Stone Investigations (Stone Series Book 4) by Bob Blanton (open ebook txt) 📗

tool out of a pocket.  Using it he pulled the tire right off of therim.

Annika ran and grabbed the spare off of the wall, checking itfor any damage as she ran back to Carlos.

“Annika Sorenson, on deck!”

Carlos used the same tool he’d used to pull the old tire offto wedge the new tire back onto the rim.

“I’ve never seen anyone do it that way,” Annika said.

“Hey, if you’re out in the middle of nowhere with a flat,this is what you have to do,” Carlos said as he grabbed the air hose andstarted to inflate the tire.  He used his hands to squeeze the tire and judgethe air pressure.  When he thought it was right, he pulled out a pressure gaugeand measured it, letting out five pounds of air.  “110 pounds, there you go.”

Annika grabbed the bike, smacked Carlos on the shoulder, andraced to the starting point.

“Annika Sorenson, on deck!”

“I’m here!”

Annika paused at the top.  She didn’t have much time togather herself since she was so late.  She had to start her routine withinfifteen seconds or forfeit this round.

“Do you think she’ll be able to pull it off?” Matthew askedEmily.

“They say she’s got ice water in her veins, so this willtell,” Emily replied.

“Go, Girl!” Carlos yelled as Annika started down the ramp.

She followed the same routine she’d done the day before,nailing each trick, each move.

“Here comes the backflip,” Carlos said.  “She’s sure built upa lot of speed.”

Annika did a double backflip and the crowd went wild.  Shecoasted up to the rim of the bowl and turned back, as the bike reached theflat, she went into a handstand on the handlebars, the crowd roared again asshe flipped her hips and did a 360 on the front wheel before dropping back ontothe pedals.

“That was unbelievable!” Matthew shouted.

“Ice Queen,” Carlos said.

“Annika! Annika! Annika!” the crowd shouted as Annikacompleted her routine, and after a quick bow to the crowd, rode back to her pitarea.

“I wonder what Travis is thinking of that!?” Carlos shouted.

“Yeah, so do I,” Matthew said.  He pulled out his cellphoneand zoomed his portal over to Travis’s pit.

“You idiots!  You screwed it up!” Travis shouted.

“Hey, we did exactly what you told us to.  Put the quartzright into her front tire.  It’s not our fault that the damn thing went flatearly.  There must have been something wrong with the tire!” the blond mechanicyelled back.

“I should have known better than to trust you!  Now, I haveto beat that!” Travis punched the wall.

“Hey, you’re not saying that you’re afraid of her, right?  Ithought you just wanted us to mess her bike up because she forced her way intothe guys’ competition.”

Travis shook his head.  “I guess I’m going to just have tobeat the bitch myself.  Now get lost!”

◆ ◆ ◆

“Annika, that was amazing,” Emily said when Annika came backto the pit.

“You did great,” her mechanic said.

“Hey, where were you, and what’s with the padlock on thetoolbox?!” Annika demanded.

“What padlock?  Hey, I didn’t put this here!” he yelled as hegrabbed the padlock.  “You were all set, I just headed up so I could get a goodview.”

“Well, if it wasn’t for Carlos, I’d have had to forfeit thatround!” Annika pointed to Carlos.

“So she knows you,” Matthew whispered.

“She should, I’ve given her my card like ten times,” Carlossaid.

“Thanks,” Annika said giving Carlos a hug.  “I couldn’t havedone it without you.”

“Hey, you’d have done it in the third round,” Carlos said.

“Maybe, but it’s a lot easier to take risks when you knowyou’ve got a makeup round.  You’re pretty good.  Maybe we can make room foranother mechanic.”

“Now you’re talking!”

“Congratulations,” Matthew said.

“Who are you?”

“He’s the guy who called me over to help you,” Carlos said.

“He’s my friend, we’re both in the same journalism class,”Emily added.

“Hey, Travis is up,” Carlos said, pointing to Travis at thestarting line.

Travis’s first two stunts looked a bit weak but he ralliedand executed the second half of his routine flawlessly.

“You’ve got him!” Carlos said.

“I don’t know,” Annika replied.

Everyone waited for the judges to post the last score andwith that the standings.

The crowd roared as the scores went up.  Annika was in firstplace by ten points and would get to go last in the final that night.  Travishad fallen to third place.

That night Annika won.  She had it sewn up before her turn,nobody had managed to beat her score.  She used her turn to entertain the crowdwith more tricks and spins, saving the flips for the next competition.  Matthewsent the recording to the governing body of the competition, using one of hisburner phones so it was anonymous.

Chapter 8Undercover Reporting

On Monday when Matthew got to school there was a crowdstanding by the flagpole.  After locking his bike, he wandered over.  “What’sup?”

“Do you notice something missing?!”

Matthew looked around.  It was obvious that the statue of theschool mascot was not where it usually was.

“Where’s the statue?”

“That’s what we’d like to know.  Someone stole it.”

“Nah.  Are you sure someone didn’t take it to repair it orsomething?”

“Sure, and they would leave a note saying ‘did your kitty runaway?’  And homecoming’s in three weeks; we’re going to be laughingstocks.”

“Well get it back.”

“How?  We have no clue who took it.”

“Fallbrook!” Emily said.  She’d walked up and was standingbehind Matthew.  “We play them for homecoming and they’re mad because we beatthem in regionals last year.”

“So that narrows it down to what, twelve hundred people?”

“There can’t be that many that would be able to pull offsomething like this.  We should be able to figure it out.”

“We should leave it to the police.”

“Like they’re going to care about our mascot being stolen.”

“You students need to go to class!” Principal Grayson calledout.  “And leave the investigating to the police.  I do not want to hear aboutone of you getting into trouble over this!”

◆ ◆ ◆

“Hey, Brea, we’ve got a table outside,” Matthew told her asshe passed him on the way to the lunch line.

“Good, I’ll be there in a bit.”  Brea was always late gettingto the line because her class was all the way on the other side of campus.

“Can you believe someone stole our statue?!” Alex wailed whenMatthew sat at