Dead Is So Last Year (13 page)

I concentrated and then tried the rope again. It definitely gave when I moved. I slowly moved my wrists, careful not to attract the doctor's attention. She was focused on clearing out the lab and only glanced over once or twice.

"My hands are free," I said to Ryan. I slid my hands into my sweatshirt pockets, hoping to find my cell phone or something. Instead, my fingers found the cookies we'd bought at Slim's. What good were sweets to me at a time like this?

Plenty good, considering that we were in a room full of hungry doppelgangers.

Mort's double picked that moment to dig in his heels. "No more work," he stated. "Donuts."

The rest of the doubles crowded around her. As they loomed over Dr. Franken, I managed to reach over and untie Ryan. The doubles' mutterings were becoming ominous, when the lights flickered, then everything went dark.

CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

It was completely silent
in the lab for a minute. But then there was a knock on the laboratory door, and Chief Mendez's voice came through. "Dr. Franken, open up. I have a few questions for you."

I heard Dr. Franken say in a low voice, "It's locked and barricaded. That'll give us a few minutes. Through the tunnel and hurry. Giordano, you know what to do."

At first I thought she was talking to me, but then I realized that she called all the doubles by the last name of the original. She was talking to my DoppelDad.

The lab was still dark and I could only make out hazy shapes, but I heard the sounds of Dr. Franken's creations exiting. I thought they'd all gone, but then I heard the sound of something being poured and the snick of a lighter.

"You've got to be kidding me!" I said. "They're actually going to set fire to the lab. With us still in it?"

Dr. Franken said, "You always were a smart girl." I saw her face after she lit a match. Then she threw it but didn't watch to see if it caught. She headed for the tunnel.

Time to use the powers Poppy had been coaching me on. To my relief, I managed to move the fire extinguisher across the room and get it to douse the flame before it reached the pool of what I suspected was a highly combustible chemical or plain old gasoline. From the smell, I gathered Dr. Franken had gone the traditional route: Gas.

I needed to do something, anything. Anything besides panic, that is.

Ryan and I needed to leave, but our choices were following the doctor through the tunnel or exiting the lab some other way.

Our best chance was to move the barricades from in front of the lab door. I concentrated, hard, and then finally, the heavy tables skidded across the floor. The door was still locked, but I could hear Chief Mendez giving orders.

There was a pause and then the sound of footsteps returning. Dr. Franken back to finish the job?

Instead, my DoppelDad approached me. "Daisy, I'm going to untie you and your friend. But you can't go out the tunnel with me. It's not safe. You'll have to find another way out."

I showed him my hands. "Already taken care of."

I felt a pang when he touched my face. "That's my girl."

"I'm not, though, am I?"

He looked at me a moment. "No," he replied. "But I wish you were."

I dug into my pocket and handed him the cookie. "For the road."

He took it from me with a smile. "Thank you."

"You'd better go," I said.

Just then the door burst open and Chief Mendez walked in, followed by Samantha's dad.

DoppelDad launched himself at the tunnel opening and disappeared.

"We've got to get out of here," I said. "There are chemicals everywhere and Dr. Franken poured gas all over the furniture."

We ran out of the building and retreated to a safe distance at the end of the street.

Chief Mendez was on his radio calling for fire trucks and for safety personnel to evacuate the building. The fire was out, but there were still volatile chemicals in the room.

"What about Dr. Franken and the doubles?" I asked Ryan's dad.

"I already have men stationed at the mouth of the tunnel. They'll get them when they emerge," he replied.

Sam's dad said, "Daisy, remember, he's not your father. He may look like him, but he's just a copy." I wasn't sure who he was trying to convince, me or himself.

"I know, Mr. Devereaux."

I had something to tell my family, something I'd discovered when reading Dr. Franken's mind, but I wanted to wait until my mom was home, too. Maybe the news would wipe the sad look off Poppy's face. She'd been convinced that Dad's double was the real thing, I was sure of it.

Ryan and I hitched a ride back downtown with Samantha's dad. I called my sisters on the way and gave them a rundown of what had happened. Mr. Devereaux slowed in front of the police station, where all the action seemed to be.

We parked the car and hopped out.

Poppy and Rose were already there, standing at the edge of a crowd, who were all watching the drama unfold.

"What's happening?" I said.

"They've arrested Dr. Franken for attempted murder and a bunch of other things," Poppy said. "They're taking her to the state police station."

