Case File 13 #2 (5 page)

“Take that!” yelled a voice that could only be Angie, and something gave an animal-like squeal that made Nick's arms break out in goose bumps. A terrible smell filled the air and his eyes started to water.

All at once, a bright light lit up the field. Lying on the ground, Nick could see the other kids spread out around him. Angelo was standing a few feet away, clutching his monster notebook protectively to his chest. Off to his left, Dana was standing in a karate pose, legs spread, one in front of the other, one hand in front of her, the other above her head like a blade waiting to drop. Angie was on the other side of them holding a small white canister.

A tangled shape was several yards away, nearly outside of the light's range. It took Nick a moment to realize it was Carter and Tiffany, clinging desperately to each other.

“What in the name of Jiminy Cricket is going on here?” a nasal voice called. Holding a flashlight in one hand, a man in a green jumpsuit stepped toward the kids. As the man swiveled the beam toward his face, Nick could see two lines of snot running from his nose. His eyes were pools of red.

“Get back or I'll give you a faceful of pepper spray,” Angie said, pointing her canister in his direction.

The man swiped his arm across his eyes, and Angelo said, “Pretty sure you already did.”

Tiffany and Carter, realizing who they were holding, quickly dropped their arms and stepped away from one another—Carter with an embarrassed chuckle, Tiffany with a snort of pure disgust.

Nick's first thought was that the man with the flashlight was the same person they'd seen hurrying around the field. A second look and he realized that couldn't be. This man had short gray hair and was dressed in what looked like a gardener's outfit with the name Cebrowski stitched over the pocket. He wiped his nose with his sleeve and gave the kids a bleary-eyed glare.

“You knobbly-kneed carpet crawlers ain't supposed to be down here.” He pointed his light at Angie. “Put that poison down before I call the police.”

“It's not poison. It's pepper spray,” Angie said. “And I'm not putting it anywhere until you tell me why you attacked us.”

Despite his complete loathing for her, Nick had to admit Angie had guts, standing up to an adult that way.

Mr. Cebrowski seemed taken aback by Angie's accusation. He lowered his light and wiped his streaming eyes again. “What the flying fish are you talking about? I was only shutting down the field, just like always, when I heard screaming. I came running over to see what was wrong when somebody gave me a snootful of that firewater.”

“I think he might be telling the truth,” Dana said, lowering her hands. “Whoever hit me was stronger than him.”

Nick nodded. He couldn't imagine the man in front of him hitting him hard enough to send him flying the way he had.

Carter and Tiffany were uncharacteristically quiet, edging away from each other and refusing to make eye contact. But Angie wasn't backing down just yet. “I suppose you don't know anything about that arm?”

“Arm, you say?” the man asked, looking dubiously at his own two.

“A severed arm. It was on the field until Nick picked it up,” Angelo said. He and the other kids looked toward Nick.

In all the excitement Nick had completely forgotten about the arm. He'd thrown it somewhere. But when he looked around, the arm was nowhere to be seen.

Saturday morning, the boys jumped onto the internet first thing to see if there was any news from either the football game or the cemetery. Other than a sports story about the lopsided score and a short article about what the paper was calling graveyard vandalism, there was nothing new.

“The police are probably trying to downplay the body snatching so people don't freak out,” Angelo said.

“You three are up early,” Mom said, coming back from her morning workout with a big box of cinnamon rolls. As Mom handed out rolls and poured milk, the boys quickly closed the browser and took their food to the table.

Nick took a drink of milk and considered what had happened the night before. The more he thought about the arm, the more he realized it had to have been some kind of trick. Who would carry body parts around a football field?

Carter downed his roll in three big bites. “Are you gonna finish that?” he asked Nick.

“Yes.” Nick shoved the rest of his food in his mouth before Carter could get any more ideas, and Angelo quickly did the same.

Carter grimaced. “I think I liked it better when you were a zombie.”

One of the side effects of Nick's previous experience becoming a temporary member of the undead had been a loss of appetite for most foods. Now that he was back to normal, his appetite had returned.

“How was the game?” Mom asked.

“Awesome,” Carter said, eyeing her roll. “Can you believe there are people who leave half-eaten food right on the bleachers where anyone can come along and take it?
Seriously
. Perfectly. Good. Pizza!”

Mom gave a stricken look to Nick, who shook his head. “Don't ask.”

Dad walked into the room struggling to program his smart phone. “Wasn't it Benjamin Franklin who said, ‘A pizza found is a pizza earned'?”

Mom looked from Dad to Carter and pushed her plate away. “I think I just lost my appetite.” Carter's eyes went wide and she shoved the cinnamon roll across the table. “Go ahead.”

Carter gobbled the roll so quickly it looked like an optical illusion.

Angelo frowned at Carter. “You could say thanks.”

“At least someone here has manners,” Mom said.

Carter put a hand over his heart. “I'd be more formal if I didn't know you consider me a part of the family.”

“He's got you there.” Dad gave up on his phone and set it on the counter.

“Thanks for the food, Mrs. B,” Carter said as the three boys headed for the door.

“Just promise me you won't eat anything you find on the sidewalk,” Mom said.

Carter gave her a strange look. “That would be gross.”

“To the cemetery?” Angelo asked, as soon as they were outside the house. “Even if we don't find any clues, we could still shoot more of the movie there. Maybe somebody steals Fitzpatrick's body after the funeral.”

“Yeah,” Nick said, pulling his backpack over one shoulder. “But first I have to make a stop at Cole's Deli.”

Angelo raised an eyebrow.

“Talk about
me
being a pig.” Carter pushed up the end of his nose.

