Madhattan Mystery
Authors: John J. Bonk
John J. Bonk
2 Seventy-Third and West End Avenue
5 A Horse of a Different Color
NY”12 Petty Theft and Killer Tomatoes
23 Everything You'll Need to Know
For Mama Rose
Be not forgetful to entertain strangers,
for thereby some have entertained angels unawares
.
â
HEBREWS
13:2
WHISPERING GALLERY
“Woo-hoo, we're finally here. You excited?” Lexi McGill turned to her little brother, who was slumped in the train seat next to her. She yanked the earbuds from his ears but he still didn't budge. This was weirdâhe was usually as jumpy as a hummingbird on sugar. “C'mon, Kevin, wake up!” she said, rattling him.
His eyes sprang wide open. Then clamped shut.
“Okay, that is
so
not funny. You scared me half toâ”
Death
got stuck in her throat.
“Not trying to be funny. Just doing one of Dr. Lucy's calming exercises. Picturing yellow tulips. Butterflies. A smiling cow.” Kevin opened his big green eyes again and innocently blinked up at Lexi. “So even though we're going to Murderville, my brain thinks we're, like, in some sunny meadow somewhere munching on egg salad sandwiches.”
“That explains the drool. Waitâyou don't even like egg salad.”
At least he had made it through the tunnel okay. Lexi knew for a fact that Kevin was especially terrified of tunnels. And he always clenched up in trains, cars, buses, boats, bumper cars, recreational vehicles, and airplanes. For him, it seemed traveling to a place was much scarier than the place itself. But she wasn't exactly sure what would happen inâ
“
NEEEW
YAWK
CITY!
GRRR
-RAND CENTRAL STATION. FINAL STOP
!”
The announcement rang through the train car and everyone gathered their belongings. Lexi felt the weight of Kevin's blinkless stare the whole time she was grabbing their duffel bags from the overhead shelf and squishing through the doors onto the crowded platform. But what did she expect? Coming from the sleepy village of Cold Spring, New York, the big city was like another planet.
“Aunt Roz is supposed to meet us right here at eleven.” Lexi checked her watch. “It's two minutes after and I don't see her, do you, Kev?”
“No, and she's hard to miss.”
“You think maybe she's waiting at the other end of the platform?” She strained to see through a thicket of people. It was impossible. “Okay, listen. I'm not going to make you hold my hand or anything, but stick close to my side at all times.”
Lexi winced at her own words as they hoisted their
duffels and melted into a blur of business suits and briefcases. Twelve going on thirteen was way too young to be a mother, but that was how she feltâand she had to admit she was good at it. Too darn good.
I might as well start learning how to scrapbook and get grass stains out of corduroy
. There was less than three years' difference between Lexi and Kevin, but ever since their mother died almost two years ago, Lexi automatically morphed into the parent and Kevin became the toddler whenever the situation called for it. Like right now!
“Watchit!” She tugged Kevin to her side. Two policemen and a sniffing German shepherd sliced right by and he was off in la-la land. “Stay alert and don't dawdle.”
Dawdle? Total mom wordâfrom, like, the fifties
.
“Who do you think they're tracking, Lex? Serial killer? Drug lord? Jewel thief?”
“You watch too much TV. Just picture yourself back in that sunny meadow.”
Kevin's eyelids fluttered shut. “It's not working anymore. Somebody mugged the cow.”
After saying she wouldn't, Lexi grabbed his sweaty hand and led him to the platform entrance, where they dropped their duffels and planted themselves. The sight of the gigantic main concourse in Grand Central Terminal alone was almost too much to take in all at once. Hundreds of people were rushing in different directions, their muffled murmurs sounding like a whole summer's worth of bees trapped in a jar.
“Wow,” Kevin said, summing it up in a word.
“They don't call it âGrand' for nothing. This place has everything.”
“Except Aunt Roz. Where the heck is she?”
“Stores, restaurants, banksâ”
“A psycho guy dressed in a giant milk carton costume, handing out free samples.”
“Don't point.” Lexi lowered his arm and they both scanned the terminal, looking this way and that like two bobblehead dolls. “Think about it, Kev. You could probably live your whole life in the train station and never have to leave.”
