by Mac Barnett
THE MAN IN THE MASK
“HE’S GONE!” Claire said.
“Where’d he go?” Dana asked.
Steve ran to the back of the compartment and looked out.
“There’s a little ladder out here!” Steve shouted above the noise of the train and the rushing wind. “He climbed on top of the train!” After considering, he couldn’t help adding: “Told you people did that, Dana!”
Dana and Claire hurried over. The three of them looked at the ladder. It started halfway up the back of the car and continued to the top.
“What do we do now?” Claire said.
Steve looked at her seriously. “We go after him.”
Dana slapped his own forehead.
Steve counted to three, then upped it to five, and grabbed a metal rung with his hand. He tried to pull himself up, but his arm was shaking a little, and he’d never been that good at chin-ups anyway. “Dana! I need a boost,” he said.
Dana, shaking his head, made a cradle with his hands. Steve couldn’t back out now, not with the goon on the loose and everyone watching. He stepped into Dana’s hands with a bare foot, counted to six this time, and swung himself over to the ladder. He was on!
Steve tried not to think about the ground moving fast below him. The wind blew his shower cap, which made a plasticky flapping sound. His robe whipped around him. His bare feet curled around a metal rung. This was no time to wish for a more sensible outfit or even a pair of shoes. A chase was afoot.
Still, Steve had to admit this was probably the stupidest thing he’d ever done.
Steve ascended the ladder quickly. It was a surprisingly easy climb. When he peered over the top of the car, he found himself face-to-face with the masked goon. The man was perched like a gargoyle on the roof of the train. When he saw Steve, he reared up and swung the pipe at Steve’s head.
Steve ducked.
“What’s going on?” Dana shouted from the vault.
Steve didn’t answer. He looked up, waiting for the man’s second attack. It didn’t come. Steve risked another peek. The goon was running forward, toward the engine. He was already on the next car and moving fast. Steve marveled. It looked easy. The goon leapt over the space between cars and kept moving.
Steve looked back down at Dana and Claire, who looked up at him.
Steve couldn’t let this crook get away. He climbed up.
CHAPTER XXXVII
HOT PURSUIT
STEVE SLID BELLY FIRST onto the roof of the car, like a dolphin coming up to kiss a tourist at a marine park. It wasn’t pretty, but it felt secure. He wriggled forward until his whole body was atop the train.
Steve lay prone on the roof of the train. Okay. This wasn’t so hard. The masked man had run and jumped without any problem. And Steve remembered a picture he’d seen of a train in India with a bunch of kids hanging out on top of it. He got up on his hands and knees. This was doable.
Steve stood.
This was maybe not doable. Steve wobbled a little. He did not have his train legs. Things felt suddenly windier and less stable. Plus the train’s metal roof was hot on the soles of his feet. Steve collapsed onto all fours again.
Much better. Steve crawled forward. He pulled the robe’s sleeves down to cover his palms. Heat from the roof radiated through the terry cloth and warmed his hands and knees. The wind roared by, and the train clattered furiously along the track below.
A steep hillside rose up on Steve’s left. Scraggly trees and shrubs passed by too quickly. On his right, the sea.
Steve reached the space between the end of his car and the start of the next. The gap was much smaller than he’d thought it would be. He was able to put his hands on the forward car and leapfrog over.
Steve kept crawling.
The masked man had stopped moving. He stood there, just watching Steve, two cars ahead. He still had the pipe.
It occurred to Steve that he had no plan.
As he crawled the length of the car, he tried to figure out how he would deal with the man holding the pipe. He decided there was only one sensible option. Once Steve reached him, he would stand up. The man would then swing the pipe at Steve’s head. Steve would duck at the right moment. His attacker would whiff, lose his balance, and fall off the side of the train.
Yes, that was the new plan.
When Steve looked up again, the goon was coming forward. Fast. He was already only one car away and would reach Steve in just a few seconds.
