Skydive Read Free

miss?”
    “No thanks. We’ll call if we change our minds.” Robin waited for the maid to leave and turned to Jesse. “Like I told you before, the roll of film stolen from my camera
today
was brand new. The one from Tuesday is in my darkroom. It won’t take us long to develop it. Then maybe we can see what’s so important about it.”
    Jesse wasn’t listening. Instead, he was staring at the crystal chandelier in the foyer. He took in the fountain and the marble staircase. “Wow. I’ve never seen anything like this before.”
    Robin rolled her eyes and pulled him toward the stairs. “Come on. We don’t have time to stand around all day. We’ve got some major detective work to do.”
    As they climbed the stairs, Jesse tried not to gawk at the paintings along the wall. He thought he recognized famous signatures on more than one of them.
    At the top of the staircase, they went through a set of double doors. Jesse, still gaping at everything, almost stepped on the back of Robin’s shoe. Her bedroom was as big as his living room. The furniture was white, and framed photographs covered the walls.
    He stopped in front of one. It was a large Saint Bernard with a red balloon in its mouth. “Did you take this? It’s great.”
    “I took all of these. I’m not allowed to hang them anywhere but here”—Robin laughed—“and as you can see, I’m about out of room.” She moved to a narrow door beside her dresser. “You want to help me in the darkroom or wait out here?”
    “I don’t know how much help I’ll be, but I’ll give it a try.”
    Robin held the door for him. “Watch your step. It’s a little small. My mother had it converted from a closet.”
    “This used to be a closet?” Jesse shook his head in disbelief. Inside was a long work table, some plastic pans, shelves with chemicals on them, and a wire strung the length of the room with pictures clipped to it.
    “Here, put these on.” Robin handed him an apron and some rubber gloves.
    She went to a cabinet and took out a roll of film. “This is the roll from Tuesday. Hand me that brown bottle marked ‘developer,’ would you?”
    Jesse looked on the shelves behind him and located the bottle. He handed it to Robin. “I’ll have to turn out the safelight for a few minutes while I wind the film onto a reel,” she said. “Just hang on and don’t move, or you might knock something over.”
    Jesse stood still in the pitch darkness while Robin went to work. Soon the negatives were ready and she turned the safelight back on.
    Robin held the negatives up to the safelight. “Look at this. I told you there were people gettingoff that plane. I’ll have these enlarged so that we can get a better look.”
    Once the film was dry, Robin moved to a machine she called an enlarger. As she worked she explained how it operated. When she was through she hung several wet pieces of photographic paper on the wire with clips.
    Jesse studied the glossy, still wet photos. “Well, you’re right about one thing. These people aren’t part of the staff and they don’t look like inspectors. But who are they?”
    “The woman looks familiar.” Robin held a magnifying glass up to one of the pictures. “In fact, they all do.”

C HAPTER 6
    “Jesse!” Robin burst into the training room waving a large manila envelope. “I found out who they are.”
    “Calm down.” Jesse put his finger to his lips and whispered, “Pete’s around here somewhere.” In a louder voice he said, “Hi, Robin. Did you come out to get some shots of Buck’s exhibition jump today?”
    Robin followed his lead. “Right. That’s why I’m here.” She grabbed his arm and said in a low voice, “I know who those people in the picture are. Where can we talk?”
    “Come on. We’ll go to Buck’s office. We don’t have a lot of time, though. I’m going up in the plane with him in a few minutes.”
    “This won’t take long. After you see it you might want to show it to Buck.”
    Footsteps