“What have you girls been up to?” Grandma Perkins asked.
“We went for a hike this morning and now we’re heading back to the hotel.”
“Justin and Joe were hiking today, too!”
Bailey bit her lower lip. “Yes, we saw them.”
“My stomach is growling.” Kate put her hand on her tummy.
Bailey, relieved at the change of subject, looked at her watch. “That’s because it’s lunchtime. It’s almost twelve o’clock.”
“Guess we timed that right.”
When the shuttle parked in front of the hotel, Bailey, Kate, Biscuit, and Grandma Perkins got off.
“Oh, Mrs. Perkins! Did Mr. Perkins win the bugling contest?” Kate asked.
“No, someone else won,” Grandma Perkins replied.
Bailey could hardly believe her ears. “That’s impossible! He was the best one there!”
“Well, I’m glad you thought so, but the judges didn’t agree.” Grandma Perkins’s voice was kind. “It’s all right. He just did it for fun. He didn’t care if he won.”
“I bet Justin and Joe were really disappointed,” Bailey said quietly as they walked down the hotel sidewalk.
“Yes, they were.” Mrs. Perkins shook her head. “Especially Justin.”
Bailey suddenly stopped and gasped.
“What’s the matter?” Kate’s eyes followed Bailey’s line of vision toward the old historic building.
“I thought I saw a ghost in that window.”
“Bailey! You know better than that!” Kate laughed but then paused. “You’re as white as a sheet!”
“Which window?” Grandma Perkins asked.
“The fourth floor, four windows over from the right.”
“Ah, yes. The famous room 408. And what did this ghost look like?”
“Like a cowboy. He had a cowboy hat and a mustache and he just stared out the window then faded off to the left.”
“That must be the old cowboy ghost we read about in the brochure!” Kate kept her eyes on the window.
“Legend has it that a guest thought he saw the same thing years back,” Grandma Perkins explained. “But the front desk confirmed that the room was vacant. They said no one could have stood in that window because it was over the bathroom sink, and he couldn’t have faded to the left because it would have taken him through the wall. That was the first reported sighting of the cowboy ghost. Many people have seen him since then, but only at this time of the year.”
“Are you telling me I saw a real ghost?” Bailey’s voice trembled.
“Bailey! You’re not going to fall for that, are you?”
“All I’m saying is that you’re not the first to have seen it—whatever it is.” Grandma Perkins patted Bailey on the back. “You want me to walk you to your room?”
“That’s okay. We don’t believe in ghosts, do we, Bailey?”
“N–no. We don’t.”
“Okay, then. I’ll see you later.” Mrs. Perkins left with a friendly wave.
Bailey and Kate stood in the hotel yard, still trying to absorb what had just happened.
“Do you believe that? I mean, really. Who would believe in cowboy ghosts?” Kate snickered as she looked up at the fourth floor window again.
Bailey stood silent beside her, but then she noticed Kate’s face grow pale. Bailey followed Kate’s eyes and this time they both saw the cowboy. “There he is! I told you it was real!” Bailey’s voice quivered.
Kate reached for Bailey’s hand. Her mouth moved, but no words came.
Now it was Bailey’s turn to reassure Kate. “It has to be special effects, don’t you think, Kate? Remember, there are no such things as ghosts.”
No sooner had she said those words than the cowboy faded away to the left of the window just as he had done before.
“That is definitely a special effect. It’s identical to the movement I saw before!” Bailey squeezed Kate’s hand. “Come on. We’ve got another mystery to figure out. Hopefully, it will be as easy as finding out where the ghost children’s laughter came from.”
Kate nodded mutely as Bailey led her to the hotel entrance.
Mystery Music
Back in the hotel room, Bailey and Kate bathed Biscuit in the sink. Water sprayed everywhere when he shook himself. The girls screamed with laughter and wrapped the dog in a hotel towel.
“There you go!” Kate dried him off. “Nice and clean.”
