by Ron Roy
“Where are we going?” Ruth Rose whispered in the dark.
“We don’t have to whisper. The driver can’t hear us,” Dink said. The wall that separated them from the front cab would absorb all sounds from the back.
“Guys, I think we’re being kidnapped!” Josh said.
“But I don’t think he knows we’re back here,” Marshall said. “The only windows are up in front. I’ll bet he’s trying to steal Natasha!”
“Maybe the kidnapper used Natasha as bait,” Ruth Rose said.
“What do you mean?” Josh asked.
“To get KC in the van,” Ruth Rose said.
“Why would some florist want me?” KC asked.
“For ransom,” Ruth Rose said. “The president’s stepdaughter is worth a lot of money.”
CHAPTER 3
“She’s right,” Marshall said. “Your mom and President Thornton would pay anything to get you back.”
KC didn’t say anything. She sat on the carpeted floor and hugged Natasha. The other kids sat near her. It was cold in the van, so they spread the packing quilts over their legs.
The van roared on to no one knew where.
“What are we gonna do?” Marshall asked.
“I don’t know,” KC said. “My mom and the president probably aren’t even home yet. They don’t know we’re gone.”
Dink thought about his father waiting for him at the hotel. “Can I see your light?” he asked Ruth Rose.
He shone the tiny glow on his watch. It was five o’clock. “My dad doesn’t know we went to the White House,” he told the other kids. “When we don’t show up at five, he’ll call the cops.”
“But how will the cops find us?” Josh asked. “They won’t know where to look!”
“The president can get an airplane, right?” Marshall asked KC. “Or a helicopter?”
“But it’s snowing, Marsh,” KC said. “And we’re in a white van. They’d never see us.”
“Plus, it must be getting dark by now,” Josh reminded them all.
“I wish we could see out,” Marshall said.
“I wonder where he’s planning on taking us,” Ruth Rose said.
“Somewhere there’s food, I hope,” Josh muttered.
Marshall giggled. “Maybe Jo’ll stop for a burger,” he said.
Josh chuckled in the dark. “Right. He’ll go up to the counter and say, ‘Five orders of burgers, fries, and shakes, please. Better wrap ’em to go. I’m kidnapping a bunch of kids.’”
The kids stopped talking. Dink could hear the van’s loud engine. Beneath him, he felt the vibration and hum of moving tires. His stomach growled. “Thanks a lot, Josh,” he said. “Now you made me hungry.”
“At least we have these blankets,” Josh said.
The van slowed, then made a turn. Dink could feel the difference. They had been humming along smoothly, and now the road seemed bumpier.
“I think we’re on a back road now,” he said to the others.
“If you drive out of downtown Washington, D.C.,” KC said, “you can be in the country pretty fast. We could be well into Virginia by now.”
The bumpy ride continued. The kids had to grab hold of the shelves to keep their balance.
Dink checked his watch every few minutes using Ruth Rose’s penlight. “It’s almost six o’clock,” he told the others.
Suddenly the van swerved sharply to the right. It seemed to go over a huge bump. The kids were thrown into the air, then landed together in a pile. Then Dink felt another rough bump, and the kids were hurled toward the crate. They stopped suddenly with a sharp jolt. The floor of the van was at a crazy angle, as if they’d landed in a hole. Natasha was barking wildly.
“What the heck happened?” Josh asked. He was under Marshall.
“We’ve had an accident!” Dink said. “Listen, the motor stopped.”
“Is everybody okay?” KC asked.
“I banged my arm,” Josh said.
“How bad is it?” Dink asked.
“I don’t know,” Josh answered. “I don’t think it’s broken.”
The kids untangled themselves. Ruth Rose turned on her light. “Is Natasha okay?” she asked.
“I think so,” KC said. “She’s licking my face.”
“Josh, take the light and make sure your arm is all right,” Ruth Rose said.
Josh aimed the small glow onto his arm. “No blood,” he said.
