The Quicksand Question (2 page)

Josh burst through the barn doors first. Dink and Ruth Rose barreled in right behind him.

Josh immediately pounced on the cookie tin. He opened it, then gasped. “Call the cops!” he yelled. “I’ve been robbed!”

Dink grinned at his friend. “What’d they take, your brain?”

“Worse,” Josh said, peering into the empty cookie tin. “They took my cookies!”

“Hey, my piggy bank is missing!”
Ruth Rose said. “I left it right on my sleeping bag.”

Dink poked his hand into the opening of his sleeping bag. He felt around. “My money jar isn’t here, either!” he said.

Josh pulled open his sleeping bag. “Now I’m
really
mad!” he said. “My money sock is gone!”

Josh looked at his friends. “Someone snuck in here while we were gone,” he said.

“Raccoons might have taken the cookies,” Ruth Rose said, glancing around the barn.

“And I read that crows sometimes steal shiny coins,” Dink offered.

Suddenly Josh grinned. “No, it wasn’t raccoons or crows,” he said, wiggling his eyebrows. “I think it was two little monkeys!”

“The twins!” shouted Dink and Ruth Rose at the same time.

The three kids charged out of the barn and raced across the yard. Josh stormed through the kitchen door and yelled, “Freeze!”

Brian and Bradley were kneeling on kitchen chairs, playing with a pile of coins on the table. On the counter were Josh’s blue sock, Dink’s peanut butter jar, and Ruth Rose’s piggy bank. “Josh!” cried Bradley. “Look what we found in the barn!”

“It’s pirate treasure!” yelled Brian.

“No, it’s not. It’s
our
treasure,” Josh growled at his little brothers.

Bradley made a face. “But we found it. Nobody was there!”

“This is special money,” Dink told the twins. “We saved it for the ducks.”

“Why do ducks need money?” asked Brian.

Ruth Rose explained how the money would be used to build a bridge so mommy ducks and baby ducks could cross the road safely.

“Okay,” the twins said together.

“Now, what about my cookies?” Josh asked, waving the cookie tin. “Give ’em back!”

The two little boys erupted in giggles.

“We can’t—they’re in our stomachs!” Brian crowed.

The five kids ate breakfast, and then Josh told Bradley and Brian to go wake up their parents.

Dink scooped all their coins into the cookie tin while Josh and Ruth Rose cleaned up. Then Josh reached for Pal’s leash. But Pal was already sitting by the door with his leash in his mouth.

“Smart doggie,” Josh said as he clipped the leash to Pal’s collar. Dink lugged the heavy cookie tin.

Pal and the kids took Eagle Lane to Silver Circle, then crossed Main Street to the fire station. They saw Officer Fallon getting out of his cruiser in front of the station.

“‘Morning, kids,” the police chief said. “You’re up early.” He bent down and stroked Pal’s soft ears.

Dink held up the cookie tin. “We came to make a deposit!”

Officer Fallon grinned. He reached into his cruiser and pulled out a jar of coins. “Me too.”

“Did you hear about the fire last night?” Ruth Rose asked.

“Yes, I did,” Officer Fallon said. “It was small, and I guess the fire department put it out easily. The question is, who started it?”

“I saw a car’s headlights near there,” Dink reported. “But that was before the fire.”

“How long before?” Officer Fallon asked.

Dink thought back. “I don’t know, maybe ten minutes or so.”

Officer Fallon set his coin jar on the roof of his cruiser. Then he pulled out his pad, flipped it open, and made a few notes.

“Could this be a clue?” Ruth Rose asked. She pulled the partly burned wood from her pocket.

“Where’d you find that, Ruth Rose?” he asked.

“We went to the scene of the fire this morning,” she told him. “This was in the ashes.”

Officer Fallon examined the four letters. “CO is usually short for
company,
” he said, “but there should be a period after the O.”

“Maybe the period got burned off?” Ruth Rose said.

Officer Fallon made a note on his pad. “Good detective work,” he said to Ruth Rose.

Josh’s eyes lit up. “Maybe the wood was from a snake’s cage,” he said.
“Don’t pet cobra.”

They all laughed.

“Well, let’s add our money so we
can save those ducks,” Officer Fallon said, slipping his notebook into a pocket and reaching for his money jar.

