Kate wiped a tear from her cheek and whispered, “Amen.” She zipped up her backpack, and they headed to the lobby. In the elevator, she said, “Elizabeth, I’m scared. I’m really scared. This is even worse than at camp, when Biscuit was missing. Then, he just ran away. This time, I really think he was kidnapped. What if…”
Elizabeth put her arm around her friend’s shoulders. “We’re not going to think about ‘what if.’ We’ve asked God to help us find Biscuit, and to keep him safe. Now, we just have to trust God to do that. Remember Mark 11:24, ‘Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours.’”
Kate nodded. “I know. I want to believe. But in this case, that’s easier said than done.”
“I know what you mean,” said Elizabeth. “I guess if faith in God were easy, more people would believe.”
“I wish I’d left that tracking device on his collar!” Kate said. “If only I hadn’t taken it off when I got here!”
The elevator doors opened into the lobby, where Uncle Dan was waiting. After a quick show-and-tell of the gadgets, they headed toward the mall. Instead of the usual way, however, Uncle Dan led them through a tiny door in the side of one of the buildings.
“Where are we going?” asked Elizabeth.
“We’re still going to the mall,” Uncle Dan answered. “But if Biscuit was truly taken, the kidnappers wouldn’t have him right out in the open. There are dozens of these passageways between the mall and the Riverwalk, and few people even know about them. They were built so store owners would have a back way in and out of their stores, but they are hardly used.” He pointed to a series of doors along the side of the passageway. “These rooms are mostly used for storage, and each one has a door on the other side leading to one of the stores. Most of the store owners prefer to go through the mall, and get to their storage rooms from there.”
“I don’t blame them,” said Elizabeth. “There’s something creepy about this…I wouldn’t want to walk through here every day either.”
“I think we need to search these passageways,” said Uncle Dan. “I think it’s the only way that guy could have escaped unseen. I don’t know where all the entrances are; most were built to blend in with the landscape of the Riverwalk. They’re difficult to see, if you don’t already know where they are.”
“Wow,” whispered Kate. “It’s like we’ve just walked into a spy movie. Only it’s real.”
Uncle Dan stopped his wheelchair, turning to face them. “Elizabeth, you have your cell phone, right?”
Elizabeth nodded.
“You two go on into the mall, and see what you can find. Remember, you’re not looking for Biscuit, though if you find him, that’s great. You’re looking for doors to these tunnels. Look around, ask around, see what you can find out. Call me as soon as you know something.”
“What then?” asked Elizabeth.
Uncle Dan pulled out a long telescope-looking device. “This is a peephole reverser. It allows you to look the other way through a peephole in a door, so you can see what’s going on inside the room. We have to use these sometimes in the hotel rooms, if we think someone is in danger. If you can find the doors, even if they are locked, we can look inside. As long as there is a peephole, that is.”
The girls’ eyes grew round. “Cool!” Elizabeth said.
“Why don’t you do the honors?” Uncle Dan handed Elizabeth the device and gestured to the doors. Kate was too short to reach the peephole, and Uncle Dan was out of reach as well.
Elizabeth went from door to door, looking inside the rooms. Most of the rooms were dark, but a couple of them revealed only stacks of cardboard boxes. One had toys and stuffed animals on shelves, and she knew that was the toy store. Before long, she had looked through all the doors. No Biscuit in sight.
“Do you want me to keep this?” Elizabeth asked her uncle.
“No. If you’re caught with it, you’ll have a hard time explaining. Thieves use these to check out the places they want to rob.” Uncle Dan returned the device to his duffel bag and said, “Remember, you’ve got to think like the bad guys. Where would they go? What would they do? Go and see what you can find out, and meet me back here in half an hour. I’m going to find some of the shop owners and ask some questions. Maybe somebody saw something.”
Kate and Elizabeth headed into the mall. After a few steps, Kate stopped. “Wait. Take this,” she said, holding out a small pack of gum.
“Oh, no thanks,” said Elizabeth. “I’m not in the mood for gum right now.”