So the new new plan was to stand up now. The man leapt onto Steve’s car. Steve stood. The metal seared his soles. His shower cap flew off in the wind. Steve waited as the man approached, slowly now.
The man was just a few yards ahead. Steve watched the pipe.
Steve heard faint shouts behind him.
Dana’s voice.
What was wrong? Should he look back?
“Steve!”
Dana sounded frantic.
He had to look back, just for a second. He inhaled and spun his head around fast. Dana and Claire were on top of the train. Dana was crouched low and moving toward Steve; Claire stood on the very back car. Claire was frantically pointing forward. Dana stopped and pointed too.
Were they warning him about the goon? Did they think he was blind?
Steve whirled forward. Before his eyes could refocus on the man and his pipe, he saw what Dana and Claire were pointing at: The front of the train had just entered a tunnel.
CHAPTER XXXVIII
OUT OF TIME
THE BAILEY BROTHERS’ DETECTIVE HANDBOOK has some useful tips about tunnels:
If you’re sleuthing on a train, you’ll probably end up riding on top of it! And if you’re riding atop a train, it will probably go through a tunnel! It’s like Murphy’s Law, only for trains! As you careen toward the tunnel, don’t lose your head: Just hang off the side of the train!
But for Steve there was no time. There wasn’t even time for Steve to throw himself flat against the top of the train. The tunnel’s masonry loomed behind the masked man, who still faced Steve, unaware of the doom that was now mere yards away. Steve closed his eyes. He clenched his teeth. This would hurt.
CHAPTER XXXIX
PITCH-BLACK
FIVE SECONDS LATER, and Steve was still alive. He opened his eyes, but he couldn’t see anything. He was standing on top of the train, in the dark, as it moved through the tunnel.
It occurred to Steve that some tunnels are taller than others.
He let out a thrilled and wild holler, which was lost in the din. So relieved was Steve, so exhilarated by his luck, that he nearly leapt for joy. Then he remembered he was in a tunnel and settled for a low-key arm pump.
In the blackness Steve composed his thoughts. Going through the tunnel had delayed his clash with the masked man, but soon they would emerge into daylight, and the fight would be back on. The train rocked gently as Steve arranged himself into a crouch. He shuffled rightward a foot and a half. Steve would take advantage of the darkness to prepare a new attack. When the train emerged from the tunnel, he would launch himself at the masked man before he had time to ready his pipe. A pinpoint of light appeared ahead and grew rapidly. The roar of the train hurtling through the tunnel was immense. Steve’s leg muscles tensed as he prepared to propel himself into his assailant. The train burst from the tunnel, and everything was bright, blindingly white, and Steve squinted for a moment and looked off to his right. He was losing seconds he didn’t have, forfeiting the element of surprise. Steve’s eyes hurt, but he forced himself to open them, looked straight ahead, and prepared to throw himself into the man’s solar plexus.
The man in the mask was gone.
CHAPTER XL
THE GOON VANISHES
STEVE WAS DUMBSTRUCK.
He stared at the place where the man had stood.
Where could he have gone?
Of course! He’d rolled off the side of the train and dangled from the side. Sleuths weren’t the only ones who knew that trick. Steve crawled over to the right side of the car a
nd peeked over the edge. Nothing but ground passing by much too fast. Steve jerked his head back. He inched over to the left edge and looked down. Nobody was hanging from that side of the train either.
Steve turned and looked behind him.
The man was not anywhere on top of this train.
Neither were Dana and Claire.
CHAPTER XLI
A DARING RESCUE
NOW STEVE IGNORED the train’s dizzying speed, the way it rocked on the rails, the heat of its steel roof. There was no room in his brain for anything but panic. Steve ran. He found himself at the end of the train without knowing exactly how he’d gotten there. Peering off the back of the Vanderdraaks’ car, he searched for any sign of his friends. Could they survive a fall from the top of the car? The Bailey Brothers jumped off moving trains all the time. But Dana and Claire weren’t trained sleuths—Dana had read only half of The Treasure in Trouble Harbor before he’d decided it wasn’t for him.
