Dunc and Amos and the Red Tattoos Read online

  “Does it mean anything in particular?”

  Chuck’s voice changed into a snarl. “None of your business, maggot head! Go sit down.”

  Amos started backing away. “Gee, thanks, Chuck. It’s been real nice talking to you.”

  He turned and moved back to the table.

  “What did you find out?” Dunc asked.

  “About muscles—it’s disgusting. He wiggles them. About tattoos—zero. He’s not talking.”

  •9

  It was two o’clock in the morning. Twenty-four boys had gathered near the lake and were smearing mud on their faces.

  “I shouldn’t have told you I’d do this,” Dunc said.

  Amos grinned. Not a little grin—his face was covered with mud, and all you could see were teeth. “That’s usually my line. It sounds funny coming from you.”

  Dunc slung a wad of mud off into the darkness. “I just don’t understand why we have to do this. It seems kind of mean.”

  “Toby Gillis says that all first-year campers have to pull a raid on the girls’ cabins. If they don’t, they’re marked men for the rest of camp.”

  “What’s so bad about being marked?”

  “He says they do stuff to you. Like fill your sleeping bag with spiders and snakes. Sometimes they wait until you’re in the shower and hide all your clothes. One guy stayed locked in the latrine for three days until a counselor found him.” Amos shivered.

  “Do you think they’d do that kind of stuff to us?”

  Amos nodded. “In a heartbeat.”

  Dunc hesitated. “I can see where that might be a problem. But I really need to concentrate on the case. We don’t have much time.”

  “Come on,” Amos pleaded. “I’ll help you work on the case tomorrow. I’ll even go along with any dumb ideas you come up with. I just don’t want to wake up next to a snake.”

  “Okay. I said I’d go. But it still seems kind of mean.”

  “Toby says the girls really like it. He says they look forward to it every year.”

  The group had their instructions: Spread out. Do your job. And most of all, don’t get caught.

  They moved like a silent army across the exercise field. Dunc, Amos, and a boy named Rubio had been assigned the outside of cabin eight. Two others had the inside.

  In six minutes, while the girls slept, the inside was turned into a complete disaster. String was tied cobweb style from cot to cot. The doorknobs were loosened to fall off at a touch. The latrine stalls were all locked from the inside, and dirt and honey were poured on the floor in strategic places.

  The outside was almost finished. Toilet paper hung from every available place. All of the windows except one had been soaped.

  “Hurry up, Amos! Everybody’s leaving,” Dunc whispered.

  “I’m trying to. But I can’t get this window to close. Get something for me to stand on.”

  Dunc looked around. “There isn’t anything. Leave it. Come on.”

  “I’ve almost got it. Come over here, and give me a boost.”

  Dunc cupped his hands and lifted Amos up. He was about to shut the window—when he saw her.

  Melissa.

  There she was. Second cot from the end. The most beautiful girl on earth sleeping like an angel.

  He leaned inside the window and let out a long, deep sigh.

  By this time, Dunc was weaving under the strain. “What are you doing up there, Amos? I can’t hold you much longer!”

  Amos pulled himself up to the window ledge and sat on it.

  “Are you crazy?” Dunc hissed. “Get down here!”

  Amos was like a lovesick puppy. He sat in a trance and would have probably sat that way the rest of the night except that he lost his balance.

  He dropped through the window like four pounds of rotten yogurt in a three-pound bag and landed face-first in a pile of dirt and honey. His eyes were glued shut. His mouth was full of dirt. He rolled around on the floor fighting the string cobwebs until he was covered from head to toe with honey and dirt and completely tangled in the string.

  He finally got to his feet and started for the door, but he tripped on the string and fell flat on one of the cots.

  That was when things started to go bad.

  “Swamp monster! Help!” somebody screamed.

  Amos was going around in circles, waving his arms trying to keep his balance. He still couldn’t see, and the only sound he could make was a low growl.

