Alexis and the Lake Tahoe Tumult (12 page)

Alexis and Bailey were ecstatic. Alexis wasted no time in pounding the number to the reserve into the hotel phone. She hoped that Karen and Jake hadn’t left yet.

“Yes?” a voice answered.

It was Jake, and he sounded like he was in a hurry.

“Hey, Jake, it’s Alexis. Can you guys drop by our room when you get to the hotel? We’d like to put a microphone on you for the evening, if that’s okay. It won’t take long.”

“A mic?”

“Yes, we’ll explain later, but we think it will help us catch whoever is trying to ruin the reserve,” Alexis said.

“Yeah, yeah—sure. We’ll be there in half an hour. What room?” After Jake jotted down the room number, he quickly hung up.

“He’s going to do it?” asked Bailey.

“Yep!” Alexis said. “He sounded a little agitated though. I wonder if something else happened.”

Mrs. Howell came into the front room carrying the girl’s miniature purses. Bailey’s was silver and went beautifully with her sapphire-blue dress and silver heels. Alexis’s purse was the same color as her dress—a light peach that looked good with her pale skin and dark hair.

“I put the lip glosses in there for you,” said Mrs. Howell. “You can borrow them for the evening in case you want to refresh.”

“Thanks, Mom,” said Alexis. She doubted that she would reapply the lip gloss, because she hardly ever wore the stuff. This one matched the color of her dress perfectly, though, and went great with her blue eyes, so maybe she would try it.

Before long, someone knocked on the door. Bailey rushed to open it, and Misty Marks swept into the room trailing her long, white dress behind her. Feathers ran from one of her shoulders down the back of the dress and all the way to the train, which rested on the floor. Her outfit was stunning.

Right away Alexis realized that she had forgotten to mention Misty Marks to her mother. Mrs. Howell stood in the middle of the room touching her hair absentmindedly with her mouth hanging1 open.

“You girls look absolutely gorgeous!” chimed Misty. She glided over to Mrs. Howell and introduced herself. Alexis was glad Misty was there to keep her mother busy while she and Bailey hooked up Jake, who looked like he’d rather be in one of his flannel shirts than the rented tuxedo he wore.

Alexis could tell that something was bothering him. His face—bruised pretty badly from the punch he’d taken the day before—was covered with worry.

“What’s wrong, Jake?” Alexis asked as Bailey untangled the cord on the lapel mic.

“What? Oh, nothing, nothing,” said Jake. “Everything’s fine. Do you really think this will work?”

“Well, it’s a long shot, but if anyone suspicious approaches you or threatens you tonight, we’ll get it all on tape, and I’ll hear it through the receiver,” said Alexis.

“Mmm,” was all Jake said. His face darkened even more.

“Is there something you’re not telling us, Jake?” asked Alexis. “We can’t help if you keep us in the dark, you know.”

Alexis and Bailey faced the large man in front of them with their hands on their hips. That made him smile.

“Okay, okay,” Jake said. “You mentioned threats? Well, I received one just before we left the reserve to come over here. That’s why I was so short with you on the phone. Look, it’s right here.”

Jake reached into the inside pocket of his tux and pulled out a folded letter. Alexis recognized it at once as another message glued together out of resort brochures. The glue was still fresh. Alexis’s fingers stuck to the letter in the damp places. She and Bailey stared at the single sentence with wide eyes.

Bailey and Alexis followed Jake and Misty through the hotel and into the gigantic ballroom. They were early, so the room was empty except for a few waiters here and there, and Karen. She was putting some animals in their cages in places that would be highlighted throughout the evening.

Karen’s dress was bright red, matching her lipstick. When the girls reached her near the stage, Alexis saw that Bubbles had come to the party as well. He was wearing a brand-new collar that matched Karen’s dress.

“The other animals will stay in their cages,” said Karen as she hugged the girls. “Bubbles is used to people, and he’s great at getting donations! All I have to do is walk around with him and tell his story every time someone asks about him!”

Alexis looked up onto the stage and saw two large golden cages. In each cage sat a golden eagle—the largest in the eagle family. Their feathers were a golden brown, and their eyes sparkled bronze. One of the creatures spread his wings, and Alexis understood why the cages were so large. The bird’s wingspan was six feet across!

“They’re so majestic!” squealed Bailey. “They look like gorgeous statues!”

“This is Kelly and that one’s Ben,” said Karen. “They were shot last year. We’re hoping to release them as soon as it warms up.”

“They’re a surprise!” squeaked Misty. “The curtains will be closed most of the night. We’ll open them just before Jake’s speech and let people ogle the birds before we ask for their money!”

Misty chuckled. The girls could tell she was having a blast, and the party hadn’t even started yet!

Jake took the girls to a prime table right in front of the stage. Their names were scrawled in gold on two beautiful place settings. Alexis had never felt like a princess before, but she was pretty sure that this was what it would feel like.

“You girls are free to mingle all night,” said Jake. “Film anything and anyone. Even the movie stars. They know there’ll be cameras. Here—these will keep anyone from thinking you’re in the wrong place or giving you a hard time.”

Jake pulled two badges out of his pocket and handed one each to Alexis and Bailey. They were press passes.

“You don’t have to wear them,” he said. “I know they won’t match the dresses. If you want, you can just keep them with you in case anyone gets nosy about your camera.”

“Thanks, Jake!” said Alexis. “Be sure to turn on your microphone before the party starts.”

“I will. Look—I don’t expect anything to happen, but if you hear or see anything fishy, I want you to notify one of the police officers who will be on duty, all right? No being the hero?”