He scanned the hillside. He couldn’t see his friends. What if they had fallen off in the dark? Already the mouth of the tunnel was just a speck far down the track. He needed to get down, alert the Vanderdraaks, stop the train.
Steve hurried over to the ladder on the side of the train. He turned around and lowered his right leg. It missed the rung. Steve was rushing. He was being sloppy. Steve breathed. His right foot searched for a hold. His toes flexed but found nothing. Steve could feel his pulse in his head. The train swung round a curve, and Steve was thrown to the left. He flattened himself, spreading out his arms to stop his slide. His skin made a terrible noise against the metal.
Now both Steve’s feet hung off the back of the car. His forearms burned. His belly heaved. And then Steve felt a hand grab the back of his calf. Steve kicked hard. The hand let go. He pulled himself forward a few inches, and scrambled around to see who had grabbed him.
It was Chuy. He was grabbing the ladder with one hand, his eyes worried but alert. He held out his free arm.
“You crazy, guey?” he shouted. “Grab my hand!”
“You crazy, guey?”
CHAPTER XLII
FULL STEAM AHEAD
“SO WE JUST FLATTENED OURSELVES before we went through the tunnel,” Claire was saying.
“Yeah, we just totally hit the deck,” Dana said.
“And then after we came out, we were still lying there, and then Chuy came up and helped us down.”
Steve and Claire and Dana sat together on a couch in the observation room of the Vanderdraaks’ car. The three of them were just wrapping up their story for Mr. and Mrs. Vanderdraak, who sat, looking worried, across from the kids. Chuy stood close by, shifting bashfully when he was mentioned. Cy Marriner leaned against the wall in the corner, looking angry. He watched Steve, even though Claire was talking—Steve felt like Cy had been looking at him more than the other two ever since they got back in the car. It made Steve uneasy. He sipped on his watermelon juice, which had been brought by O’Rourke.
“And the thief?” Mr. Vanderdraak said. “The man in the mask?”
“Gone,” Steve said. “I don’t know. Maybe he jumped off the train or something.”
Mr. Vanderdraak pursed his lips. “Yes,” he said quietly.
“I hope you kids know you’re lucky to be alive,” Mrs. Vanderdraak said. “And if it weren’t for Chuy, I don’t know what would have happened. Thank you, Chuy.”
“No problem,” he said, looking at the ground.
She turned back to Steve. “What were you thinking, charging up there?”
Steve felt defensive. “I was trying to catch the guy who was stealing your car.”
“Yes, well, we’ve hired a detective to do that,” she said. “An adult detective.”
“Yeah, well, the adult detective wasn’t around,” Steve said, looking at Cy.
Cy’s eyes narrowed. Steve refused to look away, even though he wanted to.
“Then you should have told one of us,” Mrs. Vanderdraak said. “An adult.”
“Yes, where were you, Cy?” Mr. Vanderdraak asked.
“I was up front, checking out the passengers,” he said, not quite making eye contact with his boss.
“I want you back here from now on. We’re lucky the Phoebus wasn’t stolen.”
Cy ran his fingernails across the stubble on his face. “And how,” he asked, “was this guy going to steal a car from a moving train?”
Steve was surprised when Mr. Vanderdraak looked at him for help. Steve swallowed the last of the watermelon juice to buy some time to think. “Well, I’m guessing there’s some sort of ramp back there, to load and unload cargo, right?”
Vanderdraak nodded.
“Lower the ramp and drive off the back.”
“Of a train going sixty miles per hour in the other direction,” Cy said, shaking his head.
“You got a better idea, Cy?” Steve crossed his arms. “How would you steal the car?”
“Well, I’m just glad everyone’s safe,” Mrs. Vanderdraak said. “O’Rourke, bring the kids some more watermelon juice.”
