The Fossil Hunter of Sydney Mines (15 page)

Great!
Now her mother thought she was having a breakdown or something.

“Come on. I have a surprise for you.” She grasped Grace's hand and tugged her gently up the stairs to the master bedroom. She went to the closet and pulled down the same box Grace had seen her with the other night. She put it on the bed and patted the mattress for Grace to sit beside her.

“These are the pictures of your last fossil-hunting trip,” she said. Her voice sounded shaky. “The photo shop called after your dad….Anyway, it took me a long time before I could go get them.”

They spread the pictures out over the bed. Seeing her dad's smiling face—his big grin and twinkling eyes—was shocking to Grace. She picked up a picture of her and her dad together. Both of them were covered in dirt. She was waving her rock hammer over her head and her dad was holding a fossil of a calamite leaf. She remembered how he had taken forever to balance the camera on the rock ledge and set the automatic timer for that photo.

“I got that camera for your dad so I could at least see what you were both so crazy about,” her mother said. “I should have gone with you two once in a while.” She held up another picture of them. “You guys look like you were having a wonderful time.”

“We were,” Grace said, staring at their glowing faces. “You know, Mom, it's not that we didn't want you to come…” Grace looked up at her mother's sombre face. “We just didn't think you wanted to.”

“I know,” her mom said. “I just knew you guys were so in love with it all. I didn't want to interfere with you two, my dynamic duo.”

I love you, Mom
, Grace thought. She knew she should say it, but she couldn't form the words out loud. Instead, to her shock, something else popped out of her mouth. “If you think I should see Dr. Solomon, I will.”

“Really?” Her mother looked relieved. “That's wonderful, honey. You know, maybe I'm too hard on you. It's been such a difficult time. How about if we cancel grounding for the weekend? A trial run. Stay out of trouble and we'll talk about getting rid of it altogether.”

Grace leapt up and grabbed her mother in a stranglehold. “Thank you, thank you, thank you!” she squealed, raining kisses on her mother's cheeks.

“Okay, that's enough,” her mother chuckled, gently pushing her away. “We can talk about this later. I may have to go out tonight for a manicure client. She doesn't get off work until nine-thirty. Either that or she'll come here.” She glanced at her watch. “My goodness, it's almost eight-thirty!” She stood up and wiped her face. “You take the pictures, honey, I got them for you.”

Grace gathered up the photos in her arms and walked back to her room. She put them down on her desk and peered out the window into the fading daylight. It was cloudy.

It was going to be a perfect night for spying.

Chapter
20

“COME IN, GRACE,” CAME FRED'S VOICE THROUGH THE WALKIE-TALKIE.
“Code alpha two. I repeat, code alpha two.”

“Fred, will you knock off the weird codes?!” Grace replied. “I don't know what you're saying.”

“Aw, fine, if you want to be boring!” Fred griped. “I'm in position in an oak tree facing Jeeter's driveway.”

“You're in a
tree
? Off the
ground
?” Grace asked, visions of a cracked skull and broken limbs f lashing in her mind.

“Ha, ha, very funny.”

“Hey guys, lock your transmit buttons to on,” Grace said. “That way I'll be able to hear everything.”
It's lucky
Mom went out for her manicure appointment, after all—otherwise she'd have been able to hear this noise all over
the house!
Grace thought to herself.

“Mai checking in,” came Mai's voice. “I'm on the opposite side of Jeeter's house and have a clear view of the kitchen and living room through—”

“
Shhhh
,” Fred hushed suddenly. “Someone's coming!”

“Who is it?” Mai whispered. “I can't see you from here.”

“Hold on, they're pulling into the driveway,” Fred replied.

The airwaves were silent for a minute.

“Fred?” Grace finally said. “What's happening?” She held her breath as she heard Fred muttering and moving around.

“Oh, never mind,” he said finally. “False alarm.”

Grace shrugged her shoulders up and down, trying to get rid of the tension. As she listened to Mai and Fred whisper back and forth she was also watching Stuckless through the bedroom window. She was curious what her other suspect was up to.

Stuckless was in the basement again, and he appeared to be fiddling with the same device she'd seen him with last night. There was no feedback coming in on her walkie-talkie. Maybe he was listening instead.

“Fred, come in,” she said, peering intently through her binoculars at the same time. Yes, there it was! Stuckless had leaned forward the moment she'd spoken.

“I think we definitely have to watch Stuckless more closely,” she continued, her eyes glued to the binoculars.

Bingo! Stuckless's head whipped around and he looked right up at her window! Her theory was bang on. He was listening to something, all right—
her
!

