Strawberry Summer

by Cynthia Blair

  Sure enough, the third file she came across was labeled “Pinewood.” And inside the manila envelope were six or eight memos and letters, all of them concerning the Reeds’ property.

  The memos were written to the real estate agents who worked in the office. Chris’s eyes grew round as she skimmed them. They talked about plans for upsetting things at the camp—hiding supplies, releasing all the boats onto Lake Majestic, even hiding the folding chairs, rented for the counselors’ show. And the tone of all of them was the same: congratulating Pete for successfully carrying out the evil little schemes that Tom had thought up.

  At the back of the folder was a letter, written just a few days before. It was to a local architecture firm, describing the Reeds’ property, which, the letter said, the Lake Majestic Realty Company “expected to acquire sometime in the near future.” Tom suggested in the letter that the architects begin drawing up plans for a complex of lakefront condominiums. There was even a reference to the fact that saving money on the buildings, by “cutting corners wherever possible,” was much more important than quality. Chris was astounded.

  The folder was a gold mine! She had found exactly what she had come looking for. Now all she had to do was make a copy of each of the memos and the letter, get out while she still had the time, and hide behind the inn and wait for Alan and Susan to come by and pick her up. Once she presented copies of these documents at the public land auction, everyone would know exactly what had been going on. The game would be over for the Lake Majestic Realty Company!

  But she had to hurry. The clock on Tom’s desk

  told her it was ten minutes to one. She rushed over

  to the copying machine in the front room and

  quickly made two duplicates of each piece of paper.

  As she did she heard a car door slam—and jumped

  about two feet.

  It could be anyone, she told herself. It’s still early. That’s probably just someone on his way to the dentist. You’ve still got time....

  With the copies in one hand and the originals in the other, Chris rushed back to Tom’s office. She pulled open his desk drawer and leaned over to put the entire folder back exactly as she had found it. She was struggling to fit it in between two other folders when a sinking feeling suddenly traveled over her, making her break out in a cold sweat.

  She knew even before she looked up that someone was standing in the doorway.

  “Looks to me like I’ve got myself a burglar,” growled the large, heavy set man who was looming before her.

  Chris immediately recognized his voice as Tom’s. Her knees felt so weak that she was certain she would sink to the floor. But instead, she just froze.

  “But you’re not just any old burglar. You’ve been going through my files, haven’t you?”

  Chris just stared at him. She had, indeed, been caught red-handed. She had his file in one hand, her copies of its contents in the other. What she had been doing was all too obvious—especially to someone like Tom, who knew that he was on the verge of completing the shady deal he’d started two or three years before.

  When he walked over and calmly took both the folder and the copies away from her, Chris recoiled. And as he glanced at them, she told herself to run while she still could. Her legs didn’t want to move, at first. It was like a nightmare, where she knew she had to get away but was frozen to the spot. And then, when she finally did manage to start hurrying away, he grabbed her roughly by the arm.

  “Not so fast, honey. You think you’re just going to walk right out of here? Especially since it’s all too clear what you’ve been up to! No, you’re a real troublemaker. Sent over by Jake Reed, I suppose....”

  “No! He doesn’t know anything about this! And if you let me go, I promise not to say anything....”

  ‘“You promise’!” Tom laughed coldly. “And you think I should believe you, huh? Well, I’ll let you go—in due time. But for the next couple of hours, I think it’d be best if I made sure a little troublemaker like you stayed out of the way!”

  With that, he pushed her into a small storage room with no window, just an air vent, throwing in the folder and all the papers after her. “Here, that’ll give you something to read while you’re in there! Don’t worry; you’ll get out soon enough. Just as soon as the land auction is over! And by the way, if you should get any ideas about pounding on the door and yelling your head off, I’ll be leaving a note on the door, telling Nancy to take the afternoon off.

  “Now I’ve got a meeting to get to!”

