“Should we forgive him?” Muriel asks.
“Maybe,” Stacy and I say at the same time.
“Okay then, Mason,” Nathaniel says, “let’s do this.”
Nathaniel squats down so Mason can put one hand on his back while Stacey, Muriel and I give him a boost.
“How’s that for girl power?” Muriel asks Nathaniel when Mason lands on the other side of the fence.
“Okay, okay,” Nathaniel says. “I said I was sorry.”
Nathaniel is the next one over, and then it’s my turn. When I land on the other side, Nathaniel offers me his hand, but I refuse to take it. “You never said a word about being sorry. You just said it was a dumb thing to say.”
“Well then, I’m sorry,” he says. “Honestly.”
Once Stacey and Muriel have scaled the fence, we follow a flagstone path to the backyard. Even in the dark, the backyard is impressive. We can make out flower beds on every side and, in the middle of the yard, a giant kidney-shaped swimming pool. There is mosaic tile around the pool, and at the end where I am standing, I can see the words DEEP END and NINE FEET written out in mosaic, just like at a public pool. Behind the pool is a stone pool house, a mini version of the mansion in front.
But where is Nico? And where is the dognapper? And what about Roxie?
“Over here.” It is the first time I have ever heard Nico whisper. He is crouched in front of a giant boulder. It is also the first time I have ever seen him be perfectly still.
“He went into the pool house,” Nico whispers. “All we have to do is wait him out.”
“D’you think he knows we’re following him?” Muriel asks her brother.
“If he didn’t know it before, he’s probably figured it out now. You guys weren’t exactly stealthy climbing the fence. I’m surprised the neighbors haven’t called the cops.”
When Nico says the word cops, the door to the pool house opens a sliver. In the moonlight, I can just make out what seem to be eyes, low to the ground, shining in the darkness. Why do they seem so familiar? Then I hear a short, sharp bark, and I realize those eyes belong to a Chihuahua.
Mason must have noticed the eyes too. “Rexford?” he calls out. “Is that you?”
It must be Rexford, because he peeks out of the pool house, looking to see who has called his name.
“Get back in here!” I hear a gruff voice say, but then Rexford makes a run for it.
Mason steps out of the shadows to grab the dog. Someone—I’m not sure who it is—says, “Watch out!”
And then everything happens so quickly, I don’t know where to look.
“Now!” Nathaniel is calling. “Get him!” and Nico, Stacey and Muriel follow Nathaniel as he charges into the pool house.
“Where is he?” I hear them say.
“I can’t see him!”
“D’you see him?”
“Where’s your flashlight?”
“I thought you said you’d bring your flashlight!”
Mason is trying to prevent Rexford from jumping out of his arms. And someone—it has to be the squeegee kid—is making a racket behind the pool house. Staying as low as I can to the ground so he won’t see me, I crawl over. The squeegee kid is hunched over the back window to the pool house, barring the shutters from the outside. That must be how he escaped without the others noticing.
I stop myself from calling out. My only advantage over him is that he does not know I am watching him.
“He’s got to be in here somewhere! Maybe he’s hiding under those pool noodles!” Nathaniel shouts.
Mason is still trying to hang on to Rexford. “Calm down, little fella. Lemme see if I can find some rope so I can tie you up…”
It is up to me to chase the squeegee kid. I am sure he is about to take off, and I will need to be close behind, but not so close that he will notice.
The squeegee kid dashes to the front of the pool house. What is that shiny thing he’s got in his hands? A padlock! He is locking the door to the pool house so Nathaniel and the girls will not be able to get out! Our plan was to trap him in the pool house, but now he is trying to trap my friends instead!
I need to tell Mason about the back window. If he unlatches it from the outside, Nico and the girls will be able to get out, the way the squeegee kid did. But I cannot risk calling out to Mason, and if I whisper, he won’t hear me. And there is no time to text him. I’ll have to do it later.
