The Bloodwater Mysteries: Doppelganger (12 page)

“What’s going on here?” Darwin asked. “You two
guys are brothers, but you don’t know each other, and…how many moms do you
have,
anyway?”

“I need to sit down,” Brian said. He didn’t even bother to walk over to the front steps, but just sank down onto the concrete walkway.

Billy said, “You didn’t know about me, did you?”

Brian shook his head.

“We lost you. My mom said you were taken from her in Korea. She found out you’d been adopted by a family here in Minnesota. When I was three years old, we moved here to be closer to you, but when she found you, you were living with some people she said were really nice, and you seemed happy. But then the people who adopted you were killed, and we lost track of you until a couple of weeks ago, when my mom saw you in the paper.”

“The paper-airplane picture?”

“Yeah. Cool airplane. I’d like to know how to fold it.”

“I didn’t know I had a twin.”

Billy nodded. “It must be kind of a shock.”

“A tidal wave.”

“Are you, like, really smart?”

Brian looked up at the sky. “I skipped a grade,” he said.

“I can speak Korean,” Billy said.

“I can say
good morning
and
thank you,
but not very well.”

“I’ll teach you.”

Roni said, “Hey, guys, focus. What about Bryce Doblemun?”

“What is it with her and this Doblemun kid?” Billy asked Brian.

Brian shrugged. “She’s Roni.”

Brian and Billy had met only two minutes ago, and already they were acting like they’d known each other their entire lives.

Roni said, “If you aren’t Bryce Doblemun, then why is your picture on the missing-kids website?”

“What’re you talking about? I’ve never been missing.”

Brian said, “Roni, don’t you get it? Bryce Doblemun was just some kid who maybe looked a little bit like me and Billy. It’s a coincidence.”

“I don’t believe in coincidences,” Roni said. “I want to talk to your mom. Is she home?”

“She’s taking a nap,” Billy said.

Brian said, “Roni…”

“Can you wake her up?” Roni asked.

“Roni!” Brian was pointing toward the street.

Roni turned and saw a long silver car roll up behind Darwin’s tow truck, right beneath a streetlamp. As she watched, the passenger door opened and a tall, thin, bearded man stepped out.

Lance Doblemun.

rope-a-dope

Louella Doblemun got out of the driver’s side of the Cadillac. “Bryce! We’ve come to take you home, baby,” she shouted. She lumbered across the street, holding her handbag as if it were a weapon. Her son followed close behind her.

“Now what?” Darwin said to no one in particular.

“That’s far enough,” said Roni as the Doblemuns reached the sidewalk. “This is private property.”

Lance Doblemun and his mother stopped. Mrs. Doblemun pointed a finger at Brian and said, “Vera never should have stolen you away, young man. It’s time to return to your real family.”

“Who’s Vera?” Billy asked.

“Who’s
anybody
?” said Darwin, looking very confused.

“What are you doing here?” Roni asked the two Doblemuns.

Lance Doblemun said, “Dogged you all the way from Bloodwater, missy. You never noticed us. Big old tow truck like that, we just followed the smoke.” He grinned at Darwin. “Lost you for a few minutes after you pulled that tricky turnaround back on Snelling, but not for long!”
Looking at Brian, he said, “Come on, Bryce, let’s get you home.” He took a step forward.

“If you take one more step, we’re calling the police,” Roni said.

“And my name isn’t Bryce, it’s Brian. There are no Bryces here.”

Lance and his mother finally noticed Billy. They looked back and forth between the two boys, more confused with each passing second.

“Who are
you
?” Mrs. Doblemun asked Billy.

“Who are
you
?” Billy shot back.

“I am your grandmother!” She looked from Brian to Billy. “Or
his
grandmother!”

“
Our
grandmothers are Korean,” Billy said.

Roni could have sworn she heard Lance Doblemun snarl, an evil, low-down sound that scared her to her bones. He looked as if he were about to snap.

“One of you has got to be him,” said Lance, taking another step toward Brian and Billy.

Roni moved to put herself between Lance and Brian. “Just because you drove away your wife and son doesn’t mean you can go grabbing every kid you think resembles him.”

Lance seemed to really notice her for the first time. “You! You’re the one who made me wreck my truck!”

“And you lied to me,” Mrs. Doblemun said. “Tierra del Fuego indeed!”