Kate continued holding the gum out. “Take it,” she said. Then, moving a little closer, she whispered, “It’s a walkie-talkie. See the button? I have one too.” She held up another pack of gum. “This way, if we accidentally get separated, we can still communicate.”
Elizabeth’s eyes grew wide, and she examined the small rectangular device. It looked exactly like a pack of gum. But sure enough, there was a tiny button on the back.
“Kate, you are full of surprises,” she told her friend, tucking the “gum” into her pocket.
The two girls had only passed a couple of stores when they spotted another passageway. Kate tested it, and sure enough, it was unlocked. “Should we go in?”
“Uncle Dan has the peephole reverser. He said to call when we found something.” Elizabeth pulled out her cell phone, ready to call Uncle Dan, when she heard someone calling her name. She looked up to find Joe, Pedro, and Maria coming toward her.
“There you are!” Joe said, looking out of breath. “We’ve been looking all over for you! Come with us. We think we may have found something.”
Maria grabbed Kate’s arm, and said, “Come on! You’ve got to listen to this.”
“Have you found Biscuit? Do you know where my dog is?” Kate asked, hope filling her face.
“Just come on!” said Pedro, pulling Elizabeth along behind him. They took off, jogging when possible, slowing to a walk when they were in crowds. They had gone almost the length of the mall when Joe gestured to a hidden doorway. “This way!” he said.
The six young people entered the doorway, and Joe led them to a small round hole in the wall. The rim of some PVC pipe was barely visible. Joe leaned and placed his ear against the pipe, then stepped back.
“Listen,” he said to Kate.
She stepped forward and placed her ear against the pipe. Relief flooded her face. “It’s Biscuit! He’s okay! Listen, Beth! It’s Biscuit!”
Elizabeth stepped forward and placed her ear to the pipe. Sure enough, she heard Biscuit’s familiar howling.
“This is great!” Elizabeth cried. “So…where is he? Where can we find him?”
Their new friends looked at each other. “Well…um…we don’t exactly know. These pipes run all through the mall, and even to other places on the Riverwalk. He could be anywhere.”
Searching for Biscuit
Elizabeth pulled out her cell phone. “Let me call Uncle Dan. He was in charge of search-and-rescue missions in Iraq. He’ll know what to do.” She dialed the number and held the phone to her ear.
Nothing.
She dialed again, with the same results. “I can’t get a signal. I guess these tunnels are too closed in. Come on, Kate. Let’s go find Uncle Dan.”
Kate stood her ground. “I’m not going anywhere until I know how to find Biscuit. I’m staying right here where I can hear him. Hey! I wonder if he can hear me?”
She cupped her hands around the pipe and called into the hole, “Biscuit! Biscuit, it’s me. Calm down, boy. We’re going to find you.”
She placed her ear to the hole and reported, “He heard me! He’s whimpering, but he’s not howling anymore. He knows we’re on our way.”
Elizabeth placed her phone back in her pocket. They had no choice. They would have to split up. Someone had to go figure out where the other end of that pipe was, and Kate wasn’t moving. “Okay. You stay here. I’ll try to find Uncle Dan. If I can’t find him, I’ll at least find out wh
at’s on the other side of this wall. Whatever you do, don’t go anywhere. The last thing we need is to lose you too.”
Elizabeth left the group behind, but she wasn’t surprised when she heard footsteps behind her. She turned to find Joe.
“I’m coming too. Maria and Pedro can stay with Kate. There’s safety in numbers, you know,” Joe told her.
She nodded and kept walking. She wasn’t sure if she was glad for the company or not. I don’t have time to be distracted by you, Mr. Charm. I have a dog to find and a mystery to solve.
As if reading her mind, Joe spoke up again. “I won’t get in your way. I’m here to help.”
They turned the corner to see what was on the other side of that wall. A shoe store. Elizabeth entered the store and headed straight to the back wall.
“May I help you?” asked a young sales clerk.
Elizabeth didn’t respond, just kept studying the wall behind the shoes.
“Uh, no thank you. We’re just looking,” Joe answered the woman, and she moved to another customer.
“What are you thinking, Elizabeth?” he asked her.
