Touchdown Tony Crowne and the Mystery of the Missing Cheerleader (17 page)

Curly, ahead of them by about ten paces, stopped at the entrance of the driveway, lowered his head, sniffed, looked back and let out a little, “Wuff.”

Judd’s jaw dropped open, he came to a complete stop and whispered to Tony in an incredulous voice, “Did he just say ‘Yes’ to your question? That’s amazin’!”

“No, it means he found her scent!” Tony answered as he caught up with Curly. Tony bent down and whispered next to Curly’s ear, “Where is Ash? Is Ash here? Find. Find Ash. Go!” Curly took off and dropped his snout to the ground, running a zigzag pattern down the graveled driveway and up to the front entrance of the house.

“Ash has definitely been here. Curly has the scent, but the question is, is she still here?” Tony said as they ran down the long driveway to the front of the house and ducked behind a large, blue hydrangea shrub.

“Tony?” Judd asked, breathing hard and craning his head around the shrub to look at the house.

“Yeah, Judd?”

“The house is completely dark. There ain’t no lights on anywhere. It’s nighttime now, shouldn’t there be lights on if someone is inside? It’s like it’s deserted or somethin’.”

Standing up to take a better view, Tony parted the limbs of the shrub to see better. “That’s weird, why aren’t there any lights on? I don’t see Curly anymore either. He must’ve gone to the backyard. C’mon, follow that brick walkway to the back. Go ahead, I’ll be right behind you.”

Judd tiptoed down the brick path and when he rounded the corner to the backyard, he stopped and whispered, “Man, oh man. It’s kinda spooky out here. It’s gettin’ foggy too. I can hear the waves of the lake, but I can’t see the water. What’s that yellowish light in the distance? Can you see where you’re goin’ Tony? Tony?” He whispered louder, “Tony!”

Chapter 28- The Cell Phone Complication

A hand came out from nowhere and grabbed Judd by the shoulder, “I’m right here—”

“Ah-h-h!” Judd screamed, jumped into the air and clamped his hands over his mouth to silence himself. Tony pushed Judd down to the ground and shushed him. Snapping his fingers twice, Curly returned to him and sat down next to them, panting.

In the distance, a door creaked open and they heard a woman’s voice say, “I thought I heard something outside.”

Tony put his arm around Curly and whispered, “Speak, Curly, speak.”

“W-WOOF! R-RUFF! A-ROO-O-OO!”

A few seconds later that same distant voice said, “Oh, it’s just a neighbor’s dog. Really, mother! Look at this fog! How are we going to fly in this weather?” The door slammed shut and the clicking sound of a dead bolt echoed through the air.

“Sorry, Tony. You scared the livin’ daylights outta me!” Judd said in a low and excited voice. As his breathing returned to normal he asked, “What is that place? Is it down by the lake?”

“That’s okay, Judd. That was a close call though. That place is the Whittaker’s super-duper boat house. It’s the nicest one on the lake. I was in it once with a bunch of people before Felicity noticed and threw me out. Let’s see, upstairs it’s got a kitchen, a living room, a bedroom, and a bathroom. Downstairs, of course, is where the boats are docked. I couldn’t tell, was that Miss Brady yelling?”

“Yeah, that was her. I’d know her voice anywhere,” Judd said.

“Did you also hear her call for her mother? What’s that all about?”

“Yeah, I heard that. What’s her old lady doin’ there?” Judd asked as he stroked his chin.

“I don’t know, but this whole situation is getting weirder by the minute.” Tony stood up and looked toward the lake. “There’s something down there, but I can’t make out what it is. I can hear the waves lapping against it. I bet it’s the seaplane, ‘cause most of the boats are out of the water by this time of the year. C’mon!”

Tony and Judd sneaked down to the Whittaker’s cement seawall. They noticed the small mercury light that lit the entrance to the wooden dock and extended out into the lake. They tiptoed down the dock so they wouldn’t make any noise.

“There it is! I knew it!” Tony said, keeping his voice low. A red and white Cessna 185 seaplane sat at the end of the dock, lazily floating up and down in the lake waves.

“Whoa! Lookie there, an arrowplane tied to the dock! I told ya it had big feet! Hey, Tony, what are you doin’?”

