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  Stolen Secrets

  Copyright © 2005 by Jerry B. Jenkins. All rights reserved.

  Cover and interior photographs copyright © 2004 by Brian MacDonald. All rights reserved.

  Authors’ photograph © 2004 by Brian MacDonald. All rights reserved.

  Designed by Jacqueline L. Nuñez

  Edited by Lorie Popp

  Published in association with the literary agency of Alive Communications, Inc., 7680 Goddard Street, Suite 200, Colorado Springs, CO 80920.

  This novel is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the authors’ imaginations or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, organizations, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental and beyond the intent of either the authors or publisher.

  For manufacturing information regarding this product, please call 1-800-323-9400.

  Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

  Jenkins, Jerry B.

  Stolen secrets / Jerry B. Jenkins ; Chris Fabry.

  p. cm. — (Red Rock mysteries ; 2)

  Summary: The quiet community of Red Rock is upset by an apparent abduction attempt on two middle school girls.

  ISBN 978-1-4143-0141-9 (sc)

  [1. Truthfulness and falsehood—Fiction. 2. Kidnapping—Fiction. 3. Twins—Fiction. 4. Family life—Fiction. 5. Christian life—Fiction. 6. Mystery and detective stories.] I. Fabry, Chris, date. II. Title.

  PZ7.J4138Sto 2005

  [Fic]—dc22 2004028052

  To Bob Neff of Moody Broadcasting.

  He blazes trails, inspires vision,

  and is a faithful servant.

  We are blessed to call him friend.

  Contents

  Prologue

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Chapter 29

  Chapter 30

  Chapter 31

  Chapter 32

  Chapter 33

  Chapter 34

  Chapter 35

  Chapter 36

  Chapter 37

  Chapter 38

  Chapter 39

  Chapter 40

  Chapter 41

  Chapter 42

  Chapter 43

  Chapter 44

  Chapter 45

  Chapter 46

  Chapter 47

  Chapter 48

  Chapter 49

  Chapter 50

  Chapter 51

  Chapter 52

  Chapter 53

  Chapter 54

  Chapter 55

  Chapter 56

  Chapter 57

  Chapter 58

  Chapter 59

  Chapter 60

  Chapter 61

  Chapter 62

  Chapter 63

  Chapter 64

  Chapter 65

  Chapter 66

  Chapter 67

  Chapter 68

  Chapter 69

  Chapter 70

  Chapter 71

  Chapter 72

  Chapter 73

  Chapter 74

  Chapter 75

  Chapter 76

  Chapter 77

  Chapter 78

  Chapter 79

  Chapter 80

  Chapter 81

  Chapter 82

  Chapter 83

  Chapter 84

  Chapter 85

  About the Authors

  Four words.

  That’s all it took to turn Ashley and Bryce Timberline’s world upside down. Ashley gasped as she stared at her stepfather, Sam. Bryce’s jaw fell.

  Tears rimmed Sam Timberline’s eyes. “I’m so sorry. You have to believe me.”

  Ashley started to cry. “What are you sorry for?”

  “For killing your father.”

  Kathryn Timberline, the twins’ mother, trembled. Leigh, their 16-year-old stepsister, stared at the ceiling. The only sound came from the creaking backyard swing where four-year-old Dylan played.

  Bryce finally broke the silence. “How could you have killed him? He died in a plane crash.”

  Sam nodded, his forehead wrinkling. His hair was only flecked with gray, but he looked like he had aged overnight.

  Ashley and Bryce had been so close to him over the past week—the trip to the mountains, a brush with death.

  “You killed Dad?” Ashley said, a tear zigzagging down her cheek.

  Sam stood and stepped toward them. The phone rang. He hesitated, then walked to the kitchen.

  “Mom?” Ashley said.

  Her mother simply shook her head.

  Bryce gazed out the window at the red rock formation beyond their property line. It stood in a protected county area where he and Ashley liked to drive their four-wheeled ATVs.

  Sam spoke quietly into the phone and walked outside. When he returned, he gave his wife a pained look. “I need to leave for a couple of days.”

  “What?” Bryce said. “You can’t just tell us you killed Dad and then leave.”

  “I want to tell you everything. But I can’t. Not now.” He knelt before Bryce. “I’m not who you think I am.”

  “You saved our lives on that mountain,” Ashley said.

  Sam nodded. “I love you guys. But I have to go.”

  He went upstairs and returned with an overnight bag and the keys to his new truck. He called Dylan in, gave him a hug, and walked out.

  “Leigh?” Bryce said.

  She shrugged. “I don’t know much more than you.”

  “Anything is more than we know,” Bryce said.

  “Everything changed after that crash,” she said. “I lost my mom and little sister.”

  “What do you mean, changed?” Ashley said.

  “Where we lived. Even our . . .” Leigh bit her lip. “Look, I don’t feel right saying more.”

  “You’re right. It should come from him,” their mother said.

