Excerpt: LIVING PROOF (that no good deed goes unpunished), Neighborlee, Ohio, Book 4

 

"Hi,Colonel." My voice shook for half a second. Hearing from the military,even if that particular officer was a good friend of my folks, could not be agood thing. "What's up?"

"You're gettinga registered letter today. I thought I'd prepare you. As a friend.Unofficially."

"Officially,"I said, forcing ice into my voice, "my folks aren't working with the militarythis time."

"Things don'talways work out the way we want them to."

"What does thegovernment want with my folks' investigation of electromagnetic fluctuationsaround the Bermuda Triangle?"

"We won't knowuntil we figure out what we saw."

"Meaningwhat?"

"Exactly that.No one is sure what happened. All I can tell you is that your folks…vanished.They're officially listed as missing, reason unknown."

"What were theydoing?"

"No one knowsyet. There's nothing to analyze."

"What do youmean, nothing?" My voice got loud enough to trigger a thud from down thehall. About five seconds later, Harry stumbled into the kitchen, holding up hissweatpants with the broken drawstring and trying to pull a Willis-Brooks CollegeT-shirt down into place. He must have remembered that Felicity had threatenedto invade, first thing this morning.

"They weren'tmeasuring anything. No equipment. Nothing indicated in the notebooks we foundin their room at the hotel." The frustration in Hayward's voice cutthrough the churning in my head and gut. "Those on-site are trying toblame the stormy seas and freak weather patterns. Considering your parentsweren't anywhere near the water, that doesn't do us much good."

"No signs of astruggle? No explosion? What were they working on?"

"As far as Iknew, they hadn't started working yet."