Alexis

by Erica Rodgers

  “Who? The bears?” asked Bailey.

  “Of course. I wouldn’t want to get too close. Never mind the teeth and claws. They stink!”

  Alexis couldn’t smell a thing. She zoomed in with the camera lens, and Bailey said a few words into the camera. Alexis was about to turn around when Angelo’s grip on her coat tightened.

  “What is it?” she asked him.

  “A sound,” he said. “I heard a strange sound…one that doesn’t belong in this forest.”

  “What kind of sound?” asked Alexis, but then she heard it—a small popping noise—right before something hard stung her cheek.

  “Ow!”

  Alexis stumbled and almost pulled Angelo onto the ground. There were a few more popping noises, and then a completely different sound tore through the forest.

  It was the roar of a cranky bear.

  “Run!” called Lisa. She grabbed Bailey and took off toward the snowmobile. Alexis and Angelo followed, but the snowshoes were hard to run in. Alexis looked back just in time to see a huge brown bear emerge from the mouth of the cave. It took one sleepy look around and started running right for them!

  Fortunately, the snowmobile was a bit downhill from the bear cave. That downhill slope helped the young humans run faster, while it slowed down the bear. Alexis briefly remembered a Discovery Channel special on bears, which revealed that bears run uphill much faster than they run downhill.

  Of course, it’s not good to have bears running after you, fast or slow! she thought.

  Lisa and Bailey reached the snowmobile and clambered on. Lisa fired up the engine and turned to pull Alexis and Angelo aboard. Soon they were on their way back down the mountain. Alexis turned to see if the bear was still following them, but she wasn’t holding on to Bailey. She slipped sideways and fell into the snow. She hit hard and rolled down the mountain about ten feet before stopping near a half-buried tree stump.

  Lisa circled back around, and Angelo helped pull Alexis back onto the snowmobile.

  “Good thing I wasn’t holding on to you!” he laughed.

  “Wait!” said Alexis. “My camera! I dropped it when I fell!”

  Luckily, the bear had taken off in another direction, and the camera was easy to find. It was right where Alexis had fallen, tangled up in a pile of dead branches. The branches kept it from falling into the wet snow, which might have damaged it.

  “It’s still on,” said Bailey. “You might not want to waste the battery!”

  The group headed back to the office. All of them were quiet. They knew that they had barely escaped being attacked by an angry bear. What were those strange noises? And what could have awakened the bear? Alexis asked Jake her questions back at the office, but he wasn’t worried about answering them at the moment.

  “The most important thing, Alexis, is that we find that bear! We need the tranquilizer gun, Karen. Call the ranger too. Maybe if we put it back in its den, it will sleep out the rest of the winter.”

  “What if you can’t find it?” asked Bailey.

  “That’s what we’re worried about,” said Karen. “Bears that wake up early run into lots of problems. Right now, most of the smaller animals are hibernating too, and the rivers are frozen over. There isn’t much food out there for a bear. If he’s awake long, he’ll burn up all of the fat he stored for the winter, and then he’ll have to be put in captivity or…”

  “Or what?” asked Alexis.

  “Or he’ll die,” said Jake.

  Kate’s Helping Hand

  Back at the hotel, the girls left Angelo to go meet Alexis’s family for dinner. First they went to the room to change clothes. When Alexis looked in the mirror, she saw a huge red bruise with a purple center on her right cheek.

  “Eew!” she said. “That looks awful! Bailey, why didn’t you say anything?”

  “Well, we were too worried about the bear, weren’t we?” said Bailey. “Besides, it didn’t look that bad at the reserve. It’s definitely pretty.”

  Alexis pressed her fingers gently to her cheek.

  “Ouch! What could have done this?” she asked. “I remember getting hit with something before the bear woke up, but I never saw what it was.”

  “Could it have been a rock?” asked Bailey.

  “Maybe. Oh well. We’d better get down to the restaurant.”

  Alexis threw on fresh jeans and a sweater before slipping on her sneakers. They were so much easier to walk in than her heavy snow boots. After tromping in boots all day, she felt as light as a feather. Bailey tied her hair up in a tiny ponytail, and they took the elevator to the second floor to find the steak house.

