NO ORDINARY OWL (11 page)

He turned in her direction.

Sunny’s voice hollered from the left. A second pinecone, larger and heavier looking than Esther’s, thunked that Awful Person’s shoulder. Whipping his head around, he started for Sunny and Aneta. They shrieked and ducked back into the protection of the trees.

“You there! Back off those girls!”

That Awful Person stopped and turned to face the taller man, sneering. “What is this, your security force?” But he didn’t continue after the girls.

Esther stepped from her spot, slingshot in hand. Vee joined her, muttering, “I didn’t even get to pitch mine. I wanted to nick his ear.”

They joined Beake Man, facing that Awful Person who glared at them, clenching his fists. His eyebrows shot upward. Darting forward, he snatched the slingshot from Esther’s hand. “Where did you get this? This isn’t yours!”

Esther opened her mouth to tell him just where she got it and how it now proved that he was the zapper of the poor owls when Byron raised his hand and spoke. His voice, though quiet, sliced through the tension in the backyard.

“Enough. Take your leave. You are not welcome here.”

That Awful Person muttered. Esther thought she heard him say “she” and figured he was griping about her breaking up his plan to punch Beake Man in the face. The Squad had done it again. That slingshot had helped this time instead of hurting.

Circling Byron, the girls peppered him with questions. “Are you all right?” “Is your face okay?” “We had lots more pinecones!” “I wish I’d had a chance to shoot mine!”

Aneta looked worried. Esther knew she was wondering “now what?” after shooting someone, even with a pinecone. Esther hoped Aneta would see all this as an “opportunity.”

For a moment, Beake Man closed his eyes and tipped his head back. It was a familiar gesture, and Esther’s frown slipped into a smile. Frank had that expression whenever he was around the girls for very long. “You like us now, don’t you.” She stepped forward and patted his arm.

Aneta’s big smile broke out.

Sunny spun. “I knew you would. Nobody hates us for very long.”

Only Vee looked reluctant. “Except Melissa. She just keeps hating us.”

Sunny opened her mouth then closed it, shaking her head. Esther wondered why. Was she going to say that Melissa wasn’t so bad? That maybe she’d changed? Maybe Sunny wished Melissa could become a Squad member? No, she wouldn’t. She
couldn’t
.

“I think you’re bonkers, but your hearts are gold.” Byron finally smiled. It was the first real smile they’d seen. It stretched slowly at first, like it wasn’t used to being out and about, but then crawled wide and big. His teeth were large and white. He looked quite nice behind that mask. With a start, Esther realized she’d stopped being shocked when she looked at him.

“We couldn’t let that Awful Per—guy hurt you.” Aneta flushed, lowering her eyes and scanning the girls anxiously. She’d nearly let the name slip. Even though nobody had said “don’t,” the Squad seemed to sense that now was not the time to tell Byron that they had discovered the identity of the one who hurt the owls.

Vee checked the time on her ATP. “We’ve got to get going. It’s almost five.”

“Before you go”—Byron’s voice faltered, like he wondered if he should say what he was going to say—“mightn’t you like to peep at the owls on the camera?”

Vee looked at Aneta, whose eyes were wide with delight. Sunny looked at Esther. Esther clapped her hands.

Four voices shouted, “Mightn’t we!”

Esther punched the code into the pad by the garage door, shucked her muddy sneakers, and pounded up the stairs. “Mom! Mom!”

Halfway up, she heard Siddy’s delighted echo, “Mom! Mom!” and then “Esther is here. Hooray for Esther!” She stifled a groan. It was nice to be greeted when she got home, but her little brother didn’t understand that shouting into her ear
hurt
.

At the top of the stairs, her mother, smiling, held Siddy back. “What happened to make you so excited?”

“We saved Beake Man from that Awful Person!” Pausing with one hand on the wall and the other on the stair railing, Esther beamed up at her mom. “It was so cool. We used pinecones!”

Her mother waved her up. “C’mon up. I can’t hold your brother off much longer. Tell us both.” Holding her son with her left arm, she pointed to the living room with her right. “Fall into a chair and tell us.”

After Esther braced herself, her mom let Siddy go, and her little blond-headed brother bounced the two steps and threw himself at her. There was never any doubt in Siddy’s mind that someone would catch him. That worried Esther. What would happen when he went to school? Would he ever go to school, or was he too different?

She told the story in every exciting detail and then flopped against the worn plaid love seat. Siddy lost interest and headed toward his room down the hall.

“Esther! You didn’t hurt him, did you?”

Esther shook her head.

“I would certainly like to meet the Beakes,” her mom mused. “Your dad says they’re great people, but different.” She brightened. “I know. I’ll invite them, you can invite the girls, and we’ll have dinner here. Then”—she fixed a slanted fake-mad glare at her daughter—“you can tell the S.A.V.E. Squad about our moving.”

Here? People here?
In his room, Siddy alternated between chanting “Moving! Moving!” and “Esther’s home! Hooray for Esther!” Sure. Let people think she lived in a crazy house.

“Oh, I don’t know, Mom, the Beakes are kind of different. I don’t know if they go to people’s houses. The birds take a lot of time. Especially the owls. Byron let us see them through the camera and play with the robotic arm to feed them with the mother bird puppet. It was so cool. I still wish I could be with Vee and Sunny and help feed them. I—”

“Esther.”

“What?”

“You know what…You’re avoiding my question.”

