“I don’t know,” Carter said. “When I woke up this morning, the board and the books were still there. But Carter Junior wasn’t.”
Nick tried to think. “Was there another opening in the aquarium?”
Carter shook his head. “Nothing. I left a crack at the top for air. But it was so tiny a grasshopper couldn’t have squeezed through.”
“Go back to your house and look again,” Nick said. “Maybe he’s just hiding. I’ll call Angelo and we’ll meet you there.”
“But . . . ,” Carter said, clearly not wanting Angelo to know what he’d done. He hung his head. “I guess we need all the help we can get.” Ten minutes later, Nick skidded to a stop in front of Carter’s house. Angelo’s bike was already parked out front. Inside, Carter’s four sisters were fighting over the bathroom, while his little brother was glued to cartoons. Nick found Carter and Angelo poking around under Carter’s bed and inside his closet. “Find anything?” he asked.
Carter shook his head miserably. He glared at Angelo. “This is your fault. Until I locked him up, Carter Junior never even considered leaving. You scared him off.”
Angelo polished his glasses furiously on the front of his shirt. “You have no way of knowing what it was thinking.”
“Well, I know now,” Carter said. “He hated me closing him in that glass prison and he left.”
“Come on, guys,” Nick said. “This isn’t helping.” He examined the aquarium. It was just as Carter had described. The crack was big enough to let in air and no more. “How could he have escaped without moving the books?”
Angelo knelt beside the aquarium. “Perhaps the homunculus has abilities we don’t know about yet.”
“Maybe he can stretch himself like Plastic Man,” Carter said. “That would be awesome.”
Nick glanced around, searching for clues. But as chaotic as the room always looked, there was no way to tell if anything was out of place. “Could your brother or one of your sisters have taken it?”
“They never come in here,” Carter said. “It’s too disgusting for them.” Nick could definitely understand that.
“However, if the homunculus got out of the aquarium, it should still be in the house somewhere,” Angelo said. “I might have been mistaken about locking it up. But why would it leave its source of food and safety?”
Carter stomped across the room until he was inches away from Angelo. “Carter Junior is not an it. He might be little, but he’s a person.”
Angelo bit his lip. “I know a homunculus looks human. But he’s—it’s—not. It’s a creature. A wild creature. Assuming it has human emotions is a mistake.”
Nick hated seeing his friends fight. He studied the room and something caught his eye. “Was your window open when you went to bed last night?”
“No.” Carter walked over to look. “It was closed last night. I’m sure of it.” But it was open several inches now.
Angelo ran his finger across a light spray of dirt on the sill. “Isn’t that your screen in the bushes?”
Nick pushed up on the window. It slid all the way open easily. Outside, the dirt beside the rosebush appeared disturbed.
“Come on,” he said.
All three boys ran into the yard and looked around. “Where could he have gone?” Carter said. He cupped his hands to his mouth. “Carter Junior! Here, Carter Junior!”
“Are you crazy?” Nick cried. “Do you want all the neighbors to come out and see what we’re doing?”
“We have to do something,” Carter said. “Maybe we can put up signs. You know, like when you lose your dog.”
“Oh, yeah.” Nick smirked. “I can just see it. ‘Missing: Six-Inch Mythical Creature. Can look and sound like anyone. Loves candy. If you see a miniature version of yourself or someone you know, call 1-800-I-AM-NUTS.’”
Carter kicked a patch of grass. “You have a better plan?”
“Actually,” Angelo said, “the candy part isn’t a bad idea. Do you have any on you, Carter?”
“Do you even need to ask?” Carter scoffed. He fished through his pockets. “Do you want chocolate, sour, hard, chewy?”
“These should work,” Angelo said, taking a package of Skittles from Carter. He ripped open the top and poured several into each of their hands. “The homunculus originally discovered the candy in the closed car, so we have to assume it has an excellent sense of smell. Let’s spread out and take these anywhere a small creature might hide—bushes, boxes, enclosed spaces. Maybe we can flush it out with what it likes.”