Stepping onto the seaplane, Tony reached up to the door, opened it, stuck most of his body inside and rummaged around the cabin. “Aha! Here it is. Help me out, will you.” Judd grabbed Tony’s legs and pulled him onto the dock.

“What did you find?”

Reaching into his pocket, Tony brought out his LED pen light, turned it on, handed it to Judd and said, “Shine it on this binder. This is the navigation charts the pilot used to fly down here. Look, they definitely flew out of Canada. What I want to know is where they are going next.” Tony quickly scanned the chart, tracing the flight path with his finger and said, “According to this chart, they’re planning on flying about 200 miles south of here and landing here: on Hideaway Lake.”

“Hideaway Lake? I think me and my Dad fished on that lake last year. There’s nothin’ or nobody down there. We camped down there with a couple of other fellas. Why would you fly there?” Judd clicked off the pen light and gave it back to Tony.

“Well, if you want to avoid the police or witnesses; that would be a good place to land a seaplane. Maybe they’ll have a car down there waiting for them.” Tony took the pen light and casually tapped it on his front teeth as he thought out loud. “I still don’t understand why Tisha thought it was necessary to kidnap Ash. She must be smart enough to know she’ll get into a bunch of trouble. Why the seaplane? Who flew the seaplane? Why is her mother here? What am I missing? What’s the connection?”

Judd stood with one leg on the dock and the other leg on the float of the seaplane, anxiously placing his weight on one leg then the other, making the seaplane bob up and down in the water. “I don’t know, but if I was filthy rich like Felicity’s Dad, I would—”

Tony snapped his fingers and blurted out, “That’s it! Judd, you’re right! You’re a genius!”

“I am?” Judd replied as he bobbed the seaplane faster and faster.

“Yeah, You’re right! I’ve been looking at this the wrong way. It’s not all about Felicity making the cheerleading squad. It’s about the money! Tisha wanted to marry Mr. Whittaker and be Mrs. Whittaker, right?”

“Yeah.”

“But, he would only marry her if Felicity gave him the green light, right?”

“Yeah,” Judd said in a tinny voice, still not quite following Tony’s logic.

Pacing back and forth, Tony continued, “Well, Felicity didn’t make the squad. She’s only a substitute. I bet she got so angry about not being a regular cheerleader that she told her dad not to marry Tisha. Yeah, this is making sense now!” Tony stopped and slapped his forehead, “Now, Tisha goes from being a wealthy fiancé back to a not-so-wealthy high school counselor. That’s motivation to commit a crime!”

“Woof!” chuffed Curly as he stood up and stared back at the boathouse intently. “Woof! Grr.”

Tony snapped his head around at Curly’s sound of alarm. “Uh-oh, I think someone’s coming out! Quick, throw this binder back in the plane. We gotta get back to the shore!” Tony tossed the binder to Judd and whispered to Curly, “Go, go, go!”

In Judd’s excitement to open the seaplane door, he yanked it too hard and the door flew open, knocking the binder into the lake. Fortunately, it floated long enough for Judd to pick it up and toss it into the cabin.

With Curly in the lead, Tony and Judd sprinted down the dock as fast as they could without making much noise. As soon as they reached the shore, they dove behind another huge hydrangea shrub and tried to catch their breath.

Sure enough, the dead bolt clicked, the door opened and a woman stepped out onto the landing. Before closing the front door, she turned and yelled inside, “All right. I’m going to get the charts. I’ll be right back. Make sure everything is packed and ready to go. Also, make sure you do your hypnosis thing with Ash what’s-her-name. I don’t want her having a hissy fit about flying. The last thing I need is a little girl screaming in the plane. And make doubly sure J.B. is tied up tight!”

Judd whispered in the lowest voice he could, “Did you hear that! Ash
is
in there!”

Even in the dark with the fog all around them, Tony could see Judd’s face get red and his body tense up for action. He grabbed Judd’s arm with all of his strength and drew him near to whisper, “Ssh! Don’t do anything yet. We gotta call for reinforcements, remember? Ssh! Here she comes.”

As the woman strode down the seawall lighting her way with a flashlight, she stopped in front of their bush, leaned against the Whittaker’s flagpole, took off her right shoe and shook it forcefully. Tony and Judd breathed as slowly as possible and even Curly seemed to pant softer. Humming to herself and satisfied that whatever was bothering her foot had been shaken out, she replaced her shoe and walked briskly down the dock to the seaplane.