“Oh.” Where was Toby? Always underfoot, why would he pick today to hole up in his room?

“Moving! Moving! Esther is home! Hooray for Esther!”

Flinching a little at her brother’s volume and high-piercing singsong, she said, “Because.”

“Because why, Esther?” Her mother sounded a little puzzled, mixed with a lot of impatient.

Esther drew in a deep breath. Maybe her other brother would at last come and create some distraction. Glancing hopefully over at the hall, she didn’t respond. If she said she didn’t want the girls to be around Siddy, her mother would be hurt, and that would hurt Esther. So far, Siddy had pulled his rare silent act around them. Once he got comfortable with them…If she said yes to her mom’s idea, her life as she knew it would be over. The girls would be happy she was leaving town with her crazy brother.

Silence filled the room while she struggled with no good options.

In a low voice, she said, “Because Siddy will yell something about us moving.”

From down the hall, they heard, “Moving! Moving! Moving!”

Tipping her head toward her mother, Esther held out her hands as if to say, “See?”

Her mother uncrossed her legs and sat up straight.

Uh-oh.

“Moving! Moving! Moving!”

Esther shook her head.

“Esther Hannah Martin, when exactly are you going to tell your best friends in the whole world that you are moving at the end of this school year?”

Since her mother had used all of her names, Esther knew exactly what her mother thought about her not telling the Squad. If indeed they were her best friends, she thought, her mouth turning down. Maybe not, if Melissa had anything to say about it.

When would she tell them? If she waited much longer to answer her mother, she would get in trouble for not obeying.

Finally, a thought struck her, and she blurted, “The day we release the owls.” The end of everything.

As soon as the words came out, the urgency rose so quickly to bring final evidence to Byron and the sheriff before the birds were released, she had to clamp her lips shut. Her mother would not understand. Finding the person who zapped Bubo and the other owl had been the first most important thing on the planet. Now that the Awful Person turned out to be the chicken farmer, the Squad needed more proof. Once they found it, then, forever after, to whatever terrible place Esther had to move, she would know she’d been the best Squader she could have been.

The girls would know it.

So would Melissa.

Siddy came thudding down the hall, and Esther allowed herself to be dragged to his room where she once again read another
Hey
,
Imogene!
book. In her head, while Imogene shouted “There’s no messing with Imogene!” and finding the bad guys, Esther was plotting her own Imogene moves.

It was time for something her mother called
drastic
.

Things Drag

D
rastic” took loads longer than Esther imagined.

On Saturday, the girls returned to the estate for Sunny and Vee’s meal preparation. To entertain herself during that time, Esther unearthed Toby’s slingshot to see if she could get Howard to run for special bird nuggets, after which the girls fully intended to coax Byron to leak further information about the chicken farmer that they could use to find evidence.

Instead, after Sunny, Vee, and Byron had cleaned and sanitized their hands, Byron seemed quite taken with the slingshot delivery.

“That might be brilliant to use for the owls. They would see the food move through air. Might help their instincts.” He urged Esther to keep working with the buzzard so Byron could see the benefits.

Moments later, Esther was pouting. “I want Howard to run up and catch the nuggets, not wait until they’re lying on the ground and then eat them. How’s he going to get exercise that way?”

“Esther, Howard eats dead things. He’s not much of a border collie.” Byron’s eyes glinted with humor. Their pinecone defense of him had thawed him considerably. He took them with him to a field way behind the right side of the mansion and released and recalled the peregrine falcon.

“They are beautiful.” Aneta’s head was tipped up, watching the falcon soar in the noonday sun. “The owls are so different, but also beautiful.”

“Yes, and the owl talons have two thousand pounds of pressure per square inch to crush their prey after swooping down from the sky,” Byron said.

“We get it, Byron. We can’t make them pets,” Vee said.

All eyes were on the clear sky to watch the incoming of the falcon. All eyes but Esther’s.
People, we’re on a
mission
here
. With her fists on her hips, she blurted, “Why does that chicken farmer not like you?”

Byron hesitated, then pulled his hand through his wispy hair. Esther didn’t think he was going to answer. Then he said, “He started losing chickens, parts of chickens, finding pellets.”

“But why blame you? There must be hawks and other raptors around.” Vee eyed the falcon with a smile as it landed on Byron’s outstretched, gloved arm.

“Timing, I must think,” Byron said. “He said right after Beverly did her first show at the community center with birds of prey it started happening.” He shrugged. “Before that, he didn’t know I was here.”

“I have another question, as long as we’re asking questions,” Sunny said as the group headed back to the estate where Beverly had promised scones for a snack. She had learned the girls weren’t much on tea. “How did you hurt your face?”

“Took you a long time to ask that one!” he said with a grin.

“You’ve probably noticed this, but the S.A.V.E. Squad is very polite,” Esther informed him.

He laughed hard at this, then sobered as he told the story in quick strokes. He had been an off-duty firefighter in another part of Oregon and encountered a fire at a wild-horse facility. Before help arrived, he had saved all but two of the horses, yet he had been burned badly in the face and hands. His throat had been burned inside, too.

So that’s why he sounds like he’s whispering!
Esther listened closely as he continued. “My sister flew in from England to help me recover. She likes it here.”

“Who started it? The fire, I mean?” Vee liked to know whose fault it was when stuff happened.

His light eyes moved from Squader to Squader. “Kids.”