The Magician's Bird (3 page)

The man with the floppy hat ignored her and headed for Laurie. “Excuse me, but did she say you're one of the kids? That solved the puzzle?”

His voice was so soft that Laurie almost couldn't hear him. She nodded hesitantly. She hadn't expected the creepy guy to try to make actual contact.

“I was hoping you could help me. I . . .” He trailed off, glancing back at Candy Winkle.

Laurie leaned forward a little in spite of herself, to try to catch what he was saying. “Help you?”

“I was hoping . . . you see, it's about Maria Tutweiler—”

“Sir! Excuse me, sir.” Candy Winkle tiptoed over, trying to keep her high heels from sinking into the yard. “Sir, please stay with the group. Leave the children alone, now. They're not a stop on the tour.”

She grabbed the man firmly by the shoulder and pushed him in the direction of the rest of the group. “Sorry to bother you, kids. Wave bye-bye now!”

Laurie wasn't sure exactly who Candy expected to wave bye-bye, but if they were leaving, she was game. She elbowed Bud in the ribs and did the big smile and
wave as the herd headed back around the corner and disappeared.

“Bye-bye!” Bud called.

“What did that guy want?” Misti sidled up to Laurie. “I like his shirt.”

Laurie shrugged. “Beats me. Maybe he had a question about the scavenger hunt?” Laurie frowned. She was glad Candy had gotten rid of him, but still, she would've liked to know what the heck he was talking about.

“OH!” Misti gave a little jump. “I almost forgot! I found the perfect place!”

She hurried into the shed and picked up the shovel.

“Good grief, Misti, didn't you listen to anything we said? We can't dig!” Bud said, scowling.

“I know, okay? But check this out.” She thumped the shovel against the wooden floor of the shed. “Hear that? Isn't that weird?”

Bud rolled his eyes. “It sounds like a floor.”

“No, listen!” Misti thumped again. “This part over here isn't the same as the rest of the floor.” She thumped on both sections to demonstrate. “See? It's kind of hollow sounding? Like, I don't know, different. And it feels weird, too, kind of springy or something. Less solid. See?” Misti bounced up and down and thumped again.

Laurie tried to hear the difference, but she just wasn't getting it. It was kind of irritating, to tell the truth. At least to Bud. He snapped.

“Misti, there is nothing weird about this floor, okay?” He stomped over and snatched the shovel out of her hands. “It's just a floor. See?” He did his own version of thumping, but he managed to make it sound sarcastic, somehow.

Laurie glanced back at the school. The tour group was gone, sure, but they couldn't be that far away. “Cut it out, Bud. We're not supposed to be busting on things. Someone could hear you.”

“Hear me what, thump the floor? Or bounce on a springy floor?” Bud thumped again, really hard. It wasn't a kidding-around thump.

“You're going to get us in trouble.” This was just the kind of thing Betty Abernathy would love to catch them doing. She was just itching to bust them for vandalism.

But Bud was on a roll. “See, Misti? Just a floor. No matter how many times you go thump. See? Thump thump thu—”

And Bud fell through the floor.

Misti and Laurie froze, staring at the Bud-shaped hole in horror.

It was like a cartoon—one minute he was there, the next he was gone.

“Hey, Misti? Laurie? Is that you?”

Laurie's head whipped around so fast she was surprised she didn't give herself whiplash. She groaned. This was not what she needed right now. She recognized that voice. It was Calliope Judkin.

Laurie did a quick mental review. Calliope Judkin was pretty much the biggest snoop there was and had spent a good part of the past year spying on them and
leaking information to the newspaper and people trying to shut the school down. Not someone you'd turn to in a time of crisis.

She glanced back over her shoulder at the hole in the floor. Bud hadn't made a sound since he'd fallen though, which meant pretty much one thing. Bud was dead. Or unconscious with a broken leg. Either way, telling Calliope about it wasn't going to make him undead or un-unconscious with a broken leg. It would just guarantee that it was plastered all over the six o'clock news.

Laurie fought down her panic as Calliope bounced over. “Hey, guys, what's up?”

Misti and Laurie glanced at each other, eyes wide, and then casually positioned themselves in front of the doorway.

“Up? What are you talking about, nothing's up.” Misti's voice was shrill enough that dogs in the next county winced at the sound.

Laurie tossed her hair in a calm and collected way. “Nothing's up, we're just standing here, okay? For no reason. But nothing's up. What makes you say something's up?” Laurie cringed inside. That hadn't sounded nearly as calm and collected as she'd hoped. Of course,
it's hard to sound calm and collected when you're standing in front of a hole with a dead body at the bottom. Not that she knew Bud was dead. But it was pretty likely, though, right? Way more likely than unconscious with a broken leg.

Calliope stared at them. “Oookay. Nothing's up. Good to know.”

They stared awkwardly at one another for an uncomfortably long amount of time.

“Yeah, so what do you want?” Misti squeaked finally. Laurie glared at her. Way to be subtle, Misti.