Tony moved to his left to see if he could watch her better, but she disappeared in the fog and the only thing he was able to see was the glow of her flashlight as the light bounced around from her movements. He heard her open the door, step onto the float with a dull thud and then silence for a moment. She must have sat down in the seat, he thought. Then he heard a little high-pitched squeal, followed by an angry voice that shrilled, “What in the world! What happened to this!” He heard another dull thud, then the door was slammed shut, not once, but three times. He saw the glow of the flashlight bouncing again and heard the woman’s footsteps pounding the dock as she returned to the shore. As she passed by their shrub, he could hear her muttering something about
charts
,
ruined
and
wet
, yet he couldn’t quite distinguish everything because the woman was so furious.

The woman stomped up the wooden stairs so hard, Tony was afraid she might snap one of the steps in two. When she threw open the door and entered the boathouse, once again she slammed the door not once, but three times in a fit of fury, yelling incoherently after each slam.

“Wow. I don’t think I’ve ever seen anyone go off the deep end like that,” Tony said as they stood up. “What was she so mad about? Could you make out what she was saying, Judd?”

“Well…” Judd began as he nervously kicked at a clump of grass. “I don’t know what she was sayin’. Though, it could be ‘cause I accidentally dropped that binder into the lake and everythin’ got all wet. Sorry, Tony.”

Tony grinned, grabbed Judd by the shoulders and said, “Sorry? Sorry for what? That was brilliant!”

Judd perked up. “It was?”

“Yeah, are you kidding? They can’t fly without those charts. They won’t be able to take off until tomorrow morning! That’ll give us plenty of time to get the police—. Wait a minute, there’s someone else in there. What was the last thing that lady said as she was coming out of the door?"

“Um, I think she said, ‘bubbly shure, shady tree is tied up like a kite!’ or somethin’ like that,” Judd said with a knitted brow.

“Shady Tree? Who is Shady Tree and why would they tie him or her up like a kite?” Tony walked around in circles thinking out loud. “Shady tree? A shady tree? Shady tree...let’s see...two women...why would they tie someone up unless...unless...they were stronger than them! It’s gotta be a man they tied up...’cause...’cause they’re afraid of him being loose. Aw, who could it be?”

Slapping his thigh and jumping up and down, Judd laughed and said, “I got it! Officer London talked to a shady tree on his telephone at the school. I remember he distinctly said, ‘Shady tree, call me back’ or somethin’ like that. Yeah, that’s it, must be some guy with the last name of Shadytree!”

“What? I’ve never heard the last name Shadytree before.” Tony cupped his hand under his chin and said, “Hang on, what did my Mom say at the football game? Of course! It’s not a last name, it’s a first name. It’s not Shadytree, it’s J.B.! They’ve got Detective Bouguereau tied up! Doggone it, why didn’t I think of that sooner. He was following Tisha all through the town. In all the excitement, I completely forgot about him!”

“Let’s call your Dad! We gotta get Ash and Detective Boogaroni outta there!”

Digging into his pants pocket, Tony brought the cell phone out and looked at the display. “What! Aw, no! I don’t have any bars here!” Tony walked to his left, then to his right, holding his cell phone up, holding the cell phone down, but it was no use. “Let’s go down to the end of the dock. Maybe I can get better reception down there.” Walking down the dock, the bar increased by one, two and held steady on two when they stood next to the seaplane. “Two isn’t good enough, Judd. I need at least three and at best five or more. If I can get higher I might get more bars.”

Judd looked at Tony and said, “Stand on the arrowplane. That’ll make you taller.”

“Yeah, good idea.” Tony stuck the cell phone back into his pocket, studied the seaplane, stepped onto the float and then climbed up onto the wing strut. “Give me a boost, Judd, there’s nothing to grab up here and the top of the wing is slick from the fog.”

Grabbing Tony’s leg, Judd pushed him up and onto the top of the wing section. Tony momentarily felt a little seasick as the seaplane bobbed in the water from his weight. Lying on his back, he waited a second for his head to clear, brought out his cell phone and looked at the display. Three bars! He held the phone up higher. Four bars!