  The girls’ counselor tried to get out of her office, but the doorknob was hanging halfway off and she couldn’t open the door.

  By this time every girl in the cabin was jumping on her cot screaming.

  “Get it out of here! Somebody save us!”

  Dunc pulled himself up to the window to see what was going on.

  A few of the girls had started throwing things at Amos: shoes, hairbrushes, pillows, footlockers, bunks.

  Dunc shook his head. This had to be Amos’s all-time worst. For a second he thought about leaving Amos behind. No—they’d probably hang him from the flagpole when this was all over.

  Dunc sighed and slid through the window. Maybe nobody would recognize him with mud on his face, he thought.

  “It’s me,” Dunc whispered as he took Amos by the hand. “Step over the string when I tell you.”

  The girls continued throwing things as Dunc and Amos disappeared out the door into the night.

  •10

  “You really don’t look that bad—considering,” Dunc said.

  “Considering what? That I’m not in traction?”

  Amos was missing patches of skin on his arms. His face had strange purplish bruises, and he had a few bald spots on his head from rubbing too hard to get the goo out.

  Dunc picked up his notepad. “It’s not as bad as it could have been. For one thing, we didn’t get caught.”

  Amos tried to mash some of his hair over to cover one of the bald spots. “I wonder if Melissa knows it was me.”

  “No, she doesn’t. And you’re not going to tell her. Ever.”

  “She probably knows.”

  “Get real, Amos. You had every girl in that place ready to kill you. They all thought you were the Monster from the Black Lagoon.”

  Amos sighed. “It would be like her to pretend she didn’t know—to protect me.”

  Dunc decided to ignore him. Otherwise, Amos might talk about Melissa for the rest of the year. He was trying to come up with the ultimate plan, one that would put his whole case together and solve it at the same time.

  “Do you remember that promise you made last night?”

  Dunc asked.

  Amos looked up. “Promise?”

  “You said that if I went on the raid with you, you’d go along with any plan I came up with.”

  “I think my exact words were ‘any dumb ideas’ you came up with. You’re not going to hold me to it after all that’s happened, are you?”

  A tiny smile started at the corner of Dunc’s mouth.

  “After all,” Amos went on, “I was under a lot of pressure last night. People were threatening me. My life was in danger. Who knows what horrible—”

  “You did promise,” Dunc interrupted.

  Amos knew he was stuck. “Okay. But just how far off the wall is this next great idea of yours?”

  Dunc took his arm. “It’s not all that bad. Come on, I’ll tell you more about it on our way.”

  “On our way to where?”

  “We’ve got almost an hour before our next activity. I figure that ought to be just about enough time.”

  Amos stopped walking. “Enough time for what?” His voice started to get loud. “How am I supposed to know what my part is in this demented plan, if you don’t tell me the plan?”

  “Shh.” Dunc pulled him off the path and looked around to make sure no one was listening.

  “Here’s the deal. I need to get back inside the doctor’s office. This time we need to take a good look. The only way to do that is if the doctor is somewhere else.�
��

  Amos shrugged. “So?”

  “I need you to get him out of his office.”

  “And just how am I supposed to do that? He eats and sleeps in that place. He wouldn’t leave if it were on fire.”

  “I thought about fire. Too close to the trees. I figure the only sure way to get that doctor out of his office is to tell him somebody is sick or maybe dying.”

  “I still don’t get it,” Amos said. “Who’s sick?”

  Dunc was starting to get frustrated. “Nobody is sick! You just knock on the door. Tell him somebody up in the woods is hurt and needs a doctor real bad. He’ll take off, and we’ll search his office. Easy.”

  “What if he doesn’t fall for it?”

  “It’s your job to make absolutely sure he does. Now come on. We’ve wasted too much time already.”

  Amos moved to the front of the infirmary. He raised his hand to knock on the door.

  Suddenly the door burst open. The doctor rushed by him carrying his medical bag, trying to put on his white coat at the same time.

