Sydney: 4-in-1 Mysteries for Girls

by Jean Fischer

  Elizabeth: One thing at a time. We have to start at the beginning, way back in 1967 in Vietnam. The boss—his real name is Peter Daniels—was a soldier then in the United States Army. He was the Dan in the note, “Lieutenant Dan, we’ve got legs,” not my uncle.

  Alexis: I’m glad, Elizabeth. None of us wanted your uncle to be one of the bad guys.

  Elizabeth chose a square piece of chocolate from the box before she continued.

  Elizabeth: Peter Daniels had a twin brother named Adam, and they fought together in the Vietnam War. They were both in a platoon called White Skull, and they were in the worst of the fighting.

  Sydney took over the keyboard while Elizabeth ate the chewy caramel.

  Sydney: One day, there was a terrible battle. The White Skull troopers were under attack, and they were outnumbered. So their leader, Sergeant Kuester, told them to retreat. He figured if he didn’t get his men out of there, they’d all get killed.

  McKenzie: How do you know all this?

  Sydney: Because Sergeant Kuester is here in DC at the Vietnam Veterans’ Reunion, the same one Beth’s uncle is at. The FBI found out that Sergeant Kuester had been Daniel’s platoon leader, and they figured he might have an idea why Daniels wanted to kill the president. It was his information that got Peter Daniels to confess.

  Bailey: So why did he want to kill the president?

  Sydney: President Meade was in the White Skull platoon too when he was a young soldier. When Sgt. Kuester told his men to retreat, Meade froze. Adam Daniels, the boss’s twin brother, tried to get Meade out of there, but Meade went crazy. He started fighting with Adam, like he was the enemy or something—

  McKenzie: It was Agent Orange, wasn’t it? I’ve thought from the beginning that whoever we were looking for was sick from that.

  Sydney: Sorry, McKenzie, but you were wrong about that. It had nothing to do with Agent Orange. Meade just froze in fear.

  Sydney helped herself to another piece of candy before going on with the story.

  Sydney: Sgt. Kuester realized that two guys were missing, so he went back to get them. When Peter Daniels found out that one of the missing guys was his brother, he went to help. Of course, when they got to them, they found Meade fighting with Adam Daniels. Adam was trying to drag Meade out of there while they were under attack. Kuester managed to get between them and wrestle Meade to the ground. But the enemy fired at them. The sergeant got shot in the leg and Adam Daniels fell to the ground—dead. Kuester managed to get out and Peter Daniels rescued Meade, but secretly he blamed Meade for the death of his twin brother.

  Sydney pushed the keyboard toward Elizabeth. “You tell the next part,” she said.

  Elizabeth: After he got out of the army, Peter Daniels became a police officer in Washington, DC. He worked his way up to the rank of lieutenant.

  Kate: And that’s why they called him Lieutenant Dan in the note.

  Elizabeth: Right. Wilson Meade became a politician and was elected to the United States Senate. He and Peter Daniels were friendly, but Daniels was just like Jesus’ disciple Judas. He pretended to be Meade’s friend, but in the end, he betrayed him.

  When Meade got elected president, he wanted Peter Daniels as one of his Secret Service guys, because he trusted Daniels with his life. In fact, we found out today that it was Daniels who saved President Meade when he was almost shot at the National Air and Space Museum.

  Kate: So the boss saved Meade’s life twice. Once in Vietnam and again at the Spirit of St. Louis thing.

  Elizabeth: Meanwhile, Daniels was getting angrier that his brother was dead. He hated it that Meade was not only alive, but had also become the president of the United States. He just couldn’t get it out of his head that Meade was responsible for Adam’s death.

  McKenzie: So he decided to get even.

  Elizabeth wiped her chocolaty fingers on a piece of scrap paper.

  Bailey: What about The Professor?

  Alexis: And how do Moose and Rusty fit into all this?

  Sydney asked Elizabeth to go down to the kitchen to get some bottles of water. They needed something to wash down the chocolates. In the meantime, she went on with the story.