  “There they are!” said Bailey, pointing into the crowded restaurant. Alexis looked up and saw her two brothers waving their arms to get her attention. Her mother was frantically grabbing water glasses to keep them from being knocked over.

  Alexis sat down next to her father, and he poked gently at her cheek.

  “I thought you two were shooting a documentary out there, not BB guns!” he said.

  “BB guns?” said Alexis.

  “Yeah,” said Mr. Howell. “I’d recognize a BB bruise anywhere! My brother and I used to play with those things all the time. It’s a miracle we never shot an eye out.”

  Alexis’s eyes opened wide, and she kicked Bailey under the table. So she had been shot by a BB gun? That meant someone else had been out at the bear cave at the same time as their group. What if a BB had awakened the bear? What if that’s what the person was trying to do?

  It reminded Alexis of Cruella DeVille, the villain in One Hundred and One Dalmatians. Her first name started with the word cruel, and in the movie she would have done anything to get the puppies for a fur coat. If turning cute puppies into a coat wasn’t cruel, Alexis didn’t know what was.

  She thought about how it felt to see the bear charge out of the cave. It had been really scary. One of them could have gotten hurt, or even worse. At that moment, Alexis knew she and Bailey and the Camp Club Girls had to solve this case as soon as possible. The person doing these things was becoming dangerous. Like Cruella’s character, they didn’t care who they hurt. As long as they got what they wanted, they might do anything…but what did they want?

  After dinner Alexis and Bailey took their camera to their hotel room and borrowed Mrs. Howell’s computer again. Alexis plugged her camera into the USB port on the computer so the girls could look at what they’d filmed near the bear cave. The camera had been rolling the entire time. Maybe it saw something—or someone—that they hadn’t.

  They started by watching the spot on the sick coyotes.

  “You do such a great job in front of the camera, Bailey!” said Alexis.

  “Thank you, dah-ling,” said Bailey. She tossed her hair and did her best movie-star impression.

  “We have to remember to add the stuff about the chocolate,” said Alexis. “I don’t think we filmed—”

  “Shhh!” said Bailey. “Here’s the bear cave!”

  They sat and watched as the camera rolled over the snowy landscape. Surrounding pine trees were drooping from the weight of the snow. Shafts of sunlight peeked through the branches and made the white sparkle. Soon the cave came into view—a small opening beneath the rock.

  “Is it just me, or does that cave look too small for a bear to get in and out of?” asked Bailey.

  “Well, a bear sure did come out of it,” said Alexis. “We’re about to see it happen.”

  The camera rocked a little.

  “That must have been when you got hit by the BB,” said Bailey.

  Alexis nodded. She was watching the screen as closely as possible. Soon the bear came charging out of the cave, throwing snow everywhere. But Alexis wasn’t watching the bear. She was looking everywhere else for any sign of a fifth person in that forest.

  Soon the film got hard to watch. The picture jumped all over the place as Alexis tried to run in her snowshoes. Most of the shots showed either her clumsy feet or a piece of the sky.

  “We
ll, that’s it,” said Bailey. “That’s where you dropped the camera when you fell off the snowmobile, right?”

  “Yup,” said Alexis. “Now all we can see is snow and a couple trees.” Alexis reached for the EJECT button, but Bailey grabbed her hand.

  “Wait! I see something,” she said. “Rewind it!”

  Alexis skipped back a few frames and leaned in closer. Sure enough, something was moving in the background. Near a group of trees in the distance, a shadowy figure climbed onto something and sped away in the opposite direction.

  “Was that another snowmobile?” asked Bailey.

  “I believe it was,” said Alexis. “What else could it have been? Bailey! We have this person on tape! Whoever was out there waking up the bears—”

  “And shooting people with BB guns,” said Bailey.

  “Right. That too. They’re on our video, Bailey! This is great! All we have to do is blow up this frame, and we’ll have a picture. What if this solves the case?”

  “That would be great,” said Bailey. “Can we blow up the picture on this computer?”

  Alexis messed around with the keyboard for a few minutes and then sighed. There were hardly any programs loaded onto it.