  “And what about us?” Bryce said, jumping to his feet. “What are we supposed to do? Our stepfather just admitted he’s a murderer.”

  “You’re only 13,” Leigh said. “I don’t think you can handle—”

  Bryce gritted his teeth. “You have no idea what I can handle, Leigh.” He ran upstairs to his room and stood looking out the window.

  “Bryce!” his mother called.

  Ashley followed her brother.

  “Ashley, wait,” Kathryn said. “When Sam can tell you more, he will.”

  “I thought we weren’t supposed to keep secrets,” Ashley said from the stairs. “Our whole lives have been a secret. You don’t even trust us enough to tell us the truth.”

  “I don’t know the whole truth,” her mother said, crying.

  Ashley trudged to her room and closed the door. She got out her favorite candle—pumpkin and spice. Then she opened her journal and fell on the bed.

  Cha
pter 1

  I was the first one into the mirrored room at Peak Academy of Dance. We call it PAD. I put my stuff in the corner and started stretching. The last couple of days Mom had spent a lot of time on the phone, I guess with Sam. I had no idea where he had gone. Leigh stayed away from Bryce and me. It was all so mysterious.

  Only Dylan was normal. When he gets a scratch anywhere on his body, he puts Band-Aids over it. Today he put three on his right arm, four on his left, one on his forehead, and even one in his hair. It was the first time I’d seen Mom smile in days.

  Mom told Bryce that Sam would be back by Saturday, but Bryce didn’t seem to care. The two of us hadn’t talked much about Sam’s confession, but I’d written several pages in my journal.

  What do you do when you find out your stepdad is the reason you’re miserable? What do you do when the man your mother chose to marry says he’s responsible for the death of the father you loved?

  Bryce and I had moved to Colorado from Illinois with our mom and little brother. Our real dad had died in a plane crash—the news said it was terrorists, but now . . .

  A year later Mom met Sam at a memorial service for the victims. Sam’s wife and daughter were killed in the same crash. Mom and Sam fell in love and were married.

  Sam adopted us and we took his last name. A year after that, Mom got religious on us. We thought it would pass, but it didn’t, and soon Bryce and I both became Christians.

  Sometimes when things like this are going on, I walk through life in a daze. Dancing helps me focus. It’s kind of like my mom’s writing, I guess. I get into another world. The music and the movement take over, and for an hour I go someplace else in my mind.

  I didn’t want the hour to end. When it did, Mrs. Gunderson came in. She’s the head of the academy. She had us all sit down and explained that this would be the last week for candle sales for PAD.

  “You know how important this is,” she said with a smile, “so I’m expecting big results. And the one who sells the most will win these.” She produced a pair of ballet shoes like the professionals wear.

  I looked at my own ratty shoes and my heart sank. I had sold only one candle, and that was to Mom. The girls around me squealed and whispered how many each had sold, which made me even more depressed.

  While we packed up our stuff, parents peeked in the window, whispering to each other, then escorted their kids outside. Weird. As I walked through the lobby past the front desk, I found the door locked.

  “We’d like you to wait inside for your mother, Ashley,” Mrs. Gunderson said.

  “But I always meet her in the parking lot.”

  “Tonight’s different, dear.”

  I got a drink of water and noticed one of the dance teachers guarding the back door.

  “What’s going on?” I said to my friend Hayley.

  She shrugged as she changed into her tennis shoes. “Place is on lockdown. Maybe somebody stole something.”

  “They’d be going through our stuff if that happened,” I said. “There’s your mom.”

  Mrs. Henderson rushed in and hugged Hayley, something I had never seen her do. People whispered everywhere, and I was relieved when Mom pulled into the parking lot and hurried in.

  “What’s wrong?” I said as we headed out.

  “Something terrible, Ashley.”

  Chapter 2

  “Box out! Box out!” Coach Baldwin yelled. “Timberline, where are you?”

  “Sorry, Coach,” I said.

  Coach Baldwin tucked the basketball under his left arm and stared at us. Our seventh grade team had finished with six wins and four losses. Now we were playing in a regional league, trying to get ready for the next school season.

  “Coronado is probably the best in the league,” Coach said. “Let’s focus.” He called a play and threw the ball to Duncan Swift, our point guard.

  I slipped back to my defensive position, and Kael Barnes set a pick on me.

  “What’s up with you, Bryce?” Kael said, pushing me back and turning. The ball shot past my outstretched arm, right into Kael’s hands. He stepped toward the basket and banked the ball in off the backboard.

  “That’s it! That’s it!” Coach said. “Way to push the ball inside.” He looked at me. “Move your feet, Timberline.”

  Later, in the locker room, Kael sat beside me. “You’ve been spacey all week, Bryce. Boo Heckler after you again?”

  I smiled. “Haven’t heard from him since he tied my pants in knots.” Boo had threatened Ashley and me if we didn’t let him ride our ATVs. “Baldwin has him scrubbing toilets during gym class.”

  “So what’s your problem?”