Calliope looked disgusted. “Look, I was trying to be a friend, okay? I just thought you'd want to know about this.” She smacked Laurie in the chest with a folded-up newspaper. “Check out the banner over the headline.”

Laurie took the newspaper and unfolded it. It was a special afternoon edition of the
Morning News
, and the banner definitely wasn't good.

“What's this about?” Laurie said, staring at the paper. “Criminal past? What does that mean?”

Calliope shrugged. “Like I know. I wouldn't have even seen it if LeFranco hadn't handed it to me.”

Walker LeFranco was the former school board president who'd been out to shut down Tuckernuck Hall, until Laurie and Bud had found the treasure and messed up his plans. Last Laurie'd heard, he had quit and had gone into the newspaper business.

“He's not trying to bring down the school anymore, is he? That's all over. He lost. We won.” Laurie frowned and handed the newspaper back to Calliope.

“Yeah, well, not according to LeFranco. He's got plans. Big plans. And he's going to make sure this school gets shut down, one way or another.”

“How do you know that?” Misti squeaked, glancing back over her shoulder at the hole.

“Because when he handed me the paper, he said, ‘I've got plans. Big plans. And I'm going to make sure your school gets shut down, one way or another.' So that tipped me off.” Calliope rolled her eyes. “Look, I'll let you get back to . . . doing nothing, okay? Just thought you should know.”

“Yeah, well. Thanks,” Laurie said. She knew she
should be more apologetic and grateful, but the whole hiding-the-corpse thing made it tough to be buddy buddy.

“Whatever,” Calliope said, and stomped off across the lawn.

Misti and Laurie stared after her without moving as she rounded the corner.

“He's dead, isn't he,” Misti said without emotion.

“Probably,” Laurie said. Bud hadn't made a sound since he'd fallen. Laurie took a deep breath and tried not to freak out.

She didn't even want to think about what she was going to say to Bud's dad. He'd really loosened up since they found the treasure—he'd stopped being all strict about studying for college and let Bud hang out
a lot more. And where did it get him? With a kid who was dead or unconscious with a broken leg. Not good. Laurie braced herself for the worst and scrambled over to the hole. It wasn't going to be pretty.

“Bud?” she whispered loudly, peering down into the darkness. “Are you still alive?”

Bud's head poked up between the broken boards. “Oh, man, you guys!”

Misti squealed. “You're alive?”

“Yeah, I'm alive. And you're not going to believe this. I think I've found a secret room.”

The first thing Bud thought when he fell through the floor was, Wow, Misti was right after all. The second thing was, Man, that's going to bruise. Any other thoughts disappeared pretty fast as he looked around and realized where he was.

He'd expected to be under the floor of the shed, in a crawl space with rattraps, maybe. He didn't expect to be at the foot of a short stairway leading up to the shed floor. But that's just where he was. And in the gloom, he could see a narrow passageway leading off to his right. This wasn't some crawl space. This was something someone had built. This was a hallway.

Laurie's and Misti's voices drifted down through the hole. They were talking to someone up outside the shed, and it sure didn't seem like they were that concerned about what had happened to him. Well then, he didn't think they'd mind if he took the opportunity to do a little exploring on his own before he filled them in. Especially if he didn't tell them about it. It wasn't every day that he got to make a discovery all on his own. He was going to enjoy every minute of it.

Bud got to his feet and dusted off his butt. Then he dug around in his pocket until he found his penlight key
chain and tested it out. Bud grinned. The battery still worked. Not many situations called for a tiny little flashlight, so he wasn't that sure it would work. (Actually, he could only think of one time he'd actually used it—in the community pool locker room that time Pete Simpkins thought something had died in the bathroom drain. The flashlight beam hadn't revealed any dead things, but that didn't mean they weren't there. Something sure had stunk.)

Bud shone the light into the darkness of the passageway and took a tentative step forward. The light didn't help much, but it was something.

The passage was much clearer than Bud thought an abandoned passageway would be—there wasn't any rubble or trash on the stone floor, and the walls seemed to be wood, not oozing, weepy concrete with gigantic spiders crawling on them. Which was definitely a plus.

The passageway turned up ahead, and instead of being cautious, Bud barreled around it and almost gave himself a concussion. Because right around the corner was a large wooden door.

Bud picked up his penlight from where he'd dropped it when he'd done a face plant into the wood and inspected the door. It was big. It was closed. And it looked creepy
as all get-out. Although, to be honest, it could've been decorated with dancing bunnies holding balloons and barfing sparkly hearts, and it still would've been creepy.

He'd smacked into it pretty hard, and no one had opened the door, so that gave Bud a pretty good idea that there wasn't anyone on the other side. But there was only one way to be sure.

Bud shone the penlight on the crystal doorknob, took a deep breath, and reached down and grasped the knob. It turned in his hand. The door was unlocked. All he had to do was turn the knob completely and go inside.