Stolen Secrets (14 page)

Chapter 52

Sam drove me to basketball practice.
I still had bruises around my eyes.

Coach Baldwin worked on fundamentals. That meant we ran a lot, passed a lot, and didn’t shoot much. The tournament was coming, and he wanted us in shape. We had beaten every team we faced except for Coronado, so we felt good about our chances.

“It’s tough to beat a team three times in the same year,” Coach said. “I’ve got some strategy for that big guy.”

“Use Bryce’s head for defense,” Duncan Swift said.

Everybody laughed, including me, but it hurt. Duncan’s the kind of guy who competes at everything. Sports, math, even bathroom visits. After a Super-Mega Slushie, I once timed myself and told Duncan I had gone for 58 seconds. The next day he said he had gone a minute and 20 seconds after drinking 16 lemonades. I didn’t believe him, but I vowed never to tell him anything concerning bodily functions again. I figured I might need a transplant if we kept it up.

As we got dressed, Riley Coleman, our biggest player, started talking about how cute Cammy and Tracy are.

“I hear Cammy’s dad is mean as a snake,” Duncan said.

“
Mean
isn’t the word for it,” Riley said. “And it’s her stepdad. You know how they can be.”

I shivered. Sam was our stepdad, and though he had never been mean to us, I had my questions.

“My sister says Cammy’s mom is no better,” Carlos said. “She yelled at my mom at the library.”

“Tracy’s mom’s a yeller too,” Riley said. “I saw her chew Tracy out in the Blockbuster parking lot. She threw a DVD at her.”

I had to tell Ashley. As I walked outside I found Sam sitting on a rock. He was on the phone, facing the Front Range.

“. . . I think I owe them that much, don’t you?” Sam said forcefully. “Tim, I disagree. You’ve never been in my situation. How could you possibly know . . . ?”

I stopped and tried to listen, but Sam noticed me and lowered his voice. He clicked his phone shut. “How’d practice go?”

“Who was that?” I said.

Sam hesitated. “Just business.”

Chapter 53

Mom asked me
to get some sweet corn from the freezer in the barn. Now
that
I knew we had.

But I was wrong. It was gone. And so was everything else.

I walked slowly back inside, staring at the red rocks behind our house. Sam had warned us not to climb them without the right gear, that the holes in the rocks made perfect places for animals. Bryce and I had driven around them, and we’d climbed a few feet, but we’d never
really
explored the rocks.

I opened the kitchen freezer and pulled out a dwindling bag of peas. “Mom, we must have used the corn already.”

“You hate peas,” she said.

She was right. “All I am saying is give peas a chance,” I said.

She shook her head.

During dinner I asked if Bryce and I could take a quick ride out to the red rocks.

Sam looked at the setting sun. The days were getting longer and warmer. “For a few minutes,” he said. “But be back by dark.”

Chapter 54

I had no idea
what Ashley was up to, but I wasn’t about to pass up a ride on the ATVs. About halfway to the rocks, she slowed and motioned for me to stop. “Something’s going on out here. There’s more stuff gone from the freezer, and remember the weird glow the other night?”

“Where?” Bryce said.

“Near the praying hands.”

There’s a formation of rocks that looks like two hands touching, with a V-shaped hole underneath. To me it looks more like two porcupines rubbing noses.

We had to slow when we reached a rocky area near the base of the formation. Small red stones dotted the landscape. If you run over one of them going fast you can flip.

Ashley veered right, stopped, and got off the Ashleymobile. I pulled close as she held up a piece of melted plastic. She pointed at a white swan near the top of the bag. “Our corn.”

“Could have blown out of the trash,” I said.

“Yeah, but how did it melt?” She stuffed the bag in her pocket.

We continued up to a plateau where we parked. The red rocks blocked our view of the house now, and the setting sun shone through the opening of the praying hands.

“Somebody’s up in that big cave below the hands,” Ashley said. “If there was a fire in there, it would glow up through the hands and we’d see it, don’t you think?”

We jogged up the path to get a better view. The rocks are about as long as two football fields, and around the base are scrub oaks and wildflowers. We climbed, hopping from one rock to another.

Suddenly something screamed above us.

Ashley turned, white-faced. “Mountain lion!”

Chapter 55

As we flew down toward our vehicles,
I kept waiting for the wildcat to jump on our backs and drag one of us away. On the local news I’d seen stories about mountain lions attacking dogs in backyards. Kids had been picked off while walking ahead of their parents on remote trails.

People tell mountain lion tales all the time. At a retreat near Colorado Springs a few years ago women were outside, sipping tea, watching a flock of bighorn sheep graze on the hillside. Suddenly, one of the women screamed as a mountain lion jumped one of the sheep and tore it apart. Blood everywhere. The women ran inside while the mountain lion had his own tea and cookies.

Mom and I hate that story, but Bryce tells it as often as he can, and he always exaggerates the bloody part.

Mountain lion attacks usually happen in the summer, and since it was still spring, Bryce and I should have been safe, but we weren’t taking any chances.

We jumped on our ATVs and raced away, careful of rocks and ruts. Halfway home I stopped.

Bryce pulled up beside me. “Scary, huh?”

I nodded, trying to catch my breath. “I’d hate to have to go home and tell them a cougar ate you.”

Bryce pointed to his face. “I look like a bruised banana. He would have taken one look at you and pounced.” He looked back. “What are we going to do about our helmets?”

I hadn’t even noticed we’d left them. “We can go back tomorrow,” I said. “Those things don’t feed early in the day.”

“They feed when they’re hungry,” Bryce said.

Chapter 56

That night I stayed up late
looking for the glow Ashley talked about. I saw nothing but starry skies and heard only the occasional cry of baby coyotes. I dreamed of a monster wildcat attacking us with teeth as big as my hand. Ashley and I were running toward the house when the cat veered off and went for Dylan.

That’s all I can remember, but when I woke up I had to go to Dylan’s room and make sure he was okay. He sleeps with his mouth open, so it sounds like Thomas the Tank Engine pulling into the station.

After breakfast the next morning, Ashley occupied Mom and I stole outside to the barn. I pushed the ATV outside to the back so it wouldn’t make too much noise. Just before I turned the key, I heard someone behind me.

“See anything last night?” Sam said, a coffee cup in his hands.

“Not really,” I said.
We didn’t see anything. We simply heard a cougar scream.

“Going back for your helmets?” Sam said.

I nodded.
Was he spying on us?
Sam always seemed to know a lot more than we thought.

“Be careful.”

The cool air felt good in my hair as I sped along. The biggest adventure most kids have before school is brushing their teeth, but I was going into the teeth of mountain lion country.

I slowed when I came to the back of the rock formation, looking carefully right and left. We’d left the helmets on the plateau. I swallowed hard, then accelerated to the path. Something sparkling in the golden sunlight caught my eye. There’s nothing like a Colorado sunrise.

I drove left and couldn’t believe my eyes.

Our helmets.

Someone had placed them on the rocks.