Sandy put his head down on his paws.
“Is Sandy okay?” Henry asked.
Martina sighed. “I’m afraid Sandy got away from me again today. He ran out of sight, and it took me a long time to find him. He’s all tired out from his adventures. I’m tired from chasing him.”
She urged Sandy to get back up. “We can’t stay and chat. I want to get these heavy bags of shells back to my car.”
“I hope she just had shells in those bags,” Jessie said as she watched the woman walk away.
“There’s a ranger coming,” Henry said.
It was Ms. Thakur. “Any luck?” she called out.
“Yes! The first flag is right over here!” Violet said, hurrying to show the ranger the right spot. When Violet got there, she realized something was wrong. The flag was missing!
“Over here,” Benny called. He was standing next to the flag, which was laying on its side in the sand.
“That’s not where we put it!” said Violet. “We put it right here. I remember because it was by the dune with the mix of yellow and white flowers.”
Jessie walked over to where Violet stood. “Someone has been digging here,” Jessie said.
“Oh no!” Violet cried.
“And I see animal prints.” Henry pointed to a spot near the empty nest. “They look like dog prints, or maybe coyote.”
The ranger bent down to look at them. “These are definitely dog prints. See, the toe parts of the print are round. Coyote prints would be more oval.” With her finger, she drew a footprint in the sand. “This is what a coyote print looks like. You can tell the ones here are from a dog.”
Violet walked in a circle farther out from the nest. “There is a car track here. It’s closer to the dunes than the other tracks.”
“I’m afraid it’s definitely poachers,” the ranger said. “We’d better check the other locations you marked.”
The flags on the other three nests had all been moved, and all the eggs were missing.
“I can’t believe it!” Henry said. “How did someone get those eggs without us noticing?”
But Ms. Thakur didn’t seem to be listening. She was looking down the beach at an approaching truck. It was Tommy Fischer. When he passed, he waved and the ranger waved back. He didn’t have any customers with him today.
“I need to check some areas farther down the beach,” the ranger said. “I’ll see you all later.” She hopped in her UTV and drove off after the fishing guide.
Jessie watched her drive away. “That’s odd. The ranger stopped paying attention to the missing eggs as soon as Mr. Fischer drove by.”
Benny looked down at where the nest had been. “If those are dog prints, does that mean it’s Martina and Sandy who are taking the eggs?” he asked.
“I don’t know. We’ve never seen Martina driving a car on the beach,” Henry said.
“She has a car that she must park somewhere close to here,” Jessie said. She explained about Martina meeting the women to show them her artwork.
“I hope it’s not her,” Violet said. She felt very discouraged.
The wind blew harder, and it began to rain. Benny wrapped his arms around himself. He was getting cold.
Jessie’s phone rang. It was Grandfather. Jessie put it on speaker so everyone could hear.
“It’s not a good day for a cookout,” Grandfather said. “Why don’t I pick you up and we go to the restaurant we went to last night?”
The children all agreed. It was time to get indoors. They hurried back to the campsite.
After such a chilly afternoon, Grandfather’s car felt nice and warm. When they reached the restaurant parking lot, Jessie noticed a woman in a yellow raincoat with the hood up. The woman went up the steps to the back door of the restaurant and knocked.
The rain was falling hard, and Jessie could just barely see someone open the door and hand the woman a small cooler. The woman hurried back to her car. Jessie told the others what she had seen, but the woman was already driving away, and it was too dark to see her face.
“There are coolers everywhere!” Benny said. Henry explained to Grandfather why they were looking out for people with coolers.
“That is a big problem when you are trying to solve a mystery on a beach,” Grandfather said. “I think you need a good meal now. Maybe another way to solve the mystery will come to you after you eat.”
When the Aldens got inside, they saw the restaurant was even more empty than the night before.
“I guess it’s good for us that it’s not crowded,” Grandfather said. “I don’t know how they stay in business though.”
