Elizabeth's San Antonio Sleuthing (7 page)

The captain, a short, bald man with a protruding belly, had been useless during this ordeal. Laughing nervously, he said, “Okay, folks. The excitement's over. Now who wants to go for a ride?”

Elizabeth was surprised when Kate walked to the small boarding platform. “You still want to ride?” she asked.

Kate leaned close and whispered, “Of course I want to ride. We have a mystery to solve, don't we?”

Elizabeth chuckled and followed her friend onto the boat. They sat on the opposite side of the boat from the three teenagers. Joe, now soaked, sat directly across from Elizabeth. He flashed her that grin, and she determined then and there to not look at him again.

As the boat purred to a start, the captain picked up his microphone. “Welcome, ladies and gentlemen, to Santa Anna Tours. We are thrilled to have you as passengers, and we believe you'll find our Riverwalk tour superior, in every way, to our competitor's tour. Please remain seated at all times, and keep your arms and legs inside.”

“Eeeeeeeeeeeek!” screamed a middle-aged woman sitting in the middle section of the boat. “A snake! There's a snake in the boat!”

Her husband leaned over and picked up a deadly looking rubber snake. “Calm down, Rita. It isn't real.”

Rita covered her mouth with her hand and took a deep breath. “Well, it certainly looked real,” she said.

The captain leaned over and took the snake from the man.

“I'm so sorry. I don't know how this could have happened.” He eyed Joe, but the boy just returned the captain's gaze with an angelic look.

“I'll bet you a chimichanga I know who put that snake there,” Kate whispered as the boat continued on its way. The captain pointed out all the familiar sights, explaining how the Riverwalk had been built for the 1968 World's Fair. Elizabeth never grew tired of hearing how their hotel—the Palacio del Rio—had been assembled and furnished elsewhere, and put in place—room by room—by a huge crane, as builders scrambled to get things ready for the World's Fair. They were able to get the hotel put together just in time.

“Stay calm, folks. We're gonna get you out of this. Please stay in the boat,” they heard a man's voice over a microphone up ahead of them. The Santa Anna passengers strained to see what the commotion was about.

Up ahead was a River City Cruise boat filled with passengers. And it seemed to be filling with water. The captain was trying to keep the passengers calm and steer the boat to the side of the river.

The Santa Anna captain said nothing. Did nothing. Just kept on with his tour script.

“Uh, excuse me, sir?” Elizabeth raised her hand.

“Yes, miss? Did you have a question?” the captain acknowledged her with a artificial smile.

“Don't you think we should stop and try to help those people?” she asked.

The man laughed and said, “Oh, they'll be fine. Things like that happen all the time to River City Cruises. You all made the right choice, choosing Santa Anna Tours! Of course, if you're in the mood for a swim, perhaps you should try River City next time. They'll be sure to deliver!” The captain laughed a little too loudly, and the crowd responded with a few chuckles. No one seemed to think his joke was very funny.

Once again, Elizabeth heard a loud splash—and another. Joe and Pedro had jumped in the water and were wading to the stranded boat. The Santa Anna boat continued, with the captain desperately trying to regain his audience's attention.

“Well, well, this has certainly been an exciting ride today, hasn't it, folks? Let me direct your attention to the bridge up ahead. That was the first bridge built here on the Riverwalk….”

As the captain droned on, Elizabeth watched the two boys push the stranded boat to the edge. Then they helped the passengers onto the sidewalk.

“I can't figure them out,” she whispered to Kate. “They are our main suspects in…several mysteries. But they seem to be pretty good guys.”

Kate said, “Yep, this is a job for the Camp Club Girls.”

Elizabeth's gaze left the boys for a moment and landed on Maria, sitting by herself. She, too, was watching the scene behind her. “You're right,” she whispered. “But first, I think we need to interview someone.”

When the boat ride was over, Kate handed the towel back to the kind lady. “Thank you,” she said.

“No problem, honey. I'm just glad you're okay,” the lady said.

The two girls waited for Maria to disembark, and the girl smiled at them. “That was some boat ride!” she told them.

“I'll say,” answered Kate.

The girl smiled, and the three stood in awkward silence. “Well, I guess I'd better go look for my cousins,” she said.

“Your cousins?” Elizabeth and Kate exclaimed.

“Yeah,” she said. “Sometimes I'm not proud of that fact. Other times, like just now, I remember that they're pretty good guys.”

“Do you mind if we walk with you?” asked Elizabeth.

“Sure!” the girl said. “I mean, no, I don't mind.”

All around them, bright streamers of
papel picado—
hand-cut paper decorations—seemed to dance to the mariachi music playing in the distance, and the girls naturally walked in time with the rhythm.

“What makes you say that sometimes you're not proud to be related to them?” asked Kate.

“Oh, you know how boys can be,” she said.

Elizabeth and Kate nodded.

“And my cousins—Joe, especially—is all boy. He loves to get into mischief, play pranks. Sometimes I wonder why I hang out with them so much,” she said. “But they are pretty fun, and it beats staying at home, watching television.”

“So you live around here?” Elizabeth asked.

“Yeah, we live a couple of blocks from here. Our parents work near here, and it makes it nice. We don't need a car. We can walk or ride our scooters everywhere we need to go.”

“What kinds of pranks do they pull?” pressed Elizabeth. She was determined to wrangle a confession out of someone.

“Oh, you know,” the girl said. “This and that.” She was beginning to look uncomfortable. Just then, they rounded a curve in the Riverwalk and saw the boys ahead. They were standing at attention, hands by their sides, as a police officer spoke with the captain of the River City Cruise boat—the boat they'd helped rescue.

