“It might. Except that these aren’t just any volcanoes. Plumes: A Journey identifies all the sites as suspected mantle plumes.”
“What’s a mantle plume?”
“The vast majority of volcanoes are formed from shifting tectonic plates, and the magma comes from fairly close to the surface of the earth. Rarely, they’re fueled by magma directly from the earth’s core. Volcanoes fueled directly from the earth’s core are called mantle plumes.”
“So we have statistically unlikely accidents occurring at national parks that just happen to have been created on the sites of mantle plumes.”
Emerson smiled. “Seems rather unlikely that they’re accidents, don’t you think?”
“Then what?”
“Murder. Somebody is murdering people at these national parks, but the really interesting question is why.”
He was connecting the dots again, Riley thought. And he was doing it with at least half the dots missing, so what were the chances he was reaching the right conclusions? She thought the chances weren’t good. It was a big stretch to connect a bunch of murders to mantle plumes. Not that this surprised her. Emerson was a conclusion jumper. It was the way his mind worked. It was a game for him. And sometimes he actually jumped to a significant conclusion. Other times, the idea would run its course and get discarded.
“This is really, really good,” Emerson said, beaming out happiness. Radiating excitement. “We now have a missing island and a murder mystery!”
Riley didn’t want to ruin his fun, but she thought this was right up there with Tom Hanks delivering a sculpture to Emerson’s house.
SIX
Emerson had his knapsack hung from his shoulder and his hand wrapped around Riley’s wrist. He was tugging her forward, out of the library, out of the house, and toward the garage, making sure she kept up with his long strides.
“I had a Tesla delivered an hour ago,” Emerson said. “It’s fuel-efficient, and only the steering wheel is made of leather. The seats are genuine cloth. This car is almost entirely karma-friendly.”
She was all in favor of friendly karma, Riley thought, catching sight of the shiny new Tesla. Maybe some of the good stuff would drift over onto her Mini Cooper. God knows the Mini needed some help. It was parked next to the Tesla, and Vernon was standing on the hood, trying to remove the hatchet and not having any luck. Wayan Bagus was watching.
“I can’t get this dang thing out,” Vernon said. “It got wedged between something in there. Offhand I’d say Tin Man got a mean streak.”
“We aren’t sure Tin Man did this,” Riley said. “It could have just been a random maniac.”
Emerson handed the Tesla key fob to Riley, and an iPad to Wayan.
“What is this?” Wayan asked.
“It’s an iPad,” Emerson said. “I loaded Angry Birds onto it for you.” He motioned to the car. “Everyone in. The game is afoot.”
Riley looked over at Emerson. “You said that two nights ago.”
“I like saying it,” Emerson said. “It’s one of my favorite things to say. The game is afoot. The game is afoot.”
Wayan Bagus and Vernon got into the back seat, and Vernon leaned forward.
“Where are we going?”
“George Mason University,” Emerson said. “I have some questions to ask the vulcanologist.”
Vernon grinned. “Well, shoot, Emerson, it’s about time. Course, them scientists living in their ivory towers don’t know anything but theories. I’ve got what you call practical experience.”
Riley put the car into gear and drove down the driveway. “Vernon, do you know what a vulcanologist studies?”
“I sure do.” He ear-muffed Wayan Bagus. “It’s all about lady parts.”
“A vulcanologist studies volcanoes,” Emerson said. “You’re thinking of a vulva-ologist. And also, there’s no such thing.”
“Well, shoot. That’s disappointing.” Vernon removed his hands from Wayan Bagus’s ears and turned to his cellphone. “Emmie, I got another one of them emails threatening to sue us for defamatory comments in the blog.”
“Who’s threatening to sue us this time?”