Cobb Mt Mystery: Konocti Caves Part 11

Ron's search was called short when a call from Jack informed him that he had just spotted the kids on the lake in a row boat, heading through the straits.

"They must have descended off the mountain through the Black Forest," Jack yelled in amazement into the cell phone over the noise of the helicopter.

"Yes! That is the most logical and fastest way out of here on foot," Ron said not even trying to hide his pride. The survival skills that had kept Jimmy and his foster brothers alive, Jimmy had learned from him. Ron took off in the same direction the boys had just traveled.

"I'll meet ya on Soda Bay Road," He yelled into his phone to Jack.

CHAPTER FIFTEEN.

The Notebook As the boys chattered, sang and rowed Jimmy grew silent and stared at the mountain they had just left.

Last night he had come to a realization. He had had the proof he needed all along. The notebook. His notebook, with the list of boys. He would show it to Ron. Ron would know how to use it against Melbourne.

But first he had to get the notebook. And he had to go alone. The boys weren't going to like it, but he was going to sneak them into Mama Capra's attic. They were going to have to stay there while he rode his bicycle up to Cobb Elementary School.

Jimmy would ride up the mountain at night so it wouldn't be so hot, and then ride back down off Cobb Mountain in the day. He wasn't going to try and fool himself into thinking it would be easy. But what is? In his short eleven years nothing had been easy.

Jimmy was right. When he rowed the dingy into the Sawyer Island tules, and told his brothers his plan, they put up a fuss. They didn't want to be separated. They relied on Jimmy for security even mores so after leaving the security of the Konocti cabin. Not only that, but after spending so many nights locked in attic, they were afraid to go back into one. Even after all they had survived they were still just kids after all.

"Listen, you'll love Mama Capra's attic. It's more like... like a 'Granny's Attic'. It's filled with all kinds of trunks of neat things. And as long as you're quiet no one will bother you. No one will even know you're there. It won't be anything like being in Melbo..." Jimmy thought better about what he was about to say. "Listen, it's great! Really! It has a bathroom with a sink so you'll have plenty of water, and I'll bring up some food before I leave." Jimmy sighed, seeing he was getting nowhere. "Look, you can't stay in the garage or the boat house because Melbourne will check there. You'll be safe in the attic. You can open the windows if you want. But stay away from them, out of sight." Jimmy warned sternly before continuing, "The attic is finished, and there is an air conditioning vent up there so it doesn't get too hot. You'll be fine. Just don't snore too loud," Jimmy tried to joke. But he got no smiles. He sighed again, "I don't have time to argue with you. I need to get some sleep now, so I can leave as soon as I get you up stairs." Jimmy said.

"What about Hero?" Little Jon asked. "Can he come up with us?"

Jimmy just shook his head. He needed his dog with him.

The moon was bright, and Jimmy was glad. He knew there was a good chance of rattlesnakes being on the road at night, seeking warmth, and he didn't want to run over one and have it slung up into his face. He hoped Hero would be able to see well enough while running up the road to avoid any as well. "You be careful, Boy." He warned Hero as they headed out.

Jimmy zigzagged through the neighbor hood as far as he could, but at one point the had to get on Old Highway Fifty-Three and then take Highway Fifty-Three to Lower Lake and then Highway Twenty-Nine to Seigler Canyon; then climb that all the way up to Lock Lomond. People were used to seeing bicyclist on Highway Fifty-Three and with the dog following him no one seemed to pay attention. Since Jimmy's appearance had changed so dramatically the fear of being recognized from the photos on posters wasn't there. But the fear of being spotted by Melbourne or The Henchman was very real.

Once Jimmy turned onto Seigler Canyon Road the engine noise and lights of the few cars that he encountered gave him enough time to hide. He wasn't too concerned about running into Melbourne or The Henchman going this way; but still he would rather be careful than sorry. He felt a pain in his stomach when he remembered the last time he let his guard down on this road.

Jimmy was amazed at how easily he pulled the hills. He was in better shape than he realized. All those nights of hard labor wore him down, but these last few summer months of rest, playing, running, rowing and climbing Walker Ridge and the Konocti Peaks had rebuilt his strength.

