“Mr. Beake,” Esther began.
Byron cut her off. “I’ve done the feeding.” He smiled a small smile at Esther to show he wasn’t mad. “You’ll not need to slingshot the food to Howard today.”
They had taken too long in Bill’s garage. With Vee next to her, Esther glowered up at her taller friend. “I knew we’d taken too much time playing in those dumb boxes.”
Vee stepped away, hurt then anger flaring in her dark eyes. The Vee Stare in full force.
I don’t care. She’s not the boss of me.
Vee spit out the words through her clenched teeth. “Sorry. That’s only where we found the night-vision goggles that my stepdad is letting us use to—”
“Mr. Beake!” Aneta’s voice cut through the escalating uh-oh between Vee and Esther. “We want to play with the night-vision goggles that Vee’s stepdad, Bill, is letting us use. May we stay after dark?” She linked arms with Esther and Vee. “We are the Squad, and we want to do it together.”
Aneta never liked anyone to be angry.
Sunny spun. “Yeah, guys, except we forgot to ask any of our parents if they would pick us up.”
Esther sucked in a quick breath. She, of all people, should not have forgotten. She’d already put her mother on the spot once. Twice was not going to happen in the Martin family. Well, not and have Internet privileges before she turned sixteen. It had been so exciting to see Sunny pull those goggles out of the box, recognize what they were, and know they now had the tools to catch the chicken farmer in the act of sabotaging the flight pens. Then they’d called for permission to head for the estate on their bikes since the rain had lessened to the now-usual mist. Siddy had been yelling something behind Mom on the phone. Could anyone blame Esther for not remembering to ask about staying past dark? Her back teeth closed, and her jaw stiffened. Siddy ruined so many things.
“I’ll do one up on you,” came Beverly’s cheerful voice from behind the group. Byron and the girls turned as one. The Bird Lady approached in her customary waxed navy barn coat. Beads of rain collected from the mist and popped up when it hit the waxy surface. Esther desperately wanted a coat like that. It looked like Beverly was headed toward adventure whenever she wore it. Probably, though, with where Esther was moving, it would never rain and she’d never get the coat.
Putting a warm hand on Esther’s shoulder, Beverly continued, “Do stay for dinner. I’m cooking a roast anyway. We’ll do two veg and some mash. I’ll invite your families. It will be one less dinner for your parents to cook. It shall be a grand dinner!”
That was easy. Esther stood a little straighter. “Is there anything we can do to help until it’s dark?”
Beverly seemed to think for a moment. “No, but Byron, wouldn’t the girls love another peek at the owls on the camera?”
Byron agreed.
They followed Byron to the carriage house in what Beverly called their higgledy-piggledy line. Shushing each other so as not to scare Bubo and the second owl, they made their way to the large, covered pen. At the back stood the long table with the computer and an oversized monitor. Byron clicked a couple of places and then the two owls, larger on the screen than they really were in life, were looking right at them. Suddenly, Esther was again glad she hadn’t cheated.
“Whoa!” Sunny said, stepping back.
“They are looking right at us!” Aneta said, stepping forward for a closer look. “Do they know we are here?”
Bubo’s buddy sidestepped over to Bubo and dug his head under Bubo’s wing.
“Aww,” said the girls.
“Oh yes,” Byron said emphatically. “They heard you a lot earlier than when we opened the carriage house door. Their hearing is superb.”
“Maybe they’re getting used to us,” Vee said.
He fiddled with the zoom on the keyboard. “Let’s hope not.”
Esther felt her face warming, even though the carriage house was cool. Her secret naming of the smaller of the two—the one she was convinced would stay and be a teaching bird—was still safe. She’d told no one about Bubo. And she hadn’t cheated.
“Oh, right,” Vee spoke quickly.
“Yeah, we don’t want them to become imprinted on humans,” Sunny chimed in, her words so close on the heels of Vee’s that the other girl frowned at her.
“Oh,” was Aneta’s reply, her face pinking.
Hmm. Did they share a secret? Again the left-out feeling crowded into the joy of watching the two teenaged owls move about the pen.
