Flight of the Sparrows

by Annie Jones

  She knocked on the frame of the screen door.

  A high-pitched screech came from somewhere inside.

  Kate startled at the sound, then regrouped, remembering that he kept the exotic birds in his home. She drew a deep breath, then called out, “Mr. Best? Hello? It’s Kate Hanlon.”

  A loud squawk rang out. Kate thought of those big, colorful parrots in the movies that were always sitting on a pirate’s shoulder. Confronted with that image, Kate laughed.

  She waited patiently, listening to the screeching and squawking.

  As she waited, Kate studied the donation and suggestion box, which was attached to the front door. When she peered through the mesh of the screen door into the slot of the box, she was surprised at the amount of wadded-up paper money inside. He must not have emptied the box in quite a while. And he didn’t seem too worried about anyone taking the contents.

  She stepped back to get a better look at the total picture and sighed. Coming out there reinforced the impression that there was a lot more to this man than Kate knew. Her gaze fell on the supply barn, and she noticed the door had swung wide open.

  That was the barn Artie had padlocked. It certainly wasn’t locked now. She looked around her. The squawking and screeching coming from inside the house had settled down for the most part. On one hand, she didn’t want to snoop around on private property. But perhaps that’s where Artie was.

  Kate strode back down the flower-lined walk, across the rutted drive, and up to the supply barn.

  It was pitch dark inside. Still, from the other end of the barn came a soft rustling.

  “Mr. Best? Are you in there? It’s Kate Hanlon.”

  No answer, just more muffled movements from the far end of the barn.

  “Artie?” She raised her voice and, to make up for that, tried a more friendly tone.

  Still no reply.

  Kate drew in a deep breath, taking in the scent of the country air and the dankness in the barn. Before she could speak, a thump and more of the subdued shuffling sound came from somewhere in the darkness.

  Kate wasn’t quite sure what to do. Artie had padlocked this barn before, and now it was standing wide open. And what if Artie hadn’t set that trap, but whoever had set it meant to harm him? It might be a long shot, but on the chance that someone might have come out there and done injury to Artie, she had to investigate.

  Her heart thudded in her chest. “Artie, is that you?”

  Her voice set off a stir of activity, flapping and muffled sounds that didn’t quite sound human but weren’t the distinct kind of racket Artie’s parrots would make. Then came a long, high-pitched creak of the hinge on the barn door at the other end as it opened slightly. All at once, it banged and rattled as it slammed shut.

  Kate put her hand on the open door as though that would anchor her against whatever might happen next. But worry for Artie overcame her, and she crept forward. After a few steps, she disappeared into the dark shadows of the musty, old supply barn.

  She couldn’t see a thing. After a few seconds, as her eyes adjusted to the light, she could make out the shapes of the birdhouses on one side. From her previous visit, she knew she must be approaching the spot where the pallets of birdseed would be stacked chin high. She reached out her hand to find them, but her hand met empty space.

  She took another step and reached out again.

  More empty space.

  Another step, then a thud as her foot half stepped on the side of a wooden pallet. That threw her off balance, and she pitched forward. Bracing herself for a fall, she stumbled into something waist high and solid, but not too solid.

  Suddenly the door at the other end of the barn flew open, and the noise she had heard before swelled up. Shadows flickered and passed across the shaft of light from the open door. That’s when a hand clamped down on her shoulder and a male voice said, “What are you doing here?”

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Dud!” Kate turned just as the light from the door flashed across the man’s face. “I didn’t realize you were here.” The light also lit up the barn enough for Kate to see the last of some mourning doves scattering away from a pile of spilled feed on the ground.

  “We just drove up and saw the car in the drive. Shoulda recognized it was yours from the other day, Mrs. Hanlon.” He turned his shoulders stiffly toward Kate. The play of light and dark made his expression appear almost menacing in contrast to the quiet curiosity in his tone as he asked, “Did you have an appointment to see Artie?”

  “No, I decided to pay a friendly call on my way to Pine Ridge to bring Bonnie home from the hospital.”