Roni said, “You don’t really want Bryce back at all—you just want to collect the reward.”

“This has nothing to do with money,” Mrs. Doblemun said.

“Money’s nice, though,” Lance said. He lunged forward, shoving Roni aside with one arm. Roni fell to the grass, but she saw what happened next—Billy kicked his skateboard toward the charging Lance Doblemun. The board caught Lance in the shin and he went down with an anguished howl.

Mrs. Doblemun entered the fray, swinging her purse like a club. Darwin, in a state of utter bewilderment, took the whirling purse full in the face and went down like a sack of beans.

Billy yelled, “Come on!” and took off running, with Brian close behind. They disappeared around the corner of the house. Lance Doblemun scrambled to his feet and took off in pursuit. Mrs. Doblemun, satisfied that Darwin was out of commission, started after them. Roni grabbed Billy’s skateboard and sent it rolling on an interception course. Louella Doblemun’s left foot came down on the board. Her ankle twisted, her feet flew out from under her, and she landed with an earth-shaking
thump
flat on her back.

A few seconds later, Roni heard Brian’s voice from the other side of the house.

“Roni! Help! Come quick!”

When Billy and Brian took off running, Billy had seemed to understand immediately that Lance Doblemun was a threat, and that they couldn’t afford to let him catch either of them.

“Follow me,” he said over his shoulder. “I’ve got an idea.”

It was almost dark, that time of night when the color leaves the world and the shadows get confusing. Billy was running flat-out—it was all Brian could do to keep up with him. He had to trust that Billy knew the territory—it was so dark it was hard to see where they were going. They ran through the neighbor’s backyard, jumped a low fence, and tore down the alley behind the houses. Lance was on their tail, not forty feet behind them. For an old guy, he was
fast
.

Billy made a hard right turn through an open gate. He zigged around a bush, then zagged around a window well on the side of a house. Brian wasn’t sure, but it seemed like they were running in a circle and were now heading back to Billy’s. He risked a quick glance over his shoulder. Lance was only about ten feet behind them. He could hear the man’s ragged breathing.

“Faster,” he yelled.

Billy put on a burst of speed across a yard that looked to Brian like it ended at a six-foot-tall fence. Brian sensed that Lance was a millisecond away from grabbing him when he heard a strangled squawk, followed by the thump of a body hitting the earth.

Billy and Brian skidded to a stop just before hitting the fence. Behind them, Lance Doblemun was writhing on the ground, clutching his throat and making noises that sounded like
aak
and
ulg
.

Brian immediately saw what had happened. Lance
Doblemun had been clotheslined. Literally. Billy had led them racing across his backyard in the near-darkness, knowing that a clothesline was stretched across it, and knowing that the line was just high enough for him and Brian to run beneath. In other words, at the exact height of Lance Doblemun’s neck.

“Kuh. Uh. Erk!”
Lance seemed to be saying, his eyes rolling.

Horrified, Brian wondered if Lance Doblemun was dying. Could he have crushed his windpipe?

Billy was pulling the clothesline down. “Help me,” he said. “I don’t want to take any chances with him.”

Brian had once watched a rodeo on TV, and what he was seeing reminded him of the calf-roping event where the cowboys lassoed the calves and tied them up. Billy whipped the cord around Lance’s ankles, and tied it.

Lance Doblemun, realizing what was happening, tried to sit up and grab Billy. Brian shouted to Roni for help, then ran behind Lance and grabbed a hank of his hair. He pulled back on it as hard as he could. Lance let out a yell and reached back, trying to grab Brian.

“Sit on him,” Billy yelled, still wrestling with Lance’s feet.

Brian threw himself across Lance Doblemun’s chest. The man twisted and turned beneath him, trying to buck him off. For a second, Brian thought that he and Billy might be able to control him—but then he felt Lance Doblemun’s fingers wrap around his throat and start to squeeze.

kyung-soon

Roni ran around the house toward the sound of Brian’s voice. She found the three of them—Lance, Brian, and Billy—rolling on the ground fighting. She stopped, trying to make sense of the tangle of arms and legs. Billy was hanging on to Lance’s legs. Brian was on top of his chest, but the man had his hands locked around Brian’s throat.

Without thinking, Roni threw herself onto the pile. She felt her knee sink into Lance’s gut and heard the
whuff
of air exploding from his lungs. His hands released Brian’s neck. Brian fell backward, and Lance Doblemun began making a new sound—the
heeek heeek heeek
of someone who had the wind knocked out of him.

