Max & Me Mysteries Set

by Patricia H. Rushford

  “Oh, he was missing all right.” I quickly filled him in and then went inside to get Sam.

  It took me ten minutes to convince Mom to let Sam come on a boat ride with us. She finally gave in when Dad took her aside. They talked in low tones, and I couldn’t hear much except that Dad thought it might help Sam relax. Mom had that I-know-when-I’m-beat look when she came back to where Sam and I were standing. “All right. You know the rules. Life jacket on at all times, sunscreen, water …”

  “I know, Mom.” To Sam I said, “Go get dressed—hurry.” I thought about adding before they change their minds but decided that wouldn’t be the best move right now. Instead I grabbed some bottled water out of the fridge and told Mom and Dad we were just going to take him for a short ride. “We’ll have him back in an hour.”

  Mom nodded. “I’m going to call Dr. Campbell and make an appointment for this afternoon. He seems to be okay, but … I’m concerned that he won’t talk about what happened.”

  “That’s a good idea.” I didn’t know what else to say. I hated seeing Mom so worried, and I thought I should have told her about my suspicions right then and there, but I didn’t know for sure. Better to wait and hear what Sam had to say. That is, if he’d say anything at all.

  “Where to?” Cooper asked once we’d pushed away from the dock.

  I pointed toward town. Cooper and Max seemed to know right away what I was thinking. My plan was to time the trip from my house to the dock behind Hansen’s Grocery.

  “You okay, Sam?” Max asked.

  He nodded but didn’t say anything.

  “Everybody was worried about you.”

  “I know. Mom told me. Are you in trouble cause of me, Jessie?”

  The sad look in his eyes almost made me cry. “Not really. Mom was more mad at you than at me.”

  “Good.”

  Cooper grunted. “So, Sam, where did you go? I mean, I’ve never seen anybody disappear that fast. It’s almost like you were planning to escape the whole time.”

  Sam jerked his head up. “I didn’t. I was just …” His big blue eyes filled with tears. “I can’t tell.”

  “It’s okay, buddy.” I reached forward and pulled him back against me.

  “Why are we here?” Sam twisted around to face me.

  “I wanted to see how long it took. I know what happened last night.” We had made it to the dock in fifteen minutes.

  “You do?” He scowled at me then and said, “No, you don’t. You’re trying to trick me.”

  “I’m not. Let me tell you what I think happened.”

  Sam folded his skinny arms and pinched his lips together.

  “After you left me, you went to look for Mom. I’m not sure why you went to the loading dock—maybe you were curious. You saw somebody back there, didn’t you? Someone you know. Was it Enrique? Or one of his sisters? He was digging through the Dumpster looking for food.”

  The size of Sam’s eyes and the surprise registered there told me I was on the right track. “I saw Enrique run past me,” I said, “but I didn’t see you. How did you get to the boat?”

  He didn’t answer my question at first. He seemed more concerned that I’d guessed what had happened. “He was afraid I’d tell on him.”

  Anger toward Enrique rose like the acid in my stomach. He may have been trying to protect his sisters, but he had no business involving my little brother. “What did he do?”

  “He just told me to be quiet so the police wouldn’t hurt us. He picked me up and carried me to the boat, and then we rowed away.” Sam must have sensed my anger because he said, “It’s okay, Jessie. He din’t hurt me. He just had to get us away from there. He dropped me off at home and said he was sorry if he scared me. Enrique said not to tell anybody he was there. If the police find him or his sisters, they would make them go far away to Mexico. Maela is my friend. I don’t want the police to take her.”

  Sam brushed tears from his cheeks with his arm.

  “Why didn’t you let us know you were home?” My anger diminished as I tried to see the situation from Enrique’s viewpoint.

  “Nobody was home, so I went to bed. I didn’t want to talk to Mom and Dad cause they mighta made me tell.”

  I gave him a squeeze. I could understand why Enrique took Sam. He must have felt trapped, but asking a little kid to keep secrets like that isn’t fair.

