Sam shook his head. “They might be a little dark for the trail.”
Derek pushed the shades back in place and grinned like he was on the cover of a magazine. “Admit it, they look good.”
Caitlin turned around and giggled. “You're something else, Derek.”
Derek flashed a cocky smile. “That's what everyone keeps saying...”
They walked over to where Mr. Murphy was still filling up the car with gas. “I got your lunch, Daddy,” said Caitlin, holding up a bag.
Before Mr. Murphy could reply, a loud rumbling sound echoed through the valley, growing into a roar as a group of motorcycles rolled around the corner and turned into the parking lot.
Mr. Murphy eyed the line of bikers suspiciously. “Why don't you get in the car, guys. I'm almost done filling up.”
Sam looked over at the group of bikers. There had to be more than a dozen of them. He looked at the jacket of one of the bikers and saw something familiar.
“Where are you going?” called Caitlin to Derek who was already halfway across the parking lot, walking toward the bikers.
“Derek!” said Mr. Murphy, tightening the gas cap. “It's time to go.”
But Derek didn't stop. He walked right up to the closest biker and waved. Sam couldn’t see the biker’s face, but he wondered what the guy must think of his nutty brother wearing those stupid-looking sunglasses. He had to give it to him though, Derek certainly wasn't afraid of making a fool of himself.
Sam was too far away to hear what Derek was saying to the biker, but suddenly the man let out a big laugh and gave Derek a high five. That laugh sounded familiar too. Derek turned and waved at Sam and Caitlin to come over.
“You know who that must be, don't you?” said Caitlin.
Sam had put it together right about the same time she did. “The Confederate Ghosts?”
Caitlin nodded. “I think so. It's okay, Daddy, they're friendly.”
Mr. Murphy watched cautiously as Sam and Caitlin joined Derek next to the bikes. Sam stared at the shiny chrome reflecting the sunlight. The black and silver Harleys seemed a little big for him, although he remembered riding on the back of one leaving Belle Isle once before.
“Guys, look, it's Mad Dog, from the Ghosts!” exclaimed Derek. “You remember him, don't you?”
Mad Dog turned off the engine and stepped off the motorcycle, straightening to his full height. Sam had forgotten how tall the man was. He must be at least six foot four. Sam waved weakly and tried to smile. “Hey.”
“Hi,” said Caitlin.
“How about that, running into you kids up here.” Mad Dog chuckled in his deep, gravelly voice. “We're fixin’ to put up over there at the motel around the bend.” He pointed to the building higher up on the side of the mountain. He set his helmet down on the seat of his bike and wiped his forehead.
Luke ‘Mad Dog’ DeWitt was the leader of the Confederate Ghosts, a biker gang from Richmond. Sam had been scared to death when they'd run into him at Hollywood Cemetery last summer, and then again when they found their hideout at night on Belle Isle, but his bark turned out to be worse than his bite. He was a really nice guy.
“What are you doing up here?” Sam was starting to feel a little more comfortable talking to the biker again.
“Riding, of course.” Mad Dog swept one arm out behind him. “Look around! Have you ever seen a more gorgeous place?”
“It's beautiful,” said Caitlin.
“Like a little slice of heaven up here in God's creation,” said Mad Dog. “Trust me kids, you haven't lived until you’ve felt the wind in your face under a sunshine-dripped day up on top of the mountain. It's magic.”
Sam nodded. He stared up at the sunny blue sky and imagined touring around the curvy mountain roads without a roof over his head. As dangerous as Mom always said riding a motorcycle was, it did seem pretty fun on a summer day.
Mr. Murphy walked up behind them. “Ready to go, kids?” He eyed Mad Dog and the motorcycles cautiously.
“Yeah, let's ride!” proclaimed Derek, acting like he was going to jump onto one of the bikes.
“Easy there, partner,” Mad Dog chuckled. “You might need a few more gallons in your tank before you're ready to ride the great blue yonder with us.”
Derek frowned. “I was afraid you'd say that.”
Mr. Murphy agreed. “Let's stick to the car today, guys.” He stuck his arm out and shook hands with Mad Dog. “Nice to meet you.”
