David did as Carol asked him to, and kept the sugar skull to feed to the horse. What its importance was he had no idea, but decided to trust Carol for this instance. They waited a few minutes before heading to the back door, David and Trin reaching it first. They glanced around the yard, but Trin was the first one who noticed.
“David, look!” A dim, blue light seemed to pulse from the old castle by the lake.
“Bones has certainly revealed his location.” He walked back to the barn and peeked in. “Captain, Doctor, what’s taking you so long? We know where Bones and Kingpin are!”
“Oh, sorry ol’ fellow, but the Doc and I noticed something off about this here horse.”
“Really? What about it?”
“David!” He spun around at Trin’s scream, just in time to see a beam of blue light race back into the castle. He turned to look at Trin, but a skeleton now sat where she had once stood.
“Doctor, Captain, we have to get to Adinburgh Castle immediately! Bones just kidnapped Trin!”
“What the? How?”
“I’m not exactly sure how it was done, but it looks like Bones has created a machine that can transport people in a beam of blue light!”
“Goodness! Then we’d better make it quick if we are to have the upper hand!”
“Wait! What about the cops?” As if on cue, several squad cars pulled up in front of the barn.
“Detective Turner? We got a call that you needed back-up.”
“You heard right, officer, we know the location of the hostages. We have to get to Adinburgh Castle immediately, before anything happens to them! Leave your sirens off, it just might give us the advantage we need.”
“Right, we’ll be on your tail.”
“Good.” David jumped into the car after his friends, and the troop took off, heading for Adinburgh Castle at full speed. The ride only took five minutes, but each minute felt like an hour to David, hoping that nothing had happened to anybody in the time it took to get there. Once the car stopped, David tore out of the car and up the castle steps at full speed. His friends and the cops followed suit, taking the stairs two at a time. Upon entering the castle, David directed them to split up, hoping they had made it in time. David raced up to one of the towers, flanked by Captain Harris, Doctor Calvin, and three officers. There, in the center of the room, stood the strangest contraption they had ever seen, operated by the craziest-looking man they had ever seen. David almost didn’t recognise him; his black hair had grown out to shoulder-length, his dark blue eyes had sunken in, and his skin was paler, but it was still Bob Jones, his signature grin plastered on his face.
“Why, welcome to our humble abode, gentlemen! Pardon the mess, but we weren’t exactly expecting company!”
“Where’s Trin, and everybody else?” exclaimed David, as he walked towards the mad scientist.
“Oh, everybody else is sitting comfortably in the dungeons. As for the young lady herself, she’s getting special treatment.” Bones laughed as David stiffened. Everyone turned to the door; footsteps could be heard rushing up, and another officer burst into the room.
“Sir! We’ve found everybody! We’ve arrested everyone we could find and are evacuating the prisoners as we speak. Ol’Kingpin got away though, with Miss Thompson. One of his cronies stated that he took her through a secret tunnel that will take them to the cave by the lighthouse!” David exhaled with relief. She was fine, for now.
“Thank you. Arrest this man and escort the rest of them back to headquarters. If two of you could come with me to arrest Antonio Conti, that would be great.” Two volunteered and raced back down the stairs after David, Harris, and Calvin, while the other two promptly arrested Bob Jones and spread the word. The two cars raced towards the lighthouse, just in time to see Conti emerge with Trin from the cave. Conti’s face twisted in rage before taking off again, taking Trin to the lighthouse this time.
“What’s he up to? He’s practically running himself into a corner!” blurted an officer before David dashed off after the two. The others followed, but soon found themselves caught up in chasing two more of Conti’s accomplices who were trying to get a car ready for the mob boss. David didn’t even notice their absence as he was focused on keeping Conti and Trin in sight, following them into the lighthouse.
“David!” Trin’s screams echoed off the walls as he followed them all the way up. At the very top, Conti turned his gun on Trin.
“Let her go, Conti. There’s nowhere else for you to go, and it’ll make things easier for you with the judge.”
Conti laughed harshly. “Yeah, sure, like kidnapping the judge wasn’t enough to put me back in jail for the rest of my life.”
“Well, killing her would certainly send you to death row. Do you really want that?”
Conti pulled Trin closer to him, his gun against her head. “Don’t have much of a choice, do I?”
“Perhaps I have a way out for the both of you,” cooed a female voice. A tall female stepped out of the shadows dressed in a dark blue trench coat and a dark blue fedora. “Miss me, boys?”
“Carol Santonio!”
“What exactly did you have in mind?” asked Conti.
“Well, that all depends. Would you be willing to work for me? David here owes me one. You promise to work with me and hand over the girl, David will let us by. Right, David?”
David gulped. He didn’t really want to, but it was the best option at the moment. “Right.”
“See? And I know David keeps his word. What do you say, Antonio?” Conti thought about it, fingering the gun.
“Will I have my own mob?”
“Of course. I’d go to you if I needed anything in particular done, but you would answer to me.”
“I think not.”
“Oh my, this is a problem.”
“Yeah, what are you going to do about it?” A gunshot went off, and Conti slumped to the floor.
“I really hoped you would have said yes; I really don’t like getting my hands dirty with blood. But I guess I shall have to look around for someone. Which means, dearie, you won’t have to worry about anyone dying anytime soon. See ya around, David.” She blew him a kiss before disappearing back into the shadows. David rushed forward and cuffed Conti.
“Antonio Conti, alias Kingpin, you are under arrest for the kidnapping of several important city members. Anything you say or do will be held against you in a court of law. Now sit tight, the rest will be along in a minute.” He turned to Trin and kissed her. “Are you all right?”
She nodded, a faint smile on her face. “Yes, thank you. Let’s get out of here, please?”
David nodded. “Yes, let’s.” He led her down the stairs, where they met their friends and the two officers. David told them where to find Conti, and the four walked out, satisfied with another mystery solved, and with no casualties.
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