  He looked surprised when he saw Amos. “Unless it’s an emergency, son, I can’t help you right now. Somebody fell on the hiking trail. They may have a broken leg.”

  The doctor ran across the exercise field and up toward the woods. Amos stood there with his mouth open and his hand raised.

  Dunc came out from the side of the building. “I’m impressed, Amos. You must have told him something good to make him run like that.”

  Amos watched the retreating doctor. “You know you can always count on me.”

  The inside of the infirmary looked the same as before.

  “You search his sleeping quarters. I’m going to have a look at that desk again,” Dunc said.

  After about ten minutes, Dunc called out, “Have you found anything yet?”

  Amos walked back into the room. “I found that same army picture with all of them in it. Nothing else, though. How about you?”

  Dunc shook his head. “He’s moved everything that was on the desk. But I know there’s something here. We’re just missing it somehow.”

  They looked around the walls of the infirmary. Nothing seemed out of place. Amos took a step backward and knocked down a stack of the white medical boxes.

  Dunc picked up one of the boxes. “Amos, you’ve got to be more careful—wait a minute, look at this!”

  The top of the box had been stamped with an exotic red flower.

  “Let’s open one,” Amos said. “It’s probably drugs or something illegal.”

  Dunc opened a box. “Medical supplies.” He opened several others. “They all have medical supplies.”

  Amos scratched his head. “I don’t get it. Why would anybody go to the trouble of putting that red stamp on a bunch of medical supplies?”

  Dunc was deep in thought. He snapped his fingers. “It all fits together. Amos, we’ve got to get the sheriff up here.”

  •11

  “It’s time. Everybody’s over in the dining hall now. Do you know what to do?” Dunc asked.

  Amos was sitting at a desk in front of the camp’s intercom system. “I know what to do. You’ve made me go over it five thousand times.”

  They had waited until everyone from the administration office had gone to lunch and just walked right in the front door. Dunc used the phone to call the sheriff. Amos was about to use the intercom.

  Dunc started for the door.

  “Give me five minutes.”

  He ran as hard as he could to the dining hall and positioned himself behind a tree.

  Amos watched the clock. The seconds ticked by. He took a deep breath and flipped the switch. A loud crackling noise came over the system.

  He cleared his throat. “Attention, all campers! May I have your attention please!”

  Amos grinned. Part of him wanted to do what Dunc said, but another part was starting to get into it. The microphone was too much.

  “All you boys and girls out there in Gitchee Goomee-land. This is your lucky day. I’m comin’ at you with an announcement that is guaranteed to blow your socks off.”

  From behind his tree Dunc could hear the intercom clearly. He frowned—what was Amos doing? Man, if he messed this up …

  By now, Amos had the microphone in one hand and was whirling around the room, talking like a disc jockey on a radio.

  “Be glad you tuned in today, kiddies. We have a way-out news flash just for you. The stolen money has been found. I repeat—the concession stand and equipment fund money has been found.”

  Dunc had his eyes on the door of the dining hall. He could still hear Amos.

  “Stay tuned to this station for further events. Reported straight to you as they happen. But now let’s get down. Back to the music. Our request line is open twenty-four hours a day. We play the hottest tunes. Completely uninterrupted by commercials.”

  Amos looked at his watch. Five minutes exactly. Sadly he put the microphone down and raced out the door.

  Dunc was starting to wonder if their plan was going to work.

  He needn’t have worried.

  The front doors of the dining hall flew open. Chuck, Adolf, and Mr. Phillips came barreling out. Dunc followed at a distance.

  They ran past the bushes where Amos was waiting. He fell in behind Dunc.

  The men ran to the infirmary and burst in, leaving the door open.

  Dunc moved to one side of the door, put his fingers to his lips, and motioned Amos to listen at the other side of the door.

  Mr. Phillips yelled into the doctor’s face.

  “What was that all about? How could anyone have found it? You were supposed to have hidden it!”

