An edge had crept into her voice, and I had a feeling she was back to suspecting us of something. We couldn’t let her slow us down.

  I yanked back the curtains and shoved the window open. I swung my leg over. “Hate to be this rude, but—”

  “A guy’s gotta do what a guy’s gotta do,” Joe finished for me.

  We landed and ran straight for the woods. Once we were no longer visible from the house, we slowed down. We needed to move carefully and quietly. We didn’t want to alert Ryan.

  “He’s a lot crazier than we ever realized,” Joe said.

  “Or a lot more desperate,” I replied.

  “Which way do you think he went?” Joe asked.

  “Do you see any signs of life?”

  We both knelt down, trying to see if there were any clues to follow. The trees blocked a lot of the sunlight. I wished we’d brought flashlights.

  Joe had moved away from me. “I think I found something.”

  I joined him. “Looks like a path.”

  “A path taken by six-foot-tall blondes.”

  I gaped at him. “How do you get that?”

  Joe smirked. “The powers of observation.” He pulled a branch toward me. “See? Strand of blond hair at just about our height.”

  I whistled in admiration. “You may be cut out for this line of work after all.”

  Joe rolled his eyes. “Anyway. I figure they got onto the path here.”

  “Let’s travel parallel, then. We don’t want them to notice us before we notice them.”

  We crept into the brush alongside the path and moved deeper into the trees. We were still able to see where the path went, but it would be pretty hard to see us.

  We moved slowly, stepping over thick roots and ducking under branches. We hadn’t gone very far when I heard voices. I motioned for Joe to stop.

  “Please, Ryan, no,” I heard someone begging. “I’ll give you anything you want!”

  We had found them. It sounded as if Justin was pleading for his life.

  I snuck closer and peered through the branches into a clearing. My stomach twisted.

  Justin was kneeling on the ground, with his hands tied behind his back. Ryan pointed the antique gun at him.

  “I’ve got it all anyway!” Ryan said. “And I need to put an end to this. Right now!”

  Oh no, you won’t, I thought. I flung myself out of my hiding place and raced to Ryan. He whirled, but I was ready for him. I slammed into the arm holding the gun with my elbow. The gun went flying, and Ryan stumbled backward.

  Joe raced after the gun. “It landed in a stream!” he shouted, then jogged back over to us.

  I was feeling confident. There were two Hardys and only one dangerous Carraway. “I don’t get it,” I said. “What was the point of all of this, Ryan?”

  “It’s not about the money, is it?” asked Joe.

  “Of course not,” Ryan sneered.

  “Then what?” Justin begged. I could see how destroyed he was. His own twin wanted him dead.

  “I was going to prove I’m a better Justin than you!” Ryan snapped at Justin. He turned to us. “I’d be more professional. I’d be nicer. And I’d be just as good in the movie.”

  “But you weren’t, remember?” I said. “The director wasn’t happy.” Harsh, I know, but I wanted to get him to lose his cool. He’d be easier to overpower. I wasn’t forgetting for a minute that he was a black belt—and capable of murder.

  “Th-that’s why you did it?” Justin asked. “To show me up?”

  “I’d get the career you have!” Ryan answered. “But it was so much more complicated than I thought it would be.”

  I began putting the pieces together. “You didn’t know that your brother still owed money to Phillip Yu, did you?”

  Ryan shook his head. “I knew about Justin’s stupid bootlegging. That’s how I got him to go along with the plan. I was just going to do it for a little while. I told him I’d erase all the evidence.”

  “Yeah, that was after you already threatened to expose me,” Justin retorted.

  Joe stepped in front of Justin. I knew he didn’t want Ryan to go after Justin—the guy was still tied up and totally helpless. “That’s why you were so scared when you thought Phillip might still be alive,” Joe said. “And why you freaked when you found out we had all the info from his PDA.”

  I started circling around so that Joe and I had Ryan in between us. “You tampered with our bikes. You went after us in Chinatown.”

  “It was all falling apart,” Ryan moaned. “Just when things were going so great with Emily!”

  “That was when you decided to stay Justin forever, wasn’t it?” Joe said. “Because of Emily.”

  “This was about Emily?” said Justin. “Dude! I had zero interest in her! You could have had her without doing all this!”

  “She was never interested in me!” Ryan shouted. “Only you!”