As the girls drew closer, they could hear the agitated voice of the captain saying, “It's sabotage, I'm telling you. Someone has been meddling with my boats. And these boys seem to be hanging around the Riverwalk with too much time on their hands.”

The police officer looked at the boys. “What have you been doing all morning?”

Joe spoke with respect. “We attended some kind of Bible club this morning, down at the church at La Villita. Then we went to the Alamo. After that, we came back here to ride on that other riverboat. We just jumped in to help him because he was stranded. No one else helped him, so we did.”

The captain spoke up. “These boys are always hanging around whenever something bad happens. I can't prove it, but I think they're behind the problems I'm having with my boats.”

The officer wrote on a notepad, and then questioned the boys further. “You say you were at a Bible club, then the Alamo before you rode on the other boat?”

“Yes, sir,” Joe answered.

“Can you prove that?” the officer asked him. “Did anyone else see you at those places?”

Elizabeth stepped forward then. “Excuse me, sir, but these boys are telling the truth. I saw them at those places.”

“And your name is… ?” questioned the police officer.

“Elizabeth Anderson,” she replied.

“And I'm Kate Oliver,” Kate spoke up. “I saw them, too. Elizabeth and I are helping with the Bible club. I can take you to my youth minister, if you'd like, and he'll verify that.”

The police officer eyed the girls, then shut his notepad. “That won't be necessary.” He looked at the boat's captain. “I know you're frustrated. And it does appear that someone is trying to sabotage your business. But without proof, I can't hold these boys. It looks to me like they were just doing a good deed.”

The captain looked sheepish. He took off his hat and nervously twisted it in his hands. “I'm sorry, boys. I guess I jumped to conclusions. I'm just anxious to get to the bottom of all these mishaps. I do appreciate your help today.”

Joe smiled. “That's okay, sir. I hope everything works out for you, and you catch the real bad guys.”

The police officer dismissed the boys and continued talking to the captain. Joe and Pedro sighed with relief and turned to Elizabeth and Kate.

“Thanks,” the boys told them.

“I don't know what would have happened if you two hadn't shown up,” said Pedro.

“Yeah. I was afraid we were going to end up in handcuffs or something, all for trying to help the guy,” Joe added.

Marie looked smugly at her cousins. “I told you all to quit playing all those tricks. People can tell when you're up to no good, and then you get blamed for worse things. It's your own fault.”

Elizabeth couldn't resist cutting into the conversation. “And exactly what tricks are you talking about, Maria?”

Joe laughed nervously. “Oh, Maria is
loco
. Crazy. She doesn't know what she's talking about. Just ignore her.”

“Would any of those tricks happen to involve a water balloon?” Elizabeth pressed. It didn't matter to her whether or not these boys were criminals or just pranksters. She knew they were guilty of something, and she was going to get to the bottom of this.

Joe smiled a cat-ate-the-canary smile and said nothing. Pedro laughed, and Maria just shook her head before launching into a tirade of rapidly spoken Spanish words. Elizabeth caught a word here and there, but she didn't know very much Spanish.

Something in the shadows caught her eye. Was that the captain of the Santa Anna? And the man he was talking to looked familiar….

It's the rude man from the boat yesterday! The one who was complaining about the River City boats right after the boat died! And…what was that on his hands?

She nudged Kate and pointed. Maria continued on with her tirade as the boys tried to ignore their cousin. Joe, noticing that Elizabeth's and Kate's attention was elsewhere, followed their gaze.

The captain of the Santa Anna boat pulled a wad of money out of his pocket and handed it to the man, who stuffed it in his own pocket with fingers stained with neon pink paint. Too late, the men noticed they had an audience.

“Hey! What are you kids doing?” the captain yelled.

Each member of the group seemed to know, without being told, that they had just witnessed something sinister. They took off running. Biscuit, who'd been comfortably napping in Kate's backpack after his morning swim, suddenly came to life. Barking and growling, the little dog wiggled his way out of the backpack, scattering a stack of Kate's business cards in the process.

“Biscuit!” Kate yelled, and scooped her dog into her arms before the men reached him.

“This way!” called Joe, and motioned for them to enter a doorway to…Elizabeth had no idea where the doorway led. But she and Kate followed. Joe slammed the door behind them, and Elizabeth peered out the small window.

The two men had stopped running. The captain bent and retrieved one of Kate's cards. He read it, looked toward the doorway, and slipped the card into his pocket.

As the pink-handed man walked toward the doorway, Joe called out, “Get down!” The boy clicked the dead bolt on the door just before they heard the door being pulled. The man on the other side of the door began rattling, and then his shadow blocked the light coming through the window as he peered inside.

Elizabeth's heart pounded. Who were those men? And what were they doing? Why was the captain paying the other man?

Deep voices came from the other side of the door. “It's locked. Do you want me to go after them?” Elizabeth recognized the voice of the taller man with painted hands.

“Leave ‘em alone for now. I have an idea that will shut them up, once and for all.”

The five young people looked at each other and sighed in unison.

“What was that about?” asked Maria.

“Those guys aren't up to any good, that's for sure,” said Joe.

Elizabeth stood on her tiptoes and peered out the tiny window. The men were gone. “Kate…we need to get back to the hotel,” she said.

“I know! My clothes are still wet, and my sneakers are sloshing,” Kate complained.

“And you need to check your blog,” Elizabeth added. “Check my blog? That's right. I need to update my blog,” she replied.

“Kate, those men have your card,” Elizabeth told her. Kate's eyes grew wide and round. “My business cards!

That's right, they scattered when Biscuit tried to escape….”

“Well, as long as we are careful, it could be a good thing. Maybe we can figure out a way to mislead them or something,” Elizabeth told her.