Nick had to admit it was a great plan. But after thirty minutes of searching every yard within a dozen houses—and Carter getting his pants torn by the Murphys’ poodle—they hadn’t found a single sign of Carter Junior. By then, it was time to leave for school.
“I’m not going to school,” Carter said, his jaw locked forward. “Not until I know Carter Junior is safe.”
Nick patted him on the back. “I know you’re worried. And I promise we won’t give up until we get him back. But you can’t miss another day of school. Your mom and dad would ground you forever, and then you’d never find him.”
“We’ll leave the window open and put some candy on the sill,” Angelo said. “It’s entirely possible that by the time we get out of school he’ll be back in your room waiting for you.”
Nick knew Angelo was right. But as they slid their bikes into the rack at the back of the school, he couldn’t help thinking there were too many pieces that didn’t add up. How did the homunculus get out of the aquarium in the first place? And once he did, why leave? There was something else that bothered him too; he just couldn’t put his finger on it.
It wasn’t until he got up from locking his bike and brushed the dirt off his pants that he realized what they’d missed. “What if Carter Junior didn’t escape by himself?”
“What are you thinking?” Angelo asked.
“The dirt on the windowsill. It couldn’t have gotten there from the homunculus climbing out.”
Angelo rubbed his chin thoughtfully. “But it could have been left by someone opening the window and climbing in from the outside.”
“You think someone stole Carter Junior?” Carter said. He rubbed his fist in his palm. “Just tell me who took him and I’ll take care of the rest.”
Who would have done a thing like that? Almost nobody knew about the homunculus. And of the few people who did, who would have a reason for taking it?
At that moment, three girls came walking across the playground. One was tall and athletic with blond hair. The second was shorter, with dark hair and designer sunglasses. But it was the third—the short one with red hair and a perpetual know-it-all expression on her face—that he focused on. The one person who had both the motive and the opportunity to take the homunculus.
“Angie.”
“Hold on,” Angelo said as Nick started toward the three girls. “Let’s calm down and think this over.”
“What’s to think about?” Carter snapped. “Angie took Carter Junior and we’re getting him back.”
“We don’t know for sure that anyone took the homunculus. And even if someone did, we don’t know it was Angie.”
For someone so smart, Angelo could be totally dense at times. “The clues are all there,” Nick said. He held up his fingers, counting the facts. “One, the dirt on the windowsill proves someone climbed inside. Two, Angie’s one of the only people who know we have Carter Junior. Three, she just said yesterday that she didn’t think taking him back to the woods was a good idea. Four, she lives less than a block from Carter’s house. And five . . .” He glared at the smug little face that was always butting into his business. “. . . it’s exactly the kind of thing she’d do.”
Angelo ran to keep up with him. “We don’t know the dirt was tracked in last night. Carter has snuck in and out of his window plenty of times. And he never cleans his room. After yesterday, we have no idea who might have heard about the homunculus. And half the kids in our school live within a block or two of
Carter’s house.”
But Nick was through listening. He raced up to Angie and stopped directly in front of her. “Give him back.”
Angie blinked. “Excuse me?”
Carter flexed his skinny arms and cracked his knuckles. “We know you stole Carter Junior.”
Dana put a hand to her mouth. “Someone took the homunculus?”
“Not someone,” Nick said, glaring at Angie. “You.”
“We don’t know that for a fact,” Angelo said. “You’re jumping to conclusions based largely on assumptions and limited data.”
“She said yesterday that she thought we should let scientists study him and put him in a zoo,” Nick said.
Angie glared back at Nick. “I’m not the one who said that. Dana is. And she wasn’t suggesting you put him in a zoo. Just that it might be valuable to learn more about a new species.”
“Who cares?” Carter said. “Just give him back or there’s going to be trouble.”
Tiffany gave Carter a nasty grin. “I could handle you with both arms in a cast. And which one of you wants to fight Dana?”
“No one’s fighting anyone,” Angie said. “If your homunculus has escaped, we’ll help you get him back.”
