The Fossil Hunter of Sydney Mines (13 page)

“Well, not really. It's got to be around somewhere,” Grace said, backpedalling. She couldn't say that Jessica had it—that would open a whole new can of worms.

Her mother's voice rose. “But it can't be gone. That was the last thing your father ever gave us—I mean you.”

“Don't worry. I'll find it.” Grace reached out and awkwardly patted her mom's shoulder. Why was her mom so upset? It was
her
hat, after all.

Her mom buried her head in her hands. “How could you be so irresponsible?”

“Sorry.” Grace's heart plummeted to the pit of her stomach. It seemed like she couldn't do anything right these days.

Her mother leaned her head on Grace's shoulder. “Heavens, I don't know what came over me.” She reached for a tissue and blew her nose, mumbling into her hand.

“Pardon?” Grace's attention was now split between her mother and her own searing-hot-inferno face.

“I said I know it's been hard for you too,” she sniffed, dabbing her eyes. “We never really talk about it. I guess I just can't face it most of the time…” she trailed off, her voice filled with mother-guilt.

Grace couldn't take it anymore. She had to get the blue stuff off her face—
now!
“Well, I know what happened to Dad wasn't an accident,” she blurted out. “Something happened to him and I'm going to find out what!” She turned and raced up the stairs, frantically rubbing at the blue goop as she ran, the vision of her mother's thunderstruck face burned into her brain.

Grace ran into the bathroom and stuck her head under the faucet, letting the cool water run over her molten skin. A whole layer of skin had probably melted off.

She opened one eye for a peek—not too bad, actually. Of course, she was now the shade of a ripe tomato, but the scratches from her forbidden excursion had blended in nicely.

Grace tiptoed back into her room and lay down on her bed. She couldn't believe she had let the cat out of the bag about her dad's accident like that. Her mother probably thought she was totally off her rocker. Now she'd be worried that Grace wasn't
moving forward
with her healing, or some other therapy junk.

She crawled under the covers. Fred still hadn't called her back. Maybe he was waiting to hear from her. She tried to reach him on the walkie-talkie, but didn't have any luck. Then she remembered he'd said he couldn't find his. She tried to call Mai as well, but didn't get an answer from her either.
Mai must still be mad
, she thought to herself.

Sighing, she rolled onto her back, gazing at the swirling galaxies above her. She thought about the note from her dad's office. It had mentioned Point Aconi. And she'd found his field bag out there too. It seemed everything was leading back there.

She tossed and turned for a long while, unable to get her mind off her father. Finally, she drifted off to an unsettled sleep, only to wake a few short hours later. Her alarm clock glowed 1:30 am. The moon was low and it shimmered through the leaves of the big oak tree across the street and into her front bedroom window.

She flipped her walkie-talkie on to talk to Jeeter, then changed her mind, tossing it back into her pack. Frustrated, she flopped back onto her pillow and clicked on the wave machine that sat on her night table. Instantly, she felt herself relaxing, her breathing mimicking the pattern of the waves. She was just about to drift off again, when—

Kchhhh…

Muffled voices were coming from her backpack. Someone was on her walkie-talkie! Maybe Mai had forgiven her after all. She grabbed it and was about to hit the transmit button when she heard a voice.

“Things…out of hand,” the voice said, “… can't find…” Only bits and pieces of what the person was saying were coming in between the bursts of static. The voice spoke again, “… kid is persistent…you know…than anyone….”

Was that Stuckless's voice? If so, who was he talking to? Grace looked at her walkie-talkie. It was on channel two, not one they normally used. She must have hit the wrong button when she thought she'd turned it off.

Grace crept to the side window and cautiously peeked over the sill. There was a faint green glow coming from Stuckless's basement window. She grabbed her binoculars from her pack and focused them for a closer look. Stuckless was sitting in front of a computer, talking into something…another walkie-talkie, maybe? A CB radio?

“Okay…you're sure…could be trouble…” he said. “… yes…tomorrow….” With a final crackle, the conversation ended.

Grace sat on the side of her bed, clutching her walkie-talkie tightly in her hands. The night had returned to its sleepy silence, but there was no sleeping for Grace. She stared with wide eyes out her window into the empty darkness. What was going on?

Even her wave machine wouldn't help her tonight.

Chapter
17

BY THE TIME GRACE WANDERED DOWNSTAIRS THE NEXT MORNING,
it felt like she'd already been through a whole day. Her eyes watered as she yawned for the hundredth time. She didn't think she'd gotten any full hours of sleep time.

