by Shari Barr
“Or Reggie Ford,” Sydney piped in.
“Do you know when he worked here?” The woman rose and approached the girls.
“We think ten or fifteen years ago.” McKenzie drummed her fingers on the countertop.
The woman frowned as she looked from one girl to the other. “I’m afraid we don’t have employee records that far back. We had a fire, and all the paperwork and the backup files from former employees were destroyed. Are you sure your friend worked here that long ago?”
McKenzie nodded dismally. The girls thanked the woman for her help and stepped back outside.
“Now what?” Sydney asked.
McKenzie sighed as she headed toward the funnel cake stand. “I don’t know,” she answered as she handed over some money for the pastry.
The girls plunked down at a table beneath a large green umbrella. McKenzie popped a piece of the cake in her mouth and offered some to Sydney.
“Every time we find a clue, we come to a dead end,” Sydney said, wiping powdered sugar off her chin. “I go back home the day after tomorrow. I really wanted to find Mr. Ford before then.”
McKenzie nodded as she pulled off another bite of funnel cake. Her cell phone rang as she chewed. “Hi, Bailey. What’s up?”
“You guys aren’t home, are you?” Bailey asked.
“No. Why?”
“I’ve been looking through those pictures you scanned and emailed to us. Do you remember the pictures you took at the top of the lookout tower behind Miss Val’s house?”
“Sure.” McKenzie popped another piece of cake in her mouth.
“In the distance, down in the hills, I can see two small waterfalls falling over a rocky cliff,” Bailey continued.
“I remember that picture.” McKenzie tossed her paper plate into a nearby trash can.
“Maybe that’s where Twin Falls Crafters is located. You know, the place that man Mr. Landers was talking about.”
McKenzie was speechless for a moment, and when she finally spoke, her voice was excited. “That could be! I never thought of that. How many twin falls can there be around here? Surely not very many!”
“Can you and Sydney find that place with the two waterfalls?” Bailey asked.
“We’ll try.” McKenzie felt excitement mounting. “I’ll ask Miss Val if she can take us there. Thanks a lot, Bailey. This is our best clue yet!”
After hanging up, McKenzie explained the phone call to Sydney as they headed back to the basket shop. Miss Val was rearranging a display as they walked in.
Hurriedly the girls told her about Bailey’s clue. “I don’t get off work until later this afternoon. I’d be glad to take you out there, but I think someone else may want to take you.”
McKenzie took a deep breath. “Shara! Why didn’t I think of her?”
Seconds later, McKenzie had called Shara. The older girl said she got off work in an hour and would pick them up at the Silver Dollar City entrance.
The hour crept by slowly, but finally Shara arrived, and the girls climbed into her car.
“Why don’t we stop at Miss Val’s place first?” Shara said. “I’d like to go to the top of the tower so I can see the twin falls. Then I can figure out what road leads to it.”
Twenty minutes later, the three girls had climbed to the top of the lookout tower. Shara pushed her curly hair out of her eyes as she stared down into the lush green hills. “I see the falls!” She pointed her finger at two narrow waterfalls barely visible among the trees. “I see a road winding around down there. I think I can get there. Let’s go.”
McKenzie’s stomach churned as Shara drove down the curving gravel road. I can’t wait to find out if Mr. Ford lives back here, she thought. Please, please, please, God. Let it be him.
McKenzie glanced at Shara. The older girl’s knuckles were white as she gripped the steering wheel. She wasn’t as excited as McKenzie thought she would be; she simply looked nervous and scared.
Sydney tapped her finger on the window. “Hey, McKenzie. Doesn’t that look like our campsite from the other night?”
McKenzie agreed, staring out the window at the fire pit next to a creek. Across the stream, a narrow path disappeared into the woods.
Shara slowed down as the car approached a lane leading into a valley. On one side, two small waterfalls cascaded over a rocky cliff, flowing into a narrow stream. A rustic wooden bridge spanned the creek leading into the hills.
“Look,” Sydney cried, pointing at a carved wooden sign next to the lane. “It says ‘The Falls Crafters.’ Mr. Ford did change the name of his business.”