He pondered it for a second. “Where would you sleep?” Then his head fell back and his jaw dropped open. “
Oooh
, check out the ceiling!”
It was a rich greenish blue, stretching farther than a football field. A ram, a scorpion, a crab, and the rest of the zodiac symbols were outlined in yellow, and tiny white lights dotted the constellations. Kevin, who loved all things celestial, reached into his backpack and removed his digital camera, a gift from their new stepmother, Clareâor as Lexi called it, “another desperate attempt to buy our affection.”
Lexi checked her cell phone for any messages from Aunt Roz. Nothing. “Well, we might as well wait for her here,” she told Kevin. “You don't need to use the bathroom or anything, do you? Any emergencies? Speak now or forever hold your ⦠pee.”
He was going snap-happy taking pictures of the ceiling from every angle and mumbled something about not being a baby.
“I'll take that as a no,” Lexi said. She dropped her phone into her backpack, slid out an NYC guidebook, and cracked it open. A brochure fell to the ground.
Kevin stopped snapping and fell to his knees to snatch it up. “Hey, is this the new one?” The cover had a picture of three smiling kids in a swimming pool with a city skyline in the background. “âCamp NYC, offering the best of both worlds,'” he read.
Lexi groaned. Not just because of the summer camp, but the reason they were enrolled. Their dad was leaving that same day for an extended honeymoon in France and Greece with his new, very rich wife. The trip was on her dollar and summer camp was too. A double whammy. When Aunt Roz was asked if she wanted roommates for a few weeks, she said she was only too happy to have the companyâbut what else could she say, really?
“âA fun-packed three-week program,'” Kevin read out loud, “âoffering everything from row boating and rock climbing in magnificent Central Park to worldâuh, world-renowned museums and thrilling theatrical productions, Camp NYC provides a broad experience unlike any other.' Just FYI: that rock-climbing thingânot gonna happen. âNow entering its sixth year, this extraordinary program â¦'”
That was the problemâit didn't sound that extraordinary. Not to Lexi anyway. Kevin's voice became a distant
buzz as she stared into the endless parade of commuters.
It's like they all have fantastically important things to do and can't wait to go do them
, she thought, fanning herself with her guidebook. She was wishing something extraordinary would happen to her this summer when a raggedy man wearing a cardboard sign caught her eye.
GIVE TO THE NEW YORK WILDLIFE PIZZA FUND
. A street person with a sense of humorâLexi couldn't resist. She tore into her backpack for her wallet, slipped out a dollar, and dropped it into the Easter basket the man was carrying.
“Thank you kindly, young lady. You have a delicious day now!”
“You're welâI mean, you too.”
That was when someone rammed into her. “
Ugh!
” Hard.
“Sorry,” was all the rushing girl said before disappearing behind an archway.
“Uh, no prob!” Lexi called out. She didn't mean it, though. It felt as if she had been hit by a wrecking ball, and sorry, but that klutz did not sound
sorry
at all!
“You all right?” Kevin asked, looking stunned.
Lexi pushed up her sleeve to check out the damage. “Shoot, I'll bet that leaves a mark.” She rubbed her arm, riding a wave of dizziness, but assured Kevin she was okay, that accidents happen. With a sudden gasp, her hand shot up to the pendant of her necklace. It was still there, thank goodness. Her mom had given it to her for her tenth birthday and it was her favorite possession. Genuine opal.
She tucked the necklace safely under her shirt and over her wildly beating heart, believing disaster would strike if it ever left her neck. Of course, that bit of strangeness she kept strictly to herself.
“Alexandra! Kevin!”
Speaking of strange, Aunt Roz was tearing through the crowd at a mad clip, wearing giant sunglasses and a floppy, wide-brim straw hat with a polka-dot bow. Finally! She looked like something out of old Hollywood.
“I'm
so
sorry I'm late!” Aunt Roz said, fighting for breath as if she had just run the New York City Marathon in her slingbacks. “My lord, you must be panicking. Traffic was atrocious. Some bigwig politician's in town or something and they blocked off Sixth Avenue ⦠or Avenue of the Americas ⦠whatever they're calling it these days.” She clasped her hand to her chest. “Oh, just look at the two of you! I can't believe how much you've grown. Hugs!”