Dunc and the Scam Artists (5 page)

The creep was talking to someone: “There are two of them. They’re still here somewhere. I found two bikes by the side of the house. You look in the house and I’ll check down by the creek.”

It was pitch black under the old wooden porch. Amos tried not to breathe. Something had definitely died under there recently. The smell was almost unbearable. The stale ground was rocky and uncomfortable.

Amos felt something crawling up the back of his shirt. He couldn’t reach it and it was driving him crazy. He tried to ignore it and had
almost succeeded—when he remembered centipedes.

He’d seen them in
National Geographic
. They bit you. They had poison. They could kill you. First things fell off and then you died.

It was too much. Amos exploded out from under the porch as if he’d been fired from a missile launcher. Dunc grabbed for him, missed, and called after him in a loud whisper. “Amos—get back in here before you get caught.”

“Too late for that boys. You’re caught,” the big man boomed.

A flashlight beamed at Dunc under the porch.

“Come out of there squirt.”

Dunc crawled out and stood up. “We were just inspecting the structure of the house. Pretty weak supports under the porch, if you ask me.”

“Shut up and get in the house. Don’t try anything or I’ll tie your arms and legs in knots.”

Oh great
, Dunc thought.
Another plan bites the dust
.

The big man shoved them toward the couch. “Sit down.”

Mrs. Dell came down the stairs.

“Oh, dear. What’s going on here?”

Dunc turned to the lady. “Mrs. Dell you’ve got to help us. This is a bad man. He isn’t your nephew. He has us here against our will. We think he may be trying to steal from you. Please call the police.”

She smiled at him like a kind aunt or grandmother. “Of course Frankie is my nephew, dear. I’ve known him since he was a little boy. I don’t think you understand. Frankie and I work together on little projects. I only let you boys work here to throw you off our trail. I’m afraid it didn’t work, did it?”

“I told you not to let them hang around here. You should have let me take care of them,” Frankie almost snarled.

The look on Mrs. Dell’s face became hard. “Shut up Frankie. Without me, you’d be nothing. You’d still be stealing hubcaps in L.A.”

Dunc’s mouth fell open. “You mean you’re both crooks? You are the partner the police have been looking for?”

“Pretty good disguise, isn’t it?” said Mrs.
Dell in her sweetest grannylike voice. “You see, Frankie here does all the inside work, but I introduce him to the pigeons. Older people seem to trust older people. They really shouldn’t you know. We can be bad just as well as good.”

Amos shook his head. “I can’t believe a nice lady like you would be involved in something as dishonest as this. You should be ashamed of yourself.”

“Now, now, don’t get excited honey. Everybody has to make a living.”

“That’s enough talk,” Frankie said. “What should I do with them Auntie?”

Mrs. Dell’s sweet expression changed again. “Take them upstairs and lock them in a closet. By the time they get out, we’ll be in sunny Mexico.”

Frankie marched them upstairs and shoved them into a small closet.

“Can’t we talk about this?” Amos asked.

Frankie slammed the door in his face.

“Not very talkative, is he?”

Dunc pushed on the door. “Gorillas don’t have a very good command of the English language.”

The closet was dark, too dark to see anything.
There was only enough room to stand up or sit with their knees pulled up close.

This was going from bad to worse
, Dunc thought. Out loud he said, “Don’t worry Amos. I’ll think of something.”

“You mean, this was not a part of your original plan?” Amos’s voice was sarcastic.

“Not exactly. It’s more like a sidetrack. But I’m sure something will turn up.”

Amos sighed. “I sure hope it does soon. It’s getting hard to breathe in here.”

He had no sooner said that than they began to hear sirens. Police sirens.

“Here comes the cavalry,” Dunc said. “Let’s let them know where we are.”

They pounded and kicked the closet door and screamed at the top of their lungs.

“Stand back from the door. We’ll have to pry it open.”

The door flew open and two grateful boys came tumbling out to land at the feet of two policemen.

“Thanks officers,” Dunc said.

“No problem. We heard the racket and figured someone was in here.”

Downstairs, two officers were sorting
through the green metal box. Handcuffs were being applied to Mrs. Dell, who was protesting and claiming her innocence in her sweetest little-old-lady voice.

“Good work boys.” The officer in charge shook their hands. “We’ve been after these two for a long time.”

Out in the yard the creep was facedown in the grass. His arms were outstretched, and his knees were bent and his feet were sticking straight into the air.

“What happened to him?” Amos asked.

“I did.” Mrs. Hawkins came up from the side of the porch. “I saw you two ride in, but I never saw you ride out. So I called the police, then came over on my own to check things out. He came after me and I hit him.”

“Hit him?” Dunc asked. “What with?”

“A shovel. It left a print of his face in the metal. I hate to ruin a good shovel like that but it was an emergency.”

“Well, however it worked out, thank you for saving us. We might have been in that closet for years.” Dunc smiled. “If there’s anything we can do for you, just let us know.”

Mrs. Hawkins studied him. “To be honest, I
could use a couple of strong boys to do a little yard work over at my place.”

Amos shook his head, tried to signal Dunc but it didn’t work.

“You’ve got it,” Dunc said.

The police were kind enough to take the two exhausted boys and their bikes home.

