by Dave Barry
Then I snuck out my bedroom window and rode my bike over to Matt’s house.
He was waiting by the garage, inside which were two paddleboards. We rode with these, plus paddles, on our bikes, which wasn’t easy, about half a mile to the canal that runs through Coral Gables past Bay Estates. We hid our bikes under a bridge, carried the paddleboards down the bank, and slid them into the canal. Then we got on them and started paddling toward Bay Estates.
This is when I started seriously wishing I’d told Matt I wasn’t going to be part of the plan. The canal water was dark and creepy looking. The canal banks were steep on both sides, sometimes basically just walls of coral. We went past a bunch of houses. A lot of them had boats tied up to docks in the canal. The houses were up high above us on either side. They were all lit up, which only made it feel darker down in the canal. When we went under bridges there was no light at all.
And then Matt had to mention alligators. Which we actually do have in the canals. You don’t see them that often, but they’re there. I’ve even seen a shark. It was a small shark. But it was still a shark.
And the water was really black.
Finally we reached the bridge right before Bay Estates. We stopped under it and considered the situation up ahead. On the right side of the canal we could see the really bright lights that lit up the Bay Estates security gate. Past that on the right were the giant boats docked next to the giant mansions inside the development.
On the left side of the canal was a row of smaller boats docked next to smaller houses. This was the less-fancy neighborhood where Victor lived. Supposedly he was out in his backyard now. The plan was for Matt to call Victor’s cell when we got to this bridge. Then the two of them would stay in touch by phone. Matt was wearing one of those Bluetooth ear things that make everybody look ridiculous, but especially Matt.
He was calling Victor now.
“Hello?” he said. “It’s me. We’re at the bridge….Right…Fourth house down. Got it. Okay.” Matt looked at me. “You ready?”
“No,” I said. I actually kind of meant it, but Matt took it as a joke and started paddling. I followed him, the two of us keeping to the right side of the canal, so anybody up on the bank wouldn’t see us. We passed the guardhouse, and soon we were alongside the first Bay Estates house, which had a boat docked next to it that looked like a cruise ship. We kept going, Matt every now and then saying something to Victor. When we were between boats we saw huge lawns leading up to the hotel-size mansions of Bay Estates, with resort-size pools and patios with those serious outdoor kitchens that rich people never seem to actually cook anything in, but they have them anyway because they’re expensive and all the other rich people have them.
When we got next to the third house Matt stopped paddling. I stopped behind him.
“Okay,” he said into his Bluetooth thing.
“Victor’s launching his drone,” he told me.
We listened, drifting on our paddleboards. For a minute all I heard was water lapping against the boats. Then I heard a hum, and there it was, swooping over us, a four-blade drone, flying past the little sliver of moon.
“Victor sees us,” said Matt. “Let’s go.”
We started paddling again, following the drone to the fourth house. This one had several boats out front—a huge one and a couple of smaller ones, which were still pretty big.
It also had something none of the other houses had: a wall. A high wall, ten feet at least. It ran next to the dock. In the middle there was a big, serious-looking steel door, closed.
“There’s a wall,” I said. This probably was not necessary.
“I know,” said Matt.
“So if that door is locked, which I’m guessing it is, how are we supposed to get in?”
“Victor thinks we can get in by that tree.” Matt pointed to the far end of the wall, where it turned a corner at the end of the dock. Just around the corner was a huge banyan tree, the kind that spreads out wide and has lots of big roots running down to the ground from branches. It was growing on the canal bank just inside the wall, but some of the roots had come down outside, like the tree was trying to swallow the wall. It did look like the tree might be climbable, which I have to admit made my heart sink a little, because I was starting to hope that we’d have to abandon our mission.
We paddled between two of the boats and moved along the dock until we came to a ladder. We tossed our paddles onto the dock then climbed the ladder, dragging the paddleboards with us. We stood on the dock, looking around. I could just hear Victor’s drone, hovering on the other side of the wall.
“Okay,” whispered Matt into his Bluetooth thing.
“Victor says everything looks good,” Matt whispered to me.
Easy for Victor to say, standing in his own backyard.
Just in case, I tried the knob on the big metal door. Locked. We dragged our paddleboards over to the banyan tree and leaned them against the wall, then looked at the tree roots. Victor was right: They were climbable. Matt didn’t wait. He grabbed one and started up. He’s a little guy and a fast climber. In ten seconds he was on top of the wall.
“You coming?” he whispered.
“Yeah,” I said.
It took me a little longer to get to the top. I crouched next to Matt, the two of us looking out onto the Bevin compound. In the distance we could see the house, another gigantic mansion, like other ones in Bay Estates. What was different was the yard. The others were mostly lawns and landscaping, with lots of lighting.
The Bevin yard was dark.
We could make out some round shapes in the darkness—big grass mounds, they looked like. But except for a few low, dim footpath lights, it was black out there.
“Why’s it so dark?” I whispered.
“I dunno,” said Matt. “Let’s go find Frank.”
