Grave Shadows Read online

  I was so relieved when they pulled him onto the bank, but the mud was up to my chest now and pushing on my lungs. I could hardly breathe. I quit moving, quit trying to get a better foothold. I was slowly sinking.

  Please, God. I don’t want to die this way.

  Chapter 24

  I was about to leave Jeff’s house when the doorbell rang. It was Denise, one of our classmates. To say Ashley and I didn’t get along with her is like saying David and Goliath weren’t pals. She had lied about Ashley in band and had almost hurt her at an amusement park before the end of school.

  “Oh,” she said, glancing at the address on the house like she was at the wrong place.

  I said I was just leaving and that the Alexanders weren’t home.

  “Well, could you put this in their fridge?” She handed me a casserole dish with foil on top. The thing weighed about 10 pounds.

  She turned to leave, but I asked if she knew anything about Jeff’s collection.

  “Sure. Everybody’s heard about it, but I’ve never actually seen it. Could I take a peek? I wouldn’t tell anybody.”

  “Sorry,” I said. “The room’s locked, and I don’t have a key. Maybe next time.”

  Chapter 25

  Hayley and the woman tossed me the jumper cables, but if they managed to pull me out, would the mud tear my clothes off as it had Dylan’s? I was glad no one else was watching.

  I grabbed the muddy cables, but when Hayley and the woman pulled, my hands kept slipping.

  “Tie it around you!” the woman yelled.

  I finally got it around me as the mud sneaked toward my shoulders. I kept praying as they tugged with all their might. At first nothing happened. Then the cable bit into my skin, and I inched forward. It felt like a vacuum cleaner was sucking me down. I wanted to hang on to my shorts, but I knew if I let go of the cable I’d sink.

  Dylan clapped as they pulled me, and once I knew I was going to be safe, I saw his towel fall off and I laughed. Soon I was crying with relief as they dragged me across the mud like a wounded turtle.

  Someone appeared at the top of the hill talking on a cell phone. A siren wailed in the distance.

  As soon as I reached the shore, Hayley gripped my hands and helped me up. The woman threw me a towel. I draped it over me and sat next to Dylan, crying and exhausted.

  The siren stopped, and a police officer rushed down the hill. The woman offered to give Dylan and me a ride, and I liked that idea a whole lot better than going home in a police car.

  Before she pulled out, I heard the police officer saying something into his radio. I rolled down my window. “Tell the county we need a fence around this place,” he said. “These two just about didn’t make it.”

  That sent shivers down my spine. Then he added, “There’s something under the water in the deep section of the lake. I think it’s a car.”

  Chapter 26

  Ashley burst through the door carrying Dylan, both covered in mud.

  “Looks like you guys had fun,” I said.

  She glared at me, then spilled the story. Boy, did I feel like an idiot.

  “Get Dylan in the shower,” she said, heading upstairs. “Then you and I need to get back to Hayley at the lake.”

  “Why?”

  Ashley told me what the cop had said. “I have to see if this is Gunnar’s Jeep and if he’s in it.”

  A little later she came down with wet hair just as Leigh walked in. She’d been looking for a summer job for a couple of weeks, and I could tell by her face she’d had no luck.

  Ashley asked Leigh if she would watch Dylan until Mom got home, and Leigh agreed only after Ashley promised her twice as much as Mom was going to pay her for the whole day. Leigh may not be much of a sister, but you have to admire her business sense.

  By the time we got to the lake, a tow truck had backed up to the edge of the hill and a guy in a wet suit was in the water. A few minutes later the truck pulled a yellow Jeep Cherokee from the muddy lake.

  Hayley covered her mouth, and Ashley put an arm around her.

  “That’s his Jeep,” Hayley said.

  Grime covered the windshield. The policeman spoke to the tow-truck operator, and the man said it didn’t look like the vehicle had been underwater that long. “Maybe a couple of weeks.”