As Jimmy approached the school for some reason he felt scared. It was eerily dark and quiet with out kids running around. Jimmy wasted no time taking care of business. He just wanted to retrieve his notebook and steer his bike back down the mountain and join his brothers where he had hid them in Mama Capra's attic.

Jimmy quickly stashed his bike in some bushes and told Hero to "Stay" and crept across the parking lot which was the only place that was well lit. Too bright for his liking. It made him feel too vulnerable. He strode quickly to the dimly lit corridor; reaching it, he walked briskly towards the playground. Once he entered the playground the boy sprinted to the back fence where he had hidden the notebook under a rock months earlier.

Jimmy stood over the rock and looked around wishing he hadn't left Hero behind. He felt foolish and laughed at himself as he realized he did so because of the 'no dogs at school' rule. "Brilliant!" he scoffed, before bending over and tipping the rock to get the book. Standing up he caressed the book as if comforting the kids whose lives he had unknowingly put in jeopardy by recording their names inside it.

A shiver ran through him and he looked up half expecting to see Melbourne towering over him grabbing for the notebook. He tucked the book in his back pocket and jetted back across the field.

Reaching the corridor he once again stopped and looked around. He blinked trying to focus his eyes in the dimly lit corridor as he crept as silently as he could towards the parking lot.

Suddenly a figure leaped out behind a garbage can. Jimmy heard a blood curdling scream and realized it came from somewhere deep inside of himself. He never knew he could scream like that. He never knew anyone could. He stood frozen staring at the figure as it ran down the corridor and realized it was a cat.

It was the cat's turn to scream when suddenly Hero was there running to him. The cat turned around and ran towards him and pa.s.sed him without touching the ground it seemed.

Jimmy wanted to laugh, but couldn't he wanted to run but couldn't do that either. Panic pulsed through his body. He couldn't move. He was frozen. Hero jumped up on him almost knocking him over, and still Jimmy couldn't move. Or speak. Finally with Hero whining, and pulling on his shirt, Jimmy forced himself to breathe. He forced himself to take a step and then another and before long he was running and pulling his bike out of the bushes and riding like the cat was chasing him. Hero ran next to him protectively instead of running on ahead as before.

As Jimmy was approaching the retreat a vehicle pulled out from a side road and pulled onto the road in front of him, startling him and caused him to fall off his bike and roll into the ditch.

He was certain who ever it was didn't see him because they kept going with out stopping. The headlights had not been turned on. "What were they doing driving with no lights?" Jimmy wondered as he brushed himself off and looked up at the full moon, before hopping back on his bike and taking off.

Even though Jimmy had planned on finding a place to sleep while waiting to ride down the mountain in daylight; with everything that kept scaring him he just wanted to get back to Mama Capra's attic as fast as he could. He looked over at Hero and knew he felt the same.

"Come on Boy, don't worry, we'll be home soon."

Jimmy pulled his bike onto Mama Capra's driveway around daylight, and carefully parked it where he had always kept it. He crept over and was about to pick up the key when the front door opened.

Jimmy wasn't sure if the shriek was his or Mama Capra's. All he knew was that he was in her arms sobbing in a flash.

"Hush now, hush," Mama Capra said consolingly. "It's alright, it's alright. Come inside and tell me what's wrong. Look at you. What have you gotten yourself into?"

Jimmy followed his foster mother in through the door and turned and looked around outside before closing and double locking it.

"Now what is that all about?" Mama Capra said. "You're alright. No one is going to hurt you. Now come in the kitchen and I'll make you some hot chocolate." Jimmy followed her and for the first time noticed that she was walking with the help of a metal walker. She was out of the wheel chair. She turned around and saw him staring at it.

"Oh don't worry about this thing. I'm fine. I'm just fine. I only need it for balance in the mornings. I can get around just fine most of the time with my cane. Boy let me tell ya- they kept me in a wheelchair for a long time. I sure hated that! This is much better. Don't worry about me. I'm just fine."

