Elizabeth's San Antonio Sleuthing (15 page)

Kate looked up, and Elizabeth watched the girl's hands clench into tight fists. “What did you do with my dog?” Kate whispered.

The Skipper floated by, his fake smile pasted in place, giving witty, memorized discourse about San Antonio and the history of the Riverwalk. At one point his eyes scanned the crowd, and he seemed to pause on Elizabeth and Kate. His smile faded for just an instant, with something akin to rage—or was that fear?—momentarily taking over his features. The man recovered quickly, pasting on that smile again, and the girls watched him and his boat float out of sight.

The show ended, and the crowd applauded and began to leave. Kate and Elizabeth didn't move. Neither did Elizabeth's parents. What should have been a fun, carefree vacation had turned into a nightmare.

“Okay, girls. Tell us everything,” Mr. Anderson said. “Start from the beginning. I have all the time in the world.”

Elizabeth took a deep breath, then began pouring out the story. She told him about Joe and the water balloon. She told him about Gilligan and the Skipper, and watching them in some sort of payoff. She told him about the men chasing them, the failed sting operation, about Biscuit's disappearance, the blog threats, and finally, about hearing Biscuit through the pipes.

During Elizabeth's speech, Kate sat watching the tracker. Fat tears splashed on the ground beside her shoes, but she said nothing.

Mr. Anderson sighed. “How in the world, Elizabeth, do you manage to get yourself caught up in these messes? All those years of taking music lessons of every kind. You're supposed to be sitting sweetly in a parlor somewhere, playing your piano. You're not supposed to be out chasing criminals and solving mysteries!”

Elizabeth wasn't sure how to respond, so she said nothing.

Mr. Anderson looked at the tracker in Kate's hand. “What is that?” he asked.

“It's a tracker. This light shows where the Skipper is. We're hoping he will lead us to Biscuit,” Kate told him.

He noticed Elizabeth's earpiece and asked, “And what do you have in your ear?”

“Uncle Dan put a bug on the Skipper's steering wheel, so we can hear his conversations.”

Mr. Anderson stood to his feet and began pacing.

Elizabeth's mom remained quiet. James was hopping down the stairs, one at a time. He reminded Elizabeth of Tigger.

Finally, Mr. Anderson said, “We're going to call the police, and I'm not letting you girls out of my sight until this thing is taken care of. We're going to have a nice, relaxing evening—perhaps we'll take a carriage ride around the city. And we'll let the police handle it from here.” He looked at his daughter, waiting for her response.

“Yes, sir,” she said.

He pulled out his cell phone and began dialing.

“Dan, what were you thinking?” he said after a moment. “Helping these girls get mixed up in something like this. What in the world were you thinking?”

He listened for a few moments, then said, “Could you please give me the number to the local police?”

Elizabeth watched her father hang up the phone, and he immediately began dialing another number.

“Uh, Dad?” she interrupted him. “If we go to the police, they may hurt Biscuit.”

He stopped dialing and looked at his daughter. “Elizabeth, you'll have to trust me. Sometimes it's best just to let the authorities handle these things.”

“Yes, sir,” she replied. Then, as an afterthought, she said, “Kate and I were supposed to meet our friend Joe at his job in ten minutes. He works at the music store in the mall. Can we just go tell him we're busy this evening, so he and his friends won't be waiting for us?”

Mr. Anderson thought for a moment and said, “Is this the boy who was playing the guitar with you?”

“Yes, sir.”

He looked at Kate, then back at Elizabeth. “Okay, but don't dawdle. Do you know where the horse and buggy depot is?”

Elizabeth nodded.

“Meet us there in twenty minutes. Don't be a minute late, you understand? And stay together!”

“Yes, sir!” the girls said in unison. They dashed for the Riverwalk entrance to the mall. It would have been quicker to use one of the secret passageways Uncle Dan had shown them, but with Elizabeth's father watching, they didn't want to take any chances.

