Bruce’s photo showed Aunt Alice sitting in a chair in her living room with Friday on her lap. Friday looked peculiar but surprisingly exotic. The tufts on her ankles puffed out in an interesting manner and her tail had a lovely tassel. But most impressive of all was the crest on her head. As Bruce had commented, it did look a bit like a peacock, and Friday was holding her head high as if posing for the camera.
She looks proud! Andi thought in astonishment when she saw the picture. Was it possible that Friday actually liked being bald?
At the time of the photo shoot, Aunt Alice’s allergy pill hadn’t fully kicked in yet, and her eyes were teary and her nose was running. However, the problems were easy to take care of. Bruce was able to digitally remove the nasal drip, and Andi’s caption read, “Alice Scudder sheds tears of joy because she is no longer lonely.”
The second page of the paper was more of a problem. Debbie couldn’t construct a gossip column when the dogs who were her usual subjects were missing. So they printed some dog-friendly recipes, including Aunt Alice’s recipe for quiche, which, if dog biscuits were substituted for broccoli, was surprisingly healthy. And Andi contributed the first chapter of her novel, which she had titled Bobby Strikes Back.
“This should do the trick,” Aunt Alice said approvingly as she reviewed the lone copy of the paper. “Bruce, please take this over to Connor. And while you’re at it, take Lola along on her leash. That way he and Jerry will see how remarkable she is.”
Connor’s car was not in the driveway when Bruce made his delivery, and Mr. Gordon was the one who came to the door.
“I’ll give this to Connor,” he said when Bruce handed him the paper. “He’s out again tonight, doing volunteer work, and I’m delighted to say Jerry’s with him. Jerry’s mother and I would be very happy if our son decided to invest himself in good works. Connor made a few false starts, as many young people do, but there has been an amazing transformation in him this summer. I like to think it’s the wholesome atmosphere in Elmwood. It’s been a great experience for Jerry to watch that happen.”
Then Mr. Gordon happened to glance down and see Lola.
“Good Lord, Bruce, what is that?” he asked in astonishment. “I’ve never seen anything like it! Why are you walking that animal and not Red Rover?”
“Dad told me not to take Red out while he and Mom are gone,” Bruce said. “This is Aunt Alice’s dog, Lola. You can read all about her in The Bow-Wow News. I’m giving her a little exercise before she goes to bed.”
When he returned to Aunt Alice’s, he found her with Andi in the living room, making a list of things that needed to be done before the dognapping.
“What should I do about the second ransom note?” Bruce asked her. “Connor and Jerry are at the library this very minute, probably looking in White Fang. What will they do when they find out I didn’t leave the money?”
“They won’t find that out because the book isn’t there,” Aunt Alice told him. “I asked Debbie to stop by the library and check it out. Connor has no way of knowing if you paid the ransom. And by tomorrow he’ll have read The Bow-Wow News and will be so excited about the prospect of dognapping Lola that Red Rover will be at the bottom of his todo list. The challenge that faces us now is setting up the heist. We need to figure out the dognappers’ schedule. What time of day do they usually snatch their victims?”
“Connor works at the library in the mornings and evenings,” Bruce said. “We don’t know about Ginger, because the Tinkles won’t talk to us, but Bully and Trixie and Red all were snatched in the afternoon.”
“Then that’s when we’ll need to make Lola available,” Aunt Alice said. “I’m glad of that, since I don’t enjoy getting up early.”
“Where are you going to take her to be kidnapped?” Andi asked.
“There’s no place like home,” Aunt Alice said. “I was thinking I might take her out in the yard with me while I weed my flower beds.”
“She’ll get sunburned!” Andi objected. “Her skin’s like a newborn baby’s!”
“We’ll cover her with sunblock,” said Aunt Alice. “I might even set up an umbrella so she can sit in the shade. I’ll work in the garden for a short while, and then my phone will ring. I’ll leave the front door standing open and turn up the ringer volume, so the dognappers will be sure to hear it. I’ll rush inside to answer it, just as Mr. Bernstein did when Bully was taken, and Lola will be left unguarded for a few vital minutes. That should give the Gordon boys time to snatch her.”
