Junior's Luck

Junior's Luck-Chapter 26

"Clyde!" Kelsey shouted into the murk after he had climbed down the shaft and found the old man gone. The sound reverberated off the concrete. No answer. "Clyde!"

Kelsey trudged through the tunnel, calling his accomplice's name. At one point, dirt and roots, which were slimy from the rains that had fallen earlier in the week, nearly blocked the passage. Kelsey picked his way through the tangled mass. As he continued, the tunnel became drier and the foul odor gradually disappeared.

It seemed to go on forever, and he wondered if Clyde had been wrong. Maybe this wasn't one of Hartley's escape routes. Where was the old man, anyway? Kelsey hadn't shouted his name for a while, so he tried again. That's when he noticed the beam from his flashlight no longer faded into the darkness, but now reflected off a curved surface.

He broke into a trot, calling out for Clyde, wondering where he had gone. Kelsey didn't like the idea of being alone in that place. Was he running into a trap? Had Clyde been captured somehow? Kelsey slowed to a cautious walk. Nothing made sense. Clyde had to be there somewhere. Kelsey remembered the ghosts. Could a ghost make a person disappear?

To his immense relief, when Kelsey arrived at the illuminated surface, it didn't form a dead end. The passageway veered to the left at a forty-five degree angle. Far into the darkness, beyond the beam of the flashlight, was a dim, golden glimmer. Kelsey started to shout his partner's name but choked off the words. Who knew what waited for him in that distant light—some of Hartley's men? Until he knew, he must avoid revealing his presence. But maybe he already had, and they were waiting for him. Kelsey turned off the flashlight.

A cold, greasy fear oozed over him. He should go back and call the police. If Hartley had Clyde, Kelsey was powerless to rescue him. But would the police believe his story that a prominent local banker had kidnapped the father of his shop teacher after finding him in a secret tunnel searching for stolen ordnance from Fort Clark? What if he was wrong and Clyde was all right? Bringing the police in now before there was any evidence against Hartley might end up getting Clyde and Kelsey in trouble instead of the banker. If that happened, Kelsey would have to answer for the lies he had told. And it might put Arlene in jeopardy for lying about staying at a friend's house that evening. Kelsey decided to find out what awaited him at the end of the passageway.

Keeping his eyes fixed on the radiance, which grew larger and brighter as he approached it, Kelsey crept through the dark, pressed against the wall. Soon it became apparent that an open doorway was the source of the illumination. He heard what sounded like singing, though it was more of a slurred chant, in the voice of an old man. Kelsey stopped for a second and listened. The only words he recognized among the garbled lyrics were numbers: eighty-four something, something; eighty-three something, something; eighty-two something, something. It was Clyde singing; he was sure of that. And if the old man was singing, he must be all right.

Crates stacked five high; that's what Kelsey witnessed when he stepped through the doorway. The rockets. They had caught Hartley red-handed.

Four bare bulbs dangled on cords suspended from the ceiling of the large room. There was a door in the center of the wall to Kelsey's left. He assumed the door led to the grease pit in the garage. To his right, behind the stack of crates and attached to the wall, stood a wooden rack on which a few dusty jugs rested. Next to the rack in the far corner of the room was another open doorway. It was from that part of the room Kelsey heard the singing.

"Clyde? Are you there?"

The singing stopped, replaced by a raspy cough.

Kelsey tiptoed around the crates, keeping low and out-of-sight. "It's me, Kelsey."

"'bout time, boy." Clyde drawled.

Kelsey stepped into the open and found Clyde sitting on the floor with his back against a crate and a dusty jug cradled in the crook of his arm. Kelsey sauntered over to him and pointed at the crates.