While the girls fixed sandwiches from food the Changs had put in the mini-fridge, they told Mrs. Chang about their hike and the beautiful scenery. They left out the parts about Justin and Joe, getting lost, and how close they were to the elk stampede.
“When we got back to town, the elk had just stampeded again and everyone was talking about it,” Bailey told her.
“Oh no! Not again.” Mrs. Chang shook her head. “Was anyone hurt?”
“I don’t think so.” Kate’s green eyes were serious behind her dark-rimmed glasses. “They say it’s the worst it’s ever been and that they’re going to have to do something about it because it’s getting too dangerous.”
Mrs. Chang nodded as she straightened up their room. “I can believe that. They can’t just let the elk run wild in town.”
Bailey plugged in the charger for her laptop. “I still think there has to be a reason they’re acting so crazy this year. We just have to uncover it.”
“Sounds like you had a nice morning, in spite of the stampede,” Mrs. Chang said.
“We did!” Bailey replied enthusiastically. “Grandma Perkins rode home on the shuttle with us.”
“And when we got to the hotel, we saw the cowboy ghost of room 408!” Kate squealed.
“Cowboy ghost?” Mrs. Chang got that you’ve-got-to-be-kidding-me look on her face.
Bailey nodded. “We know he’s not real, Mom. We just want to figure out how they do the special effect.”
“Yeah, like the ghost children. We figured that one out.” Kate reached for her laptop.
“Well, I guess there’s no harm in that.” Mrs. Chang glanced at her watch. “Oh, it’s time for me to pick up Trina. She and a girl she met here at the hotel went to a movie. Will you be all right for a little while?”
“Yeah. We’re going to get online and chat with the other Camp Club Girls.”
“Okay. See you later.” Mrs. Chang dropped a kiss on Bailey’s nose and left.
“Let’s download the pictures we took to send the other girls before we chat with them,” Kate suggested. “Then they’ll have them to look at while we talk.”
Bailey and Kate each downloaded their photos and then logged into the CCG Web site chat room.
Bailey: Hi! Anybody there?
McKenzie: I’m here.
Sydney: Me, too.
Kate: Hang on. I’ll call the others to get them to log on.
Elizabeth: I’m here now.
Alex: Me, too.
Bailey: We found something weird on the hike we went on this morning.
Elizabeth: What was it?
Kate: We don’t know. But we’re hoping some of you might help us figure it out. We sent you some pictures of it.
Bailey: We hiked up a trail and found this weird, huge indentation in the ground. It was about the size of a bathtub. It had what looked like elk hair and tracks around it and it smelled awful. Sydney, we were hoping you could tell us if the tracks look like they belong to an elk. You’ll see them in the pictures, too.
Sydney: I’ll look and see. And I bet I know what that indentation was, too.
Kate: What?
Sydney: Hang on. I’ll look at the picture to be sure. There it is. Yep. Was there any water nearby?
Bailey: Yeah, we saw a scummy pond with grass growing in it a few feet away.
Sydney: It was probably an elk wallow. And those are definitely elk tracks in the picture. My uncle hunts elk and he told me about them. Usually the male elk, the bulls, roll in wallows to cover their bodies with the scent of urine and droppings so they’ll attract the f
emale elk.
Elizabeth: Gross! What nasty cologne!
Sydney: You think that’s bad? The female elk then roll in the wallow to get the same scent on them and let the bull know they’re interested.
Alex: I’d rather pass notes.
Sydney: One thing’s for sure. If you have wallows, you have elk.
Bailey: Anyway, back to the hike. We caught Justin and Joe shooting airsoft guns at some empty pop cans. We sent you a few shots of that, too, no pun intended! Just look at the pictures. They’re a little blurry. The noise from the gun scared Biscuit to death!
Kate: Yeah, he flew out of my arms and ran at them, barking his head off.
Bailey: Justin, or should I say Oscar the Grouch, was so scared he aimed his gun right at poor little Biscuit and shot!
McKenzie: Oh no! Is he okay?
