Andi Unstoppable

by Amanda Flower

  Bethany swung her messenger bag over her shoulder. “Yes, I told you about it last night. You were just too worried about Andi being thrown in the slammer to pay any attention.”

  “I sort of remember that conversation,” my aunt said. “But I didn’t know that rides from Romero were going to start today.”

  The honk came again. It was three irritable beeps.

  “I have to go.” My sister walked out of the kitchen.

  “Not so fast,” Amelie said. “I’m not going to let you ride to school with Romero without meeting the boy first.” She followed my sister out of the room, and I was close on her heels.

  Bethany went through the front door. “Please don’t embarrass me.”

  “Get used to it,” Amelie said. “As your aunt, it’s my job to embarrass you.”

  Bethany groaned.

  Romero climbed out of his truck.

  Amelie walked straight up to him holding out her hand. “Romero.” She shook his hand. “I’ve heard so much about you. It’s a pleasure to finally meet you. I’m Amelie, Bethany’s aunt.”

  “He knows who you are,” Bethany grumbled.

  Romero dropped his hand. “Hi.”

  “I hear you will be taking my niece to school.”

  He nodded. “Yeah.”

  “That’s very kind of you. How long have you been driving?” She cocked her head as if it were a casual question.

  “I got my license last month.”

  Amelie winced. “You know to be careful, right? You use your blinker when you are turning a corner? You always wear a seatbelt?”

  He swallowed and nodded.

  “I know the school is only a few miles away, but cars can be dangerous machines. I don’t want anything happening to Bethany.”

  His face twitched. “I wouldn’t let Beth ever get hurt. I’m careful.”

  Amelie twirled one of her long curls around her finger as she thought.

  I peered into the bed of the pickup. The only thing that was there was a duffel bag, a scratchy-looking blanket, and muddy footprints. There was a piece of a shimmery white cloth sticking out of the bag’s zipper. I reached for it.

  “Andi, what are you doing?” my sister asked.

  Romero hurried over to the bed of the truck and threw the blanket over the duffel bag.

  I jumped back. “Where’s Ava?” I asked. “Don’t you take her to school too?”

  Romero’s dark eyes left Bethany’s face for just a moment and focused on me. “She had things to do. She won’t be at school today.”

  “Why? Is she sick?”

  Bethany glared at me. “Andi, stop being so nosy all the time.”

  “But, Ava is in my group, and I’m worried about her,” I said, realizing for the first time this was true. Ava’s sudden absences from school were a problem. Why didn’t anyone else see that?

  “Amelie,” Bethany whined. “We’re going to be late for school.”

  Amelie stepped back from the truck and wrapped her arm around my shoulders. “Okay, okay. You guys can go.”

  Bethany smiled, and Romero opened the passenger door for her.

  After they left, Amelie said, “He opened the door for her. I’m taking that as a good sign that he is a gentleman.”

  I wasn’t as sure. The shimmery fabric I saw peeking out of his duffel bag worried me. It looked familiar. I hoped I was wrong for my sister’s sake.

  She squeezed my shoulders. “We should get going or we’ll both be late for class. And if I’m late, my students leave.” She laughed.

  Since Amelie usually took Bethany, Colin, and me to school, or Colin and I rode our bikes, it felt strange to walk into school by myself that morning. After stopping at my locker, I headed for my first class. Again, alone. Colin usually walked me to my first class, English, before going to Math. I didn’t see Colin until lunchtime and was relieved when he smiled at me as I sat across from him at our usual table.

  “I’m sorry I got you in trouble.”

  “Don’t worry about it.” He opened a bag of chips. “At least my parents are paying attention to me. That’s a nice change.”

  I punctured the top of my juice box with its straw. “Amelie told me that we have to stay out of trouble or you’ll be grounded.” I sighed. “I guess that’s the end of our investigation into Dominika Shalley’s ghost.”

  “Why?” Colin yelped.

  “Because you could get grounded.”

  “I don’t care about that. It’s more important that we get to the bottom of who is robbing those graves in Shalley Park.”

  “Really?”

  “Of course.”

  I grinned. “Good. Because I discovered something this morning in Mr. Finnigan’s book.”

  Colin leaned across the table. “Tell me.”

  I pulled out the book Mr. Finnigan had given us at the museum yesterday. A bookmark marked the right page. I opened it and slipped it across the table to Colin. “Read this page.”

  Colin ran his finger along the print as he read. He tapped the page with his index finger. “That coin you found and more like it are what the grave robber is after.”

  “Exactly, and I seriously doubt there is a real ghost. Whoever is stealing from the graves of Dominika Shalley’s sons is trying to scare everyone away from the cemetery, so that he won’t get caught.”

  “Who could it be?”

  “I thought about that. On the night of the campout, who was excited about telling the ghost story that night?”

  “The triplets?”

  I nodded. “And Dr. Gregory Sparrow. He’s the one who talked Jim the Triplet into telling the story.”

  Colin snapped his fingers. “You’re right. It has to be Gregory. He’s the one who keeps saying there is a ghost. He’s the one who keeps warning us to stay away from the graveyard.”

