Alexis and the Lake Tahoe Tumult (11 page)

“Oh no!” Alexis said. She grabbed Bailey’s arm and pulled her along faster. Chloe was losing them. She had passed the hotel and was headed for a restaurant in one of the casinos.

“No!” cried Bailey. “We can’t go in there!”

The girls sped up, hoping they could get a glimpse of the man Chloe was meeting before she entered the restaurant. They came to a street crossing, and Alexis sighed. A little red hand was flashing at her from the other side of the crosswalk. They would have to wait for the walk signal, and by then Alexis was sure Chloe would be gone, along with any chance of finding out who her boss was.

Alexis turned to say something to Bailey, but she was gone. Alexis looked up again and yelled.

“Bailey, no!”

Bailey hadn’t noticed the flashing red hand. She had plowed right into the crosswalk and into the path of a bus!

A huge arm came out of nowhere and shoved Alexis away from the street. A second later, something heavy landed on top of her. She had no idea what had happened—there was just this incredibly painful worry deep in her chest.

Bailey! What had happened to her friend?

After half a minute, Alexis realized the pain in her chest wasn’t just the worry. She couldn’t breathe.
Chloe’s boss has found out about us and knocked me down!

Then she realized the man who’d shoved her back on the sidewalk was her father. He was sprawled next to her, clutching Bailey in his arms. He rolled off, and the three of them sat on the slushy sidewalk, staring wide eyed.

“Are you okay, Bailey?” Mr. Howell asked, out of breath. “Um, yeah. I think so.” Bailey’s voice barely squeaked out. Alexis thought she sounded like a very small chipmunk.

“I came looking for you two. I’m glad I was here, too. That bus almost had your name on it, Bailey. It’s a good thing we’re leaving tomorrow. You girls don’t need to go looking for any more trouble. Let me guess—you two were following a lead.”

“Well, yes,” said Alexis. “But Bailey just got excited, that’s all! This investigation isn’t dangerous, Dad, I promise!”

Mr. Howell scowled and pointed to the bruise on Alexis’s cheek. He crossed his arms, waiting for her to explain her way out of that one. Her answer surprised him.

“It’s okay, Dad. We’ve solved the case!” “You have?”

“We have?” echoed Bailey. She was just as surprised as Mr. Howell.

“Yes! I almost forgot because of the whole bus thing, but didn’t you hear what Chloe said to her boss just before we lost her?”

Bailey scrunched up her face, trying to remember. She shook her head. Mr. Howell was scratching his.

“Well, you two better get up to the room if you’re going to have enough time to get ready for your party,” said Mr. Howell. “Your mom’s up there dancing out of her shoes. She’s more excited than you are—her makeup’s all over the place, and I think she has out five different curling irons, or straighteners, or something like that.”

“Thanks, Dad. Come on, Bailey!”

Alexis towed Bailey toward the elevator. Once the doors closed, Bailey spoke up.

“So what did she say?” she asked.

“Shh!” Alexis whispered. She pointed to the three businessmen on the elevator. The doors opened on floors three and five, and eventually Alexis and Bailey were alone.

“So?” pressed Bailey.

“I can’t believe you didn’t hear her!” said Alexis.

“I was so worried about catching up to her that I wasn’t really listening, Lexi. Now come on!”

“Okay, okay!” said Alexis. “There are two things. First of all, she mentioned permanent paint! It sounded like her boss was having a hard time washing it off of something!”

“Wow! So her boss really
is
the one sabotaging the reserve,” said Bailey.

“Yes! Unless it’s a really big coincidence, and you know how I feel about those.”

“There’s still a problem though,” said Bailey. “We don’t know who her boss
is.”

Alexis didn’t stop smiling. The elevator doors opened on their floor, and she pranced down the hall toward their room.

“I know, but do you know what else Chloe said?” Alexis asked. Bailey shook her head, jogging down the hall to catch up.

“She told her boss that his
tuxedo for the benefit
was in his room! Bailey! He’s going to be at the party tonight! Even if we don’t know who he is now, we’ll definitely know by the end of the night! We just have to watch Chloe to find out who she’s working for.”

