by Rosa Jordan
“You know I wanted the porch trim painted this weekend.”
“I could do it on Sunday.” He glanced over his shoulder and saw Mom was about to object. She thought chores ought to be done on Saturday, with Sunday more a day of rest and relaxation.
Justin spoke quickly to ward off her protest. “A pair of mockingbirds is nesting in the orange tree in his back yard. Brad’s got some new binoculars and can see right into the nest. He thinks we might get to see the eggs when they’re hatching.”
“Oh, fun!” Mom exclaimed. When Justin came back to the table, she smiled at him. “The porch trim has gone unpainted this long, one more day won’t make any difference.” Then she frowned. “But if Kate goes to town with Ruby on Saturday, and you go off to Brad’s, who’s going to keep an eye on Chip?”
“I’ll take him with me. Luther, too,” Justin offered. At Mom’s look of surprise, he added quickly, “Just this once. They can play on Brad’s old swing set.”
Mom gave Justin and Kate a thoughtful look. “I’m glad to see you older kids taking an interest in the younger ones. They look up to you, you know. You’re their role models.”
“Yeah,” Justin said, and tried not to think of what Mom would say about their influence on the younger kids if she knew what they were planning.
Or even worse, if the plan didn’t work.
10
GOATNAPPERS
Justin’s plan was for Lily to walk to town with Kate and Ruby on Saturday morning. After they’d made their candy deliveries—and there were only a few this week, not enough to take Old Billy and the goat cart—Ruby (who had no idea what was going on) intended to meet Mr. Jackson at Miss Tutweiler’s restaurant for lunch. Kate was supposed to walk Lily home, and she would—but not straight home. First they’d go to the school playground to meet up with Chip and Luther. Once there, everybody had a job to do.
Lily arrived at the Martins’ on Saturday morning wearing a dress with a long, full skirt. She was so small, Kate said she looked like one of those Madame Alexander dolls in the toy catalog. A very irritated doll, Justin thought, judging by the way she tugged at the dress and scuffed her feet.
As soon as Lily left with Kate and Ruby, Chip and Luther squeezed onto the back of Justin’s bike. He wasn’t crazy about having them back there, but it was part of the plan. The bike wobbled back and forth down the driveway, and Justin could barely control the handlebars. When they reached Lost Goat Lane, he stopped.
“This isn’t going to work,” he said. “Get off. I’ll just have to walk the bike into town.” The younger boys grumbled but did as they were told. They waved at Mom as they passed the nursery, but Justin didn’t dare glance over. He didn’t want to take a chance that she might ask why he was taking the bike.
He left the boys at the school playground. It was as empty as you would expect it to be on a Saturday morning. Chip and Luther promptly tore off across the vacant lot in the direction of the store, where they found a pile of orange plastic milk cartons out back, just as Luther had said. Justin cycled to the Hunter house where his dad was staying. If this part of the plan didn’t work, they could forget the whole thing.
Charlie had told Justin that he’d promised to help Bobby Hunter fix his Chevy this morning. Sure enough, when Justin turned onto the street, his dad’s little red sports car sat in the driveway. The garage door was open. Charlie and Bobby Hunter and two other guys sat in folding chairs at a table just inside the garage, playing cards.
Justin brought his bike to a stop and propped it against the garage door. “Hi, Dad. Um, I thought you were going to be working on Mr. Hunter’s car this morning.”
“Hey, Justin,” Charlie waved with his left hand, keeping the cards he was holding in his right concealed close to his chest. “Yeah. We’re just taking a little break. What’re you doing out here?”
“Oh, nothing much. I was just wondering if I could take the car for a spin.” Justin tried to sound casual. “Just for a little while?” When he was driving with his dad the night before he had asked if it would be okay to take the convertible out on his own some time. Charlie had laughed and said he’d think about it, so Justin figured his dad knew there was supposed to be an adult in the car when he was at the wheel. But … Charlie wasn’t like other dads, and he had called Justin “a natural.” Maybe he wouldn’t mind bending the rules a little bit just this once. Justin leaned on his bike, heart pounding, waiting for his dad to answer the question.
