The Black Tower by Betsy Byars Page B

thinks that neither of them has injuries that are life-threatening, although the man who impersonated a nurse is going to face serious charges—attempted murder for one. And it was all for nothing.”
    â€œWhy do you say that?”
    â€œHe came to Hunt House thinking there was money hidden in the house, when the only thing of value is the property itself. He and his mother would have gotten a third of that.”
    Herculeah glanced out the window to see if she could get a final glimpse of Hunt House. Only the tip of the tower rose above the trees. “I guess I’ll never come back to Hunt House.”
    â€œWhy would you want to?”
    â€œThe book, Mom! To finish the book. I know what I found at the top of the tower, but I don’t know what the girl in the book found.”
    â€œMaybe I can get the book for you, but if you go to the hospital to read to Mr. Hunt, I suggest you take another book.”
    â€œOf course, Mom.”
    Meat spoke from the backseat. “Tell your mom what your dad said about the end of the book.”
    Herculeah glanced around as if surprised to see him there. It had been so long since anyone noticed him that he was surprised to find himself there. “I was just getting ready to,” she said.
    She turned back to her mom. “I was puzzled about why Mr. Hunt chose the book. I mean, maybe he read it as a child, or maybe he wanted me to see the clipping, or maybe he sensed danger in the tower. I said I was mainly curious about the end of the book and what was up in the tower, and he said, ‘Oh, I can tell you what was at the top of the tower if that’s all you want to know—Batman.’”
    Herculeah laughed. “I thought he meant like Batman and Robin, but he meant ‘Batman’ like Dracula. He admitted he hadn’t read the book, of course, but he claimed to have seen the movie. It was very funny. I wish I could imitate him so—”
    â€œDon’t bother.”
    There was silence, broken only by an uneasy cough from the backseat. Meat felt that the front seat could take a lesson from him. When you were about to say something wrong, cough.
    Herculeah’s mom didn’t believe in coughs. She said, “Your dad picked an inappropriate time to be amusing.”
    â€œMom, you don’t understand Dad at all!”
    â€œOh?”
    â€œIt was the perfect time. I was upset and it helped me. At least he didn’t say I was worse than an infant. You know what he said?”
    â€œNo.”
    â€œHe said that whatever the girl in the book found in the tower, she couldn’t possibly have handled it any better than I did.”
    In the backseat, Meat waited for Mrs. Jones’s reply, but apparently she had used up all of her one-word sentences. They drove the rest of the way home in a blessed silence.

30
    A MIDNIGHT CALLER
    The phone rang and Herculeah picked it up on the first ring. She said, “Hi, Meat.”
    â€œHow did you know it was me? Has your mom gotten caller ID?”
    â€œI don’t need caller ID to know when it’s you. And,” she went on, “you always call when we’ve solved a case.”
    â€œI didn’t do much to solve this one.”
    â€œYes, you did. You recognized right away that Nurse Wegman was a man. And I didn’t pick up on that at all. I was an idiot. I thought she was just an unattractive woman. Sometimes I think I don’t deserve to be a detective.”
    â€œOh, yes, you do. You manage to get people to confess things, like Lionus Hunt telling you all about his mother killing her twin sister, about his plans to get into Hunt House in the disguise of a nurse. He would have thought it was a waste of time to tell me stuff like that. He would have just killed me.”
    â€œIf I’ve learned one thing about criminals, it’s that they think they’re so clever, they want to talk about how they did it.”
    There was a silence, and then