McKenzie leaned over and whispered into Sydney’s ear. “I bet that path we just saw leads right up to this house. And I bet this is the same stream we were going to camp beside. Miss Val must have been right when she suggested that the stranger could be a landowner. Mr. Ford probably saw the fire and walked down to check it out.”
Shara turned onto the shaded lane and drove slowly across the narrow bridge. She steered the car around a curve, stopping when the lane ended in a small, graveled parking lot. A small modern log home sat nestled into the hills, the side yard filled with woodcarvings of every size and shape.
“I’m so nervous, I can’t stand it,” Shara said, wiping her hands on her jeans.
“Why don’t Sydney and I go check the place out? You can wait here, if you want,” McKenzie suggested.
Shara nodded as the younger girls hopped from the car. Several other vehicles sat in the parking lot, and several customers were browsing among the array of woodcarvings and figures.
“Look at all these statues,” McKenzie said as she and Sydney edged through the sea of monuments. She reached out and touched a carved eagle on a stand. “They’re gorgeous.”
“There’s a little garden over there.” Sydney pointed at a fenced-in flower garden. A dozen or more fairy statues rose from the garden of yellow and orange marigolds. A shimmering goldfish pond lay in the center of the garden at the end of a short, rocky trail.
McKenzie gasped as she read the words carved into a log lying on the ground. “Look, Sydney! It says, ‘Shara Smiles.’”
Sydney’s eyes glistened. “We’ve found the right place! Let’s look for Mr. Ford.”
The girls saw several customers coming out of a building next to the house. “That must be the shop,” McKenzie said, hurrying toward the door.
Inside, a man with a beard sat at a bench, carving a design into a small wooden plaque. He looks like the man in the picture at the photography shop! McKenzie thought.
She cleared her throat to get his attention. “Mr. Cramer?” she asked softly.
The man looked up at her. “Yes,” he answered. “May I help you?”
McKenzie looked at Sydney and back to the woodcarver. “Uh, we just wanted you to know that your niece, Shara, is looking for you. She really misses you and wants to see you again.”
The man laid down his carving knife. His eyes narrowed as he spoke. “What do you know about Shara?”
“She’s here in Branson looking for you,” McKenzie said, feeling her stomach begin to churn.
“Here? Are you serious?” he said, his eyes flashing beneath bushy eyebrows. “But how did you find me?”
A movement to McKenzie’s side caught her eye. Turning, she saw Miss Richardson come into the shop from a back room.
“What are you doing here?” she asked, glaring at the girls. “I told you to stay away.”
The woodcrafter stood and raised his arm to Miss Richardson. “It’s okay. Let the girl talk. She has news of my niece.”
“Don’t let your family hurt you again,” Miss Richardson said to the man approaching her. “I tried to stop these girls from getting to you.”
“You knew my niece was looking for me?” he asked with dismay. “Why didn’t you tell me? I got the postcard you girls sent. When I went to look for Shara, it wasn’t her.”
He looked at Tessa Richardson. Finally she spoke softly. “I was afraid you would leave and go back to th
em.”
“But why would you—”
A familiar voice called out, interrupting him. “Uncle Reggie? Is it you?”
Everyone turned to the girl standing in the doorway, and for a minute there was silence.
“Shara?” he said, moving closer to her. “I can’t believe you’re here.” Shara moved awkwardly toward him, staring at him as though trying to make sure he was the man she thought he was. “I would have met you that day in downtown Branson, but I changed schedules with another girl before I knew McKenzie had mailed a postcard.”
“I’m sorry, Shara. I thought it was a joke when I saw the girl downtown. I really didn’t know you were looking for me.”
“Well, you’re a hard man to find,” she said. “Do you know how badly my mom and the rest of the family want to see you again? And to ask your forgiveness?”
“No, I guess I don’t,” Mr. Ford said, scratching his beard. “But I guess I need to do some forgiving too.”
“Well, you’re going to have a chance to do just that,” McKenzie declared. “Your family is coming to see you.”
Mr. Ford turned to Shara. “Is that right? Is everyone coming to Branson?”