He started climbing down, which was easier than coming up the other side, because we had the whole rest of the tree to use as a ladder. I followed him down into the darkness. A couple of things were on my mind. How exactly were we going to find Frank? We didn’t have what I would call a detailed plan. We’d spent more time thinking about getting into the Bevin compound than what we’d do when we got there. We were hoping that once we got inside, we’d see a cage or something. But here in the darkness, inside the wall, we couldn’t really see anything.
And that was the other thing: Why was it so dark?
And what was the reason for this huge wall? To keep people out?
Or to keep something in?
Matt started forward on what I guess was a path. I was right behind him. When he stopped, I almost bumped into him.
“What is it?” I whispered.
“It’s Victor,” he whispered. “He says somebody’s coming.”
“Who’s coming?” I whispered.
“Guys with flashlights,” said Matt.
“Where are they?”
He held up a hand, telling me to be quiet while he listened on the Bluetooth.
“They’re coming from the house,” he whispered. “There’s a path down the middle of the yard.”
That was to our right.
“This way,” I whispered, moving to the wall on the left side of the yard. There was a grass-covered mound there, maybe six feet high, a few yards from the wall. We went behind it and stopped. After a few seconds we could hear men’s voices coming toward us.
“It’s three guys,” whispered Matt. “They’re heading toward the dock.”
We listened as the men went past, talking just loud enough so we could hear voices, but not loud enough so we could understand what they were saying. It didn’t sound like the brothers, though. It sounded like older guys.
We heard the dock gate open, then close with a CLUNK.
“They’re outside,” said Matt.
“What are they doing? Are they getting on a boat?”
“No. They’re just standing there on the dock. Let’s go.”
“Wait…Go where?”
“To find Fran
k.”
“What about those guys?”
“They went that way. We’re going this way.” Matt started walking toward the house.
Ordinarily, Matt is the most chicken person I know who is not literally a chicken. But all of a sudden he was acting like some kind of ninja. Never underestimate a boy’s love for his ferret, I guess. I wasn’t thrilled about going toward the house with guys walking around outside, but I was less thrilled about being left alone in the dark. So I followed Matt.
We passed behind some more grass-covered mounds, stopping in the shadows at the edge of the last one. Ahead of us was the pool and patio area in back of the house. The house had a lot of big windows, and it was all lit up, so we could see most of the inside. The middle of the ground floor was a huge living room with wide marble stairs on the far side. To the right of that was what looked like a dining room. To the left was another big room that had a TV screen the size of a garage door. That room was dark, but the TV was on, showing Fast and Furious 7, the movie where a bunch of guys supposedly drive cars out of a cargo plane flying at ten thousand feet, which is actually one of the more realistic parts of the plot. The volume was cranked way up; it was loud even outside. We could see the back of a long sofa facing the screen, but we couldn’t tell if anybody was on it.
We didn’t see anybody in any of the upstairs windows.
“The bedrooms are probably upstairs,” said Matt.
“You think that’s where they’d have Frank?”
“I guess so.”
Matt whispered into his Bluetooth, “Victor, are they still on the dock?”
Victor must’ve said yes, because Matt said to me, “Okay, let’s go.”
We left the shadows, walked around the pool, and hurried across the patio. We were totally visible if anybody was looking our way. I looked back toward the yard. I could see the footpath, lit by dim little lights near the ground running down to the dock. But I didn’t see anybody on the footpath.
We were outside the living room. It had a set of big double doors. Matt tried one of the door handles. It turned; the door wasn’t locked. He pulled the door open slowly. We were blasted by the soundtrack from Fast and Furious. Matt stepped into the living room. I followed. Just like that, we were inside the Bevin brothers’ house.
You know how some people say that when they were in a really scary situation, they suddenly felt calm? That definitely did not happen to me. The only thing I suddenly felt was a strong urge to pee my pants. If I’d been alone I would have turned around and gotten the heck out of there.
But not Ninja Matt. He leaned close so I could hear him over the sound of Fast and Furious 7, looked me straight in the eye, and said, quote, “Let’s do this.”
Seriously, he said that. Like we were in a movie. Maybe he was inspired by Fast and Furious 7.
Then he turned and walked quickly across the living room to the stairs, with me jogging behind.
At the top of the stairs was a long hallway going in both directions, with doorways on both sides. The first door to our right was wide open. We looked inside: it was a bedroom—a big bedroom, with nobody in it. There were clothes scattered around the floor—Nick’s or Troy’s, it looked like. There was a big flat-screen TV mounted on the wall over a desk with a computer on it, next to an Apple watch—a gold one, with a black band—plugged into a charging cable. There was no sign of Frank.
There was another doorway directly across the hall. The door was closed. Matt and I looked at each other, then he kind of shrugged, turned the doorknob and opened the door. The room was dark, but by the light from the hall we could see that it was another bedroom, and there didn’t seem to be anybody in it. It also had the flat-screen TV, the desk, the computer, the Apple watch, even the clothes on the floor. Messy fellows, those Bevin brothers.
Matt reached in and turned on the overhead light. We stepped in and looked around.
We both saw it at the same time, by the wall next to the desk.
The snake cage.
It was the one Nick showed Matt in the video on his phone, except now the top was closed. We walked over to it. Roxy the python was inside, coiled up, not moving. She looked even bigger in real life than she did in the video.