“How do you know the phone will ring?” Andi asked her.
“Because you will call my home phone from my cell phone,” Aunt Alice said. “We’ll take that cell phone with us when we follow the dognappers. Tim will track them on the computer and tell Debbie the route they’re taking, and Debbie will give you that information by phone. You and Bruce will come in the car with me, and Bruce will bring his camera to document the dogs’ imprisonment. This will require a team effort.”
“Are you sure the tracking device will work?” Bruce asked anxiously.
“It appears to be operating perfectly,” Aunt Alice assured him. “There’s a tiny gadget that Tim will attach to Lola’s collar, which will send out a silent signal. That signal shows up as blinking dots on my computer screen. Tim will be able to tell us Lola’s exact location, and we can follow her to her destination. Hopefully, we’ll find the other dogs there as well.”
That night, Andi slept with Friday-Lola snuggled next to her for the first time in over two weeks. It was a strange feeling, after having been used to sleeping with two cuddly dogs, to find herself sleeping with a hairless one. She had trouble falling asleep because she was worried about Bebe, all alone in the house at the end of the block. How vast and lonely that house must seem to one small dog all by herself!
Late that afternoon, she had taken Lola to visit Bebe, thinking that would be a treat for both of them, but to her dismay they had treated each other like strangers. Lola had marched in like a princess visiting the home of a peasant, and Bebe had refused to come out of the laundry room. Andi had knelt on the floor and extracted the unhappy dachshund from behind the dryer and brushed off the lint and tried to comfort her.
“You can’t go with us to Aunt Alice’s tonight,” Andi told her. “Not unless we shave you, and you don’t want that. You’ll just have to tough it out here a little while longer.”
But despite having had it explained to her, Bebe raced to the door when Andi started to leave with Lola, as if she expected to go with them. When she realized they were leaving without her, she looked so sad and disappointed that Andi, recalling the look on the little dog’s face, felt as if her heart would break.
Bruce also was having a hard time sleeping. He kept picturing Red Rover and his beautiful ears. Aunt Alice’s idea of having Debbie check White Fang out of the library had been an inspiration, but what if there was more than one copy? Or what if Connor decided to use the library’s computer to pull up information about who checked the book out? He might not know Debbie was Andi’s best friend, but Jerry did.
Although earlier he had been excited about the thought of tomorrow’s heist, suddenly Bruce was filled with misgivings. So many things could go wrong! What if the tracking system didn’t work? Or Connor or Jerry noticed the device on Lola’s collar? Or Aunt Alice’s computer crashed? And above all, what if Connor and Jerry caught on to the plan? Connor was a practiced scam artist. How could he believe the article in the paper when it was so obviously a fake? Wouldn’t somebody with Connor’s unscrupulous background recognize such an amateurish setup when he saw one?
When Aunt Alice came downstairs the next morning, Bruce and Andi were waiting at the kitchen table.
“I’m scared,” Bruce said without apology. “This scheme we’ve cooked up is too transparent. Connor and Jerry can’t possibly be taken in by it.”
“Don’t upset yourself, dear,” Aunt Alice said, switching on the coffeemaker. “We have a secret weapon that makes us invincible. Do eith
er of you want an egg?”
“Not me,” Bruce said. “I’m too worried to eat a thing.”
“I’d like an egg,” Andi said. “Why won’t they suspect us? What’s our secret weapon?”
“My age,” Aunt Alice said.
Andi regarded her with bewilderment. “I don’t understand.”
“I’m old,” Aunt Alice said placidly. “Old people aren’t taken seriously. Connor is far too cocky and egotistical to think that a white-haired lady would try to put one over on him. Bruce, I’m going to fix you an egg regardless. You’re going to need your energy.”
So Bruce forced down a breakfast he had no desire for, and Andi ate two fried eggs and a sweet roll and went down the street to visit Bebe. Aunt Alice finished her coffee and went off to put gas in her car.