“That’s right. Mom can’t wait to see you again.” Shara wrapped her arm around her uncle and smiled at McKenzie and Sydney. “Thanks to our two private investigators here for solving our missing persons case.”
“It’s not just us. It’s also four other girls who’ve been helping from their homes across the United States,” Sydney said. She quickly explained about the Camp Club Girls.
“You’ll have to give me names and addresses, and I’ll show my thanks by sending you each a special necklace like my dear niece, Shara, is wearing,” Mr. Ford said as he gently lifted her necklace.
McKenzie felt warmth wash over her as she watched Shara with her uncle. I’m glad I didn’t give up on solving the mystery, she thought. God sure has a way of working things out.
Turning to Sydney, she said with a smile, “We do make a pretty good team, don’t we? The Camp Club Girls have done it again!”
Camp Club Girls:
McKenzie and the
Iowa History Mystery
The Riddle
“Something’s out there,” McKenzie whispered, clutching Kate’s arm.
McKenzie shivered despite the summer’s heat. She stared at the Iowa cornfield, the stalks rustling gently in the late evening wind. The sun hung low in the western sky. Its fiery orange glow cast wavering shadows on the ground.
“Wh-wh-where?” Kate stammered, stepping closer to her friend.
McKenzie pointed to the edge of the field about thirty yards away. She crept down the wood-chipped path nearer to the spot she had seen the movement. A low growl sounded at her feet as something furry brushed against her legs. She jumped.
“Oh, it’s just you, Biscuit,” she said, glancing at Kate’s small black and white dog.
Kate swept the squirming mutt into her arms. “What is it, boy?” she asked, stroking his shaggy head. “What’s out there?”
Biscuit strained against Kate’s grasp, his growl low and steady. He wiggled out of her arms and jumped to the ground. He scampered back and forth in front of them, pawing at the dirt. His ears stood straight up as he eyed the cornfield.
“I know I saw something,” McKenzie said, her voice trembling. “I thought it was a person, but I’m not sure. I guess it could have been an animal.”
“Biscuit saw something too,” Kate said, brushing her sandy-colored hair off of her black-framed glasses.
McKenzie stared at the field of green rustling cornstalks, which were at least a foot taller than she was. The shadow had disappeared.
“Is anybody out there?” she called timidly.
The only answer was the swishing of the stalks against each other. Somewhere on the other side of the farm, a cow mooed. Biscuit sniffed the ground and walked into the cornfield.
“Let me take Biscuit,” McKenzie said, grabbing the leash. “We’ll go check it out.”
McKenzie followed the dog into the field, parting the long green leaves of the stalks. She stopped when Biscuit paused to sniff a spot on the ground.
“What did you find, boy?” she asked, kneeling beside the dog.
A large man’s shoeprint was in the soft dirt between the rows. Glancing in both directions, McKenzie noticed the prints continued deeper into the field. Tugging on Biscuit’s leash, she crept through the crinkly stalks back to Kate.
“I saw footprints in the dirt,” McKenzie explained. “Someone was in there. I bet one of the teenage boys who works here was just messing around.”
She was trying to convince herself that the fresh prints were nothing to worry about.
Kate took the leash from her friend and pulled Biscuit closer. McKenzie turned, brushing the incident out of her mind. She pulled a corn silk out of her hair as she led the way back up the path to the 1900s’ town, Cedar Grove.
McKenzie’s aunt and uncle, Luke and Cara Randall, were the caretakers of the Heritage Farms and Village agricultural attraction. The Farms, as the attraction was often called, included restored buildings of a town that existed around 1900, a pioneer farm, and a modern farm. Visitors to the Farms could spend the day exploring these three areas to learn what everyday life was like for people who lived in places like these.
The Randalls lived in a two-story farmhouse next to the attraction. They had invited their niece, thirteen-year-old McKenzie Phillips, to visit them for a week and attend farm camp. When her friend, eleven-year-old Kate Oliver, heard about the camp, she made plans to fly out from Philadelphia.
