“That part is true,” said Henry. “And there was that strange note in Ms. Thakur’s office. If Tommy’s business isn’t doing well, he might be selling the eggs to make more money. Maybe Ms. Thakur is helping him.”
Benny looked down at his junior ranger badge. “I didn’t think of that,” said Benny. “That would make me sad.”
Henry patted him on the shoulder. “We don’t know anything yet for sure.”
Just then the windsurfing instructor drove up with Jessie and Violet. “It was awesome!” Jessie said.
“Windsurfing is hard but fun,” Violet added. “You’ll like it, Henry.”
While Henry went with Finn, Jessie helped Benny with his sandcastle. Violet collected shells. Watch dug around next to the castle for a little while, then lay back down. Whenever someone walked by, Jessie looked to see if the person was carrying a cooler. Several people were, but no one seemed to be acting strangely.
It wasn’t long before Martina and Sandy came walking down the beach. Martina stopped a short distance away and bent down to pick up a shell. She seemed excited by what she found and began collecting others. Setting down her bags, she told Sandy to sit, and he did.
After having seen Sandy run away from Martina so many times, Violet was surprised to see the dog obey his owner. When Martina had collected quite a few shells, she sat down and pulled a small, flat piece of wood out of one of the bags. Violet watched as Martina sorted through the shells, setting some aside and laying others on the board.
Violet was very curious about what the woman was doing. She walked over. “Are you making something?” she asked.
Martina looked up and smiled. “Watch this.” She added a few more shells to the board.
“You made a sea turtle out of shells!” said Violet.
“Yes, I love to make sea turtle pictures with shells. I make bird pictures too. There are more than three hundred different species here, and I’m planning to make pictures of all of them.”
“I like birds too!” Violet said. “What are you going to do with this picture? The shells aren’t stuck down.”
“I lay them out to make sure I have all the shells I need,” Martina explained. “Then I’ll put those in a separate bag. When I get back to my apartment, I’ll lay them out again and fasten them down.”
“Couldn’t you glue them on here?” Violet asked.
“I could, but sand gets in the glue,” Martina said. “The pictures don’t look as good when they dry, and the sand makes the glue cloudy.”
Two women walked by and noticed what Martina was doing. They came over to watch.
“Do you sell those?” one of the women asked. “I’d love to get a good souvenir to take home to my sister.”
“I do sell them,” Martina said. “I mean, I would sell them if I could.” She sounded flustered. “I don’t have a shop or anything, but I have several that are ready to hang on the wall.”
“Can we see them?” the woman asked.
“I’m so sorry,” Martina said, “but they are back at my apartment.”
The woman looked disappointed. “Oh, that’s too bad. One of these would be perfect for my sister.”
All of a sudden, Martina smiled. “I have an idea. If you are going to be on the beach for a few more hours, I can go get some and meet you when you are ready to leave. There’s a restaurant by the causeway called the Laughing Gull. We could meet in the parking lot there, and you could see if you like any of them.”
“That would be terrific!” the woman said. “We’re going to leave here about six thirty. Can you meet us then?”
“I’ll be there,” said Martina.
“Wonderful!” said the woman. “We’ll see you then.”
Martina’s smile grew bigger as the women walked away. She leaned over and ruffled Sandy’s ears. “I’ll buy you a treat with the money!” she said to the dog.
“It’s exciting you are going to sell some of your artwork,” Violet said. “I bet you could sell lots of these to tourists.”
“I could if I had a place to display them, like a shop. But it costs too much money to rent one.” Martina sighed. “Maybe someday.” She loaded her supplies back in her bag. “I should go so I can get the pictures and meet those people on time. Come along, Sandy. Nice talking to you,” she said to Violet.
Soon after Martina and Sandy left, Henry and the instructor returned.
“We’re running a little late, so it’s time to go,” Finn called out the car window. “I promised your grandfather I’d get you back to the campsite in time for you to change to go to dinner.”
