CHAPTER SEVEN

“Well, it was great meeting you, Becky,” that young guy, Wally, was saying just inside the front door. Then he pushed the door open with a long creak. “If you need anything, just let me know.”

“Uh, uh,” Becky brilliantly replied, her face all lit up with a big, dopey grin. “I, uh, I will.”

“See ya.”

Wally left the lodge, shutting the door behind him.

Becky turned dreamily. “He’s just so, just so—”

Kevin smirked. “Just so what?”

“He’s just so… wonderful…”

“Who?” Kevin said. “That Wally guy? What’s so wonderful about him?”

“Oh,” Becky gushed on, “he’s just so handsome and strong and rugged and smart and nice and—”

“And,” Kevin cut in, “he’s probably twenty years old! You’re only fifteen, Becky! Mom and Dad would go crazy! What is wrong with you? I can’t believe you have a crush on a twenty-year-old guy!”

“He’s not twenty!” Becky objected. “He’s seventeen. He just seems older because he’s so mature…”

So mature, Kevin thought, rolling his eyes. Yeah, right. He decided to let the topic drop—trying to convince Becky that older boys weren’t for her was always a lost cause. “Come here a minute,” he said instead, remembering what he wanted to show her. “Look at this picture over here—”

“I don’t have time to look at some stupid picture,” Becky snapped back. “I’ve got important things to do.”

“Oh, yeah? Like what?”

“Like deciding what I’m going to wear later on. Wally said he’d be back in this evening to do some work. I want to look my best.”

Kevin frowned hard. “Okay, fine, but just come here for one second and look at this picture on the wall. It’s a painting of a boat—”

“Big deal,” Becky said.

“It’s like a rowboat, with a bunch of guys in it, only the guys have these really weird blank looks on their faces, and right in the middle of the boat there’s a big crate full of gold bricks—”

“Big deal.”

“But there’s also a coffin in the boat!” Kevin excitedly went on. “And the coffin looks just like the one in the vampire movie we saw last night!”

“You have vampires on the brain,” Becky sniped. “I’m going back upstairs. Oh, but you know what?”

“What?” Kevin said, frowning.

“Wally even drives. He even has his own car!”

Great, Kevin thought. He can have his own bus for all I care.

Becky stomped back up the steps, leaving Kevin alone in the dark, dusty foyer. He looked at the painting some more, squinting, and then he noticed that the painting had a title, written in tiny cursive letters along the bottom.

The Count Arrives with his Servants and Treasure.

Kevin’s scalp tingled. He’d been right…

“The Count,” he whispered to himself. “As in Count Dracula, the king of the vampires…”