  “No, we can’t,” said Alexis. “I mean, there might be a way, but I have no clue how to do it without the program I’m used to using at school. I wish Kate were here. She would know how to do it.”

  Bailey laughed so loud that someone talking outside their hotel room abruptly stopped.

  “Come on, Lexi! Do you or do you not know how to email?” Alexis couldn’t help it. She began laughing too. Why had she forgotten all about the internet? It was her main link to the rest of the Camp Club Girls.

  “Right,” Alexis said, going to work at the keyboard again. “All I need to do is cut out this piece of video and send it to Kate. I hope the file won’t be too big.”

  After a few minutes of tweaking the video file, Alexis typed an email to send to their friend, the technogeek, and copied in the rest of the Camp Club Girls so they’d know what was going on. If anyone could help them, Kate could.

  Dear Kate,

  Bailey and I were going to see sleeping bears today when someone woke them up! Apparently the person shot a BB gun into their den (and hit me with one too!). I have a video with a person in the background. The person is too far away to see now, but I was hoping you would know how to zoom in and maybe get a few still pictures. I hope this isn’t asking too much. As Princess Leia said in the old Star Wars movie: “You’re our only hope!”

  This could be the big break we need. Bailey says, “Hi, Katie Cat!” We love you and miss you!

  Alex and Bailey

  “Hopefully, she’ll get to it soon,” said Bailey.

  “Are you kidding? Kate checks her email every five minutes. If she’s not already asleep, she’ll probably get it tonight.”

  Just then there was a gentle knock at the connecting door, and Mrs. Howell popped her head in.

  “Hi, Mom. We’re done with the computer now,” Alex announced.

  “Oh, that’s okay. I didn’t come in for that,” Mrs. Howell explained. “I got a call from the restaurant. They said I left my purse there, and they’ve taken it to the front desk. I’m trying to get your brothers to bed, so I wondered if you girls would run down and get it for me.”

  “Sure, Mom,” Alex said with a smile.

  “Great. I’ll call them and let them know you’re on the way,” Mrs. Howell said.

  The girls quickly entered the elevator and rode to the lobby.

  “I wonder how Angelo’s doing,” Bailey said.

  “Hmm. Maybe we should call him and invite him to join us tomorrow,” Bailey said.

  As the girls picked up Mrs. Howell’s purse, Alex noticed a “house” phone near the front desk—a phone for guests to use to call the hotel rooms. She punched in the operator’s number and asked for Angelo’s room.

  No one picked up in Angelo’s room. She left him a message and told him to meet them at the bus stop if he was interested. Then they headed up to the room.

  The girls got back in the elevator talking about their plans for the next day. When they got off the elevator, they could already hear the commotion coming from their room at the end of the hallway. To Alexis’s surprise, a hotel manager was standing at their door, knocking. She and Bailey stood slightly behind him to see what was going on as Mrs. Howell opened the door.

  “Yes? Can I help you?” she said.

  “Yes, ma’am,” said the manager. “I wonder if you could have your little ones calm down a bit? It’s just that we’ve had a number of complaints from your floor—”

  “Oh, I’m so sorry—”

  “And the floor below you—”

  “Sir, I promise they won’t—”

  “And the floor above you as well,” the man finished.

  Alexis’s mother looked sorry, but Alexis could tell that underneath she was furious. Not at the manager, but at her twin sons.

  “Thank you, sir,” she said through clenched teeth. “It won’t happen again.” The man smiled and walked back toward the elevator. Alexis barely caught the door before it closed, and she and Bailey made it into the room just in time to hear the melee that ensued.

  “I told you two to settle down!” Mrs. Howell was yelling. “If I have to tell you again, you’re not skiing tomorrow! I’ll sign you up for the hotel day care instead, and you can play with the two-year-olds! I’m not kidding!”

  Alexis and Bailey sat down with Mr. Howell on the couch. He was watching the Discovery Channel and checking email, completely unaware of the chaos in the bedroom.

  “It’s hard to believe you two could make it onto real-life TV!” he said to Alexis and Bailey. “How’s the filming coming anyway?”

