Madhattan Mystery by John J. Bonk Read Free Book Online Page B

open.”
    â€œNo way.”
    â€œWay. They had to shut it down and everything. Meand my parents and a few park people went back into the tunnel …” Reliving it made Lexi’s mouth go dry. She forced a swallow. “He was wedged between some giant pulleys and cables but I could see the Day-Glo number nine on his football jersey. I was the only one small enough to fit in there—you know, to yank him out.”
    â€œWow. So you’re his
y ī ng xióng
.”
    â€œWhat?” Lexi could barely hear over the music.
    â€œHis hero! No wonder he worships you.”
    â€œHe does?”
    â€œAnd let me guess—nine has been your lucky number ever since.”
    Yes!
Lexi had never made that connection before.
The girl really does have a brain the size of Utah
. She brushed a clump of curls off her astonished face and leaned closer to Kim Ling, girl genius. “I mean, he tries to hide it but he’s still afraid of, like, absolutely everything. Things got worse when Mom died, but Dr. Lucy says he’s making steady progress.”
    â€œDr. Lucy?”
    â€œOur therapist. Lucille Dixon.”
    â€œHuh. Well, that explains a lot.”
    Lexi wasn’t sure how to take that remark. “Like what?”
    â€œLike, why your brother is over by the cotton-candy stand right now.”
    Lexi whipped her head around and saw an abandoned horse grinning back at her. A blur of reds, blues, and yellows spun around the girls as they rose up and down, upand down, waiting for the carousel to stop. It made three more revolutions along with Lexi’s stomach before the thing finally slowed down. She flew off her horse before it came to a full stop and rushed over to Kevin, who was sitting cross-legged on the ground. Texting?
    â€œWhat happened?”
    â€œI’m not riding that death machine.”
    Kim Ling showed up a second later. “You okay?”
    â€œHe’ll live,” Lexi said. “Who’re you texting? It’d better not be Dad.”
    â€œBilly Campbell. At space camp.” He looked up at Kim Ling with a dim glint in his eyes. “We’re both gonna be professional astronauts.”
    â€œOh, interesting,” Kim Ling said, nodding. “Lemme get this straight. You can’t even survive a carousel ride and you wanna be—?”
    A sharp look from Lexi shut her right up. “C’mon.” Lexi gently pulled Kevin to his feet by both hands and brushed off his bottom. She was being a parent again big time, but oh well. “We should probably get going.” But the park was a gigantic green maze. “Hey, Kim, point us toward the street so we can catch a taxi back to the brownstone.”
    â€œYeah, right—by yourselves? Just follow me.”
    Kim Ling took charge again, which was no big surprise, and led them past a huge fenced-in spread of grass she said was the Sheep Meadow, but it was peppered with sunbathers, not sheep. They kept trudging along the roadway with Kim Ling pointing out every single statue andendless “flora and fauna” until she took a sharp left, shouting, “Behold, Bethesda Terrace!”
    â€œI thought we were going home,” Lexi said.
    â€œWe’re taking the scenic route.
Trés
European, no?”
    Not a big selling point, what with her dad trekking through Europe with her evil stepmother, but when Lexi peered down at the courtyard, she was awestruck by the lovely view. The statue of a glorious angel rose from the center of a circular fountain and there was a small river gleaming in the background alive with ducks and rowboats. The sky couldn’t have been more crystal blue—and suddenly there was a billow of white.
    â€œOh, look, a bride. That’s good luck!” Lexi pointed to a wedding party posing on the cement staircase leading down to the courtyard. “Who’d get married on a Wednesday?”
    â€œWell, it does have the word
wed
in it,” Kim Ling