“We could use the extra eyes,” Angelo said.
“We don’t need their help,” Nick muttered.
“Are you sure about that?” Angelo asked. “We didn’t do so well on our own.”
Nick scuffed his shoe across the playground gravel. He still didn’t trust Angie. But by keeping her and her friends around, it would make it that much easier to find out if they had taken the homunculus. Besides, Angelo was right. If Carter Junior had run off, they could use all the help they could get in finding him. He nodded. “Okay, fine. But you girls better not get in the way.”
All through school that morning, Nick tried to think of a plan to prove Angie’s guilt or innocence. The best he could come up with was a lie detector test, but although he had full confidence Angelo could build one, that would be a waste of valuable searching time. Besides, he didn’t know if Angie would even agree to take the test. And if she did, she could probably beat it. She seemed like the kind of person who would be a good liar.
Ms. Schoepf didn’t make concentrating easy. Everyone except Angelo and Dana had flunked the math test. So the class spent all morning studying how to solve for Y in mixed equations. After an hour of “If X equals 7/4 and Y is equal to the sum of 6x + 6/x,” Nick thought that if he never saw another fraction in his life it would be too soon.
As if that wasn’t enough, Kimber Tidwell apparently didn’t feel like she was getting enough attention. Thirty minutes into the math lesson, she complained of a sick stomach and asked to visit the nurse. Nick was pretty sure what she was actually sick of was variables, and he wished he’d thought of going to the nurse first.
But then, fifteen minutes after leaving, she walked back into class.
“Feeling better?” Ms. Schoepf asked.
“Much.” Kimber smiled. “I think I was just sick of hats.” She pulled off a green knitted cap that looked like something a dill pickle might put on its ugly baby and stuffed it into her coat pocket.
“Interesting as that may be,” Ms. Schoepf said, “let’s save the fashion discussion for outside class and get back to our math.”
“Or we could talk about both,” Tiffany whispered under her breath. “Kimber’s taste in clothes times any number always equals zero.”
Ms. Schoepf gave Tiffany a warning look. “Kimber, please take your seat so we can go over reducing fractions.”
Kimber’s lip pooched out. “Do we have to? Isn’t there something a little less boring we could talk about?” She turned to Rebel and Torrie. “You, for example. Why is it that the two of you always do everything I tell you? Like wearing those stupid hats. Don’t either of you have the guts to stand up to me and admit how ridiculous they look?”
Rebel and Torrie stared at Kimber. Rebel reached for her hat as if unsure whether she should take it off or leave it on.
“Kimber Tidwell!” Ms. Schoepf said. “Take your seat at once or you’ll be talking to the principal.”
“An excellent idea,” Kimber said. “It’s about time someone explained that her frumpy shoes went out of style when we were all wearing diapers. Designer diapers for me, of course.” With that, she twirled around and flounced out of class.
Carter leaned over to Nick. “I think all those hats must have been starving her brain of oxygen.”
Ms. Schoepf stared at the door, obviously bewildered by Kimber’s performance, before turning back to the class. “Everyone, just . . . read your history books.”
When Kimber hadn’t returned by lunch, Torrie and Rebel wandered around the cafeteria, looking unsure without their leader. Finally they each took off their hats and ate by themselves.
By the end of the day, rumors were flying around school. Kimber had been suspended. She’d had a nervous breakdown. She’d been taken from the school in an ambulance.
“She just wants attention,” Tiffany said. “Trust me, she’ll wait until everyone’s outside to make her grand reappearance.”
Sure enough, just after the final bell, a pale-looking Kimber strode onto the playground. Nick noticed she was once again wearing her puke-green hat. Seeing everyone watching her, she threw back her head and flipped her skirt. “Nurse thinks I might have had a touch of food poisoning. I’m never eating non–organically grown artichokes again.”
“More like a touch of brain poisoning,” Carter said, making Tiffany laugh.