  “Exactly.”

  “How are we going to prove it?” Colin asked.

  I chewed my lip. “We need to talk to Paige. I bet Dr. Sparrow put her up to pretending she saw a ghost.”

  Colin licked Dorito dust from his ingers. “I don’t know. She was pretty scared.”

  “We still need to ask her.”

  Colin nodded. “It’s a lead. We can go right after school.”

  “What about your parents?”

  He shrugged. “They won’t be home until late.”

  I played with my juice box straw. “Okay. I’ll email Amelie from computer lab in fifth period and tell her we want to come to campus after school to see her. She’ll love it, and it’ll give us a chance to find Paige.”

  “That’s good cover. Great idea.” Colin unwrapped his turkey sandwich and dug in his bag for Bergita’s oatmeal cookies. He handed one to me.

  “How will we find Paige on campus?”

  “Leave that to me.” I took a bite out of the cookie. After I swallowed I said, “There’s another thing. Ava didn’t come to school today.”

  “Is she sick?”

  I shook my head. “Romero picked up my sister to drive her to school and said Ava was taking a day off.”

  “I wonder what’s going on.”

  “Me too.” I broke off another piece of cookie. “If she keeps missing school, I don’t know how we are going to finish the assignment. And we still haven’t seen the Kirtland’s warbler.”

  “It might be gone by now,” Colin said. “Migrating birds don’t stop over in one place for long.”

  “L
et’s hope you’re wrong.” I popped the rest of the cookie into my mouth.

  CASE FILE NO. 15

  During school that day, I couldn’t wait to get to science. I wanted to hear the report on the number of birds the other groups had seen over the weekend, and I wanted to make plans with Colin about finding the Kirtland’s warbler and the grave robber.

  When I walked into the classroom, I was surprised to see Ava at her desk in the front row, but even more surprised to see Gregory Sparrow in the front of the room laughing with Mr. McCone.

  I swung by Colin’s seat on the way to my desk. “What’s he doing here?” I hissed.

  Colin shrugged.

  The bell rang and I dashed to my seat. There was no more time to talk. Ava didn’t even look at me as I passed her.

  As soon as everyone was settled at their desks, Mr. McCone started grinning from ear to ear. “Class, I’m delighted, simply delighted, to have a guest speaker here with us today. Dr. Sparrow is an ornithology professor at the university. Apparently, some of you saw him at Shalley Park this weekend searching for the elusive Kirtland’s warbler. Yesterday, I gave Dr. Sparrow a call to tell him about our birding project and asked if he would be willing to visit the class while we were working on this. I never expected him to come the next day.” He beamed at the other man. “Thank you so much for being here.”

  Gregory shared a pleased smile. “It’s my pleasure. I’m happy to be in a room full of young bird enthusiasts. It’s nice to see Andi, Colin, and Ava again. We had a nice weekend together looking for the warbler, didn’t we, kids?”

  I shifted in my seat.

  Mr. McCone smiled. “It’s so exciting that a Kirtland’s was spotted in the area.” He glanced back at Gregory. “Did anyone spy it?”

  “I did,” the professor said. “Unfortunately, I was alone at the time, but I was able to take these great photographs.” He tapped the SMART Board.

  The bird was on a low branch of a bush and its beak was open in song. I wished so badly that I had been there to see it and to listen to it sing, but I knew Claudette, who spent the last fifteen years trying to redeem herself from her misidentification, wanted to see it more. That’s why I had been so confused the night before. Claudette was willing to give up her chance to see the Kirtland’s just because someone was stealing coins from the Shalley cemetery. She hadn’t seemed like someone who scared easily. It didn’t make sense.

  Gregory clicked to the next photograph. “Some distinctive features of the Kirtland’s warbler are its large size and blue-gray back.”

  “How did you find it when no one else did?” a girl asked.

  Gregory turned to her. “I knew that the bird would most likely be close to the riverbank down low, and I got lucky. You see, when it comes to birding, luck is a huge factor, and I have always been extremely lucky in the number of birds I see. You can go out on a hike searching for a bird and never see one, or you can go out on a hike seeking one particular bird and see an entire flock of species. Patience and dedication to birding day after day is the key. When you do see the bird you’re looking for, it is the best feeling in the world. It’s the thrill of the discovery that keeps birders going. I had seen the Kirtland’s on several occasions before, but I must say this sighting was the most special to me since it was right here in Carroll County. It was like the bird came to this county specifically for me.”

  Across the room, Colin and I shared a look and I rolled my eyes. He turned away and covered his mouth.

  Gregory advanced the board to the next photograph. This one was of a Golden finch. “But there is more to birding than seeing one rare bird. Even the most common birds are amazing and truly wonderful. We saw a number of species at Shalley Park this weekend.”

  “What about the ghost?” a boy at the back of the room asked. “Did you see the ghost?”

  Gregory laughed. “I was wondering if someone would ask me about that. In fact, I hoped that someone would.”