“I wonder if there’s a way we can get into those storage rooms. Legally, I mean. If we had access to the back entrances, it would be easier to explore the tunnels. As it is, we don’t even know where all the entrances are,” she told him.
A slow smile spread across his face, lighting up his green eyes.
Those are the nicest eyes I’ve ever seen, thought Elizabeth. Stop it! Do not get distracted!
She forced herself to look back at the shoes.
“I have an idea. Follow me,” Joe told her, and led the way out of the store. Elizabeth followed him two stores down, to a music store. In the window hung a sign that read HELP WANTED.
He approached the counter and asked the clerk for a job application form. While he waited, he looked at Elizabeth and smiled. “I’ve been wanting a job here, anyway. Now maybe we can kill two birds with one stone.”
Elizabeth smiled. She had to hand it to him. It was a brilliant idea. Noticing a shiny grand piano in a corner of the store, she approached it. Almost reverently, she sat at the bench.
Wow, she thought. I’d love to have a piano like this.
Gingerly, she pressed one of the keys, and it let out a sweet, pure tone that only a true musician could appreciate.
“Go ahead. Give it a try,” said the clerk.
“Really?” she asked in disbelief. “You don’t mind if I play it?”
The clerk smiled, and Elizabeth settled in front of the keys. Within moments, she was lost in Mozart’s Sonata in C. Then, without warning, she transitioned into a blues scale and began playing an old Elvis Presley hit. Her music was beginning to draw a crowd when she heard a beeping sound. Where is that coming from?
She continued to play, but the beeping persisted. Suddenly, she realized it was coming from her pocket. The gum!
She abruptly stopped playing. A few people in the crowd groaned, then left. Elizabeth smiled, stood, and walked behind a large set of drums. Pulling the walkie-talkie gum gadget from her pocket, she pressed the tiny button and whispered, “Hello?”
“Elizabeth! Where have you been? I’ve been beeping you for five minutes!” Kate’s voice came over the tiny speaker.
“Uh, sorry. I, uh, didn’t hear you. What’s going on?”
“There were voices. Human ones. I couldn’t make out everything they said, but one of them sounded like the Skipper,” Kate told her. “They’re gone now. I can still hear Biscuit, so I know he’s okay—for now. But we don’t know what those men are capable of. We’ve got to find him. Soon.”
Elizabeth stood behind the drums, peering into the mall beyond the store entrance. “I know. We’ll find him. We just have to believe that.”
As she waited for Kate’s reply, she spotted something in the crowd—or rather, someone. A tall, awkward-looking man, pressing his way through the shoppers. Was that…it was Gilligan!
“Kate! Gotta go. Stay put!” Elizabeth said, and took off through the maze of people, after the man.
“Elizabeth! Wait up!” Joe called, but Elizabeth didn’t slow down. Joe caught up with her and asked, “Did I just see you talking to a pack of gum?”
Elizabeth pointed. “That’s the man! We have to follow him. He may lead us to Biscuit!”
A crowd was forming ahead, and the man pressed through it. Elizabeth walked as fast as her long legs would carry her, trying to keep an eye on him. But by the time she approached the crowd, she’d lost him. A teenage girl was in the center of the crowd passing out free ice cream samples. But suddenly she had no appetite.
“Did you see where he went?” asked Joe, and Elizabeth turned. She had almost forgotten he was with her.
“No,” she replied.
“Well, he didn’t seem to be carrying anything. Wherever he is, I don’t think Biscuit is with him. Maybe we should go back and find the others,” Joe suggested.
“I agree. But first, I need to make a phone call.”
Back at the hotel, Kate, Elizabeth, Maria, and Pedro entered Uncle Dan’s suite. Joe had been hired at the music store, and had been asked to rearrange some boxes in the storage area. With a discreet nod, the boy had assured his friends he would find out what he could with his new access.
This suite was Uncle Dan’s home for as long as he worked for the Palacio del Rio. It had everything he needed: kitchen, living room, bedroom, bathroom, even a guest room, though most of his guests ended up staying in another hotel room.