  He slammed the door behind him, and Chris heard him lock it from the outside. She was shaking all over by then, and she sank to the floor. But it wasn’t fear that was causing her to tremble; it was anger. She had been so close! And now she wouldn’t be able to help the Reeds after all. Susan and Alan would be coming by soon, but they would never manage to get her out of there.

  Oh, she would get out sooner or later, she knew. All in one piece, too.

  But not until it was too late.

  Chapter Fourteen

  “What time is it?” Susan asked nervously for what must have been the tenth time in the past fifteen minutes. She and Alan were in the pickup, headed for the Okie-Dokie Inn, on their way to their rendezvous with Chris.

  “It’s one-thirty,” Alan replied patiently.

  He, too, had been nervously watching the clock. Ever since Susan had come to him an hour earlier and told him the whole story of the “investigation” she and Chris had undertaken, and what they had found out as a result, he had been worried.

  His first inclination had been to tell his parents. But they had already left for the public land auction, intending to run some errands beforehand.

  Probably to keep their minds off what they’re about to do, he thought sadly. Camp Pinewood has been their life for as long as I can remember—ever since I was a little boy. What they must be going through, having no other choice but to sell it!

  So Susan’s report of what she and her twin had discovered was heartening. Now, if only the rest of the girls’ plan went off as smoothly as she seemed to think it would!

  It certainly seemed simple enough. By now Chris should have had enough time to find the evidence that was necessary to prove what the Lake Majestic Realty Company had been doing all along. Once they picked her up from behind the Okie-Dokie Inn with that evidence in hand, they could race to the auction, stop his parents from signing over their land—and expose those real estate people for the crooks they really were.

  Just as long as nothing went wrong....

  “What time is it now?”

  Alan looked at his watch. “It’s one-thirty-one. What time were we supposed to meet Chris?”

  “One-thirty, on the nose. But it doesn’t matter if we’re a little late. She’ll be there.”

  Alan just wished he could be as confident about this whole thing as Susan seemed to be.

  As the two of them drove into the parking lot, they were both searching for Chris. Alan pulled up behind the Okie-Dokie, puzzled.

  Susan, too, was surprised. “Now, that’s funny. This is where we’ve both been hiding all week, while we were ‘spying’ on the Lake Majestic Realty office. I was sure she’d be here....”

  “Maybe she’s still inside. Let’s park over there, out of the way, and wait. She’ll show up sooner or later.” He glanced at his watch once again. “I just hope it’s sooner. The auction starts in twenty-five minutes.”

  “Don’t worry,” Susan assured him. “Chris will come through. She always does.”

  They waited in silence. The minutes slipped by—and no Chris. Even Susan was growing fidgety

  “How long did you say it takes to drive to Town Hall from here?”

  “Oh, about twenty minutes.”

  Susan gulped. “It’s getting late, isn’t it?”

  Alan just nodded.

  The two of them sat in the pickup truck in silence. When it was almost one-forty-five, Susan turned to Alan and said, “Look, I’m starti
ng to get worried. I know for sure that if Chris could be here, she’d be here. Something must have happened. Something must have gone wrong....”

  “I’ll tell you what. I’ll go inside the Lake Majestic offices and see if I can find out anything.”

  “No—I’d better go. They might recognize you. Besides,” she added, almost as if she were talking to herself, “it’s my turn.”

  “Huh?”

  “Oh, just something I’d worked out with Chris.’’

  She walked over to the Lake Majestic Realty Company office, trying to look as casual as she could. She didn’t know what she was going to say once she got inside ... but it turned out not to matter. The door was locked.

  “Hello? Hello? Anyone here?” she called.

  At first, she tried to keep her voice low. But as she started to get scared, her cries grew louder and louder. “Chris, are you in there? Chris? Chris?”

  But there was no response, only the loud hum of the air conditioners of the other offices. Even when she went around to the back of the building, she had no luck. And the window of Tom’s office was closed up tight.

