Ghost of a Chance (12 page)

“And a trunk full of disguises,” Joe reminded them. “So who knows?”

It was nearly seven o'clock by the time they pulled into the compound. Gene went straight to Gus's trailer to check on the bear. Joe went to the barn to get some feed for Gus. An odd sound from up in the loft caught his attention.

Armed with a pitchfork, he climbed the wooden ladder to the loft. When he saw the large camelcolored form, he dropped the pitchfork and yelled. “Frank! Gene! Get in here—quick!”

Joe scrambled up the rest of the ladder and hurried to Omar, lying in the straw. His feet were tied, and he seemed to be very woozy.

“What is it, Joe?” Gene called from below.

“It's Omar! He looks like he's been drugged.”

Gene climbed the ladder, two rungs at a time. After a quick examination, he guessed that Omar had been tranquilized. He and Joe untied Omar's feet and Gene rubbed the big cat's legs.

Slowly, Omar seemed to get his bearings. He sat up once but fell back. Then he sat up again and shook his head. This time, he kept his balance.

Gene nuzzled Omar and murmured to him. The immediate sound of a chain-saw purr made the wrangler laugh out loud.

Rather than try to wrestle the cat down the ladder, Gene decided to leave him in the loft until he had the strength to get down by himself. Frank and Joe piled up bales of hay to give Omar a larger stair step approach to the floor of the barn. Gene decided to stay with Omar until the cat was back to normal.

Frank waited at the house for Lloyd to return so he could tell him the good news about Omar. Joe went down to pick up dinner for the four of them.

By the time they finally fell into their beds, the Hardys agreed they'd had a full day's work. “In all the commotion, I forgot to ask you something,” Joe said, turning out the light next to his bed. “Did you tell Terry about the ghost of Jumper in Cleo's trailer? Did you ask him if he had anything to do with the illusion—maybe as a joke?”

“I wanted to, but something held me back,” Frank answered. “If Terry set up that trick to scare
Cleo, he might be behind some of the other incidents around here. I want to get more evidence before I say anything to him. If I tip my hand too soon, he'll know we suspect him.”

The soft patter of rain on the roof helped quiet Joe's racing thoughts as he finally slipped into sleep.

Wednesday morning Joe was awakened by rain pounding on the metal roof and a knock at the door. When he opened it, he saw only a cardboard box addressed to Frank. Joe took it back to their bedroom and awakened his brother.

“No return address,” Frank mumbled as he looked at the box. No postage or delivery stamp either,” Joe pointed out. “It must have been delivered by a courier of some kind.”

Frank cut open the box. He pulled out the newspaper used for packing to reveal a navy blue backpack. He opened the bag and spilled out several videotapes. Each was marked with a date and a label, such as “Jumper cabin,” “plane,” or “press conf.”

“Ernesto's backpack,” Frank said.

“Looks like he's been shooting a few scenes himself,” Joe said, “with a video camera. That must be why he was hanging around. Why'd he send them to you?”

“Terry told him that we're investigating the trouble
with the film. Maybe he thought these would help.”

“Hey, guys, you up?” Gene called. “I've got breakfast.”

Gene unloaded the breakfast burritos and eggs he'd picked up at the commissary. He told the Hardys that filming would be suspended until the afternoon, when the rain was supposed to stop. Then they would be shooting scenes at the Jumper cabin location. Frank showed him the backpack and tapes.

“I told Dustin that Omar's back,” Gene added. “He wants to meet with Lloyd and me this afternoon to reschedule his scenes. You guys will be free until tomorrow.”

“Great!” Frank said. “I want to go back to that old well I was chased into. I'm thinking that those leather strips and silver chain might have something to do with Jumper. I'd like to see if we can find anything else.”

“Be careful,” Gene warned. “Whoever it was that caught us at that cabin last night seemed pretty dangerous. I don't want anything happening to my new wranglers. At least not until the filming is done,” he added with a goofy smile.

Lloyd came in from checking the animals. Shaking water from the wide brim of his leather safari hat, he reported that Omar had suffered a bout of nausea during the night. But now their prize puma
had fully recovered and was sleeping it off in his trailer.

Over breakfast, the four wranglers talked about the package of tapes Frank had received. “We need to take a look at them as soon as possible,” Frank said.

“This is a different size tape than our camera viewer plays,” Gene said. “But I think Terry's videocamera takes this size—and he's got an editing viewer, too. He uses it to check his stunts. We ought to be able to play this tape on one or the other. I'll call him.”

Gene was back from the phone in just a few minutes. “He says to come over. He wants to see the tapes, too. And I videotaped the rehearsal yesterday morning while Joe was standing in for Berk. We can take a look at that also.”

“Great,” Joe said. “We can view the tapes before we head out to the woods this afternoon.”

Again, the four wranglers took both trucks, the Hardys in one and Gene and Lloyd in the other. That way they could leave Terry's and go on to their afternoon destinations without returning to the compound.

Terry had a large suite at the inn, with a sitting room separate from the bedroom. He already had the editing viewer and his videocamera viewer ready when the wranglers arrived.

The Hardys, Gene, and Lloyd told Terry about their search for Omar. The stuntman seemed intrigued by the cabin full of disguises and the strange man and his pet puma.

Finally they all got to work. “This is so cool,” Terry said, popping the first tape into his camera viewer. “Maybe I can find out who messed up my stunt.”

All five huddled around the table and watched the tape on the small built-in window in the viewer.

“Can we boost the volume?” Gene asked.

“No, that's as high as it goes,” Terry said.

“Don't forget, Ernesto probably was hiding when he shot these videos,” Frank reminded them. “It's a wonder we have any sound at all.”

“What are we looking for exactly?” Lloyd asked.