Kate paced back and forth. “I can’t believe I just left Biscuit there. I should go back. He needs to hear my voice. It calms him.”
Uncle Dan looked at her compassionately. “I know you didn’t want to leave him. But we still don’t know where he is. I think we need to pull an all-out spy mission on the Skipper. But he’ll suspect us, so we have to look like we’re going about business as usual.
“Kate, let’s get a look at all of your gadgets. We’ll compare yours to mine, and together, I’m sure we’ll be able to find Biscuit and put those men in jail before you know it.”
Kate emptied her backpack onto Uncle Dan’s coffee table while he wheeled into his bedroom. A moment later, he reappeared with a hard black suitcase. Scooting Kate’s gadgets to the side, he set the suitcase down and opened it. Inside, the suitcase looked like something from a spy movie.
Together, Kate and Uncle Dan had miniature cameras and recorders, trackers, voice distortion tools, telescopes of various shapes and sizes, and more.
Elizabeth picked up one of the tiny devices and looked at it. “I wish we could figure out a way to track the Skipper. But to do that, we’d have to attach a tracking device to him. And I don’t know how we can do that.”
Pedro spoke up. “I have an idea,” he said. “I know a place the Skipper visits several times a day.”
Elizabeth and Kate had a perfect view from their private balcony, and they watched breathlessly as Pedro pulled the cap low over his head and sat in the shoe-shine booth. His friend had been happy to take a break and let Pedro take over the business for a few minutes.
Sure enough, right on schedule, the Skipper showed up. He didn’t even look at Pedro! He just dropped a few coins in the jar and placed his right foot on the stand. Pedro worked diligently at shining first the right shoe, then the left one.
Though the girls couldn’t see the details, they noticed Pedro took a bit longer with the left shoe. Finally, they saw him give his rag a final pop, and the Skipper walked away without so much as a nod.
Kate held up her tiny tracking screen, and sure enough, it sprang to life. The tiny red dot was moving—barely—as the Skipper marched to the boat.
Elizabeth texted the other Camp Club Girls, who had been briefly informed of the situation: MISSION ACCOMPLISHED. Or at least, Phase One had been accomplished. Within moments, her cell phone rang, and she knew it was them, standing by on a conference call.
“It went off without a flaw,” Elizabeth spoke witho
ut even saying hello.
Kate picked up her cell phone, which was also ringing, and joined the conversation.
“I can’t believe Elizabeth’s uncle wants us to lie low,” complained Kate. “Biscuit is out there. I need to go rescue him.”
“You have a better chance of rescuing him if Gilligan and the Skipper think you’re backing off. You know he’s okay—for now. But if they feel like you’re putting pressure on them, you don’t know what they’ll do,” said McKenzie.
“McKenzie’s right,” said Alex. “The reason they kidnapped Biscuit in the first place was to warn you to back off. You want them to think you’ve taken their warning.”
“You know, guys, I remembered something I learned in nature study, and I’ve pulled up some sound travel research on my computer,” Sydney said. “Sometimes, when traveling through a tunnel—or a pipe—the sound can become distorted. It can sound like Biscuit is close, when actually, he could be very far away.”
“And your point is?” Kate asked, frustrated.
“Just that you may not want to limit your search to the mall. He could be on the other side of the river,” Sydney continued.
“Yes, but I saw Gilligan in the mall, just after Kate heard voices,” Elizabeth said.
“Did he know you were looking for him?” asked Bailey.
“Of course he knew we were looking for him. He took my dog!” Kate cried.
Everyone was silent for a few moments. Finally, Elizabeth said, “So you think he was purposely trying to lead us in the wrong direction?”
“I don’t know,” said Sydney. “I just don’t want you to zero in on one area, while Biscuit may be in an entirely different location.”
Kate groaned. “Poor Biscuit! My poor baby. He’s all alone and scared. What if we never find him?”
“We’ll find him,” Elizabeth said with a confidence she didn’t feel.
“How can you be so sure?” Kate voiced the question on everyone’s mind.
Camp Club Girls: Elizabeth Page 29