“I'm pretty sure the food isn't for Nick,” Angelo said as the three boys climbed onto their bikes. “Do you think the deli will be open this time of the morning?”

“Hope so,” Nick said. “I think they serve breakfast sandwiches.”

It turned out that Cole's Deli was open. But Frank, the owner, was more than a little surprised when Nick asked for a hot pastrami sandwich with extra pickles. “Kid, you're gonna have heartburn all day. Take it from Frankie.”

Nick just smiled and put the sandwich in his pack along with what he'd already put there, wondering what Mr. Cole would say if he knew the real reason for the sandwich.

As they pedaled toward the cemetery, Angelo rode his bike alongside Nick's. “Are you going to say anything to your parents about the you know what?”

“Oh, yeah. I can just see me saying, ‘Hey, Mom, guess what? Last night after the game I found a severed arm. Except it mysteriously disappeared after the lights went out.' I wouldn't be allowed to watch another monster movie until I wore dentures.”

“Do you think the hand really moved?” Carter asked.

“Definitely not. I told you it was only a movie prop. I was just a little freaked out.” Nick looked up and down the street, keeping an eye out for Cody. The last thing they needed was Cody following them to the cemetery. If he didn't want them playing on neighbors' lawns, he definitely wouldn't approve of hunting down body snatchers.

“If it was a prop, then where did it go?” Carter asked.

Nick shrugged. “Probably whoever left it there came back for it. Something that realistic-looking must have cost a ton.”

At the end of the street, they stopped and waited for the light to change. “You think we can track down whoever took the corpses?” Nick asked.

“I would imagine the police have removed most of the clues,” Angelo said. The light changed and the boys starting pushing their bikes across the crosswalk.

“But what if we do?” Carter said. “We'd be on the news. We'd be famous. They might even give us a parade and, like, a year's worth of hot dogs at The House of Wieners.”

“Right. I can see it now,” Nick said, his voice thick with sarcasm. “The annual Dead Body Parade. Coming soon to a graveyard near you.”

“Speaking of the cemetery . . .” Angelo chewed on his lower lip. “Do you think it might be a good idea to, maybe . . . invite the girls?”

Nick stopped halfway across the street. “Are you kidding? Why would we want to bring
them
?”

Angelo ran his fingers through his hair. “You have to admit, Dana knows a lot about body snatching. I never thought she was all that smart until last night.”

“Who cares?” Nick fumed.
Bring the girls. What kind of lame idea was that?
“What, do you like her or something?”

Angelo's face went white. “Take that back!” he said. The two of them tried to stare each other down.

Carter stepped between them. “Repeat after me, neither girls, nor killer shape shifters, nor horrendous body odor shall ever come between the Three Monsterteers.'”

Nick chuckled and got back on his bike. “You're the only one who needs to worry about body odor.”

“Of course,” Carter admitted with a wide grin. “Why do you think I threw that in? Now let's forget all this girl talk.”

Unfortunately, that plan only lasted until they reached the cemetery. Angie and her friends were waiting outside the gate.

“What are you doing here?” Nick growled.

“We figured you boys would show up. Once it was
safe
. Too bad the groundskeeper has already cleaned everything up.”

Darn! Angelo was right. They should have come the night before
.

“And by the way, two more bodies were stolen last night,” Dana said.

“Another cemetery break-in?” Angelo asked, whipping open his notebook.

“No. The hospital this time,” Angie said. “I overheard my mother talking about it. Two bodies disappeared between one and three in the morning.” Something about her tone made Nick suspicious. Why was she spilling the beans so easily this time?

“Too bad you won't be able to check out the scene,” Tiffany said, keeping well away from Carter. “Angie's mom is going to let us into the mortuary when she works the night shift tonight. I bet we'll discover a ton of juicy clues while you play video games or root through garbage cans. Whatever it is boys do.”

Nick ground his teeth. He looked at Angelo, unable to believe what he was about to say. “Fine,” he muttered. “We'll work with the three of you.”

Angie burst into laughter. Not exactly the response Nick had expected. “Are you crazy?” she said. “Why would we want to work with you? We have the pictures from the cemetery—
before
it was cleaned up. We have access to the hospital morgue. And any one of us is smarter than the three of you combined.”

“So you're just telling us to rub our noses in it?” Nick felt his face growing hot.

“Pretty much,” Tiffany agreed. “I can't wait to post about it online.”

Angelo grabbed Nick's elbow. “We need to tell them,” he whispered. “Angie's right. They have no other reason to help us.”

Nick's first impulse was to tell the girls to get lost. But he knew Angelo was right. There was something really weird going on here. A couple of bodies stolen from a cemetery might have been teenagers pulling a gruesome prank. But breaking into a hospital morgue was big time. Besides, he really liked the idea of adding body snatchers to their movie. And adding a mortuary scene would make it that much cooler.

“Fine,” he spat, his voice so low he could barely be heard. “You take us into the hospital and I'll tell you what happened to us a few weeks ago.”

Angie considered his offer for a moment before shaking her head. “No dice. Whatever happened in the past is old news. We're onto something big.”

Nick balled his fists. Were they trying to make him beg?

“Nick can find out what happened in the cemetery,” Angelo said. “He knows some . . .
friends
who probably saw the whole thing.”

“Is that true?” Angie asked. Now she was the suspicious one.

Nick nodded reluctantly. “I'm not even sure I can talk to them anymore. But if I can, Angelo's right. They probably saw what happened. They spend a lot of time around here.”

“A
lot
of time,” Carter said with a nervous-sounding laugh.