  “Besides, you liked all that went with being the movie star,” I said. “It wasn’t just Emily. It was all of it.”

  “It should have been mine. Slick had no right to take it all away from me!”

  “Is that why you killed him?” Joe demanded. “As revenge?”

  Justin slumped. “Slick is dead?” he asked, his voice breaking.

  “He was on to me. He found out about Justin’s bootlegging, and when he confronted me, he realized I wasn’t Justin. He knew it was me. I had to kill him.”

  “I had no idea you were this crazy,” Justin said.

  “I didn’t start out this way!” Ryan snapped. “You all made me this way!”

  “And Elijah Gorman? The photographer?” I asked. That first murder had nagged at me ever since we couldn’t tie it to Justin’s stalker.

  “Elijah.” Ryan practically spat his name. “Bottom-feeder.”

  “You didn’t kill him because you objected to his journalist practices,” Joe said. “So why did you?”

  “He was there when I confronted Justin about the bootlegging scheme. He recorded it on his cell and took photos of us arguing. It would have revealed everything—and he just couldn’t wait to expose us.”

  He turned to face me. “Just like you and your brother!”

  Without warning, he charged me. He moved so quickly I barely registered the attack until his foot connected with my stomach.

  “Oof!” I doubled over, clutching my gut. After last night’s motorcycle near crash, I was sore all over. This was not going to help!

  I could see Joe chasing Ryan. I forced myself back up and ran after them. Joe was in great shape, but he was no match for a black belt like Ryan.

  Not alone, anyway.

  Joe flung himself onto Ryan’s back, and they fell to the ground. They rolled around together and I couldn’t tell who had the upper hand. It didn’t matter—I was going in.

  Ryan managed to flip Joe off and was scrambling to get back on his feet. I slammed into him, knocking him back to the ground. He kicked out hard, connecting painfully with my shin. I stumbled, but Joe was on it. As Ryan raised his arm to slug me, Joe surprised him and grabbed it.

  Ryan spun around and slammed Joe in the side of the head.

  That had to hurt. But Joe never let go. That gave me time to grab Ryan’s other arm.

  “Let go of me!” he shouted.

  He tried to use his powerful kick, but it only made him lose his balance.

  “We need to tie him up,” said Joe.

  “Justin’s restraints!” I exclaimed.

  We dragged the squirming, squalling, screaming Ryan over to his twin. We lowered him to the ground. I still gripped his arm, and Joe sat on him. He quickly untied Justin and then lashed the rope around Ryan’s wrists. Then I pulled off my belt and wrapped that around his legs. I wasn’t taking any chances.

  “I—I don’t know how to thank you guys,” Justin said, rubbing his wrists. His face was ashen, and he looked like he was trying not to cry.

  “It’s not over yet,” I told him. “The authorities already know about your role in the bootlegging operation. That’s a crime.”

  He nodded. “What’s going to happen to my brother?”

  “I don’t know,” I answered honestly. “He obviously needs help. And after all this, I’m guessing you do too.”

  “I just never imagined…I never thought….” Justin’s voice choked up, and he couldn’t continue.

  I felt for the guy. I may tell Joe I want to kill him, but I’d never actually do it. It must be unreal to know your own twin had it in for you.

  “Cops are on their way,” Joe said, slipping his phone into his pocket. “Dispatch said a squad car was in the area already.”

  I heard sirens not too far off, and then some crashing in the woods.

  “Over here!” I called.

  Two uniformed officers emerged from the trees. We explained as much as we could and watched Justin and Ryan being handcuffed and led away.

  I slung my belt back through the loops. “That’s really sad,” I commented. “Justin had no idea how much Ryan hated him.”

  “I think it’s sadder how far Ryan was willing to go,” Joe said. “His envy really and truly made him crazy.”

  We started to walk the path to get out of the woods and back to our bikes. “Oh, man,” I said. “You know who’s going to be really torn up about Justin going to jail? Aunt Trudy!”

  Joe laughed. “You’re right!”

  “We’d better not let her know we had anything to do with ending his career,” I said.

  Joe looked at me and grinned. “Ended it for now, anyway. Probably not forever. What did that producer say? Everyone loves a bad boy!”

 

 

  Franklin W. Dixon, Double Deception

 

 

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