The Case of the Missing Deed (10 page)

“Nothing here,” Claire said, straightening up.

“Or here,” Geneviève said, climbing down.

“Or – wait!” Sébastien said. “Alex, do you see this?” He pulled out a flashlight from the back of the row. Alex held his thumb up. The others pressed close.

“What? I don’t see anything,” Olivia said.

Sébastien pointed to a slender, nearly invisible thread tied around the handle of the flashlight. “Fishing line,” he said. He held up the tag. “Number 4.”

“Go, Grandpa!” Claire yelled, and they all laughed.

Sébastien took the flashlight over to the desk. “Kevin? Could we borrow this for a while? We promise to bring it back.”

Smiling, Kevin cocked his head. “You wouldn’t want to tell me what this is about, would you?”

“We’re not even sure ourselves,” Claire told him.

“But we think it’s going to stop those mining people from getting their hands on Grandma’s cottage,” Sébastien said.

An angry look crossed Kevin’s face. “In that case, keep it as
long as you like. Anything to stop those–” He gritted his teeth as if swallowing back a bad word. “– those people.”

Thanking him, they left the Emergency Station and walked over to where they’d left their bikes.

“Seb, I thought you were nuts when you said those things had something to do with the deed,” Alex said, lifting his bike, “but now I’m beginning to think–”

He stopped abruptly as Sébastien clasped his arm.

“What?”

“Sh.” Sébastien pointed with his head. “Look who’s there.”

The children peered through the bushes. Coming out of Wilensky Air were Stan Wilensky, Mark Saxby, the mining company guy – and Charlie.

hat’s he doing here?” Geneviève whispered. “I thought he and Mom were at Hugh’s.”

“That’s what I’d like to know,” Sébastien whispered back. Putting his finger to his lips, he motioned them all closer to the bushes.

The three men stood at the end of the walkway, chatting.

“… too much opposition from the locals?” Mark Saxby was saying.

“No worries,” Stan Wilensky said in his booming voice. “We’ll take care of that.”

They missed the first part of what Charlie said. “… plans moving along for the access road?”

“Yes, indeed, as soon as we secure the last few properties,” Mark Saxby answered.

The cousins exchanged a furious look.

Peering through the leaves, Sébastien saw Mark Saxby reach into his briefcase and hand Charlie a stack of booklets. “Here you go,” he said. “These should come in handy.”

There was the sudden roar of a float plane approaching the island. Growing louder as it taxied to the dock behind Wilensky Air, it drowned out the men’s conversation. They leaned close and spoke into one another’s ears. Then they shook hands and parted, Stan Wilensky and Mark Saxby strolling toward a
coffee shop on the other side of the office, Charlie walking to his car, which the cousins now saw was parked down the street. He drove away.

The children turned to face each other.

“I can’t believe it,” Claire said, a sick look on her face.

I can
, Sébastien was about to say, but just then the floatplane engine went silent, and an idea struck. “Wait here,” he said. “Be right back.”

“Seb!” Alex said. “Where are you going?”

“To have a look around Wilensky Air.”

“You can’t just barge in there,” Geneviève said.

“I’m not,” Sébastien said with a grin. “I’m going to sneak in. If they come back before I’m out, send me the signal.”

Claire nodded. The signal when they were little, and hadn’t wanted their parents to catch them doing something forbidden, was to caw like a crow.

Sébastien went around behind Wilensky Air. The float plane was now moored to the dock, and a young man, his arms laden with a stack of cardboard boxes, was approaching the back door of the building.

Sébastien sprinted to the door and held it open.

“Thanks, pal,” the man said.

Sébastien followed him inside.

“Delivery for Tantalus Mining,” the man said to a secretary, who had come into the back room.

“Oh,” she said, looking flustered. “Mr. Saxby’s at coffee. Well, just put them in there.” She pointed to a room across the hall from the main office of Wilensky Air.
TANTALUS MINING
said a plaque on the door.

Sébastien opened the door and stood aside. With a grunt, the delivery man dropped the boxes on the floor, then went back out for another load.

Sébastien stayed put. He looked around. It looked like an ordinary office: desk, computer, shelves, phone. Display panels were stacked against the wall.

Nothing unusual. Nothing that wouldn’t be found in any business office. Of course, Sébastien had no idea what he was looking for.

He wandered over to the bookcase. There were stacks of booklets, all bearing the company’s lake-and-mountain logo. Sébastien recognized the one that Valerie London had shown at the open house,
OTTER ISLAND TANTALUM MINE: ECONOMIC REPORT
. He took one. Then he saw another pile:
OTTER ISLAND TANTALUM MINE: ENVIRONMENTAL REPORT
. That was the one that Wayne Cheng had presented. The one that there were no copies of at the open house. Sébastien took a copy of that one too. He stuffed them under his shirt, just as the delivery man came in with another load of boxes.

Anxiously, Claire peered through the bushes, around the back of the building, through the bushes again. Where was Seb? What was taking him so long? The two men would probably be back soon and –

Two sets of pant legs approached along the sidewalk. Careful not to be seen over the top of the hedge, Claire raised herself up and peeked. Stan Wilensky and Mark Saxby were strolling back, chatting, coffee cups in hand.