It was clear that Jake was still thinking about the threat he’d received. He was more than a little edgy.

“Gotcha,” said Alexis and Bailey together.

Not long afterwards, music began playing. Alexis noticed a DJ near the back of the room. People began streaming into the ballroom, and in no time the party was in full swing. It was hard not to be dazzled by all the stars. A couple of times when they spotted a favorite, they jabbed each other and whispered excitedly. The girls found they really had to focus to keep their mission in mind.

“First let’s just do general taping,” Alexis suggested. “We’ll go around taping the event and people, and decide which stars we want to talk to later.”

“What about Chloe?” Bailey asked.

“We’ll look for her while we’re wandering around and getting an overview. That’s why I just want to start filming and wandering—that will give us an excuse to go around looking for her.”

“Then we can follow her until we see who her boss is?”

“Yes, that’s what I was thinking,” Alexis said. “Or even better, I hope she’ll arrive with him, so we get that figured out right away.”

“I wonder if she knows how he got the red paint,” Bailey said. “I wonder if she’s in on it, too.”

“I don’t know. I guess we’ll just have to wait and see.”

“What are we going to do when we see her with her boss?” Bailey asked.

“Well, first of all, let’s get close and see if his hand is red with the spray paint. Then we’re going to have to come up with some way to see if we can get some evidence to confront him with.

“I hate to say this,” said Alexis, “but I actually hope this guy threatens Jake to his face. I mean, I don’t want him to hurt him, but if we could get a threat on tape, it would be something to take to the police…. Bailey?”

Alexis turned and saw that Bailey had wandered off. She was back at their table chatting away with yet another Oscar winner. Alexis shrugged and kept walking lazily through the crowd. To an outsider, it would look like she was simply listening to the easy party conversations going on all over the room. In reality, though, she was only listening to one person—Jake.

The earpiece in Alexis’s ear caught a signal from his microphone and allowed her to hear everything. She figured it looked pretty natural for a camera operator to have an earpiece. At best, she just looked like she was listening to a director in the other room. At worst, she just looked like she had an earpiece for a cell phone in.

She was surprised to find that she could actually hear the other people talking to Jake as well. Alexis had been unsure if the mic would pick them up, but it did. Now all she had to do was wait for the
right person
to talk to Jake.

As if on cue, Alexis saw Chloe—the red-haired assistant—waltz through the door. She was in a beautiful, brown, floor-length gown, but her face looked the same as usual—grumpy. If Alexis was right, Chloe was not in the mood for a party.

And she was alone.

Alexis’s high hopes plummeted. She had been so sure that Chloe’s boss would arrive with her. Now, though, she realized that had been a silly thing to be sure of. They had never seen Chloe with her boss, so why should this party be any different?

Alexis left her video camera at the table so she wouldn’t be conspicuous and followed Chloe around. She watched the woman from a distance and kept track of every man she talked to. As soon as Chloe finished a conversation, Alexis would move in and do what she could to check the man’s left hand for red paint.

She had to get pretty creative. Some of the men made it easy by waving to her with their left hands. Other times, she had to introduce herself and offer a hand to shake—the left one. She knew this made her look clumsy and naive, but it worked. Most people simply smiled at her mistake and shook her left hand anyway.

Soon it felt as if she had talked to every person in the room. She wasn’t used to high heels, so her feet were beginning to hurt. Alexis returned to the table and found Bailey messing with the video camera.

“I got some great footage of the guests!” Bailey said as Alexis sat down. “Now I have it all set up to tape Jake’s speech. Have you met anyone cool?”

Bailey went into detail about all the stars she had met and gotten autographs from, but Alexis didn’t hear her. Misty was on the stage in front of the red curtain. She had a microphone and was getting ready to introduce Jake and the eagles.

But that wasn’t what caught her eye. She had just seen Jake go backstage—and he hadn’t gone alone.

Seconds after he disappeared behind the side of the curtain, another man followed. Alexis didn’t see his face, but as the man moved the curtain back into place after himself, she saw the palm of his left hand.

It was red.

“Bailey, I’ll be right back!” Alexis said. “Do me a favor and start filming now, will you?”

“But it doesn’t look like anything’s happening yet.”

“I know, but trust me! Just start taping!” Alexis took off across the front of the room to the stairs at the side of the stage. The boy in charge of opening the curtain was bobbing his head to whatever song was playing on his iPod. He didn’t even see her pass by.

At the bottom of the stairs, Alexis almost took off her heels, but she decided not to. Instead she tiptoed up the staircase as quietly as possible. She could hear the conversation in her earpiece before she saw Jake. Whoever was talking to him sounded angry, but Jake was furious. Alexis poked her head around a pillar and saw the two men nose to nose between the eagle cages.

“This is it, Bruce! I mean it!” Jake whispered.

“What do you mean, this is it?” said Bruce calmly. “You don’t think I’ll really just let you walk away from this idea, do you?”

“Are you threatening me?” asked Jake.

“That’s up to you, Jake.” Bruce was growling now. “Take this deal. I want your land, and I’m going to get it one way or another. This is your last chance to sell it. You can announce it here!”

“And if I don’t?”

“Well, as you’ve learned, accidents happen,” Bruce said. “Even accidents with kerosene spilled over from heaters in the barn and fires erupting. I wouldn’t want to be you and hear the cries of injured animals….”

Alexis gasped! Sydney had been right! Bruce Benton was the man who’d been trying to make Jake abandon the animal reserve.

And now he was going to burn down the reserve if Alexis didn’t act quickly!