The Great Pitstop Pandemonium - Part 2
“Cavey!! What are you doing here?”
Dee Dee
embraced the small, hirsute man who was standing in the tent, holding a large
wooden club in his hands.
“Oogga Booga
Cavey need find Dee Dee,” he eventually said as he was let free. “Oogga Booga girls had to be saved from
boom.”
“What,
someone attacked the girls,” Dee Dee said as she looked at him. “What happened - are they all right?”
“Oogga Booga
they fine - ate bomb. Taste like spicy
chicken - have same effect too.”
Dee Dee had
to suppress a laugh as she stroked his head.
“Thanks Cavey - I always know we can depend on you.” He blushed before saying “oogga booga - Dee
Dee in danger too. Taffy say bad man
coming for her.”
His words
made Dee Dee frown. “Bad men -
what...” Her words were interrupted by
the sound of shouting outside, and as she looked out of the tent she saw the
smoke bomb exploding, the black plumes enveloping the car.
“Come on,
Cavey,” she shouted as she ran out. The
small man smiled as he called out “Captain... CAAAVVVEEEMMANNNNN!!” and flew
into the air, his club in front of him as he tore through the roof of the tent
and took to the sky.
As Dee Dee
ran towards the car, the smoke was beginning to clear, and she le tout a sigh
of relief as she saw Penny standing there, waving her arms in front of her
eyes.
“What the
heck was that,” she said to Dee Dee as she came over and held Penny in her
arms. “Are you all right?” she said as she
looked into her boss’ face.
“I’m fine,”
Penny coughed, “but where’s Velma? She
was right here with me!”
Velma was struggling
in the grip of the two massively built men as she was carried across the lawn
of Pitstop Place, out of sight of everyone else. She had been pulled out of the smoke, and
thick white rope wrapped round her body, almost mummifying her as it pulled her
red velvet outfit against her body. A
thick white scarf had been pulled into her mouth, forcing her lips apart as she
bit down on it with her teeth.
“Whrrrutkngmm,”
she called out to the two men. They were
wearing mustard coloured roll necked sweaters with tweed jackets over them,
dark trousers and cloth caps, and looked as if they could be identical
twins. Velma was sure she had seen
someone like them before, but for the life of her she could not figure out
where. Not that it was important right
then - she was been kidnapped, and these two goons were not talking to her, or
offering any explanations.
As she tried
to look ahead, she saw that she was been carried towards an old wooden building
down by the river. She recognised it
from some of the pictures in the house as an old sawmill - a little incongruous
in the area, but it was apparently built as a reminder of the early days of the
Pitstop fortune.
The two men
ran towards the building, the man in front pushing the door to the building
open as they said “We got her boss.” They
stood Velma up as she stared at the man standing before her, dressed in a
double breasted suit with a large fedora over his head and a purple eye mask.
“Welcome,
Miss... You idiots, you grabbed the
wrong girl!”
“Mmgnggggg -
whhtthppndnddd?”
Daphne slowly
opened her eyes and raised her head, the room moving in psychedelic swirls as
she tried to focus. Her head was
thumping, and her mouth felt as if it had spent a week licking the side of the
La Brea Tar Pits. As she tried to move
her tongue, she slowly realised that it was been held down on the floor of her
mouth, something pressing it down as she felt an all too familiar pulling on
the skin of her face.
She stared at
what she thought was the wall, willing her eyes to focus on it as the patterns
slowly settled into a particularly garish red paper. Looking down, she saw the rough brown rope
over her white sleeves, holding her arms firmly down to the wooden armrests of
the chair she was sitting in.
“Great,” she
thought to herself as she tried to flex her arms, “Danger Prone Daphne strikes
again! Wonder who is responsible this
time?” She looked down as she tried to
extend her feet, only to realise that whoever had captured her had securely
fixed them to the crossbeam of her chair.
“Grrtt....”
she grumbled as she looked round the room.
She was sat in the centre, and by the looks of things there was no other
furniture. She also thought she was in
the Manor, given the fact she could hear the sounds of people talking outside,
but it was not a room she recognised.
That did not bother her so much - it was a big house, after all - but
the way she was bound suggested someone had planned this for some time.