  Chuck stuffed about five pieces of gum into his mouth. “Yeah, Major. You said it was hid real good.”

  The doctor pulled a key out of his pocket and unlocked the medicine cabinet. He moved some of the items and felt around on the bottom shelf. He pulled out a blue zippered pouch and opened it.

  “It’s all here safe and sound. That intercom stunt must have been a joke. Just some punk kids playing around. Don’t worry.” He put the pouch back in the medicine cabinet.

  Dunc smiled—he and Amos had them. Everything was going exactly the way he had planned.

  Or it was until Amos hiccuped.

  Amos clapped his hand over his mouth, but it was too late. Everyone in the room turned and looked in their direction.

  The boys turned to jump off the porch, but Adolf and Chuck grabbed them in midair and held them up like dead fish.

  “What have we here?” The doctor looked at them over the top of his glasses. “You two have been here before. Perhaps once too often.”

  The two counselors threw them into the middle of the floor in a pile.

  Dunc rubbed his sore throat. “Excuse me, gentlemen. We were trying to locate the rest room. Could any of you direct us?”

  Chuck grabbed him by the front of his shirt. “Shut up, dog breath! You speak only when the major speaks to you. Got it?”

  Dunc nodded.

  Mr. Phillips was nervous. He kept chewing the same fingernail and repeating, “What are we going to do?”

  “Get ahold of yourself, Theo,” the doctor ordered.

  He looked at Adolf. “Sergeant, close the door and pull those curtains shut.”

  The doctor was clearly in charge. He put his hand on Dunc’s shoulder.

  “We have an unfortunate situation here. But not one that can’t be easily remedied.”

  He patted Amos’s head. “These children will simply have to be held until it’s safe.”

  Amos looked at Dunc.

  The doctor went on. “Our operation is far too cost-effective to let a little problem like this get in our way.” He jerked his thumb toward the side room. “Lock them in there for now.”

  •12

  Amos sat down on the bed. “I don’t guess our getting caught figures into your overall plan.”

  Dunc was listening at the door. “Not so you could tell it.”

&
nbsp; “The sheriff did say he was coming, didn’t he?”

  “I don’t know how seriously he took my call. He said he’d send a unit as soon as one became available.”

  Amos started to worry. “What if that’s not until next month?”

  The conversation from the other room started to get loud. The doctor was trying to convince the rest of them to ship the medical supplies tonight, then just tell everybody the boys were making it all up.

  “Our contacts in Mexico will pay double if we can pull this off tonight.”

  “What’s he talking about?” Amos whispered.

  Dunc frowned. “Somehow these guys are using this camp as a base for stolen medical supplies. Their symbol is that red flower. They ship the stuff to somewhere in Mexico. Wiggleston must have gotten suspicious, so they tried to get him out of the way.”

  Amos put his head in his hands. “What are they going to do to us?”

  Dunc rubbed his chin. “Let’s try not to think about that right now. Help me find a way out of here.”

  He looked around the room. There were no windows because it was an add-on to the original cabin. The only door was the one they had come through. A rock fireplace took up one whole corner. The only furniture in the room was a bed and a dresser.

  Dunc moved over to the fireplace. “Help me move this screen.”

  Amos looked at him. “I really don’t think this is the time to redecorate.”

  “Get over here.”

  “Okay, okay.”

  They moved it to the side. Dunc bent down and looked up the chimney.

  “You’re not going to do what I think you’re going to do, are you?” Amos asked.

  Dunc crawled inside the fireplace. “I think one of us might be able to squeeze through here.”

  “One of us?”

  “The top gets a little narrow.”

  “One of us?”

  “Amos, you’re our only hope. You may be thin enough to get through. I’d get stuck for sure.”

  Amos shook his head. “Things always happen to me.”

  “Hurry, Amos. I think they’re through talking. You’ve got to go. Now.”

  Amos crawled into the fireplace. The inside rocks gave him footholds and helped him work his way up.