The Bloodwater Mysteries: Skullduggery
Page 13
Brian and Roni exchanged a look.
“Professor Bloom!” they said with one voice.
41
fenton
“I guess we know now why Professor Bloom was visiting Dr. Dart,” said Roni.
“Yeah. He was feeding him hallucinogenic bindweed seeds so everybody would think he was crazy, ” Brian said. “At first, Dr. Dart was all messed up cause he got hit on the head. Professor Bloom wanted to make sure he stayed that way by feeding him the seeds.” Once again, he was walking with one foot in the gutter and the other on the curb. Up, down, up, down.
“Better that than bonking him again with his cane.”
“I bet he was the one who blew up the cave entrance, too.”
“But why would he deny doing that after confessing to attacking Dr. Dart?”
“Who knows? Maybe Professor Bloom was eating some of his own seeds.”
“I guess it doesn’t really matter,” Roni said. “He’s going to jail either way. And would you please stop walking like that? It’s embarrassing.”
“I’m not embarrassed. I’m celebrating. Professor Bloom is in jail, Mayor Berglund is the one who’s embarrassed, the so-called Bloodwaters are done for and Dr. Dart just found out that his ancient Indian is some dude with a metal plate in his skull. I call that a good day!”
“I wonder who he was,” Roni said.
“Who?”
“Yorick.”
Brian shrugged. “Probably just some homeless person who crawled into the cave to die.”
“Oh well, I guess we can’t solve every mystery in Bloodwater.”
That night, Roni had to listen to yet another lecture from her mother on the Dangers of Caves, and the Perils of Going Out Late at Night, and assorted other Parental Concerns.
“When I think of you trapped in that cave, with those bulldozers above you—why, that entire cave system might have collapsed!”
“Don’t forget the bats,” said Roni. “I could’ve got rabies, too. Or starved to death. With rabies.”
“Exactly,” said Nick. “Which is why I think we should let that horrible motorcycle sit in the garage for the rest of the summer—”
“Hillary is not a motorcycle, Nick. She’s a motor scooter. Besides, I was getting in trouble long before I got Hillary.”
“That’s true,” said Nick.
“Besides, if you take Hillary away, you’re going to have to drive me everywhere.”
Nick frowned, considering.
“And I never actually got in trouble while I was on Hillary.”
“Not yet, you haven’t,” Nick said.
The discussion lasted for several more minutes, ending with Nick saying, “We’ll see . . .” Which was as good as Roni could have hoped for.
Brian was sitting at the kitchen table having a similar discussion with his mother.
“No computer—”
“Mom!”
“No bicycle—”
“Mom!”
“No skateboard, no—”
Brian reached into his backpack and pulled out Yorick, hoping to distract his mother from her list of deprivations. It worked.
“Good Lord, Brian! Where on earth did you get that?”
“Mom, this is Yorick. Yorick, this is Mom.”
“Brian, what on earth—did you go back into that cave?”
“I had to, Mom! I had to show it to Dr. Dart. But I thought you should see it, too. It’s not an Indian, see?” He turned the skull to show her the metal patch.
At that moment, Mr. Bain came into the kitchen to see what all the commotion was about.
“Is that the skull from the cave, son?”
Brian nodded.
“Congratulations!” said Mr. Bain.
Both Brian and Mrs. Bain looked at him, confused.
“Congratulations? Why?” Brian asked.
“You’ve solved Bloodwater’s oldest mystery!” He picked up the skull and examined it. “Farley Bloodwater,” he said. “This is the metal patch they put in his skull after he got conked by that chandelier.” He turned the skull and looked into its empty eye sockets. “Long time no see, Farley!”
Roni lay in bed staring up at her ceiling, trying to stop the slide show in her head.
What would happen to Professor Bloom? What would happen to Eric and his family? Was the condominium project permanently canceled, or would the college just sell the land to some other developer? And if Professor Bloom hadn’t blown up the cave entrance, then who had?
Roni’s thoughts were interrupted by the rattle of pebbles hitting her bedroom window. She ran to the window and looked down to see Eric Bloodwater’s face looking up at her. Thirty seconds later, Roni was sneaking out the back door in her flannel poodle pajamas.
“Hey, Poophead,” she said.
“Hey,” Eric said, smiling. “My real name’s Fenton, you know.”
“I like Eric better.”
“Me, too. I didn’t pick the name Fenton.”
“I didn’t pick Petronella.”
“Petronella? That’s your real name? You never told me that!”
“Now that you know, I’ll thank you never to use it.”
Eric laughed. “I guess you stopped my dad from building those condos.”
“I guess. Only from what I’ve read, he’d never have gotten around to actually building them.”
Eric shrugged. “My dad is kind of a dreamer.”
“More like kind of a crook.”
“He’s not a bad person. He just loves to come up with these grand schemes, but he doesn’t so much like the part where you actually have to build it.”
“Yeah, but why does he have to steal people’s money?”
“We have to live on something.”
Roni looked down at the black poodles frolicking on her blue pajamas. She wasn’t often at a loss for words, but right now she didn’t know what to say.
“I just came to say good-bye,” he said.
“I figured,” Roni said. “Where will you go?”
“I have no idea.” He grinned. “But maybe I’ll send you a postcard when I get there.”
“I’d like that.”
“I have to get back. The moving van should be all packed by now. Oh, one more thing . . .”
“Yeah?”
“That was me that blew up the cave. I was just trying to save my dad’s project. I stole the dynamite from the contractor’s trailer. They were going to use it to blow up some stumps. I’m sorry.” He turned and walked quickly away, in the direction of Bloodwater House.
Roni watched him go, wondering if Brian’s mom knew the “Bloodwaters” were about to skip town. Would she care? Probably not. Fitzroy Oraczko may have been a crook, but in this case he hadn’t gotten around to stealing the money yet.
Roni shook her head, let herself back into the house and went to bed.
42
indian bluff revisited
Two weeks after Professor Bloom’s final class, Brian’s mother finally relented on her “no bicycle” rule. The first thing Brian did was ride out to Indian Bluff. He wasn’t sure why. Maybe he just wanted to see it again without the bulldozers and orange surveyor’s stakes.
It was a perfect summer day, warm, dry and slightly breezy. Big puffy cartoon clouds floated overhead. He rode his bike up to the edge of the bluff and looked out across Professor Bloom’s precious bottoms. He wondered how the professor liked sitting in his concrete cell without a plant in sight.
Brian set his bike down and walked along the edge, remembering the night he and Roni had spent in the cave. One of these days he’d get some good caving equipment and go back down there.
He heard the sound of a motor. Looking up, he saw Roni puttering across the field on her Vespa.
He waved, and she steered toward him.
“How you doing, Sherlock?” Brian said.
“Very well, Watson. You here to relive past glories?”
“I guess. What about you?”
“I came to get the rope
we left behind. Mr. Billig wants it back.”
“That was a good rope. So, any new mysteries on the horizon?”
“I’m sure something will crop up.”
Brian kicked at the ground with the toe of his sneaker. As he did so, he noticed a leaf-shaped rock. He bent over and picked it up.
“Hey,” he said.
“Hey what?”
Brian held up a pale, rose-colored stone. It was pointed at one end, forked at the other and the edges had been carefully chipped to razor sharpness.
“Is that what I think it is?” Roni asked.
Brian smiled. “I believe it is.”