“Grace, what are you talking about?” Mai said.

“Never mind,” she said. No sense getting into it right now. Mai and Fred had enough to worry about. She must have freaked Stuckless out anyway. His basement light went out and a minute later the light was on upstairs.

This sure explained a lot, like how Stuckless kept showing up where they were all the time. She thought back to their trip to Point Aconi—they had been using their walkie-talkies the whole time. No wonder he had known where they were.

But why would Stuckless be interested in their conversations? Or in anything they did? They were only kids.
Maybe Dad had been suspicious of him
, Grace thought.
It must have something to do with the strip
mines.

Grace put her binoculars back in her pack. Her dad's bag was sitting beside it. She flipped it open, pulling out the fossil tucked in the front pouch. It was one of the best specimens of a cyclopteris leaf she'd ever seen. She wished she'd been with him when he'd found it. They had found a great one at the PA2, too, Grace remembered. It had been a cold day, and they'd packed thermoses full of hot chocolate…

“Someone's pulling into the driveway!” Fred's voice blared over the walkie-talkie and brought Grace back to reality with a jolt.

“Who is it?” she asked. “Another false alarm?”

“Nope. It's the real deal this time. A man in a suit is getting out of the car. He must be Jeeter's dad. Now he's walking toward the house. It looks like he's coming home from work—he's carrying a bunch of files or papers or something. I can almost make out one of the labels on the files—it starts with an S.” Fred's voice was getting louder by the second—Grace could hear his excitement building up. “Sydney Mines—”

“Shhh,” Mai warned. “He'll hear you.”

“Sorry,” Fred said, lowering his voice. “He's turning toward me. Wait for it…no, I don't believe it!”

“What is it?” Grace said, craning forward as if trying to see it for herself. She clutched her walkie-talkie tightly in her hands. “
Fred!
What is it?”

“Uh-oh,” Fred groaned.

“Hey you! What are you doing in that tree?” a male voice demanded. “Come down from there immediately!”

“Whooo? Meeee?” came Fred's voice.

“Don't get smart, young man. Do you see anyone else up there in that tree with you?” The man's voice was loud—and angry.

Grace could hear everything clearly, but she couldn't do anything for Fred. She felt so helpless.

Suddenly another voice joined in. “It's okay, Roger.”

Was that Jeeter's voice?

“Stay out of this, Marcus. I'll handle it. This hoodlum was probably casing out our house to rob us. I'm calling the police!”

“No he wasn't. I know him. We were just goofing around.”

“Goofing around? I don't have time for your childish games, Marcus. Get your
friend
out of our tree and say goodnight. And don't forget you have to call you mother tonight.”

“Yes, sir,” Jeeter mumbled.

Grace heard Jeeter's father mumble something else, but she couldn't make it out. He must have been out of range.

“C'mon, Sherlock, try to get down without breaking your neck,” Jeeter said. “Give me your arm before you kill yourself.”

“I don't need your help!” Fred said. “And why is your dad calling you Marcus?”

“Marcus, say goodnight!” his father bellowed.

“I gotta go, Freddo. But we'll talk later about why
I'm
being spied on!” Jeeter said. “Goodnight, Grace,” he added.

Back in her room, her ear pressed to her walkie-talkie, Grace gasped. Her head was spinning. What was going on? Call his
mother
? She was dead. Did he have a stepmother? No, he'd said it was just him and his dad. And why did his dad call him Marcus?

Tears welled in Grace's eyes. Was everything Jeeter had told her a lie?

“Grace, did you hear all that?” Fred said. “Grace, are you there?”

“What? Yes, I'm here,” Grace sniffed.

“You're not going to believe this…” Fred said. “Jeeter's dad had an armful of files from the Sydney Mines Fossil Museum!”

Chapter
21

“I DON'T UNDERSTAND,” GRACE SAID. “WHY WOULD JEETER'S DAD
have anything to do with the museum? How does he even know about it?”

“I don't know,” Fred said.

“But Jeeter said his dad worked with Environment Canada!” Grace cried.

“Calm down, Grace,” Mai's voice soothed. “Do you want us to come over?”

Grace peered out the window. Her mom's car was still gone. “Okay,” she murmured. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath to slow her racing heart. She was still clutching her dad's fossil.

CRASH!

Suddenly a huge roar filled her ears as rain erupted from the skies in torrents. It was coming down so hard that the droplets bounced off the pavement. Spikes of lightning exploded in the sky like fireworks.
Rain like this
means more sinkholes
, Grace thought as she tucked the fossil in her pocket and went downstairs to wait for Mai and Fred.