Alexis and the Sacramento Surprise

by Erica Rodgers

  “I guess that will have to do,” she said to Kate. They were outside the corner coffee shop drinking iced lemonade the store manager had given them. She was a nice woman who hung one of their posters on the front of her pastry case. From their seat outside, the girls heard her tell each customer to visit the park and support Miss Maria.

  Alexis was watching for her mother when something else caught her eye. A familiar-looking man entered the hardware store directly across the street.

  “Kate! That’s Thad Swotter’s cameraman!” Alexis ran to the light post and slammed her hand against the button to activate the crosswalk. “Come on!” she said.

  “Why are we following a cameraman?” asked Kate. The walk sign flashed green and the girls crossed the street.

  “Maybe we’ll hear something that will link Swotter to the dinosaurs,” said Alexis.

  “Do people usually let secrets slip to their neighborhood hardware store workers?” Kate asked with a laugh.

  Alexis laughed, too.

  “Probably not, but we have twenty minutes before Mom picks us up, and sleuthing is more interesting than sitting on a corner.”

  The girls approached the hardware store windows but couldn’t see through them. The windows were crowded with signs, shovels, and old newspaper articles with important headlines. Alexis poked her head around the open door. She couldn’t see the cameraman.

  She motioned to Kate and the two of them quietly walked inside. From behind a display of leather work gloves, they could see the cameraman. He was at the counter talking to the shop owner.

  “If we get closer we may be able to hear what they’re saying,” Alexis said.

  The girls inched their way around the outside aisle and stood behind a huge stack of red plastic buckets. Alexis glanced at the wall and pretended to be interested in the power tools hanging there.

  “Need to replace my fence cutters,” said the cameraman. “I’m helping a neighbor build a dog kennel, and I can’t find mine.”

  “What size?” asked the hardware man.

  “Pretty small. I only use them for chain-link fencing.”

  Alexis grabbed Kate’s arm, causing her to jump. She tripped backward and fell against the tower of buckets.

  Bam! The buckets flew around the girls.

  Both the camera operator and the store owner turned toward the commotion. Alex and Kate scrambled to pick up all the buckets.

  “Can I help you, ladies?” asked the hardware man.

  “Uh, no thank you, sir,” stuttered Alexis. Kate was chasing down a bucket that had rolled down the next aisle. “We were just looking at these, uh, tools.”

  The camera operator chuckled and the storeowner raised his eyebrows. Alexis turned and looked at the wall. She and Kate were standing in front of the biggest saw she had ever seen. Its round blade must have been three feet wide.

  “Now why on earth would you need one of those?” asked the shop owner.

  Alexis thought. She didn’t want to lie, but she and Kate needed to get out of there in a hurry.

  “You’re right,” she said with a nervous smile. “I probably don’t need one this big. We’d better go down the road to the small saw store.”

  It was Kate’s turn to grab Alexis by the arm. She dragged her out onto the sidewalk. The men’s laughter echoed onto the busy street.

  “Small saw store?” said Kate. “Good one.”

  “I’m sorry!” said Alexis. “I couldn’t think of anything else!”

  The girls hit the crosswalk button again and walked back across the street.

  “Why did you freak out and grab my arm anyway?” asked Kate. “I wouldn’t have knocked over those buckets if you hadn’t scared me like that!”

  They sat down at a small table outside the coffee shop again. The metal chairs were hot and burned their legs at first.

  “The cameraman said he needed to replace his fence cutters,” said Alexis. “He can’t find his, and he said he only uses them on chain-link fencing!”

  “Why did that make you grab me?” asked Kate.

  “Remember? When I investigated the Tyrannosaurus Rex tracks, I followed them all the way to the fence. It had a huge hole. And it was a chain-link fence.”

  “Okay, so whoever is moving the dinosaurs cut a hole in the fence. Maybe that’s how the person got into the park in the first place.”

  “I think they wanted people to think the Tyrannosaurus Rex did it,” said Alexis. “To scare people, you know? What if the camera guy was helping Thad Swotter, and he lost his fence cutters that way? Or what if Swotter stole his fence cutters so he could cut the hole in the fence?”

