Chapter Four
Speed pushed himself to his physical limits and beyond, demanding answers from the universe and receiving none. Several times, Racer X had to stop himself from waving Speed in to port as he watched Speed fight his battle in the private confines of his own mind and emotions.
"Speed would not hear me anyway." Racer X thought, "But I wish there were someway I could help him. I know its better that I do not, but I can wish."
Eventually bodily exhaustion took over and, as Speed tired physically, the emotional shipwreck began to balance again. His body took over driving the racing car on autopilot. Speed started to think about the perplexing problem of the opened grave and what he was going to do about it.
"I know that Mom and Pops want answers. So do I." Speed twisted the steering wheel and steered the car into a smooth curve, far different from the erratic maneuvers of the past few minutes. Racer X gave a sigh of relief as he realized that Speed was calming down. He had been right in believing that the race track would be comforting to his brother.
"The question is, "Where can I start? "Speed wondered as he effortlessly looped the loop of the track. "If the local authorities won't help, who will and where and how do I start?"
Speed had never considered the specifics of investigating a mystery before.
"I know that if we tell the media, there will be all kinds of publicity!" Speeds thoughts began to go around in circles. "We don't want that. But if that is what it takes too get the answers we deserve, that is what we will do. I don't care what it does to me personally. I don't want Pops hurt again. Mom is strong enough to stand it if we got some real answers. I wonder if we should consider hiring a private detective. I wonder if Inspector's Detector's department could discreetly find out anything and if they would tell us if they did."
Thoughts of Inspector Detector led Speed to consider the Inspector's employee, Rayce King. "I wonder what he does for the Inspector. Does he have any pull in the agency or is he just a clog in the wheel? I guess I could ask him."
Speed slowly pulled off of the track, a half formed plan continuing to take shape as he considered actions the family could take.
The masked racer took the keys Speed offered silently. "Thank you!" Speed tried to shake the masked man's hand, but Racer X coldly withdrew his hand. He said nothing to Speed, just pointed toward the entrance. Speed got into his car and Racer X followed him to the exit.
Speed watched has Racer X turned off the lights, locked the gate and drove away without a word to him.
"Strange man." thought Speed. "He gave me what I needed tonight, but he wouldn't even let me say "Thank you." correctly. "
Confused, but at peace with himself, Speed drove into the night heading home.
Racer X smiled his tight smile as he drive toward the agency garage where he kept the Shooting Star.
" Speed's skills are astounding." He thoughtfully told himself." He drives like he's actually a part of the car. It won't be long before he is better than me. I know Inspector Detector thinks he can recruit Speed but I will not let him. "
Racer X knew without thinking anymore about the subject that he would do whatever it took to keep Speed safe, including lying to him and keeping him away from Inspector Detector.
At the garage, he changed clothing, becoming Rayce King. He stopped to exchange a few words with Minx, the genius that helped design his race cars.
"I'm glad that you dropped in tonight." Minx got up from her desk removing her glasses and rubbing her back. "I'm having a bit of trouble with the design of the new car you wanted. On paper, in theory, it should work, but in reality, there does not seem to be a way to generate the necessary power."
"Have you tried this action?" Rayce asked as he sat down in her place. In minutes he was deep in the intricacies of the new design. Engrossed in solving the mechanical problem he forgot Minx, the time and the problems of the Racers.
Spritle tried once again to sleep, but that was proving difficult. Pops and Mom were talking in the living room about the situation. Spritle knew that that were going too make a hard decision, Speed wasn't there and Chim-Chim snored. Spritle had never felt so confused and lonely.
He hadn't even been born when Rex was killed, but Spritle felt he knew his eldest brother. Mom, Pops, Speed and Sparky had talked about him frequently. There were pictures of the family before he had been born and of course, newspaper clippings about his eldest brother. Rex had been wild, but with a strangely gentle streak, hightly intelligent and a bit of mischief mixed into his personality.
Spritle knew he would have loved his brother.
With a sigh, Spritle turned over in the unfamiliar bed, searching for a comfortable position. It was dark outside and even thought he knew he was safe, there was the element of strangeness of trying to sleep in a strange place.
The bedroom curtains were a dark navy blue. "Odd," thought Spritle. "You would think there would be no light in this room but there is." A thin sliver of yellow light , allmost hidden by the moon light coming in from behind the curtains, illuminated the room. Not enough to disturb a sleeping person, just enough to see the contents of the room.
Spritle set up in bed and observed the light. He couldn't see a night light anywhere. The light seemed to be coming from inside the wall. Curious, Spritle slid out of bed and walked over to the wood paneled wall. There was no doubt of it. There was a light of some kind seeping from behind the wall.