Bubo was finishing his dinner. Esther couldn’t say she was over the whole mouse thing, but at least now she had a quick reminder to herself that it was just dinner and God created animals to eat each other. Bubo and his sister or brother—Beake Man said it often took a blood test to tell the sex of an owl—wobbled around.
Seemed as though his wings were open more today. She hoped so. She couldn’t wait for him to be better. Maybe Beverly would let her go with her and help somehow when Bubo became an education owl.
Chapter 18
In the Dark
When the Squad whispered good-bye to the owls and tiptoed out, deep twilight had dropped over the trees, with the outline of the old Victorian against an only slighter paler sky. Time for goggles.
Byron waved good-bye and headed to the house, where he said he would attempt to get some peace and quiet before “the dinner event.” Esther assured him they would be no bother.
“Of course,” Sunny said after Byron was out of earshot, “we’ve told Frank that before, too.”
Esther hurried to the back of the house where they’d dumped their backpacks. Looping straps over both arms, she handed them out.
“Okay, so the first thing is put them over your head like this.” She placed the googly eyepieces over her own eyes and lifted the straps up and over her head.
“Or not,” Vee said, inspecting her unit. She pulled hers on, pulled a strap here and there.
“You look like a space alien.” Aneta sounded less and less like the Ukrainian orphan she’d been almost two years ago.
Wearing her goggles, Sunny walked toward Aneta with stiff legs and arms outstretched. “I am gonna get chew,” came her muffled tones through the mask. Aneta shrieked and backed away, laughing.
“Okay, we need to try them out.” If Esther didn’t get bossy, they would all just play. This was serious. “First, let’s find out what we can see with them on. Be sure to turn them on.” Esther’s hand trembled as she tightened the straps. Finally! They were getting somewhere! With these, they would be able to see footprints in the mud in the dark, and who knew what else? Maybe the chicken farmer would think he was so clever and simply walk into the Beake woods while the girls wore the goggles. It could happen.
Bill had given Vee the responsibility to hang on to the goggles for a week. Lord, it would be great to have it all over tonight. All the families would be there to cheer the Squad and celebrate.
With twilight faded to true night, the girls switched on their goggles.
“Cool,” Vee said, rocking a center switch on hers. “I can see a lot better with this switch.”
“Bill is the coolest.” Sunny fiddled with her mask.
Looking up from arranging her own mask, Esther saw the red dot of light coming from Vee’s mask. “Turn that off!” she yelped, scurrying and thumping the rocker switch that sat across Vee’s nose.
“Ow!” Vee stepped back and promptly ran into Aneta, who stood behind her muttering about whether she had the right end up on her face.
“Ow!” Aneta echoed, ripping off her mask and also rubbing her nose. “Vee, you bumped my nose very much!”
“Well, Esther practically punched me in the nose. What did you do that for, Esther?” Vee’s voice was surprised, hurt.
All Esther could see were three lumpy goggles making her friends look like strange frogs from another planet. She wanted to snicker a bit, but when things were drastic, you couldn’t fool around. “C’mon, Vee. Because that switch shows right where you are. Bill
told us in the garage. The chicken farmer would see you right away.”
Sunny, who had pulled on hers first and was darting around in the dark, crouching low and hiding behind trees, sidled up beside the other three. “Esther. We are practicing. We are not expecting to see that Awful Person. I mean, really, what would we do if we saw him? He probably still has his gun with him. All the night-vision goggles would do is show us the gun, and that’s not something I want to see better in the dark. In fact, I wouldn’t be seeing it ’cause I’d be running as fast as I could and using the goggles not to smack into any trees on my way to the house!”
Esther had tried to be patient, but now her hands fisted and planted themselves on her hips. She spoke very slowly. “We have to find final evidence that the chicken farmer is the one who slingshotted our owls. And all you guys want to do is complain!” Didn’t they see the importance? Vee not paying attention and playing around with something that could cause Big Trouble, as Sunny would say? The knot inside gave a tremendous pinch. Words she hadn’t planned on saying out loud spurted out of her mouth like, well, her lunch the day she tried to chop a mouse. “You all don’t care! You don’t care about our owls! Well, fine! I’ll just do it by myself!”