  Mr. McCone laughed. “Now Dr. Sparrow, you know it’s not very scientific to encourage children’s flight of fancy when it comes to this ghost story.”

  Gregory grinned. “I know, and I would have agreed with you before this weekend. Now, I’m not so sure. There may be some truth to the story about Dominika Shalley’s ghost.”

  Ava’s hand shot up. “At the park, you acted like you didn’t believe Paige. What changed your mind?”

  “Who’s Paige?” the boy in the back of the room asked.

  Ava spun around in her seat to face the other student. “She’s a college student who was there with Dr. Sparrow. She saw the ghost and came running into camp screaming about it. I’ve never seen someone so scared before.”

  The class took a collective gasp.

  “I know, and I shouldn’t have doubted Paige,” the professor said. “I suppose as a scientist, I don’t believe in something until I can see it with my own two eyes.”

  “You saw the ghost?” Colin blurted out.

  “I did.” Gregory lowered his voice. “I saw her. I was in the woods Sunday evening at dusk. Only a few birders remained at camp. Most had left for home hours before. I stayed behind because I wanted to go on one more solo bird walk before the weekend was over. I was in the trees near the Shalley family cemetery. Maybe I went that way out of curiosity. My student Paige had been so terrified by what she had seen there I thought I could find an explanation that would put her mind at ease. There had to be an explanation, or so I thought.”

  The classroom was so quiet I could hear the overhead lights hum.

  Gregory waited for a moment longer. “Then, I saw her.”

  The kids in the class gasped.

  “What did she look like?” a girl asked.

  Gregory went on to describe the exact same figure that Colin and I had seen and that Paige had described when she came running into camp on Saturday.

  Mr. McCone cleared his throat. “Dr. Sparrow, that is an interesting story, but it is just a story. We wouldn’t want to put any fear into all these future scientists.”

  “I’m being perfectly honest. I saw the ghost.”

  When the bell rang that signified the end of the school day, kids from all over the classroom rushed up to Dr. Sparrow and shouted questions at him.

  I gathered up my books and found Ava and Colin standing on either side of me. We were the only ones who didn’t want to talk to the college professor.

  “Ava,” I said. “Romero said you weren’t coming to school today.”

  “Well, I’m here. He told me that he drove your sister to school.” She stepped closer to me. “Keep her away from him. She is a distraction we don’t need right now.”

  My mouth fell open. “I can’t control what my sister does any more than you can control your brother.”

  She scowled at me.

  “We need to discuss when we can go out again and look for the Kirtland’s warbler.” Colin gripped the straps of his backpack.

  Ava shook her head. “We don’t need to go out again. I’m done. We’ve already seen more birds than everyone else in the class, and we will get an ‘A’.” She turned to go.

  Ava wasn’t trying to earn every last point of extra credit? It was like I didn’t even know her.

  I grabbed my backpack off the floor and followed her into the hallway. “Hey Ava, is something wrong?”

  She turned around and I was surprised to see tears in her eyes.

  “Tell us what is going on. Maybe we can help,” I said.

  “No one can help, especially not you.” She wove through the students pouring from the classrooms and into the hallway until I couldn’t see he
r any more.

  CASE FILE NO. 16

  Michael Pike University was only six blocks from the middle school and high school. Colin had called Bergita on his cell phone after lunch and told her we were going to the university to visit Amelie. She’d said it was all right but warned us to stay out of trouble.

  As we walked under the brick archway that led onto campus, it still seemed weird to me to see so many students around. Bethany and I moved to Killdeer in the summer when there were only a few college students in town. Now there were over three thousand and the campus was buzzing with activity.

  “Should we go see Amelie first?” Colin asked.

  I shook my head. “Let’s find Paige.”

  “You never told me how you plan to find her.”

  I smiled. “We’ll ask Dr. Comfrey.”

  “Great idea!”

  We headed to the science building. Dr. Comfrey was the chemistry professor who had taught us during Discovery Camp. Since Colin and I had helped her find out who was sabotaging her lab over the summer, she owed us a favor. I just hoped she hadn’t gone home for the night.

  We walked into the lab, and Dr. Comfrey sat at a lab table writing on a notepad. She looked up. “Andi, Colin, I haven’t seen you guys in months. How are you?”

  Colin grinned. “Great.”

  “Are you getting good grades?”

  We both nodded.

  “Excellent.” She sat back on her stool. “What can I do for you?”

  “We’re looking for someone,” I said.

  “Ahh,” the professor replied and hopped off her stool. She was a petite woman and her white lab coat nearly reached the floor. “Are you two solving another mystery?”

  I ignored her question. “We met her last weekend. She was at Shalley Park with Dr. Sparrow. We thought you must know her because she’s a science major. Her name is Paige.”

  “You must mean Paige Bingham,” the chemistry professor said. “She’s a biology major. I have her in biochem this semester. She’s a double major actually. A very bright student. I have high hopes for her.” A sad look passed over Dr. Comfrey’s face. She had had trouble with brilliant chemistry students in the past.