Cathy opened the envelope and pulled out the note and started to read it. She gasped and jumped off the sofa. Her face was white. Cathy grabbed a pen and scribbled something on the back of the note, then shoved it into her purse with the $5, 2 pieces of gum, and her wallet. She ran out of the room, grabbing the car keys that were hanging on the key hook. “I’ll be back in a little bit,” Cathy called to Steve, who was watching television in the basement, as she ran out the front door.
She got into the car and drove it to David’s apartment. She was shaking very badly. “Calm down, Cathy,” she told herself. She started thinking about what David was doing. “I hope he’s all right,” she said to herself. A car horn shook her back to the present. She swerved to the side, just avoiding a car crash. She forced herself to focus on driving and stop thinking about what type of trouble David could be in.
***
Richard entered the dorm and glanced around. He did not see David. Nothing seemed out of order. The bed was still made with the magazine on the pillow. The small desk still had the paper on it, and the money was still on the dresser. He sighed. Then he remembered that the paper hadn’t been there before he left. He walked over to the desk and picked up the paper. He read it out loud. “Richard, David is in trouble and I need your help. Meet me in City Park. Cathy” Richard dropped the paper and was leaving the dorm when the other side of the paper caught his eye. It was a note to Cathy from David. He read it silently. It said, “Dear Mom, I am going to find out what happened to Dad. I wanted to tell you that some men have been following me lately. They have even tried to kidnap me. I am meeting some other men at the library. They will tell me what happened to Dad. If I don’t return, you will know what happened. David”
Richard was puzzled. He had just seen David’s dad, Steve, at the store that afternoon. He remembered that Steve had looked healthy when he had seen him. He decided to go meet Cathy at the park. She might know what the note meant. He left the dorm and climbed into the bus. He paid the driver and walked to the back of the bus and sat down with questions running through his mind the whole drive.
***
David squinted his eyes. He could barely see the men in the corner of the library basement. The taller man stepped out of the shadows. David saw that he was wearing a “Rock It” T- shirt and a NIKE cap.
“I’m Phil,” he said, “and this is my partner, Ben.” Ben was a bald man with a black T- shirt and black pants. Ben walked over to the wall and flipped on a light switch. Light flooded through the library basement. David blinked his eyes a few times, letting his eyes adjust to the light. David looked around the basement and saw a backpack leaning against the wall. Except for empty shelves against the wall, the room was empty.
“When will you tell me what happened to my dad?” David asked calmly, even though his feet were shaking.
“Patience, my friend,” said Phil, looking at his fingers. He looked up. “We just need you to do us a little favor.”
***
Cathy saw Richard approaching and waved to him.
“Let’s go into the coffee shop over there and talk. Coffee’s on me,” Cathy said to Richard.
“Great. I have a lot of questions to ask you,” Richard replied to Cathy. They walked into the coffee shop and they both ordered a steaming, hot cup of coffee.
While they were waiting for their coffees they talked about the problem.
“I have a question,” Richard said. “The note David wrote to you says that he was going to find out what happened to his Dad. Who was he talking about?”
The waiter approached them with the coffees and placed them on the table.
“Here you go,” the waiter said. Richard nodded his thanks and the waiter left the table.
“Five years ago, my husband, Joe, was killed, and David wanted to find out who had killed him. I later married Steve, so Steve is David’s stepfather,” Cathy replied, staring off into space, as if remembering every detail.
“Oh.” Richard said, sipping the last of his coffee. “Well, what should we do?” Richard inquired, changing the subject.
“I think we should head…” Suddenly a deafening explosion filled the night.
***
Phil pulled an Apple laptop from the backpack leaning against the wall. As he did, a small piece of paper fell out of the backpack. David put it in his pocket before Phil noticed. Phil turned on the laptop and showed David some plans.
“You will go to the docks and pick up two crates from the boat named Pearl and bring them back in the blue pick-up truck in the library parking lot. We need them. Make sure no one stops you and tries to take the crates,” Phil told David. “You will come back to the library. Just stay in the parking lot and we will come to get them from you,” Phil said.
David quietly pulled out a camera and turned off the flash. Then he took pictures of the plans on the computer. Then he snapped a few pictures of the men. A beeping noise that let David know he was running out of batteries echoed in the basement. He quickly put the camera in his pocket just as Phil turned around.
“What was that noise?” Phil inquired suspiciously.
David quickly thought up an answer. “It must have been one of the printers. One printer always makes a beeping noise after it prints.”
