The Case of Dunc's Doll (6 page)

“Unless what?”

“Unless we give him a substitute. Amos,” Dunc said. “Come over here by the dog and give me your arm.…”

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“I think it worked out fairly well, don't you?” Dunc said. They were sitting on the front steps to Dunc's house. Dunc wasn't allowed to leave the boundaries of the porch until he was forty-six years old. Amos's parents were more lenient and had restricted him for only a week, with extra conditions. It had been two weeks since they had rescued the doll.

“I don't see how you can say that.” Amos shook his head. “I had to dress up like a girl, was half swallowed by a Rottweiler—I
still
have spit in my ears—and I have to call home every hour on the hour for the rest of my life.”

“Those two are in jail, and we got the reward, didn't we? A thousand dollars?”

“Right,” Amos snorted. “And then we gave it back to the guy with the dolls so he can use it to take that motor home around and do the shows.”

“It seemed the best thing to do.”

“Giving away a thousand dollars
isn't
the best thing to do. Ever. I can think of many best things to do, but that isn't one of them.”

“He gave us each a doll, didn't he?”

Amos looked at Dunc and didn't say anything, and Dunc nodded.

“I know, I know. It was an original set of Barbie and Ken dolls from the sixties. But he said they were collector's items and would be worth a lot of money someday.”

“I gave mine to Melissa yesterday,” Amos said. “It was kind of a present.”

“Well there, you see? What did she do?”

“She's still laughing, but I don't know if it was the dolls or my hair. I can't get it to comb right. Dog spit makes it stand up funny. I think I had my head in that dog's mouth a little too long. I keep wanting to smell tires and chase cats.” He stopped. Dunc was looking at a series of maps.

“What are you looking at?”

“There's a river rafting trip scheduled for next month. It's sponsored by the chamber of commerce, and I happen to know there are two seats still left. I was just looking at the map, and it goes through a place that looks interesting.”

“What's that?”

“Down here, in the middle of the Brant Wilderness area—see here? There's a place called Dead Man's Chute. I read an article about that in the paper a month or so ago. It seems that four or five people have disappeared over the years, all right in that one place. I thought it would be something to go down there with the rafting trip—wait a minute, where are you going?”

Amos was halfway to the street. “Home. Forever. Good-bye.”

“Melissa,” Dunc said.

Amos stopped. Turned. “Melissa what?”

“She's going on the rafting trip.”

Amos stared. “For sure?”

Dunc nodded. “I got it from my parents, who got it from her parents. Direct. It seems to me that sooner or later she'd
have
to talk to you, floating for a week on a raft.”

Amos looked up at the sky, the trees. He sighed. “All right. When do we leave?”

When Dunc Culpepper and his best friend, Amos, first see the parrot in a pet store, they're not impressed—it's smelly, scruffy, and missing half its feathers. They're only slightly impressed when they learn that the parrot speaks four languages, has outlived ten of its owners, and is probably 150 years old. But when the bird starts mouthing off about buried treasure, Dunc and Amos get pretty excited—let the amateur sleuthing begin!

Dunc and Amos are researching the Civil War cannon that stands in the town square when they find a note inside telling them about a time portal. Entering it through the dressing room of La Petite, a women's clothing store, the boys find themselves in downtown Chatham on
March 8, 1862—the day before the historic clash between the Monitor and the Merrimack. But the Confederate soldiers they meet mistake them for Yankee spies. Will they make it back to the future in one piece?

(August 1992)

Best friends Dunc and Amos meet up with a new buddy named Lash when they enter the radical world of skateboard competition. When somebody “cops”—steals—Lash's prototype skateboard, the boys are determined to get it back. After all, Lash is about to shoot for a totally rad world's record! Along the way they learn a major lesson:
never
kiss a monkey!

(September 1992)