  Others had gathered, and when the SUV was at the top of the hill, the officer asked everyone to stand back. Some pointed and whispered about Ashley being one of the stuck kids, and it made me want to leave, but we couldn’t take our eyes off that yellow Jeep. Could Gunnar have plunged into the water? Was his body still in the SUV?

  When the cop opened the door, water poured out, along with fish and crawdads.

  “I can’t stand this,” Hayley said, stepping behind Ashley as if to keep from seeing something she didn’t want to see.

  The Jeep was full of mud and the seats were waterlogged, but I didn’t see a body.

  The officer opened the back. “Vehicle’s clean,” he said into his radio. “The plates match the missing person, but there’s no one inside.”

  Chapter 27

  When Hayley told her aunt about the Jeep, the woman’s eyes grew wide. She was relieved, of course, that Gunnar wasn’t in the SUV. While we were there a reporter called for a newspaper story.

  I dreaded going home. I knew I had to tell Mom what had happened at the lake. She had told me to keep a sharp eye on Dylan, and I had let her down. I kept giving Dylan more mashed potatoes and butter to keep him quiet during dinner. Afterward I helped Mom clear the table and start the dishes.

  My plan was to not tell the story at all, but the longer I kept quiet, the harder that became. Mom had asked what I did all day, and when I didn’t answer she turned from the sink and squinted. “I heard something on the news about a vehicle pulled from the lake today. You weren’t part of that, were you?”

  “Sort of,” I said. At first the story was stuck as deep as Dylan and I were in the mud. Then I pulled it free, and the whole thing slid out.

  Mom glanced at Dylan in the living room watching Thomas the Tank Engine. I could tell she was upset. Then she hugged me, and I cried like a gushing fire hydrant.

  “Do you have to tell Sam?” I said, sobbing.

  She pulled away and wiped my tears. That’s about as close as any person can get to another. She was being more than my mom. She was also being my friend.

  “I know how bad you feel,” she said, hesitating. I was expecting her to add, “I’m really disappointed” or “I guess I can’t trust you with Dylan anymore.” Instead, she wiped her own eyes and said, “I think all you need to know right now is how much I love you.”

  Leigh came in and asked for her money. I thought Mom would stick up for me and try to get Leigh to lower her rate, since she was charging a fortune. But no.

  Our dogs, Pippin and Frodo, followed Leigh and me to my room and kept sniffing at my legs. I had just enough money saved to buy a skirt I’d seen at the mall. I handed it over.

  “Nice doing business with you,” Leigh said, smiling.

  Chapter 28

  I was playing a video game in the barn when Jeff called. If the doctor said he couldn’t go on the bike trip that meant he might be getting better. If he could go, I knew it would mean there was no reason for him to stay home, because he was dying.

  I thought back to when he was first told he had a bad disease. Malignancy, they called it. None of us knew anything was wrong. He just started running funny in gym, wobbling to one side. We all laughed at him and called him Weeble because of an old toy. The commercial said, “Weebles wobble, but they don’t fall down.”

  But Jeff did fall down, and I admit I laughed when Duncan Swift called him Spaz. Duncan and I regretted it later when we heard Jeff had cancer, but there’s no way to take it back. It’s almost like Jeff forgave us without saying anything.

  “You won’t believe it, Bryce,” Jeff said, as excited as I’d ever heard him. “Not only did the doctor say I could go, but he’s also donating five dollar
s a mile!”

  Chapter 29

  The next day I was working on a jumble—a word with its letters all mixed up—and was stuck on the final one. The letters were: seluc. I asked Bryce to help.

  The phone rang and it was Taryn, Gunnar’s former girlfriend. “We talked the other day,” she said.

  “I remember.”

  “I saw the story in the paper about Gunnar’s Jeep,” she said. “I’m worried about him.”

  Join the club.

  I told her we had been there when they pulled the SUV out and what I knew from Gunnar’s mother, which wasn’t much.