Deputy Denton had Dr. Franken in cuffs. He put her in the squad car and drove off. But no one seemed to know what to do about the doubles. Without their leader, the doubles milled around the station parking lot, surrounded by wary-looking police. Mort's double was still whining about being hungry, and his complaints were getting louder and louder.

I noticed Mr. Devereaux avoided looking at the double of my dad. DoppelDad gave me a little wave when he saw us, but his hand was trembling. The rest of the doubles looked to be in worse shape. Some of them were holding their stomachs and groaning.

DoppelDad dashed next door to the donut shop and started rummaging through the garbage.

Ryan said, "What is he doing?"

DoppelDad was dumpster-diving again.
Eeww.
The other doppels followed suit.

"What's wrong with them?" Rose said in horror.

"They're hungry," I said. "I think they need sugar."

Ryan said, "I'll go buy a box of donuts. That should tide them over."

I smiled at him gratefully. DoppelDad was a phony, but I didn't want him to suffer.

That reminded me. I needed to tell my sisters what I'd discovered when I dipped into Dr. Franken's mind. I pulled them aside, but before I could spill it, Mort's double collapsed.

Like a row of bowling pins, the rest of the doppelgangers fell to the ground. DoppelDad was the last to fall. I rushed to his side, with Rose and Poppy swift on my heels.

I grabbed DoppelDad's hand. "Ryan will be here any minute, with donuts. Just hang on!"

"It's too late," he said. "But Daisy, I want you to know I was proud to be your dad, even though I'm not the real thing."

I choked back a sob. It was awful to see them all suffering like this. How could Dr. Franken do such a thing?

"And there's one more thing," he said. "Your father, your real one, I mean. He's—"

"Shh. Don't talk," I said. "I know, he's still alive."

"How did you know?" he wheezed.

"Dr. Franken's mind was full of information. I'm psychic, remember?" I gave Rose a guilty look. I hadn't had a chance to tell her.

"The Scourge," he said. "Did you find out where—" His sentence ended on a gasp and he fell silent.

I looked around. The doppelgangers were all slowly melting. Within minutes, most of them had disappeared completely.

Ryan came back, carrying a pink box, which he dropped as the last doppelganger, my DoppelDad, disappeared. I saw tears cascading down my sisters' cheeks.

Ryan put his arms around me. "What happened?"

"They just all evaporated." I choked back a tear.

Rose said, "There must have been a weakness in their makeup."

"They all were jonesing hard for sugar right before they died," I said. "I think Dr. Franken hadn't been feeding them properly."

"At the lab, they were all complaining that they were starving," Ryan added.

Then everyone fell silent. We stayed there until the crowd left, not talking. It was late, but none of us felt like going home. No one felt like doing anything.

CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

Finally, Poppy said,
with a falsely bright smile, "Who's hungry? It looks like Slim's is still open."

I thought food would probably choke me right now, but I played along. "I could use a coffee," I said.

Ryan kissed the top of my head. "Me, too. I'll see if Dad wants to join us when he's through."

He went to talk to his dad, and then we headed for the front door of Slim's, right across the street from the precinct. Poppy made a beeline for our favorite table.

Flo was working and she grabbed a pot of coffee and several cups and brought it over to our table. "I heard you had a rough night," she said.

"The roughest." I smiled at her gratefully. I was thankful she didn't ask any questions about what had happened. Knowing Flo, she probably already knew the entire story, anyway.

I heard a giggle and looked over. Natalie was in a corner booth, talking animatedly to what seemed to be nothing, but I knew it was Slim when I heard a deep laugh. He sounded happy. Evidently, she'd gotten over being mad about his spying on her grandmother.

I whispered to Flo, "I guess they made up?"

"I guess they did." She sounded gleeful. "You know, Natalie's good for Slim. He's much happier since they started dating. It's not easy being ... different."

I looked again toward the booth where they sat. "They seem good together."

"They are," she said. "But Natalie's familiar keeps leaving cat hair all over the bathroom."

"Cat hair? You mean Natalie's moved in?"

She nodded. "Still, he's happy. That's what matters."

After she'd taken our orders, I looked around the table at my friends and family. I wanted to tell all of them what I'd learned in the professor's mucky mind, but I wasn't sure how to talk to them about it.

A thought struck me. "Dr. Franken admitted she planned to replace council members with doppelgangers."

" That would mean she would have control over Nightshade's paranormal community," Poppy said.

"And she'd ruin their reputations while she did it, just for fun," Rose said indignantly.