  I shrugged. “Nothing, really.” No way I could tell him. Ashley and I hadn’t even been allowed to tell our friends we had foiled a robbery at Gold Town and had almost gotten killed in the process. I wasn’t about to let it slip that Sam said he had killed my real father.

  Coach Baldwin said we’d need to wait inside for our parents to pick us up. “And, Timberline, your mom called. Said to leave the ATV and wait for a ride from her.”

  “What? Why?”

  “Your mom must have seen you at practice,” Duncan said.

  Everybody laughed.

  Riding the ATV is one of my favorite things. It’s mostly pasture between the practice gym and home. On the dirt road behind the gym I can open the thing up and go fast. I love the sound of the wind on my helmet. With everything going on with Sam, I need all the good things I can find, and the ATV is the best.

  I grabbed my backpack and raced down the steps. Mom pulled up outside with Ashley in front. My sister looked like someone had stolen her tutu.

  “Why can’t I ride the ATV—?”

  “Bryce, please,” Mom said. “Get in.”

  “What’s wrong?”

  Ashley turned. “Two girls were attacked after school.”

  “It’s all over the news,” Mom said. “The report said they were from Red Rock Middle School.”

  Chapter 3

  I flipped on the radio, hoping Bryce could hear it for himself.

  “Again, our top story,” the reporter said. “According to police, two middle schoolers in Red Rock were attacked this afternoon and held against their will. Details are sketchy and names have not been released, but the incident occurred shortly after school ended. The girls managed to escape, and police are looking for suspects.”

  “There’s no way I’m letting you drive around with some madman loose,” Mom said.

  “How am I going to get the ATV home?” Bryce said.

  “Sam called. He’ll be back tonight. Said he’d pick it up with you.”

  “What about tomorrow morning? Can we ride them to—?”

  “The bus. You’re not riding the ATVs until they catch this guy.”

  I kept an eye on the streets as we rode home, looking for some shadowy figure skulking in the pasture or hiding in culverts. It reminded me of the night in the cabin when we knew someone was watching us, and it turned out to be a gold robber.

  As soon as we got home I called Hayley to see if she’d found out anything. She suggested I call Marion Quidley, who basically knows everything. I’m a good student, but Marion makes me look like Goofy with a dunce cap. Marion’s had perfect attendance since preschool—not a single sick day—but she can get kind of weird. She has wild theories about stuff like Bigfoot and crop circles. When we went through a drought last year and there were lots of fires, Marion thought aliens were draining reservoirs at night and shooting laser beams at the dry forests, which made me think a day or two out of school might do her some good.

  “I haven’t heard who it happened to,” Marion said. It sounded like she was flipping through some pages. “But there are only so many people who actually walk home from school. I photocopied all the kids’ pictures from the yearbook and put an X over the ones who take the bus.”

  “You can’t possibly know everyone, Marion.”

  “No, but I also have the school directory that shows address
es, and I cross-referenced. I’ve copied the names I don’t know.”

  She read me the list of possible people. I recognized about 10 names.

  “I’ll call you back if I find out who it is,” Marion said.

  Chapter 4

  Sam got back from his trip a little before nine that night. He hugged Mom and gave Ashley and me a pat on the shoulder. Dylan ran into his arms.

  I wondered where he had been. I wanted to think the best about him, but I had my doubts. Who had called him before he left? Was Sam running from the police? Could he have been involved with the gold robbery? It seemed far-fetched, but Sam had taken us to see the gold display. Then he had acted mad at the store owner, who was involved with the heist.

  Mom trusted him. But don’t they say love is blind? Maybe she didn’t want to face the truth.

  “How was your trip?” I said on the way to pick up my ATV.

  “Okay,” Sam said in his deep, gravelly voice.

  “Where’d you go?”

  “Had to fly to the East Coast.”

  “You flew somebody else?”

  “No. Just me.”

  “Who’d you see?”

  “People I used to work with.”

  Sam wasn’t giving me anything. Finally, he stopped the truck by the gym and turned off the ignition. “Bryce, I want to tell you everything, but I can’t. Hopefully I’ll be able to soon. You’re gonna have to trust me.”

  We got the ATV in the back of the truck and climbed in.

  Something banged at the back of the gym. Sam turned on his brights, and I saw a man in a green coat running for the gulley behind the building.

  “That’s the guy, Sam!” I said. “Call the police!”

  Chapter 5

  After Bryce and Sam left, I helped Mom get Dylan to bed. He likes to wear layers and layers of clothes, Bryce’s and mine included. He thinks it makes him look like a football player, I guess. He still had on a lot of Band-Aids, and we couldn’t get one out of his hair, so he went to sleep wearing his little Band-Aid hat and Bryce’s baseball jersey from last year.

  We moved to my room and Mom sat on my bed. Ever since I’ve had my seizures, I’ve loved it when she just sits with me. We can talk about almost anything—except what I wanted to talk about most: Sam.

  “Mom, what did Sam mean when he said he killed Dad?”