  “One of the things we fought about when we were dating was his always going off and not telling anyone,” she said. “He’d take a couple of days off work and just disappear, usually right after he got his paycheck. When he’d come back he’d complain about being broke. He never told me where the money went. I think that’s why he lived with his mother. He never had enough to do anything but make his car payments.”

  I thanked her and told her I’d get the information to the right people.

  Bryce smiled and grabbed my pencil. “Got it!” he said.

  He scribbled clues in the jumble box.

  Chapter 30

  Jeff gave me a tour of the van his parents had rented for the bike trip. It was longer than most and looked more like an RV. It had a sink, a bathroom, a long couch and table, DVD player, satellite TV—the works.

  Jeff seemed in a bad mood. “I wanted to do this myself, you know,” he said. “Camp out, ride the trails. They’re going to follow us and treat us like kids. I know it’s because they care, but it ticks me off.”

  I found Jeff’s parents inside. Normally I don’t like to bring stuff up to adults, whether they’re teachers or parents. But this seemed different.

  I explained what Jeff had told me and asked if there was anything they could do.

  They looked at each other. “The doctor said he could go because he doesn’t have much longer,” Mrs. Alexander said. “We need to be there.”

  “But can you hang back?” I said. “Let us camp out and ride like the others?”

  Jeff’s dad nodded. “I suppose. But if he needs to stop, we’ll be there.”

  Chapter 31

  A group of us waved good-bye to Jeff and his parents as they drove away, headed for Vail and a special camp. Bryce would join them Saturday morning.

  Bryce rode his bike with weights on his legs and arms, and I rode beside him. We stopped at Jeff’s house first and put small pieces of paper in the front and back doors, so if anyone went inside the paper would fall and we’d know it. We put another on the window to the trophy room and one on the garage door.

  We hit the Santa Fe Trail, and by the time we passed the Air Force Academy, I could see how strong Bryce had grown. I huffed and puffed like a steam engine, while he was hardly sweating.

  We stopped at a small covered booth to get out of the sun and have something to drink. Clouds drifted lazily over the valley. Over the mountain range was Pikes Peak, which Bryce would see a lot of in the next few days.

  It was the first time we had talked about my fiasco in the mud. People say twins know everything about each other, that they can sense when the other is in danger or in pain. Sometimes Bryce doesn’t even know I’m in pain when I’m standing right next to him screaming.

  “Must have been pretty scary,” he said.

  I nodded. “Might be more scary for you the next few days with Jeff. I hope he makes it.”

  Chapter 32

  Jeff’s Diary

  by Jeff Alexander

  It’s only a day before the bike trip of a lifetime, and I couldn’t be more excited. A lot of people biking this year had cancer and beat it, so that gives me hope. There are also people biking who have lost someone they love to cancer.

  I met Bob yesterday, whose daughter, Cassie, died just last year. You’d think he would not want to be around people like me, but he smiled and gave me a hug. He actually rode with Cassie last year in a specially made carrier that she sat in. He said he wouldn’t trade that experience for anything.

  He said being around Cassie and me makes him appreciate every moment of life, so I guess that’s something we can all learn. He also believes nothing happens to us that surprises God. Not my cancer, not a car wreck, or even a terror attack. (I have a friend whose dad was killed in a plane crash caused by terrorists.)

  Over the next few days we’re supposed to go 200 miles and wind up in Colorado Springs. I’m hoping there will be some people there when we finish—though I’m kind of nervous. A lot of people riding in this have really strong legs and look like they’ve biked for years.

  My doctor gave thumbs-up to this ride and even kicked in a bunch of money per mile. If you can contribute, that’s great. If not, that’s okay too. Just keep praying someone will find a cure.

  When you read this, I’ll be on the road and going through the most beautiful mountains God ever made!

  Chapter 33

  I had a hard time getting to sleep Friday night and spent a couple of hours on the Internet checking eBay. I found some of the same memorabilia that had been stolen from Jeff, but it was from places like New York and North Carolina. And none of the signed stuff had Jeff’s name on it.

