Just Kidding (9 page)

W
hen Officer Moody stopped the car in front of the rambling yellow Victorian house, the lights went on immediately in the downstairs hall. Charlotte bit her lip.

“Dad must have been looking out the window for me.” Charlotte peered through the cruiser windows, glancing nervously at Officer Moody. She felt terrible that her father might be concerned. “You know, I was thinking about Miss Pierce so much, the time just got away from me. I never stopped to think that Dad might be worried about me….”

As they stepped into the hallway, Mr. Ramsey came flying down the stairs. He was running so fast, he missed the last step, tripped, and fell forward onto all fours. Scrambling forward a few steps on his hands and knees, he struggled to regain his balance. The effect was one of a giant human bug looking for food. Charlotte began to
giggle, and even Officer Moody had to hold back a smile. Mr. Ramsey somehow managed to regain his balance and jumped up to wrap Charlotte in a big bear hug.

The klutz factor is obviously inherited
, a bemused Charlotte thought.

“Charlotte!” Mr. Ramsey finally exclaimed. “Where have you been? Do you know how worried I was?”

Charlotte saw that Officer Moody's eyes were twinkling, but the police officer pressed her lips together and said with great seriousness, “Mr. Ramsey, Charlotte's been out looking for Miss Pierce. She seems to think that Miss Pierce may have—er—
gone missing
.”

Mr. Ramsey's expression changed from relief to concern. Charlotte explained how she and Miss Pierce had walked to the park together, that Miss Pierce had arranged a meeting with her old astronomy professor, and then when Charlotte went looking for her, she suddenly seemed to have disappeared into thin air.

“Perhaps we should just check to make sure she didn't return to her apartment,” Officer Moody suggested.

“I haven't heard a thing, and I've been home for hours.” Mr. Ramsey looked doubtful. “Usually I hear her puttering around in the kitchen.”

“Well, maybe she's come home but gotten sick,” the officer suggested. “Perhaps we should check to see if she's there and needs medical attention.”

“Good idea.” Mr. Ramsey nodded.

Charlotte stared up at the safety officer. Did she really think Miss Pierce was ill?

When Officer Moody saw Charlotte's unhappy face,
she said, “Most likely, that didn't happen, Charlotte! The truth is, Miss Pierce probably just got wrapped up in talking with her friend, and they decided to go somewhere to get a bite to eat and she lost track of time. Sometimes, you know, adults forget to tell people their plans, just the way kids do.”

“That's just not like Miss Pierce.” Charlotte shook her head. Miss Pierce was a scientist; she was
precise
. She had an excellent memory and wonderful manners. And since she was shy and reclusive most of the time, wandering off from the house and especially the neighborhood was a strange occurrence. No, thought Charlotte. It didn't add up.

But when they knocked on her apartment door and called out “
Miss Pierce!
” there was no answer. Mr. Ramsey dug out a spare key and cracked open the door. “Sapphire! It's Richard Ramsey,” he said in a soft voice. The place was eerily quiet—no dramatic classical music playing, no sweet cookie smells coming from the kitchen. It was just an empty apartment…abandoned and lifeless. And that made Charlotte more worried than ever.

Officer Moody walked through the apartment, calling out for Miss Pierce. She checked all the closets, the bedroom, and the little landlady's study. Miss Pierce was simply nowhere to be found.

Reluctantly, the three closed and locked Miss Pierce's door and went upstairs to the Ramseys' warm, cozy apartment. “Did you receive any telephone messages or e-mails?” Officer Moody asked Mr. Ramsey.

He shook his head. “No phone messages at all. I
checked when I came in.” He went to his computer and quickly logged onto his e-mail account. “No. Nothing here that could be helpful. Just a few e-mails from a couple of my students.”

Officer Moody took a small notebook out of her pocket and turned to Charlotte. “Did you ask anyone who was near Miss Pierce in the park if they'd seen anything suspicious?”

Charlotte's mouth dropped open. She hadn't even
thought
to ask anyone in the park.

Officer Moody saw her stricken face. “Don't worry, Charlotte. You've already done a lot of things right. You've eliminated some of the places where she could have been. There really wasn't much else you could have done on your own.”

She turned to Mr. Ramsey. “You might check with Ferndale Hospital. That's the closest one. If there's been an accident near the park, she'd have been taken there.”

Charlotte clasped her hands together as she watched her father dial the hospital number. Her eyes began to brim with tears. Miss Pierce truly understood her passion for the stars and her love of writing. Charlotte would be incredibly sad if something had happened to her quiet friend.

A few minutes later, her father put down the phone, shaking his head. “No one by the name of Sapphire Pierce was brought in today.” He looked pointedly at Officer Moody. “Should we be worried, Sue?”

Officer Moody hesitated. “Well, ‘concerned' might be a better word. Miss Pierce is a responsible adult. She's
entitled to go off on her own. Maybe she's just gone to a long dinner with her old friend. She could come walking in here at any time.”

But none of them really believed that. Even Marty's furry little body began to droop with discouragement.