“I’m glad you are back!” the hostess said. “We have some amazing specials tonight.”
The Aldens picked a table and sat down. Violet looked around. With the rain hitting the windows, the restaurant seemed even gloomier. “At least there are some fish in the aquarium today,” she said. About a dozen small fish darted around in the water.
“I wonder how many they’re going to add,” Henry said. “There’s room in that big of a tank for a lot more.”
“Isn’t that Mr. Chatman?” Violet asked. She nodded toward a bald man standing by the fish tank, talking to one of the servers.
“I think so, even though he looks different without his hat,” Jessie said.
A few more people came into the restaurant. Some went to look at the aquarium, and Mr. Chatman lectured them on the different species. He talked so much that people had to interrupt him to say they wanted to go back to their tables to eat.
“He knows as much about fish as he knows about turtles,” Violet whispered to the others.
“Is that man one of the employees here?” Jessie asked the server when she came to take their order.
“That’s the owner of the restaurant,” the server replied.
“Hi, Mr. Chatman!” Benny called and waved.
Mr. Chatman looked in their direction and frowned.
“He doesn’t seem happy to see us,” Violet said.
“Mr. Chatman, come meet Grandfather,” Benny said.
The man walked over to their table. Henry introduced him to Grandfather.
“Mr. Chatman is a turtle expert,” Benny announced. “He knows everything!” The restaurant owner smiled at that. Violet thought he looked a little friendlier when he smiled.
“Did you help with the arribada?” Jessie asked. “It was amazing.”
Mr. Chatman shook his head. “I was far too busy here.”
Jessie and Henry looked at each other. “We…we thought we saw you sitting on the beach,” Henry said.
Mr. Chatman’s smile disappeared. He shifted around and clasped his hands together. “It must have been someone who looked like me. I was here. Running a business takes too much work for me to be lounging on the beach. In fact, I have to get back to the kitchen right now.” He hurried away and went through the kitchen doors.
“But it was him on the beach,” Benny said. “Why did he lie?”
“I don’t know,” Jessie said. “That was strange.”
The Aldens’ food arrived quickly. The meal was as good as the one they’d eaten the night before, but Benny began to yawn even before he was finished.
“It seems like you’ve had another very busy day,” Grandfather said. “We should go.”
Grandfather took them back to their campsite. It had stopped raining and turned into a nice night. “Enjoy tomorrow,” he said as they got out of the car. “Remember, we need to leave the day after that.”
Grandfather drove off, and Henry opened the flap of the tent to let Watch out. “I wish we didn’t have to leave so soon,” he said. “I really wanted to figure out who was stealing the eggs.”
“We still have tomorrow,” Violet said, though she didn’t feel very sure they would solve the mystery. There were still a lot of questions to answer.
“I’m not tired anymore. Can we have another fire?” Benny asked. “If we’re leaving soon, we’d better use up all the marshmallows.”
<
br /> Jessie laughed. “You’re right. They do need to be used up.”
The children lit the fire and started roasting marshmallows. It was quiet on the beach. Even though it had stopped raining, the Aldens didn’t see as many people as they had the other nights.
“Isn’t that Mr. Fischer’s truck outside the ranger station?” Henry asked. “What’s he doing there?”
“It is Tommy Fischer,” Violet said. The light in the parking lot lit up enough of the truck so they could see the logo of the jumping fish on the side.
“That’s strange,” Jessie said. “The visitor center closes at five o’clock.”
Just then, the door opened. Ms. Thakur and Tommy came out together. The ranger was carrying a duffel bag, holding it up close to her with both arms. When they reached Tommy’s truck, she handed it to him, and he put it inside. Then he drove off, going very fast. Ms. Thakur got in her own car and followed.
Violet didn’t want to believe what they’d just seen. “It looks like Ms. Thakur and Tommy Fischer are working together on something,” she said. “I just hope it isn’t what it looks like.”
