Marco shot a look at Jake and asked, “How would you feel if somebody wanted to separate you and Joy, especially if you’d already lost your parents?”
Jake looked over at Joy and seemed sad just thinking about it. Marco and Maria exchanged sympathetic glances as well. As twin siblings, they all had their share of brother-sister fights and arguments. But they loved each other something fierce as well.
“If someone tried to separate me from Marco,” Maria said with great feeling, “I think I’d try to find him too!”
Marco beamed at his sister, feeling a nice warmth spreading inside him, like a good cup of hot chocolate. Then, as if someone had pulled an invisible puppet string on the top of his head, Marco said, “The two girls we saw today! Could they be the runaways?”
Jake nodded. “Maybe, but the report said there was a boy with them too.”
“Hmmm,” said Marco. “You could be right. But I think we ought to investigate all the same.”
6
PUTTING FOUR HEADS TOGETHER
Marco called an emergency meeting at the Secret Cabin Clubhouse that afternoon. He and Jake had decided to include their sisters this time, since so many mysteries were piling up one on top of another. He figured it wouldn’t hurt to have all the thinking power they could get, even if it would have to come from girls’ brains.
Marco and Maria arrived first and leaned their bicycles against the clubhouse. Marco saw Jake and Joy paddling their canoe across the lake toward shore. Munch-Munch had two skinny arms wrapped around Joy’s neck.
Within minutes the friends had plopped down on the braided rug in front of the fireplace. Munchy hopped on the sofa bed and then busied herself with taking things out of Jake’s backpack and putting them in her mouth. Marco tried to ignore the funny pet, but it wasn’t easy. This cute little monkey whom everyone loved inspired Camp Wanna Banana’s name. Whenever Munchy was around, chaos was usually nearby.
Marco cleared his throat. Munch-Munch stuck a flashlight in her mouth and turned it on. Her little face lit up from inside like a hairy lantern. “No, Munchy!” said Joy as she took the flashlight away and ordered the monkey to sit still in her lap.
Marco cleared his throat again, trying to get on to the serious matters at hand.
“Did your mom call the sheriff about the girls we saw today?” he asked Joy.
“Yes,” she said. “She told them we’d seen two girls about the same age as two of the missing kids, and that they’re probably somewhere in the woods behind the shops downtown. By the time we got home, it was nearly dark, and Mom said they would probably send out a search party in the morning to check out our information.”
“If these are the runaway sisters, I wonder where the missing boy is?” asked Maria.
Marco nodded. “I know. I’ve wondered that, too. But until we see the picture tomorrow, we won’t even know if the girls we saw today are the runaways. We may be making a big deal out of nothing.”
Jake scratched his head. “Do you think it’s possible that the missing kids have something to do with the missing stuff?”
Marco smiled and took out his detective pad. “I’ve been wondering the same thing. If the kids are runaways, they would be looking for food—like milk, peanut butter, and tuna fish.”
“And maybe they stole the lumber to make a shelter in the woods!” Joy suggested.
“Possibly.” Marco nodded his head as he jotted down more notes.
“But what would they do with a microwave oven in the woods?” Maria asked curiously.
Marco looked at his sister and gave her a proud smile. “That’s using your head, Maria. What would they do with a microwave when there is no electricity in the woods?”
“Maybe they used it for a cabinet or a stool to sit on or something,” Jake offered.
“Hmmm,” Marco mused. “I suppose that could be true.”
Maria’s eyes widened. “Miss Nellie’s missing doll!” she said. “Maybe the kids stole the doll for the little sister to play with.”
“Could be,” agreed Joy, her eyes lighting up with the connection. Munch-Munch looked up at her and patted Joy’s cheek, as if approving of Joy’s every word.
Marco scribbled all the possibilities into his notebook. Munch-Munch, having sat still as long as she could, now leaped out of Joy’s lap and over to Marco, grabbing his pen and running out the door, squealing with glee. If a monkey could talk, Marco knew she’d be saying, “Come chase me!”