Then Matt made a little high-pitched sound, and I saw why. On the floor on the other side of Roxy’s cage was another cage, a little wire one. Inside that cage—as opposed to inside Roxy—was Frank.
Matt opened the wire-cage door and took Frank out. I guess Frank was happy to see Matt—it’s hard to tell with a ferret—but Matt was definitely thrilled to see Frank. He actually kissed him. I know, ew, right? But that’s how happy Matt was. Even I was feeling pretty good.
This feeling lasted maybe 2.7 seconds. Which is how long it took me to notice something.
“Listen,” I whispered.
“What?” said Matt.
“Downstairs. Listen.”
He cocked his head, listening with his non-Bluetooth ear. “I don’t hear anything.”
“Exactly. The movie must be over.”
“Uh-oh,” whispered Matt.
“Yeah,” I whispered. “We better get—”
“Shh,” hissed Matt. He nodded his head toward the open bedroom door.
I listened, and there it was.
Footsteps, coming up the stairs.
And voices.
Bevin voices.
Matt gave me a terrified look, like What do we do? Apparently now that he had his ferret back he was no longer Ninja Matt.
I looked toward the door we entered, which was a way out, but which also led to the hallway, which is where the Bevins would be in a few seconds. The voices were getting closer.
We looked around. There were two other doors in the bedroom, both closed. A closet and a bathroom, probably.
Footsteps in the hall, getting closer.
I grabbed Matt’s arm and pulled him to the closest door. I opened it: it was a big closet. I pulled Matt inside and closed the door as quietly as I could. It was totally black in there. I could feel Matt standing next to me, but I couldn’t see him.
I heard somebody come into the bedroom. Then I heard the TV turn on, tuned to SportsCenter, which was all that I could hear for a little while. I realized that I wasn’t breathing, so I decided it would be a good idea to start breathing again, as quietly as possible.
From next to me in the darkness I heard a tiny voice in Matt’s Bluetooth earpiece. Matt leaned close to my ear and whispered, “Victor says a boat pulled up to the dock.”
“Okay,” I whispered.
“What are we gonna do?” he whispered.
“Hope he goes to sleep so we can sneak out of here.” Also pray he doesn’t open the closet door, I thought.
We listened to SportsCenter some more through the door. Then the TV went off.
“Hey, Troy!”
Matt and I both jumped. Nick’s voice was so close it sounded like he was in the closet with us. Matt grabbed my arm.
“What?” answered Troy’s muffled voice from across the hall.
“Did you open the ferret cage?”
“No. Why?”
“It’s gone.”
“What’s gone?”
“The ferret.”
“It’s gone?” Troy’s voice was closer. He was in the bedroom now.
“Yeah, and the cage door’s open.”
“You must’ve left it open.”
“No, I didn’t.”
“What, you think it let itself out?”
“I don’t know. I just know I didn’t let it out.”
“Maybe Roxy got it.”
“No, her cage is closed. But when I find it I’m definitely gonna feed it to her. I should’ve done it when we got home.”
Next to me in the dark I felt Matt tense up.
“Help me look for it,” said Troy. “It has to be around here somewhere.”
There were sounds of them moving around, opening and closing drawers. I was staring in the direction of the closet door, thinkin
g sooner or later one of them would open it. I tugged on Matt’s arm, pulling him toward the back of the closet. Feeling around for something to hide behind. I grabbed what felt like a shirt and pulled it in front of Matt and me. We had our backs pressed against the wall.
Then the closet door opened, and Nick was standing there. He was wearing shorts and no shirt. He looked like the Incredible Hulk, only more muscular.
I saw that what I’d grabbed was a T-shirt, and it didn’t really cover me or Matt. Nick was going to see us the second he turned on the closet light. Which he was reaching his hand out to do.
We were dead.
Then Nick’s phone rang.
His hand stopped an inch from the light switch. He pulled a phone from his shorts and said, “Yeah?” Then, “Okay.”
“They’re back,” he said to Troy.
“Let’s go,” said Troy. “I want to see it.”
Nick closed the closet door.
So we weren’t dead.
Yet.
We stayed in the closet another minute, making sure the Bevins were gone. I heard Matt’s Bluetooth earpiece talking again.
“Victor says a boat came and dropped off some kind of big box at the dock. The three guys are wheeling it up the path.”
“Ask him if he sees Troy and Nick,” I whispered.
Matt whispered, “Do you see the Bevin brothers?” Victor said something in his ear.
“He says yeah,” whispered Matt. “They just came out.”
“Let’s go,” I said.
Matt put Frank in the front pouch of his hoodie. Then we hurried out of the bedroom and down the stairs. We stopped at the bottom to look around the living room. It was empty.
“Ask Victor where they are now,” I said.
“Where are they now?” Matt said into his earpiece. After a pause, he told me, “They’re on the path. Victor said they’re all looking at the box, so we can leave now if we hurry.”
We hurried across the living room and out the patio door. Straight ahead was the path down to the dock. It was dark, but I could see the shapes of people about two-thirds of the way down.