Daphne heard
a door opening behind her, and she tried to turn her head, screaming
“HLPMMMMMM” as loudly as she could. There
was no response, but she could hear heavy footsteps getting closer, and she
started to wonder just who it was.
The thick
scarf been tied over her eyes was a complete surprise, as was the yank on her
skin as whatever was covering her mouth was pulled off and the stuffing removed
from her mouth. A strange metallic voice
said “Drink” as she felt a straw been placed against her lips, and As Daphne
sucked she was relieved to feel cold, clean water going into her mouth.
“Thank you,”
she said as the straw was eventually taken away, “who are you and why have you
tied me up like this?”
Daphne felt a
gloved hand stroking her cheek as the voice answered “You are very precious to
me, Miss Blake, and a vital part of my plans.
I regret the inconvenience, but I must ask you to remain where you are
for a short while. Once I have completed
my plans, you will be free to go. The
blindfold is to ensure you cannot see me or recognise me.”
“Which explains
the modified voice,” Daphne said out loud, before realising that some of Velma
must be rubbing off on her. “So what is
this? Kidnapping? Robbery?
Old Man Johnson break loose again?”
“Very funny,
Miss Blake,” the voice replied, “but I regret I need to make sure you cannot
raise the alarm for a while. I will
return shortly.”
“Hey hang on
you cnammmggmfmdmdg,” Daphne called out a she felt a thick cloth been pulled into
her mouth, and secured around her mouth.
She listened to the sound of the footsteps retreating, before starting
to thrash her head around.
“Did you hear
anybody, Penny?”
Penny looked
at Dee Dee and slowly shook her head.
“No - nobody. The smoke was too
thick, and when it cleared the first thing I saw was you - and what in heaven’s
name is that?”
She looked
into the sky to see a small, hairy figure plummet downwards, hitting the ground
in front of her with tremendous force. “Oh,
Cavey!” Dee Dee said as she stepped forward and helped the figure to stand up.
“Oogga Booga
power failure,” he grunted as he looked up at the pink clad woman in front of
you. “Hello pretty lady - me Captain
Caveman.”
“He’s funny,”
Penny said as he lifted the club in his hand up, the top opening to allow a
little bird to jump out with a bouquet of flowers. “Oogga booga for you,” he said with a small
smile.
“Cavey, we
need your help,” Dee Dee said. “A friend
of ours has gone missing - she’s about five foot eight, red hair, and wearing
an old red velvet dress. Can you take to
the sky and see if you can find her?”
“Oogga Booga
sure thing,” he grunted. “You’d better
step back,” Dee Dee said as she took Penny’s arm, while the man called out
“Captain... CCAAAAVVEEMMAAANNNNN” and swung his club into the air, his body following
soon after.
“I’ve heard
you talk about him, but to see him face to face...”
“Once seen
never forgotten,” Dee Dee said as she saw Peter come out of the house. “Hey - what’s going on out here?”
“Oh, smoke
bombs, disappearing friends, just the usual stuff - why, what’s happened to
you?”
“Well, I seem
to have misplaced Daphne - she’s not the one who is missing is she?”
Penny and Dee
Dee stared at Peter, as he looked at them and said “What?”
“Thdddcceeee?” Velma’s eyes widened as she saw the
bespectacled man in front of her.
“I see my
reputation precedes me,” he laughed as the two brutes held Velma in front of
him. “You are obviously not the
delightful Miss Pitstop, but I see no need to waste the most brilliant trap I
had prepared for her. Tie her to the
log, boys!”
“Nnnnnnnnn,”
Velma screamed as the two men picked her up as if she was a duster, and laid
her on a large wooden log that sat on the conveyor belt. As more rope was used to tie her firmly onto
the rough wood, she turned her head and looked at the master criminal as he
rubbed his hands and cackled.
“I regret
this, I truly do, but you cannot be allowed to let the delightful Miss Pitstop
know that I am here yet. Observe, if you
will, the large grain of sack that is suspended from the ceiling. As you will see, it is hanging above a large
bowl, which is standing next to the conveyor belt.
“In a moment,
I will make a hole in the bottom of the sack, which will cause the grain to
fall. That will attract the attention of
the twenty starving gerbils which you see in the cage next to you. When they see the grain, they will run
through the open door of the cage and unto the treadmill, in a mad attempt to
get to the food, although the leashes will prevent that.