  “You aren’t going to tell anybody, are you?” Sam asked.

  “No,” Cooper said. “We’re trying to find Enrique so we can help them. Did Enrique tell you where they were staying?”

  Sam shook his head. “He just dropped me off and went back out on the lake.”

  “Which way did he go?” Max asked.

  “That way.” Sam pointed up the lake—toward Ghost Island. Cooper, Max, and I looked at each other, sending a silent message. We’d have to go back and look again.

  CHAPTER

  ELEVEN

  WWhen we got back to my house, we dropped Sam off. I told Max and Cooper to wait while I went up to talk to my parents about Sam. I didn’t want to tell them about Enrique, but I didn’t think we had a choice. It wasn’t fair to put a burden like that on Sam. I couldn’t lie to them, and I didn’t want Sam to either.

  On the way up to the house, I reminded Sam about good secrets and bad secrets. “Good secrets are … like birthday surprises or Christmas presents or doing something nice for someone. Bad secrets are like when people get hurt.”

  “But if you tell Mom and Dad, they might tell the police, and they’ll take Enrique and Callista and Maela away.”

  “Maybe not. We don’t know where they are.” When we got to the deck, I pulled Sam down on the step beside me. “Enrique’s secret isn’t so bad. The bad part is that if we don’t tell Mom and Dad what really happened to you, they’ll be worried. They’ll think something really bad happened. And that would hurt them. Do you understand?”

  “I guess so.”

  I took his hand and stood up. Then, taking a deep breath, I led him inside.

  Our parents took the news a lot better than I thought they would. They even seemed understanding when I asked them to please not tell the police it was Enrique.

  Dad hugged me. “You made the right decision in telling us about Enrique, Princess. As far as telling the police, all I can promise you is that we’ll pray about it and consider all the options. I’m sure Enrique thinks he’s doing the right thing, but he may be putting his sisters in danger.”

  “But, Dad.” I stepped out of his hug. “We can’t let the immigration people send them to Mexico.”

  “There are worse things. As I understand it, they have family there. Before I tell the police anything about Enrique, I’ll talk to his aunt. There are right and wrong ways to handle situations like this, Jessie. I know that you, Cooper, and Max are looking for Enrique. I hope you find him. And if you do, convince him to come back to his aunt’s place.”

  “I’ll think about it.”

  I hurried back to the boat dock where Max and Cooper were laughing about something. They stopped when my feet hit the dock. “Hey, Jess,” Max said. “We were just about to leave without you.”

  They must have read the guilty look on my face because Max tugged on Cooper’s arm. “Uh-oh. You told your parents, didn’t you?”

  I swallowed the lump in my throat and ducked my head. I knew that by telling Mom and Dad I’d taken a chance that my friends might get mad at me. “I had to. It wasn’t right to have them worry like that.”

  To Cooper, Max said, “This is what we get for having an honest friend. What do you think, Coop? Should we take her with us?”

  Cooper winked at me to let me know they were teasing. “Depends on how fast she can get into the boat.”

  I released the breath I’d been holding and even smiled a little as I climbed into Max’s canoe with them. Cooper handed me a life jacket. I put it on and then adjusted my scarf. “You guys knew I’d tell all along, didn’t you?”

  Max chuckled. “Yeah, well, I’
m thinking you pretty much had to.”

  “So you’re not mad at me?”

  “I just have one question.” Cooper looked right in my eyes. “If we find Enrique, are you going to turn him in?”

  I bit my lower lip and looked away for a second. Then I looked back up at him and said, “I don’t know. I guess it depends on whether or not it’s the right thing to do.”

  “I guess we can live with that.”

  We hadn’t gotten very far from shore when Cooper leaned to the side. I thought he was going to tip us over. “Hey, did you see that?”

  “What?” I gripped the sides of the canoe and followed his gaze.

  “There’s something floating in the water. Something red.”

  “I see it,” Max yelled.

  I saw a flash of red about halfway between us and Ghost Island that disappeared and then popped back up again, probably rising and falling with the wave action.