“But it sounded like it was down here,” Phil argued, glancing around the basement.
“The sound probably came from the vent,” David told Phil, changing the subject. “O.K. I understand what to do.”
Ben gave David the keys to the truck.
“We want the keys back,” He told David. David slipped out of the library and climbed into the blue, battered truck. He turned on the engine and the G.P.S. He sped away toward the dock. When he was far away from the library, he turned into a parking lot and turned off the engine.
David pulled the piece of paper out of his pocket and unfolded it. It showed a picture of Phil and Ben. Underneath the picture were two names, Jake and John Kingman. Beneath those names were the words, “Beneath the water lies a pearl waiting to be found.” David had no clue what it meant. He stuffed it in his pocket and turned on the engine. He pulled out of the parking lot and sped toward the dock.
***
Cathy and Richard ran out of the coffee shop with the crowd of people just seconds after the restaurant had blown up. Pieces of the coffee shop were flying everywhere. A siren sounded in the distance. Suddenly, three men in black grabbed Cathy and Richard and put them in a car. The men hit Richard when he tried to resist. As the car pulled away, Richard realized that they were being kidnapped.
Richard tried to calm himself. He wrote on a piece of paper telling Cathy to resist the men when they got out of the car. Then the car stopped and the men pulled them out. Richard kicked the first man in the face. The man fell to the ground like a sack of potatoes. Cathy could almost hear his bones breaking. Cathy smacked the other man with her purse just as the driver walked around the car. One glance at the scene and he ran into the car and drove away.
“Didn’t even stop to get his buddies,” Richard commented.
“You can say that again,” Cathy said as Richard hailed a taxi.
“Culver Library. Could you make it fast? It’s an emergency. I’ll pay you extra,” Richard told the driver as they sped away. “What do you plan to do when we get there?” Richard asked as they sped along.
“We’ll search the library for David. When we find him, we will help him out,” Cathy replied to Richard just as they reached the library. Richard paid the taxi driver and he sped off. They entered the library just as a blue pick-up truck left the parking lot.
***
David reached the docks and drove slowly to the boat, Pearl. He climbed out of the truck just as a sailor strolled up to him. He looked Russian and had a beard. The sailor looked around carefully, as if checking to make sure no one was watching. Satisfied, he turned to David. “Beneath the water…” he said, as if waiting for him to finish the sentence.
David thought quickly. He had no clue what the sailor was talking about. He almost gave up when he remembered the paper in his pocket. He pulled it out and read it. He realized that it was a code. Then he stuffed it back in his pocket and said, “…lies a pearl waiting to be found.”
The sailor nodded, and said “Come with me. I have the crates waiting for you.” David followed the sailor down the dock. The sailor grabbed one crate and said to David, “Take the other one.”
David picked up the other crate and followed the sailor back to the truck. The sailor put the crate in the back of the truck. David then put his crate in the truck. David hopped into the driver’s seat and strapped on the seat belt. He turned on the engine as he said, “Thanks a lot.”
“No problem,” the sailor said. David sped away back to the library.
***
“Have you seen a teen about my age with black hair come in?” Richard asked the librarian as they walked through the door.
“I’m sorry. You’re too late. He just left a few minutes before you came,” answered the librarian as she typed on her computer.
“Do you know where he went? It’s really important,” Cathy asked the librarian as she opened and closed her purse, a habit she fell into whenever she was afraid.
“I heard him say he was leaving to go to the docks,” replied the librarian.
“If he comes back, will you call me? Here is my number. 757-435-1749,” said Cathy.
“I’d be happy to, if he does return,” the librarian said.
“Thank you!” Cathy called as they ran out of the front door. Cathy called a taxi and they jumped in.
“Can you get us to the dock?” Richard asked the taxi driver as they buckled their seatbelts. They planned what to do next as the taxi sped away.
***
David drove through the street, driving around other cars. He wondered what was in the boxes. He parked the truck in a Farm Fresh parking lot and turned off the engine. With curiosity taking over, he walked over to the back of the truck and tried to open one of the crates. He could not pull it open. He went to the truck, looking for something to open the crate. He looked behind the seats and found a crowbar. He went back to the crate and pulled the lid off. Inside were five small boxes with the words Deathwatch on them.
David picked up one of the boxes with shaking hands. He was afraid to see what was inside it. “Calm down, David,” he told himself. “The boxes probably hold legal stuff.” He opened the box. Inside the box were deathberries, a type of berry that could kill anyone who ate it. Its juice was so poisonous that the United States had outlawed all deathberry bushes. “They must have gotten them from another country,” David thought. He put the box down and picked up another small box. It had deathberries in it, too.
