The Secret of Skull Island (12 page)

Jamal's mouth dropped open. “You were in on this,” he whispered to himself. Then he called out sharply, “Stop right there, Ronnie! You can't run away. I'll have people find you wherever you go.”

The sound of Walker's footsteps stopped suddenly. He trudged back slowly, appearing in the doorway with shoulders sagging.

Jamal was seething. “You were more than my bodyguard. I thought you were my friend. And this is how you repaid me.”

[Chapter Seventeen]

N
o one trusted Ronnie Walker to drive, so the twins made him surrender his car keys. They made their way to his green sedan.

“Let's flip to see who drives,” said Otis. He won the toss. “It's been a while but I'll be okay,” he assured Jamal as he climbed behind the wheel.

Mr. Carson and Maxim had decided that the boys should learn to drive a few years ago. After all, they lived in the country and there just might be an emergency one day. They practiced on the back roads and were told again and again
never
to drive on their own except in a true emergency. This situation qualified.

When they reached the inn, Aunt Edith and the guests (except for Maxim, who was in the kitchen) were all sitting on the front porch, relaxing before dinner. Mr. Carson had returned from painting and was telling everyone about some beautiful birds he had seen. As the minutes ticked by everyone began wondering where Rae and the twins and the others were. They all stared in surprise as Jamal, Cody, Otis, and Rae arrived with Ronnie Walker slinking along behind. They gawked at the disheveled appearance of the group.

“What happened to you? What has been going on?” Mr. Carson cried.

Before anyone could answer, Maxim appeared, wiping his hands on his chef's apron. “Dinner is served!” he called brightly.

He gulped when he saw the new arrivals. “What … what have you people been
doing
? You all look like something the cat dragged in.”

“Steve Cordell and Sam Keller tried to kidnap me, with the help of Ronnie here,” said Jamal. “These three rescued me.”

“They were holding him below deck on their boat,” Cody added.

“Cordell and Keller were running the burner lab full of equipment and pirated DVDs,” Otis told them. “We found more DVDs on the boat.”

Nobody moved. They just sat and stared. It was plain to see that they were all having trouble processing the information.

“Isn't anyone going to phone the police?” Jamal asked, finally.

“I called earlier, when I heard about the DVDs in the secret passage,” said Aunt Edith. “I specifically asked that they not send Officer Tano, but an operator said there was no one else available. He never showed up anyway.”

The phone rang and she hurried to answer it. When she hung up, her face was pale. “That was the police chief,” she said. “They found Officer Tano unconscious near the boating docks. Then they checked his call records and phoned. I told him what I just heard,” she said. “He's coming right over.”

Everyone turned to stare at Ronnie Walker. “Uh—Tano figured out that our DVD operation was blown and we'd be leaving the island,” he said. “He came to the boat and wanted more money. He said he'd tell everyone we kidnapped Jamal. Cordell knocked him out. He wanted to do worse, but I talked him out of it.”

“I hope you're telling the truth,” said Maxim. “It would be the only decent thing you've done. Now we've just got to wait for the police chief.”

“Wait a minute,” said Otis. “We left Mr. Keller and Mr. Cordell tied up on the boat. They might escape.”

Helen Wallace and Eric Barber stood up. “We'll go keep an eye on them.”

“You two?” Maxim asked skeptically.

Helen Wallace laughed. “Oh, we're quite capable of guarding criminals. We've had lots of experience. Go on ahead. We'll explain later.”

*

Police Chief Dorado arrived at the inn moments later. It took almost an hour to tell him the whole story. Dorado listened patiently, asking questions from time to time. When he heard about the “accidents” that had been occurring at the inn and the way that Officer Tano had been treating them all as a joke, he was not amused.

“Officer Tano has been in on the operation for a long time,” admitted Walker. “He was paid to look the other way.”

The chief clasped his hands together. “I want to hear everything you know about this, Mr. Walker,” he said. “The whole story. Don't leave out a single thing. Cooperation is the only way to make things easier for yourself.”

Walker nodded and launched into his story. It grew more and more amazing.

“We … the three of us … work for Moe Kleese. He's been using the island as a hideout and a base of operations for his pirated DVD business, and other rackets as well, since the nineties. He never bought the inn because it had been abandoned for years. He thought that buying it would only draw attention to his activities. He never dreamed that anyone
else
would want to buy it.”

He threw up his hands. “Then this woman buys the place from the government for cash. Before anybody knew what was going on, there was a problem.”

Walker shifted in his seat. “‘Steve Cordell' is an alias for Jimmy Black, also known as Bobo. The guy who's been calling himself ‘Sam Keller' is his brother, John, also known as Jojo. Bobo and Jojo have been part of Moe's gang for a long time. We did some jobs together years ago, and they recruited me to help in their kidnapping plan.”

“Was that when you were Jamal's bodyguard?” asked the chief.

Walker nodded. “I was going to stay out of crime, but they talked about so much money I couldn't refuse. They figured it was enough so they could stop working for Kleese, and there would be plenty for me, too. All I had to do was convince Jamal and his parents that he should come to Calavera Island. It was easy.”

Walker took a sip of water. “When Kleese found out that someone was opening an inn, he sent Jojo to pose as a worker. He made sure that things would go wrong. Later, when he came back to the island, Bobo helped out with it. They were trying to scare people away and shut down the inn, but it didn't work.”

Walker went on to tell about the kidnapping plans. He blamed Bobo for messing things up.

“Cordell—Bobo—got nervous. He said someone was poking his nose into things here and kidnapping might bring the law on us. Keller—Jojo—wanted to go ahead with the plan. He got Bobo down in the secret passage and tied him up.”