She pushed past Sunny who had stopped spinning and was staring at her with her mouth like an O. Vee’s brows slammed together. Aneta, who had put her mask back on, gave her an alien glance with blank black eyes, mouth turned down.
She would show them. She would find the last, best evidence. Then the girls would know how much the Squad meant to her, how she deserved to have a place in it. Then maybe, just maybe, they would miss her when she was—her lips quivered as she stomped into the trees past the flight cages—gone.
The moment she was on the far side of the cages, the quiet surrounded her like a big tent. It was strange to think that she “heard” quiet, but that’s what it was. With just her and the trees close together, the girls seemed a million miles away.
“And that’s what they will be when I’m gone. Might as well be a million miles away.” She heaved a big sigh that seemed to stick in her throat. Look for clues. If she could at least find the evidence for their last Squad mission…
After a few futile moments of circling trees, slowly raising the goggles up and down, backtracking to closely check the pens—apologizing to the occupants for disturbing them—Esther began to wonder. Why weren’t the girls coming after her?
It was a dumb question.
She was all alone because she’d made them hate her. I was mean. I was bossy. They liked Melissa better because she’s rich and acted niceynice to them. The weight of these thoughts bogged her down so much she sagged against the nearest pine tree and slid down to the ground until the bush in front covered her. Sure, the bark scraped her back, but who cared?
A big bubble of a sob was building up in her throat, and in a minute it was going to gush out really loud. She swallowed. Don’t. Hunching her knees to her chest, she swung her glance back and forth in the goggles. Everything was shades of green and deeper green. Trees, trees, trees. Trees had been getting in her way this whole project.
On the last sweep—as she lifted her hand to yank off the goggles and toss them down—a glow of red eyes froze her solid. Low to the ground. A wolf? Too low. The dull red gaze moved in and out, about the distance of two Byrons lying down end to end. It was headed toward her. A shiver rushed down her spine. What was it? When she heard a chirp, she let out the breath she didn’t realize she had been holding. A small critter, a chipmunk or mouse or squirrel. Nothing to be afraid of.
Snap!
A chippy would never snap a branch. The six feet of the S.A.V.E. Squad girls, including a spinning Sunny, would never make a single snap sound. Esther oh so carefully pushed the goggles into the bush, parting the branches with her face.
I’ve got him was the first triumphant thought. Wait till the girls see me bring back that Awful Person.
Immediately following that thought came the what-ifs. What if she grabbed him and he got away? Without the girls to help her—what if he yanked free of her death grip and disappeared into the woods? Nobody would believe she’d really had him. The girls would though, wouldn’t they? Her prickly, angry words that had singed them all throughout this mission made her want to cry and punch something. What if they were sick of her being bossy and prickly? What if they didn’t believe her?
A shadowy, lighter green figure with white streaks near the feet—must be shoelaces—emerged from a thicket and began a hunched-over approach. The nearest flight cage—Howard’s cage. She blinked twice to make sure she was seeing what she thought she was seeing then squeezed her eyes shut. A long green something, sort of like a wishbone, hung from one hand. What kind of gun looked like a wishbone?
Esther silently breathed in and out like she imagined a spy would. Opening her eyes, a second observation through the eyepieces choked the next breath. Now the figure had straightened and was looking around. Had he—wait, now—had he heard Esther breathing? No, she knew she was hidden within the bush.
Wait a sec.
The figure was too short even for the short chicken farmer, with long hair and a way of tossing the head.
Realization washed over Esther in a hot wave that made her forget her right leg was dead asleep. That long thing the person was carrying was a thing to cut the locks off the cages. She’d seen one in school when someone had forgotten their combination. Even worse, she now knew the Squad had been terribly wrong about who used the slingshot on the owls and tore the screens.
That shadowy greenish-white image in the night-vision goggles was not that Awful Person the chicken farmer.