“You've got a good group of kids here, friend. What brings the four of you up this way?”
Mr. Murphy pointed down the slope to the other side of the road. “A little hiking, maybe taking some photographs.”
“Right on, man,” said Mad Dog. “Sounds like a fun time.” He turned back to Derek. “Well, y'all have a good time. Enjoy this weather.”
“All right, see ya,” said Sam, already backpedaling toward the car. It was cool to see the bikers again, but they'd made him nervous enough the first time they met. As fun as it looked, one motorcycle ride had been enough for him.
“Nice to see you,” said Caitlin. “Say hi to the others for us.”
“I'll do that,” waved Mad Dog, strapping on his helmet and slinging a leg over his bike. He stomped his foot down on a pedal near the ground and the engine roared to life. “See you out on the road!”
When they got back into the car, Mr. Murphy glanced over at the group of bikers with a puzzled expression. “Tell me again how you know those guys?”
“It's a long story, Daddy,” Caitlin giggled. She looked back at Sam and winked. “I'll tell you out on the trail.”
8
Mr. Murphy drove down the road to a parking spot marked for Appalachian Trail hikers. They put their food and drink into the school-sized backpacks that they'd brought with them. Sam took a canteen filled with water out of his pack and attached it to his belt. Mr. Murphy had a larger backpack with lots of pockets and zippers to hold his camera equipment and tripod.
“Is that all camera equipment in your pack?” asked Sam. “It looks heavy.” He knew Mr. Murphy was a professional photographer but was impressed at how well he looked the part.
Mr. Murphy smiled. “Mostly camera gear, but some hiking and emergency packets too. It's good to be prepared when you're out in the wild in a place like the Appalachian Trail.”
“Emergency?” Derek's ears perked up. “What kind of emergency packets? Do you have a Taser?”
Sam shook his head. “Why would we need a Taser?”
“I don't know, Sam, in case we needed to Tase someone...” He drilled a hard stare at Sam. It took a minute for Sam to realize that Derek was talking about running into bad guys at Swannanoa.
“No Tasers, sorry, Derek,” chuckled Mr. Murphy. “But I do have a first aid kit, a compass, and a whistle.”
“A whistle?” asked Caitlin. “What do we need that for?”
Mr. Murphy pulled out a flat, orange, plastic whistle attached to a cord that could hook to a backpack. “In case we get lost, it lets off a shrill sound that can be heard a long distance.”
“Can I try?” asked Derek.
“Sure,” said Mr. Murphy, handing the whistle to Derek. “Just once, though, and don't blow too hard. We don't want any other hikers out here to think that we have an emergency.”
“It's not that loud, is it, Daddy?” asked Caitlin.
“The package said it's one hundred and twenty decibels, which is about as loud as a rock concert.”
“Wow,” said Caitlin.
Sam noticed his brother's devilish grin as he put the whistle to his lips. “Not too hard, Derek. Don't burst our eardrums.”
Derek blew into the whistle. Sam covered his ears. It sounded like a teapot was exploding right next to him. It was so loud!
“Whoa,” said Derek, handing it back to Mr. Murphy. “That's cool.”
“It's just for emergencies. I don't expect we'll have to use it, but it's always good to be prepared.”
Caitlin nodded. “Daddy hiked a
whole part of the trail when he was in college, didn't you?”
“I did. And I learned the hard way that you need to be prepared.”
“Why, what happened?” asked Sam.
“My buddies and I were up in Maine, near the end of a week-long hike. We'd forgotten to read the forecast at the last checkpoint. A storm rolled in during the night, and we had to hustle down off the mountain before there was a mudslide. We nearly got stuck up there.”
“Wow,” said Sam, glancing over his shoulder at the car. He was glad they wouldn't be hiking too far today.
“All right,” said Mr. Murphy, pulling on his pack and tightening the straps. “Let's get going.”
They walked to the edge of the parking lot where a small trail cut through high grass and into a wooded area. “Caitlin, you're our navigator today,” said Mr. Murphy. “Which way should we go?”