They walked into the fire station together. Somewhere a radio played softly. A clock on the rear wall said nine o’clock.

The Green Lawn fire engine was parked on the concrete floor. Next to it was a smaller truck with
RESCUE
written on both doors.

On the back wall were three doors. Gray metal lockers stood along another wall. Below the lockers was a row of rubber boots. Pal walked over and sniffed a boot.

“Hello!” Officer Fallon called out. “Anybody home?”

One of the doors opened. A man wearing a dark blue uniform stepped out. “Who’s there?” he said.

“Officer Fallon and some friends,” the police chief said, rattling his jarful
of coins. “We brought more money.”

Dink held up the cookie tin. “This is getting heavy!” he said.

“Great!” the man said. “Come on back here.”

The kids and Officer Fallon joined the man at the rear of the firehouse. The man walked over to another of the doors. He shoved it open and stepped aside. “Right in here,” he said.

Through the door, Dink could see a rug, a TV set, and several comfortable-looking chairs.

“Where’s the bank?” Josh asked, peering around the man.

“Standing in the corner, right where it’s always been,” the man said, turning to look into the room.

Except that the duck bank wasn’t standing in the corner.

The duck bank wasn’t anywhere in the room.

“I can’t believe it!” the man said. “That bank was here last night. I know because I put money in it!”

“Would anyone have moved it to a different spot in the firehouse?” Officer Fallon asked.

The man shook his head. “We kept it here in the TV lounge so everyone would be reminded to drop coins in. Plus, the thing weighs a ton!”

Officer Fallon handed Josh his jar of coins and took out a notebook. “Did you put out that meadow fire last night?” he asked.

The man shook his head. “Nope, that would’ve been Jake and Lenny.”

Officer Fallon wrote in his notebook. “Where would I find them?”

The firefighter smiled. “Still snoozing in the other room,” he said. “They should be getting up any time now.”

“Have them give me a call after they’re awake,” Officer Fallon said, slipping his notebook into a pocket.

“No problem,” the man answered.

Officer Fallon and the kids walked outside. Pal lay next to the cruiser with his head on his big front paws.

“I just thought of something,” Dink said. “Maybe whoever lit that fire last night did it to get the men out of the firehouse.”

“I had the same thought,” Officer Fallon said. “The fire could have been a diversion.”

“Yeah!” Josh said. “So they could
sneak in here when no one was around and steal the bank!”

“Who would do such a lousy thing?” Ruth Rose said.

“Someone who loves money and hates ducks!” Josh said.

“Could it have been the car I saw last night?” Dink said. “I saw those headlights right before the fire.”

“Very possibly” Officer Fallon said.

An elderly man walked past with a dog on a leash. The man was tall and thin. The dog was short and round. They both had white hair. Pal whined and wagged his tail back and forth.

The man let his little dog waddle over to Pal. “Hello,” the man said. “This is Randolph. Is your basset friendly?”

Josh nodded. “Pal likes everyone!”

Pal sniffed the little dog, then licked his face. Randolph rolled over and wiggled his whole body.

“Any trouble here?” the man asked, looking curiously at Officer Fallon.

“Just investigating a possible theft,” Officer Fallon said.

The man raised his bushy white eyebrows. “Would it have anything to do with that crazy driver I saw last night?” he asked.

Officer Fallon took out his notebook again and flipped it open. “Please tell me what you saw,” he said.

“A fire engine woke me some time after one o’clock,” the man said. “So I took Randolph outside for some fresh air. We were at the corner of Indian Way Road when a jeep came tearing past us up Main Street!” The man held his hands a foot apart. “Missed Randolph by that much!”

Officer Fallon began writing in his notebook. “You are Mr….?”

“Thaddeus Pocket,” the man said. “Number 10 Indian Way Road.”

“Were you able to read the jeep’s license plate, Mr. Pocket?”

“Mercy, no!” the man said. “It was speeding much too fast.”

“Did you happen to notice the driver?” Officer Fallon asked.

Mr. Pocket shook his head. “I’m sorry, my eyesight isn’t wonderful anymore. There were two men in the jeep, but I don’t remember the driver.”

Officer Fallon closed his notebook and began to put it away. “Thanks anyway, Mr. Pocket. You’ve been very helpful—”

“But I do remember the man sitting
beside
the driver,” Mr. Pocket went on.