That Awful Person was Melissa.
Crash! Crash!
“Esther! Don’t be mad! Where are you?” Aneta’s voice soared through the trees. Melissa’s goggled head jerked up toward the sound.
No, not now! Esther screamed in her head at the girls, for after Aneta’s voice was Sunny’s with, “For pizza sake, Esther, if you wanted us to follow you, you at least should have told us.” Those two came into view in Esther’s goggles with Vee behind, her mask swinging from her hand. What was she thinking? How was she going to see Melissa with no mask?
Whipping her head back to where Melissa stood, Esther’s heart collapsed.
The woods were empty.
Chapter 19
All Is Lost
I’m telling you, it was Melissa,” Esther was explaining as fast as she was walking back to the house. Her breaths came in little gasps. “She was as tall as Melissa, has long hair, and flipped it just like Melissa does. No way was it the chicken farmer.”
“We’re going to be late for dinner. Walk faster, Esther.” Vee was several steps ahead. Esther didn’t think she was even listening.
I found the person who hurt the owls! Who did the sabotage! She couldn’t wait until the Squad told Byron.
“But why Melissa, Esther?” Aneta’s long legs had no trouble keeping up with everyone.
With a sigh of exasperation, Esther repeated what she’d been telling the girls since the first day Melissa offered to help and suggested maybe Esther wasn’t up to being a S.A.V.E. Squad member anymore.
“I don’t know about that. Maybe someone who looks like Melissa?” Sunny sounded unsure.
They passed the carriage house and broke into a group trot. With the breakfasting room dimly lit with only a lantern-like lamp, Esther assumed dinner must be in the dining room at the front of the house. The girls always had their “nibbles,” as the Bird Lady called their snacks, on the back stairs that cascaded from the back door outside the breakfasting room.
“Why didn’t you guys come and help me?” This came out rougher than she had wanted it to. But really, why hadn’t they?
“Look.” Vee swung around and faced her, forcing Esther to jerk to a stop. They were on the side of the house. “Sunny convinced us you were setting up some silly training. When you didn’t come back by the time the Bird Lady came out to tell us dinner
was ready and our parents are here, we went to find you. End of story.” Vee flounced off around the corner.
Esther heard her footsteps on the front steps and the front door open and slam shut.
Well.
When she, Sunny, and Aneta stepped through the door, Esther looked at both of them. “You believe me, don’t you? I saw Melissa. She’s the one.”
Sunny slid a look toward Aneta who looked unhappy then swung her gaze back to Esther. “Maybe you should keep it quiet for a while about what you saw. I mean, night-vision goggles aren’t like what we see in real life.”
Aneta nodded, her blue eyes full of tears.
They didn’t believe her. Her own beloved Squad didn’t believe her.
“Fine. I’ll go tell everyone else. They’ll believe me.”
Brushing past them before they could reply, she turned sharply into the dining room. Vee’s mom and Bill sat at the long table set with a roast, bowls of mashed potatoes, and vegetables. The tablecloth—a real one—reflected so much white from the chandelier it made Esther’s eyes blink after being in the dark. Sunny’s parents were there, without her brothers. Esther’s eyes widened when she saw Aneta’s mom sitting next to Sunny’s uncle Dave.
“Esther! Esther! Esther is home!”
Siddy. Her little brother struggled to remove himself from her father’s lap. “Here we are! Here we are!”
Her heart dropped to her muddy toes. How could her parents? He would go on with that for all of dinner. Her glare flew to her mother, but it was rebuffed by Mom’s upraised eyebrows.
Feeling both the girls standing behind her and the heat shooting up the back of her neck, Esther raised her hands to shush her brother. “Shh, Siddy. Time to be quiet.”
“Time to be quiet! Time to be quiet!”
Maybe once the girls sat down, Siddy would quiet down. She dropped into the nearest chair, by Byron. Sunny, Aneta, and Vee found seats. Beverly nodded to her brother, and he prayed over the meal. How come his English accent made the meal blessing sound so much cooler?
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