The Deadliest Stunt Chapter 8

8

Wait here a minute and watch my food, will you? I said, getting up from my seat.

Dude, where am I going to go in a hurry?, he muttered, but I ignored him and headed to the exit

Was it something I said?, he called out.

I burst out of the side door nearest the drive through and approached the car. As I came up to the passenger window I noticed a child’s car seat in the back. Inside was a sleeping baby. I glanced at the woman in the driver’s seat and realized I had been mistaken.

Justin? The woman said with a curious look on her face as she rolled down the passenger window. Is everything OK.

Yes, Ms. Caldwell, I said sheepishly. Ariel Caldwell was a teacher at Port Salser Collegiate who was currently on maternity leave. She resembled the woman from the fairgrounds, but I could see now that Ms. Caldwell had longer hair. Sorry, I thought you were someone else.

No worries, Justin. Hope you’re doing well in school this year. See you around.

Thanks, I muttered as I turned away and headed back into the restaurant. I sat back down at the table. Evan had a curious look on his face. Saw you talking to Mrs. Caldwell. How’s the baby?

Great, I said with a smirk. I thought she was someone else. I proceeded to fill Evan in on my latest case and how the mysterious woman at the fairgrounds resembled Mrs. Caldwell.

That’s what I like about you, Justin, Evan said. Tenacious to a fault. Even stopping innocent people in drive thru lanes to get to the bottom of a case.

Ha, ha, I said, shaking my head.

I finished my chicken sandwich as Evan and I talked about school and about the latest sports scores.

I have an appointment, he said finally. A new doctor wants to do an experimental surgery on my spine, he remarked. I might be able to walk again.

Evan! That’s great news, buddy. Why didn’t you say something earlier.

He just shrugged. I don’t know. But it’s a very radical treatment and it might not work.

Think positive, I said.

I am, he replied. I’m positive that if I don’t leave now I’m going to miss my appointment. Can you drive me?

After dropping Evan off at the doctor’s office—he said he could take a taxi home—I headed home myself. I wanted to do some research on some of the people involved in the charity event. The saboteur could be anyone—someone in Xander’s group—or the fairground staff—or even someone from the charity, though that was highly unlikely. Still—

It was quiet at home. Dad was still away. Mom was back from Aunt Maureen’s and Kimmy was up in her room doing homework. I filled Mom in on the latest developments and that Reed and Rhys Wyatt were missing. I left out the part where I had been drugged by Rhys last night right here in the house.

Oh, Justin, I hope you can find them, Mom said. That must be awful for Xander and Ruth, what with Ruth being ill.

I nodded. I’ll find them and find out who’s behind the sabotage. The Deadliest Stunt show will go on as planned next Saturday. The sooner this is cleared up the sooner Xander can practice. I saw the stunt plane and motorcycle today that Xander is going to use. Looks very impressive.

What’s impressive?, a voice behind me remarked. I turned to see my friend Matt Logan who had just come in the back kitchen door. He kicked off his dress shoes at the door and approached Mom and me. Matt worked for Dad as an operative and had a small apartment over our garage where he was now living. It had recently been partially destroyed by a fire, but Matt was a master handyman and soon had the repairs done. The place looked even better than it had before the fire.

Matt was about 27 and was tall and slim with reddish blond hair and a thin beard that he had recently started growing. He was dressed in dark dress pants and a purple button up shirt with a cool tie that was loosened at the neck.

You are, I said with a grin. Working on a Sunday?

Yeah, he said, sheepishly. Met a client for lunch. What’s this about the stunt show next Saturday? I thought it was cancelled.

That’s what everyone is supposed to believe, I remarked. I filled in Matt on the latest developments of the case and he whistled when I related about the sabotage to the stunt plane and motorcycle and about Reed and Rhys Wyatt going missing.

Whoa! You’re up to your neck in it again, he remarked. Let me know if there’s anything I can help with.

Sure, I said. I’m going up to my room now to do some research. I headed to the stairway and bounded up the steps to my room. I booted up my laptop and did some cursory searches on the people involved. There was a fair bit of information on Xander Wyatt but not much on the people working for him. The website for Xander’s stunt company, Wyatt Stunts, listed Leland Mortimer as his manager but there was not much on his background. I checked Raina and Denny as well but the seemed clean—no arrests or any suspicious activity.

I pulled out a special key that Dad had given me that fit in the USB port and was able to access special “top secret” websites. These sites had a little more in depth information culled from police and government databases around the world. Only Dad knew that I had access, not even my friends knew. Plausible deniability, was what Dad called it.