  “Did you bring your binoculars?” Max asked.

  I dug them out of my bag and took off the lens covers. When I held them up to my eyes, all I could see was water moving up and down. “Ugh. It’s making me seasick.” I handed them to Max, who didn’t seem to have any trouble at all. “Can you tell what it is?” I asked.

  “Looks like one of those swim toys.”

  Cooper rowed for fifteen minutes before we came up alongside it. Max had been right. It was a toy—one of those floaty rings for little kids. Max scooped it up and examined it.

  “Some kid probably threw it off a boat.” Cooper looked disappointed.

  “Maybe Maela lost it,” Max said. “Look, it has the initials MS written on it. I think we should take it with us to show Leah.”

  “I guess it couldn’t hurt.” Cooper pulled up the oar and grimaced.

  “What’s wrong, Cooper?” I asked.

  “Max, take over the rowing for me, okay?”

  “Sure.” Max took the oar and started rowing toward the island.

  I didn’t think Cooper was going to answer me. He had his eyes closed and was rubbing the arm he’d broken. I knew it must be hurting, but his expression told me there was more going on.

  “It’s my dad.” Cooper shifted his gaze from Max to me. “I tried to talk to him about Enrique last night. He told me not to waste my time worrying about them. He wants the authorities to round up all the illegals and ship them back to Mexico—even Enrique and his sisters. I can’t believe he could be so mean.”

  “Bummer,” Max said. “Mrs. T says there should be special circumstances for the children—especially in a case like this where their aunt was born here.”

  “Maybe we should stop looking for them,” Cooper said. “I mean, what if we do find them? What are we going to do? If we help them we might lead the cops right to them.”

  I didn’t know what to say. “I want to find them—make sure they’re okay. If they’re on Ghost Island, we need to warn them about the cougar.”

  “We know Enrique is all right. At least he was last night.”

  “So, what are you saying, Coop? You really want to give up?” Max kept rowing toward the island.

  “Not exactly. But trying to find them is like trying to find a guppy in the ocean.”

  I fingered the letters on the red toy. “We have a clue. There’s a chance this floaty belongs to Maela. Think about it. If we follow the current up-lake from here, I bet it’ll go right to Ghost Island.”

  Cooper studied the water. “Okay. Let’s take the float toy to Mrs. Estrada and see if it’s Maela’s. If it is, we can look at the current charts. Maybe we can get an idea of where on the island it went into the water. It’s a long shot and I’m still wondering if Enrique and his sisters might be better off without our help.”

  Max and I looked at each other. From the determined look on her face, I could tell that, like me, she wasn’t going to give up even if Cooper did. I figured Enrique could take care of himself, but the girls were only five and nine years old. In order to get supplies, Enrique had to leave them alone. And if they were on Ghost Island, they’d be sharing it with a cougar and who knew what else.

  We had to wait until four o’clock to talk to Leah. The minute she saw the swim toy, she started crying. Leah hugged the plastic ring to her chest and began rocking.

  She thinks Maela is dead. The thought nearly doubled me over. For the first time I realized that Maela might have drowned. Why else would her swim toy be floating on the lake?

  CHAPTER

  TWELVE

  TThe thought that one or both of the girls might have drowned took my breath away. What if they had tried to swim to the island when they first ran away? Even with float toys, they wouldn’t make it. The water warmed up a little in the summer, but not nearly enough. If they were in the deep water too long they’d get hypothermia.

  “Please don’t cry, Mrs. Estrada. If anything bad had happened to Callista or Maela, Enrique would have come back, wouldn’t he?” I thought about what had happened the night before and added, “He had a boat.”

  Max nodded. “I’ll bet Maela was playing in the water and dropped her swim toy and it drifted out too far.”

  I glanced over at Cooper, then at Max, and then sat down next to Leah and told her about seeing Enrique at the store.

  “You saw him? You talked to him?”

  “My brother did. Enrique told Sam not to tell anyone that he’d seen him. He had to protect his sisters. That means they’re okay.”