“So we won’t have to cut it off,” Dink observed.
“Very amusing, Dinkus,” Josh said. “I’m almost laughing.”
They sat still, waiting to see if the van would start up again.
“Guys, what if the driver comes back here to check on Natasha?” Marshall said.
“If he does, we jump him!” Josh said. “If all five of us do it, he won’t stand a chance!”
“Then what?” Dink asked. “What do we do with him?”
“We can tie him up like a Christmas present!” Marshall said. “I saw some wire on one of the shelves.”
The kids waited. They sat awkwardly on the tilted floor. Dink expected to hear something or to see the van’s rear doors open. Nothing happened. Dink heard only breathing and saw only darkness.
“This doesn’t make sense,” Ruth Rose said after a minute. “What could he be doing up there?”
“Do you think he just left?” Marshall asked. “He could’ve decided to try to get help.”
“I didn’t hear the driver’s door open,” Dink said. “But he could be hurt. Maybe he hit his head when we stopped.”
“Oh my gosh, maybe he died!” Josh said. “We’re trapped in the snow with a dead body!” He switched on Ruth Rose’s light.
The kids looked at each other nervously. Dink told himself there was no way Josh could be right. “How could the driver have been killed?” he asked. “We didn’t hear a crash, so he didn’t hit a tree or another car.”
“This is creepy. I’m getting out of here,” Josh announced. He crawled uphill to the doors and tried the inside handle. “We’re locked in!”
Marshall moved up next to Josh. “I saw this in a movie,” he said. “We lie on our backs with our feet against the doors. Then we all kick the doors at the same time. Together we should be strong enough to bust the lock.”
“Let’s try it,” Ruth Rose said. “We can’t stay here forever!”
The kids lined up on their backs close to the doors.
“Everyone get ready,” Josh said. “On three. One, two, THREE!”
Ten feet smashed against the doors. They flew open, letting a blast of snow and freezing air into the compartment.
The kids stared outside, squinting into the snow that flew into their faces. It was almost completely dark. There were no streetlights. Dink couldn’t even see the road they’d been traveling on. But he did see a path of crushed snow that the van had plowed through.
Dink saw tall, dark shadows not far from the van. He figured they were trees.
Natasha began whimpering. KC hugged the dog, keeping a hand on her collar.
“Where the heck are we?” Josh asked.
“Out in the middle of nowhere,” Marshall said.
“We should go check on the driver,” Ruth Rose whispered.
“Wait! He could be dangerous!” Josh said. “What if he’s got a gun!”
“Josh, he’s a florist,” Ruth Rose said. “A florist who kidnaps dogs!” Josh insisted.
“Maybe he has a glue gun,” Dink said with a giggle. He felt silly, and he knew it was because he was so scared.
KC jumped out into the snow. The other four kids followed. Wind howled out of the darkness, shooting stinging snow into their faces.
“Don’t shut the doors,” Josh said. “We don’t want to get trapped outside.”
Dink examined the lock. “This is busted,” he said. He tried both handles. “See? It doesn’t lock at all now.”
“The snow is over my knees!” Ruth Rose said.
Dink looked around. Maybe they had crashed near a hous
e, stores, anything. But he saw nothing but snow and darkness. His eyes were tearing and his nose felt like it might freeze.
“Come on,” Dink said to the others.
KC left Natasha in the van, commanding her to stay.
The five kids struggled around to the driver’s door. The van had plowed into a ravine. Its front end was buried in deep snow. The driver’s door was buried, too.
Dink wiped the driver’s window with his glove. He peered through the glass. The driver was slumped over the steering wheel. He wasn’t moving.
CHAPTER 4
Josh put his face next to Dink’s and looked inside the cab.
“Oh gosh, I see blood on his mouth,” he said.
“We have to get this door open!” Dink said.
The kids kicked at the snow until they’d cleared space for the door to swing.
Dink grabbed the handle and turned. The door swung open. Dink felt a wave of warmth from the cab’s heater. An empty coffee cup fell out of the cab.
