“Someone is making fun of us!” Alexis huffed. “Every time we get a little closer to figuring things out, we get stumped!”
“I know,” said Kate. “It’s extremely frust–”
Slam!
A loud noise ricocheted through the forest. The girls stood still as statues. Biscuit’s ears were standing up, listening for any sign of movement.
“That sounded like a car door,” whispered Alexis. She looked at her watch. “Who would be out here at two thirty in the morning?”
“Someone up to no good!” said Kate.
“Come on!” said Alexis. “Maybe it’s Thad. Let’s sneak up on him. We can’t let him see us, but maybe we’ll be able to see him.”
Kate nodded and the girls started picking their way through the forest. They kept off the paths. The last thing they wanted was to run right into a criminal.
Alexis breathed deeply. Her heart slammed against her rib cage in a frantic rhythm, and she was sure it could be heard a mile away. The girls picked a path through the aspens and dodged the Tyrannosaurus. In the moonlight, the giant reptile looked more than alive. They crossed the Triceratops meadow, and Alexis took in a sharp breath.
The baby Triceratops was missing.
“Look,” whispered Kate. “Footprints.” Alexis noticed they had only three toes.
The girls followed the fake Triceratops footprints through the meadow. They stopped abruptly at a clump of large bushes. The girls veered to the left to walk around when they heard a loud click. A flash of light temporarily blinded them.
Alexis ducked down behind the bush. She pulled Kate down beside her and waited for her eyes to adjust. Spots danced in front of her face like stars.
They heard footsteps. The rustle of dry pine needles. Click. Flash!
Alexis edged toward the sound. She peeked around the bush and had to cover her mouth to keep from crying out.
Thad Swotter was standing on the other side of their hiding place. His green and yellow A’s hat was on backwards, and he was snapping pictures of the newly moved baby Triceratops.
Kate signaled Alexis to keep quiet and crawled deeper into the bush. She positioned her spy watch to point toward Swotter. The small watch, Alexis knew, was able to take pictures. The next time Swotter took a picture, Kate did, too, so he didn’t notice the flash of her watch.
After a few more minutes, the reporter turned and walked back through the trees.
“Come on!” whispered Alexis. The girls took off after him, keeping back so they wouldn’t be seen.
They were heading northeast through the park, toward the highway. Thad Swotter went faster, and the girls struggled to keep up. Alexis caught her foot on a tree root and stumbled.
“Whoa!” she said. She regained her balance, glad that she hadn’t fallen, but Kate grabbed her and pulled her behind a tree.
Swotter had stopped and was shining a flashlight in their direction. The light panned back and forth, igniting the forest around them and casting thick shadows.
“Who’s there?” Swotter called. He sounded nervous. Alexis wanted to make some dinosaur noises, just to scare him, but she kept quiet.
“Stupid forest,” Swotter said to himself. He turned away again. Alexis noticed that the steps were quicker and his breathing labored. He was running.
The girls followed the spooked reporter to the edge of the park. He climbed over the fence and jogged to the Channel 13 news van parked on the shoulder of Highway 80. Kate was about to take another picture, but a big, masculine hand reached over her shoulder and grabbed her arm.
“I wouldn’t do that if I were you.”
From Theater to Threat
“Really, I wouldn’t do that,” said Jerry. “He’ll see your flash.”
Alexis and Kate spun around.
“Jerry, you scared us to death!” whispered Alexis. “What are you doing here anyway?”
“Couldn’t sleep, so I thought I’d check on you,” he said. “You weren’t in camp, so I got worried.”
“We’re fine!” said Alexis. Swotter’s van was gone. She turned and tromped through the forest toward their tent. She didn’t care how loud she was anymore, now that the danger of being seen had passed.
The girls couldn’t bring themselves to climb back into their sleeping bags and sleep after their discovery. So they sat up in their tent instead, telling Jerry all about it until the sun came up. Then they packed up camp and walked to Jerry’s house for breakfast.