Kate: Yeah, he wasn’t hurt. Apparently our wonder dog is faster than a speeding bullet or else Oscar the Grouch is a lousy shot. Biscuit must have just been freaked out over the sound of the gun because he ran into the woods and I ran after him.
Bailey: And I stayed to give those boys a piece of my mind!
Sydney: LOL. Careful. You might need that piece of your mind later.
Elizabeth: Guess you forgot the Bible says, “A gentle answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger.”
Bailey giggled.
Bailey: Guess I did.
Kate: I found Biscuit after calling for him awhile. But then I realized I had wandered off the path and didn’t know how to get back.
Bailey: In the meantime, I had gone to find Kate and Biscuit and I realized I was lost, too. But I asked God to help me. Then He gave me the idea to call Kate on her cell.
Kate: Boy, was I glad to hear from her. We remembered what Sydney taught us about using the position of the sun to figure out what direction we needed to go.
Sydney: Wow! I’m impressed!
Kate: So when we got back together, we used my dad’s mini-GPS I had in my pocket to find the trail so we could get back to the town.
Sydney: Wait a minute. Back up. What do you mean “caught” the boys shooting their airsoft gun at the pop cans? They weren’t really doing anything wrong.
Bailey: No, but they sure acted like they got caught at something.
Kate: They were defensive and angry.
Elizabeth: Maybe they didn’t like being spied on.
Kate: Or maybe they’re up to no good since they act that way no matter when we see them or what they’re doing.
Bailey: Wait! I just remembered something I heard Justin say to Joe before he knew we were there. He said something like “We’ll make them sorry they ever came here.”
McKenzie: Who do you think they were talking about?
Bailey suddenly felt like a rock dropped to the bottom of her stomach.
Bailey: I hope he wasn’t talking about Kate and me, but he sure seems to hate us.
Kate: But why?
McKenzie: You must be a threat to them in some way.
Bailey: How can we be a threat to them when they don’t even know us?
McKenzie: They’re obviously insecure. You just have to figure out why.
For just a second, Bailey felt sorry for the boys, especially Justin. She remembered her mom saying maybe they had problems at home or something. Maybe they just needed someone to care about them. Bailey’s loud sigh drew Kate’s eyes from her computer.
Bailey: Maybe we just need to keep being nice to them. Find out what they’re interested in and stuff like that. They could be going through a rough time or something and that’s what makes them so grouchy.
Elizabeth: That’s a good idea. I’m proud of you, Bailey.
Bailey: I’m not saying it’ll be easy. But I’ll try.
Kate: Guess what?
Alex: I’ll bite. What?
Kate: Bailey and I saw a new ghost at the hotel today.
Sydney: No way!
Bailey: Room 408. The room with the cowboy ghost.
Kate: Of course it has to be another special effect. It moves exactly the same every time it’s seen. We’re going to figure out how they do it.
Bailey: Yeah. He shows up in the window and stares out a minute then fades away to the left. The only problem is that if he was a real person, he’d plow into a wall if he turned that way.
Alex: Didn’t they use some sort of projection system to make it look like there were ghosts in the movie Casper? They could be using one in that room, too. Or once I saw a movie where an image was etched onto a window and the sun shining on it made it come to life. Maybe you should look more closely at the window.
Kate: We’ll do that. Bailey and I need to take a tour of that room to see if we spot anything unusual. Anyway, we just wanted to update you. Let us know if you have any more ideas about how ghosts could be created or any new information about elk.
Bailey logged off and closed her laptop.
“All right.” Kate exited the chat room and brought up a blank document. “Let’s see what we have so far in the elk mystery. One. We know the elk are spooked but don’t know why.” She typed the entry into the blank document.
Bailey jumped in. “Two. We know Justin and Joe have an airsoft gun and were in the woods today before the stampede.”
Kate typed the second entry. “But then again, so were we.”
“Three. Justin has a grouchy attitude all the time.”
“Four. They visit their grandparents here every year.” Kate continued typing but stopped. “We don’t even know if any of this has anything to do with the elk problem.”
“No, but a good sleuth follows hunches,” Bailey said. “And I have a hunch it does.”
