Dog Daze (9 page)

“I bet Nadine is getting lots of people who’ve seen the poster of your sketch of Wink the Squint-Eyed Wonder Dog.” Esther’s voice shot into Aneta’s happiness like an icy stream from C.P.’s water pistol.

Lots of people wanting Wink? She hadn’t thought of that when she agreed her sketch would be the artwork of the Oakton Founders’ Day Basset Waddle. The posters were in every store window and at the community center. Was she giving him away before he was even hers? What if he found a forever home other than with her and Mom? She brushed away tears as she followed Wink past the oak trees and across Park Street.

“I did not think of that.” Aneta’s gaze rested on Wink, straining with all his puppy power toward the last house on the right on Park Street.

Wink halted. He raised his head and sniffed. In the five weeks since the little dog had entered her world, Aneta had come to know that this lifting of the head came right before a powerful puppy lunge toward some unseen target. Her fingers tightened on the leash. Where was he going?

The girls began to laugh.

“He’s got a scent!” Sunny cried, clapping her hands then looking serious. “Maybe he’s caught the scent of the Crocs Killer.”

A puppy and four girls trotted across the street toward a pale-green bungalow in need of paint. The front lawn was green, however, and had been mowed recently. No car stood in front of the detached garage with an equipment box alongside it. Wink pulled Aneta toward that garage of 5 Park Street, past a mailbox marked L
EONARD
.

“He’s after something. A rabbit? A skunk? Eww, I hope not a skunk.” Esther dropped back.

They were past the back corner of the house near the garage when a van pulled into the driveway behind them.

Sunny heard the muffler and turned. “You guys, what are we doing?” Sunny stopped short, her face paling under the freckles.

“What are you kids doing on my property?” The man stood half in, half out of his white work van.

Aneta froze, her arm outstretched. Wink pulled harder. A high-pitched tone sounded in her ears. What was that? Oh, why had they come onto this man’s property? Would he call the police? Would the police arrest her? That would be trouble. Mom would send her back. She tried reeling in Wink.

The man stepped all the way out, slammed the door, and regarded them from across the front of the van.

“We—” Aneta’s voice failed her. Wink strained toward the garage. She had to bend down and scoop him up. He wriggled in resistance, emitting his trademark, “Aroo! Aroo!”

“Hey, get that dog away from there!” Loud.

“You girls get out of here!” Louder.

“Where’d you get that dog?” Yelling.

“I’m gonna call the cops!”

The girls turned and ran. Vee leaped over a large bag of puppy chow lying against the back door of the house. She streaked toward the community center with Sunny, Esther, and Aneta, still clutching Wink, streaming raggedly behind her.

Melissa Causes Trouble

O
h, for pizza sake!” Sunny’s favorite phrase jolted the three girls. She stamped D
ISCARD
on another library book and dumped it in a canvas bin. “Aneta, we’ve been sentenced to this library back room for two weeks, not counting weekends, and you haven’t said a word. What’s up?”

Aneta stamped a book about hummingbirds and dumped it into the bin. She took a deep breath, squared her shoulders, and faced the girls.

“I get in trouble.” Indeed she had. On Friday, the day of the Big Trouble, she had blurted out where she’d been and Mr. Leonard’s threats to call the police as soon as Mom had come through the mudroom. It had startled Mom for sure, even taken her a few moments to reply. For a moment Aneta thought Mom was glad. Then Mom’s face settled into serious. The two had discussed thoroughly that private property was private. Aneta barely slept that night, expecting at any moment to be hauled from her bed and sent back to Ukraine. By the next morning, the police had not come. The man did not call. But Mom did call the other parents; they had all agreed on a punishment.

“We all got in trouble.” Vee pitched her neatly stamped pile in the bin.

“And for punishment, being together in air-conditioning for two weeks is a whole lot better than pulling weeds from the community center’s flower beds, like my mom wanted us to do,” Esther said, slapping a book with the stamp. “I’m glad my parents said I could be punished with you three instead. So why are you acting like it’s the end of the world?”

“I am not in trouble before.” Her English sounded wrong. A single tear splashed on the dusty cover of an oversized picture book.

“Never?” chorused three astonished voices.

Shaking her head, Aneta set down the book. “I disappoint Mom and The Fam.” Her English worsened when she was going to cry.
What if they send me back?
But she didn’t tell the girls. They wouldn’t understand.

“We were stupid.” Sunny straightened and stared at her dirty hands. “We got excited about a Crocs Killer clue. Now we’re stamping discarded books at the library to be thrown in the Dumpster. How lame is that, stamping books that will be thrown out?”

“But speaking of the Crocs Killer…” Vee looked up with a gleam in her eye.

“And catching her…” Esther dropped another book in the bin and stepped alongside Aneta, patting her arm.

“Let’s go over what we know,” Vee said. “How long do you think they’ll keep us here?”

Esther shrugged. “You’re right, Vee. We can’t go ahead with an investigation without knowing where we are.”

Both Vee’s brows shot up.

“It
is
a good idea to see what we know,” Esther insisted.

The heat in Aneta’a face receded, and she smiled a watery smile. “Right.”

Sunny leaned against the metal counter and took her water bottle out of her backpack. She gulped twice then recapped the bottle. “We think she had to come down from the community center because we saw her through the trees, remember?”

Esther hoisted herself on the counter. “And since she came from here, someone might have seen her. Somebody carrying a wriggling garbage bag is
not
something you see every day.” Esther tugged at the waist of her capris. “At least not in the library parking lot.”

