Epilogue
But this account of the Enigma Squad is not quite over. This concludes my official report for the police. (After all, they’re very familiar with everything that happened from this point on.) But I feel a need—no, an obligation—to complete the story for you and for posterity. That’s right, Scooter, you’re not the only one who can break out the big words!
After the lecture he gave us, the commander drove the three of us over to Scooter’s house, and he went up to the house to speak with Scooter’s parents while we sat in the car. When he returned to the car, he had us get out and show him the shelter.
It was our secret headquarters for less than a week, we were all thinking. Commander Coleman was going to see the inside so he could recover the necklace, write up a report, and presumably confiscate everything in the shelter.
He sat on the couch for some time, writing and saying “Hmm” a lot. Finally, he stood up, grabbed the necklace, which he had already put in a plastic evidence bag, and said it was time to go. As we stood at the base of the ladder, the commander closed the vault door, turned to us, and said, “Nice headquarters you got there, boys.” He winked and then started climbing the ladder.
He took all three of us boys down to the police station, where AJ and me had the long, dreaded wait for our parents to get back in town and come get us. Once all three sets of parents (except for my dad, of course, who was still out at sea) were at the station, the commander told them the whole story just as we’d told him, and much to our dismay, he even told them all about the shelter, describing how it had electricity and running water and even a phone.
I looked over at Mr. and Mrs. Parks. I was curious to see how surprised they must be to find out that this whole time, there was a bomb shelter in their backyard and an old man living in it! Mrs. Parks just kept saying “oh my” over and over, but Mr. Parks’ expression surprised me. With every detail Commander Coleman gave, his eyes got bigger and bigger. But it was not a look of surprise so much as one of amusement—like he was thrilled and enjoyed every detail of the story. I started to wonder if maybe he knew about the shelter all along. One day, when the time is right, I may have to ask him.
When Commander Coleman had finished with everything he had written in his notes, he asked if any of the parents had any questions.
Mrs. Parks did. “So what should we do with all the stuff in the shelter? And what should we do with the shelter itself? Seal it up?”
Mr. Parks answered with a big smile before Commander Coleman could, “Well, Honey, it sounds like the stuff in the shelter belongs to the boys. It seems that all of it was given to them. And the shelter sounds like it belongs to them now, too. Gee, I wish I had had a secret hideout like that when I was their age!” He said this last sentence with a wink and a grin directed toward Scooter. Now I knew who Scooter had learned that look from.
That seemed to satisfy Mrs. Parks’ question, and I could see she had already lost interest in the matter. Was it really possible that our now semi-secret headquarters would remain ours?
Commander Coleman went on to praise us for our bravery and reprimand us for our stupidity in the same breath. We got the bad guys, but it wasn’t necessary to put ourselves in danger to do so. He then promised to give us updates on the case as they came. Then he let us go.
Well, the police were done with us, but our parents were just getting started. Scooter’s parents grounded him for a month, but knowing them, he will be out in a couple weeks for good behavior. AJ’s parents grounded him for two weeks from afterschool activities that involved Scooter or me. Poor guy, stuck in his house with a sixty-inch flatscreen and a zillion channels at his fingertips. I’m sure it will be real torture.
The school found out we made an international phone call from a classroom, and as punishment, they decided to make us pay for it by helping the janitor after school for the following week. AJ tried to say he would pay for it with his allowance money, but his parents said he would have to “grin and bear” his punishment like Scooter and me.
A couple days later, the Commander stopped by Scooter’s house to inform them that the two guys we attempted to catch admitted to trashing the Parks’ house. They made a deal and gave up the home of Mr. Snelling in the Vancouver area in exchange for less jail time. When the authorities raided Snelling’s home, they found enough evidence to link him to most of the thefts of TRUBE jewelry. But Snelling was nowhere to be found.
Commander Coleman also presented Scooter with a check from the jewelry owner for $5,000. It would have been nice to hold that check for a moment. I’ve never seen that much money. But most of that money is already spent.
After paying for a new couch for Mrs. Seeva, a new section of fence and a new gate for Mr. Seeva, and various repairs for the Parks’ home, there isn’t much left for the Enigma Squad to get excited about.
Oh, and me? Yeah, on the way home from the police station, my mom apologized for sort of overreacting to me not checking in when I got off the bus. She asked me to forgive her. I did.
She then grounded me to the house for three weeks. I admit, I deserve it. She suggested I do something useful during my in-house sentence.
I followed her advice, and as a result, what you have in front of you is two and a half weeks of documenting the first case of the Enigma Squad. Actually, two weeks went by so fast, it really wasn’t that bad. Time flies when you’re having fun, I guess. But now I am itching to get back out there and start digging for clues.
In fact, Scooter tells me we already have a new case. Kids on the bus claim that every night they see strange glowing lights coming from the house that’s for sale at the end of the street. Sounds like a great case for the Enigma Squad to me. At the very least, we have to go take a look, right?
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