He stood up, shook his head, and darted out the door after one naughty monkey and his favorite pen.
7
HOT OFF THE PRESS
The next morning at school, Marco and Maria walked toward their lockers and heard the noisy roar of kids talking excitedly.
“What’s going on?” Marco wondered aloud.
“I don’t know,” answered Maria. “Let’s check it out.”
“Sounds like all the noise is coming from Mr. Fields’s science room,” said Marco, glancing down the hall. “Come on!”
The twins nearly ran into Jake and Joy as they scurried into Mr. Fields’s room to investigate.
Several students and a few teachers were gathered around Mr. Fields’s desk. Marco pushed his way to the center of the talking crowd and saw that everyone was looking at the morning issue of the Pine Tree Gazette.
There, on the front page, was a picture of the runaway orphans. The two girls looked exactly like the girls the twins had spied downtown yesterday. But the greatest shock was the picture of the runaway brother.
It was none other than Chad Riggs.
Mr. Fields picked up the paper and read it aloud.
The missing children are named Michael, Melissa, and Misty Parsons, but they may be calling themselves by other names to disguise their identities. They were last seen two weeks ago. Since they are believed to have less than $75, they are probably not more than 100 miles from where they were last seen in Desert City. Police are following a tip about the possibility of the children being in the Tall Pines area today.
Mr. Fields looked up from the paper and sat down, calling the class to order. “Everyone have a seat, please.” The children’s roar finally calmed to a low murmur and then silence. Every eye was on Mr. Fields.
“Kids,” Mr. Fields said, “has anyone seen Chad this morning?”
All heads in the class turned back and forth, silently answering no.
“How about last night?”
Again, no one had seen the new student since school let out yesterday afternoon.
Mr. Fields cleared his throat. “Has anyone here ever been to Chad’s house? Know where he lives? Met anyone he is staying with?”
Finally, Jamie Klem raised her hand. “Chad always rode his bike toward Whisperin’ Pines aftah school. I once asked him which house he lived in, but he just kinda avoided my question.”
“Thank you, Jamie,” Mr. Fields answered. “Obviously Chad has been through more pain and hurt than any of us in this class realized. He probably saw the morning paper and has left with his sisters. They may not even be in town now.”
Marco raised his hand. “Mr. Fields, would it be okay for us to pray for him and his sisters?”
Mr. Fields nodded. “Marco, I think if there were ever a time for prayer in school, this would be it. I know all of you kids in this classroom. Lots of you come to my nature center at Camp Wanna Banana, and many of you are in my Sunday-school class. Let’s close our eyes and, if you’d like to, take a moment to pray for Chad—actually, I guess we need to start calling him by his real name, Michael.”
Everyone in class bowed their heads silently for several minutes. Marco thought how lost and frightened Michael must feel. He prayed two prayers. In the first Marco asked God to protect Michael and his sisters and to find a way to help them all stay together. In the second he asked God to forgive him for not realizing sooner that being rich has nothing to do with fancy tennis shoes, bicycles, or big houses. Being rich is all about being wanted and loved.
And Marco
knew he was most definitely rich.
8
MARCO’S BIG IDEA
The phone rang almost as soon as Marco and Maria walked in the door after school. It was Jake’s voice coming through the receiver.
“Meet us at the clubhouse?”
“Be there in fifteen minutes,” Marco answered, gesturing to Maria to hurry and get ready. Then he paused before adding, “Hey, Jake? Why don’t you suggest that Joy leave Munch-Munch at home today? We’ve got serious business to discuss, and, well, you know how Munchy can be.” Jake agreed and Marco turned to get ready to leave.
Before long the foursome was gathered at the cabin. It was warm today, so they sat on the front porch, enjoying the sun and the spring wildflowers splattered like bright paint spills in the wild grass around them.
Marco spoke first, having already begun processing his thoughts about the clues. “Chad—I mean Michael—and his sisters have moved to being number-one suspects in the café and hardware burglary case. Do you agree?”