  “Really well,” said Alexis. She told him all about the baby bats and the sick coyotes. She even told him about the bear cave and the one that woke up, though she failed to mention how close she and Bailey had been when it happened.

  Ding!

  A small screen popped up on Mr. Howell’s laptop.

  “Here, Alex. Looks like you’ve got an email,” he said, handing her the computer. From the next room over, they heard a lamp crash to the floor.

  “I’d better go help your mother,” laughed Mr. Howell, and he left them alone on the couch.

  Bailey got so excited that she almost knocked the computer to the floor. “It couldn’t be Kate, could it? It’s too soon!”

  “Let’s see,” said Alexis, and she opened up the email.

  Alex and Bailey,

  It’s so great to hear from you, and it’s SUPER great to know that I can help you! Pulling a pic out of that vid was easy. You’ll find the pics attached to this email. I gave you what you asked for—close-ups of the guy on the snowmobile, but I zoomed in a little more for a few pics I thought might help you more. You’ll see what I mean. Love you lots! Happy investigating, and don’t hesitate to call if you need me again!

  Kate

  Alexis hurried to open the files. There were four of them. The first was a picture of the whole scene: a man bundled up from head to toe climbing onto a snowmobile. They couldn’t see his face, but they could see what he was carrying over his shoulder.

  “Is that a gun?” asked Bailey.

  “Probably a BB gun,” said Alexis. She opened the next picture.

  It was a close-up of the man’s face, but it was fully covered with a ski mask. That didn’t help much. The third picture was just of the snowmobile, and the fourth was a super close-up of the side of the vehicle.

  “Why would she send us that?” asked Bailey. The computer bounced on Alexis’s lap as Mr. Howell sat back down on the couch.

  “Oh!” he said. “A Yamaha Phazer! Those are great snowmobiles. Super expensive, though. You two interested in riding?”

  “You could say that,” said Alexis. She was staring at the make and model of the snowmobile, trying to figure out why Kate had zoomed in far enough to see it. All of
a sudden, it hit her.

  “Bailey, this is huge! We may not have his face, but we know what kind of snowmobile he was driving! Maybe that will lead us to who he is!”

  “Maybe,” said Bailey. “But it’s not like this is CSI. We don’t have access to all of the registered snowmobile owners in California. And even if we did, how would we know which one was this guy?”

  “You’re right, Bailey. This isn’t CSI, but we can still use the info. Didn’t you hear Dad? These things are expensive. I bet whoever was riding it rented it. Tomorrow we can call around to the rental places in town and see if anyone took out a Yamaha Phazer today. That’s a start anyway. Then we’ll go investigate the area near the cave again. Maybe this guy left something behind.”

  When the girls climbed into bed, Alexis couldn’t fall asleep. Bailey’s light snoring wasn’t keeping her up. Her mind was. It seemed to be going about a million miles per hour. She hoped this snowmobile would lead them to whoever was sabotaging the reserve. She knew it could be a dead end, but she refused to think about that right now.

  Please, God, she prayed. Help us tomorrow. We need a break. The reserve needs You. We need You. This is where the real investigating begins.

  Starstruck

  The next morning, the girls awoke to a wall of white. Snowflakes as big as silver dollars drifted toward the ground—so many that they melded together to form a frozen fog. There had always been snow on the ground since they arrived, but at least four more feet had fallen while they slept.

  Alexis looked out the window and felt like she had landed on another planet.

  “I hope we’re not stuck in the hotel today!” squealed Bailey from behind her.

  “Me too,” said Alexis.

  “One thing’s for sure,” she continued, layering on her thick socks and snow boots. “Even if we can get to the reserve, there’s no way we’ll be able to examine the site near the bear cave. Any evidence will be covered up.”

  Alexis and Bailey weren’t too hopeful as they rode the elevator down to the lobby. They were surprised to see that it was business as usual outside. Cars and buses chugged by the hotel. Bundled-up tourists trudged into the corner coffee shop. The only things out of place were the huge piles of snow on the sides of the street. Every few minutes a huge snowplow roared its way through. It pushed the newly fallen snow out of the street, adding to the piles.