Dunc started moving. “I hear music.”

“That's just great. They've already started without us.”

“Come on, Amos. We'll move toward the music. The louder it gets, the closer we are to the auditorium. There are bound to be vents there somewhere.”

They crawled until the music was so loud, they could hardly hear each other talk.

Dunc stopped and yelled, “I found a vent, but I can't get the cover off.”

Amos helped, but they couldn't budge it. Dunc studied the situation. He knew this might be their last chance.

“Wait, Amos. Is that Melissa I see down there?”

Amos pressed his face to the vent. “Where? I don't see anything.”

“Right there. In the front row with Biff Fastrack.”

That's all it took. Amos dived at the vent. His face crashed through it, and he found himself looking down at the stage. He would have landed on his head right in the center of the stage, except his luck cut in and the tails of his tuxedo caught the sharp edge of the air-conditioner shaft. He hung there, suspended in midair, swinging back and forth like a chandelier in front of a packed house.

•
12

“Thanks for getting me down. I was starting to get dizzy up there.”

“No problem.” Roy grinned. “Luckily the song we were playing was called ‘Don't Keep Me Hanging.' The audience thought you were part of the show. I'm just sorry you had to wait until intermission so we could close the curtain. What were you two doing up there, anyway?”

Dunc pulled the insurance papers out of his shirt. “We know who's behind all the mysterious things that have been happening to your band.”

“You do?”

Dunc nodded and held out Mange's policy. “Take a look at this. Mange gets a pile of insurance money each time you guys don't play.”

Roy stared at the policy in Dunc's hand without taking it.

“Do you want us to call the cops?” Amos asked.

Roy sighed. “No. I guess it's time to come clean. Mange isn't the one behind all the problems—I am.”

“You?!” Dunc dropped the papers, and Amos did a double-take. “I don't understand,” Dunc said.

Roy sat down on the stage floor. “It's a long story. I never meant to hurt anybody. Even that stunt with the spotlight was rigged. I knew it was going to fall all the time. I made sure I was the only one standing in that spot when it did, and I stepped aside.”

“I still don't get it.”

“I just wanted out. All of this”—Roy waved his arm—“it's not for me. I don't like
having a green face and weird hair. And I especially don't like doing songs that talk about hurting people and tearing things up.”

“Wouldn't it have been easier just to quit?” Amos asked.

“I
couldn't
quit. My contract is good for three more years. I thought if I caused enough things to go wrong, the other guys would call it off. Then there wouldn't be a band. Without a band, I'd be free to start over again.”

Dunc tapped his chin. “Hmmm. This gives me an idea.”

“Not again,” Amos moaned.

“There just might be an easy way around all of this.”

•
13

Dunc put the letter in his pocket and rang the doorbell. Mrs. Binder let him in. He raced past her and took the stairs two at a time. The door to Amos's room was open. Dunc started to go in. He stopped. For a minute he thought he was in the wrong room.

It was clean.

For the first time Dunc could remember, Amos's room was entirely clean. There was nothing on the floor, and you could actually see the bed.

“Wow!”

“Don't rub it in.” Amos was sitting on the floor in a corner eating a banana. “This is all your fault, you know. The Salvation Army cleaned me out. I'm lucky they left the bed.”

“This is great, Amos. I never knew you had carpet in here.”

“Very funny.”

Dunc pulled the letter out of his pocket. “It's from Roy.”

“How does he like his new singing career as just plain old Roy Freeman?”

Dunc skimmed the letter. “He says he's doing great, and Road Kill is also doing fine with its new leader. Mange is really packing them in.”

Amos threw the banana peel at the trash can and missed. “That was a great idea you had about replacing Raunchy Roy with Menacing Mange. I guess Mange never really wanted to be a manager. He was always a musician at heart. But even I was surprised when he let Roy out of his contract.”

“Looks like everything's working out.
Roy sent you a ticket to his first concert. He says he knows you probably can't make it to Cincinnati, but he feels bad about your date with Melissa and everything.”

“Actually that worked out okay too. It turned out that Melissa never wanted to go to the concert. She likes classical music. I heard she threw the ticket in the trash.”