“I’m not sure,” Joy asked. “Why do you suspect them as the thieves?”
“Well, they have a motive. They are homeless and hungry.”
Jake raised his eyebrows. “How do you know that? Maybe they’re staying with someone who is hiding them.”
“Maybe,” Marco agreed.
“I’d say Mr. Klem is still a suspect,” Jake insisted. “He has a pretty good motive too.”
“I just can’t believe that,” Joy whispered with a sigh.
Maria scratched her head. “Why do you think Michael went to school and not the sisters?”
“I think they probably all wanted to go to school,” Joy ventured, “but they were afraid of being found out if the three of them walked into school together. The oldest, Melissa, must have decided to take care of the little sister, Misty, during the day.”
Jake spoke next. “Maybe Michael had to go to school in order to be able to work in the town, mowing lawns or doing odd jobs. If he didn’t go to school, at his age, some adult would have reported him to authorities.”
“Man,” Marco confessed. “I have been so jealous of Ch—Michael, I mean. It seemed like everything he owned was brand-new!”
“It was,” said Jake. “Brand-new and mostly freshly stolen, so it now appears.”
“I wonder how they got from Desert City to Tall Pines?” Maria asked.
“Seventy-five dollars would have gotten them bus tickets here,” Joy answered. “And they may have shoplifted clothes and food from that shopping center just south of Tall Pines. I heard that a couple of teenagers who went shopping there didn’t lock up their new bikes and had them stolen.”
“Where do you think they’re hiding now?” Jake asked, leaning back against a porch post and nearly slipping off of it in the process.
“They might not be far,” Marco said. “I’d guess they’ve run out of money by now, and they can only get around on foot or a bike. They would still need money and food, and somehow they’ve been able to get in and out of Henley’s Hardware and Miss Nellie’s without being noticed—” Marco stopped in mid-sentence and looked as though he’d been struck by idea lightning.
“What?” Jake asked excitedly. “What is it?”
“I think I may know where they are,” Marco said. “Let’s ask Mama to take us over to Miss Nellie’s early in the morning, before school. There’s something I want to check out.”
“Marco,” said Maria sadly, “I almost don’t want to find them. I’d hate for those kids to have to go back to foster homes. And what if the police take their little sister away from the older kids? She looked so cute and trusting of her big sister the other day.”
“I know, Maria, I know,” said Marco. “But it’s better that we find them first. Maybe we can find a way to help them before the police move in.”
9
BACK-ROOM INVESTIGATION
Good morning, Miss Nellie!” the four friends said as they pushed open the door.
“Well, hey, kiddos,” Nellie said as she smiled in greeting and surprise. “What are you all doing in the café so early this morning?”
“Marco thinks he may have figured out the mystery,” Jake said.
“Oh, really?” Miss Nellie said as she leaned on the counter, curious. “Tell me what you’ve got.”
Marco loved the way Miss Nellie always treated him—as if he were a real detective. She never looked down on him or Jake or made fun of them the way Joy and Maria sometimes did.
Pulling out his notebook, he said, “Miss Nellie, you know about the runaway kids—and you know one of them was pretending to be Chad Riggs, right?”
“Yes,” Nellie said, “I do. You know, Marco, there was something about that Chad kid that I really liked. He was a hard worker, and he seemed a little bit of a loner, but I could always get him to talk. Funny, he always ordered a triple dip of ice cream—one dip on the cone, two dips in a cup. I thought he was just a big eater. Now I realize he was taking ice cream to his sisters!”
“What kind of work did he do for you?” Marco asked.
“Oh, dipping ice cream, cleaning up tables, sweeping out the back room …”
“Could I see that back room please?” Marco interrupted.
“Sure,” Nellie said, her eyes questioning, appearing eager to discover what was on Marco’s mind. “Come on back.”