  “I see. Yeah. Like a church thing, huh?” Without giving Kate a chance to respond to his question, he volunteered, “We had an appointment. But looks like Artie’s not here. So, like I said, we see a car in the drive, and no Artie, and—”

  “No one’s in the house,” Charlene shouted as she came striding across the drive toward the open barn door. “And the parrots are going wild. I’m beginning to wonder if we’ll be able to—”

  The instant she spotted Kate, her pace slowed.

  “Artie has company,” Dud called over his back.

  “I see that.” She reached them and smiled woodenly. “Hey, Mrs. Hanlon. Have you seen Artie?”

  “I came by to talk to him about the trap we found and tell him about Bonnie being hurt.” Kate stood with Dud’s help. She pulled her light jacket around her, even as she noted that today the couple was dressed more like they’d been at the diner, casual but not countrified. “Then when I drove up and found the gate and the barn door wide open, I thought I’d check around. When I called for him, it caused a commotion at the other end of the barn, and I went in to investigate. I was worried that Artie might be hurt, like Bonnie was.”

  “Commotion?” That got Dud’s attention. “What kind of commotion?”

  “Turns out it was just some mourning doves helping themselves to some of Artie’s birdseed supply. He’s got pallets of the stuff stacked this high.” She put her hand just above waist level.

  Kate tried to make sense out of that. Artie had told her that he had so much seed stored as a precaution against a harsh winter. But it hadn’t been cold enough yet that fall to even light a fire for ambiance, much less for warmth.

  “So nobody knows where Artie is?” Charlene drew them back to the question at hand. “We stopped by to—”

  “I already told Mrs. Hanlon about us havin’ an appointment.” Dud draped his arm around his wife.

  “Oh...oh yeah. And now there’s no sign of him. Funny, huh?”

  It was interesting, at least. But Kate wasn’t smiling. If Charlene and Dud were telling the truth, then why wasn’t Artie there? She had no reason to think the couple would lie about having an appointment, but they were acting a bit strange today. Plus, why did they keep popping up all the time? She supposed she could chalk it up to the smallness of the town and the fact that they were there to do some bird-watching in a very confined region. Besides, they only really knew Artie and, in a fringe way, Kate, Paul, and Bonnie, so no wonder they kept crossing paths.

  But so far, Kate had never seen them doing any actual bird-watching, or even looking as if they’d done any or were going to do any.

  “After discovering the trap near Artie’s land, Charlene and I just couldn’t believe that he’d be behind it. Artie’s such a great guy.” Dud looked around as he spoke, seeming more distracted than nervous. Finally he looked at Charlene, then at Kate, and said, “That’s why we wanted to talk to him about the traps and all, just like you wanted to.”

  Charlene butted in without giving Kate a chance to reply. “It seemed like a good idea, what with all the birders expected to be in town in a couple of days. If someone is setting him up, poor Artie deserves to know, don’t you think?” Charlene asked, then rolled her eyes and answered her own question. “Of course you’d think that! We should have assumed you’d come to him, it being the right way to handle things.”

  Ka
te accepted the compliment with a gracious nod, but it wasn’t lost on her that Charlene, who had once made a very pointed effort to cast doubt on Artie’s character, was now talking about someone setting him up.

  Charlene sighed and looked up at her husband, making Kate wonder if Dud knew that Charlene had been talking to her about Artie. “We probably shouldn’t even have gotten involved.”

  “Which is what I’ve been sayin’ all along,” Dud interjected. “We’ll let you handle this, Mrs. Hanlon, if you don’t mind.”

  “I don’t mind at all,” Kate said. In fact, she preferred it that way. When she spoke with Artie, she didn’t want to do it in front of other people.

  “’Course none of us can talk to the man if he’s not around.” Dud frowned and looked down the length of the drive toward the tree-lined fields in the distance. “Mighty strange him not showin’ up for an appointment, don’t you think?”

  “Well, if you ask me, he’s a mighty strange little fellow.” Charlene planted her hands on her hips and looked as if she didn’t intend to hold her peace about her opinions any longer. “He makes friends online, asks us to come by if we’re around during Sparrowpalooza, then puts up signs saying people have to make appointments. He doesn’t have another job besides caring for birds right here, and yet he seems to disappear for stretches during the day. And then there are those traps...”