Alexis dug around in her bag for the room key.

“Come on! Let’s call Jake and tell him the good news!”

Mrs. Howell was buzzing around the room like a queen bee. Alexis thought she might be more excited than the girls were about the party.

“Over here, ladies! Did you get dresses? Here, let me iron them for you.” She swept the shopping bags out of Alexis’s hand and headed toward the bedroom. Alexis picked up the phone and dialed the number for the reserve. Lisa picked up, but within a minute she had given the phone to Jake.

Alexis told him all about finding Chloe and that they were absolutely sure her boss was the one sabotaging the reserve.

“He’ll be there tonight, Jake!” said Alexis. “We can turn him in and get him to confess! Then the disasters will stop, and the government won’t be able to take away your license!”

Silence filled the other end of the phone. Alexis was sure that Jake was speechless. He was probably amazed that they had solved the case in under a week.

“Um, Alexis?” Jake said after a minute or two. “I hate to break it to you, but we can’t just go around accusing members of Tahoe’s elite society of being criminals. If this guy really does have money—and it sounds like he does—he’s not just going to confess to all of this. There’s a reason he’s sabotaging us, anyway. He’s not going to just give up because some kids are on to him. No offense!” Jake sighed.

“You girls have done a great job, Alexis,” Jake continued. “But we’re going to need hard evidence if we’re going to stop this guy.”

“Okay, Jake,” said Alexis. “See you in a few hours.”

“Okay,” said Jake. “Hey, let me know if you come up with anything else, okay?” It sounded like Jake felt sorry for them.

“Mmm-hmm,” said Alexis. Then she hung up the phone.

Ugh! It was so unfair! They had worked so hard. How was it possible to be so close and so far away at the same time?

“He’s right, you know,” said Bailey. “We have to have evidence. This guy isn’t going to roll over and admit his crimes to a couple of girls.”

“I know!” Alexis said. She stomped her foot in frustration. “There
has
to be a way.”

“Girls! Dresses are ready!” called Mrs. Howell.

For the next hour and a half, the girls allowed Mrs. Howell to dress them up as if they were Barbie dolls. She ignored them as they talked about the case and searched for ways to pin the sabotage on Chloe’s boss.

“There’s still the red paint,” said Bailey as Mrs. Howell tugged a wrinkle out of her slip. “His hand should be red, right?”

“Yeah,” said Alexis. “That’s good, but it may not be enough. He could come up with a ton of reasons why his hand might have gotten paint on it.”

Mrs. Howell had started working on Alexis’s makeup, and it was really hard to think through the case with the makeup brushes tickling her face.

“Careful, Mom,” Alexis said. “I don’t want to look like a clown.”

“Don’t worry, hon,” said Mrs. Howell. “No one will even be able to tell you’re wearing any makeup. It’s just a light blush, lip gloss, and a little bit of mascara to make your gorgeous eyes pop on camera. You two are filming the benefit for the documentary, right?”

“Yep!” Truthfully, Alexis had forgotten all about the documentary. She was glad her mother had mentioned it, but it also made her nervous. She would have to do two things at once tonight—finish filming the documentary
and
solidify their case against Chloe’s boss. And she wasn’t sure how she and Bailey would get both tasks done at the same time.

“Okay, now that you two are ready, I’m going to go finish fixing my own face,” Mrs. Howell said with a smile.

“Let’s go check our e-mail, Lexi, and see if the girls have worked any of their magic while we’ve been out today.”

“You know if she could hear you, Elizabeth would say it’s not magic!” Alexis said as she retrieved her mom’s computer from the other room.

“You bet! Betty-boo would remind us that God cares about every detail of our lives and is always at work—even when we least expect it,” Bailey said with a grin.

“Speaking of which, looks like everyone is signed on, including Betty-boo. We hit it at the right time.”

Bailey suddenly spoke up. “Uh, Lexi, I just realized something. That was on another call. She’d hung up from her call with Benton and was talking on the phone again when she said that.”

Alexis sat stumped for a moment.
Bailey’s right! We don’t know for sure that she was talking to Benton again
.

After she got her breath back from the surprise, she typed this new information onto the screen for the girls to read.