  Sydney: Daniels knew a scientist who had helped create the space shuttle. He was a troublemaker and hated the government, so he got kicked out of NASA. Daniels figured he’d be more than willing to help get rid of Meade, so he got Professor Hopkins to create a miniature smart bomb made of titanium. It was tiny enough to fit into that little metal box Moose and Rusty had, but powerful enough to destroy all of Fort McHenry and most of the peninsula it’s built on.

  Alexis: So Hopkins was the mastermind professor, like Professor Moriarty in the Sherlock Holmes stories.

  Elizabeth returned with two bottles of water. Sydney opened hers and took a drink.

  Sydney: The Professor was the brains behind it all. Plus, he knew his way around the fort, so he decided where the best place was to plant the bomb. When they arrested him last night, he confessed to his part in the plot, but he blamed it all on Daniels.

  Bailey: And what about Moose and Rusty?

  Sydney gave the keyboard to Elizabeth.

  Elizabeth: Daniels and The Professor turned out to be cowards. They didn’t want to get killed if the bomb went off too soon, and they didn’t want to be connected with the assassination, so they got Moose and Rusty to do their dirty work.

  Moose and Rusty were both in trouble for not paying their taxes, and Daniels promised they wouldn’t go to prison if they helped him plant the bomb. As much as possible, Daniels tried to stay out of it. That’s why he left those messages at the Wall. He didn’t want to be seen with Rusty and Moose.

  Kate: So did Moose and Rusty confess?

  Elizabeth: They sure did. They told the FBI a lot of stuff. They said since Daniels was a Secret Service agent, he was allowed at Fort McHenry to bury the box with the bomb. He told the park ranger he was checking the place ahead of the president’s visit.

  McKenzie: Then he’s the one who made the treasure map.

  Elizabeth: He made the map. But Rusty and Moose messed up. They were supposed to plant the bomb that afternoon. The Professor wanted them to put it in a secret room in the fort’s hallway, the one that Moose hid in last night. But Daniels wanted it closer to where President Meade was supposed to give his speech. He told Moose and Rusty to hide it in the jail cell. It was all supposed to be done the day before the tattoo. But it got too late and Moose and Rusty took the bomb with them. They weren’t supposed to be anywhere near the fort on the night of the tattoo. Kate, if not for your tracking device, last night would have been a disaster.

  McKenzie: What did your uncle say, Elizabeth?

  Kate: And what about his friend Al? Was he following you?

  Elizabeth took a drink from her bottle of water.

  Elizabeth: That first day at the Wall, when I found the “Meade me in St. Louis” note, my uncle was suspicious. When I didn’t want to go to lunch, he figured something was going on. He was worried because I’d told him about our sleuthing at camp. So he asked his friend Al to keep an eye on me for a while. He was afraid I wouldn’t be safe in the city.

  Kate: Was I right that they put a GPS in your backpack?

  Elizabeth: No. There was no tracking device. But Al soon figured out that we were on to something. He was reading those notes at the Wall too. None of them made sense to him and Uncle Dan, but they figured out, like we did, that something was going on with President Meade.

  Elizabeth helped herself to one more piece of candy.

  Elizabeth: Uncle Dan called Agent Phillips from the FBI. Phillips was Uncle Dan’s old army buddy. My uncle told Phillips about the notes at the Wall and also the two suspicious-looking guys who left them there.

  Kate: So that’s what I heard when I was listening outside their hotel room that day.

  Elizabeth: Right. Phillips wasn’t sure what was going on, but decided that by following us they would keep us safe, and maybe find out what, if anything
, we knew. I’d accidentally told my uncle we planned to go to Fort McHenry, so he, Al, and Agent Phillips followed us. But they lost us when we changed into costumes. They saw us go into the enlisted men’s barracks but didn’t see us come out. When I heard them outside the door to the wardrobe room, it sounded like they were looking for something. Turns out that they were looking for us!

  She pushed the keyboard over to Sydney’s side of the desk and asked her to finish the story.

  Sydney: By the time Uncle Dan found Elizabeth’s pendant, we had already left the fort. Agent Phillips figured we’d gone out the window. So Al went looking for us, and guess what he found instead—Rusty’s map. He must have dropped it on his way to the water taxi. And guess what it was written on—the back of a flyer announcing the Twilight Tattoo. So that’s how Uncle Dan and his friends found out that maybe something was going to happen at the tattoo. Then when they found out that we were there last night, they were doubly suspicious.

