Close Encounters (Nancy Drew (All New) Girl Detective Book 21) (9 page)

“Probably those aliens teleported him clear off the porch,” Nathan said, his voice mocking.

Though I still wasn’t sold on the alien abduction scenario, I couldn’t stand Nathan’s sarcastic tone. “And exactly what do you think happened to Aldwin?” I challenged.

He shrugged. “Beats me. First a dog goes missing, then the dog’s owner. Maybe it really is aliens, or . . . who knows? So many new folks in town could mean some foul play.”

I found Nathan’s suggestion curious. I couldn’t shake
the feeling that the guy was up to no good. Then again, maybe I was being unfair. Just because he looked scruffy and eccentric didn’t mean he was up to no good.

I had learned a long time ago to trust my instincts, though—and my gut feeling about Nathan Blackman said there was more to him than met the eye.

The more I thought about it, the more likely it seemed that a science fiction writer might very well benefit from living in a town where aliens were rumored to abduct people and their pets. It was the perfect place to write an eyewitness report. With the publicity he’d boost his chances of getting a more lucrative deal for his next book.

Since he lived on the Nichols farm, it would be a cinch for him to lure Sherlock away. As for Aldwin . . . I shuddered at the thought. Luring either of them might be easy, but keeping them hidden would be nearly impossible—unless he had done them some real harm.

I decided I had to get back to the farm and somehow check out his cabin when he wasn’t around.

Just then Addie May stood up straighter. Apparently, talking to Officer Cargill had calmed her some. They shook hands, and I overheard the officer tell her that perhaps Aldwin got a ride from someone who offered to help him look for the dog. With any luck he’d be home by the time she got back to the farm.

“I doubt it,” Addie May said, “but just in case, I’d
better head home now. I sure hope you’re right, Larry Cargill.”

As she and Nathan left, I realized I’d have to wait to search the writer’s digs. I could check him out on the Internet once George’s computer was available, though. With that in mind I went back inside. George had righted one of the tables and was doing something to Winnie’s laptop. As I approached, she looked up.

“Just the person I want to see,” she said. “Can you give me a lift back to the inn?”

“Aren’t you going to work on Winnie’s website?”

“I am,” George said. “But I’ve already transmitted all the files I need from her computer to mine. I’d rather work in the quiet of our room than here,” she explained.

“I’ll get Bess,” I said.

When I found her, Bess was in the middle of fixing Winnie’s back door. Joel was holding the door in place while Bess secured the bottom hinge to the newly mended door frame.

Bess glanced up at me, taking in the car keys in my hand. “I need to finish up here,” she said. “I’ll catch up with you later.”

I dropped George off at the inn, and after grabbing a warmer jacket and a flashlight, I decided to go back to the meadow. This time I was determined to evade not only the
Reel TV
crew but the police. I asked George
if she could google up a map of Brody’s Junction.

“Sure,” she said. A minute later she had surfed her way right onto the site of the county’s highway department and downloaded a map depicting every back road within twenty miles of Brody’s Junction.

George printed out the map on her portable printer. “Good luck,” she said, handing it to me.

Stuffing it into my pocket, I doubled down the stairs and ran smack into Izzy Sanchez. “Where were you this morning?” she asked. “I mean
after
that dognapping incident, which, by the way, will make great footage. My guys are on the scene now.”

“So they already know about Aldwin going missing?” I asked, avoiding her original question.

Her eyes widened. “That old farmer?” She sounded shocked, but I had a hunch she knew all about Aldwin’s abduction. “Did they get him, too?”

“Whoever ‘they’ are, yes, they did. If your guys want to help find him, they should check their footage for clues—that is, if he went missing after they began spying on his farm.” The fact that I’d emphasized the word
spying
didn’t escape Izzy’s notice.

“Nancy, why are you so negative about the show, about us, and more important, about the aliens?”

I felt like I was being interviewed, but then I reminded myself I had signed the release. “Off the record?”

She gave a reluctant nod.

“Okay. I like reality TV shows just fine. But I never wanted to be on one. In some ways I’m a private person. I only agreed to let you film me so I could prove the sightings are faked.”

“And what have you found so far?” Izzy asked.