Charlie put his cards on the table, face-down. Then he half-stood, fished in his pocket for the car keys, and tossed them to Justin. “Stay on side streets, okay?”
Justin caught the keys with one hand. “Okay!” he said. “Thanks, Dad! I’ll be back in less than an hour.”
Justin was nervous backing the car out of the drive, but once on the street and going forward, he felt amazingly calm. He drove slowly past the school and circled the vacant lot. When he passed by the end of the alley, he couldn’t see Chip, Luther, and Kate, but he knew they could see him from where they were hiding behind the fence.
He then cruised slowly past the front of Grimsted’s house. The maroon station wagon, which usually sat at the curb, wasn’t there. If Grimsted had been at home, it would have put a serious wrench in their plan. Lily was where she was supposed to be, on the sidewalk. She might look as delicate as a doll, but she could make the most piercing whistle you ever heard just by putting two fingers in her mouth and blowing. If she saw Grimsted coming from either direction, she was to give a warning whistle. Then she was supposed to walk straight to the school playground so she wouldn’t get caught even if the rest of them did.
When Justin reached the other end of the alley, he saw the boys next to Grimsted’s garage, passing milk crates through the window. That meant Kate was inside already, and it was time for him to drive down the alley.
When he stopped behind the garage, Chip and Luther were jumping up, trying to see over the window ledge. “Hurry!” Chip hissed.
Justin got out of the car and looked through the window. In the dark interior, Kate was standing on the crate steps, holding Little Billy. He wasn’t struggling at all, but lay in her arms like a kitten. Either he was very weak or he trusted them. Maybe he understood that they were there to rescue him.
Kate passed Little Billy through the window to Justin, then climbed through the opening and dropped to the ground. “Get Lily!” she whispered to Luther.
Luther darted around the side of the house. In half a minute he was back with Lily. Nobody had to be told what to do next. Justin handed Little Billy back to Kate and slid behind the steering wheel. Kate tied the goat’s feet with hair bands so he couldn’t stand up, and laid him on the floor in front of the passenger seat. Lily got in and spread her long full skirt so that it completely covered the little goat at her feet.
“I hope he doesn’t make any noise,” Justin muttered.
Lily reached into her pocket and dropped a handful of corn chips on the floor next to Little Billy. “This will keep him quiet,” she promised.
Justin eased the car into gear and drove away. He glanced in the rearview mirror and saw Chip and Luther still standing in the alley, arguing with Kate. What was that all about? They were supposed to get out of there and over to the playground, fast! Justin had no time to go back and find out what was going on. As it was, he had to go the long way around in order to get to the Old Place without passing the nursery, where Mom might see him.
He had almost reached the Old Place when it dawned on him what was going on back in the alley. “Oh no,” he groaned.
“What?” Lily asked.
“Chip and Luther want to rescue the stupid rabbit, too, don’t they?”
“They have to,” Lily said matter-of-factly. “Mr. Grimsted was going to put him in the goat cart to show off at shopping malls. Now that we’ve got Little Billy, he won’t have any use for the rabbit. He’d probably just eat him.”
Justin felt sick to his stomach for the trouble they were all about
to be in. We’ve committed the perfect crime, he thought. And now we’re going to get caught because they think they can get away with TWO crimes.
Justin wished there was some way to undo what they had just done, but there wasn’t. Like going off a diving board, he thought. Once you’re moving, nothing to do but keep going. So he did. He drove carefully, thankful that there were hardly any cars on these back roads. When they got to the Old Place, Lily untied Little Billy’s feet and Justin put him in the pen. Justin had already fixed up the corral so he couldn’t get out, and had a bucket of water and a pan of grain waiting for him. Even though there wasn’t anything more the little goat needed, Lily didn’t want to leave him alone.
“I’ll stay with him,” she insisted.
“No, the plan was for you to walk to town and back with Kate.”
