Chapter VII: Beneath the Surface
Frank, Joe, and Tony plunged out into the storm to see who had screamed. The sound had come from down by the lake, so the boys headed straight there. When they reached the shore, they saw a human figure running toward them. As the figure almost ran into them, they recognized Elena Lonewolf.
"What happened?" Joe asked her, as a handful of other people came on the run.
As Ms. Lonewolf tried to collect her wits to tell a coherent story, Frank looked around at the newcomers. The only ones who had put in an appearance were the two FBI agents, Deputy Danver who was dressed in pajamas, and Trevor Beau. They had come running from different directions, and Frank wondered if one of them had caused Ms. Lonewolf to scream.
"Ms. Lonewolf, please try to compose yourself," Agent Clarke said harshly. "We don't have time for hysterics."
Ms. Lonewolf took a deep breath. "It was the creature. She came out of the water and came at me." The woman shuddered. "I screamed and ran."
Agent Clarke shook her head and muttered something under her breath that sounded like, "I should have known."
Joe looked out at the lake. He didn't see any sign of the monster either on the shore or in the water but that wasn't surprising since it was so dark. Joe also noticed that the strange lights had disappeared.
"The monster?" Agent Schneider asked Ms. Lonewolf. "Are you sure?"
"What exactly did it look like?" Frank added.
The woman looked around at her audience. Although her hands were still shaking, she kept her voice steady as she said, "I'm not crazy. I was walking along beside the lake – I like storms and wind and rain. Then the creature came out of the water and came lunging toward me. I didn't think it would hurt me, so I stood still. But then it kept coming at me and it roared, so I ran."
"Are you sure it wasn't a bear or something?" Clarke asked.
Ms. Lonewolf narrowed her eyebrows, as if she found the question personally insulting. "I think I know the difference between a bear and that – that creature. It was much bigger than a bear, with a snaky body and huge eyes. Its whole head looked like it was taken up by the eyes. It had scales and came right up out of the lake. Does that sound like a bear to you?"
"No, not really," Clarke admitted.
"Did you see where it went after you ran?" Joe asked.
"No," Ms. Lonewolf replied. "I thought it was chasing me."
"Did you see two lights on the water just before you screamed?" Frank questioned.
Ms. Lonewolf nodded. "I was just trying to decide what they were when it came out of the water."
"Well, I guess we'd better go check it out," Agent Schneider said with a sigh. "Come on, Debbie."
"Would you mind if we tagged along?" Joe asked.
"We won't get in the way," Frank hurried to add. "Maybe we can even help by holding flashlights or something."
Clarke opened her mouth to protest, but Schneider interrupted her. "I don't suppose there will be any harm in that. You'd better come, too, Danver."
"No way," the deputy replied. "I'm not going anywhere near that lake. Not in the dark, in a storm, right after the monster came up out of it. This isn't a job for the police or the FBI."
"It's your duty," Clarke reminded him.
"I don't care," Danver said. "I'm not going. In fact, I quit. I didn't sign up for monsters when I joined the sheriff's department."
Without another word, he hurried off back toward the center of town. The others watched him go in surprise.
"If that doesn't beat all," Trevor Beau commented. "I knew Danver was on edge over this whole deal, but I didn't think he'd up and quit on us."
"Do you need anything more from me?" Ms. Lonewolf asked the agents. "If not, I'm going to go home."
"We'll need you to show us where exactly you saw the – whatever it is you saw," Schneider told her.
Ms. Lonewolf sighed, but she only hesitated a moment before she led the whole group toward the lake's shore. Trevor Beau followed uninvited, but no one said anything to him.
"It was right here, I think," Ms. Lonewolf pointed the spot out. "Can I go now?"
"Yes." Schneider gave her the go-ahead. "We'll need to talk to you in the morning, though, and ask you a few more questions."
"I'll walk you home, Elena," Beau volunteered.
As the two of them disappeared into the night, the agents began shining flashlights on the ground around where Ms. Lonewolf had indicated. Unfortunately, even though Frank and Joe always carried small flashlights in their pockets, they had been ruined by their unplanned dip in the lake the day before.
The rain was still pouring down, and any footprints were quickly being washed away. Agent Clarke had brought along a small camera, ready to snap pictures of any prints they could find.
"Adam, over here," she called to her partner.
Schneider and the three boys hurried to her side to look at a large print that was still visible on the bank. Its webbed toes and claws were familiar to the boys.
"That looks just like the tracks that were in the Wellings' backyard," Joe said.
Clarke handed her flashlight to Frank while she raised her camera. "It does," she agreed. "What do you think could have made it, Adam? Obviously not a lake monster."
"Obviously," Schneider replied, although Frank was surprised to hear a hint of uncertainty in his voice.
"It's pointing toward the lake, though," Tony pointed out. "Shouldn't it be pointing toward land if Ms. Lonewolf saw the monster coming up toward her?"
"Whatever it was must have gone back down into the water," Clarke commented. "Why don't we have any divers here with equipment? That should have been the first thing we thought of when we heard about the supposed underwater creature."