I went right for Xander Wyatt, but he was as clean as I had hoped. He had no prior convictions and he ran a clean company as far as the databases were concerned. I breathed a sigh of relief. I really liked the Wyatt’s and hoped that they weren’t behind the sabotage. I had no real reason to suspect Xander, but I had to cover all bases.

There wasn’t much on Reed or Rhys but then again they were minors. They had not been to juvenile hall or whatever it was called nowadays. Rhys did have some trouble back in L.A. a few years back—a theft charge related to his school that was soon dropped. He seemed to be the troublemaker of the two. I had read about that earlier, anyway.

It still struck me as odd how twin brothers could be so different. Rhys seemed to dominate his brother and Reed was almost afraid of him. Maybe there was some underlying condition that had caused this as I was under the impression that twins shared the same DNA and were virtually two halves of one whole, for lack of a better explanation.

Now, Leland Mortimer was a different story. It seemed he wasn’t being entirely truthful about his background. Leland Mortimer was not his real name! He was born Lester Mandrell in Miami, Florida. I noted that Raina was from Miami as well.

Leland/Lester had gotten into some financial trouble and had filed for bankruptcy 10 years previous, prior to coming to work as Xander Wyatt’s manager.

Was Xander aware of this?

I pulled out my cell and gave him a call. Yes, Justin, he said, picking up on the second ring.

How’d you know it was me?

Got you in my contacts. Any word about my boys?

No, not yet but I’m working on it. Say, I dug up some information about Leland. Is he there with you?

No, not at the moment. Look, is this about his past? I know about Lester Mandrell.

Oh, I said, disappointed.

He told me about his troubles in Florida. He told me all this when I was interviewing him for the manager job. I did some checking and he paid for his past indiscretions. He’s clean now.

Very well. Sorry to bother you. I’ll let you know if I have any leads on the boys.

Thanks Justin. I told Ruth you were checking out some leads to where they went and that it seemed they went off with some other teens. I didn’t know what else to tell her.

That’s fine, I said. I’ll do what I can to find them soon. With that I hung up and got back to work. I did some more digging on Leland/Lester.

He was divorced from his wife and had two children, a son and a daughter, both grown up now. No photos were available. But there were names. Lee Mandrell and Suzanne Mandrell Martinson, both from L.A.

I filed this information away for future use and checked out some more names, but everyone else connected to Xander was clean. He ran a tight ship and apparently prospective employees went through a stringent application process to get hired for his crew. He wanted people he could trust, which was understandable in his line of work.

I shut down my laptop and sat back and rubbed my eyes in frustration. I had to find the Wyatt brothers. Did Rhys take Reed somewhere? Did he have help?

It bugged me that Rhys was talking to the woman who sabotaged Xander’s motorbike and parachute. I had to find the connection.

It was Sunday afternoon and I had lot of homework. The next day was school and Reed and Rhys were supposed to start classes at PSC. Looks like they weren’t going to make it. I just hoped that wherever they were, they were safe.

I spent a few hours doing homework, then laid down on my bed and soon drifted off. I awoke to my cell  phone going off on my beside table. It was almost 6. I jumped up and answered it.

Justin! It’s me Reed, the voice said in a hoarse whisper. You have to come and get me. I got myself free but I’m locked—.

Suddenly the phone went dead.

I checked call display and Reed’s number came up, so he had made the call from his cell  phone. But where was he? And was it him or someone pretending to be him?

Of course it was him. If it was someone else trying to lure me somewhere they would have told me where they were—unless they were incredibly dumb, which I doubted.

A few seconds later my phone beeped an incoming message.

<equip bus R>

What did that mean? Equipment bus? Was Reed being held on the equipment bus?

I called  Xander back and he picked up quickly again. I think Reed is on the equipment bus, I said. Seems like he was able to text me. He tried to call me but was disconnected. I’m coming down there.

Wait, Justin. Did you say the equipment bus?

Yes, he texted “equip bus”. I’m assuming that’s what he meant.

If it is we have a problem. The equipment bus is back in the U.S. by now. It left this morning to return to L.A.!

A half hour later I was down at the fairgrounds again. This time Matt came with me. He had changed into shorts and t shirt with flip flops.

We managed to stop the bus in Michigan, Xander was relating. They pulled over at a rest stop on the I-94. The driver, Manny is searching it as we speak. I’m waiting to hear back from him.

A minute later his cell beeped an incoming call. He snatched it up. Yes? He blurted. I watched his face go from terror to a wide grin.

Good, good he muttered. Thank you Manny. Ok, we’ll leave right now and be there in about 8 hours. He hung up.

Reed was aboard the bus, he said with a sigh of relief. He was in the cargo hold. It’s a long story but—

What is it? I asked.

Rhys wasn’t aboard. Reed doesn’t know anything about his brother he hasn’t seen him. Rhys is still missing.