“Who knows where those boys may be keeping the dogs?” she said. “We may have to follow them all the way into the next county.”
Connor’s Miata was gone from the Gordons’ driveway all morning but returned around noon, and Andi, who had been keeping watch from Aunt Alice’s office window, saw both Jerry and Connor get out of the car and go into the house. She wondered if it was significant that Jerry had taken to accompanying Connor to the library. He’s probably eager to get his share of the money, she speculated.
Shortly before 3 P.M., when Lola had been slathered with sunblock and Aunt Alice was putting on her gardening gloves, Tim suddenly cried, “We’re missing something important! We’re going to need a second cell phone!”
“We’ll take mine in the car with us,” Aunt Alice said. “Debbie can use my home phone to pass along your directions.” Then she gasped and said, “How scatterbrained can I be! My computer connects to the Internet through my phone line! You won’t be able to use that phone when the computer’s on!”
“I didn’t think of that either,” Bruce said. “We’ve got to get another cell phone.” He turned to Tim and Debbie. “Do either of you have one at your house?”
“Dad has one, but he takes it to work,” Tim said.
Debbie said, “Mom would never let me have hers. She talks on it every ten minutes — even at the grocery store.”
“Mrs. Bernstein has a cell phone,” Aunt Alice said. “I saw her use it when she called her husband from Garden Club.”
“I’ll run over there now and see if I can borrow it,” Andi said. “I’ll be right back. It should only take me a minute.”
But when she got to the Bernsteins’, she found the couple so distraught that she was unable to break away before hearing the whole awful story of Bully’s third ransom note.
“I met their demands and delivered the second payment,” Mr. Bernstein said. “I put it in The Incredible Journey like they told me. But they still didn’t bring Bully back. Then, yesterday, we found a third note stuck through our mail slot. They wanted another two hundred!”
“Did you pay it?” Andi asked.
“Of course,” Mrs. Bernstein said. “What choice did we have?”
“The problem is that now we can’t pay our bills,” Mr. Bernstein said. “We’re sitting here waiting for our utilities to be shut off. I guess we can live without electricity, but what if they want a fourth payment? What will we do then?”
“We’re going to get the dogs back today,” Andi told them. “At least, we’re going to try. But in order to do that, I’ll need to borrow your cell phone. I can’t go into the reason, it’s just too complicated. But could I please borrow it, just for this afternoon?”
“I’ll get it for you right now,” Mrs. Bernstein said. “Is there anything else we can lend you — anything at all?”
Andi thought for a moment about asking to borrow the baseball bat, but then decided against it. The Bernsteins’ son had probably been as gentle a person as his parents. It didn’t seem right to use something he had owned as a weapon.
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
When Andi returned to Aunt Alice’s house, which they now all referred to as “Headquarters,” she took the roundabout route that she and Bruce had determined was the only way to come and go undetected by the Gordon boys. She entered through the kitchen and immediately went upstairs. Bruce, Tim, and Debbie were gathered in Aunt Alice’s office, glued to what was going on beneath the window.
When Andi joined them, she said, “Let me see, too!”
“So, you’re finally back!” Bruce said. “What took you so long? Aunt Alice and Lola are probably burned to a crisp, sunblock or not.”
“I couldn’t get back sooner,” Andi said. “The Bernsteins had to pay a third ransom, and now they don’t have enough money to pay their bills. So of course, I had to listen to them and comfort them. I promised them we’d get Bully back for them today. Now can I look out the window?”
“There’s not much to see,” Debbie said, stepping back to make room for her. “Your aunt Alice is digging up weeds, and Lola is sitting under the umbrella, sweating.”
“Dogs don’t sweat,” Andi said. “The drip comes out through their tongues.”
“Well, she looks like she’s sweating,” Debbie said, and, when Andi looked out the window, she had to agree. Lola’s little body was glistening. Andi hoped it was the sunscreen.
“Here’s the Bernsteins’ cell phone,” she told Debbie, handing it over. “I’ll use Aunt Alice’s now to call her home number. But —” Suddenly she realized there was a glaring hole in the scene that she was gazing down at. “Connor’s car isn’t in the Gordons’ driveway!”