“So.” Vee whipped out her tiny notebook and flipped to a new page. “Interview people at the community center, the library, and the senior center.” She groaned. “That’s a lot of interviewing.”

Esther rolled her eyes. “Do you always have to do that?”

Vee ignored her. “What did everyone see? Let’s start with that.”

“I don’t remember anything. After Wink yelped, it all got really terrible.” Esther shrugged. “Aneta jumped off the dock, I pushed the boat into the water, and you ran for help.”

“And I stood there shrieking at the woman,” Sunny said. “Sorry, guys.”

Aneta thought hard. What
had
she seen? “The woman wore shorts,” she said slowly. “Dark.”

“She had her back to me, headed for the lake. I never saw her face.” Sunny scrunched her eyes. “All I saw was the white wriggling bag and”—she snapped her fingers—“and a hat! She was wearing a cap with a brim. It was khaki!”

“Some brand name on it,” Vee added thoughtfully. “I remember that. Before I ran.” Vee read from her notebook. “Dark shorts. Khaki hat with logo. That’s a start.”

“I think the next thing we need to do is—” Esther stepped forward. At that moment, Gram walked through the doorway, pulling her helmet off. “I’ve been sent to spring the prisoners,” she said, sounding like a tough guy.

“You mean we’re free?” Sunny dropped the stack of books she’d been working on. “Yowch!” Hopping on one foot, she clutched her other sneakered foot. “For today or forever? Ouch—right on my foot!”

“Forever. I called all your parents. They agreed you could be released into my custody. Going onto Mr. Leonard’s backyard was a mistake. I think you girls realize that and know trespassing is wrong. And”—her gaze took in the full bins—“I think you’ve served your time. I’ve brought the Scooter Patrol to transport.”

Zeff entered, a frown on his tanned face. Uncle Luke followed close behind with a big wave at the girls. Laura, Zeff’s twin and a foot shorter than her brother, peeked around him. She waved. She was home after a summer internship. Zeff held up one of the Dog Waddle posters. Seeing the drawing of Wink reminded Aneta about the Crocs Killer clues. A woman with dark shorts and a khaki hat could be
anyone
in Oakton.

“Where did you get the poster?” Vee asked as she stamped the last book in her pile.

“It’s coming back,” Zeff said. He thrust the poster at Sunny. Then he pulled three more out of his messenger bag. Looking over at Aneta, he shrugged. “I’m sorry, ‘Neta. All these businesses stopped me as I ran my courier route. Said they wanted nothing to do with the Dog Waddle.” His hand reached into the bag once again, this time withdrawing two more. “Some girl gave me these. Said she’d gotten them from business owners who said no way to the Dog Waddle.”

The stunned silence was brief.

“A girl?” Esther snapped out the words, her face reddening. She surveyed the others. “Melissa Dayton-Snipp.”

Vee nodded grimly. “Has to be.”

Sunny smacked her hand into her palm and made a hideous face. “She’s not going to get away with her Operation Ditch Dog Waddle. We’ll stop her evil plan!”

Piles of Puppy Pellets

I
do not understand!” Aneta yelled into the summer heat, arms wrapped around Gram’s waist as the pink scooter waited at a traffic light. She glanced over her shoulder and grinned at the scooters behind: Zeff with Sunny, Uncle Luke with Esther, and Laura with Vee hanging on.

Gram tipped her head toward Aneta. “Understand what?” she called back.

“Why Melissa hates Wink.”

The light changed, and Gram placed her feet on the foot treads and twisted the right grip accelerator. Over her grandmother’s shoulder, Aneta watched the dial climb to thirty-five miles per hour.

“She doesn’t hate Wink!” Gram shouted. “She doesn’t…” The wind tore a few words away. “…jealous…an idea that people like better than hers!”

Aneta understood the bits of words. She hugged her grand mother. People did like their idea. Just yesterday, when Mom and Aneta had walked to The Sweet Stuff, several people had stopped them to say how much they were looking forward to the Waddle. One man said his sister was coming in from Ohio with her basset hound. Mom beamed as though Aneta had come up with the idea all herself.

At least people had liked their idea until Melissa had started this trouble. Once the girls had signed out of the library, Gram had suggested they cruise Main Street to see which businesses no longer had posters.

“I’m sure these business owners misunderstood Melissa,” Gram had said, a glint in her eye. Aneta knew that look. Each store owner would be treated to the Jasper negotiation skills.
Negotiation
was one of the first English words Aneta had learned. Well, at least Gram and the rest of the family had the Jasper negotiation skills. Despite the laughing encouragement of The Fam to “never say, ‘Oh, okay,’” when a discussion was needed, Aneta still caved when someone said, “This is the way it’s going to be.”

She was so lost in thinking about her lack of Jasper-ness that she forgot to watch for Wink-less storefront windows until a high-pitched beep of a scooter behind them startled her back to their mission. Gram glanced at her rearview mirror on the handlebars, signaled, eased over to the curb, and parked diagonally.

After Aneta swung her leg off the scooter and removed her helmet, she waved at the three girls, who had also dismounted. Sunny gestured to the big glass window with the words P
ETE’S
P
ETS
E
MPORIUM
. “What’s emper-reum?” Aneta asked Gram, who was fluffing her hair.

“Emm-pour-eee-um,” Gram pronounced. “A fancy name for a store. Looks like he either got missed with a Waddle poster or he’s one of Melissa’s victims.”

The group converged on the store. Esther was the first to push open the door, and air-conditioned air flowed over them. It felt good, yet Aneta shivered. After the baking heat of the ride, her skin felt like she’d gotten too close to a campfire and now ice cubes.