“I hope we’re not going down the wrong path.” Kate looked thoughtful. “What about what we know about elk?”
“Well, we know they make wallows during mating season,” Bailey offered.
“And we know they are more aggressive during that time as well.”
“But not usually this much.”
“We know they have a great sense of smell and can run really fast,” Kate said as she typed.
“Boy, do we know that!” Bailey laughed. “We learned they’re usually most active in the early morning and later in the evening, unless they’re being harassed.”
“That may be a key to this mystery.”
“We know the male elk are the ones with that shrill bugle.” Bailey did her best impersonation of an elk bugle, starting with the low grunts and ending with a high shriek.
Biscuit sat up and howled while Kate covered her ears and laughed. “You aren’t quite ready for that bugling contest yet!”
“I still can’t believe Grandpa Perkins didn’t win that.”
“I can’t either. I wonder if that’s why Justin was so grouchy today.”
“Maybe. Something must be making him mad.” Bailey felt a little sad inside, like when she knew a friend was going to do something wrong but she couldn’t talk her out of it. She turned at the sound of the key card sliding in the door.
“Hey!” Mrs. Chang gave her standard greeting. “What are you two up to?”
“We just finished chatting with the other Camp Club Girls,” Bailey said. “How was your movie, Trina?”
“Not bad.” The teenager flipped on the TV.
“We told the other girls all about our hike and seeing the cowboy ghost,” Kate told Mrs. Chang.
“Sounds like you had fun. By the way, Bailey, Dad and I are going out to a business dinner tonight.”
“What about us?” Bailey stuck out her lower lip.
“Adults only, I’m afraid.” Mom’s eyes brightened. “But how about a pizza party? We can have it delivered to our room.”
“Yeah!” Bailey and Kate gave each other a high five.
“How ’bout it, Trina?” Bailey asked.
“Fabulous.” Trina said in a monotone, still channel surfing.
“It’ll be fun!” Bailey informed her sister brightly.
“Whatever.” Trina
gave up on finding something to watch and turned off the TV. She flopped on the bed and started listening to her iPod.
“I’m going to get cleaned up and then I’ll call in the pizza.” Mrs. Chang headed for the shower.
A while later, Bailey whistled when her mom emerged looking fresh and pretty in her black dress, dangly earrings, and strappy heels. The familiar smell of her mom’s perfume made Bailey want to snuggle in her lap like she did when she was a little girl.
“What kind of pizza do you want?”
“Pepperoni!” Bailey shouted.
“With black olives?” Kate asked.
“Sure, I like olives and so does Trina.” “Pepperoni and black olives it is.” Mrs. Chang phoned in the order.
While they were waiting for the pizza, Mr. Chang came home and spruced up, too.
“You guys look great!” Bailey said.
A knock at the door signaled the beginning of the pizza party. Mr. Chang paid for the food and set it on the small table. Then he tapped Trina on the shoulder and she took out her earphones.
“We should be home between nine and ten,” he told her.
“You’re in charge while we’re gone. You hear that, Bales?”
Bailey and Kate both nodded.
The Changs blew the girls a kiss good-bye and told them to call on the cell phone if anything came up.
“We can handle this, Mom,” Trina said.
“Good. I know you can. Have fun.”
As soon as the door closed, the trio playfully shoved their way to the pizza. Trina lifted the lid. “Mmmm. Smell that.”
They each took a slice and chatted and giggled as they ate. Kate fed Biscuit a couple of pieces of pepperoni. “Trina, did you leave your iPod on?” Bailey asked.
“No. Why?”
Bailey cocked her head to listen. “I thought I heard piano music.”
Trina put one earphone in. “Nope. It’s not this.”
“Listen. There it is again.” Bailey craned her neck forward.
“I hear it, too.” Kate said. “It’s very soft, though.”
“Sounds like old-fashioned music to me.” Bailey went to the window to see if anyone was playing music outside but saw only people quietly strolling in the courtyard.
Bailey’s Estes Park Excitement Page 7