Walker gulped some more water. “When Bobo found out that these three”—he pointed to Rae and the twins—“had discovered the secret passage, he knew he couldn't save the operation. Best to join the kidnapping plan and get away from the Boss. He's gonna be real mad when he finds out his operation is blown,” he said.

“It was that Jojo guy who grabbed me,” said Jamal. “That lowlife snuck into my room with chloroform. I got a good look at him before I passed out, though.”

Walker sighed. “It was supposed to be simple. We figured that Jamal would be asleep and he wouldn't even know who kidnapped him. We were going to smuggle him out of the inn onto the island of Tacayno. We'd collect the ransom, split up, and make a phone call to the inn. By the time someone came to get him, we'd be long gone.”

“But I'd have found you,” said Jamal. “I've got enough money to get people searching everywhere in the world.”

Walker rubbed his eyes. “I didn't mean you any harm,” he said.

Jamal gave him a long look. “You didn't care,” he said. “You were only thinking of the money.”

He turned to look at Cody, Otis, and Rae. “I owe you guys an apology,” he said. “I really acted like a jerk. I guess all the success went to my head. I thought I was all that, but I wasn't. It's about time I grew up.”

*

Later that evening, after the police had taken Steve Cordell and Sam Keller away, and everyone had finished Maxim's delicious dinner, Albert McNab said, “I think it's time that we cleared up another mystery.” He looked at Helen Wallace and Eric Barber. “Don't you folks have a confession to make?”

Ms. Wallace and Mr. Barber looked at each other with twinkling eyes. “Shall you start, Eric, or shall I?”

Barber rolled his eyes. “I'll start, but jump in anytime,” he said. He took a deep breath. “Helen and I aren't a retired librarian and a shoe store owner.”

“I knew it,” Otis said, amazed. He looked at Cody. “I told you, right? They were hiding something.”

Cody nodded. “That's right. You did.”

“Well, you're a smart young man, Otis. Mr. Barber and I work together. We're private investigators,” Ms. Wallace said.

“Huh?” Cody and Otis both said at once.

“Well, you had me fooled,” said Maxim.

“Me, too,” said Mr. Carson.

“Oh, wow, this is too much,” said Jamal. “It's funny to think that two private investigators missed cracking the biggest case here.”

Barber shook his head. “Imagine, it was right under our noses and you boys solved it.”

“You certainly did,” Ms. Wallace agreed. “However, Eric and I were focused on another case.”

“Which turned out to be totally groundless,” said Barber with a sigh.

McNab chuckled. “They were chasing
me.
”

“You?” Otis said in surprise.

“That's right,” said Ms. Wallace.

“We got an anonymous tip that the famous doctor-turned-forger was here on the island. We figured it was McNab, but every time we talked to him we had our doubts,” Barber explained.

“He had childhood pictures in front of his father's grocery store and letters from his scouting troop,” said Ms. Wallace.

“And his eyes were the wrong color. Horace Perkins has blue eyes. McNab's are brown.”

“Then we got another anonymous call here at the inn, from a woman,” said Ms. Wallace. “She said that the first call had been made by Perkins himself to throw us off the track. He was actually back in Irons, Michigan.”

“So that's why your room was ransacked, Mr. McNab,” Rae said.

“That's right.” McNab chuckled, crinkling his nose. “I was so angry, and I couldn't understand it because nothing was taken.”

Still chuckling, McNab slapped his knee. “Now, I liked these two at first,” he said, thumbing in the direction of the investigators. “But as time went on, they started to drive me crazy. They were always following me around everywhere I went, asking me the dumbest questions. I thought they were nuts.”

Helen Wallace laughed. “I don't wonder.”

“It made no sense to me,” said McNab. “I kept saying I sold groceries. I really thought they were crazy. Now I know what they were up to. Well, time for me to turn in. It'll be the first good night's sleep I've had in a while. I kept thinking I'd see one of 'em pop out of a dresser drawer while I was nodding off.”

“Wait a minute, Mr. McNab,” said Aunt Edith. “I want everyone to take a look at my nephew's latest painting.” She went over to an easel covered with a drapery. She pulled the cloth away to reveal a beautiful picture of the inn at sunset. Just barely visible was a pirate peering around the corner of the building.

Everyone oohed and aahed. “It's great,” said McNab. “But I hope we don't hear from that pirate's ghost tonight. I need some rest.”

One by one, the other guests said good night. Soon there were only Rae and the twins, along with Maxim, Mr. Carson, and Aunt Edith.

“Too bad we never found that buried treasure,” Cody said. He yawned and stood up. “See you in the morning.”

“Just a moment,” said Mr. Carson. “I want to show you where I got the idea to do a painting of the inn at sunset. It's from an old picture Aunt Edith showed me. It's hanging in the hall.”

“I found it in a trunk in one of the rooms upstairs,” said Aunt Edith. “It was wrapped in a cloth, framed and everything. I'm so glad it was in such good condition. The frame looks so old. Come on and I'll show you.”

They all walked into the hallway to have a look at the painting. “It's old, all right,” said Cody.

Otis gasped. “Look at that!” He pointed to a tiny skull in the corner of the picture. He gently took the painting from the wall. The backing was loose and it pulled away when he took the picture down.

“Oh dear, do be careful with it,” cried Aunt Edith.

“There's something under here,” said Otis. He was right. Underneath the loose backing was a treasure map on yellowed parchment, with a red skull marking a particular spot near the inn.

“The pirate forgot where he put his own clue!” Cody marveled.

As soon as the words were out of his mouth a wind blew open the French doors at the end of the dining room. The curtains blew and the plates on the table rattled.

The map flew from Otis's hand and spiraled into the air. As they watched, spellbound, the page blew out through the open doors. And then the gust of wind died down as suddenly as it had sprung up.