Seaweed Marks the Spot
The next morning it was still cool and windy. The Aldens walked over to the ranger station. They wanted to pick up some flags in case they saw any more turtle nests on the beach.
“Since we have to leave tomorrow, we should get some postcards too,” Jessie said as she headed toward the door of the visitor center.
When she opened it, a gust of wind caught the door and banged it against the wall. Papers from the counter flew up and blew around the room.
“Oh no! I just straightened up the place,” Leo said. He came around and began to pick up the papers.
“I’m sorry,” said Jessie. “We’ll help clean up.” They gathered several items.
The last piece of paper on the floor looked like a handwritten list. Violet picked it up. “This handwriting looks familiar. The letters all have big loops on them.”
“That’s the ranger’s handwriting,” Leo said. “It’s always so fancy I have trouble reading it sometimes.”
The telephone rang. Leo picked it up.
Henry motioned for the others to move away from the counter. “It wasn’t Tommy Fischer’s handwriting on the sticky note! It was the ranger’s!”
“But that means Ms. Thakur was writing to say she knew how Tommy could make more money,” Jessie said. “Not the other way around.”
Just then Ms. Thakur came out of her office carrying a book. It was a bird guide. “Good morning, Aldens,” the ranger said as she laid it on the counter. She turned to Leo. “My cousin will be by to pick up this book either today or tomorrow.”
Jessie decided it was time to speak up to the ranger about what they’d seen. “We thought we saw you and Tommy Fischer last night,” she said. “We were a little worried that something was wrong because it was after the center had closed.”
The ranger nodded. “That was us. I gave Tommy some other books about birds, but I forgot about this one. I’ve been talking to him about adding some bird-watching trips to his business.”
“I thought you said this book was for your cousin,” said Benny.
“Yes, that’s right. Tommy is my cousin. I encouraged him to come here and start his fishing business. I didn’t know he’d have such a hard time getting it going. I haven’t had much a chance to help him since it’s nesting season.” She looked out the window. “It’s another windy day. I need to get out and watch for turtles.”
After the ranger left, Jessie picked out some postcards, and the children headed to the beach.
“So Tommy’s business is having trouble,” said Henry. “And he is working with Ms. Thakur. But he is going to start bird-watching tours. He’s not collecting turtle eggs!”
“I’m so relieved,” said Violet. “That’s two suspects off our list. Now we just have to catch the real culprit.”
“I think I have a way we can figure it out!” Jessie said. “If we see turtles digging, let’s mark the real nests with piles of seaweed and shells, so only we know where it is. We’ll mark some other spots with flags, so if someone digs there, they won’t find any eggs.”
“I like that idea!” Benny said. “Junior rangers come up with the best ideas.”
The children walked up and down the beach for a long time without seeing any turtles. Finally, Benny spotted some tracks and followed them right up to a dune.
“I’ll get some seaweed,” Henry said. “We should use enough seaweed and shells so we can be sure to find the nest again.”
“Let’s count how many steps we take to where we are going to put the flag,” Violet said. “That way we’ll be extra sure we know where to go.”
Jessie suggested fifty steps would be a good amount. They counted as they walked and then placed a flag when they had walked far enough.
“What do we do now?” Benny asked.
“I suppose we keep looking for turtles, but we also come back here to check on the nest,” Henry said.
The Aldens didn’t see another turtle until they were much farther up the beach. It was Violet who spotted it. They went through the same process of marking the nest with seaweed and shells and then placing the flag fifty steps away.
“I’m going to call the ranger,” Jessie said. “We need to let someone know we’ve found some nests.” She punched in the number, gave the ranger the two different locations, and then hung up. “We’re going to meet her up by the first nest,” she said.
They walked back down the beach.
“I see Martina,” Jessie said. She started to run. The others followed. As they got closer, they saw Sandy sniffing the flag and then walking away. Martina stood watching the dog. She had a foam cooler with her. It was just like the ones the rangers used.