  “Charlene, that’s enough.” Dud put his hand on her back and gently guided her toward their van.

  “Dud, if Mrs. Hanlon is going to confront Artie, then she needs to know everything.” She dug in her heels, actually leaving a scrape mark in the soft dirt path that led from the barn to the driveway, where their van was parked.

  “Everything?” Kate took a step toward them, her brow furrowed.

  Charlene’s usually cheerful expression turned practically grim. “After you left yesterday, Dud and I went back to bird-watching.”

  Dud gave a smile that didn’t quite seem to settle on his lips. “We came all the way from, uh, South Carolina for that, so we thought we should make the most of the day.”

  Kate noted with interest his hesitation before saying his home state. Meanwhile, Charlene hurried on talking.

  “And if you really did lay eyes on an umbie yesterday, well, we had to stick around to see if we could have the same luck.” Charlene’s smile came more readily than her husband’s, but it didn’t last long as she returned to her story. “Anyway, we stayed out a while longer, and ’long about dusk, we saw a figure in Artie’s field.”

  “We think it was Artie’s field, anyway, but it might have been a neighboring field.” Dud spoke to Charlene, not directly to Kate.

  “We can’t be sure of that, but we sure do know that we saw a figure skulking around,” Charlene added.

  Kate spoke up. “A figure? A man or woman? Do you think it was Artie?”

  “Couldn’t tell who it was or if it was man or woman, to be honest.” Charlene looked back at Dud. “But the way they were creeping around in the grass, all low to the ground, I’d be ready to bet they were up to something. If it wasn’t Artie, then it might just have been the one who set the trap, and maybe the one with answers about those missing birds.”

  With that description, an image of Dot and oven mitts popped into Kate’s mind. “That’s an interesting thought, Charlene. If it wasn’t Artie, then I have an idea who it might have been,” Kate said as she picked her way along the uneven ground, heading toward her car. “A local lady, Dot Bagley, who doesn’t live too far from here. We saw her out in a field a few days ago, trying to catch a cat. She was hunched over in the position you described. She’s harmless, I’m sure.” Harmless, yes, but the woman’s actions still had Kate puzzled. Though now Kate wasn’t completely ready to rule out a possible link between Dot’s pet project and the missing birds.

  “Friend of yours?” Dud asked in his low, droning accent.

  “We’re not close, but I do know her, yes,” Kate replied over her shoulder.

  “You better tell her to watch herself,” Dud said.

  Kate pulled up short. A chill ran down her spine. “What?”

  Dud’s face was unreadable. “On account of them traps and us not knowin’ what’s going on out here and all. We like Artie, Mrs. Hanlon, but he clearly ain’t happy about all the bird-watchers about to converge in the fields. Now there’s a lady skulkin’ about at dusk.” Dud smiled at Kate politely. “I sure would hate for anyone to get hurt.”

  “You mean, anyone else to get hurt,” Charlene said softly.

  “Yeah. Right. Anyone else to get hurt.” Dud put his arm around Charlene and gave her a quick sideways hug that looked like a mixture of comfort and gratitude. He seemed truly troubled at the reminder of Bonnie’s injury.

  “Maybe this...Dot Bagley, did you say?” Charlene looked to Kate for confirmation, and when Kate nodded, she went on. “Her sneaking around at dusk like that makes me wonder if she’s behind the birds going missing...and the traps. But if she’s not...well, then we don’t know what might happen or who might get hurt next.”

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  Charlene’s words tumbled over and over in Kate’s mind as she drove to Pine Ridge Hospital. They hadn’t been able to find Artie and had parted ways. Kate didn’t want to keep Bonnie waiting.

  Kate angled her shoulders back and took a few deep breaths. She would be at the hospital in a matter of minutes, and she didn’t want to carry any apprehension with her. She thought of a verse in Proverbs that she’d often heard quoted from the King James Version: “A merry heart doeth good like a medicine.”