Caitlin held up a trail map she'd bought at the convenience store. It showed more detail of this part of the Appalachian Trail and surrounding trails than the larger Virginia highway map she'd had in the car. “Let's head south for a couple miles and then...” she moved her finger along the dotted lines on the paper, “then we can loop up above the highway on this other trail for a bit. It should get us back pretty close to where we parked.” She looked up and winked at Derek.
“Sounds good,” said Derek with a quick nod.
Sam rolled his eyes. Enough with the winking. It was like they were communicating in code. He wasn't so crazy about the two of them devising the whole plan without him. He wasn't exactly jealous, but he did feel a little left out. How did he always get himself into messes like this?
“All right, then, let's head out,” said Mr. Murphy.
“Onward and upward!” yelled Derek.
Caitlin tapped Sam's shoulder and smiled. “Aren't you excited? This is going to be fun.”
Sam tried to fake a happy face. “Uh huh.”
Caitlin shook her head. “Come on. It's an adventure. Try to relax.”
Sam was skeptical. He wondered if she was getting a little too excited about going on adventures and solving mysteries. “You're starting to sound like Derek more and more every minute.”
Caitlin dropped her jaw playfully. “I’m highly offended.” She stepped up behind her dad and Derek. “Come on!”
The air was cool up on the mountain, despite it being a sunny, August, Virginia day, and it felt good to be walking outside. Sam guessed the elevation helped keep things from getting as hot as it did back home. The trail cut in and out of the trees, adding pockets of shade from the sun. Mr. Murphy said the patches of paint on the trees were white blazes that marked the Appalachian Trail. In some places it was straight, in other places it wound around stones, roots, and trees and up and down ridges and valleys. It was sweet.
After they'd hiked a while, Mr. Murphy stopped at a clearing with a direct view of the Rockfish Valley. He pulled out his camera, snapping shots from different angles and directions. Derek stood and watched him operate his camera equipment while Sam and Caitlin kept walking further down the trail.
“Did you hear what Billy did to Mr. Clancy on the last week of school?” said Caitlin.
Sam shook his head, knowing that she was going to tell him no matter what he said. Caitlin seemed to have been talking non-stop since they'd headed out on their hike. He wondered if that was why Mr. Murphy had let them keep walking after he had stopped. It would be tough to get many pictures of wildlife with her making so much noise.
He looked back at Derek behind them. Mr. Murphy seemed to be giving him some lessons about how to use the camera.
“Can you believe it?” said Caitlin.
Sam looked back at her. He hadn't been listening. “What?”
Caitlin frowned but kept on talking. “I said, Billy took all of the staples out of his stapler and all the pencils from his desk.”
Sam lowered his eyebrows, trying to figure out what he'd missed. “Whose desk?”
“Mr. Clancy's!” She dropped her jaw open again like it was the most shocking thing in the world. “Can you believe it? Isn't that so mean?”
Sam nodded. There wasn't much that their friend Billy Maxwell could do that would surprise him, but he wasn't in the mood to think about school right then. He was still feeling nervous about going to Swannanoa. His stomach rumbled, reminding him of the sandwich in his backpack. The only thing he wanted to think about right now was lunch. The afternoon was getting late, and he still hadn’t eaten. Things always seemed more stressful when he was hungry.
Caitlin glanced over and giggled. She must have heard his stomach.
“There's a nice flat rock,” she said. “Why don't we stop and eat?”
Sam sighed in relief. “That's a great idea.”
They sat down and gazed across the valley, the fields and houses still seeming a million miles away from where they were up on the trail. Derek and Mr. Murphy walked past, saying they were going to continue a few more minutes up the trail to let Derek keep experimenting with the camera.
Sam opened his pack, pulling out his sandwich, chips, and drink. He poured the water into the now empty canteen he had attached to his belt.
“Who do you think you're going to get for a teacher this year?” asked Caitlin.
Sam took a bite of his sandwich, already feeling better for sitting down. “I don't know,” he answered with his mouth full. “I think Ms. Allen. Derek had her and said she was cool. She let them watch a lot of—” He stopped mid-sentence, eyeing the bushes on the edge of the trail behind Caitlin. They were shaking.
