Alexis and the Arizona Escapade

by Erica Rodgers

  Alexis ignored him. “May I?” she asked the sheriff.

  “Be my guest,” he said. Alexis climbed up into the back of the trailer and made her way toward the front of the carriage. A golden wave of water hid the driver’s seat from view. When she was level with the seat—where Dr. Edwards had been only this morning—she turned and spoke to the crowd of curious police.

  “There’s a story that the princess Amelia, King George the Third’s youngest daughter, hid a letter for the man she loved in her father’s coach. Dr. Edwards was probably looking throughout the inside of the coach, since that’s where the princess would have sat, but one of our other mystery-solving friends who loves horses, McKenzie, thought of somewhere else to look. The man the princess loved worked with the horses. In that case she probably would have hidden the note where he would have found it while harnessing them to the carriage.”

  Alexis grabbed the golden post that was meant to hold the horses and slid her hand into the hollow end. She pulled out a thin box and opened it. The hinges creaked in the silence.

  And there it was—a small, folded package, yellowed with age.

  “ ‘For the Son of Man came to seek and to save what was lost,’” Elizabeth murmured. “Luke 19:10 doesn’t quite fit the situation, but I think God must have nudged McKenzie’s brain!”

  “No!” hollered Dr. Edwards. “That’s mine! Mine by right!”

  “How do you figure that, Doc?” asked the sheriff. “And what on earth is a priceless letter doing here, in Lake Havasu City? Shouldn’t it be in the real coach in Britain?”

  “I did all the research decades ago, while I was in college,” said Dr. Edwards. He spoke to the sheriff, but he was glaring at Alexis.

  “I finally figured that the letter was probably in the carriage,” he continued, “so I wrote to the royal family and got permission to search it from the queen herself. But before I could save the money to go back to Britain, my professor stole my permission letters and went himself. He found the letter, but he told me he had hidden it from the royal family so he could keep it for himself. He died in a train accident on his way to southern California, and it took me fifty years to figure out that he’d hidden it in the carriage. So you see? I did all the work! It’s rightfully mine!”

  The sheriff smiled sadly.

  “It’s a sad story, Doc,” he said. “And I wish I could take your side, but the truth is that you committed a crime when you stole the replica. Why didn’t you just ask permission to search the carriage? We could have helped you take it apart if need be.”

  Dr. Edwards looked crestfallen. Alexis felt bad for him, but the sheriff was right. Dr. Edwards had committed a crime, and they couldn’t reward him by giving him the letter now. Another deputy handcuffed the doctor and led him toward another car with flashing lights.

  “I guess we’d better figure out what to do with this,” said the sheriff. He stepped forward and reached into the box that Alexis was still holding.

  “Stop! Don’t touch anything!”

  Everyone spun around to see Grandma Windsor leap out of yet another police car. Her wrists had been freed from the cuffs, and she strode toward the back of the truck trailer with purpose, her costume dress flapping behind her.

  “You can’t just go and grab a two-hundred-and-fifty-year-old document like it was a letter from your mother!” she yelled at the sheriff. The man smiled and stepped back.

  “Of course, Professor Windsor. I’m glad you’re here. Would you mind helping us out with this?”

  “Not at all,” Grandma Windsor said with a smile. She slipped a white glove onto her hand and reached into the compartment. She lifted the letter out with a flat hand and slipped it into a large plastic Ziploc bag. “It’s not perfect, but it will do,” she said.

  The next morning Alexis was sad because it would be her last day in Lake Havasu City. At least for now. David and Elizabeth met her in the hotel lobby after breakfast. David was carrying three neon-colored rubber duckies.

  “What are those for, David?” asked Alexis as he handed her a pink one. He gave the purple one to Elizabeth and kept the green one for himself.

  “You’ll see,” he said. “Follow me!”

  They left the hotel and made their way toward the bridge. Alexis noticed quite a crowd gathering along the railings.

  For a moment she was afraid that something was wrong, but then she realized the people were smiling.

  “What’s all the commotion?” she asked. “I thought the festival was over.”

  “Not quite!” said David. “We close it out with the duck race!”

  Alexis looked at the bridge again and saw that everyone at the railings had a rubber ducky in their hands. They were passing the sheriff’s department when Elizabeth grabbed Alexis’s arm.

  “Look! Wonder where they’re taking Jim and Jerold?” she said.

  Alexis looked across the street. Two police officers were putting Jim and Jerold into the back of a police car.

  “Hey!” said David. “That’s the engineer I told you about! The one who wanted the stones from the bridge!” He was pointing to Jim.

