Once Upon a Toad

by Heather Vogel Frederick

  She looked surprised, and I patted my throat and winced. I was getting good at this. “Laryngitis, huh?” she asked.

  I nodded.

  Agent Salgado pulled his head back in the window. “Looks to me like there are some holes in the ground below,” he reported. “Let’s go check.”

  They all trooped outside in the pouring rain, then came back into the kitchen a few minutes later to report that they’d found a ladder under the back deck, and twin holes in the flower bed directly under Geoffrey’s window.

  Agent Reynolds wiped the mud from her shoes. She looked like a drowned rat. “The intruders definitely used the ladder to gain access to your son’s bedroom,” she told Iz and Dad, glancing across the table to where my stepsister was sitting. “We found traces of wet mud on the carpet runner in the hall outside Olivia’s bedroom as well. Looks like they may have tried your daughter’s door first.”

  Olivia’s face flushed, and she looked like she was going to burst into tears again. She was right, then. They had taken Geoffrey because they couldn’t get to her.

  “There are footprints across the lawn leading toward the woods,” Agent Salgado added. “It’s going to be difficult to lift any decent prints in this downpour, but the forensics team should be here any minute to give it a try. We’ve got search and rescue dogs on the way too.” He patted my stepmother’s shoulder. “We’ll follow up on every lead, ma’am. I know this is difficult, but there’s no reason to believe we won’t get your son back.”

  Iz nodded. “Thank you,” she said softly.

  “We’ll be setting up a phone trace too. The kidnappers will likely contact you soon to make arrangements for a handoff.”

  “You’re not going to give me away, are you, Mom?” Olivia asked anxiously.

  Fair trade, I thought. I’d swap my stepsister for Geoffrey any day of the week.

  “Of course not, darling,” Iz reassured her.

  At lunchtime the FBI had Chinese food brought in for everyone. Not that we were hungry. I could barely swallow, and it wasn’t because of toads.

  Afterward, I slipped up to the attic again to text A.J.

  Any luck?

  Just got it up and running. Found ur great-aunt. She’s at Redwood National Park. What next?

  Not sure, I told him. Will call when I figure it out.

  I made sure my cell phone was silenced—the last thing I wanted was for Dad or Iz to discover that I’d swiped it back—then tucked it into my pocket and went slowly downstairs. How on earth was I supposed to get to the redwoods? Weren’t they in California or something?

  Cat Starr, Toad Huntress, was fresh out of ideas.

  CHAPTER 15

  The day dragged on with no word yet from the kidnappers.

  Police officers and federal agents came and went as they set up a command station and tested the equipment they’d be using to trace all incoming calls. They were trying to keep the kidnapping under wraps, but the reporters were getting restless, what with all the activity. Finally Agent Salgado went outside and made a vague statement, telling them that due to the sensitive nature of the events of the last twenty-four hours, his office had been called in to offer assistance.

  “I think that will buy us some time,” he said to my father and stepmother when he came back inside. “They’ll assume I was talking about Diam—uh, Olivia. No need for them to know about your son yet.”

  Iz nodded. She looked drained and pale. “Thank you,” she said, and then sent me and Olivia upstairs to our room for the afternoon to shield us from prying eyes. People weren’t snooping, really, but they couldn’t help themselves; they were curious about Diamond Girl.

  We were supposed to be doing our homework, but I’d left my backpack in the kitchen and didn’t feel like going down to get it. I doubted we’d be returning to school anytime soon anyway—maybe never—unless I could somehow figure out a way to get to Great-Aunt Aby.

  Across the room Olivia took out her glue gun, flipped on the radio, and started another diorama. I needed something to take my mind off everything too. My gaze wandered over to my bassoon case, which had been sitting at the foot of my bed ever since Tuesday night’s fiasco. Practicing it was out of the question, and at this rate I might have to kiss my dream of playing with a symphony orchestra good-bye too. No one was likely to hire a toad-spouting bassoonist. Not unless some composer out there got busy writing the Amphibian Concerto.

  I stuck my earbuds in and cranked up the Bach, then lost myself in a book.