“I’m not sure,” I answered. I wasn’t ready to admit to her I was beginning to consider that the sightings might be the real McCoy.

Izzy shrugged. “Off the record, where did you hear about Aldwin going missing?”

“In town, from his sister.” Suddenly inspiration struck. I’d figured out how to divert Izzy. “But I’m surprised your crew wasn’t there to cover the break-in.”

“We’re already spread pretty thin. They can’t be everywhere,” Izzy said, then frowned. “Wait a minute—what break-in?” This time her surprise seemed genuine.

“At Winnie’s café. You should check it out. Some people are blaming it on the UFOs.” I purposely didn’t mention a thing about the bear.

“Uh, thanks,” Izzy said, sounding puzzled. She pulled out her cell and speed-dialed someone. When I walked away, she was talking quickly to whoever was on the other end. I climbed into my car convinced that I’d sent her on a wild goose chase and maybe wrangled some time alone away from
Reel TV
’s prying eyes.

Using George’s map, I chose my route and headed off. Frequent checks in my rearview mirror proved
my theory was right. I had ditched the TV crew, at least temporarily. All too soon, though, they’d learn that Winnie’s break-in had nothing to do with aliens—real or imagined.

My route took me past Aldwin’s farm and the vegetable stand. As I went by the vegetable stand, I slowed down and took a good look out the window. The pickup truck was parked in the circular drive in front of the rental cabins. Nathan and Addie were already back home.

According to the map, the road in front of the Nichols place encircled Brody’s Peak. A small logging road cut through the state forest that bordered both Aldwin’s land and the area I’d explored earlier, behind the roadblock.

Looking for the logging road, I drove past the farm, the cabins, and a
WELCOME. BRODY’S PEAK STATE FOREST
sign. The country road continued up the hill. After negotiating a hairpin turn, I spotted the logging road. I turned onto it but parked a few yards in from the main highway. The dirt road was too deeply rutted for my low-slung car to manage, so I had to make my way back to the meadow on foot.

Since I wasn’t interested in exploring the forest itself, I decided to leave the logging trail. As I trekked uphill toward the meadow, I made sure I kept the paved road in sight. The last thing I needed was to get myself lost
and become the subject of a mountain rescue.

As I neared the meadow, the trees thinned but were replaced by stands of dense brush. To my right I spotted the gleam of sun on metal. Trooper cars, I realized. At the same moment I heard the voices of the state police officers manning the roadblock.

As they chatted companionably, I managed to approach unnoticed. I moved as quietly as possible, watching where I stepped, careful not to tread on any fallen branches.

With the troopers distracted I decided I could risk a more careful inspection of the meadow. Bess said that pieces of metal like the one she’d found were all over the place. If I found more of them, maybe I’d be able to figure out what they were.

Hugging the shadows of the pines, I crept forward. From the shelter of the brush and trees I saw the glint of something shiny in the grass. To reach it I’d have to crawl beneath the police tape—and hope the troopers were still distracted by their own conversation.

I took a deep breath and was about to kneel down, when to my left something rustled in the brush.

I froze. Had the troopers followed me?

The rustling grew louder, and a pungent odor wafted in my direction. Heart pounding, I turned around . . .

And found myself face-to-face with a huge black bear.

I
gaped at the
bear. The bear gaped back.

We both froze.

He stood so still, he resembled one of his stuffed relatives at the River Heights Natural History Museum. His nose twitched, though: a clear reminder he was no more stuffed than I was from Mars. And he smelled awful, like a person who hadn’t bathed for a year.

As the bear sized me up, I almost hoped a UFO would materialize and abduct me!

Vanishing into thin air apparently also appealed to the bear, because at that moment it bolted away, crashing like a runaway semi through the brush. I bolted in the opposite direction, making an even bigger racket.

I tore back toward the logging trail, with no thought of evading the troopers. I heard them laughing above
the sound of my panicky footsteps. Obviously they’d heard the ruckus in the woods. “Guess a bear spooked someone. Probably one of those campers,” one voice said.

“Should we go check it out?” a second trooper asked.

“Nope. The bear did it for us,” the first voice answered. “Doubt they’ll be snooping around up here again.”