Jessie, Violet, and Benny packed up their beach supplies and climbed in. After the instructor dropped them off, it didn’t take long for them to get ready.
“Watch will have to stay in the tent,” Henry said, “but he should be tired out from being on the beach all day.” Watch didn’t seem to mind. As soon as Henry put him inside, he lay down and closed his eyes.
While the children waited for Grandfather, Jessie asked Henry and Benny if they had seen anything strange while she and Violet had been windsurfing.
But before Henry could say anything, Benny said, “Can we wait until after dinner to talk about clues? All I can think about is cheeseburgers.”
Jessie laughed. “Okay, Benny, we can wait until after dinner to talk about clues. There’s Grandfather now!”
The Expert at the Restaurant
“I hope this restaurant is a good one,” Grandfather said when they got into the car. “The owner of the inn recommended it to me. It’s supposed to have wonderful food and a great view of the ocean.”
As they drove, the children told Grandfather all about the turtles. They had so much to tell they were still talking when Grandfather got to the causeway.
“Is that the restaurant?” Jessie asked, noticing a big white building close to the water. “The Laughing Gull? A woman we met on the beach mentioned it.”
“That’s it,” Grandfather said. “It has quite a view. The side that faces the water is almost all windows.”
Grandfather parked at the back of the building, and together the Aldens walked around to the entrance. “Look,” said Henry, pointing to a small building across the street. “That must be Tommy Fischer’s office.” The small wooden building had a big sign across the top with the picture of the leaping fish. Henry explained to Grandfather about Mr. Fischer and his driving.
“He doesn’t seem very nice,” Benny said. “He yelled at us.”
There was a light on inside the building, and they could see Mr. Fischer sitting behind a counter. He had his head propped up with one hand and his eyes closed. “It looks like he’s asleep,” Violet said.
“That’s funny,” Benny said. “He should go home.”
“It looks like he’s in the middle of doing some work, judging by that big stack of paper in front of him,” Grandfather said. “I suppose he’s tired at the end of the day. It’s hard work running a business.”
When the Aldens reached the entrance of the restaurant, a big group had just gone in but had stopped on the other side of the doorway. One of the men said, “This restaurant is too fancy. Let’s eat someplace more casual.” He pointed down to his flip-flops. “I don’t think they’d want us in here.”
The hostess said, “Please, stay. We don’t have a dress code. You’re fine.”
“No,” the man said. “This wasn’t the kind of restaurant we were looking for.” The group walked out.
“Is it too fancy for us too?”’ Benny asked Grandfather.
“No, we’re fine,” Grandfather said.
The hostess gave the Aldens a big smile when they came in. “You can pick where you’d like to sit. As you can see, we’re not busy.”
The Aldens picked a table. “It is a fancy restaurant with the white tablecloths and chandeliers,” Violet said. She didn’t say it out loud, but she didn’t like the way the restaurant had been decorated. The walls and the chairs were gray, and it made the whole place seem gloomy.
The back section of the restaurant was roped off, and there were stacks of supplies sitting on the floor. A glass tank covered a big stretch of the wall.
“It looks like they are putting in a big aquarium,” Henry said.
Grandfather picked up his napkin. “An aquarium will be a nice touch. It will brighten up the place a bit.”
A woman carrying menus came over to their table. “I’m sorry about the construction,” she said. “The new aquarium is almost done. The water is in, and some of the fish will go in tomorrow.”
“I’ve never seen an aquarium that big,” Henry said. “It’s going to take up almost the whole wall.”
“The owner loves tropical fish. He’s an expert in them.” She lowered her voice. “If he comes in tonight, just don’t ask him any questions about the fish unless you want an earful of information. He likes to talk, and once he gets started, you’ll never get away.”
The Aldens’ food arrived quickly. Benny and Violet’s meals came in baskets that looked like little boats.
“You can take the baskets with you when you leave if you want to play with them later,” the server told them.