  Olivia slipped out a little while later to use the bathroom, which we now had to share not only with our whole family, but also half the Portland police force plus the FBI. I waited until she was safely down the hall, then sneaked over to her bed to take a look at her latest creation. Call it morbid fascination on my part, but I had to see what she’d come up with this time, now that she knew about the toads.

  My stepsister surprised me for once. The Skipper-who-was-me was nowhere in sight. Instead, Olivia had made an exact replica of Geoffrey’s room.

  Well, sort of. Geoffrey’s room if it were suddenly transformed into Ali Baba’s cave, maybe, or transplanted to Broadway.

  The furniture was all there—his bed and the armchair in the corner and his bookcase, too, complete with little titles written on the construction paper books. She’d re-created the zoo mural, and there was even a LEGO castle in the middle of the floor. But in Olivia’s version of Geoffrey’s room everything sparkled. The walls sparkled; the ceiling sparkled; the windows and doors sparkled; the eyes of the zoo animals in the mural sparkled. There were diamonds glued to everything. It was dazzling.

  While I was plugged into my iPod reading, she must have been talking up a storm or singing along to the radio or something to have produced so many gems. I frowned. But where were the flowers? There should be flowers around here too somewhere. I glanced around to see what she’d done with them and spotted a lumpy-looking pillowcase by the bed. Sure enough, she’d stuffed them inside.

  Turning back to the diorama, I traced the stones on the diorama’s floor. She’d even re-created Geoffrey’s Traffic Tyme carpet. Something was different, though. Looking closer, I saw that she’d tweaked the design. Instead of multiple lanes there was just one. It looked kind of like an arrow. In fact, it was an arrow. A long, shimmering arrow that ran from the tiny open window—the one the kidnappers had climbed through—to Geoffrey’s door, which was open, and pointed down the hall to Olivia’s door, which was also open. On her door she’d posted a big sign: DIAMOND GIRL THIS WAY!

  I sat back on my heels, stunned. I wasn’t sure what to think. She’d been truly, genuinely upset this morning. Was Olivia trying to make things right? Was this diorama her way of saying she was sorry?

  Not wanting to get caught spying, I headed back to my side of the room. By the time my stepsister came through the door, I appeared to be deeply engrossed in my book. I pretended to jump when she poked me in the leg, and pulled out an earbud as I lifted my eyebrows questioningly.

  She pointed urgently toward the stairs. “I think they just got a call from the kidnappers!” she whispered, showering me with morning glories. Blue. Her favorite color. I took this as a hopeful sign.

  I jumped up and followed her out of the room. The two of us crept downstairs to the landing and huddled behind Iz’s messenger bag, which was hanging over the banister. From there we had a clear view across the front hall to where my dad was seated at the dining-room table. A knot of FBI agents and police officers were clustered around him. He had the phone on speaker.

  “We’ll make the exchange at the zoo,” said a gravelly voice. “Friday morning, nine o’clock sharp. Bring her to the penguin exhibit.”

  Olivia elbowed me in the ribs. Friday was the day of our school field trip.

  “Don’t bring anyone else with you,” the gravelly voice continued. “If I get so much as a whiff of a police uniform, the deal is off.”

  Agent Salgado made a stretching motion with his hands, like he was pulli
ng on a rubber band. He was telling my father to try and keep the conversation going. I figured they must be trying to trace the call.

  “Hang on a minute!” protested my dad. “I’m not just going to hand my daughter over to you!”

  Stepdaughter, I thought automatically.

  “How do I know you even have my son?” he continued. “And how do I know you’re going to keep your word?”

  The kidnapper gave a short bark of laughter. “What’s this world coming to? Doesn’t anybody trust anybody anymore? Hey, Geoffrey!”

  From somewhere in the background came an answering, “With a G!”

  Beside me, Olivia sucked her breath in sharply. Our little brother’s voice sounded very small and very far away. Downstairs in the dining room I saw my father reach over and squeeze Iz’s hand. “Okay,” he said. “Okay. We’ll be there.”

  “Good.”

  There was a click and the line went dead. The kidnapper had hung up.

  Agent Reynolds took off her headphones and shook her head. “Sorry, Mr. Starr. We couldn’t quite pin down the location.”