  Alexis: It’s a good thing they followed you last night. You both might have been killed.

  Sydney: I don’t think so. I think we’d have found a way to save the president. I don’t know how, but the Lord would have helped us.

  Alexis: He did help you! It all worked out according to His plan. By the way, what does your mom think about all of this?

  Sydney put the lid on the box of candy. She and Elizabeth had decided to save some for later.

  Sydney: Mom didn’t know anything about it until we got home last night. Aunt Dee brought us here in one of the ranger’s vans. Uncle Dan and Al came along and explained the whole thing to my mom. At first she was mad. But then she understood that we saved President Meade’s life. She cried and hugged us because we were safe. Then I couldn’t believe my ears. She said kids like us made the world a better place!

  McKenzie: All right! Let’s hear it for the Camp Club Girls!

  A soft knock sounded on Sydney’s bedroom door and her mom peeked inside. “I’m sorry to interrupt,” she said, “but I just invited Elizabeth’s uncle and his friend over for some barbeque. Dee’s starting the grill. Would you girls come help us get ready, please?”

  “Sure, Mom,” Sydney answered. “We’ll be down as soon as we’ve said goodbye to our friends.”

  Sydney’s mom smiled and closed the door.

  Elizabeth: We have to go. Uncle Dan and Al are coming over for a cookout.

  Bailey: Have a safe trip home.

  McKenzie: We’ll keep praying that your Uncle Dan will walk again real soon.

  Elizabeth: Do you know what? I’m not angry about that anymore. This whole adventure taught me that Psalm 37:8 is true: “Refrain from anger and turn from wrath; do not fret—it leads only to evil.”

  Camp Club Girls: Sydney’s Outer Banks Blast

  Sydney’s Ghost Story

  “It wasn’t a UFO,” said Sydney Lincoln as she and Bailey walked along the beach. “There’s a logical explanation for it.”

  Bailey Chang disagreed. “I looked out at the ocean at two o’clock this morning, and there it was. It had red, flashing lights, and it was hovering over the water. It spun around and around, and then poof, it was gone. It was a UFO!”

  Sydney bent and picked up some small stones from the sand. “What were you doing up at two o’clock?” she asked as she walked to the water’s edge.

  “I couldn’t sleep in a strange bed,” Bailey told her.

  Sydney waited a few seconds before skipping a stone across the waves. “I think what you saw was just a coastguard training exercise, or something.”

  “It was a UFO,” Bailey insisted. “I’m sure of it.”

  “I don’t believe in UFOs,” said Sydney skipping another stone. “Anyway, I’m glad your parents let you come. Ever since camp, I’ve wanted to show you the ocean.”

  Sydney had invited her friend Bailey to spend a week at her grandparents’ beach house on the Outer Banks of North Carolina. Sydney loved to escape the activity of her home in Washington DC for the peace and quiet of the long, narrow string of barrier islands that separated the Atlantic Ocean from several sounds off the edge of North Carolina.

  Bailey was always willing to accept an invitation to anywhere. She couldn’t wait to leave her hometown of Peoria, Illinois, and see the world. Now, in the early morning sunshine, Bailey was getting her first taste of the salty ocean air as she and Sydney walked together through the sand.

  “It’s not exactly what I expected,” Bailey said.

  She had imagined that the Atlantic Ocean would look vastly different from the huge Great Lake that bordered her home state. In fact, the ocean was very different—much larger and far grander—but just not as different as Bailey had hoped for. She was often disappointed when real life didn’t match up to her imagination.

  “The ocean sort of looks like Lake Michigan,” she said. “Lake Michigan also has waves, and it’s so big that you can’t see to the other side.”

  She picked up a handful of sand and let it sift through her fingers. “This beach looks like it’s not taken care of. In Chicago, a tractor pulls a machine that combs the sand and keeps it nice and clean. There aren’t weeds and stuff sticking up, like here. And they test the water to make sure it’s not polluted.”

  Sydney kicked at the sugar-fine sand with her bare feet.

  “Nobody tests the water here,” she said. “It’s clean. I swim in it all the time.” She waded into the ocean a few yards offshore.