Alexis was sure she had solved the mystery. First, there were Thad Swotter’s muddy Converse shoes, which matched the only human footprint they had found so far. Now they had caught him in the park in the middle of the night. He hadn’t been filming a story for the news. Why would he sneak around the park so late at night if he wasn’t moving the dinosaurs?
She and Kate had every detective’s dream: undeniable evidence. They hadn’t just seen Swotter at the scene of the crime. They had a picture of him there! There was no way he could deny it—Alexis just had to figure out how to confront him.
Mrs. Howell picked the girls up around ten and took them home. They went up to Alexis’s room and finally fell asleep. Alexis slept until lunchtime, when the twins ran in screaming.
“Lexi! Get up! Get up! Get up!”
They leapt onto the bed, pinning Alexis beneath four bony knees.
“Get up! It’s family movie day, remember? Come on!”
And just like that they were gone, pounding down the stairs leaving Alexis and Kate to wipe the sleep from their eyes.
“Family movie day?” asked Kate through a cavernous yawn.
“Yeah,” said Alexis. “Once a month my parents take a day off and we all go see a movie together. It’s tradition!” She ran into the bathroom, ran a brush through her hair, and burst back into her room to change her T-shirt. “Today it’s the new Glenda McGee movie!”
“Yes!” Kate exclaimed. She rushed to take Biscuit outside before they left.
Alexis and Kate were just as excited as the twins. They had been waiting six months for Glenda McGee: Hacking Hero to come out in theaters. Glenda McGee was a teen computer genius who solved mysteries. Kate enjoyed all of the gadgets she used, even though most of them were fictional. The twins liked the fight scenes, where Glenda’s cheerleading jumps became killer roundhouse kicks. Alexis just loved the way the heroine balanced saving the world with getting her nails done and studying for exams.
The movie was amazing, and not just because the Howells bought popcorn, drinks, and a ton of candy. The girls talked about the twists and turns of the plot as they walked to the car.
“I can’t believe that ending!” said Alexis.
“I know!” said Kate. “The butler was the bad guy! But he was so nice!”
“Yeah! He actually helped Glenda solve pieces of the mystery. It was just enough to keep her thinking he was good.”
The family piled into the car and Alexis’s mind strayed back to the case the Camp Club Girls were still trying to solve. The movie had gotten her excited. She may not be able to do a double-back flip over a burning car to save the world, but she could take down Thad Swotter and save Miss Maria’s park.
“Mom,” she said, “would it be too far out of the way to take us back to Aspen Heights?”
“No, that’s fine,” said Mrs. Howell. “I have to run a few errands anyway, and it will be easier if six of us aren’t running around the grocery store. I’ll drop you girls off and then pick you up on my way home.”
Alexis had printed the picture of Thad Swotter with the baby Triceratops before she had left the house that morning. She pulled it out of her pink notebook and examined it as they drove. This picture truly looked suspicious. Should they show it to Maria or Mrs. Smith and let the adults handle things?
No. She was sure he was guilty, but what if he weaseled his way out of it? The other adults were sure to believe him over her. Alexis needed to be completely sure about Thad Swotter before she tattled on him.
What would Swotter
say when she and Kate showed him the picture?
The girls didn’t see any signs of the news van when they pulled onto the Aspen Heights parking lot. Disappointed, Alexis and Kate entered the visitors’ center. Mrs. Smith, Jerry, and Megan were inside, taking a break from leading tours.
“Jerry tells me you girls have things figured out,” said Mrs. Smith. She passed Alexis and Kate popsicles from the freezer.
“We think so,” said Alexis, opening her banana treat. She wanted to tell Mrs. Smith what they had found but decided to wait. “What are you working on?”
Mrs. Smith had a huge pile of paper in front of her. She was reading through it, highlighting paragraphs and making notes on the edges.
“It’s a proposal for the school board,” said Mrs. Smith. “I’ve talked to a couple of local principals, and they might make Aspen Heights a regular field trip location.”