My mom is always saying it is not the things we expect to go wrong that cause us the most grief. It is the unexpected things.
Mason is at the side of the pool. It looks like he’s trying to cut off a piece of rope from the cord that divides the deep end from the shallow end, all the while trying to keep hold of Rexford.
My heart is pounding so hard I’m afraid the squeegee kid will hear it. My thigh muscles are tight from all the crouching I’ve been doing tonight. Running will feel good.
But then the thing I never would have expected happens.
The squeegee kid comes barreling into me at full force. Pushing me toward the pool. Did he know I was there all along? I am rolling too quickly to stop myself. The concrete and the flagstone slabs tear at my legs and arms. All I can think to do is bend my head forward to protect my face. The mosaic tiles are cold and hard against my skin.
Next thing I know, I am in the deep end of the pool. There’s nothing I can do about my jeans and fleece hoodie, which have filled with water and are weighing me down. If only I hadn’t asked Mom to take my sandals to be repaired! When I try kicking my runners off, it only makes me sink even deeper. I could drown in here! Somebody help me, please! I need help! But I can only scream the words inside my head, because wherever I look, all I see is water.
Bubbles. More bubbles. My head is submerged, but then, somehow, I fight my way back to the surface. I hear sounds of a skirmish. One short, sharp bark. Another body hits the surface of the water. It must be Mason.
Where is Rexford?
I sink back into the water. I’ve got one runner off, but I can’t lose the other one.
I need to come up for air, but my clothes and that one shoe are weighing me down. Kicking makes things worse. My legs feel so heavy.
I manage to bob—but only for a second. I try to remember what Lloyd said about buoyancy, but my brain isn’t working properly. When my head finally comes out of the water, I see the squeegee kid taking off. Why didn’t I notice before that he is wearing army boots, not runners? So unless he pulled a Theodore Kaczynski, he can’t be the one who took Roxie.
TWENTY-FOUR
I take a giant gulp of air before I sink back down. I should be afraid. But the fear only kicks in later, when I think about all the stuff that could have gone wrong.
This part is hard to admit, but Mason saves me. Not because he dives down to the floor of the pool or anything. I’m not that far gone, and he is not a strong enough swimmer for that. It is Mason’s donut habit that saves me.
When I am flailing in the pool, trying to kick off my other runner and gasping for air, Mason stays buoyant. Not only that, but he manages to swim over to where I am and drag me to the side of the pool. He grabs me by my wrists, the way he dragged the dummy during the obstacle course.
I am coughing up water, and he has to clap me on the back, but thank God there is no need for mouth-to-mouth resuscitation.
“Thanks,” I sputter, and pool water lands on his chin. For a second, we look at each other.
“No biggie,” Mason says, though we both know that is not true. If it was not for Mason, something really bad could have happened.
“Wh-where’s Rex-Rexford?” It’s hard to get the words out, my teeth are chattering so bad, but Mason knows what I mean.
“He took him.”
“Get us ou
tta here!” Nathaniel bellows from inside the pool house.
“We’re coming!” Mason calls back. My other runner is floating at the edge of the pool, and Mason is fishing it out.
I am trembling. Not only because I am soaking, but also because I am remembering the feeling of being weighed down underwater. I don’t even want to think about what might have happened if Mason had not been there. Mason smacks my runner against the ground to get the water out. “There’s a b-back w-window to the pool house,” I tell Mason as I force my foot into the soggy shoe.
When we unbar the window, Nathaniel is the first one out. “Why are you guys wet?” he asks.
“He pushed me into the pool,” I tell Nathaniel. “Mason got me out.” I leave out the part about Mason’s natural buoyancy.
Mason helps Nico and the girls out of the pool house. “Now what?” Nico says.
Stacey dusts herself off. “I think there’s mildew in the pool house. Thank God you got us out of there. Many people are severely allergic to mild—”
Nathaniel cuts her off. “This isn’t a good time to discuss mildew, Stacey. We need to figure out which way the squeegee kid went.”