They were so busy laughing, they didn’t even bother to look my way as I ran toward the logging trail.

I was halfway up the trail before I let myself slow down. I was pretty sure I had set some new world record for a through-the-forest dash, and I was still breathing hard when I got back to my car.

A welcoming committee was waiting for me, consisting of Mayor Brody, a state trooper, and, oddly enough, Izzy. Apparently my attempt to lead her on a wild goose chase back to Winnie’s hadn’t worked. Her cameraman, Frankie Lee, was with her. He held a video camera on his shoulder and was already filming.

“Nancy, are you okay?” Izzy asked. She sounded concerned, but she motioned to Frankie to keep the camera rolling.

“I’m okay,” I said, brushing my hair off my face. “I just had a run-in with a bear.”

“Ah, a bear,” she said. “This is bear country. But you know that already.”

Mayor Brody cleared his throat. “You’re lucky that’s all you ran into.” He looked more annoyed than worried.

“As opposed to aliens?” I shot back. I was coming down from a serious adrenaline rush, and my patience was wearing thin.

“Both Nichols and his dog have been abducted,” the mayor snapped. “Clearly, something dangerous and out of the ordinary is going on in this town.”

All too aware this sequence was being filmed, I tried to tone down my response. “Yes, I’m aware of that. Which, by the way, is why I was in the woods.” I turned to the trooper. “Have you searched this area for something other than signs of space invaders? Has it occurred to anyone that Aldwin and his dog might be the victims of foul play of the human kind?”

The trooper looked insulted. “We know how to do our job, Ms. Drew. We’re always on the lookout for illegal campers, but we haven’t found any recently, or even signs that they’ve been up here. All we’ve turned up lately are more of those tracks, like the ones we found at Mr. Nichols’s farm.”

“You found tracks like the ones in the kennel? Here, in the woods?” This was news to me.

“Not in the woods,” Mayor Brody said, “but in the meadow. Not that we owe you an explanation.”

The state policeman looked grim. “You, miss, had
no right to bypass that roadblock and traipse around on your own up here.”

“I had permission,” I said, resenting being scolded.

“You weren’t given free range,” the mayor said.

“Sorry, Ms. Drew,” the trooper interjected. “The situation has grown more dangerous over the past twenty-four hours. With folks vanishing into thin air, we’re tightening our security. No one’s allowed up in this area, and that includes you.”

“But Captain Greene said—”

“He’s been overruled,” the mayor told me.

I wondered by whom. Part of me wanted to press the point, but I was still too shaken up from my encounter with the bear to argue. Besides, I didn’t like the idea of Izzy filming
Nancy versus the Mayor
. “Okay” was all I answered.

“I’m going back to the inn,” I told the film crew as I got into the car. “You can follow me there or not, your choice. You can hang around outside my room, or find something better to do while I hit the shower.” I slammed the car door and drove off.

I arrived back at the inn still peeved and with the stench of bear in my nostrils. But a hot shower followed by a generous dousing of Bess’s aromatherapy body lotion did a great deal to cheer me.

I came out of the bathroom and found George putting a file folder and CDs into her knapsack. Her
laptop was open on the dresser. “You look better,” she remarked, looking up as I reached for my lucky blue sweater.

“I feel like a new woman!” I told her as I finished dressing, then stashed Bess’s souvenirs and the maple syrup on top of the wardrobe.

George grinned. “You should have worn that earlier. Maybe it would have kept away the bear.”

“Or the aliens,” I laughed. I showed George the typewriter case I’d bought for Ned at the Antique Attic.

She eyed it approvingly. “He’ll love it,” she said. “Too bad it’s too heavy for my laptop.”

“You’d probably start a trend,” I said, looking for a place to stow it. Finally I settled for the top of the wardrobe next to Bess’s souvenirs.

“What’s happening with Winnie’s website?” I asked.

“All done!” George answered. “I finished tweaking it. Now when people google restaurants in Vermont, hers will be right there in the top two or three.” George slipped into her moccasins and got up and stretched. “Better yet, I installed enough high-powered software to safeguard her computer from all but genius hackers. When we get back to the café, I’ll adjust the security settings for her broadband connection. One reason she got hacked is that she hadn’t secured her wireless network.”