“He parked it at the end of the street,” Bruce said. “See it there at the corner? He moved it ten minutes ago.”
“Why would he do that?” Andi asked as she spotted the car, parked about three houses down.
“Mrs. Gordon can see the driveway from their kitchen window,” Tim said. “Connor and Jerry can’t risk her watching them take off. What if she started calling, ‘Where are you going? Please stop at the store and pick up a loaf of bread’? What if Aunt Alice came back from taking her phone call and saw their car tear out of the driveway next door? They’ve got to have that car positioned somewhere else.”
“Then they’re really going to do this!” Andi said. “It’s not just something we’ve dreamed up, like a chapter in my novel. This is real!”
“This is real,” Bruce agreed. “Are you ready to start things rolling?”
“I’m dialing right now,” Andi told him.
A few seconds later, Aunt Alice’s home phone began ringing. The ringer was turned up so high that Andi jumped when she heard it. From the window they could see Aunt Alice rising slowly and rather stiffly from her kneeling position at the edge of the flower bed.
She cupped her ear and asked Lola, “Was that the phone?”
The phone rang again, and Andi felt sure that neighbors blocks away must have heard it.
“I believe that’s my phone,” Aunt Alice told Lola loudly. “I’m expecting a call from my nephew and his wife in Europe. I’m going to have to leave you out here alone, dear, so be sure to stay under the umbrella. Auntie Alice loves you and doesn’t want you to get sunburned. Auntie Alice will be right back, as soon as she can get those bothersome relatives off the line.”
Aunt Alice turned and went into the house. She picked up the living room phone and commanded, “Everyone to your post! Tim at the computer! Debbie next to him with the Bernsteins’ cell phone! Andi and Bruce to the car with my cell phone and Bruce’s camera!”
“Get away from the window,” Bruce told them. “I’m going to try to get a picture of the dognapping.”
He barely had time to step into place before it happened. One moment Lola was lolling on a beach towel in the shade of a striped umbrella, and an instant later she was gone.
“I got it!” Bruce cried. “I caught the dognappers in the act!” But when he brought the image up on the screen on the back of his camera, he moaned with disappointment. “All you can see are two guys in black T-shirts and baseball caps. Their heads are turned so their faces don’t show.”
“Don?
??t worry about it,” Tim said. “You’ll get pictures of them later. Look — we can already start tracking Lola on the monitor! Blip — blip — blip — now the dot has stopped and is holding steady — they must be putting her into Connor’s car. Now the dot’s moving again — he must be pulling away.”
“He is!” Debbie cried, pushing in beside Bruce to get a better look. “He’s whipping around the corner and heading north!” An instant later she said, “I’ve lost sight of them.”
“But I haven’t! I can see them fine!” Tim was bursting with excitement. “There they go — they’re on Locust Street, zipping along. You guys better get a move on. This is so cool! It’s like a computer game, except the bad guys are real!”
When Andi and Bruce reached the driveway, Aunt Alice was already revving up the engine of her car.
“Hurry and get in,” she cried. “Andi, I’ll need you in the passenger’s seat since you’ll be the navigator. Could Tim tell which direction they were headed?”
“They turned north on Locust,” Bruce said, leaping into the backseat. “But maybe they’re trying to throw us off.”
“I doubt that,” said Aunt Alice. “There’s no way they can know they’re being followed. They just want to leave the scene of the crime as fast as possible.”
The cell phone rang and Andi quickly punched the TALK button.
“They’re headed for the freeway,” Debbie told her. “They haven’t reached the ramp yet, so Tim doesn’t know if they’re going to head east or west. He says hold back for a minute until he can tell you. You don’t want to get yourself trapped going the wrong direction.” She was silent a moment and then said, “They’re approaching the ramp. Now they’re on the freeway. Tim says they’re headed east at sixty-five miles an hour.”
“East on the freeway,” Andi cried, and Aunt Alice pulled onto the eastbound ramp.
“Can’t you go any faster?” Bruce asked frantically.