As soon as they were inside the mall, they began to jog. Within minutes, they were in the music shop, but there was no sign of Joe.

Elizabeth approached a young clerk and said, “Excuse me, we're looking for Joe Garcia. Is he still working?”

The clerk gestured to a door that led to the back of the store. “He's back there unloading some boxes. Go on back.”

The girls entered through the door and called out, “Hello! Joe, are you back here?”

“Over here,” came a voice from the far left corner, and the girls headed that way. They found Joe behind a large drum set.

“You won't believe this,” he said. “Remember how we thought Biscuit was on the other end of some maze of pipes?”

The girls nodded.

“Well, we were wrong. Biscuit is on the other side of this wall! Look!” He pointed to a locked door with a tiny window near the top. Elizabeth stretched to see through, and sure enough, there was Biscuit! He was locked in a kennel. He looked like he was sleeping. Poor little thing.

“Kate, I can see him,” she said. Then, looking her friend in the eyes, she smiled and said, “God is good.”

Joe found a wooden crate and moved it below the window, so Kate could see. “It's Biscuit! I see him! Biscuit, wake up! Here, boy!”

“Shhhh!” Joe told her. “That Gilligan man has been in and out all day. He comes in every time Biscuit starts howling. You don't want to wake him up again!”

“Why didn't you tell me you had found him, when you were at the Fiesta Noche?”

“Because I hadn't found him until about ten minutes ago. I could hear him all day, though, and Gilligan, too, and I knew they were close. But these boxes were piled in front of this door. I didn't even know there was a door here,” Joe told them.

Suddenly, Biscuit's howling cut through the air like a knife. Apparently, he had heard Kate's voice.

Standing on the box again, Kate called out, “Hey, boy! It's okay. I'm here. We're gonna figure out a way to—” She stopped in mid-sentence. Her eyes grew wide, and her face grew pale. Finally, she whispered. “It's—it's him! And he saw me!”

Within moments, the door in front of them was shaking, and they heard the man's voice yelling, “Hey! Get out of here! You kids will be sorry!” Then the lock in the door began to turn.

The three of them looked at each other, but it was Elizabeth who spoke. “We'd better get out of here!”

The three of them took off through the storeroom, into the store, barely missing keyboards and drum sets, and into the mall.

“This way,” Joe called, and the girls followed. “I'll explain to my boss later.”

They ran into a bath store and hid behind a large shelf filled with towels and large bottles of bubble bath. Out of breath, they stood panting and peeking through the cracks in the shelving.

“There he is,” whispered Elizabeth, spotting the man. He was looking this way and that, trying to figure out where they had gone. Finally, he moved out of sight, to the left of the bath store.

“I have to go back and get Biscuit,” whispered Kate.

“But what if he catches us?” Elizabeth asked.

“It doesn't matter,” Kate responded. “If we don't go back and get him now, there's no telling what will happen to him.”

“She's right,” whispered Joe. “The door is probably stillunlocked. If we're going to do it, we need to do it now.”

The three of them carefully stepped from behind the shelf and looked around. There was no sign of Gilligan. They dashed back to the music store, where the clerk gave them a frustrated look. “Joe, what do you think you're doing? And who was that old guy who came crashing through here?”

“Sorry, Harry,” Joe called. “I'll explain later, and I'll clean up the mess, I promise!”

Kate led the way back through the storeroom. Biscuit's howls were getting louder. The girl pushed her way through the instruments, squeezing between boxes, until she got to the door. Sure enough, it opened easily. “Biscuit!” she called out.

Elizabeth tried to help her open the kennel door, but it was stuck. In the process, she bumped the tiny speaker, which had been muted. Suddenly, they heard the Skipper's voice. It sounded like he was talking on his cell phone.

“What do you mean, they've found the hideout? How could a bunch of kids—never mind. I'm on my way. You keep looking for them. Where are you now?”