The kids huddled around Dink and looked at the driver. “Is he dead?” Marshall asked.
“It’s a she, not a he,” KC said. “That’s lipstick, not blood. And I can see her breath. She’s breathing.”
The driver wore a white cap with a red pom-pom on top. She wore jeans that were tucked into tall, furry boots. Her red jacket was puffy.
“I saw her patting your dog when you took us inside the White House,” Dink said to KC. “She was carrying a wreath.”
The kids crowded around to get a look at the woman who had kidnapped Natasha. She looked like she was in her thirties, Dink thought. Strands of black hair showed at the edges of her hat.
“Look, she has a bump on her forehead,” Ruth Rose said.
“Yuck, it’s all purple,” Josh added.
“She must have hit her head on the steering wheel,” Dink said.
“What should we do with her?” Marshall asked. “What if she wakes up?”
“We shouldn’t move her,” Dink said. “She might have a broken bone or something.”
“But we can’t just leave her here,” Ruth Rose said. “It would be warmer with the rest of us in the van. And we could check on her to make sure she’s okay.”
“Maybe you’re right,” Dink said. He stretched across the driver and popped open the glove compartment. Under a bunch of papers, he spotted what he’d been hoping for. A flashlight. He grabbed it and slipped it into a pocket.
Then he looked through the papers until he found what he wanted. “Her name is Josephine Payne,” Dink said, reading from one of the papers. “She lives on Q Street in Washington.”
“If she lives in the city, why drive way out here in the country?” KC asked. “Why wouldn’t she just bring Natasha to her house?”
“When she wakes up, we can ask her,” Ruth Rose said.
“Can we carry her?” KC asked.
“With all of us helping, we can,” Marshall said.
The five kids stamped on the snow, making a broad path from the driver’s door to the rear doors.
Dink unsnapped the seat belt, and they dragged Jo Payne out of the cab. “Everybody grab an arm or leg!” he yelled.
“I’ve got her head,” KC said.
Trying not to stumble on the uneven snow, they lugged the woman to the van’s rear doors. It was a struggle, but they finally managed to shift her into the compartment. At one point, the woman let out a little moan.
“Cover her with some of these blankets!” Dink said. He flipped on the flashlight and shone it onto the pile they’d left behind.
The kids sat together in a bunch. Natasha plopped herself across KC’s legs. They watched Jo Payne, but the woman didn’t move an eyelash.
Dink switched off the flashlight. He pulled off his gloves and stuck his hands under his armpits. “Anyone have an idea?” he asked. “It’s getting colder and darker. It may be hours before anyone finds us.”
He wanted to add “If they find us.”
“Can you turn on that flashlight, Dink?” Josh asked. “I feel like I’m talking to ghosts.”
“No,” Dink said. “We might need it later. I don’t want to run down the batteries.”
“Maybe Jo has a cell phone,” Ruth Rose said. “We should probably check her pockets.”
There were two zippered pockets in Jo Payne’s jacket, but neither held a phone. Ruth Rose patted the pockets in the woman’s jeans, but they were flat. No cell phone.
“Why don’t we walk up to that road we were on and hitchhike?” Josh said.
“Josh, it’s freezing cold,” Dink said. “It might be hours before a car comes along. Besides, we can’t just leave the driver here.”
“Well, what if two of us went for help, and the rest stayed here?” Marshall suggested. “There might be a gas station around the corner. Or a restaurant.”
“It’s dark and the snow is too deep,” Dink said. “You could get lost out there.”
“I agree with Josh,” Ruth Rose said. “Look, Dink, the road is just up that hill. If she was driving on it, other cars could, too. Maybe a snowplow will come along. If we stay here in the van, it would never see us.”
Dink thought for a minute. There was a possibility that a car would come along. “Okay,” he said. “Let’s all go up and see what’s what.”
Dink spread another blanket over Jo Payne. He patted his pocket to check that he had the flashlight. Then the kids clambered outside again.