“Their
running will provide the power to run this dynamo, which will in turn apply
pressure to the switch on the wall by means of the ingenious lever
arrangement. When that switch is
pressed, it will start both the blade to spin and the conveyor belt you are on
to move, sending you to an appointment with the mother of all splitting
headaches. MMWMWWWWAAHAHAAAAAAA!”
As he was
giving this explanation, Velma was following his line of sight, and had come to
an eminently sensible conclusion which she wished to share with him.
“Uralnneeee”
“So kind of
you to say so, my dear,” the masked man said as he plunged a knife into the
sack, and a slow trickle of grain began to fall into the bowl. “Enjoy the sight of your life ticking away,”
he said with a bow. “Come on boys - we
need to prepare a new trap and find the real Miss Pitstop.”
The three men
left the building, as Velma watched the ravenous rodents start to run towards
the falling grain, and the conveyor belt start to turn...
As Daphne
struggle din the chair, she stifled a gasp of excitement as she felt her wrists
slipping under the rope on her left arm.
She calmed herself down, and started to rub her arm to and fro,
loosening with each pass the ropes that held her arm firmly in place. How long she did this for she was not sure,
but eventually she managed to get her arm loose and shook it to her side,
before she pulled the scarf off her eyes and blinked at the person she saw
before her.
Velma
struggled against the ropes holding her down to the log as the conveyor belt
slowly started to move her towards the blade, the metal starting to spin as it
slowly picked up speed. She looked
frantically to one side, watching the gerbils running towards the grain, and
then raised her eyes to the heavens.
“If there’s a
god up there,” she thought to herself, “then do something about this - please!”
As she looked
down to the spinning metal, she became dimly aware of a rushing sound in the
air, and what sounded like a hoarse, deep voice calling “cffffmnnnnn.” Looking to the far side of the building,
Velma heard the sound getting louder, and then instinctively closed her eyes as
the wall disintegrated into a mass of wooden splinters and dust.
“Oogga booga
- you friend of Dee Dee?”
She opened
her eyes to see - well, a walking hairball holding a club that was looking at
her with big blue eyes. “Ysssss -
gtmmttghr” Velma called out as the log started to approach the spinning blade.
“Oogga Booga
- okeydokey,” he said a she picked up Velma and the log and pointed his club into
the sky, calling out his name as they shot through the ceiling. “Wsshshttttt!!!!” Velma called out as she saw
the old sawmill collapse under her, and then felt the wind rushing into her
face as she was gently lowered to the ground.
Reaching up
to her mouth and pulling the cloth away from her mouth, Daphne stared at the
man standing before her. Well, she
assumed he was a man, but he seemed to suffering from some form of dwarfism as
he said “You all right, toots?”
He spoke with
a thick Brooklyn accent, and was wearing a smart pinstripe suit over a crisp
white shirt, a gold tiepin keeping the silk length securely in place.
“I... I’m
fine,” Daphne finally said, “but I would appreciate some help in getting out of
this.”
“No problem,”
he said as he walked forward and opened a flick knife. Daphne gasped for a moment, before she
watched him cutting away the rest of the ropes holding her in place.
“The name’s
Clyde,” he finally said as Daphne stood up.
“My family and Penelope’s go back a long, long way. I was employed by her to take some
photographs of the event when I saw you had disappeared, so I came looking for
you.”
“Clyde... You’re not a descendant of one of the Anthill
Mob, are you?”
“My great
great uncle, since you ask so nicely.
Anyway, what’s a nice girl like you doing trussed up in a chair like
that?”
“Long story -
we need to find Penny, and fast!”
“What do you
mean, they’ve gone missing?”
“I mean
they’ve gone missing - both Velma and Daphne.
Where did you last see her?”
Dee Dee was
looking at Peter when she heard a rough cough behind her. “Me find friend,” she heard Captain Caveman
say, and as she turned round she saw Velma standing there, brushing the
splinters from her hair as the strands of rope fell off her body.
“Velma,”
Penny said as she hugged her friend, “What happened to you?”
“Not what -
who. You’re not going to believe this,
but I was snatched by the Hooded Claw.”
The three of
them looked at her, before Peter started to snigger. “The...