Kimber shot a laser-beam glare at him before making a beeline for Rebel and Torrie. Nick didn’t think either of them looked especially excited to see her. He couldn’t blame them. He’d rather have no friends at all than friends like that—even if she was the most popular girl in school.
As the three of them gathered together, Nick could just overhear Kimber say, “Why aren’t you wearing your hats? Do you want to end up with early wrinkles and age spots? Not to mention the ever-present threat of skin cancer?”
Within seconds, the group was surrounded by kids asking Kimber how she was feeling. Nick shook his head, wondering what people saw in her. When he turned back to his own friends, Angelo, Carter, and the girls were staring at him.
“Well?” Angie asked.
He realized he must have missed something. “Sorry, what did you say?”
“You might have heard if you weren’t all googly-eyed over Kimber.”
“I wasn’t googly-eyed,” he muttered. “I was just wondering what her deal was.”
“Her deal is that she needs to be the center of attention everywhere she goes,” Tiffany said.
“We were asking you what the plan is,” Dana said. “How should we go about finding the homunculus?”
Nick wasn’t sure how he’d been elected captain of the Carter Junior search team. “Well, first we should probably go to Carter’s house and see if he’s come back. If not, he likes candy and Mountain Dew. I guess we should spread out and try to lure him in with those.”
“We’ll go get our bikes and meet you there,” Angie said.
“You really don’t think they had anything to do with his disappearance?” Nick asked as he pulled his bike out of the rack.
“Why would they offer to help us if they did?” Angelo asked.
“To make us think they’re innocent,” Carter said. “I saw something just like it on TV once. The kidnappers join in the search so they can find out how much the authorities really know. What we have to do is blow their cover by asking trick questions. Things they wouldn’t know unless they actually had him. Then, pow! We slam the net on them.”
“There are no authorities,” Angelo said, stopping to wait for the light to turn green so they could cross the street. “And think about it. If Angie and her friends have the homunculus, the last thing they’d want to do is hang around with us. Remember how hard it was to keep people from discovering him?”
“Hopefully he’ll
be at your house when we get back,” Nick said.
Carter nodded. “I’m crossing my fingers and toes. If I thought I could ride home with my eyes crossed, I’d do that too.”
Unfortunately, nothing had changed when they reached his house. The window was still open, the candy was still on the sill, and his room was still empty.
As soon as Angie, Dana, and Tiffany showed up, the six of them scoured the neighborhood. Using a city map Dana had printed out and a check sheet Angelo had made, they covered every house, yard, and vacant lot for two blocks in all directions. But there was no sign of the homunculus anywhere. No cookie trail. No tiny footprints. No familiar voices. Nothing.
By then it was nearly dark and they had to admit it was time to give up for the day. Everyone was dirty and exhausted. Carter looked like he was fighting not to cry.
“Let’s ride down to Caspers and I’ll treat you all to a hot dog,” Angie said. When Nick gave her a questioning look, she gave a half smile and said, “I’ve been doing a lot of babysitting lately. I’m nearly as rich as Kimber’s family.”
Caspers was the best hot dog place in the world. According to Nick’s dad it was more than fifty years old, and he had eaten there when he was a boy. All of them ordered regular hot dogs and sodas, except for Carter, who ordered a chili cheese dog with extra chili, cheese, and onions—which earned him a “That-a-boy” from the grandmotherly woman who served them.
“It’s like he floated into thin air,” Nick said, taking a bite of his hot dog.
Angie rattled the ice of her Coke. “Maybe he can fly and we just don’t know it.”
Angelo rubbed his sweaty face, smearing mustard across his cheek. “Not unless it has wings we haven’t seen.”
“Have you ever considered that the homunculus might be able to change into things other than humans?” Dana asked. “For all we know it turned into a bird and that’s why it didn’t leave any tracks.” She pointed to Angelo’s cheek and he quickly wiped his face with a napkin.
Angelo flipped open his notebook. “If it can, it’s something other than a homunculus. There’s not much information out there. But one thing everyone seems to agree on is that homunculi are small, beardless humans.”
Case File 13 #3 Page 7