  “I don’t like the idea of using my daughter as bait,” said Iz.

  “She won’t be,” Agent Salgado assured her. “We just want to lead the kidnapper to believe that you’re willing to make the switch.”

  Agent Reynolds tapped her notebook thoughtfully. “Why the zoo? Why Friday?”

  “I don’t know if this has anything to do with it, but that’s Field Trip Friday,” said Iz. “Half the schools in Portland will be there.”

  Agent Salgado gave a low whistle. “I think you hit the nail on the head, ma’am. Smart move on their part. If the place is crawling with kids, it makes our job all the more difficult. Not that we aren’t up to it,” he added hastily.

  “The problem is, we can’t alter the schedule and cancel the field trips, or they’ll smell a rat,” said Agent Reynolds, and her partner nodded.

  “I understand,” said Iz.

  “Please don’t worry,” Agent Reynolds continued gently. “We’ll have agents in place all over, no matter how many people are there. You won’t be able to move in that penguin exhibit without bumping into one of ours. I can promise you that your daughter will never for a moment be in harm’s way.”

  Olivia stood up abruptly. I watched her walk back up the stairs, wondering how I’d feel if I were in her shoes. Not so great, I guessed.

  The afternoon wore on. The rain, which had stopped sometime before lunch, started up again. Olivia had discarded her diorama and lay on her bed, staring listlessly at the ceiling. I wandered over to our bedroom window, almost feeling sorry for the reporters outside. They looked pretty miserable huddled in their cars and under their umbrellas. Not too sorry, though. They were the ones who’d fueled this whole fire, after all.

  As the last shreds of daylight faded, I heard another knock at the front door, and I tiptoed down to the landing again. Olivia bestirred herself to get up and follow me.

  “For heaven’s sake, now who?” said Iz, sounding irritated.

  “I’ll get it, Mrs. Starr,” said Agent Salgado, crossing to the front door. He opened it a crack and peered out into the gathering darkness. Someone passed him a business card. He looked at it, then turned toward my stepmother. “We’d better let him in,” he said. There was a funny expression on his face.

  “Tim!” Iz called anxiously, and my father came out of the dining room, where he’d been talking with the FBI agents. He crossed the front hall to join her. I could have reached down and touched his hair, which was starting to thin on top.

  The FBI agent opened the door, and a scrawny, nondescript man in glasses and a dark raincoat hurried inside. Agent Salgado closed the door again as an explosion of blinding flashes erupted from the news cameras at the bottom of the driveway.

  “What can we do for you, Mr… . ?” said Iz.

  “Dalton. Dr. Seymour Dalton. Special envoy of the United States government.” The man was soft spoken, and there was a twang in his voice that I didn’t think was Texas but was probably not too far away. Arkansas, maybe, or Oklahoma.

  Wordlessly, Agent Salgado passed the man’s business card to my father and Iz. They were standing directly beneath us, and I peered down, just able to make out the address. It was a post office box in Nevada, and below Dr. Dalton’s name were printed the words “Senior Scientist, Biological Research Division, Area 51.”

  “Area Fifty-one?” My father’s voice shot up an octave. “You have got to be kidding me. What is this, some kind of cruel joke?” He marched over to the front door. Opening it wide and ignoring the excited buzz from the news media, he jerked his thumb toward the government envoy. “You. Outside. Now.”

  “Mr. Starr,” said Dr. Dalton. “I don’t think you understand.”

  “You might want to hear him out,” said Agent Salgado quietly, exchanging a glance with Agent Reynolds.

  My father sighed and shut the door. “Fine. What exactly is it that you want?”

  “We’re very interested in your daughter,” said the scientist. His eyes flicked up to where Olivia was kneeling beside me on the landing. Uh-oh, we’d been spotted. “I’m authorized to take her with me back to Nevada.”

  “What?” screeched Iz. “Absolutely not! Tim, tell him.”

  My father nodded. “My wife is right. There is absolutely no way we’re going to agree to that.”

  “I’m afraid this isn’t a voluntary removal,” said Dr. Dalton. I could see the sweat beads forming on his forehead.

  “What do you mean it isn’t voluntary?” My dad’s eyes narrowed.