The Hooded Claw? But he’s dead,
dead for decades, and we don’t have anything to do with the Sneakly family
now. I mean, you’ll be telling me next
that he used the old sawmill as a death trap.”
“Actually,”
Velma said as she stared at Peter, “he did - and it’s not there anymore.” Captain Caveman looked sheepish as he
whispered “Sorry...”
“I’m sorry,”
Peter said “but I refuse to believe it.
What could he possibly be after?”
“The Star of
Alamein.”
Now it was
Velma’s turn to stare at Dee Dee. “I’ve
heard of that - but I thought it had been stolen in Marrakesh a couple of
months ago.”
“It was -
someone very skilled was hired to retrieve it and send it down a well
established chain to a safe place. That
jewel has a lot of history behind it, and the owner wanted to make sure it was
where it could never be traced before she was able to retrieve it. I was the last person in the chain, and it’s
secured somewhere around here.”
“The real
owner - who’s that?”
“That would
be me.”
The quartet
turned to see a slim, olive skinned girl standing there, dressed in a light
pink crop top, silk bolero jacket and matching pants, her long black hair
hanging down her back in a pigtail.
Behind her stood a man mountain, his arms folded as he watched over her
with an almost paternal eye.
“I am Nida
Bin Turhan,” the girl said, “and this is my bodyguard, Hassan. Do I have the honour of addressing Miss
Penelope Pitstop and Miss Dee Dee Sykes?”
“I don’t
suppose by any chance you saw who took me?”
Daphne and
Clyde were heading towards the front of the house as she spoke, looking from
side to side the whole time.
“’fraid not,
Daphne. All I saw was this cloaked guy
walking out of the room, and then when I came in there you were, freeing your
wrist. I waited until you had finished,
and would have said something but you took that blindfold off.”
“Is that the
camera you’ve been using,” Daphne said as she looked at the digital device
hanging round Clyde’s neck. He nodded
before saying “Want to have a look at the photos?” He handed the camera to her and watched as
she quickly flicked through the shots, stopping and staring at one in
particular.
“See
something?”
“I think so -
but we need to find the others.” As the
pair walked out of the front door, they saw Penny, Velma and Dee Dee talking
with three strangers to Daphne.
“Daphne,”
Penny said as she ran over and hugged her friend, “What happened to you?”
“Long story -
what happened to you, Velma?”
“Small case
of a Hooded Claw - you?”
“Crazed
kidnapper, I think. Want to introduce me
to your friends?”
“In a minute
- Clyde, when did you get here?”
“Been here
all morning, Penelope,” the smaller man said.
“Looks like I missed some fun.
Who’s the tall broad - she saw me earlier.”
“Oh, Dee Dee,
this is Clyde Wheelwright, an old family friend. Clyde, this is Dee Dee Sykes - security. You’ve met Daphne - this is Velma Dinkley,
her friend, Captain Caveman and Miss Nida bin Turhan and - friend.”
Daphne looked
at the small woman, who was staring at her brooch.
“The Star of
Alamein - it arrived safely?”
“It did,” Dee
Dee said, “but someone has been following the trail to here - someone who has
decided to impersonate an old friend of Penelope’s.”
“Friend is
putting it too politely,” Penny said.
“Whoever it is is trying to scare me by pretending to be the family
fiend. But I swear, we have nothing to
do with the Sneakly family.”
Looking
round, Daphne said “Hey - is Peter here?”
“He was a
moment ago,” Dee Dee said as she too looked round, “but I guess he’s gone off somewhere. Why?”
“Oh, no
reason - look, something bad is going down here, and we want to help. Penny, you and Nida go inside and stay there
until we get a chance to find out what’s going on. Velma, you and I are going to go and have a
look at the place you were held hostage - see if there are any clues
there. Clyde, you and the others stay
here and keep an eye on things.”
“Sure thing
toots - but who’s going to keep an eye on you?”
“We’ll manage
for now,” Daphne said as she removed her brooch and handed it to Dee Dee. “You’d better keep that safe here,” she said
as she and Velma headed off through the people to the lake.
“We’d better
go inside,” Penny said as she headed for the doorway, followed by Dee Dee, Nida
and her man, as Clyde and Captain Caveman looked at each other.
“What are you
looking at,” Clyde said with a snarl.