The gathering broke up soon after that. Chuy and Cy went back to the vault. Claire pulled out her book, and the Vanderdraaks excused themselves and went to their drawing room. Steve grabbed Dana’s arm and pulled him into the corridor by the kitchen.
“What’s up?” Dana said, annoyed at being led around.
“The investigation continues,” Steve said.
“What are you talking about?” Dana asked.
“Are you serious?” Steve tilted his head and stared at his chum.
“Yeah, I’m serious. I thought you were retired.”
“I was. And then I came out of retirement.”
“For one last case. To find Claire. Well, we found her.” Dana pointed back to the observation room. “So why don’t you go talk to her?”
“Why?” Steve asked.
“Please. Dude, she likes you. She told me she thinks you’re funny.”
Steve wanted to hear more, but instead he said, “So what?” He pulled his notebook out of his pocket. “Check this out. We know whoever tried to kill me in the sauna and then steal the Phoebus is probably someone in this car,” Steve said.
“How do we know that?”
“Because he knew how to open the cargo door in the vault. And he was wearing a mask. Why would he wear a mask unless he was afraid we would recognize him?”
“So we couldn’t describe him to the police?” Dana said.
Steve thought about that for a second. Dana was getting better at sleuthing. “Yeah, but that’s the less likely reason. Anyway, I need to ask you. Before you and Claire joined me and Mrs. Vanderdraak in the dressing room, you were hanging out with her husband in the observation room, right?”
“Yeah.”
Steve wrote something in the notebook.
“Steve,” Dana said. “This isn’t even your case. It’s Claire’s uncle’s.”
Steve looked up and smiled. “But what if the detective is also the criminal?”
CHAPTER XLIII
SOUTHPAW
Steve handed his notebook over to Dana. It was opened to this page:
MYSTERY:
WHO TRIED TO KILL ME
AND THEN STEAL THE PHOEBUS? NAME
NAME
MOTIVE
OPPORTUNITY
MEANS
Mrs. V
????
No. Was with me in the dressing room.
Mr. V
Not really. He already owns the Phoebus.
No. He was in the observation car.
Chuy
Likes cars. Would make him rich.
No. He rescued us from inside the train.
O’Rourke
For the money.
Don’t know where he was.
No. He is really old.
Rick
Jerk.
Not really. Was probably napping and doesn’t even know about the Phoebus.
Cy Marriner
Jerk and money.
YES.
“Why is Rick on here?” Dana asked.
“Just in case. Anyway that’s not important. Cy is the only one with motive, means, and opportunity.”
Dana looked impatient. “Okay, but that still doesn’t mean he did it. It just means he could have done it. And how would he get back in the train from on top of it?”
Steve chewed on his pen. “I’ve been working on that. Maybe he slipped down in between cars.”
Dana’s face was all irritated disbelief.
“Okay, okay. Maybe he has a confederate up in the engine or something. Or someone opened a window.”
“Steve. The windows don’t open.”
“Maybe one window opens.”
Dana shook his head. “We still don’t have any evidence.”
Steve put his hands on his hips. “We have one piece of evidence.”
“What.”
“He’s a southpaw!”
“What?” Dana asked.
“The guy in the mask. He’s a southpaw.”
“What’s a southpaw?”
“It’s what the Bailey Brothers call someone who’s left-handed.”
“Why don’t they just say left-handed?”
“Well, they do, sometimes. But I think it’s a boxing term. You know, because Shawn Bailey is the best boxer in Benson Bay, except for maybe Kevin Bailey? Anyway, ‘southpaw’ just sounds cooler.”
“Okay, so the guy was left-handed. So?”
“So check this out.” Steve headed down the corridor to the vault. Chuy and Cy were talking by the driver-side door of the Phoebus. Both men looked up when Steve and Dana entered.
Steve reached in his pocket and dug out a grape Jolly Rancher. “Hey, Cy,” he said. “Want some candy?”