  In the morning Sam sipped his coffee, and we talked about baseball as he drove me to the bike-hike site. He had rooted for the Cincinnati Reds when he was a kid and now didn’t seem to have a favorite. My team is the Cubs, even though I live in Colorado. I like the Rockies, but there’s a loyalty I feel with my real dad. Some of the best times we ever had were watching the Cubs make some late-inning comeback. Plus, we were able to go to the “friendly confines” of Wrigley Field a few times.

  “I talked with Jeff’s mom and dad last night,” Sam said, finally changing the subject as we drove through the Eisenhower tunnel. “They wanted to make sure you knew that you don’t have to finish this.”

  “Not finishing would kill Jeff.”

  Sam pursed his lips, like that was a poor choice of words. “But in his condition, I’m not sure he’s going to be able to help much. And the hills you’re going to tackle are not like the ones on the Santa Fe Trail.”

  “We’ll walk them if we have to.”

  Brake lights flashed ahead of us. Sam pulled into the left lane to pass a huge truck and muttered something. He pointed to the median where the body of a deer with a huge rack of antlers was tangled in the guardrail. There was blood on the road, and people slowed to look.

  “Sam, did you ever have any friends die when you were a kid?”

  He rubbed the stubble of his beard. “First grade. Kid in my class was helping his little brother cross the street. His brother got excited and broke away from him. The car wasn’t going that fast, but I guess fast enough. They didn’t have crisis counselors back then. Everybody just kind of went on without talking about it.”

  “It bothered you?”

  “I was sad. I knew the kid, had played with him a few times. I still think about him. Wonder why it happened.”

  Sam’s first wife and young daughter died too. Sometimes hard things draw people toward God while others are pushed away. Jeff had certainly gotten closer.

  “Anyway,” Sam said, “the Alexanders appreciate what you’re doing. And I’m proud of you too.”

  Chapter 34

  Hayley and I walked to her aunt’s house early. When we got there I saw a long, black car parked in front.

  Hayley studied the car. “I don’t recognize it. I don’t think I have any relatives with a car like that.”

  The windows were tinted black, so we couldn’t see inside. Hayley looked in one of the house windows near the porch. “Two guys are sitting in the living room talking to my aunt. She looks upset.”

  Someone cleared his throat behind us. I swung around to a huge guy in a shiny suit—he looked like a shark with sunglasses. His arms were like tree trunks and his chest was a barrel. He had dark eyebrows, black hair, and a neatly trim
med mustache.

  “How are you today, ladies?” he said, smiling. “Can I help you?”

  The only time I was called a lady was by a teacher when I was doing something wrong at school.

  “Just checking on my aunt,” Hayley said.

  “Who are you?” I said.

  The guy seemed surprised at the tone of my voice. “Friends of Gunnar. We’re worried about him.”

  The other two came outside. They weren’t as big as The Shark, but both looked like they had a million-dollar clothing allowance.

  “Either of you seen Gunnar?” a short man said.

  “Why?” I said before Hayley could answer.

  The short man glared at me. “’Cause we wanna know.”

  “No,” Hayley said. “How do you know him?”

  The short one waved the other two toward the car.

  We hurried inside.

  Chapter 35

  I couldn’t believe all the colorful outfits and smiling faces at the start of the race. Bikes looked like rainbows lined up behind yellow police tape that said Do Not Cross. Bikers wore Bike for the Cure T-shirts. The organizers handed out numbers to attach to our bikes.

  Jeff’s face lit up when he saw me. “Have I got a lot to tell you!”

  “Save it for the hike,” I said, smiling. “We’ll have plenty of time to talk out there.”

  Jeff’s phone chirped. I figured it was someone from the newspaper or maybe a friend, but he talked a long time at the back of the van. I tried to listen in, but he was too far away. When Jeff returned I asked who was on the phone.