“Oogga Booga
little man good friend?”
“To Penny -
always. Why?”
“Oogga Booga
me to Dee Dee - we help each other?” He
extended a bare arm from the hair over his body and waited as Clyde shook his
hand.
“All right -
what do you think we should do?”
Captain
Caveman waved at him as he walked towards the stalls. “Oogga Booga mingle and see what we find,” he
said quietly as they walked into the crowds.
“He really
did a number on this, didn’t he,” Daphne said as she and Velma look at the
smoking ruins of what had been the sawmill.
“I get the
feeling he’s like a force of nature - you let him loose and get out of the
way,” Velma said as she picked over a broken plank. “Hang on a minute - Daphne, have a look at
this.”
Daphne
lowered herself down, her skirt flowing out under eh as she looked at the trail
of breadcrumbs. “I don’t get it,” she
finally said, “what has this to do with your snatching?”
“Only this,”
Velma said with a smile, “These aren’t breadcrumbs, but gerbil food. Those idiots must have had a leak in the
sack.”
“I still
don’t get that - a bunch of gerbils to drive a dynamo? It’s like something out of...”
“An old movie
serial 0 I know,” Velma said as the friends walked towards a boathouse by the
lake. “Well, we always say follow the
trail, and here we are, following the trail.”
“Do you think
we should call the boys?”
“What, and
have them take all the credit? Nah, come
on.” Daphne walked quickly towards the
boathouse, opening the door and walking in.
“That’s
funny,” Velma said as she looked outside, “There’s at least four sets of
footprints out here, and one of them is much fresher. Daphs, what can you see in there?”
“Daphne?”
Velma looked
at the open door, and slowly pushed it into the darkened boathouse. “Daphne?” she said again as she walked in,
before blackness descended on her as something hit the back of her head.
“This way,
your highness,” Dee Dee said as she opened a door to the dining room, standing
to one side as Nida and Penny walked in.
“Where Nida
goes, I go,” the tall man said as she looked at Dee Dee.
“And where
Penny goes, I go,” Dee Dee replied, as she allowed the man to enter first. As she came in, she saw him staring round the
empty room, and then looked to the open bay windows. Running to them, she saw both Penny and Nida
been carried away by two men - two men dressed in jackets and roll necked
sweaters...
As Velma slowly
opened her eyes, she realised very quickly that she was not exactly in Kansas anymore. Nor, for that matter, was she in the
boathouse as she heard the soft lap of water against wood. She tried moving her arms, only to realise
with a growing sense of inevitability that she was unable to move them at all.
“Hgdddd,
ntgggn,” she heard herself say, which was a surprise as she had wanted to say
“Oh god, not again.” She moved her lips,
feeling the cotton that they seemed to be resting on again as well as pressing
down on her tongue, and came to the conclusion that she had been gagged with
cloth. From the feel of her fingers, she
figured that her arms were been held together with some sort of rough hemp.
“Open your
eyes, Velma - might as well see what’s going on,” she thought to herself, and
with some effort she forced her eyelids apart, to be greeted by the sight of a
wide eyed Daphne staring back at her from the other side of the boat they were
sitting in.
“Tssnnffrfnmssuvgtmnnttt,”
she mumbled through the thick white scarf that had been forced between her teeth,
her eyes looking at her friend. Daphne’s
arms had been lashed to her side, while her wrists were tied tightly together
in front of her. Velma followed the line
of the rope as it went to the bottom of the boat, through an iron ring fixed to
the bottom and then back up to where it was tied around her own wrists. As her eyes followed the rope, she saw the rope
also tied round her ankles, half hidden by the skirt she was wearing.
“Whthppnd,”
Velma said as she looked at Daphne. The
redhead hunched her shoulders, but as she pulled accidentally on the rope she
saw to her horror a small trickle of water appear round the wood that the ring
was attached to.
“WHHDDDDDTSDDD
-HLLPPPPPP!” both Daphne and Velma screamed as they looked frantically round,
the boat bobbing lazily in the centre of the lake with no one in sight, and the
water starting to slowly, slowly bubble up as their movements worked the plug
looser....
“I am so
sorry to keep you hanging around, ladies.”