It had taken almost an entire bottle of her mom's fancy conditioner and endless tugs, yanks, and screams to get all the tangles out of her hair. She was convinced she'd left at least half her long blonde locks in the shower drain.

There was something to be said for algae, though. It seemed to have eaten up all the scratches on her face. Her skin had faded from ripe tomato to a pale orange colour. It looked like she'd washed her face in self-tanning lotion.

Grace walked into the kitchen as her mother was pouring her coffee.

Her mother looked at her strangely. “I've been doing some thinking…” she started.

Warning bells blared in Grace's head. Whatever her mom had to say, it wasn't going to be good. She grabbed her pack, scooped up a muffin, and headed for the door. “Late for school!” she called over her shoulder, slamming the door behind her before her mother had a chance to look at the clock.

Grace hopped on her bike and decided to go to Jessica's. She swerved onto Clyde Avenue, then took a left on Beech Street. Minutes later she was reunited with her hat. She plopped her old friend back on top of her head and pulled her ponytail through the back.

She held her arms out at her sides and tipped her head back. She loved the feeling of the crisp wind zipping over her body, tugging at her clothes and filling her lungs.

As Grace whizzed across Main and zipped around another turn, she suddenly realized that she was almost at Mai's house on Crescent Street.
Traitor bike!
She sighed and veered into Mai's driveway. It was as good a time as any to eat crow and apologize. She wondered if Mai would even talk to her. Before she had a chance to knock on the door, it swung open and she was looking straight into Mai's startled brown eyes.

They stood there, staring at each other, for several seconds.

“Grace!” Mai finally exclaimed, a huge grin exploding on her face. She dropped her books and grabbed Grace in a tight hug. “I
knew
you'd apologize. I accept!”

Grace returned the hug, her mouth hanging open with the unspoken apology still inside. Without another word, they were off to school as if nothing had happened.

Pedalling slowly, Grace filled Mai in on the recent happenings. Her animated monologue was often interrupted by Mai's continuous stream of
No Way! He did what?! You
didn't!

When Grace got to the part about Fred's strange phone call, Mai chipped in. “I don't know what he's talking about either. I didn't see him yesterday. I had band recital all day then my parents took me out to dinner.” She shrugged. “So he had a whole day unsupervised. Who knows what nutty conspiracy theories he's cooked up without us.”

“Seriously.” Grace nodded. “We've got to find out what he's been up to.”

They didn't get their chance until gym class later that morning.

“Uh-oh,” Grace and Mai moaned as they entered the gym. Loopy Longmire, their gym teacher, was nowhere in sight, but there was a smoky haze hovering near the ceiling. Not incense again!

Fred beckoned them over. “There you are! You missed all the excitement. Leroy Weller was complaining about the stink from the incense and then puked all over Longmire's pink leotard. She cancelled gym class and hauled him off to the nurse's office. So we have an entire double period free, and then lunch.”

“Woohoo!” Grace exclaimed. “Let's go to Black Hole. We've got lots to talk about!”

“Have I got news for you!” Fred flopped down at the table in Black Hole and grabbed a chocolate cake from his pack. “I was working one of my informants, Mr. Pulzifer—you know, the security guard/janitor guy? It was tough, but I kept tailing him, looking for an angle—something I could use to muscle him.” Fred paused to leisurely unwrap his treat.

“And…?” Mai prompted.

“I'm getting to the good part. So, my detective work finally paid off. I followed him down to the boiler room yesterday. He was there to sneak a puff on one of those stinky cigars. So I tiptoed up behind him and caught him in the act! I said to him, ‘Gee, Mr. Pulzifer, isn't it against the rules to smoke on school grounds?' Well, he knew I had him, so he coughed up what I was looking for.”

Mai and Grace exchanged eye rolls at the spy talk and glared at Fred, waiting for the intel. Fred seemed to be enjoying himself and was in no hurry to relinquish being the centre of attention.

“Spill it!” Grace finally said.

Fred popped the rest of his cake into his mouth and linked his hands behind his head, grinning at Mai and Grace as he chewed.

“Fred!” Mai said.

“Okay, okay!” he yelped. “Pulzifer told me that they've been having trouble with the security cameras at school for months. And get this…you know the one in the hallway where Grace's locker is? It isn't even working. It's
disconnected
!”

“Disconnected?” Mai said. “Since when?”

“For the last month!”

“A month? But that means…wait…what
does
that mean?” Grace asked, confused. “You saw the video. We all did.”

“It means,” Fred said with relish, “the video was a fake!”