"Frank and I are licensed divers," Joe volunteered, "and maybe someone in town has diving equipment. I doubt we could track it down tonight, but we could check it out tomorrow."
Clarke gave him a cold look that he could just barely see in the dim light of the flashlights. "Just because you're here now doesn't mean that you're helping with this investigation. It's against every rule in the book to let civilians – especially teenage civilians – do that sort of work in an investigation. We can wait for a diver from the FBI."
"But they won't be able to come until this storm is over," Joe argued. "They probably won't get here until tomorrow afternoon. We could have the investigation over by that time."
"It doesn't matter," Clarke told him. "And that's the end of the discussion. You three get back to wherever it is you're staying and give up any ideas of investigating. You may have had good luck in solving mysteries before, but that's all it was – luck. And luck always runs out eventually."
Joe snorted. "I thought you said you knew all about us and our records as detectives. Nobody could have that much luck."
"I said the discussion was over," Clarke replied. "Go home. Now."
She had a very no-nonsense tone to her voice. Frank tugged Joe's and Tony's arms and nodded at them to tell them they should go. As they walked back toward Father Percy's house, Joe clenched and unclenched his fists.
"What is her problem?" he finally asked. "You'd think she didn't want to solve the mystery."
"No, she probably doesn't want to get in trouble with her superiors," Tony said, adopting a more sympathetic view of Agent Clarke's behavior.
"What do you think about Schneider, Joe?" Frank asked.
Joe shrugged. "FBI agent. What else matters? He's not a suspect, since he wasn't even here when anything happened, until tonight anyway."
"But there is something else," Frank prodded. "Something you think doesn't matter."
By now, they had reached the house. Joe reached out to open the door as he said, "Yeah. At first, he seemed totally efficient and a touch patronizing, like he totally knew what he was doing and as long as he could keep his partner from goofing his interrogations, he thought he could have this all wrapped up in no time. Maybe he didn't even really think it was worth bothering about. Now he seems like he's off his game. It's a little weird, I guess, but then again, who could do their best investigating with that grinch, Agent Clarke?"
"I noticed the same thing," Frank replied. "I just wanted to check to make sure it wasn't my imagination. It's odd. Like you said, it's not likely that either Clarke or Schneider could be behind what's happening, but it still might be worth looking into them."
"Maybe we can prove they're incompetent and get them kicked off the case," Joe said. "Even if we still have to leave, that would be some satisfaction."
Early the next morning, Agent Clarke knocked on the door of Father Percy's house. The priest had already left again, and so it was Frank who answered the door.
"I just came to tell you that we have it all arranged," Clarke said without so much as a greeting. "A helicopter will be here at noon bringing an FBI diver. You and your friends will be taken to Spokane on the chopper and there you can get a flight back to Bayport."
"Oh," Frank replied, and added with a touch of sarcasm, "Thanks for letting us know."
"You don't have a choice in the matter," Clarke told him. "You'll be on that chopper. I suggest in the meantime that you mind your own business."
Frank closed the door, glad that Joe hadn't been there to waste time arguing with the agent. He glanced at a clock on the wall. Seven o'clock. That only left five hours to work.
Immediately, Frank rounded up Joe and Tony and told them what the situation was. Predictably, Joe wasn't happy about it, but Frank was able to calm him down by telling him that they didn't have time to waste.
"I say we check out the bottom of that lake with or without Clarke and Schneider's approval," Joe said. "There's bound to be someone here with diving equipment."
Frank agreed to the plan without argument, although Tony was a little more hesitant. They decided to try asking Trevor Beau for the loan of the equipment, partially because he was the only person in town besides Father Percy whom they knew where he lived.
When they arrived at Beau's house, however, he was less than pleased to do as they asked.
"I don't think diving in the lake is such a good idea just now," he told them. "It's too dangerous. Besides, even if Nettie doesn't get you, I'll bet those FBI people will kill you if you do."
"We'll be careful," Joe assured him. "We've got to get to the bottom of this mystery, and the best way to do that is to get to the bottom of the lake."
Joe's attempt at a joke was lost on Beau, who frowned. "No. I won't do it. If you want to kill yourselves, I can't stop you, but I don't have to help you either."
He closed the door, and the boys looked at each other, disappointed at the setback. Just then, they heard a voice calling their names from behind. They looked over their shoulders to see Jason Cortney waving to them from the porch of the house directly across the street. A new hope dawning on them, they went over to talk to him.
"What do you want with Trevor Beau?" Cortney asked. "It didn't look like he was being too friendly to you. In my book, that's a point in your favor."
"You really don't get along with your brother-in-law, do you?" Joe said.
Cortney rolled his eyes. "No need to waste time talking about him. Do you guys need something?"
"I don't suppose you have any diving equipment?" Frank asked.
Cortney grinned. "So you want to do some monster hunting, huh? I sure do have some equipment you can borrow. Heck, if you can prove to all the dingalings around here that there are no monsters haunting that lake, I'd give you anything you ask for."