  “Maybe,” said Kate. “It is a funny coincidence, but we don’t have any evidence.”

  She was right. Maybe they could go back to the fence this afternoon and look for the fence cutters. If they found them, they could connect Swotter—or at least his camera operator—to the mystery.

  By the time the girls got to the park, the tours had already started. Since Jerry and Megan were leading people through the park, the area around the visitors’ center was vacant—except for Jogger. He was looking at the entrance sign.

  “Not again!” said Alexis.

  Her emotions were torn. On one hand, she had a new crime scene to investigate. That was always exciting. On the other hand, she was angry at whoever was doing this to Miss Maria’s park. She wondered if all detectives had the same struggle. The hunt was thrilling, but wasn’t it sad that people were bad enough to make you hunt them in the first place?

  “Kate, look!” Alexis had picked up Jogger to take him back to his fellow Raptors. There wasn’t any mud, but in the loose dust was another human footprint. It was hardly visible. Kate whipped out her camera and snapped a few pictures.

  “It’s a Converse, like the other one,” said Kate. She bent to get a closer look. “Our suspect is getting sloppy.”

  “I know,” said Alexis. “He didn’t leave us a clue for days, and now we find two footprints in a row.”

  Just then, the girls heard a shout from the visitors’ center. Two voices escalated. Someone wasn’t happy.

  “I think that’s Mrs. Smith,” said Alexis.

  “Yeah. Let’s see who else,” said Kate. Alexis pushed on the front door and it swung wide, creaking slightly. The two arguing adults never even noticed.

  Mrs. Smith’s cheeks were bright red. Strands of dark hair swirled around her face. On the other side of the front desk, with his back to Alexis and Kate, was none other than Thad Swotter.

  Only today he didn’t have his little notebook and crazy tie. Instead, he wore faded jeans and a fitted polo. An Oakland Athletics ball cap hid his wild blond hair.

  “Come on, Mrs. Smith!” Swotter said, trying not to yell. “You can’t be serious!”

  “I’m jut as serious as I was the last time, Thad,” said Mrs. Smith. “I said no.”

  Swotter took off his hat and ran a hand through his gel-matted mop.

  “At least think about it,” he pleaded.

  “Thad, no. I’m not interested.” Mrs. Smith wasn’t yelling anymore. She just looked tired. “You’re welcome to look around the park, Thad, or shoot another crazy story, but this conversation is over.” Mrs. Smith gestured toward the two girls. Swotter noticed them for the first time.

  “Fine,” he said, jamming his hat back on. “I’ll go. Enjoy your day here at Bible Land!”

  “What’s that supposed to mean?” fired Mrs. Smith. Her anger was back.

  “I’m talking about the Old Bat’s crazy greenhouse! It’s not like you guys are giving tours through Jerusalem! A visitor can’t bend to smell a rose without getting a cross stabbed in his eye!”

  “Come on, Thad,” said Mrs. Smith. “I know you’re angry, but you’re exaggerating just a little—”

  “Am I?” Thad Swotter was far from composed. His face was a mixture of red and white blotches, and sweat was running down his neck.

  “I’ve told you before that you should get rid of all that
stuff!” he said. “People don’t want to see Jesus Thorns, or the Lily of the Valley. They come here to see the redwoods and California plants—and they don’t want to hear that any God planted them! People would be lining up to give this place money if it weren’t for that stuff!”

  He turned and stomped past Alexis and Kate, slamming the door behind him. The girls cautiously approached the desk.

  “Was he asking for another interview?” asked Alexis.

  “Yeah, something like that,” said Mrs. Smith with a weak smile. She pushed a small bouquet of flowers off the desk and into the trash can.

  “Those were pretty!” said Kate.

  “They smelled funny,” said Mrs. Smith. “What are you girls up to today?”

  “Just looking for a break,” said Alexis.

  “Well, you’re welcome to grab a Coke out of the fridge and sit in here for a while,” said Mrs. Smith.

  “Not that kind of break, Mrs. Smith,” said Alexis. She grabbed two sodas anyway and handed one to Kate. “I meant we need a lucky break in this case. We found some good clues yesterday. We’re going to see where they lead us.”