Lily ignored Justin and started to climb into the corral. Out of patience, he grabbed her by the arm and dragged her to the car. “Come on. Kate’s waiting for you at the playground. If she comes back without you, your mother will have a fit.”
Lily got into the passenger seat, sulking. To cheer her up, Justin said, “You did really well, Lily. Thanks.”
As Justin had hoped, the compliment worked. “I know,” she said with a satisfied smile. “Besides, Little Billy chewed a hole in my dress. Now I’ll never have to wear it again!”
Justin laughed, but he worried all the way back to town. Without Lily at the front of the house to act as lookout, Grimsted could have come back and surprised the others. They might be at the police station right now, facing charges of goatnapping. If that had happened, Justin didn’t know what he would do. He didn’t have a plan for what to do if anyone got caught.
11
CRIME NUMBER TWO
Approaching the school, Justin saw only Kate and Chip on the playground. When Luther emerged from behind a hibiscus bush, he breathed a sigh of relief. The only unusual thing was that Luther wasn’t wearing a shirt, and clutched a large bundle to his chest.
Kate opened the car door for Lily, and with a quick wave at Justin, took the little girl by the hand and hurried off. Chip and Luther squeezed into the passenger seat together.
“Buckle up,” Justin snapped. He didn’t need to ask what Luther had bundled in his T-shirt. There was a big white ear poking through the neck hole. “And put that thing down on the floor out of sight.”
As they drove past the scene of the crime, Justin saw the maroon station wagon parked out front. “Did you get out of there without anyone seeing you?” he asked.
“Yes,” Chip and Luther answered in unison, and giggled.
“For sure? Grimsted didn’t see you?”
“No, no!” Now the boys were laughing like lunatics.
Justin felt like giggling, too, out of sheer relief. Then he glanced in the rearview mirror. What he saw almost caused him to have a heart attack. A police cruiser was coming up behind them.
Ahead, the light turned red. Justin had no choice but to stop.
“There’s a police car behind us. Quit laughing!” Justin said to the two boys. “Just try to act normal.”
Chip and Luther sat up in the seat and looked straight ahead.
The cruiser pulled up behind them.
Justin felt a trickle of sweat run down his forehead. The light turned green and he eased out into the intersection, shifting smoothly like his dad had taught him.
As soon as they were halfway down the next block, the police car whipped past them and sped on ahead.
“Oh, man.” Justin let out the breath he’d been holding. “That was close.”
Justin left Chip, Luther, and the rabbit at the Old Place. Then he returned his dad’s car. The poker game was still going strong. Charlie barely looked up when Justin handed him the keys. All he said was, “Glad you made it back okay. Tell your sister I’ll be by after a while to take her to the movies.”
Justin stopped at Brad’s house to check on the mockingbird eggs, which hadn’t hatched yet. He hung around awhile, then biked home.
As soon as he got to the house, he went into Kate’s room and asked, “What happened at Grimsted’s after I left?”
“He came home and—”
“He saw you?”
“No. He—Look, Dad’s here. I’ll tell you later!” Kate promised, and dashed out the door.
Justin asked Chip but he just shrugged and said nothing happened. Chip could be the blabbiest kid on the block when you wanted him to keep a secret, but if it was something he didn’t want to talk about, there was no way to get it out of him. All Chip wanted to talk about was the rabbit.
“What did you do with him?” Justin asked.
“We let him go,” Chip said.
“You let him go? You risked getting caught to rescue the stupid rabbit, and then you let him go?”
“We put him in the pen with Little Billy,” Chip explained. “But he found a hole and hopped out. Then he hopped back in again. He doesn’t really need a cage, you know. Wild rabbits don’t have cages.”
“They need food and water.”
“He can drink Little Billy’s water. And there’s lots of grass. He likes the feed we gave Little Billy. You know how when goats eat they move their chin like this?” Chip jerked his chin up and down to show how goats eat, as if Justin hadn’t seen their own goats eat a million times. “When they do that, they drop some. The rabbit ate all the grain Little Billy dropped.”
Chip rolled over on his bed and was quiet for a while. Then he added, “I think all that time Little Billy and the rabbit were in that dark garage together, they got to be friends.”