“I like this place!” said Benny. He pretended to drive the boat around the table.
Henry took a bite of his meal. “The food is really good,” he said.
“It’s too bad they don’t have more customers,” Jessie said.
It didn’t take long for everyone to eat. “I guess you were all very hungry,” the server said as she collected the empty plates.
“We were.” Benny picked up his boat. “If we come back, do I get another boat?”
“Of course! A boat at each visit!” the server said. “And if you come back, you’ll get to see the fish!”
After Grandfather paid the bill, the Aldens walked out of the restaurant and around to the parking lot. Tommy Fischer’s office was dark. “It appears that fellow has finally gone home,” Grandfather said. “I bet he’ll be right back at work first thing tomorrow morning. People who own small businesses put in a lot of hours.”
When they reached the parking lot, the Aldens had to wait to get to their car as a big white van pulled up and parked at the back entrance of the restaurant. The area wasn’t very well lit, but they saw a man in a large straw hat get out and hurry in the door. It had a sign on it that said Employees Only.
“Wasn’t that Mr. Chatman?” Jessie asked. “He’s a man we saw on the beach,” she explained to Grandfather. “He knows a lot about sea turtles.”
“Yes, that was him,” Henry said. “He must work at the restaurant. I wonder why he’s coming to work so late.”
“I suppose he’s getting food ready for tomorrow,” Grandfather said as he got in the car. “I like this place. We’ll definitely have to come back to see the fish.”
After Grandfather dropped them off at the campsite, Jessie looked through their supplies. “I think we need some dessert. How about roasting marshmallows?”
“Yes!” Benny said.
Once the fire was ready, Benny toasted a marshmallow just a little and then ate it quickly.
“Well, Benny, now that you’ve had dinner and dessert, can we talk about clues?”
“Mm-hmm,” said Benny, his mouth full of marshmallow.
Jessie told Henry what she and Violet had learned while he was windsurfing.
Henry poked the fire with a stick. “So Martina makes artwork with the shells she finds on the beach? That explains why she is always on the beach. But we still don’t know why she needed one of those coolers from the ranger station so badly.”
“Or why she was walking down the beach in the middle of the night,” said Benny. “Was she looking for night shells?”
Jessie laughed. “I think the shells at night are the same ones during the day.”
“Benny and I learned something today too,” said Henry. He told Jessie and Violet about Tommy Fischer and his unhappy customers.
When he was done, Violet said, “Maybe that’s why Mr. Fischer is in such a rush all the time. His business is doing poorly. Grandfather did say that owning a business is hard work.”
“But if his business isn’t doing well, why would he ask Ms. Thakur if she wanted to make money?” Jessie wondered, remembering the note they had found in the ranger’s office. “Wouldn’t he be the one who needed money?”
The children sat looking at the fire, thinking about Jessie’s question. Then Benny said, “What about Mr. Chatman? He knows a lot about the turtles. Maybe he took them.”
Violet thought back to the first time they met Mr. Chatman. “Did you notice how he didn’t seem to want anyone around when we found that nest? Maybe he wanted to take the eggs for himself.”
“That was strange,” said Henry. “It seems like we have a lot of questions and not many answers, and I don’t think we’ll find any more clues tonight. Let’s get to sleep and keep an eye out for more clues tomorrow.”
But the children did not need to wait until the morning to find another clue.
Turtles Everywhere
Henry, Jessie, Violet, and Benny fell asleep as quickly as they had the night before.
And just like the night before, a noise outside made Watch perk his ears up. This time it was Violet who woke up with him. She heard a sound coming from a vehicle outside. It seemed too late for a car to be driving around, but then she remembered the ranger had said people stayed over at the station to watch the turtle eggs.
Watch was facing the door of the tent, listening carefully. Violet decided she wanted to make sure it was turtle helpers, so she got up and looked out. There was a light flickering outside the back of the building. It looked like a flashlight.