There was static, and Elizabeth looked at the tracker clipped to Kate's belt loop. The Skipper's dot was getting closer….

The Skipper's voice came over the tiny speaker again as the three of them continued to struggle with the kennel door. “You're what? Get back to the hideout, you big dope!

Those kids want the dog. That's where they'll go! I'll be right there.”

“We've got to get out of here,” said Elizabeth.

“Here, let me have the kennel,” said Joe. He grabbed the bulky metal cage with both arms and said, “Go! I have Biscuit!”

Just as they were about to move back through the door into the music storeroom, their passage was blocked.

“Going somewhere?” asked Gilligan. The three kids stopped, frozen in their tracks.

God, help us out of here! prayed Elizabeth
.

“This way!” shouted Joe as he motioned to a door at the back of the room. It obviously led to the Riverwalk.

Suddenly, that door banged open, and the Skipper loomed in the doorway.

“Well, now,” he snarled, “what do we have here?”

The two men began pressing in. Biscuit growled from his kennel, and the Skipper yelled at Kate, “Make your dog be quiet!”

Oh, God, please help us!

Harry appeared in the doorway to the storeroom. “Hey, what's going on here?” the young man asked.

The two men turned to look, and Joe took advantage of the moment by barreling into Gilligan with Biscuit's kennel.

“Run!” Joe yelled.

The crash forced the kennel door open, and Biscuit leapt from the cage, biting Gilligan on the ankle.

“Ow! Get off me, you little mutt!” the man cried.

Elizabeth and Kate sprang through the door.

“Come on, boy!” Kate yelled.

Biscuit followed his beloved owner. Crashing and banging all the way, the girls ran past Harry, through the storeroom, and into the mall.

“This way!” Elizabeth called, remembering the horse depot. She didn't know if the men were following, but she knew where to find safety, and she ran for her father.

“Stop those kids!” the Skipper yelled.

Mall shoppers turned to watch as the two girls and the dog ran with the Skipper wheezing behind them, and Gilligan limping behind him.

Out the mall doors they went, onto the sidewalk. The Texas heat was a startling contrast to the air-conditioned mall. It was difficult for the girls to see in the dusky gray of the evening. Making sure Kate was still close, Elizabeth yelled, “Follow me!”

She could see her father ahead, right in front of the horse depot, paying the carriage driver. A police officer stood behind him, notepad in hand.

“Dad!” Elizabeth yelled, and he looked up.

They were almost home free when Kate tripped. The Skipper, unaware of his audience, caught up with her and grabbed her by the arm. “I've got you now, you little—”

Biscuit lunged at the man, attacking him, growling, biting, barking…. The man did all he could to free himself of the ferocious dog. Then, seeing Mr. Anderson and the police officer running toward him, he grabbed Biscuit and ran down a narrow alley leading back to the Riverwalk.

By this time, Gilligan had caught up with them. Confused, he followed his leader.

There they went, the Skipper with Biscuit clamped tightly to his arm, the injured Gilligan, Elizabeth, Kate, Mr. Anderson, the police officer, and bringing up the rear, Joe. As they reached the other end of the alley, the crowds parted. The Skipper, who was still struggling with Biscuit, was running faster than his out-of-shape body could handle. He failed to slow down in time to gain his balance, and plunged right into the river.

“Don't worry, boss! I'll save you!” called Gilligan, and jumped in after his leader. Then, realizing he was being pursued by the police, he tried to swim to the other side.

Biscuit, finally loose of his kidnapper, swam to the edge and climbed out. Kate scooped the sopping dog into her arms.

“Biscuit! You're safe! I thought I'd never see you again!”

Biscuit rewarded her with slobbery kisses all over her face, knocking her glasses askew.

By this time, the officer had called for backup, and more police officers were starting to arrive. The girls watched as one of them pulled the Skipper out of the water and handcuffed him. Another officer waited for Gilligan on the other side.