Penny stared
at the man standing in front of her, as she swung slowly from side to
side. She was hanging from a hook in the
ceiling, the rope that had been used to bind her gloved hands together looped
over it and keeping her arms elevated above her head. Next to her was Nida, who was staring at the
man with pure hatred.
“You,” she
said in a voice that showed why she was a princess, “I should have taken care
of you when I had the chance.” Her jacket
was lying on the floor behind her, the rope cutting into the bare skin of her
arms as she swung round.
“Ah, but then
I would never have had the pleasure of renewing my acquaintance with the
wonderful Pitstop family. We have a lot
of history between our families, you and I.”
“I don’t
believe it,” Penny finally said, “There really is another Hooded Claw running
round?”
“At your
service, my dear Miss Pitstop,” the man said as he took off his oversized
Fedora and made a deep bow, his short brown hair visible over the purple eye
mask. “Finally, I get my revenge as well
as the Star of Alamein - a most precious item, your highness, and most foolish
of you to send it this way.”
“It had to be
kept out of your hands,” Nida said as she spat at the Claw, “and I will ensure
you never get your hands on it.” As he
replaced his hat, Penny tried to pull her legs up, only to realise the futility
of it as her ankles were tightly bound and fastened to an iron ring set into
the ground.
The two
captives had been brought by the muscle men to a van that had been parked
discretely in the grounds around Pitstop Manor, before they had been secured in
place. Now Penny and Nida looked at each
other, as the man who clearly was the Hooded Claw cackled gleefully.
“If you will
observe,” he finally said, “at the other side of the van is a substantial
quantity of dynamite, with a fuse running to the centre of the floor of the
van. If you now glance up, you will see
that large magnifying glass has been fixed to the roof, directly above the end
of the fuse. In a few moments, I will
pull the roof back from the top of the van, and the afternoon sun will shine
down, allowing the glass to concentrate the rays on the fuse and light it. You get the chance to get a suntan and watch
your last seconds tick away - unless, of course,” he said as he looked at Nida
and Penny, “You tell me where the Star is.”
Penny looked
at Nida, and then the two men, then at the Claw, before coming to a similar
conclusion to that Velma had reached some hours before. As she was in a position to speak, however,
she gave it full voice.
“You’re a
loony!”
“I do not
understand this word ‘Loony’, but you are most certainly not of sound mind,”
Nida said as she stared into his masked eyes.
“Details,
details, sticks and stones,” he said as he put on an opera cloak. “If you will not tell me, then I must go and
search for myself. Goodbye, ladies - it
has been a pleasure. Boys, ensure their
last moments are silent, and then pull the roof back.”
“What do
yummmfmfmff,” Penny said as one of the man mountains pushed a cloth into her
mouth, and then covered it with grey tape, the second one affording the same to
Nida. They stared on mutely as they
turned a handle, retracting the roof of the van, and then left them there as
the sun started to shine down through the space and onto the lens....
“You asked
for us, doll?”
Clyde and
Captain Caveman walked into the front room, where Dee Dee and Hassan were
standing with a worried expression on their faces.
“Boys, Penny
and Nida have been snatched,” she said as soon as they arrived, “by two big
burly men.”
“Wearing turtle
neck sweaters and tweed jackets?”
Dee Dee
stared at the diminutive man as he replied.
“Yeah, exactly right - do you know them?”
“Know of them
- they’re a couple of strong arms for hire, work for the highest wage, that
sort of thing. Had a couple of brushes
with them a few years back, but I thought they were in the pen.”
“Well, they
are not, little man,” Hassan said as he slammed his fist down on the table,
“and they have my princess. Hassan does not
take kindly to been fooled this way - and he wishes to find them.”
“Oogga Booga
you want Cavey to fly over, see if he can see them?”
“If you
would, Cavey that would be...” They group looked up as the door opened and two
women walked in.
“Taffy! Brenda!
Thank god you’re both all right.”
“Thank Cavey
Wavey here,” Taffy said as she hugged her old friend. “Listen, did the package arrive safely?”
“It arrived
safely - but Daphne is wearing it right now.”
“Daphne? Daphne Blake?
Is she here - and more to the point, is that dreamy hunk Fred Jones with
her?”
“Calm down
Taffy - she and Velma are here on their own, but they seem to have disappeared
as well. If I tell you where they went,
can you go and see if you can find them?