  She turned the Honda down a tree-lined street, and the hospital came into sight. She parked in the lot, then waited a moment. She couldn’t entirely shake her disquiet about the Howells and Artie Best. The Howells seemed so sincere and friendly, while Artie was a bit off-putting and surly. Yet at this point, she didn’t feel inclined to trust the traveling couple any more than she did the local bird wrangler. She wished the visit to Artie’s had given her more information, but really it had only raised more questions. And it had reminded her that Dot was still stalking about the countryside. What was she up to? Was Kate missing out on some essential clue by spending her time trying to talk to the elusive Artie?

  Kate rubbed her forehead. She didn’t know how merry of a heart she would carry into Bonnie’s hospital room with so much weighing on her mind. She’d first approached the problem of the missing birds as more of a puzzle than a bona fide mystery. But the dangers that the situation might pose to others had turned it from a puzzle to a mystery that needed resolution. And now she had begun to think it wasn’t that simple.

  Artie had a story. Charlene and Dud had their stories. The three of them had some common ground, and clearly some conflict as well. Then there were the traps and the unaccounted-for bird flocks and the bird-watchers slated to arrive in less than forty-eight hours.

  Kate looked at the plain brick hospital and sighed. Bowing her head, she prayed that the Lord would clear her heart and mind and allow her to fit the pieces together in time. She got out and shut her car door. The reason that she couldn’t separate the pieces and distinguish between what was a curiosity and what was a potential threat was that she didn’t have all the pieces. She needed to have a heart-to-heart with Artie Best. And, at some point, talk to Dot. If Bonnie was up to it while they were in Pine Ridge today, she also wanted to talk to the organizers of the Sparrowpalooza Weekend.

  And while warning the people at Joanie’s Ark about potential dangers from booby traps, she wouldn’t mind getting their opinion about the drop in the bird count.

  Minutes later, she was in Bonnie’s sunny hospital room, suggesting they do just that: go to Joanie’s Ark and ask some questions.

  “But only if it won’t be too much for you,” Kate clarified.

  “Too much?” Bonnie put her hand to her forehead and laid back dramatically on her raised hospital bed, pretending to reel at the very mention of the idea. “Now don’t you start
with that mollycoddling the retired lady nonsense. Remember, I’m retired from a job, not from life.”

  Kate, happy to see Bonnie up and about, chimed in with a response drawn from her high-school years. “Yes, Mrs. Mulgrew.”

  “The way people have been waiting on me and fussing over me for nothing more than a twisted ankle and a bump on the head? I have half a mind to do cartwheels all the way to the car just to prove to everyone that I’m not yet a spent force.”

  “No one thinks you’re a spent force. Not by any means, Bonnie,” Kate assured her, smiling. Even after so many years, she still had much to learn from the feisty, energetic woman. “And if you say you’re up to it, then up to it we shall be!”

  When the doctor signed the release papers and the nurses said good-bye to Bonnie, she didn’t do a cartwheel, but she did insist on making her own way from the curb to the car. To do so, she hopped for a whole four feet on one foot, an effort that both Kate and the attending nurse applauded.

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  Armed with directions to a quiet neighborhood in the older part of Pine Ridge, Kate easily found the slightly shabby but neatly maintained two-story house on a corner lot. It had a chain-link fence around the sizable backyard, and dog runs that, at present, were unoccupied. The large turquoise and yellow wooden sign in the yard read: Joanie’s Ark, Animal Rescue.

  Kate helped Bonnie up the two wide steps of the porch and through the door, which had a computer-printed sign on it listing the shelter’s hours. Underneath that was another sign: Please Don’t Knock, Cats Napping.

  They shared a giggle at that as they went inside. The place had a subtle odor—not unpleasant, but hints of house dust, disinfectant, and cedar.

  “Looking or leaving?” The young woman sitting at the small metal desk in the foyer didn’t lift her gaze from the laptop flipped open in front of her.

  Kate wasn’t exactly sure how to answer the question.

  The girl, her fingers now flying over the keyboard and her attention glued to the screen, asked again, “Looking or leaving?”