“Movies?” said Caitlin, finishing his sentence. “I know. Becky's sister told her the same thing. I don't know how they get through their work for the year with all those movies.” She took a breath and looked up at Sam. He was frozen, sandwich hanging in mid-air, staring at the bushes. “What's wrong?”
The branches stopped shaking. Then something walked onto the trail. A huge something.
A black bear.
9
“Don't move...” Sam whispered, barely loud enough to hear. He didn’t want to startle the bear.
“What is it?” Caitlin turned her head and then put her hand over her mouth to stifle a squeal. “Oh my gosh!”
They both sat frozen like statues, watching the bear lumber across the grassy trail. Sam couldn't tell if it had noticed them, but he slowly lowered his sandwich to his lap. Maybe the bear had smelled their lunches.
“What do we do?” whispered Caitlin.
“I don't know. Can you see your dad?”
Caitlin inched her head to the side for a glimpse further up the trail. “I don't see him,” she whispered back.
The bear was fifty feet from where they sat. It seemed to be smelling the air. Sam couldn't believe how big it was. Sure, he'd seen bears on TV and in the zoo. He'd even seen one just the other day at Maymont, but there had always been a fence standing between them. There was no fence here on the trail, just grass and air. He remembered Mr. Haskins mentioning that bears and snakes lived up in the mountains, but he'd been too focused on the eagles to really think about it much. Well, he was thinking about it now.
The bear's fur was dark black and looked thick. Its long nose had a touch of brown near the end, like a German Shepherd. A memory flashed through Sam's mind of the time he and Derek had been exploring the woods behind their house. They’d thought they'd seen a bear, but it had only turned out to be someone’s pet dog. There was no confusion this time. This was definitely a bear.
Sam nervously shifted his weight, but the canteen on his belt bumped his backpack, which tumbled over on the rock. The bear turned toward the noise, eyes staring right at them. Then it reared up on its hind legs, its nose sniffing the air. Sam thought his heart was going to bust right out of his chest.
“I think we need to get out of here,” whispered Caitlin.
“No, we don't want it to chase us.”
The bear lowered back to the ground and began moving toward them.
“Sam!” Caitlin cried.
His mind raced. What should they do? He looked behind them, but the mountain fell away in a steep grade that would be too hard to climb down. They were trapped.
The bear moved closer. There was no choice. They had to move now!
Sam carefully stood on the rock, motioning for Caitlin to do the same. “Nice and easy.”
He grabbed for what he could of his scattered stuff, throwing the remaining food over the bear's head. It didn't move as they stepped off the rock and began inching slowly up the trail. Sam hurled the metal canteen into the bushes as far away from them as possible. For a moment the bear seemed distracted, but then it turned and started toward them again.
As Sam crept backward, his foot caught on a tree root and he slipped to the ground.
“Sam!” Caitlin bent over and grabbed his arm.
He tried to yell for help, but his mouth was dry as he stared into the bear's eyes. Visions of being mauled by the beast flashed through his head. It seemed to be looking right at him.
Just as he was sure he was a goner, a shrill whistle sounded from behind them on the trail. “Hey!” a deep voice yelled, followed by clapping hands, then a whistle again.
They turned around and saw Derek and Mr. Murphy moving slowly toward them. Mr. Murphy had the emergency whistle in his mouth and blew it again. “Walk toward us, slowly,” he ordered.
Sam scrambled to his feet and backed up along the trail with Caitlin until they reached Mr. Murphy and Derek.
“Stay here,” Mr. Murphy said firmly.
Derek's eyes were wild with excitement as he held up the camera, snapping pictures of the bear. Sam wondered again about Mr. Murphy's camera being a James Bond spy camera with a gun inside. Even if it was, Derek would be more likely to take a selfie with the bear than do something useful to save them.
Mr. Murphy took three steps toward the bear. “Go on, get going!” he yelled. He held his hands up over his head like someone pretending to be a ghost. Sam thought he'd seen that on the Nature Channel as a way to scare bears. He wished he'd thought of that earlier.
Midnight at the Mansion (The Virginia Mysteries Book 5) Page 5