Chip was asleep when Kate came home, but Justin was still awake. He was trying, without much success, to keep his mind on a math problem that he had read over about four times and still didn’t get. He heard Kate stop in the living room to talk to Mom, who was watching TV.
“Hi, honey. How was the movie?”
“Okay, I guess. It was a cop show, one with lots of car chases. That’s Dad’s main thing, you know. Fast cars.”
“That’s true,” Mom said.
“I wish he’d ask me what movie I’d like to see sometime,” Kate said.
“You could suggest one.”
“It doesn’t matter,” Kate said, starting down the hall to her bedroom. “I’m just glad he wants to take me places. And I liked the Chinese restaurant we went to for supper.”
Justin knew it bothered Mom that her work schedule didn’t allow her to spend much time with them. Kate should have realized that mentioning that Dad did have time to take her to the movies would make Mom feel worse. But he didn’t get a chance to point out to Kate how she had probably hurt Mom’s feelings. As soon as Kate saw he was awake, she crept into his room like she had a big secret to impart.
“Guess what?” she whispered.
“What?”
She glanced over at the twin bed in the corner, and seeing that Chip was sound asleep, started talking in a low voice. It sounded like she was trying not to laugh. “When we got to the movies, Dad came around to open the car door for me, like he always does, and—”
“Ah, come on, Kate, I don’t want to hear about your dumb Dad date. Tell me—”
“No, listen, Justin.” Kate couldn’t hold back a giggle. “Dad saw these little black things rolling around in the floor of the car. He said, ‘Looks like somebody spilled chocolate-covered raisins.’”
“Oh no!” Justin put his head down on his desk in despair. So much for the perfect crime. It was just the sort of clue criminals always leave behind that allows the police to catch them.
Kate was still giggling. “He picked up a handful, and you should have seen his face! ‘Rabbit poop?’ he said, like he couldn’t believe his eyes. I said, ‘Come on, Dad. We’ll be late for the movie.’ He threw it away, but all the way to the theater he kept muttering, ‘How did rabbit poop get in my car?’”
“Evidence!” Justin groaned.
“He didn’t mention it after the movie. I think he forgot abo
ut it.”
“I hope so,” Justin said, wondering how he could possibly explain leaving rabbit poop in his dad’s car. “Now tell me what happened at Grimsted’s after I left.”
Kate picked up Justin’s hairbrush and started working the tangles out of her hair, which was all windblown from riding in the convertible with the top down. “Chip and Luther wouldn’t listen to me,” she told Justin. “They insisted on going back for the rabbit, and said if I didn’t help them they’d do it by themselves. That would’ve taken forever because they’re not tall enough to reach the window. Grimsted would have caught them inside for sure. The crates we used for steps were still inside the garage, so I boosted Chip up so he could climb in. He handed the rabbit out to me, and I passed it to Luther, who was on the other side of the fence. Then Chip climbed out. There wasn’t time to run, so we just scrambled over the fence and hid in the weeds.”
“Grimsted’s station wagon was there when I came back,” Justin interrupted. “Are you sure he didn’t see you?”
“I don’t think so.”
“What do you mean, you don’t think so? Did he or didn’t he?”
Chip turned over in his bed with a loud sigh. Justin and Kate froze. When their brother settled down again, his breathing slow and regular, they stepped out into the hall to finish their conversation.
“Well?” asked Justin.
“We heard him drive up. He started unlocking the garage door, but by then we were all on the other side of the fence.” Kate’s blue eyes sparkled as she remembered their narrow escape. “If he’d seen us, he would have come after us, don’t you think?”
“I guess.”
“When he saw that Little Billy and the rabbit were gone, he started swearing like, well, you wouldn’t believe what bad words he used. Then I guess he saw the milk crates—they were still inside. He flung one out the window, so hard it sailed all the way across the alley and crashed against the fence right on the other side of where we were hiding! The poor rabbit was SO scared.” Kate shivered. “So was I. All Grimsted had to do was look behind that fence.”