“Any evidence that might show who took Omar, for one thing,” Gene answered.

“Or who planted Elvis to take Omar's place,” added Joe.

“Or who tampered with my rigging,” Terry said.

Frank focused on the small screen. Finally, after half an hour of viewing, something clicked. “Wait a minute,” he said. “Go back a little.”

Terry rewound the tape and played it again.

“There!” Frank said. “See that guy—the one in the red shirt?” The shot showed the man from the side. He was nearly bald, with a fringe of pale hair. A large scar emerged from under wraparound sunglasses
and snaked down his cheek. “I talked to him yesterday. I didn't get his name, but he's one of the extras.”

“And?” Terry asked.

“Last night I thought I recognized the voice of the person who chased us away from his cabin,” Frank said. “That's the guy,” he said, pointing to the man in the viewing window. “The person at the cabin sounded like this extra.”

Frank turned to Joe. “Did the cabin guy walk while you watched him?” Frank asked. “This extra has a limp.”

“I didn't see him move,” Joe said. “But he was standing sort of lopsided, now that you mention it. He was leaning over to one side, like maybe one leg is shorter than the other.”

Terry popped the tape into his editing viewer and printed a still shot of the video where Frank had asked him to stop the tape. He handed Frank the photo of the extra in the red shirt.

After they finished viewing Ernesto's tapes, Lloyd slipped his tape from Joe's stand-in rehearsal into the editing viewer.

“What's that?” Joe asked as they watched. Terry paused the tape, and Joe pointed to a bulky shadow near a large tree. The shadow was a long sleek form next to a rounder bulge. Terry cut and printed that shot and scanned both prints into his laptop computer.

Terry's photo-viewing software allowed him to enlarge the views, lighten the tones, and sharpen the images. With Frank's guidance, he worked on the two photos. It took a while, but when they were through, there was no doubt about what they saw.

Terry called up both shots, side by side. The image on the right showed the actor in his costume as an extra in the film's cast.

'The image on the left was the same man, only this time, he had shaggy hair and a beard and was crouching near a large tree. His arm was resting on the back of Elvis, the puma that had attacked Joe, and his hand was clutching the fold at the nape of Elvis's tan neck.

“It's the same man,” Terry said. Frank studied the two images. The man who had unleashed the puma on Joe and the man who'd caught them trespassing was the man he'd talked to—an extra in the movie. All three were the same man.

“Let's go,” Frank said. “It looks like we've had a break in this case at last. We need to get more evidence before we go to the police, though. Let's see if we can find this man at the filming location. I also want to see if I can find Ernesto in town and have him look at the strips of leather and silver chain I found in the well. He's the ranking expert around here on Jumper Herman artifacts. He might be able to authenticate them for us.”

“The rain has let up, so they're probably thinking
about shooting at the cabin after lunch,” Lloyd pointed out.

“I could try to find Ernesto for you,” Terry said. “Maybe set up a meeting for later.”

“Good idea,” Joe said, looking at his watch. “It's ten-thirty now. Frank and I will be at the food tent on the mountain between one and one-thirty.”

“Lloyd and I should be through with our meeting with Dustin by then,” Gene said. “We'll meet you there.”

“One of you call me here about then,” Terry said. “I'll try to get Ernesto lined up.”

“It's a plan,” Joe said. He and Frank took Ernesto's videotapes and the two enhanced photos and left.

On the way to the location, Frank and Joe talked about the events of the last two days and how they could possibly be related.

“If the guy in the photos is really responsible for Elvis's attack on me,” Joe suggested, “he could be behind
all
the weird stuff that's been going on. He's got those costumes and disguises in that trunk in the cabin. Even the shaggy beard and hair could be fake, for all we know. He could use all those disguises so it would be hard to trace the crimes and pranks to just one person.”

“He had a Bigfoot costume in the trunk, too,” Frank said. “He could have been the one that knocked me down Monday. He even could have
been spying on us through the window of the abandoned shack that Terry took us to on the way to the hospital. He could be the one behind
all
the Bigfoot sightings around here.”

“What about Cleo's stunt?” Joe wondered.

“Was it an accident? Or was it intentional? And if so, who set it up—and why? Terry swears someone sabotaged his rig, but he also swears he didn't leave it long enough for anyone to tamper with it. He can't have it both ways.”

“You're right—his story doesn't add up,” Frank said. “But I really don't think he's behind this stuff. We'll talk to him about it this afternoon.”

As soon as Joe parked the truck, Sassy raced over to greet them. “Have you heard?” she said breathlessly. “Ernesto Roland has been arrested!”

Sassy rattled on almost nonstop about how Ernesto had been caught lurking around the set again. “But this time he was caught and taken to the county jail in a town a few miles from Cross-cook,” she said.

She turned to Frank, and her green eyes narrowed. “Remember when we ran into each other yesterday at the inn?”

Frank nodded, and Sassy continued. “Well, when Ernesto went back to his room at the inn—practically at the same moment we were talking—somebody had completely ransacked it. You were in the area then. Did you see anything funny?”

“No, but I have a question, and I can't imagine anyone better to ask. You know everything that's going on around here.”

Sassy's eyebrows rose when she heard Frank's words. She leaned forward and said, “I certainly try to know everything. How can I help?”

“It's about one of the extras. He looks familiar to me—an old family friend, maybe. But I can't remember his name. He's got really shaggy hair and a shaggy beard—”

“Hank Jeamer,” Sassy interrupted. “I'm sure that's who you mean. He's a local and kind of a character. A real loner. He's not down here every day—just shows up occasionally. He lives up in the mountains. And he looks the part so perfectly that Dustin always signs him up as an extra when he does show up.”