  “She’s not there, Alan,” Susan reported once she got back to the truck. Her growing panic was reflected in her voice. “The whole place is deserted. I don’t know where she could be!”

  “Maybe she went on without us. Yes, that must be it. She must have gotten a ride somehow and decided not to wait for us.”

  “I suppose that’s possible.... But it still doesn’t sound like Chris,” Susan remained baffled. And she was growing more and more worried about her sister.

  “Well, at this point I guess there’s nothing else for us to do but assume that she managed to get to Town Hall on her own steam. You know, your twin is one tough lady. I’m sure she’s got everything under control.”

  “I suppose so ... but let’s go on to Town Hall anyway.” She thought for a minute. “I can’t explain it, but I just have a feeling that we should show up there.”

  “What do you mean, ‘a feeling’?”

  “Oh, it’s just sort of a sixth sense that Chris and I have. About each other, I mean. I think it comes from our being twins.”

  “Sounds kind of spooky, if you ask me.”

  “Trust me. Let’s just get over to Town Hall as fast as we can.”

  With a shrug, Alan started up the truck.

  Twenty minutes later, they pulled into a crowded parking lot. Apparently there were a lot of people who were interested in buying local land. Susan thought she recognized Tom’s car—but she couldn’t be certain. Even so, she had no doubt that he would be here. Her heart was pounding as she hurried inside with Alan in tow.

  Inside, a large community room was buzzing with people. They were late, she could see; the auction was already under way. Susan scanned the crowd, looking for her twin. But she was nowhere to be seen. Her heart sank.

  If Chris wasn’t here and she wasn’t back at the Lake Majestic offices, then where on earth was she? She was really getting worried now.

  “There are my folks,” Alan pointed out, his voice a loud whisper.

  Sure enough, Jake and Olive Reed were at the front of the room, moving toward a desk on which rested a pile of official-looking papers. They both looked grim. Behind them, their faces reflecting triumph, were the three real estate agents.

  “Oh, no! I think we’re too late!” Susan groaned. “It looks like the deal has already been made. Your parents are about to sign over Camp Pinewood to those ... those criminals.”

  “Maybe we can still warn them....” But Alan sounded anything but optimistic.

  “Well, we might as well go over and try.”

  But as Susan and Alan made their way up to the front of the room, a peculiar thing happened. Tom, the real estate agent, happened to glance over and see them. All of a sudden, a look of horror crossed his face.

  “It’s her!” he cried, gripping the side of the desk for support. He dropped the pen he had been holding in midair as he was about to sign the papers that would make Camp Pine wood his. “How did you get out?”

  And then he realized something else: that this girl in the sundress walking toward him, the girl who had somehow managed to escape from that locked storeroom, had in her possession papers that could make him and his real estate company look bad. Very bad.

  He suddenly turned beet red.

  “Well, now, maybe we’re being a bit too hasty here after all,” he sputtered.

  His two associates, Pete and Doris, looked at him in amazement.

  “What are you talking about, Tom?” asked Pete, sounding annoyed. “You know we’ve been planning this for months. For years!”

  The lawyer who was overseeing the transaction looked over at the two men, surprised. “Months? Years?” he asked, blinking with astonishment. “But this land was only put up for auction last week!”

  But the others ignored him. They were too busy looking at Tom, who was growing more and more agitated.

  “No,” he said, “on second thought, I think we need some more time before we decide to make a big purchase like that Camp Pinewood land. In fact, I’d like to call a conference with my business associates right now, if you don’t mind....”

  He dragged Pete and Doris away, both of them wearing expressions of amazement.

  “What was that all about?” asked the lawyer.

  Susan suddenly burst out laughing. She had just realized what had happened ... and the fact that it was the very last thing she would have expected in a million years made the whole thing seem even funnier.

  “Let’s just say that they seemed to think I was someone else. A natural mistake, of course, but something that it never even occurred to me might happen....