“You do?” Officer Fallon opened his notebook again.

Mr. Pocket grinned. “Yes, but only because he was so odd-looking. The man in the passenger seat looked just like a giant duck!”

Dink, Josh, and Ruth Rose exchanged glances.

Officer Fallon was still looking at Mr. Pocket. “The man looked like a duck? Can you explain, Mr. Pocket?”

Mr. Pocket smiled. “I noticed a shiny head and a duck’s beak. Now I realize the man must have had a shaved head and a large nose.”

Officer Fallon thanked Mr. Pocket and wrote down his phone number. The man and his dog continued their walk.

“That guy driving the jeep must have
been the thief!” Josh blurted out. “The duck bank was in the passenger seat!”

“When Mr. Pocket saw the jeep, the driver had probably just stolen the bank and was making his getaway!” Ruth Rose added.

Officer Fallon walked over to his cruiser. “I’ll get word out to watch for a jeep carrying a duck,” he said.

“Would you mind holding on to our money?” Dink asked. He stepped over to the cruiser and handed Officer Fallon the cookie tin.

“And here’s yours back.” Josh returned Officer Fallon’s jar.

“Will do,” Officer Fallon said, setting both containers on the seat. “Don’t worry, we’ll get our duck bridge built yet.”

He climbed into the car and pulled away down Main Street.

“That crook could be anywhere by
now,” Dink said. He started walking toward the corner of Main and River Road.

“It makes me so mad!” Ruth Rose said. “The town has been saving up for a year, and now we have to start all over again!”

The kids crossed River Road and sat in the grass above the riverbank. Pal woofed at a family of ducks feeding in the weeds. The ducks paddled quickly away toward the other side.

“Maybe Officer Fallon will find him,” Dink said.

“I don’t know how,” Josh said. “That jeep could be hundreds of miles away by now.”

“Well, we still have this,” Ruth Rose said, holding up the chunk of wood stamped with ET CO. “These letters
must
mean something!”

Josh picked up a stone and tossed it into the river. The kids watched the
stone sink to the sandy bottom.

“Any ideas?” Dink asked.

“Yeah, let’s go to Ellie’s,” Josh said. “A milkshake always helps me think better.”

“Josh, we have to focus on finding that money,” Ruth Rose said. “Think of those baby ducks!”

“Okay, but we don’t have a plan,” Josh said.

Dink checked his watch. “Why don’t we see if the firemen who were on duty last night are up yet?” he suggested.

“Good idea,” Ruth Rose said. “Maybe they saw the jeep when they were coming back from the fire.”

With Pal leading, the kids walked back into the fire station. A tall man was wiping the rescue truck with a cloth. A mug of coffee rested on the truck’s hood.

“’Morning,” he said, yawning.

“Good morning,” Dink said. “Are you one of the night firemen?”

“Did you hear about the robbery?” Josh asked before the man could answer Dink’s question.

The man nodded. “My name’s Jake,” he said. “I’m really bummed that someone stole that duck money.”

He picked up his coffee and sat on the truck’s front bumper. “Lenny and I were gone, putting out a fire in the meadow. It turned out to be small, probably left burning by some campers.”

“Officer Fallon thinks the crooks set it,” Josh said.

“We figure they did it to get you to leave the firehouse,” Dink said. “I saw some headlights near where the fire was set last night.”

“And a man walking his dog saw a jeep speeding up Main Street,” Ruth Rose added. “He saw the duck bank in the jeep!”

Jake’s mouth fell open. “Really?”

“By any chance, did you pass a jeep on River Road?” Josh asked.

Jake shook his head. “Didn’t see any
vehicles, going or coming back.”

“Did you see anyone hanging around here?” Ruth Rose asked.

Jake leaned down and gave Pal’s ears a gentle rub. “Not last night, but a few days ago some guy was poking around in here. He used our bathroom, then left.”

“Did he see the duck bank?” Dink asked.

“Probably. The thing’s pretty hard to miss,” Jake said.

“Do you remember what he looked like?” Josh asked.

Jake shrugged. “Big guy, as tall as me but heavier,” he said. “Oh, and his ears really stuck out. Looked like he had two overgrown mushrooms glued to his head.”