Suddenly, there was a knock at the downstairs door. “Miss Pierce!” Charlotte cried. They all rushed down the stairs, but Charlotte was there first, even before Marty. Yipping happily, Marty acted as though he knew it was Miss Pierce at the door.

Not so.

When Charlotte yanked open the front door, there stood Yuri the grocer with a bag in one arm. “Hello! I bring you beautiful fruit to eat. Come, get me knife. I cut up all these fruit for a big salad. I bring for Miss Pierce.”

Charlotte's face, which had been bright with hope, fell in disappointment. “Oh, hello, Yuri. It's…nice of you to bring that. But we don't know anything more about Miss Pierce. She's still missing.”

“Yes, yes.” Yuri had already managed to get inside the door, though Charlotte didn't remember inviting him in. He had an air of suppressed excitement about him, which Charlotte couldn't figure out. Yuri stepped forward and greeted the adults boisterously. “Hello, hello! Come. Yuri's here to cut you some of tasteful fruit.”

Unsure what else to do, Mr. Ramsey led him upstairs to the kitchen, where Yuri commandeered the sink and unpacked a basket of plump strawberries, dark red cherries, oranges, and pears. He carefully washed them all in the sink, swiftly cut them up, and artfully arranged each
slice on the small plates Charlotte brought out for him.
Wow
, thought Charlotte.
Yuri's fruit display looks like something a TV chef would do
. She looked over at her father, who just shrugged his shoulders. He wasn't quite sure how to respond to the sudden bigheartedness of the bearish Russian grocer.

Once they were sitting, Yuri leaned on his elbows and dropped his voice confidentially. “You see me here now? I was most worried when Charlotte came today and tell me about Miss Pierce. She and I have tea and fruit together for years, every week. Not like lady to go off. Not like her to go out much! In fact, she never do go out!” He shook his head. “So I go to park myself. I walk up and down, tell people what she looks like—most beautiful lady—and ask if they see her.” He held out his hand as though to describe Miss Pierce's size to a witness in the park.

Charlotte, biting into a luscious strawberry, suddenly had a thought that almost made her giggle out loud.
Yuri called her “most beautiful lady”! Could Yuri have a real crush on Miss Pierce?

The others stared at Charlotte as she tried to stifle her giggle, only to end up hiccupping violently instead. Mr. Ramsey banged her on the back and Officer Moody went to the sink for some water. Finally, after one last enormous hiccup, she quieted down.

Yuri looked at Charlotte, his big bushy eyebrows furrowed with concern. “I finish important story now?”

Charlotte nodded vigorously. Her father and a skeptical Officer Moody waited for Yuri to continue.

Yuri described how he'd finally run into a group of
young boys “on flying skates.”

The others looked at each other. Finally Charlotte interpreted what he meant. “Flying…you mean skateboards? With wheels?”

Yuri pointed a finger at her and nodded. “But exactly! These boys skate and fly through the air. Yuri like to try it some day. I ask boys if they see her. They say yes; they see her today.” Yuri pounded on the table again for emphasis.

Charlotte, Mr. Ramsey, and Officer Moody sat straight up. This was the first concrete news they'd heard of Miss Pierce in several hours. They all leaned forward, eager to hear the rest of Yuri's story.

But Yuri was one of those people who needed to tell every minute detail. He took his time describing the boys, their hair, where they were in the park. An impatient Mr. Ramsey finally prodded, “Yuri, please, what did they say?”

“Yes, yes, Yuri is getting to point.” Clapping his big hands together in excitement, he revealed, “I ask skater boys where she go. They say she and gentleman get in big black car. They go with two men in black suits. The boys they say they sure these men are spies. Just like in movies. They say spies look around. They have…walkie tekkies. Yuri think skater boys are right.”

“Spies?” Charlotte finally found her voice. “Real spies? How would they know?”

“They describe look of spies all right. In Russia I see same KGB spies…spies all the same.” Yuri leaned forward conspiratorially and this time banged his spoon on the table. “They spy and look around. Not hard to find
spies if you are looking like Yuri looks.”

Officer Moody opened her mouth to ask a question, but Yuri was intent on finishing his story.

“Maybe you doubt Yuri. But is more. I tell you.” Yuri hesitated to find the right word. “Boys say spies have gidgets.”

“Gidgets?” A puzzled Charlotte looked over at her father.

“Yes. Gidgets. You know, techno gidgets. Boys say to me, ‘Apple man, these is def spies. You stay far away from those dudes or they fly you away to Mars in a spaceship.'” Yuri looked at them appealingly. “Is all I know.”

There was silence in the kitchen as the four of them struggled to understand Yuri's strange story. Charlotte was torn. Part of her wanted to laugh at Yuri's funny use of the word “gidgets,” but she was too overtaken by one question.
Was it possible that Miss Pierce was kidnapped by real spies?
The thought made Charlotte feel queasy.

“Did the boys say there was a struggle, Yuri?” a suddenly stern Officer Moody asked.

“No, they don't say nothing about that,” Yuri answered, his voice suddenly sad. Mr. Ramsey patted him on the shoulder. Yuri shook his head slowly. “What this mean then, people?” he asked no one in particular. “Is beautiful, small Miss Pierce a spy, too?”