The elderly woman eyed him. She took note of his gaunt appearance under the dirt and tan, and long stringy unkempt hair. Mrs. Capra new a run a way when she saw one, but she didn't say a word about that.

"Now you sit down and tell me all about your summer," was all she said.

Jimmy sank into the chair where he had enjoyed so many cups of hot chocolate in the past. The very chair he was wishing to be in just a couple days ago. It all seemed so unreal. He looked down at his sc.r.a.ped and dirty knuckles. She must know. She would never allow him to sit in her kitchen this dirty if she didn't know that he was in trouble.

"Mama Capra... I... I ran away." Her back was to him and so he couldn't see the tears that had sprung into her eyes. He had never called her that. All her other boys had called her Mama Capra within weeks of entering her home. But Jimmy had been with her for over two years and this was the first time she heard those words come from him. She brushed the tears aside with her hanky, pretending to blow her nose.

"Yes, well that is obvious young man. But we don't have to worry about that right now. I want to know how you've been. Have you been eating alright? How long were you on the street?"

Jimmy was stunned. Was it possible that she had not heard the news reports about him being lost on the mountain? The horrible reports of him kidnapping his brothers and throwing them down the cave? Obviously she had not. It was during the time when the nurse was taking care of her. Maybe they didn't want to upset her. What ever the reason Jimmy was glad that she had not been worrying over him.

Jimmy relaxed a bit, "You won't call anyone?" his eyes were pleading, "Please promise me you won't call social services or Melbourne and tell them I'm here." He tensed up a bit which didn't go unnoticed by the tiny Italian woman. She also heard terror come from him when he said 'Melbourne'. Usually she would have corrected him for the disrespectful use of the last name without a 'Mr.' But the insightful woman sensed that something was very wrong.

"Now, now... you just never mind. I won't do anything until we can sort things out. If you ran away I'm sure you had your reasons. And I won't be sending you back to where you don't want to go."

"I want to stay with you!" Jimmy blurted. "I just want to stay here with you, Mama Capra!" he hated how close to tears he was again. "You're turning into a blubbering baby," he chastised himself.

"Jimmy, I'm not sure that will be possible. You know I've been sick. They're taking my license away," Mama Capra said sadly. Now it was she who was fighting back tears and Jimmy who was doing the comforting.

"It's okay, Mama Capra," he said softly. We'll figure something out. Just don't let anyone know I'm here until we figure something out."

Suddenly Hero started barking from the garage where Jimmy had left him.

"Someone's in the garage!" Jimmy said. "Hero wouldn't bark unless someone went inside."

"Hero? Who's Hero?" Mrs. Capra asked the terrified boy, who was looking wildly around the kitchen for a place to hide. He didn't know what to do! Hero yelped in pain and then there was silence.

"They got Hero," Jimmy cried out, and sunk to the floor wrapping his arms around his knees and rocking back and forth. "They got Hero. Oh no! No! They got Hero!" Suddenly Hero was at the kitchen door jumping at it barking wildly.

Jimmy stopped crying and before he could get up, Mrs. Capra had the kitchen door open and the dirty dog barged into her sparkling clean kitchen. Jimmy jumped up and ran to the door and slammed it shut and dead bolted it. Then as Mama Capra looked on in disbelief he wept as he hugged Hero. "Hero, you're alright! You're alright! Oh Hero, I'll never leave you again! I promise, I'll never leave you again."

It was Mrs. Capra's turn to sink into the chair. She had always drawn the line against dogs. Especially in her house.

Jimmy sat down at the table and Hero lay down at his feet. Jimmy stared at Mrs. Capra. She stared back.

"Well, I guess we have a dog," was all she could think to say.

"Then we can stay?" Jimmy asked joyfully.

"Well, you would still be on the record as my charge- the system doesn't move that quickly. So you'll be alright here for awhile. And what are they going to do to me for not reporting you here right away? What can they do to me?" she tried to joke.

"But that dog needs a bath! And so do you!" she said standing up with hands on hips.

Jimmy started to walk towards the stairs, but stopped and turned around.

"Mama Capra?" he said, and then hesitated.

"Yes?" she replied, "What is it?"