Dunc’s parents restricted him to the house, Mrs. Hawkins’s yard, and school until further notice or old age, whichever came first. Amos’s parents hadn’t even missed him, except that the house didn’t seem to be quite as wrecked as usual, so he could go over to Dunc’s house.

Dunc was sitting on his bed. “We’re getting pretty good at this detective stuff. I think I’ll work us up a resume. Maybe we should advertise. All things considered, I think this was one of our better cases, don’t you?”

“If you like centipedes, dark closets, the Incredible
Hulk pushing you around and your life being threatened, I guess it was great.” Amos said. “Personally, I’d rather have a tooth pulled.”

“Every case has its drawbacks. It’s the end result that matters. Mrs. Dell and her nephew are in custody. Frankie is squealing like a stuck pig. The police have enough evidence to put them both away for a long time. It’s a great feeling knowing we were a part of it.”

“Too bad the newspapers don’t feel the same way. They didn’t even mention us in the article. The police got all the credit.”

Dunc shrugged. “Oh well, that’s one of the things you have to expect when you’re a detective. We do all the work and they get all the glory.”

“I was counting on some of that glory. Remember? Melissa was supposed to want my autograph.”

“I know it didn’t quite work out that way this time. But don’t worry—there’s always next time.”

“Count me out. I’ve had enough cops and robbers for one lifetime,” Amos said.

“Speaking of Melissa, have you gotten an invitation
to her party yet?” Dunc asked. “It’s only two days away.”

“You don’t have to remind me. I’ve been ready for two weeks. My invitation probably got lost in the mail. Either that, or she wants to call and invite me personally.”

The phone chose that exact moment to ring.

Dunc tried to stop him. “Amos, it’s not her. This is my phone, remember? She wouldn’t call you here.”

But by that time the back screen door was off its hinges, the garbage cans were flying through the yard, the rear fence was flattened and Amos was hanging in Mrs. Elmore’s clothesline across the alley.

“Amos, are you alive?”

A hand waved weakly at him through the clothesline ropes.

Dunc sighed and went for a pair of scissors to cut Amos loose.

It was going to be a long school year.

When Dunc Culpepper and his best friend, Amos, first see the parrot in a pet store, they’re not impressed—it’s smelly, scruffy, and missing half its feathers. They’re only slightly impressed when they learn that the parrot speaks four languages, has outlived ten of its owners, and is probably 150 years old. But when the bird starts mouthing off about buried treasure, Dunc and Amos get pretty excited—let the amateur sleuthing begin!

Dunc and his accident-prone friend, Amos, are up to their old sleuthing habits once again. This time they’re after a band of doll thieves! When a doll that once belonged to Charles Dickens’s daughter is stolen from an exhibition at the local mall, the two boys put on their detective gear and do some serious snooping. Will a vicious watchdog keep them from retrieving the valuable missing doll?

Dunc and Amos are researching the Civil War cannon that stands in the town square when they find a note inside telling them about a time portal. Entering it through the dressing room of La Petite, a women’s clothing store, the boys find themselves in downtown Chatham on March 8, 1862—the day before the historic clash between the
Monitor
and the
Merrimack
. But the Confederate soldiers they meet mistake them for Yankee spies. Will they make it back to the future in one piece?

Best friends Dunc and Amos meet up with a new buddy named Lash when they enter the radical world of skateboard competition. When somebody “cops”—steals—Lash’s prototype skateboard, the boys are determined to get it back. After all, Lash is about to shoot for a totally rad world’s record! Along the way they learn a major lesson:
Never
kiss a monkey!

Dunc and his best friend, Amos, are planning the best route to get the most candy on Halloween. But their plans change when Amos is slightly bitten by a werewolf. He begins scratching himself and chasing UPS trucks: he’s become a werepuppy!

Best friends for life Dunc and Amos have a small problem when they try hang gliding—they crash in the wilderness. Luckily, Amos has read a book about a boy who survived in the wilderness for fifty-four days. Too bad Amos doesn’t have a hatchet. Things go from bad to worse when a wild man holds the boys captive. Can anything save them now?

Dunc’s not afraid of ghosts, although Amos is sure that the old Rambridge house is haunted by the ghost of Blackbeard the Pirate. Then the best friends meet Eddie, a meek man who claims to be impersonating Blackbeard’s ghost in order to live in the house in peace. But if that’s true, why are flames shooting from his mouth?

Deciphering a code they find in a library book, best friends for life Amos and Dunc stumble onto a burglary ring. The burglars’ next target is the home of Melissa, the girl of Amos’s dreams (who doesn’t even know that he’s alive). Amos longs to be a hero to Melissa, so nothing will stop him from solving this case—not even a mind-boggling collision with a jock, a chimpanzee, and a toilet.

In order to impress Melissa, the girl of his dreams, Amos decides to perform on the trapeze at the visiting circus. Look out below! But before his best friend for life, Dunc, can talk him out of his plan, the two stumble across a mystery behind the scenes at the circus. Now Amos is in double trouble. What’s really going on under the big top?

Camouflaged as piles of rotting trash, Dunc and Amos are sneaking around the town dump. Dunc wants to find out who is polluting the garbage at the dump with hazardous and toxic waste. Amos just wants to impress Melissa. Can either of them succeed?