The Madman of Black Bear Mountain by Franklin W. Dixon Page A

understand.”
    Either Casey was a great liar or she was genuinely clueless about my accusation.
    â€œWhen was the last time you saw her?” I asked, wondering if the Geccos hadn’t been the only ones duped by her sister.
    â€œMaybe two, three weeks ago,” Casey said. “She’s always off on some outdoor adventure somewhere or another. She was supposed to stop by the lodge for a visit after her last trip up Black Bear Mountain, but she called at the last minute to cancel. She said she found this great expedition she wanted to go on with some famous mountain man or something. I don’t know why she would have lied to me.”
    One of the things you learn in detective work is that sometimes the most believable lies also contain a bit of truth, and I had a pretty good idea which “famous mountain man” Casey’s sister had been talking about. I glanced back at Aleksei, who had retreated to the helicopter in an attempt to eavesdrop without drawing attention to himself—and for a giant hermit with a woolly beard and buckskins, he wasdoing a pretty good job. Casey seemed to have forgotten about him and the helicopter altogether. If she knew who he was, it sure didn’t show.
    She seemed totally bewildered and blindsided by everything I’d said. I thought about how cool of a host she’d been the day before and found myself wanting to believe she’d been conned by her sister along with the rest of us. But Frank had overheard someone at the lodge arguing on the radio about the crazy hermit in the woods before we left, and if it wasn’t Casey, then who?
    Chief Olaf continued to question Casey, but I was already searching for answers somewhere else. I rewound my memory to the day before. We’d been standing behind the lodge in pretty much the same place, getting ready to go meet Dr. Kroopnik, when Jim had freaked out about flying with Commander Gonzo—and the person who kept trying to talk us out of going to Black Bear Mountain hadn’t been Casey. It had been her husband.
    â€œWhere is Steven?” I asked, interrupting the chief.
    â€œSteven?” she repeated. “I . . . I’m not sure. He got a call on the radio earlier and said he had to go upstream to check on the fence in the north pasture, but he should have been back by now. Why do you . . . ?”
    The sound of someone screaming like their hair was on fire reached us from upriver before she could finish. I knew that voice! I’d heard the same distressed cry yesterday after I’d talked my brother into riding the zip line.
    â€œFrank!” I yelled, and took off running for the riverbank with Chief Olaf, Casey, and Aleksei right behind me.
    A riderless horse stood on the bank farther upstream, watching as Frank struggled to pull Dr. Kroopnik’s thrashing imposter to shore. My brother and I both had lifeguard training, but a panicking drowning victim can drag even a strong swimmer down with them.
    â€œLana?!” Casey gasped. “She never learned to swim! She’s terrified of water!”
    All four of us sprinted for the water’s edge. Before we could reach it, we realized Frank and Lana weren’t the only ones in the river. Steven was already swimming toward them.

20
RESOLUTION RIVER
FRANK
    L EAPING OFF THE ZIP LINE into the river turned out to be the easy part. I’d jumped in to save her on impulse, and it wasn’t until I splashed down beside the flailing mystery woman that I remembered one of the basic rules of lifeguarding—don’t let one drowning become two! You only approach a drowning swimmer in open water as a last resort, because of the risk that they’ll unintentionally take you under. Which is exactly what was happening!
    I tried to swim ahead of her so I could pull her back to shore, but she wouldn’t stop trying to climb on top of me in a desperate attempt to escape the river. Even with my life vest still