The two girls met while they were both at Discovery Lake Camp. At the camp, they and their other four roommates had solved a jewelry theft mystery. Since all the girls loved mysteries, they formed their own club, the Camp Club Girls. Now, the girls had solved nearly two dozen mysteries—from lost jewels to lost people to secret messages to sabotage. They didn’t have to all be at the same place at the same time to solve their mysteries. They used computers, cell phones, and other gadgets to communicate and brainstorm solutions to the problems they encountered. Each girl brought different skills into the meeting of their minds.
McKenzie tended to be the Camp Club Girl who looked beneath the surface. She tended to look at personalities and motives to help the girls solve their mysteries. Kate was their electronics whiz and amateur inventor. In fact, her dad was an inventor and often brought home his and his students’ prototypes of gadgets from the university where he taught. The girls had used several of these to help work through conundrums. And even Biscuit, the Wonder Dog, took part in solving problems at times. The girls had found him at camp as part of their first mystery.
The girls hadn’t been at the Farms long. McKenzie had arrived at her aunt and uncle’s house the day before. But Kate had arrived only a few hours earlier. Though “Heritage Farms and Village” was already closed to guests for the day, McKenzie showed her friend around the attraction.
“I’m so glad you could visit.” McKenzie kicked the wood chips with the toe of her tennis shoes. “I’ll have a lot more fun with you here.”
“I’m glad I got to come too,” Kate said as they reached the end of the path. “It’s nice of your aunt and uncle to let me stay with them.”
The girls walked past a wooden sign reading CEDAR GROVE, IOWA. They stepped onto the boardwalk that lined the old, make-believe town. When the attraction was open, workers dressed in old-time costumes filled the shops and other buildings. The town operated like any town of the early 1900s.
The girls continued down the boardwalk with Biscuit leading the way. The town was eerily quiet. The shutters on Dr. Bradford’s office windows banged in the wind. The girls passed the Cedar Grove Bank, Allen’s General Store, and Wilson’s Blacksmithing Shop.
“Everything looks so different when the visitors and employees are gone,” McKenzie said. “It looks like a ghost town.”
“It is kind of creepy.” Kate pressed her
face against the window of Ruth’s Millinery, cupping her eyes to peer inside. “I see tons of ladies’ hats in here. Can we go in any of the buildings?”
“Uncle Luke has already locked up everything for the night. We’ll have plenty of time during the week to look around.” McKenzie saw her reflection in the glass. The sticky heat had turned her shoulder-length auburn curls into a frizzy mess. Her green eyes stared back at her. The smattering of freckles across her nose had browned from the summer sun.
The girls crossed the street to the schoolyard. Standing on a corner lot, the old building looked lonely in the middle of the grassy yard.
“My favorite part of Heritage Farms is this old school,” McKenzie said, staring at the two-story brick building. “It has a really cool fire escape around back. Come on. I’ll show you.”
McKenzie led Kate to the backyard. A large metal tube extended at an angle from the top floor down to the ground.
“That’s a fire escape?” Kate asked, shoving her glasses up her nose. “It looks like a giant water slide.”
“A door at the top opens from the inside. In case of a fire, you just slide down the tunnel. It wasn’t added to the school until around 1950, but it looks pretty cool, doesn’t it?” McKenzie said.
A movement at an open window on the first floor caught McKenzie’s eye. A large orange cat with yellow eyes leapt onto the windowsill. It perched on the ledge, swishing its tail back and forth.
“What’s a cat doing in the school?” Kate asked.
“That’s Ozzie. He lives here,” McKenzie answered. “He showed up a couple of years ago. He was a scrawny little kitten, so Uncle Luke and Aunt Cara started feeding him. Then he stayed.”
“In the school?” Kate asked, her eyes wide.
“He comes and goes. Sometimes he wanders outside all day, but he usually always comes back before Uncle Luke locks up for the night,” McKenzie explained. “He sleeps inside the school every night. He loves to hide from people.”
A growl sounded at McKenzie’s feet. She looked down and saw Biscuit’s ears stiffen. His tail twitched as he glimpsed Ozzie. He yipped and lunged forward. He leaped to the top of an old wooden box and placed his paws on the window sill.