  She sniffled and blew her nose. “Thank you for telling me this. I will keep hoping you are right.”

  “My parents were going to call and tell you about last night,” I said.

  “Yes. They left a message, and I have not called them back. I just came home from work. I have been so worried. Now I know the children have food and they are safe.”

  I wasn’t so sure about the safe part, but didn’t say so.

  “You have no idea where they are?” Leah asked.

  “Not yet,” Cooper said. “But we’ll keep looking.”

  She set the floaty aside. “I can’t believe this is happening. It’s all so confusing. I know the authorities think Carlos is illegal, but I don’t believe that.”

  “What do you mean?” I asked.

  She sighed. “Carlos didn’t tell me much about his immigrant status, but I was sure he had a green card when he came here. When he was killed, I tried to tell the police that he wasn’t illegal, but they couldn’t find his papers. Or his green card.”

  “That doesn’t make sense. Can’t they just look him up?”

  Leah shook her head. “Carlos Sanchez is a common name. Without papers, it could take weeks to find him in the system. They don’t believe me, and I can’t prove anything. Carlos didn’t talk to me about these things. I honestly don’t know if he was legal or not. His status doesn’t really matter now anyway. What matters is that we find the children.”

  When we left Leah’s place, it was well past noon. We decided we’d wait until tomorrow to go back out in the boat. In the meantime, Cooper would study the weather reports and marine charts of Chenoa Lake and try to determine where the toy might have been when it went into the water. I was still guessing Ghost Island.

  The next day came, and unfortunately the adults in our lives had plans for us that did not include letting us go out on the lake. Cooper had called the night before around nine. “You were right, Jessie,” he’d said. “According to my calculations, Maela’s swim toy floated from Ghost Island. The problem is I can’t go out tomorrow. Dad’s taking me into town to buy a laptop for school. There’s a big sale at Best Buy.”

  When I called Max, she said she should stay and help out on the farm. I supposed it was just as well because I had to take care of Sam while Mom and Dad went into Seattle. Seattle was two hours away, which took most of the day. In payment for taking care of my brother, they gave me permission to stay overnight with Max out at Lakeside Farm.

  Amelia invited me for dinner, so Max came by with her canoe to pick me up as soon as Mom
and Dad came home. I already had my stuff packed and was ready to go.

  After dinner, we worked on sachets, and Amelia taught us how to make lavender wands while she baked cookies and scones. I could see why Max didn’t mind staying home to help out. Doing the crafts was a lot of fun. Amelia had a lot of stories to tell about growing up on the farm. We started getting ready for bed around ten, and Amelia put on the news.

  Max and I were making plans to go out on the lake the next morning and take a picnic lunch again. “I want to stop by and see Josh and Kevin.”

  I giggled at her expression. She so had a crush on Josh.

  “Oh, dear.” Amelia’s cry caught our attention. “Girls, you’re going to want to see this.”

  “What’s wrong?” It didn’t take me long to get the gist of what Amelia was talking about. The video showed Enrique being put into a police car while the newscaster told viewers that the search for the missing boy was over, but that the little girls had still not been found. The police had caught Enrique taking food from the Dumpster at the Quickie Mart in Chenoa Lake. They also said he’d stolen a rowboat from a resident near the lake.

  “Immigration authorities have been seeking to deport the Sanchez children,” the newscaster said, “but tonight, there’s a new twist to the story. Police say Enrique Sanchez is a person of interest in the recent robberies in Chenoa Lake, Lakeside, and Hidden Springs. Over a dozen lakefront properties have been burglarized in the past two weeks.”

  “Enrique isn’t the thief.” Max pushed out of the chair and paced. “How can they think he did it?”

  “The police generally don’t arrest someone without evidence,” Amelia said. “And the news anchor did say he was a person of interest, not that he was the burglar. On the other hand, he did steal that boat.”

  “His aunt told us they were questioning her too,” I said. “I can understand why the police would question the homemakers. It makes sense to check out everyone who had keys to those houses. I suppose it’s logical for the police to question Enrique since his aunt …”