The Cloak Island Secret by Randall Sullivan

Author:Randall Sullivan [Sullivan, Randall]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2021-06-06T05:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 15

NED WAS UP EARLY AGAIN THE NEXT MORNING. By eight o’clock he had finished breakfast and was feeling like his dad would never leave for Earl Iverson’s. He tried to fill the waiting time by reading some of Kidnapped. It was a struggle to stay focused at first, but when he got to the part where Davie climbs the stair tower in the House of Shaws and realizes his uncle wants him dead, Ned became engrossed. He lost all track of time during the chapter where Davie meets the cabin boy Ransome, and was startled when his dad tapped lightly on the bedroom door, stuck his head inside and said, “I’m off to Earl’s. See you this afternoon.”

Ned almost wanted to keep reading, but instead, as soon as he heard his dad’s truck drive away, he retrieved the nylon bag where he had stashed the tracing paper and the box of charcoals from the bottom drawer of his dresser and slipped it over his neck and shoulder, the same way he had worn it when he paddled out to the island. He was walking toward the front door of the house when Maddie knocked on it.

“You ready?” she asked, when Ned opened the door. Her bike was leaning against the porch behind her.

Ned got his own bike out of the shop and they pedaled together, in silence, up to the highway. They didn’t talk, either, as they rode up into the hills on the other side, pedaling so hard that Ned was gasping for breath by the time he reached Crow’s Nest Lane. He dropped a foot and waited for Maddie to catch up. She was panting and her face was bright red as she rode up next to him.

“You okay?” Ned asked.

“Nice of you to ask,” she said sarcastically.

“Sorry,” Ned said. “I guess I’m excited.”

“I guess. Let’s ride together the rest of the way. Okay?”

“Okay.”

Ned pedaled slowly up the narrow, winding road, and slower still when they turned into the driveway and climbed it beneath the overhanging branches of the trees alongside it. When Ned stood up to pedal, the leaves on the trees brushed the top of his head.

When they reached the white cottage, Ned was startled, and so was Maddie, to discover a slightly battered red Honda Civic parked in front of the garage.

“Someone’s here,” Ned said. Maddie nodded. “That doesn’t look like a car that goes with this house,” he told her.

“What should we do?” Maddie asked.

“We have to knock again,” Ned said.

“I’ll come with you this time,” Maddie said.

They laid their bikes on the same small patch of lawn where they had left them the day before and walked together up the stone steps to the front porch. “Let me talk,” Maddie said when she pushed the doorbell.

A long time seemed to pass before a stocky woman with frizzy brown hair and a lit cigarette in the corner of her mouth opened the door. She was holding a dust mop in one hand. She looked surprised to see the two of them standing there, but her expression was friendly.

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