The four friends followed Nellie around to the back of the store, where she kept her cooking supplies and the big industrial refrigerator. Marco surveyed the wall facing the vacated art studio next door. “Can I look behind that big ice-cream poster leaning against the wall?”
“Sure,” Nellie said. “I keep meaning to clean this mess out. But you know how that goes.”
Marco lifted the poster of brightly colored ice-cream flavors from its position on the floor. Miss Nellie and the girls gasped.
10
HIDEAWAY HOME
Behind the poster, a gaping hole big enough for a person to crawl through had been jaggedly cut out of the wall.
“Come on,” Marco said to his friend. “Let’s see what’s on the other side.”
Jake crawled through first. A few moments later Marco heard him saying, “You’ve gotta see this. You won’t believe it.”
Marco crawled through next, then stood in awe at his surroundings.
Someone had transformed Andy’s Art Studio into a little makeshift home.
In a corner under some watercolor paintings, near a stack of library books on the floor nearby, was the rocking chair from the window display. Someone had built three sets of bed frames from freshly cut lumber and placed hay and quilts atop them as mattresses. A roughly cut kitchen table and a shelf stood in another corner. On the table was Mr. Henley’s missing microwave oven and a tan-colored plastic bucket that had once been full of peanut butter.
Jake picked up a small stack of papers from the shelf. “Look at this, Marco. School enrollment forms with Chad’s name on them.”
Marco examined them closely. “Michael changed his name and forged parents’ signatures on this one,” he said. “Look here.” Jake leaned over Marco’s shoulder for a closer look. “He used Wite-Out on this medical form and papers from past schools to erase the names. Then he must have copied them at the school library to make them look like originals.”
Jake nodded. “Now I remember overhearing the principal ask Michael about his parents that first week he came to school. He told her that his dad was traveling with his sales job, and his mom had to go stay with his sick grandmother, so they couldn’t enroll him in person. He said he’d have his aunt, who was watching him for the week, fax the forms.”
“One thing is for sure,” Marco admitted. “Chad—er, Michael I mean, is no dummy.”
“There’s my quilt!” Miss Nellie said as she crawled through and stood up beside Marco and Jake. “And Ken’s microwave! And the peanut butter …” Her voice trailed off as she stood and stared in silent surprise.
Soon Maria and Joy were inside the gallery-turned
-runaways’-home.
“Those poor kids,” said Maria.
“I know,” said Joy. “They did the best they could, didn’t they?”
“Yes,” said Maria. “Hey, look over here, behind the bed. There’s another hole. I’ll bet that leads to the hardware store.”
Jake walked over to where Maria was standing and peered through the wall. “What a perfect hiding place. They could steal food from Miss Nellie’s and lumber and hardware from Mr. Henley’s and never have to break through any front doors.”
“And here must be where they got into the building in the first place,” said Marco, pointing to a stepstool and an unlocked window at the back of the empty store, facing the alley. He stood on tiptoe and looked out.
Marco found that he was feeling a jumble of emotions. He hated that anyone would lie to him and his friends or steal from a nice lady like Miss Nellie. But then Marco had never been through the sort of hard times and hurt that Michael and his sisters had gone through. Marco didn’t know what it felt like to be that desperate.
“Where do you think they are now?” asked Jake.
Marco surveyed the surroundings. No bicycles, no clothes. He wondered how far the sisters and their brother could have gone since the night before.
“I have no idea,” he said.
Marco heard the sad low sound of sniffling and looked toward the source of the crying. To his surprise, it was Miss Nellie. She had found the old rag doll on the rocking chair and was now sitting in the chair, holding the doll in her lap. Silent tears ran down her cheeks.
“What’s wrong, Miss Nellie?” Maria asked. She walked over to their friend and patted her shoulder. “What’s the matter?”
“Oh, Maria,” Miss Nellie answered softly. “I was once a little girl without parents too. It was a very long time ago.”
“Can you tell us about it?” Joy asked. Marco and Jake sat down quietly on the edge of the hay-covered beds.
The Peanut-Butter Burglary Page 3