  “Come on!” she told Bailey. “Check it out.”

  Bailey hesitated. “What about jellyfish and sharks?” she asked.

  “If I see some, I’ll introduce you,” Sydney said, joking.

  Bailey rolled the legs of her khaki pants over her knees. Then she tiptoed into the breakers. All at once, she felt the world between her toes as she imagined thousands of miles between herself and the nearest shore.

  Sydney and Bailey had met at Discovery Lake Camp where they bunked in Cabin 12 with four other girls: Alexis Howell from Sacramento, California; Elizabeth Anderson, from Amarillo, Texas; McKenzie Phillips, from White Sulphur Springs, Montana; and Kate Oliver, from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The Camp Club Girls, as they called themselves, were the best of friends. They loved to explore, and they’d become quite good at solving mysteries together. When they weren’t at summer camp, the girls kept in touch by chatting on their Camp Club Girls’ website, sending instant messages and emails, and even by phone and cell phones.

  “I still think it was a UFO,” said Bailey splashing in the water. “I’m sure that it wasn’t an airplane, so what else could it be?”

  “Oh, I don’t know,” Sydney answered. She added with a fond grin, “Maybe your imagination?”

  As the girls waded and splashed in the water, only one other person was in sight, and he kept a very safe distance away from them.

  “Who’s that?” Bailey asked, pointing a shell she’d picked up towards the boy.

  “I think his name is Drake or something,” Sydney said. “He’s kind of different. I see him alone on the beach sometimes. But it seems whenever people show up, he just kind of disappears.”

  “He’s about your age, it looks like,” Bailey said, squinting to see him better. “Looks like he’s kind of cute too.”

  “I don’t know how anyone can tell if he’s cute or not,” Sydney said. “He always keeps his head down, digging around in the sand.”

  “What’s he looking for? Shells?” Bailey asked.

  “I dunno,” Sydney said, shrugging. “It seems whenever he picks up something, it’s bigger than shells, though. Some friends of mine who live here all the time, the Kessler twins, say he’s a relative of the Wright brothers. Remember where we drove across the causeway? The Wright brothers did their famous flying around there.”

  “Well, that’s neat! To be related to the Wright brothers!” Bailey exclaimed.

  Sydney waded out of the ocean and stood on the shore. She watched Bailey scoop water into her hands, smell it, and then carefully stick her t
ongue in the water.

  “It tastes sort of like potatoes boiled in salt water,” Bailey observed.

  “Whatever you say,” Sydney answered. Her wet legs were caked up to her knees with sand, and against her chocolate-colored skin, the sand looked like knee socks. She bent over and brushed it off. “Let’s take a walk up the shore,” she said.

  Bailey hurried out of the water and fell into step alongside her friend. The boy saw them coming, and he walked quickly on ahead of them. After they had gone around a hundred feet along the beach, Bailey’s right foot landed on something hard. “Ouch!” she said.

  Sydney, who was a few steps ahead, stopped and turned around to see what was the matter. “What’s wrong?” she asked, “Crab got your toe?”

  Bailey jumped. “Where?”

  “Where what?”

  “Where’s a crab?”

  “I didn’t see a crab,” Sydney answered. “I just wondered if you got pinched by one.”

  “No,” Bailey told her. “I stepped on something.”

  Sydney explored the sand where Bailey stood. “Do you have crabs in Lake Michigan?”

  “We have crayfish,” Bailey answered. “I don’t know if they live on the beach, or if they’re just bait that fishermen leave behind, but I’ve seen them there a couple of times. They’re brown and ugly, and they have big claws. They kind of look like lobsters.”

  Sydney saw a white bump protruding from the sand. She reached down and pulled it up. It was a long, slender bone, a rib bone, maybe, from a wild animal, or possibly left from a beachfront barbeque. Tiny bits of dried flesh clung to its underside. Sydney held it up and showed it to Bailey. “This is what you stepped on,” she said. “It’s a bone.”

  “Eeeewwww!” said Bailey. “Where do you think it came from?”

  “Oh, I don’t know,” Sydney teased. “Maybe from the body of an old sailor who died at sea. They call part of the Outer Banks the Graveyard of the Atlantic, you know.”