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“Did you change your phone number when you moved?”
    “Nope,” Raffi said. “I still have the same digits. So do my folks.”
    “Sweet. I’ll be in touch.” I turned to Phoenix, Ryan, and Hú Dié. “Come on, guys. Let’s go home.”

The rest of the day flew by, and we boarded the plane to Indiana without any drama. I buckled in for the four-and-a-half-hour overnight flight, sitting next to Ryan and his mom. Less than fifteen minutes after takeoff, they were both sound asleep.
    I wasn’t surprised. It was midnight, and half the people on the plane had already nodded off. I’d forgotten to charge my computer tablet after using it at the airport, so I flipped on the overhead light and poked through the seat pocket in front of me for something to eyeball. I found a copy of a San Francisco newspaper from the previous day. One of the headlines read:
    SEARCH FOR CYCLIST’S BODY CALLED OFF
    I frowned and unfolded the paper to take a closer look.
    S AN F RANCISCO —Authorities have called off the search for the remains of controversial professional cyclist Lin Tan. His body disappeared during an investigation into the death of a Chinatown resident and reputed Chinese mafia kingpin known only as DuSow.
    DuSow, literally
Poison Hand
in Chinese, was found strangled to death outside his wharf-front warehouse immediately following last week’s nighttime criterium bicycle race. According to security surveillance video and eyewitness accounts, he was killed by one of his former associates, DaXing, who is still at large.
    Lin Tan’s body was found at the scene, and the same eyewitnesses claim he fell victim to DuSow’s reputed ability to poison someone simply by touching his victim’s skin. Preliminary tests of DuSow’s remains suggest these reports may be plausible, and skin discoloration on areas of Lin Tan’s remains are consistent with that of death by poison.
    Lin Tan’s body was photographed at the scene by an EMT who failed to locate a pulse. Because of concerns over secondhand poison transfer, the body was temporarily left where it lay—draped over the railing of DuSow’s sailboat,
The Strong Hold
. Authorities believe that at some unknown point during the investigation, Lin Tan’s body slipped off of the railing, into San Francisco Bay, where powerful currents washed it out to sea.
    The Coast Guard has been patrolling the bay since the incident, but to no avail. As of this morning, all search efforts have been suspended. Lin Tan’s deathhas been officially ruled a homicide, and the investigation is still open.
    I folded the newspaper and shoved it back into the seat pocket. What horrible news. It seemed every time I turned around, dragon bone reared its ugly head. The stuff wasn’t mentioned in the article, but that was only because Ryan, his mom, Phoenix, and I, along with several others, had done such a good job of conveniently forgetting to bring it up to investigators. The truth was, both DuSow and Lin Tan were dead because of dragon bone, and so were lots of other people. I’d argued with Phoenix that telling the police was the best way to get dragon bone out of our lives for good, but in the end I caved to his pleas that we all keep our mouths shut.
    Phoenix was a great guy, but he could be clueless sometimes. He did whatever his grandfather told him to do. His grandfather wanted to keep dragon bone secret, because he knew that his life would be changed forever if word got out that he was four hundred years old, thanks to dragon bone. I would never have believed the old man’s true age if I hadn’t seen what I’d seen over the past few weeks. Dragon bone was truly some messed-up stuff.
    I turned off my overhead light and shut my eyes, trying to think happier thoughts. As cheesy as it sounds, the first thing that came to mind was my parents. I liked them. A lot. I mean, sure, my mom talked too much and my dad was kind of hyper, but they took good care of me and were really great to hang out with.