The ranger pulled up next to Martina as the Aldens reached her.
“I can’t believe you’re stealing the eggs!” Violet cried. She looked at the cooler and remembered what the ranger had said about the items they threw in the dumpster. “You took a cooler from the ranger station the other night, didn’t you?”
Ms. Thakur jumped out of her UTV. “What’s happening here?”
Martina looked shocked. “I’m not stealing eggs! I’d never do that.” She opened the cooler and tipped it so they could see inside. “Look, it’s empty.”
“Then why do you have it?” asked Jessie. “And why was Sandy sniffing around the flag?”
Martina looked embarrassed. “I have been training Sandy to sniff out the sea turtle nests. He has a very good nose and loves to dig. I thought it would be a good way to find nests that aren’t marked. The only thing was, I needed something that had the scent of the eggs, in order to train him. That’s why I took a cooler from the dumpster. I didn’t want anyone to know what we were doing until I was sure he could find the nests.”
“Is that why you were out at night on the beach with Sandy?” Benny asked. “I saw you.”
“That’s right,” said Martina. “We’ve been practicing at night. I didn’t want Mr. Chatman to see us. He gets so angry when anyone gets close to a nest.”
The ranger looked at the cooler and then at Sandy, who was sniffing around in a different spot. “I have to admit, that is a good idea,” she said. “How is Sandy doing?”
“As far as I can tell, he’s doing very well, but something strange is happening today.” Martina pointed at the flag. “Someone has been putting the flags in the wrong places. Sandy hasn’t been interested in those sites at all. He’s been sniffing around at what I think are the real nests. For some reason, they are marked with seaweed and a ring of shells instead of a flag. I was about to call you so you could come check and see if I’m right.”
“You are right!” Jessie said. “We marked the nests so we could try and catch whoever was stealing the eggs. We still don’t know who that is.”
“Have you seen anything unusual today?” Ms. Thakur asked Martina.
Martina thought for a moment. “I
did notice a white van that stopped and seemed to wait for Sandy and I to leave, and when we didn’t, the van drove away.”
“A white van?” asked Henry. “I think I know who we should go see next.”
They’re Off!
Jessie snapped her fingers. “Mr. Chatman has a white van.”
“I can’t imagine it would be him,” the ranger said. “He cares about the turtles.”
“I don’t know why he would take the eggs, but it really might be him.” Jessie told the ranger about how Mr. Chatman had lied about being on the beach the day the eggs went missing, and about how they had seen someone give a cooler to a woman outside Mr. Chatman’s restaurant.
“That is very troubling,” said Ms. Thakur. “I should go speak to him, and you all should come along. You kids seem to know what’s going on here better than anybody.”
The Aldens rode with Ms. Thakur to the Laughing Gull. Martina and Sandy followed in Martina’s car.
Outside, Mr. Chatman’s white van was in the parking lot, but when the group walked up to the front door, they saw a handwritten sign taped to it, which said Closed until Wednesday. There were no lights on.
Martina peered through the glass. “That’s strange. I thought they were open every day,” she said.
“Let’s go around to the back,” the ranger suggested. “I want to get to the bottom of this.”
Henry knocked on the back entrance.
Mr. Chatman opened the door. “I’m sorry. We’re closed today.”
“We’d like to talk to you,” the ranger said. “It’s important.”
Mr. Chatman’s face turned pale.
Ms. Thakur walked into the kitchen. The others followed. “Mr. Chatman, we think you’ve been stealing the turtle eggs,” the ranger said. She told him the things that Martina and the Aldens had told her.
Mr. Chatman looked ashamed. “I did. I’m sorry. I was only trying to help.”
Henry couldn’t believe what he was hearing. “How could selling the eggs help the turtles?”
“I didn’t sell the eggs!” Mr. Chatman said.
The Sea Turtle Mystery Page 5