Cavey, you take off and see if you can find Penny and Nida.”
He snapped a
salute, waved his club, screamed “Captain...CAAAVEEEEMMAAAANNNNN” and took off,
taking the French doors with him as he crashed out of the building.
“He always do
that?” Clyde said, watching as all three of the Teen Angels nodded.
“A man of
hidden talents,” Hassan said as he smiled and nodded. “What can we do in the meantime?”
“Taffy,
Brenda, here’s where you go. You two,
come with me - I think we need to find Peter Pitstop and ask him a few
questions...”
Velma looked
over at Daphne, her toes splashing in the water as it slowly seeped into the
boat, and tried to make herself as understood as possible.
“Hwrrwgttngtftsss,”
she mumbled as she looked around the lake, the waters calm and peaceful. Daphne shook her head from side to side as
she tried to wriggle her hands free, praying that she would somehow manage to
free herself without causing the leak to grow in speed. As she did so, she tried to remember what had
happened previously.
She had gone into
the boat house, while Velma had been looking round the ground outside. It had been dim, but not dark, with the open
doors, but even then she had not seen who it was who had grabbed her and pulled
the burlap sack over her head before binding her. She had been pushed into a boat, that much
she remembered, and then she had heard the thud as someone - Velma, obviously -
had been put in with her.
After that it
was a blur - she had been secured, and she presumed Velma had a swell, before
they had been towed out into the centre of the lake. The sack had been pulled off from behind her,
and then the gag applied, but she had seen a glimpse of a tall man with broad
shoulders heading off in a small power boat before they had been left
alone. Something about the man had
seemed familiar, but she could not quite place what it was as...
To her
horror, she realised that the water was now flowing faster into the boat, and
Velma actually seemed to be trying to pull the cork out.
“Whhtttuurrddnnggg,”
she called out as Velma tugged as hard as she could, causing the plug to
finally come out of the bottom of the boat and the water to start flowing
in....
Dee Dee
looked up into the sky as she looked at the tiny speck floating in the
air. “Any sign of them yet, Cavey?”
The speck
seemed to look down and shake, as it suddenly turned and flew off in a
different direction.
“Hey - I
heard you were looking for me?”
She turned
suddenly as she heard Peter behind her, glancing down at the sawdust on his
boots and trying to avoid his smile.
“Where on
earth have you been - Penny has been kidnapped with a guest, Daphne and Velma
have gone missing, and the whole place seems to be going to heck in a hand
basket. Where have you been?”
“I went for a
walk - look, I need to go and get changed.
I have to catch a late flight.” As
he walked off, Dee Dee looked at him, her eyes narrowing as she turned.
“Want me to
follow him, toots?”
She nodded
and watched as Clyde went in the same direction as Peter, keeping a safe
distance behind.
“HLLOOO SMBDDYYHLPPPPP!!!!”
Penny screamed
through her tape gag as she saw smoke starting to rise from the end of the
fuse, and a red glow slowly start to form in the cord. She twisted her body round like mad, Nida
joining her as the sun’s rays seemed to be about to start the fuse that would end
all things.
As the cord
suddenly sparked and started to fizzle, a black cloud passed fleetingly
overhead - a cloud that started to race down as the cord burned quickly towards
the dynamite....
In his room,
Peter took the small cloth out of his pocket and looked at the glittering jewel
inside. “It could have been so
different, Daphne,” he said as he pushed it into a pair of socks, and started
to pack his case, not noticing the pair of eyes that was watching him.
“PHWWWWORRRRR!!!” Daphne opened her mouth, taking great gulps
of air as she and Velma finally managed to break the surface f the lake. “Next time, tell me the only way to get free
was to pull the plug and help each other!”
“Hey I tried
to - thick cloth in my mouth,” Velma replied as they both shook the cords from
their wrists. “at any rate, at least we broke
free - but these clothes are getting heavier.
What we need now is a boat.”
“Zowie - we
made it just in time,” she heard a voice say, and turning round she saw Brenda
and Taffy approaching in a power boat.
“Need a
lift,” Brenda said as they helped the two soaked women into the boat. “Thanks,” Daphne said, “I don’t know what
would have happened if...”
Her words
were cut off by a massive explosion on the grounds of the Manor.
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