Natasha whimpered.
“No, Natasha, you stay,” KC said. “Stay with the lady.”
“Maybe Natasha knows the lady tried to kidnap her,” Marshall said.
KC shut the doors. Because of the busted lock, they didn’t close tightly.
The snow was still falling, but it had not filled in the wide path made by the van when it left the road. The kids walked single file, trying to step into each other’s boot prints. The hill was steep and they kept slipping.
Josh broke a branch and used it as a staff to help him get up the hill.
They stopped at the top, out of breath. Snow swirled into their faces, making them squint their eyes. A thick pine tree stood only a few feet from the road’s edge. Its branches were clotted with snow.
“This is where she went off the road,” Dink said. He pointed the flashlight at the snowbank where it had been flattened. They could barely see the van, down the hill about thirty yards away.
“If anyone drove by here, they’d never notice the van down there,” Marshall said. “And it’s getting covered in snow!”
“Guys, where’s the road?” Josh asked.
“I think we’re standing on it,” Ruth Rose said.
“But there are no tire marks!” KC said. “The snow covered them already.”
The road—if there was one beneath their feet—was flat and white, like a meadow.
“I don’t think this road gets plowed,” Dink said. He handed the flashlight to Ruth Rose. Then he got down on his knees and started digging through the snow. “Josh, give me your stick,” he said.
Josh handed the branch to Dink, who used it to dig deeper. Finally he stopped. “This isn’t paved,” he said. “It’s just an old dirt road. They probably don’t even use it in the winter.”
“Then why was she driving on it?” Marshall asked.
“Maybe she was taking Natasha someplace out here to hide her,” KC said. “Maybe she knew she couldn’t keep a dog in her apartment.”
“So what do we do now?” Josh asked.
“I say we go back to the van and get some sleep,” Dink said. “When it’s light out tomorrow, we can figure out what to do.”
“Stay here all night?” Josh exclaimed. “But we have to eat!”
“Josh, you won’t starve,” Ruth Rose said. She scooped up a mittenful of snow and ate it. “Yummy!”
“We don’t have much choice,” Dink said. “I know my dad would have called the cops by now. They could get here any minute, guys.”
“I agree,” KC said. “And the president w
ill have the army, navy, and marines all out looking for us. We just have to wait.”
“Come on,” Dink said. “Lead the way, Ruth Rose.”
The kids stumbled back down the steep hill. Ruth Rose and KC pulled open the van’s rear doors. The boys were right behind them.
Suddenly KC cried, “Natasha is gone!”
CHAPTER 5
All five kids stared into the rear of the van. The mound of blankets covering Jo Payne was still there, exactly as Dink had left them.
“Where could Natasha be?” KC cried. “She was right here a minute ago!”
“Maybe she had to go out to, you know, do her thing,” Marshall said.
“But where is she?” KC asked. “She’d stay near the van, Marsh.”
“Maybe she pushed the door open and came looking for us,” Ruth Rose said.
“But she’d have found us,” KC insisted. “We weren’t that far away!”
“Wait a minute,” Josh said. He climbed into the van and crawled on his hands and knees to the other end. “Guys, Jo Payne is gone, too!” He tossed the blankets aside to prove his point.
“Maybe she took Natasha!” KC cried. “Oh, why did I leave them alone together?”
“But she was unconscious,” Marshall said.
“Or faking it!” Ruth Rose said.
Dink stared at the pile of blankets. “She must have slipped out when we were up by the road,” he said.
“But where would she go?” Josh asked. “It’s not like she could call a cab and go back to D.C.”
“Guys, there must be a reason why she drove way out here on this dirt road,” Ruth Rose said. “What if she has a friend who lives near here? Maybe that’s where she was taking Natasha when she had the accident. She must have regained consciousness when we moved her. Then, while we were outside, she grabbed Natasha and took off.”
“Would Natasha go with her?” Dink asked KC.