“That sounds great,” said Kate.
“Yeah. If this works out, it would prove that the park is valuable to the community. We may be able to get some funding.”
“Then Miss Maria could keep the park open!” said Alexis. “Dinosaurs or no dinosaurs!”
“That’s the plan,” said Mrs. Smith. “Say a prayer. The school board meeting is in two days, and I have to get past them before I can advertise to all of the teachers.”
“I’m sure it’ll be fine!” said Alexis.
“Oh no,” said Mrs. Smith.
“Of course it will be!” said Kate.
“No, it’s not that,” said Mrs. Smith. “Channel 13 just showed up. I’m going in the back room…and I’m not doing any interviews.” She got up and closed the door to her office.
“Well, we want an interview, don’t we, Kate?” Alexis threw away her sticky popsicle stick and ran outside. Thad Swotter was coming straight to the visitors’ center, so Alexis and Kate just waited near the door. Alexis took out her pink notebook and flipped to the page where she had written down a list of questions for their suspect.
Swotter started to walk past them, but Alexis stepped in front of the door at the last second, and he almost ran into her.
“Whoa! Don’t want to knock you over again!” he joked. “Excuse me, girls. I’m looking for Mrs. Smith. Is she in there?”
“Yes,” said Alexis. “But she’s busy.”
“I’m not asking for an interview,” he said. “I don’t even have the camera today. Can you just tell her I’m here?”
“Actually, Mr. Swotter, we were hoping we could ask you a couple of questions.”
Swotter raised his eyebrows.
“A little reporter in the making, huh?” he said, looking pleased. “Ask away.”
“Where were you last night?”
“I gave the nightly six o’clock report, as usual,” he said. “Which takes a lot of preparation and—”
“And after that?” asked Kate.
“I, uh…ate dinner and went home.” Swotter shifted his weight and crossed his arms. Alexis’s dad had told her that this was a defensive move—people stood like that when they felt threatened or uncomfortable. He saw people do it in court a lot. Alexis was glad she was making Swotter uncomfortable. It meant they were headed in the right direction.
Alexis scribbled answers in her notebook. She had a bunch of questions she could have asked, but why ask tons of questions when one direct shot would get the answers she needed? Besides, if he wasn’t expecting it he might accidentally confess. She took a deep breath.
“And why were you wandering around Aspen Heights at two thirty this morning moving our dinosaurs?” she asked.
“Well, I—what? Now wait just one minute.” Swotter was definitely caught off guard. He swept his hat off his head and crossed his arms again. “I never touched any of your dinosaurs.”
“But you admit you were here?” asked Alexis casually. Swotter’s eyes narrowed. He flattened out his mouth, as if to keep it from talking. His nostrils flared. Alexis thought about her father. His nostrils never flared, but when his mouth went flat like that, she knew better than to push him. It meant he was getting angry. Alexis remembered Thad’s argument with Mrs. Smith the other day and took a step backward. Would he start yelling and screaming at them?
“You were here, right?” said Kate softly.
Alexis took the picture out of her notebook and handed it to him.
“It was you!” Swotter said. “I knew there was someone out there! You scared me to death!” Alexis expected him to try to make excuses. She expected him to defend himself, or to confess, or get mad. But Swotter did something far less predictable. He laughed.
“Wow,” he said. “You girls are sneaky.” He ruffled his hair and crammed his hat back on.
“Sure, I was here last night,” he continued. “I come every night, at about midnight, to see which dinosaurs have moved, then I take pictures of them. That’s how I get my stories in time for the morning news. We’re the only channel that has pictures that early! My boss loves me for it. I fell asleep on my couch last night—didn’t make it out here until two.”
Alexis put her hands on her hips and raised her eyebrows.
“I know what you’re thinking,” said Swotter. “It’s no secret that I don’t love this place. You think I’m moving the dinosaurs to scare people away? Or maybe just to get a good story?” The girls’ silence told him he was right.