  Alexis told Mrs. Smith all about the footprints being fake and the posters they hung up.

  “Those posters should help,” said Mrs. Smith. “Thanks for doing that. Maybe when the donation box fills up a little more we should use the money to print more of them. Then we can hang some in other areas of town.”

  Alexis could see Mrs. Smith’s bad mood evaporating. This was good, because Alexis had a favor to ask. She knew from an experience with her grandma that angry adults were not much help when it came to investigating. It was really hard to get good information out of someone who had just turned her hair purple on accident.

  “Mrs. Smith, can I ask you something?” Alexis said.

  Mrs. Smith was sipping her Diet Coke, but she nodded.

  “We were thinking about camping out in the park,” Alexis said. “You know, like a stakeout? Do you think that would be okay?”

  “That should be okay,” said Mrs. Smith. “But we should double-check with Maria first. I’ll talk to her this afternoon.”

  Kate and Alexis left the visitors’ center. They were going to inspect the new footprint some more and compare it to the one they had found the day before. Alexis was in the lead, and as she turned the corner she ran right into Thad Swotter.

  Bam! The force of the impact threw her backward. She landed hard on her backside a few feet away. Swotter juggled his cell phone, trying not to drop it. He grumbled an “excuse me” and began walking quickly toward the parking lot, still talking on the phone.

  “Oh my goodness!” exclaimed Alexis.

  “I know,” said Kate. “He didn’t even offer to help you up! Are you okay?”

  “No! Not that!” said Alexis. She rolled onto her knees and pointed after the reporter. “Look at his shoes!”

  There went Thad Swotter—newly famous Sacramento reporter—tromping to his car in a very muddy pair of Converse All-Stars.

  Dinosaurs in the Dark

  “I still can’t believe you guys are doing this!” said Jerry. He was bent over, trying to put Alexis’s tent together. He obviously had no idea what he was doing.

  “That’s the door, Jerry!” said Alexis, stooping to help. “You can’t put it against the ground! How will we get in?”

  Alexis shook out the tent and laid it right-side up. She grabbed a handful of slender plastic rods and went to work. In minutes, she had the tent standing.

  “Here,” Alexis teased, passing Jerry a hammer. “You can handle putting the stakes in the ground, right? Just stick them through those loops at the corners and pound them in.”

  Alexis and Kate had chosen the clearing near the Raptors for their overnight stakeout. They would set up a night-vision digital camcorder and be ready to catch Thad Swotter in the act if he struck again tonight. Even if he showed up and left after seeing the girls’ tent, maybe the camera would get a good shot of him first.

  “So why are you doing this?” asked Megan. She was helping Kate set up the video camera on a hidden stump.

  “I told you, Meg,” said Alexis. “Nothing else is working. We need to get to the bottom of this before someone gets hurt.”

  “What makes you so sure someone is going to get hurt?” asked Jerry. “Nothing bad has happened so far. The park is packed every day!”

  “Um, Miss Maria was hurt,” said Kate. Her voice was almost a whisper—her head hanging down as if she was speaking to her shoes. “She wouldn’t have been climbing on the Triceratops if it weren’t for those footprints, remember? And what about the day the Tyrannosaurus Rex’s head nearly fell on Alex? That could have been because someone was messing around it while making the footprints.”

  Jerry didn’t answer, but he raised his eyebrows. Alexis knew what he was thinking: Miss Maria shouldn’t have climbed on top of the dinosaur without anyone around to help. But Alexis also knew that whether Miss Maria was right or wrong, it all came down to the footprints. They had started this whole mess.

  “Look at the big picture, guys,” said Alexis. “Even if no one ever gets hurt, damage has been done to the park. A whole section of the fence has to be replaced because there’s a huge hole in it.”

  “And besides,” Kate added, “whoever’s messing around with the dinosaurs might hurt them. I was looking at animated dinosaurs on a Web site that sells special effects. Some of these dinosaurs cost up to twenty thousand dollars to replace!”

  “If something happened to one, Miss Maria might have to use all her savings to pay for it and have to close the park.”

  Jerry didn’t say anything else. He went to Alexis’s backpack, pulled out some chips, and chomped moodily while the girls finished setting up camp.