Spritle wasn't afraid. Not really. "Maybe I had better go and get Pops and Mom." Spritle thought, "I think they might know what that light is and after all, this used to be their home before they moved. "
It wasn't hard to find Pops and Mom. They were still setting together on the couch in the living room. Pops was holding Mom closely. Spritle heard his own name murmured as well as that of Speed. He realized that he should not disturb his parents with some crazy story about a light in the wall.
Spritle returned to the room and tried once again to sleep. He was still trying when he heard Speed return. Spritle immediately felt better. Then Mom came into the room to check on her youngest son and the world was right again.
He did not wake up again until Pops woke him up in the morning.
Before they sat down to eat, Pops checked Rayce's room, but their renter was not there.
"Just as well." Pops spoke in a neutral tone of voice. "Spritle, Speed, your Mother and I are going to tell you what we want to do but this needs to be a family decision as it will affect all of us."
Spritle was frightened again by the tone of Pops voice.
""Your mother and I are going to dig further into the opening of the grave. We want answers." Pops did not get a chance to finish.
"So do I!" Speed and Spritle spoke at the same time. Then the two youngest members of the Racer family grinned at each other.
Breakfast was not a grim meal, but Spritle sensed a new spirit of determination. A decision had been made. The Racers were going to find out the truth about the grave or else.
After breakfast was eaten and the dishes washed and put away, Speed turned on the large television in the living room to watch the morning news and weather. The screen displayed an unusually good picture. A nationally known commentator was talking about the activities of the House of Representatives.
Spritle and Chim-Chim went to explore the new (to them) neighbored. Pops started calling old friends that might have some new nugget of information to add to the scanty pile the Racers were collecting and Mom went shopping. The Racers would need a lot of things if they were going to stay. Their renter posed another problem. .
There was a toy car racetrack behind the house. It was almost a duplicate of Thunderhead complete with lights, fancy track set ups and all of the fixtures of the real track. None of them seemed to be working and Spritle didn't see any toy cars, but he knew he could find some. Spritle continued around the outside of the house, coming at last to the wall of his bedroom.
Remembering the strange light of the night before, he examined the wall closely, but could not find anything out of the ordinary. Pops found him, puzzled and baffled, going over the wall again trying to find the answer.
"Spritle, what are you doing?" Pops sounded amused.
Spritle told his father all about the strange light the night before earning a laugh from Pops.
"I hadn't forgotten that." Pops continued to smile. "When Rex was about your age, he read a book that gave instructions about the way to build a secret room in a house. It sounded like fun to him. He tried it." Pops chuckled again. "He cut a hole in the paneling of the bedroom and tried to build a secret room. He didn't have the right tools or maybe the book did not give complete directions. Your Mom and I were not very happy when he finally told us what he had done. It took us forever to get it right."
You mean there's a secret room in the house!" Spritle was impressed. ""Pops, I never knew you did anything cool like that. Can we see it?"
"Sure, son." Pops took his youngest son by the hand and they entered the house.
Speed was in the kitchen when Pops and Spritle walked in. "Speed, did you know that Pops and Rex built a secret room here? "Spritle's voice showed his delight and excitement.
"Sure, I remember it." Speed responded. "Rex used to hide things in it. I used to hide in it. It was the perfect place to put things."
Laughing, the Racers walked down the hall to the bedroom where Pops got down on his knees to show his sons the secret of unlocking the entrance to the room. "Rex was actually a little smaller than you are now, Spritle." Pops explained as he searched for the entrance, "He cut the door only about four feet tall. "
As he talked, Pops found and released the lock to the door and a seven foot section of the wall slid open.
Spritles mouth dropped open. Pops got to his feet concerned and worried. "Speed, take care of Spritle."
Quietly, Pops entered the closet sized room. The light Spritle had seen the night before had to have been generated by what looked to be a fuse box mounted on the wall. The box twinkled with softly glowing lights. The controls, labeled in some other language, all seemed to be turned off. The only other object in the room was a metal portable closet stand.
Pops was vexed and upset." How dare anyone do this to our home without permission?" His voice was raised in the infamous Racer temper. Storming, Pops turned toward the living room while Speed and Spritle prudently removed themselves out of his way.
Once Pops was safely in the living room, Speed and Spritle ventured into the closet marveling at the control panel. "I wonder what this does?"Spritle questioned as he happily pushed a handle into the active position.
Outside, the lights on the diminutive model of Thunderhead came on, just as Rayce pulled into the driveway.
Inside, thinking that nothing had happened, Spritle pushed another switch. " Spritle, " demanded Speed, " STOP THAT! You might be doing something wrong."
"But, Speed, nothing is happening." Spritle defended his actions." Besides don't you want to know what the controls are for?"
In the living room, the television flickered and focused into the picture of Rayce walking toward the front door.
Spritle pushed another switch just as Rayce pull his hand on the doorknob.
Pops ,watching on the television, saw Rayce jerk suddenly and sank down on the doormat. He didn't get up.