  “Anyway, it’s all for the best. Mr. and Mrs. Reed, we happen to know for a fact that those real estate agents are the people responsible for all those ‘mysterious’ things that have been going on at Camp Pine wood over the past few summers. They’ve been trying to make you lose business so you’d sell them your land—cheap. The whole thing is terribly dishonest.”

  “That’s quite an accusation to make,” the lawyer interjected with a frown. “Especially since these people happen to be some of our town’s most upstanding citizens.’’

  “Hah!” snorted Alan. “Is that why they scurried away like that just now? No, they were afraid of being exposed in public. Right here, in front of all these people.” With a sweep of his arm, he indicated the roomful of local citizens who were seated in the community room, waiting for the next parcel of land to be put up for auction.

  “And we have proof, too,” Susan said bravely. “At least I think we do. First of all, we have to find my sister, Chris.”

  “Chris?” asked Mrs. Reed. “What does she have to do with all this?”

  “It’s a long story, but one that I hope you’ll give me a chance to tell.”

  “I’m looking forward to it,” said the lawyer. “In the meantime,” he added, turning to the Reeds and handing them some papers, “why don’t you hold on to the deeds to your land? As of right now, you two are still the owners.”

  Susan and Alan exchanged looks of relief—and triumph.

  “I’ll tell you what, Susan,” said Alan. “How about if you stay here and tell my folks and this lawyer all about everything you two found out about the Lake Majestic Realty Company? In the meantime, I’ll take the truck and try to find Chris.”

  “All right. But where are you going to look?”

  “Back at the real estate offices. I have a feeling that this plot to ‘steal’ Camp Pinewood from my parents isn’t the only thing those people are capable of. Maybe she’s still in there, locked up or something. Didn’t that man Tom say something like, ‘How did she manage to get out?’ At any rate, I’ll tell you one thing: I wouldn’t put anything past them! I’m going back over there to see what I can find out.”

  “Thanks.” Susan squeezed his arm gratefully. “I’m sure she’s all right ... but I’ll feel a lot better once she’s bac
k at camp!”

  “And now,” she went on, turning back to the lawyer and the Reeds, all of whom seemed anxious to hear what she had to say, “let me tell you what’s been going on. I’ll start at the very beginning.”

  Chapter Fifteen

  Camp Pinewood’s annual Parents’ Day was held a few days after the land auction. The day dawned sunny and cool—-the perfect kind of day for showing the campers’ parents around, letting them get a closer look at the place where their children were making new friends and learning new things and simply having fun. Everyone had been preparing for days, and it promised to be a joyous festival.

  Late that morning, the Reeds took a moment out to sit down at their kitchen table and to share a pitcher of lemonade with their son—and the camp’s two most celebrated counselors, Chris and Susan Pratt.

  “You know, this is easily the best Parents’ Day we’ve ever had,” said Olive Reed, putting her arms around the shoulders of both Chris and Susan. There were tears in her eyes as she spoke. “And it’s all because of you two girls.”

  “That’s right,” Jake Reed agreed in a hearty voice. “If it weren’t for you twins, this would be our last Parents’ Day ever. And the last year that Camp Pinewood ever existed!”

  “Well,” said Susan sheepishly, “we were glad we could help....”

  “ ‘Help’! You saved Camp Pinewood!” Alan was no less grateful to the twins than his parents. “You decided that you were going to get to the bottom of all the things that had been going on here for years, and, by golly, you went ahead and did it!”

  “Aw, shucks.” Chris grinned. “It was easy.”

  “Easy!” exclaimed Olive Reed. “I don’t exactly

  call being locked up in a storage closet for over an

  hour ‘easy’!”

  “Well ... I suppose so,” Chris said modestly. “But Tom let me out just as soon as he got back to the office, right after his hasty departure from the Public Land Auction.” She chuckled to herself. “Boy, you should have seen the look on his face when he opened the door and saw that I was still in there! I thought his eyes were going to pop out of his head! He said, ‘I don’t believe it! There are two of you!’ ”