Suddenly, a loud clanging noise rang out from the ranger station. It was so loud Violet jumped.
Before she could decide what to do, Violet saw a person come around the corner of the building carrying something in both arms. The person carefully put the object into the back of a small car and got into the driver’s seat. The car drove away.
Violet kept watching, but there was no more activity at the station. She went back into her sleeping bag, deciding it wouldn’t do any good to wake the others up. The car was already gone.
The next morning, Violet told the others what she had seen.
“We should tell Ms. Thakur,” Henry said. “It sounds like someone was trying to break into the station.”
“I hope no eggs are missing!” Benny said.
After breakfast they hurried to find the ranger. Violet told her about the nighttime visitor.
Surprisingly, Ms. Thakur didn’t seem concerned. “There’s no sign of a break-in. Sometimes people just like to walk at night and look at the stars. They may have come up to the building to read the signs about when we’re open so they could know when to come back.”
“But I heard a clanging noise, and the person left carrying something,” Violet said.
Ms. Thakur thought for a moment. “The dumpster is behind the building. The noise could have been the sound of the lid closing. It’s very loud. I don’t know what anyone would want from the dumpster though. Our garbage is mostly things we can’t recycle like broken coolers and some of the used containers from the incubation area. Whatever it was, I wouldn’t worry about it.”
The walkie-talkie on the ranger’s belt buzzed. She pulled it off and listened. When she was finished, she told the children, “It’s supposed to be a very windy and wavy day. That means something very exciting might happen. Those are perfect conditions for what’s called an arribada, a big nesting event. If we’re lucky, many turtles may come ashore today, and that means we have lots of eggs to collect. It’s all hands on deck!”
“Yay!” said Benny. “I want to see turtles everywhere!”
They followed Ms. Thakur down the beach to a spot where dozens of volunteers and a few park rangers had gathered. Ms. Thakur got everyone’s attention. “The volunteers will spread out up and down the beach. If you see a turtle come ashore, wait until it’s finis
hed laying its eggs, then mark the spot with a flag and call it in. Everyone take a few flags. The park rangers will come around and collect the eggs.”
“There’s one already!” Benny pointed.
“And there’s another,” Jessie said. “Look at all of them coming in!”
The other rangers and the volunteers moved closer to the turtles.
Ms. Thakur came over to the children. “You Aldens make a good team. Why don’t you come up to marker two and patrol the area between two and three?”
The children headed off, eager to get started.
“At least no eggs will disappear today with all the people around,” Violet said.
“Yes, that’s a relief,” Jessie agreed.
“Hey, isn’t that Mr. Chatman?” Henry asked. He pointed at a man in big straw hat sitting in a beach chair next to a big white van. A cooler sat nearby. The man didn’t look up from the book he was reading as the children passed by.
The wind picked up. Jessie shivered. “I’m surprised Mr. Chatman is out here. It’s not a very good day to sit on the beach.”
“I wonder why he isn’t helping,” Violet said.
“I don’t know. He’s missing out on all the fun. Let’s go faster,” Henry said. “I don’t want to miss any turtles.”
As soon as they got to their assigned marker, Violet spotted a turtle. Over the next few hours, they patrolled their stretch of the beach and found three more nests, marking each one with a flag.
“The rangers are going to be busy collecting all of these eggs,” Jessie said. “We should go back the other way in case more turtles came in after we passed by.”
Henry looked up the beach to see if any rangers were close to their area. He saw a person, but it wasn’t a ranger. It was Martina and Sandy.
The two were walking very slowly. Both the woman and the dog had their heads down like they were looking for something. Martina was carrying bags again.
“We’re finding lots of turtle nests!” Benny called out as they got closer. When Martina and Sandy reached them, Sandy flopped down in the sand. Watch came over and gave a short bark and then danced away like he wanted Sandy to play.
The Sea Turtle Mystery Page 4