  Alexis was aggravated. She loved investigating, but she knew this was taking up valuable time. The sooner she found out who was doing this, the sooner she could focus on Miss Maria’s real problem—bringing in visitors and money even after the dinosaurs were gone. All of this craziness was keeping them from finding a solution to the real problem.

  Alexis tried to get Jerry and Megan to stay with them, but they were too freaked out about sleeping in the park. Jerry didn’t camp. Alexis had learned that much by watching him try to put the tent together. Megan just kept making excuses.

  “What if the Tyrannosaurus Rex steps on me in my sleep?” she joked as the group headed in to dinner. Their camp was not far from Jerry and Megan’s house, which was just on the edge of the park near the visitors’ center. Mrs. Smith had invited the girls to eat dinner there before they began their campout.

  Dinner was great, except for Jerry’s jokes. He kept telling Alexis and Kate to watch out for dinosaur manure, or to keep their snacks locked up so they wouldn’t attract the bears…or the Tyrannosaurus Rex.

  “I heard they found a new species of squirrel in the Sierras,” Jerry said with a mouth full of enchilada.

  “Really?” said Kate, drawn in by her love of animals.

  “Yeah, vampire squirrels. Watch your necks!”

  Alexis shivered. For some reason, she couldn’t swallow the bite she had just taken.

  “Jerry, stop it!” said Mrs. Smith.

  Alexis would normally have laughed all night at Jerry’s jokes, but she was about to sleep in a dark forest. For that reason, none of the jokes seemed very funny. It wasn’t like Jerry to be mean. Maybe he didn’t realize he was scaring them.

  Kate spoke up as the two of them returned to camp. “If I didn’t know better, I would say he didn’t want us out here.”

  “I don’t know,” said Alexis. “He’s probably just trying to scare us because he’s embarrassed. Think about it! He was too chicken to stay out here, and two girls are going to show him up. Either that or he’s just being a boy. By definition they’re obnoxious!”

  Biscuit tromped along beside Kate on his leash. His presence calmed their nerves, and by the time they reached the Raptor clearing, their laughter echoed throu
gh the trees.

  The two Camp Club Girls snuggled down into their sleeping bags. They pulled out Kate’s computer and filled in the Camp Club Girls until the battery died. Then they fell asleep.

  It was still pitch black outside when Kate woke up to find Biscuit’s wet nose in her face. He nudged her and then walked over Alexis to the door of the tent.

  “What is it?” asked Alexis. She sat up and rubbed her sleepy eyes.

  “It’s just Biscuit,” said Kate. “I think he has to go to the bathroom.”

  Kate unzipped the tent and led her whining puppy outside. After a second, her head popped back in the tent.

  “Forgot the flashlight!” she said. She grabbed Alexis’s lantern and went to supervise the excited puppy. Alexis was just about to drift back to sleep when she heard Kate call in a frantic whisper.

  “Alexis! Get out here!”

  “What is it?” asked Alexis. She fought her way out of her sleeping bag and shoved on her shoes. Biscuit was pulling frantically on his leash, choking himself in his excitement to explore. Kate was standing in the middle of the camp, shining her light on the ground.

  “Look!” she said.

  “No way!” said Alexis. The camp was absolutely crowded with Raptor footprints. When the girls had gone to bed, the little green dinosaurs had been in their place on the other side of the clearing. Kate shined the light around the edge of camp. Little pairs of eyes glinted in the beam.

  They were surrounded.

  Alexis didn’t know what was creepier, being stared at by a ring of dinosaurs or the thought that someone had been here to move them while the girls were sleeping.

  “My camera’s gone!” cried Kate. Sure enough, the camera she and Megan had hidden on the stump was gone. Jogger was sitting in his place. In the dancing moonlight, he looked as if he was laughing.

  “Great!” said Alexis. “We slept through everything!”

  Alexis had never been angrier. She thought for sure this campout would lead them to the identity of the dinosaur mover. Instead, they were standing in the dark, looking at a bunch of new footprints that had been put there right under their noses. And now Kate’s newest video camera was gone. Alexis reminded herself to add theft to the list of crimes in her notebook.