“Look around,” he said. “This place is packed! If I wanted Aspen Heights to go under, I wouldn’t do something that brings in more business.”
“So you admit that you want the park to go under?” asked Alexis.
“No, I said if. Look, I may not agree with all of Miss Maria’s beliefs, but there’s no reason to take the park down because of it! Maybe you and your friends should take a closer look at things. I’m not the bad guy everyone around here seems to think I am.”
Swotter moved toward the door of the visitors’ center but seemed to think better of it. He sighed and walked wearily back to his news van.
“Come on. Let’s take a walk so we can think,” Kate said, walking through the door into the park.
Alexis was confused. “I was so sure we had figured it out!” she said.
“Me, too,” said Kate.
“Who else could it have been, Kate? All of the evidence points to him!”
“You mean his shoes?” asked Kate. “Besides seeing Swotter taking pictures, that’s the only real evidence we have. Look around! Those shoes are in style. Half the people in this park are wearing them.”
Kate was right. Alexis counted five pairs of black Converse, two pairs of pink, and a group of teens wearing them in crazy plaids. She even saw a two-year-old toddling around in a pair…and this was just one section of the park.
“You’re right, Kate,” said Alexis. “And last night we didn’t see him move any dinosaurs. We only saw him taking pictures, and he admitted to that.”
How could she have been so blind? Looking back, Alexis could see that the evidence pointing toward Thad Swotter had always been a little shaky. She had made a huge mistake.
When she first met Swotter, he had been rude. She had wanted him to be guilty, so she had seen every piece of evidence through her prejudice. She had made a judgment based on emotions, not on evidence.
“I guess we need a new suspect,” said Alexis.
“Nonsense!” said Kate. “I mean, we can keep investigating and following evidence, but we shouldn’t drop Thad Swotter as a suspect too easily.”
“But Kate, he said—”
“Alexis.” Kate stopped walking. She stood in the middle of the trail facing Alexis. “Get a grip. Since when did the police stop investigating someone just because they said they didn’t do it? Everyone says they’re innocent.”
“You’re right,” said Alexis. “We’ll stick with the evidence this time, though. If it points to Swotter, we’ll question him again. If not, then maybe it will point to someone else.”
They passed the entrance sign just as Mrs. Howell pulled into the parking
lot. Alexis was climbing in when Jerry ran out of the visitors’ center.
“Hey, Alexis! Wait! Someone left this for you on the front desk.” He handed a small white envelope though the car window.
“Who was it?” asked Alexis. Jerry shrugged.
“No one saw. It was just there on the desk.”
“Then how did you know it was for—oh.” Alexis saw her name on the outside of the envelope. Jerry smiled and waved as Mrs. Howell pulled away. The car was crowded, so Alexis didn’t open the envelope just yet.
What could it be?
Maybe it was an anonymous check. If the amount was huge—big enough to save the park—then whoever left it might have felt better putting it on the desk instead of the donations box. But why would they give it to her, and not Mrs. Smith or Miss Maria?
The car pulled in the driveway and Alexis and Kate tore up the stairs. Finally, they were in her room, at a safe distance from the prying eyes of the twins.
Alexis opened the envelope. To her dismay, there was no check. It was just a folded piece of white paper. Maybe a note from Miss Maria, or Mr. Bell…
She noticed that her name on the envelope was not handwritten—it looked like the work of an old typewriter. Who would take the time to type on an envelope? Alexis dropped the envelope on her bed and unfolded the note. The words typed there stole her breath away.
STOP SNOOPING, OR ELSE…
Litter and Lip Gloss
TO: Camp Club Girls SUBJECT: New Stuff
1. Creepy note—who could it be from? Is someone just messing with us, or could it be a real threat?
2. Thad Swotter—says he isn’t our guy…we’re not so sure.
Updates:
1. Donations box total to date: $24.37 (obviously not enough to save the park…)
2. Posters—most of them covered up by other announcements. Mrs. Smith’s school board idea might be our last chance.
Alexis and the Sacramento Surprise Page 7
