Ace Wonder

James Morton will not be forgotten. He will forever be remembered...

as a friend, a father and a faithful follower of his Lord.

May he rest in peace.

How are you, Jim?

Me? Fine.

And the rest of the family?

Well, they're good. Derek's the only one taking it hard.

He spent his summer with Dad a few years ago...

and he wanted to come back, it just didn't work out.

It's probably for the best.

Your father was a troubled man, Jim.

I was one of his closest friends, and more and more he pulled away.

Just wasn't his old self. Yeah.

There's a lot of rooms in this house.

Wandered around today looking at them.

I kind of like living out in the country.

It's nice. Way better than all those honking cars.

You didn't answer my calls.

Service is terrible out there.

Where were you?

The tree house.

You know, you've probably ruined your clothes.

Why were you at the tree house?

I was looking for something.

Looking? For what?

I'm not sure.

I found this at the funeral. In Grandpa's casket.

It's nothing. Probably a prank.

What?

I said, it's probably a prank, forget about it.

What if Grandpa's trying to tell me something?

He's not.

May I be excused?

Yes.

Look, I know this week's been hard on all of us...

but in a few days, we can put this completely behind us.

I'm gonna be meeting with Marcus tomorrow about the house and I'd like you to come along.

GATOR MOORE (V.O.): Still raining, still a thousand unanswered questions...

and now a cloaked figure haunted the night.

A perfect recipe for mystery and danger.

But it was still missing one key ingredient: a world class investigator.

Log... this latest format isn't working out, either.

This makes my fourth attempt with no satisfactory results.

Road trips are a blast, I'll admit...

but it's not conducive to detective work.

No gun fire, no car chases, not even your run-of-the-mill homicide.

Dad, I need some help.

Okay, what's up?

It's my graphic novel.

Graphic novel?

A glorified comic book.

Ace Wonder isn't really a crime fighter.

He solves mysteries, sort of like Sherlock Holmes.

Okay, so where are you stuck?

At the beginning... I can't seem to come up with a truly brilliant mystery.

Everything is either boring or over-the-top.

Well, you keep on thinking, you'll come up with something.

That's what you said 800 miles ago.

Yeah, and it's still good advice.

Um, hey, guys, none of this looks familiar to me.

Um, where are we?

JEFF (O.S.): GPS says we're on course...

but we need to stop and get some fuel soon.

Jim, are you sure you want to sell the place?

Marcus, Denver's 1,000 miles away from here; my business eats up every minute of my time.

I suppose.

Look, I'll have a realtor take a look at it for you.

It's a gorgeous piece of property. I'm sure it'll sell.

In this economy? I don't know who'd buy it.

Bed and breakfast in the middle of nowhere?

Jim, how about selling the place to me?

You serious?

We'd keep the place exactly the way it is.

You could come back whenever you're ready and go through your father's things.

I don't know.

What do you mean, you don't know?

You could stay there any time you want.

It'd be ideal.

And for me, it'd be an investment.

Oh, hey, you want us to order something for you?

Yeah, yeah, why don't you get me a cheeseburger.

Cheeseburger, okay. Uh-huh.

And uh, get me an order of those curly fries, if they have them.

Okay. Thank you.

I'll think it over. Thanks.

I think your dad would have liked it this way.

Howdy, folks. Get y'all something to drink before you order?

Mr. DeWitt, how well did you know Grandpa?

I guess I knew him about as well as anybody could.

Why?

Maybe you can help me.

On the day of the funeral, I found this.

Grandpa used to set up treasure hunts all the time.

Well, this is the kind of thing he would do.

He always thought of himself as mysterious.

Derek, your granddad was a good man.

He was, but he wasn't always stable.

I don't believe that.

I don't know what was meant by that note...

but I think it's just as well it was written in code.

Keep in touch, Jim.

And let me know what you decide.

Look, if that note wasn't important, Grandpa wouldn't have wanted me to have it.

Derek, drop it.

Wait a second, what do you want to eat?

Oh, um, ooh, do they have those little curly fries?

No, they don't.

Oh, uh, whatever Jack's having will be fine.

Sir? Sir, I was wondering, my friend may have come--

Buzz off.

Certainly, I was just wondering, I'm looking for my friend, and if he came this way--

Hey! I said leave me alone.

Okay.

Log: Note that sleeping strangers don't prove to be very helpful.

Hey, kid, that's a nice toy you got there.

How about you give it to me and I'll tell you where your friend ran off to?

That's okay, I think I'll find him.

I don't think you understand.

You see, this is my home.

You walk here, you pay rent. Come here.

BUM (O.S.): All right, come here.

Let me see.

Looks nice.

I need that for my work.

Very fancy.

I order you in the name of justice. Give it back!

All right, that's enough.

Give it back.

Give what back?

I said, give it back!

Make me.

There you go.

Well, thanks.

Look out!

Dad, come here, quick!

Missed.

Are you all right?

What happened?

I-- I saw the whole thing and man, it was something.

Eddie-- Eddie's been needing someone to do that...

to him for a long time.

What?

Well, Eddie got to picking on your boy, and could have messed him up.

Then this guy shows up and bam, bam, bam!

Just like that, it was all over.

Look, y'all eat up, meals are on me today.

That's very generous, thank you.

No, it's nothing, really.

If there's anything I can do for you guys, just let me know.

Well, you wouldn't happen to know a good mechanic, would you?

Hm.

Bobby John Dolan, the best and only mechanic in town.

You work on big rigs?

I do today.

Yeah, that could be bad.

I've seen this before but, only in a book...

and it was a short book. Hmm...

This big red thing in here I believe is the engine...

Thank you... for helping me out.

No problem.

When you were in the restaurant, I overheard you talking about your grandfather...

and the clues he'd left you.

I'd like to interview you and get some of the details of the story.

We don't have a lot of time, so, if you'd open it up right away, that'd be really helpful.

We'll be leaving in just a little bit...

so I wouldn't worry about it too much, if I were you.

Why not?

Because you'd only have half the story.

How frustrating would that be?

Mm, it's very considerate of you.

Okay.

It's gonna take me all day to find a starter for this.

All night to put her in and probably a good part of tomorrow, too.

You folks are gonna need a place to stay.

You wouldn't happen to own the local motel, too, would you?

No, that's this guy over here.

He owns the local bed and breakfast down the road.

Perfect.

JEFF (O.S.): Thanks again, Jim, for taking us in on such short notice.

JIM (O.S.): Yeah.. It's no problem.

What is a problem is the water heater is down.

I'll just have to get that fixed by tonight.

JEFF (O.S.): Could we give you a hand? We'd love to help.

JIM (O.S.): Yeah, sure, why not?

Okay, guys, upstairs to the left, every room is available.

Follow me.

Just take your bags here for now.

We have three rooms available.

This one, and the other two down the hall...

so go ahead and take your pick.

You still seem hesitant about my offer.

I really do think I could help.

You might consider my size to be a handicap...

but I like to think of it as a good thing.

Sort of fly under the radar, so to speak.