I thought about it. "That's probably why DoppelDad was chasing all those girls. To make our real dad look bad."

"Either that or Dr. Franken planned to murder the real council members and replace them with their doppelgangers," Ryan said grimly.

Penny Edwards walked in and I wondered why Dr. Franken had chosen to make a double of her. It was obvious to me now that the
nice
Penny had to be a fake.

It made me sad to think of it. I liked the Penny Edwards double much better than the real thing.

Poppy broached the subject that was on all our minds, and none too gently. "So what was DoppelDad talking about when he said he
knew
Dad was still alive?"

"I wanted to talk to everyone about that," I replied. I grabbed Ryan's hand for support. "When I was reading Dr. Franken's mind, it confirmed that she was part of the Scourge and they abducted Dad to use his research on paranormal genes. I only had a second, so I didn't find out anything else."

Rose said, "It's shocking to think that someone at UC Nightshade was involved with the Scourge. Dad probably trusted Dr. Franken, and she gave him up to the enemy."

There was silence around the table.

Poppy said softly, "I knew it. I knew he would never leave us. Not willingly."

"What are we going to do now?" Rose said.

"Maybe we can get her to talk," I suggested.

"Or I can make her tell us the hard way," Rose said. My normally sweet sister looked menacing.

We hadn't noticed that Chief Mendez had strolled up to our table until he cleared his throat. "I'm afraid that won't be possible," he said. "Dr. Franken fooled us. It turns out we arrested her doppelganger. By the time the deputy realized his mistake, the real doctor had escaped. We have an APB out, but so far there's no sign of her anywhere."

"She's probably long gone," Rose said. "I'll bet she's headed for the Scourge's headquarters or one of their safe houses."

Everyone around the table looked glum. Even the arrival of the food didn't cheer anyone up. Poppy halfheartedly picked at a fry.

Sean and Samantha rushed in. "We heard there was a fire at the lab," Samantha said. "Is everyone okay?"

"It's a long story," I told her. "But we're all fine."

Sean pulled up a couple of chairs and they joined us.

"Let's look on the bright side," Ryan said. "We know a lot more than we did before. We know your dad is alive, he's been held captive, and that the Scourge is involved. It's a start."

Rose smiled at him. "It certainly is."

Nicholas said, "We'll help, Daisy. Everyone will."

As Ryan had said, it was a start. I finally believed that my father hadn't deserted us. I'd wasted years doubting him, but now it was time to make up for that. We'd look for him. It would be dangerous, taking on the Scourge, but we had our friends and family in Nightshade to help us.

I slid out of the booth and put a quarter in the jukebox. Maybe Lil had something to tell me, something that I was finally ready to hear.

"Where's my father?" I said, before punching a random selection. "I Wanna Be Sedated" by the Ramones came on and my shoulders slumped. The jukebox didn't have a clue.

I went back to the table. "Any luck?" Ryan asked.

"I don't think so," I said. But then the music cut off and a song I'd never heard came on.

"What is this?" I said.

My sisters shrugged, but Chief Mendez answered," 'Working My Way Back to You' by Frankie Valli."

Rose's cell rang. "Hi, Mom," she said, after looking at the number. "Yes, we're all here."

She listened, looking stunned. "I'll let
you
tell them. Hang on while I put you on speaker," she managed to say after a moment.

Whatever it was, it was big news. Poppy picked up on it, too. "What? What is it?"

Rose held up the phone with shaking hands. Mom's voice came through loud and clear. "Girls, I'm bringing your father home."

I think we made all the right noises, but after the phone call ended, we sat there silently, barely daring to hope. Was it possible that the
real
Rafe Giordano was finally coming home? Was this what my mother's secret mission in Italy had been all about?

I knew that, sooner or later, my father would come back to us and all my questions would be answered. After all, we were in Nightshade and Slim's jukebox had never been wrong before.

You just had to listen very closely. You had to listen with your heart.

Acknowledgments

Thanks to the fabulous people at Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, including Sarah, Barb, Jen, and Julie. Thanks to Marissa Perez and Tim Warner for great song suggestions. Thanks to Indie 103.1 for playing the best music ever. Thanks to Elise Broach, Mary Pearson, and Melissa Wyatt for letting me use their names for nefarious purposes (in the books, of course!) Thanks to LJ and Terry for putting up with my angsting. Big thanks to the best in-laws in the world. And thanks to my husband, who never lets me take myself too seriously.