“Here,” Billy said. He handed her the clothesline. Roni thought for a split second, then threw the end of the clothesline out across the yard. She and Billy quickly rolled the gasping man over the stretched-out cord so that it wrapped several times around his body, pinning his arms to his sides. Brian, seeing what they were doing, had pulled down a second clothesline. A few seconds later, Lance was wrapped up like a fly in a spider’s web.

“Ha,” said Billy, climbing to his feet. “Spider-Man couldn’t have done better.”

“Dak-Ho?” A new voice came from the side of the house. A small, dark-haired woman stepped into the backyard. “Dak-Ho? Who are these people? And what are you—oh!” She stopped, seeing the man on the ground. For about three seconds, nobody moved or said anything.

Billy was the first to speak.

“Hi, Mom,” he said.

Brian recognized her at once. This was the same woman who had warned him about skateboarding down the hill in Bloodwater. But this time he knew, deep in his heart, without a trace of doubt, that he was looking at the woman who had given birth to him.

She did not speak. Her eyes were fixed on the man on the ground. Lance Doblemun, now helpless, glared back at her, his jaw pulsing.

Billy said to Brian, “This is our mom, Kyung-Soon.”

The woman’s eyes went to Brian, and then Roni, then back to Lance Doblemun.

“This man, he is very dangerous,” she said.

“You know him?” Billy said.

Kyung-Soon sat down on the back steps, looking small and frightened. She began to rock back and forth, wringing her hands.

“Mom? Are you okay?”

Kyung-Soon shook her head. Looking from Billy to
Brian, she said, “There are things I must tell you. Both of you.”

Roni, looking around nervously, said, “What about Mrs. Doblemun?”

As she spoke, Louella Doblemun came limping around the corner of the house, wincing with pain every time she put weight on her right foot. When she saw Lance lying on the ground, she let out a screech.

“What have you done to my son?” She hobbled quickly to him and sank to her knees. “Lance, baby, what have they done to you?”

“Just untie me,” he said.

Mrs. Doblemun started to tug at the ropes. Kyung-Soon’s voice rang out, sharp and clear and much louder than anyone expected.

“Do not untie him.”

Mrs. Doblemun looked at Kyung-Soon, startled.

“Who are
you
?” she asked.

“I am Kyung-Soon Kim. I am mother to these boys, and you will listen to me. All of you.”

“I’m not listening to anybody until you untie my son!”

“Yes, you will—if you ever want to know what really happened to Vera Doblemun and your grandson Bryce.”

That had an effect on Mrs. Doblemun. “What do
you
know?” she asked.

“I know
everything,
” said Kyung-Soon.

blood and tea

“This had better be good,” said Mrs. Doblemun.

Kyung-Soon shook her head. “It is not good. Nothing about it is good.” She gave Lance a long, measuring look, then said to Billy, “Is he well tied?”

“I think so,” Billy said.

Kyung-Soon stood up. “Then let us go inside where we do not have to look at him.” To Mrs. Doblemun, she said, “If you wish to know the truth about my son—and yours—you will come inside and listen.”

Mrs. Doblemun slowly stood up.

“You can’t just leave me here!” Lance said.

Just then, Darwin appeared, rubbing his head and looking a bit discombobulated. “What’s going on?” he said. “What happened?” Seeing Mrs. Doblemun, he stopped and backed up a step. She scowled at him.

Roni said, “Darwin, would you stay out here and keep an eye on him?” She pointed at Lance.

“Huh?”

“Just for a few minutes, while we go inside and talk?”

After pointing out the time, and the long drive ahead of
them, Darwin agreed, grudgingly, and settled into the chaise longue by the back door.

As they trooped into the house, Roni was already writing her story in her head, thinking she might be able to sell it to
The
New York Times,
or failing that, the
Bloodwater Clarion.
What a story! Korean twins separated at birth and now reunited halfway around the world, a purse-swinging grandmother, a hundred-thousand-dollar reward, and an evil adoptive father trussed up like lunch for a giant spider.

As soon as they got inside, Kyung-Soon put a pot of water on for tea. “Large news should always have tea,” she explained, placing a large teapot on the kitchen table where Roni, Billy, and Brian were sitting.