She elbowed Geneviève, who alerted Alex and Olivia.

“What do we do?” Olivia mouthed.

The two men drew closer. “… profits should be excellent,” Wilensky was saying.

“Yes, indeed, and there’s plenty of interest from investors,” Saxby replied.

They turned down the walkway to Wilensky Air.

Claire squatted there, frozen. Then she opened her mouth wide. “Caw! Caw!”

Inside, Sébastien heard the call.
Oh, no!
He had to get out now. He dropped to the floor, hoping that the front counter would block him from the view of anyone coming in the front door, and started crawling toward the back door.

Claire watched in horror as the two men continued down the front walk. She had no way of knowing if Sébastien had heard her warning, but there was no sign of him yet. And if he came running out now, the two men would see him. She was furious with him for taking such chances, but she couldn’t let him get caught. What could she do?

Wilensky and Saxby started climbing the three short stairs to the Wilensky Air office.

Claire threw herself on the ground. “Caw, caw! Cough, cough! Ack, ack!” she yelled, clutching her throat.

“Claire, what are you doing?” Geneviève whispered, grabbing her arm.

Claire continued choking. “Agh, agh! Help!”

The two men hurried back and peered over the bushes. “What is it? What’s the matter?” Wilensky asked.

“Help! she’s choking!” Geneviève called. Claire faced away and coughed hard.

“One minute, be right there,” Saxby said. “Hang on, kid.”

He and Wilensky ran around the hedge and knelt beside Claire. By this time, the cousins had clued in to what she was doing. They squatted beside her, patting her on the back.

Wilensky helped Claire sit up. He slapped her on the back. “What happened?”

“She swallowed something,” Geneviève offered.

“Well, just cough it up, that’s it,” Saxby said, stretching Claire’s arms overhead. “Big cough. There you go.”

Claire gave a mighty hack. “Whew! I think that got it – whatever it was.”

Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Sébastien peeking out from around the back of the building.

Saxby and Wilensky helped Claire stand up. Wilensky continued to pat her on the back. “Are you all right now?”

“Oh, much better.” She smiled weakly at her two saviors. “Thank you so much! I don’t know what I would have done without you.”

“Not at all,” Saxby said. “Just glad you’re okay.”

The two men retrieved their coffee cups and walked back around the hedge to the Wilensky Air entrance.

As soon as they were out of sight, Sébastien darted from the back of the building. He hugged his sister. “Good show, Claire!”

She turned furious eyes on him. “Where the heck were you?”

“Just looking around. I didn’t think they’d come back so soon.”

“You gave us a heart attack!”

Sébastien gave an abashed smile. “Sorry. But what an act, Claire! You sounded totally real.”

She grinned. “I was good, wasn’t I?”

“So?” Alex said. “Find anything?”

Sébastien pulled the two booklets out from under his shirt.

“That’s all?” Geneviève said. “Just some booklets?”

Sébastien pointed to the environmental report. “This is the report they didn’t have at the open house the other day. There could be something in it that they don’t want us to see.”

“That looks like the pile of booklets he gave Charlie,” Olivia said.

At Charlie’s name, everyone went silent. They exchanged uncomfortable glances.

“I can’t believe it,” Geneviève said.

Sébastien shook his head. “I knew there was something about him.”

“But he’s so nice,” Geneviève wailed.

Sébastien snorted. “He sure got you and Claire believing that.”

“Do you suppose he’s getting money from them?” Alex asked.

“Of course. Why else would he do it?”

“Should we tell Aunt Eve?” Olivia asked.

“Oh, poor Mom!” Geneviève burst out. “She finally meets a nice guy–”

“Nice! He’s stabbing her in the back,” Sébastien said. “Of course we tell her. She’s got to find out – the sooner, the better.”

“No,” Claire said. “What if we’re wrong? What if Charlie really isn’t in with them?”

“Yeah, he was just being friendly with those guys,” Sébastien said sarcastically.

“We don’t know for sure,” Claire insisted.

“Oh, grow up!” Sébastien said. “You always think the best of everybody.”

“And you always think the worst,” she shot back.

“It
did
look bad,” Olivia said. “But why don’t we wait? There’s no harm if we keep it to ourselves a little longer.”

“Yeah. Maybe we’ll find out it wasn’t what it looked like,” Alex said.

Sébastien rolled his eyes. “And in the meantime, Charlie gets to keep plotting with those creeps.”

“I’m with Olivia,” Geneviève said. “I can’t bear the thought of telling Mom. Or Grandma.”

“Me too,” Claire said.

“And me,” Alex said.

All eyes turned to Sébastien. “All right, I’m outvoted.” He kicked the ground in disgust. “You guys just don’t want to face facts.”

He jumped on his bike and started pedaling.

When they got home, Eve and Charlie were sitting on the deck, tall glasses of iced tea in front of them.

“Where were you?” Eve said. “We got back early, and I was looking to see if you wanted to go for a swim while Charlie ran some errands.”