"Please don't ask me why, but I need you to call Ron. Don't tell him about me... don't tell him I'm here. Just ask him to come over right away. And until he gets here will you please promise not to go outside, or open the door for anyone? Please," he asked in earnest. Mrs. Capra could see the terror that had returned to the young boy's face.

"Now, you don't have to be.."

"Please! Promise me! Please!" he pleaded again.

"Okay, okay- I promise. Now calm down and go bathe this do... go bathe Hero, and then take your shower," she said turning around to make herself a cup of tea.

Jimmy ran up the stairs taking them two at a time and then after going into the bathroom and turning on the water, he crept up the stairs to the attic. He didn't have to fill the boys in on anything; they had been listening at the vent and heard it all.

"I'll be back later with some more food. He promised. Then you boys can take turns showering too, after Mama Capra goes down for a nap."

Timmy tried to say something, but Jimmy put his hand over his mouth and said, "Shh" before creeping down stairs again.

Timmy had wanted to tell him that he had seen a strange man go inside the garage just before Hero ran out.

Jimmy climbed into the shower and called Hero in with him, and after shampooing him he sent him out to lay on a towel. Then Jimmy scrubbed his own self as if he was trying to wash the past several months away. Finally he climbed out of the shower and finished drying Hero. And with a towel wrapped around him, he went to his room to get dressed. He pulled on some clean underwear and sat down on his bed and pulled the notebook out of the back pocket of his dirty pants before tossing them into his laundry basket.

"My laundry basket!" Jimmy said to Hero. Smiling from ear to ear, Jimmy lay back on his bed and looked lovingly at his ceiling, while clinging to his notebook. "My laundry basket. My bed. My ceiling," the boy said and dozed off into the best sleep he had had in almost a year.

The setting sun shone through his bedroom window waking Jimmy up. He sat up and pulled on the clean clothes he had pulled from the dresser before his shower. Eagerly Jimmy ran downstairs expecting to see Ron.

He wasn't there. When Mrs. Capra saw Jimmy's expression after she told him that she had not called him yet, she began to worry. Something was going on that he wasn't telling her. Was he in trouble with the law. Had he done something wrong? She couldn't bring herself to think that he was capable of any serious wrongdoing. But still something serious was troubling the boy. She picked up the phone and called Ron's cell phone from the number she still had on the fridge. There was no answer, so she left a voicemail that it was urgent for him to come at once. Before hanging up, she added, "If we aren't here you can find us at the Farmers Market."

Mama Capra hung up and was startled to see the horrified expression on Jimmy's face.

"Jimmy, the farmer's market is going on at Redbud Park. I need to go buy some vegetables. Walk with me down there, please." She said as she gathered her canvas bags.

"No!" he cried. "We have to stay inside. We have to wait for Ron!"

"Now shush, I don't know what's bothering you, but a walk to the park will do you good. You know how much you enjoy the farmer's market! Now come on," she said and she headed for the door. Hero was at her side wagging his tail.

Jimmy didn't know what else to do but to follow. As they walked away he didn't look up to the attic. If he had, he would have seen Timmy frantically pointing to the side of the garage where the strange man was hiding behind a bush.

Jimmy walked slowly beside Mama Capra, while Hero ran happily ahead, circling back around them every few minutes.

He's happy to have had a bath," Mama Capra said trying to cheer the sullen boy up. "And you smell a lot better too," expecting that to bring a laugh. It didn't. The boy just kept nervously looking over his shoulder.

"What ever has happened to him at Melbourne's house has made the poor boy paranoid," Mrs. Capra thought to herself, and then to Jimmy she said, "Being around the flowers, fruits and veggies will spark that old gardener's enthusiasm you had when we tended my garden together. Remember those days?"

Jimmy said nothing, he just continued jumping at every sound and looking around like a scared rabbit. "Now that you're back we can start another garden," Mrs. Capra said trying anything to calm him down.