David opened the other crate. In it were guns of different sizes. He closed the boxes and climbed back into the truck and started off to the police station. He knew he needed help.
***
Richard was dozing off in the seat next to Cathy when Cathy’s voice woke him up. “Driver, follow that car!” Richard jumped up a little too hard and bumped his head against the roof of the taxi.
“What is it?” he asked Cathy, rubbing his head.
“David is driving that blue pick-up truck that is two cars ahead of us,” Cathy answered. They watched as the truck pulled into the police station and David jumped out of the truck and walked into the police station.
“What is he doing?” Richard wondered.
“He is probably meeting Officer Jake. They are good friends. That tells us David is in trouble,” Cathy said as the taxi cab pulled into the police station. They hopped out and Cathy paid the driver. They walked into the station and looked around. They did not see David anywhere. Cathy sat down just as an officer appeared in the doorway.
“What do you folks need?” he asked.
“Is David here?” Cathy asked.
“Yes. He is meeting with Officer Jake,” the officer said.
“We will wait outside for him,” Cathy said as they walked through the front door.
“What do we do now?” Richard asked.
“We wait for David to come,” Cathy answered just as David walked outside.
***
“What are you guys doing here?” David asked.
“We were looking for you. I got your letter,” Cathy replied. “I was worried. What’s wrong?”
“I’m stuck. I’m supposed to bring two crates to these men and they agreed that they would tell me about what happened to Dad. I got curious and looked in the crates. In one of the crates were deathberries.” A shocked gasp came from Cathy. “In the other one were different types of guns.” David said. “I gave Officer Jake a paper I found with the two men’s real names. I also gave him the pictures I took of the men and their plans.
“What did the police tell you to do?” Richard asked with curiosity.
“They told me to take the crates back to the library and they would hide to catch the smugglers,” David said with excitement in his eyes.
“Can we come with you?” Richard asked.
“Sure. Just be careful. These men are dangerous.”
They all got into the truck and David drove away. On the way to the library, Cathy asked, “Do they have guns?”
“I’m not sure. That’s why we have to be careful.” David answered as they pulled into the driveway. “Stay in the car and stay low so they don’t see you,” he said as he hopped out.
David saw Phil and Ben walking toward him. “I got the crates,” he said. “No one followed me.”
“Good. But why did you pull into a Food Lion parking lot? We had a tracking device in the car so we knew your every move,” Phil said, waving a device at David.
He thought quickly. “Their tracking device must be old because the Food Lion is gone and the police station is in its place. Good thing they don’t know it was a police station or they would know something’s up.” He could not think of an answer.
Cathy and Richard jumped out of the truck. “He needed to pick us up,” Cathy told them.
Phil looked at Ben when a voice shouted, “Don’t move! This is the police.” Five policemen stepped out of the shadows and pulled out their guns. Phil and Ben ran behind one of the crates and pulled out their guns and shot at the policemen. The policemen ducked behind the trees.
David and Richard sneaked behind Phil and Ben. David grabbed Phil and took his gun. Richard did the same. Soon, all the shooting stopped. The police handcuffed the men and led them away. One of the officers told them what was going on.
“It seems that they were going to build a weapon that shoots bullets coated in deathberry juice that could kill a man instantly. Would you like a ride home?”
“Sure,” Richard answered and hopped in the police car. David and Cathy followed him.
While they where driving, Cathy told David what had happened to his father. “While he was in the army, he went into enemy lines and shut off their transmission. He died, but we won the war. I’m sorry I kept it from you.”
David sat in shock. “You mean my father’s a hero?” he asked, still in shock.
“Yes. He would have been proud to have a son like you. I don’t blame you if you hold it against me,” Cathy said, tears rolling down her face as the police car drove into the parking lot of David’s dorm.
David and Richard climbed out of the car. Richard headed up to the room. “You coming?” he asked David.
“Just a minute. I’ll meet you up there,” David answered. He turned to his mom who was in tears. “I love you mom. I know I wished you’d told me sooner, but I forgive you. I’m proud to have a mom like you,” he said.
“I love you too, son,” Cathy said as the car drove away.
David watched the car go with tears in his eyes. He was happy he knew the truth. “Mom was trying to protect me,” he thought as he walked to his room. He opened the door and walked in. Richard was watching television. He joined him on the sofa and they laughed at the funny show that was on.
THE END