Chapter 3
As soon as school let out that Wednesday, Joe and Phil Cohen rode their bikes down to a bluff overlooking the cave. Officer Riley was waiting for them.
"All yours, boys."
"Any activity?" Joe asked.
"Just the usual, a couple of tourists, kids ditching school…"
"Sounds like a real adrenaline rush."
"It does beat filling out paperwork. Anyway, I'll see you kids at 9:00 if not before then." Riley walked back to his squad car and drove off.
Joe and Phil lay down on the grass. Joe peered through his binoculars at the entrance to Pirates' Cave while Phil quizzed him on vocabulary.
"Engender."
"To bring into existence."
"Vitiate."
"To make impure…"
They continued in this vein for half an hour, and then switched roles. After two rotations, Joe realized that it was almost too dark to read the flash card.
"Figurative."
"Hey!"
"No, genius, that's what horses eat."
"No, look at this!"
Phil handed Joe the binoculars, and he focused them on a boat that had been hauled up on the beach just in front of the cave. He saw three men taking bags out of the boat one by one and carrying them into the cave.
Joe gave the binoculars back to Phil, pulled out his phone, and dialed Officer Riley.
"Riley, here."
"It's Joe Hardy, our guys are here."
"Tell him to hurry up," Phil whispered, "they're getting through those bags pretty quickly."
Joe relayed the message to Officer Riley.
"Don't worry about it," he responded, "we've got guys already on the beach."
Sure enough, within two minutes a police dune buggy roared up on either side of the boat. Joe could here yelling, and then a shot rang out.
"What was that?"
"Don't worry," Phil said, "it was one of the bad guys. It looked like he reached for something but the cop was a quicker draw than he was. Here, look."
Joe took the binoculars. One of the smugglers was lying prone on the beach. The other two had their hands in the air and were kneeling. One of the officers kept her gun on them while another put handcuffs on them.
Phil and Joe could hear the blare of a police siren coming closer. Officer Riley pulled up next to them, lights flashing.
"We're going to take them back to the station in my car," he explained, "you should probably make yourselves scarce. It wouldn't be a great idea for them to know what you look like."
Joe nodded, "So are we good to go home?"
"Actually, the D.A. might want to talk if you saw the shooting. Just in case he claims police brutality or whatever."
"I saw it," Phil volunteered, "he was definitely reaching for something."
"We can meet you at the station, Joe suggested.
The boys both called their parents and then rode their bikes into town. By the time they got to the police station the Hardys and Cohens were waiting for them, along with hot subs from Boccelli's. Joe and Phil were led into separate rooms and thoroughly questioned by attorneys for the Massachusetts Civil Rights office while they wolfed down the sandwiches.
After satisfying the attorneys that the police had acted within the law, the boys were finally released.