The woman and little boy entered the Farmer's Market and Jimmy felt better with so many people around. They walked down the vegetable isle and Mrs. Capra visited with friends and chatted with the farmers- most of whom she had gotten to know quiet well over the years. Even when growing her own garden Mrs. Capra supported the Farmer's Market buying what ever produce and flowers she didn't grow herself. Jimmy was starting to relax and actually started enjoying the familiar smells and fragrances, and listening to the bartering going on. That's when he spotted the man.

It wasn't The Henchman- but Jimmy knew he was after him. He could tell by the way he walked, not looking at anything just search the people. The man started moving towards them. Before Jimmy could run he locked eyes with another man a few booths over. That man tipped over a table to get to him and Jimmy took off in the other direction fearing Mrs. Capra may get in the middle and be harmed. He ducked in here, then there trying to find a hiding spot, while clutching the notebook that he knew the men wanted as much as they want him.

Then Jimmy spotted The Henchman walking directly towards him, with his evil grin. The boy was trapped. The only place left to go was onto the dock. As Jimmy ran down the dock he hoped to have a better plan by the time he reached the end. Of course he didn't.

As if in a dream the small boy could hear his name being called frantically as he stood motionless at the end of the pier looking out over the fiery waters as the sun slowly slipped behind the sleeping giant. Mount Konocti. He shuddered as he thought about how close he had come to falling down the Konocti cave. A sense of dread filled him and he closed his eyes as he felt the vibration of heavy steps falling on the pier coming closer. As much as he wished it was Mama Capra, he knew in the pit of his stomach that it wasn't. The young boy also knew it was futile to try and escape. There was no escaping what was in store for him- and for the list of boys in his notebook. Tears ran down his face as he dropped the notebook he had been clutching, into the water, forever losing the only connection to the other foster boys he made promises to and the evidence he needed for his freedom.

A large hand gripped the young boy's shoulder causing his eyes to jerk open and see again the huge mountain that had once held him spellbound; but that would now hold his body in one of her caves. The Konocti Cave was no longer his obsession. It was his destiny.

The two men suddenly had him by the elbows; lifting him off the ground they walked quickly towards the parking lot. Jimmy heard sirens in the distance as if in some distant land, before the thud, thud, thud of the men's feet hitting the dock as they walked faster and faster filled his ears and drowned out all else. Drowned the sirens. Drowned out Mama Capra's voice calling his name. Drowned out everything. Little Jimmy felt faint as he floated along in the grasps of the two strangers, who he knew were hired by Melbourne.

As the men reached the asphalt parking lot and the noise of their falling footsteps silenced they were suddenly surrounded by two women- one old and one young; a dog, and several dirty screaming and kicking children.

Jimmy stared in amazement into the welcome faces of Kat, Mama Capra and the dirty little faces of his foster brothers. They were there screaming and hitting and kicking the men. Hero was barking and snarling. A crowd gathered and Jimmy heard someone say, "Isn't that one of those boys. One of those lost little boys?"

Suddenly, as if appearing out of nowhere Ron was there "Release that boy!" He demanded with his gun drawn.

The men stalled and Kat landed one last kick squarely on the nearest man's shins, who yelped and dropped his hold on Jimmy. Hero grabbed the pant leg of the other man and pulled his leg out from under him causing him to tumble to the ground, letting loose of Jimmy's other arm as he fell. Jimmy ran to Kat and buried his face in her arms, and his brothers gathered around him hugging him.

"Oh my sweet, sweet boy! You're safe now, you're safe," Kat hugged and rocked the child maternally.

"Jimmy!," a breathless Mrs. Capra screamed as she pushed her way through the gathering crowd. "Where's my boy? Where's my Jimmy?" she cried. Jimmy turned and ran to her crying, "Mama Capra! Mama Capra!" followed by Kat. The three of them hugged and cried until suddenly Jimmy pushed away and ran to his brothers and pulled them to Kat and Mama Capra. The crowd fell silent and many were moved to tears at the loving spectacle, realizing the ugly rumors about Little Jimmy were untrue.

The crowd parted and Lenny walked up and pointed to the parking lot, where he had put William Melbourne and The Henchman in his squad car and were being watched by Jack.

During the commotion no one saw the men trying to leave, except Jack who restrained them while waiting for Lenny to bring the squad car around.