“He ran back down the path,” I say.
Nico has run to the front of the house. “I think I see him,” he calls back to us. “All the way down Lansdowne.”
“Are you sure it’s him?” Stacey asks when we get to where Nico is.
“No, I’m not sure,” Nico admits. “But unless one of you has a better plan, I say we should head back down the street.”
“I’m not sure this is a good idea,” Stacey says.
Nathaniel grabs Stacey’s elbow. “Let’s go,” he says. “We can argue later.”
Getting down the hill is a lot easier than going up. We pass a few mansions, then an old gray-stone apartment building, then a block of townhouses. Soon we cross Sherbrooke Street and after that, de Maisonneuve Boulevard.
When we pass the park, we all turn to look. No one is there except for an older woman sitting on a bench, gazing up at the moon. “Excuse me,” Muriel calls out. “Did you happen to see a guy go by, dressed in black and wearing a gray cap and carrying a backpack?”
“Does he have a dog?” the woman calls back. “Because I thought I heard a small dog yapping.”
“Which way did they go?” Nathaniel asks.
“Down toward the Glen,” the woman says. “Have you ever noticed how small dogs are noisier than big ones?”
I think the woman would like for us to stop and chat, but there is no time. The others are already hurrying down the street. “I’ve gotta go,” I tell her. “But thanks.”
There is a tunnel at the bottom of Lansdowne Avenue that separates Westmount, which is one of Montreal’s fanciest neighborhoods, from St. Henri, which is just about the unfanciest. This is the stretch known as the Glen. It is also where Lansdowne Avenue turns into de Courcelle Street.
There is hardly any sidewalk inside the tunnel, so we walk in single file, our shoulders and hips brushing up against the damp stone wall.
“Roxie.” I do not mean to say her name out loud.
Muriel reaches for my hand and squeezes it in the darkness.
“We’ll find her,” she says.
“Where to now?” Nico asks when we exit the tunnel.
There are several rundown buildings and some empty lots on this part of de Courcelle Avenue. Muriel is standing under a streetlamp, looking at something on her phone. The rest of us are searching for some sign of the squeegee kid. Lights flicker on, then off, in one of the rundown buildings across the street. “Maybe he went in there,” Nathaniel and I say at the same time.
Stacey sniffs the air. “I smell dog—and lemon.”
“Lemon?” Nathaniel asks.
Stacey sniffs a second time. “Definitely.”
On Monday we might have laughed at Stacey’s habit of sniffing for clues, but now we have come to respect her olfactory powers. “Where would you say those smells are coming from?” Mason asks.
Stacey does not point at the building where the lights were flickering. I gulp when she points at a building on our side of the street. It is as close to looking haunted as any building I have ever seen. It is only two stories, and most of its windows are boarded up. Though I do not know for sure that it’s full of rats and spiders, I think that if I were a rat or a spider, I would want to live there. “That one,” she says.
“You sure?” Nathaniel does not sound any keener than I am to explore the building.
Stacey is chewing on her lower lip. “I think it’s time to call the police. Someone could get hurt. I’m starting to get super anxious.” Not only is Stacey talking really quickly, but she has put her hand on her heart again. I wonder if her heart is racing like mine is.
“Take a deep breath,” I tell her. “Like this.” I demonstrate a breathing technique my mom taught me. In through the nose, out through the mouth. Slowly.
Stacey breathes deeply. If I had more time, I’d show her the Gyan Mudra.
Nathaniel gives Stacey a minute to collect herself. “We’re not going to call the police, not yet,” he tells her. “I don’t want my dad to know I climbed out my bedroom window.”
“You climbed out your bedroom window?” Mason sounds impressed. “Didn’t you tell me your bedroom was in the attic?”
“I tied three sheets together and rappelled down. I’ll show you how to do it sometime. The hard part is going to be climbing back up.”