  “What I mean is that the government has the legal right to remove your daughter, although I’d rather have your permission, of course.”

  “Nonsense,” said my father. “I’m calling my lawyer.”

  Dr. Dalton snapped open his briefcase and pulled out a thick document. “You do that, Mr. Starr,” he said, handing it to him. “Be sure that your lawyer looks this over. He or she will want to pay close attention to page three hundred twelve, article seventy-six. The one about obstructing an authorized federal envoy.”

  My father didn’t even bother to look at it, he just threw it down on the hall table. “I don’t care what you or any piece of paper says, my daughter isn’t going anywhere with you.”

  Stepdaughter, I thought again.

  Agent Salgado picked up the document and turned to a page at the back, then gave a deep sigh. “I’m afraid he’s right, Mr. Starr. Dr. Dalton does have the authority to take Olivia into custody.”

  “Over my dead body,” said my father flatly.

  “I’m sure that won’t be necessary,” said the government scientist with an uneasy chuckle. “I promise you she won’t come to any harm, and we’ll have her back to you safely in a matter of months.”

  “Months!” wailed Olivia, suddenly leaping to her feet. “Mom! Don’t make me go!”

  A handful of zinnias quivered over the banister to the floor of the front hall. Dr. Dalton bent down and scooped them up.

  My stepsister looked genuinely frightened, and I couldn’t help feeling sorry for her.

  At least until she opened her mouth again.

  “What about Cat?” she said spitefully. A diamond tumbled from her lips to the hall floor as she pushed the messenger bag aside, exposing my hiding place.

  “Olivia!” said Iz, shocked.

  The government scientist’s eyes lit up at the sight of the bright gem. He bent over to pick it up, then pulled out a jeweler’s loupe and examined it more closely. “Of course you can bring your cat,” he said absently.

  “Not my cat— Cat!” Olivia said in disgust.

  “That’s enough!” Iz said sternly, shaking her head in warning.

  Dr. Dalton looked up at Olivia and blinked. “Who’s Cat?”

  My stepsister pointed to me.

  The government agent’s unblinking gaze shifted in my direction. “Why would we want to bring her, too?” he asked as I shrank back.

 
“Because she—” Olivia began.

  “Olivia Jean!” thundered her mother in a tone that meant business.

  Olivia hesitated, then mumbled, “Nothing. Never mind.”

  Dr. Dalton stared up at me, his glasses reflecting the light of the front hall chandelier. A ripple of fear shuddered through me. No way was I going anywhere with him, ever.

  It was time to take matters into my own hands.

  Reaching into Iz’s messenger bag, I felt around for the velvet drawstring pouch that contained Olivia’s accumulated gems. My fingers closed on it just as Dr. Dalton started up the stairs.

  “Oh, no you don’t,” said my father, moving to block him. Iz ran to join the barricade.

  I stood up and gave a sharp whistle. All eyes in the house turned toward me as I opened the drawstring, then leaned over the bannister and emptied the pouch.

  The diamonds fell in a bright stream, tumbling and glinting in the light of the hallway lamp like a dazzling waterfall. I caught a glimpse of Olivia’s silver “Sisters are forever friends” ring among them.

  Pandemonium struck. Every FBI agent and police officer present fell to his or her knees, scrambling frantically for the glittering stones, just as I knew they would.

  Dr. Dalton turned away from the staircase and joined them. My father and Iz watched, stunned.

  Time to go!

  I grabbed Olivia by the hand and dragged her down the rest of the stairs and into the kitchen. My backpack was still on the bench where I’d left it when I got home from school yesterday. I slung it over my shoulder, slipped my father’s rain poncho from its hook by the back door, and fled with my stepsister into the darkness.

  CHAPTER 16

  “What do you think you’re doing?” whispered Olivia furiously as she struggled to tug her hand out of my grasp. “It’s pouring rain out here!”

  I gripped her more tightly as I dragged her across the lawn. My stepsister might be bigger than me, but I was more determined. “Trying to save your life, you moron,” I whispered back, ducking under the rhododendron. “Do you want to end up in some zoo exhibit?”

  “What are you talking about?” She glared at me as we squatted in the shrub’s branches.