  “It doesn’t surprise me,” said Alexis. “Those two were helping Dr. Edwards, but I don’t imagine that’s the only shady deal they were involved in. I wonder what they wanted them for, if not to destroy the bridge or ruin the race.”

  “Bet I know what they wanted the stones for,” Elizabeth said. “I updated the girls last night on what was going on. Awhile ago Kate texted me that she’d done a search on London Bridge artifacts and found someone selling stones from the London Bridge on several Internet auction sites.”

  “You mean like eBay?” David asked.

  “Well, I’m not sure if it was eBay, but there are a lot of sites out there like that now,” Elizabeth said. “One of the sites she saw them on that requires a selling location listed Lake Havasu City. And the sellers’ names were words like Jerold, and J and J Auctions.”

  “We’ll have to tell Grandma so she can let the sheriff know. Then he can look into it,” Alexis said.

  “Has your grandma found out what’s going to happen to the letter from Princess Amelia?” Elizabeth asked.

  “Yes, she called the British Museum, and they are super-excited about finally having the letter. They even offered to let Lake Havasu City borrow it each year during the festival,” Alexis explained.

  Elizabeth looked at David and frowned. “You know there’s one other thing I don’t get. If it was you making the crack in the bridge, then what was the thing with the old hag cursing the bridge?”

  “I know which woman you mean,” David said. “That one dressed up to be really ugly? I heard her saying something about the bridge.”

  “Do you mean Meghan?” Suddenly the young teens realized that Grandma Windsor had joined them. “Are you talking about my friend Meghan?” she asked, linking arms with Alexis.

  “I don’t know. She was some old lady who looked like she stepped out of the movie The Princess Bride,” Alexis explained.

  “Oh yes, that’s Meghan!” Grandma exclaimed. “She’s actually not old. She’s quite young. She’s a drama student who likes to come to the festival dressed up as an old woman. She seems to have a talent for that kind of voice and for living in character. She’s great at curses.”

  “Grandma!” Alexis exclaimed.

  “Well, not real curses, silly. They’re all make-believe,” Grandma said. “She is convincing, isn’t she? If she can’t make it as an actress, I’m sure she has a future as a makeup artist.”

  “But she left a message for us,” Elizabeth said. “And why would she run away from us if she was your friend?”

  “Well, that’s just it, dears,” Grandma Windsor explained. “I had told her about this fabulous Camp Club Girls you have and all the mysteries you solve. I’m quite proud, you know. She was so afraid you’d be bored that she said she was going to try to stir up a bit of a mystery for you. Secret messages, anyway. She thought it would just be a spot of fun
for you.”

  “You mean you knew all along?” Alexis asked.

  “Oh yes, dear. I meant to tell you about it before you thought there was a real mystery there, but it seems like you found your own mysteries to solve without Meghan’s help. I think she had a couple of more messages planned, but she had to leave town and go back to where she normally lives—Tuscon, I think. Her mother got ill and needed her,” Grandma Windsor said. “Now Alexis, I need to scoot for a few minutes. I’m on my way to the sheriff’s office. Have to see him about that silly ticket his silly deputy gave me. I’ll see you at the hotel in a bit.”

  Grandma Windsor trotted off.

  “Well, at least that answers that!” said Elizabeth. “Oh, you know, I decided I’m going to talk to Mr. Bill about buying that spoon with Princess Amelia on it. Mom gave me some money this morning. Alexis, I guess I’m as much of a romantic at heart as you are. I’m going to run and get it and will meet you at the bridge in about ten minutes. Here, hold my ducky for me, will you?” she said as she thrust the purple duck in Alexis’s hand.

  “So you’re a romantic at heart, hmm?” David asked, with a tender smile on his face.

  Alexis blushed and shrugged.

  “So any chance your grandma will be back in Lake Havasu?” asked David. “Maybe this winter?”

  “I don’t think so,” she said.

  “Oh,” said David. “I just know some old people like to come to Arizona in the winter. I mean, not like she’s old!”

  Alexis laughed.

  “No, she’s not really old,” she said. “And I think she’s coming to visit us for the holidays. Dad mentioned a trip up to Tahoe, but I don’t think I’ll be back down here anytime soon.”

  “Do you have an e-mail address then?” asked David.

  “Better than that,” said Alexis. “The Camp Club Girls have a Web site!”

  “The what?”

  “It’s a long story,” said Alexis. She and David walked to the bridge while she explained to him about the Camp Club Girls and their mysteries. Then Elizabeth joined them, and all three leaned over the railing of the bridge and dropped their ducks into the water.

  Alexis didn’t know if it was because she had solved two cases, because she was with such good friends, or because God had just erased her fears. But for some reason, she wasn’t scared of the bridge anymore.