“Three sheets?” I ask. Most people only have two sheets on their beds.
“Yeah, three,” Nathaniel says. “The funny thing was, Fred, my grandma’s fiancé, came up to my room with fresh sheets for my bed. He’s been trying to help out with the chores. Anyway, that’s when I got the idea.”
Mason and I exchange a look. “We ran into Fred before,” I tell Nathaniel. “He didn’t seem like such a bad guy.”
“D’you think Fred could’ve been trying to help you?” Mason asks.
Nathaniel shrugs.
Muriel looks up from her cell. “Come see what I just found!”
Muriel has used Google Street View to look up this block of de Courcelle Street. Google Street View doesn’t provide real-time images, so whatever Muriel is looking at is a photo that was shot some time in the past. But maybe that doesn’t matter. Maybe she has found something important.
I try to move in closer, but Nico elbows his way past me so he can look at the screen first.
“In the Street View image, someone’s going into the building that Stacey says smells like dog,” he tells us.
“It’s not just that,” Muriel tells him. “Have a closer look.”
Now we are all straining to get a look. I do not complain when Nathaniel steps on my toe.
That is because I just saw what Muriel already noticed. That guy going into the building on Google Street View is carrying a small dog in his arms.
TWENTY-FIVE
It would be dumb for all of us to try to get into the building. Someone needs to keep watch from outside in case anything goes wrong. I would volunteer for that job, except Roxie could be in there. If she is, I want to be the one to rescue her. Stacey offers to do guard duty. “If you’re not out in exactly ten minutes, I’m phoning the police. You can deal with your dad,” she tells Nathaniel.
“Make it fifteen,” Nathaniel says before the rest of us head into the building.
The door is slightly ajar. It creaks when I push it open.
Stacey was right about the dog smell—and the smell of lemon. Mason points to a box on the ground. Inside are bones, the kind you can make soup from. Maybe that’s what the dognappers use to lure dogs. Anger courses through my veins. Is that how the dognappers tricked Roxie into going with them?
I stop myself from calling out Roxie’s name. We have agreed not to make any noise. Not unless it’s absolutely necessary.
There are no walls inside the house—just rough wooden pillars. The floor is covered in sawdust. Someone must have been doing construction work in here. Muriel stops in front of a makeshift counter. On it are two tin plates, two chipped coffee mugs and a half-empty can of baked beans. There’s no mold on the beans—someone must have eaten the other half of that can quite recently. For a moment I can hear my mom’s voice in my head: Imagine having a child who lives on the street. But then I think about Roxie, and my heart hardens again.
There is a creaking noise. Someone is walking on the floor above us. We all freeze. If we can hear someone, isn’t there a chance that he—or they—can hear us too? And if there are dogs in this place, where are they—and why aren’t they barking?
I am standing by one of the only windows that is not boarded up. The window is streaked with grime, and there is a long crack running through it like a scar. When I hold my flashlight to the cracked glass, I see a cramped courtyard outside. Is that where they let the dogs out?
More footsteps upstairs and now voices. Two guys. One is the squeegee kid. I recognize his gruff voice from when he yelled at us by the pool. The other guy must be his accomplice. And I’ll bet you anything he is wearing runners.
“How do you know they didn’t follow you, Cal?” a strange voice says.
“I got rid of them, Seb. Trust me.” The voice belongs to the guy who pushed Mason and me into the pool. Cal.
“Trust you? I can’t believe you were dealing with some kid.”
“That wasn’t just any kid. That was a smart kid.”
In the yellow light from my flashlight, I can see Muriel smile. Who can resist a compliment, even when it comes from a dognapper?
“We should get outta here just in case. I’ll get the dogs from the basement.”
The basement?
I can see my friends’ eyes glimmer in the dark. My own eyes must be glimmering too. We are all wondering the same thing: How do we get to the basement first?
Forensics Squad Unleashed Page 13