“There’s no reason to,” Aunt Alice said. “We’re not trying to keep them in sight, and there’s no way I want to risk getting stopped by a state trooper.”
They continued on down the freeway for fifteen minutes. Then Debbie told Andi, “Tim says they’re turning left onto an exit ramp that leads to River Road.”
“That’s about a mile ahead of us,” Aunt Alice said when Andi conveyed that information. “If we turn west on that road, we’ll end up at the Black Rock River, but I don’t know what we’ll find in the other direction.”
“Oh, not a river!” Andi gasped, her mind filled with visions of helpless dogs being dropped off a bridge into churning rapids.
“Do you think they’re drowning the dogs?!” Bruce asked in horror, his own mind following the same thought process. They could be doing exactly that. Since they weren’t returning the dogs, why wouldn’t they drown them so they wouldn’t have to feed and take care of them?
“They would never do that,” Aunt Alice said reassuringly. “There would be too much publicity when the bodies washed up on the shore.”
“Not if they weighed them down with sandbags,” Andi said.
“Connor’s car is too small to carry sandbags,” Aunt Alice said. “Believe me, children, those dogs are not in the river.”
Debbie’s voice spoke so suddenly into Andi’s ear that she almost jumped out of her seat. “They’ve turned east on River Road!”
“They’re going east!” Andi shouted ecstatically, and Bruce sighed with relief. No matter what lay to the east, it wouldn’t be the river.
A sign saying RIVER ROAD EXIT appeared up ahead of them.
Aunt Alice pulled into the exit lane, and a moment later they were down the ramp and on a two-lane road that ran parallel to the freeway.
“They’ve turned north onto Valley Road,” Debbie said. “They’ve slowed down to forty miles an hour. It’s like they’re getting ready to —”
Her voice broke off, and there was silence.
“Oh, no!” Andi exclaimed. “The battery’s gone dead!”
“It can’t have,” Aunt Alice said. “I recharged it last night.”
“Then the problem must be with the Bernsteins’ phone,” Andi said. “They’ve been so worried about Bully that the last thing on their minds was recharging their cell phone.”
“Well, the phone got us this far anyway,” Aunt Alice said. “I’m glad I got gas, because we are in the next county. Judging by where we were when Tim said they left the freeway, we’re approximately a mile behind them.”
She had followed Tim’s last instructions and turned north onto a winding country road that was flanked with the lushness of summer. If it hadn’t been for the seriousness of their situation, the drive would have been delightful. Fields of alfalfa and clover, sprinkled with tiny purple blossoms, were interspersed with wheat fields. Picturesque barns and silos dotted the horizon, and the slanted afternoon sunlight cast a golden haze over everything. An occasional dirt lane or unpaved driveway ran between the fields, curving back behind them in the direction of a barn or farmhouse.
“You’d better floor it,” Bruce told Aunt Alice. “The only way we can find them now is to catch up with them. Debbie said they reduced their speed.”
“That’s what concerns me,” Aunt Alice said. “Why would they suddenly do that? Tell me again, Andi — what exactly did Debbie say to you?”
“She said, ‘They’ve slowed down to forty miles an hour,’ “Andi said, trying to recall Debbie’s precise wording. “Then she said, ‘It’s like they’re getting ready to,’ and that’s when we were cut off.”
“They’re ‘getting ready to’ do what?” Bruce said. “There’s nothing out here to get ready for. Nothing except —” He paused and then said slowly, “Nothing except to turn off onto one of those side lanes. But those don’t appear to go anywhere except into farmland.”
“Where there are barns and silos and toolsheds,” Andi said. “Places that they could stash dogs.”
“You’re right,” Aunt Alice said, bringing the car to a stop at the side of the road. “It’s possible I may have come too far. Where were we when Debbie’s call ended?”
“On River Road,” Bruce said. “Then we turned onto Valley Road, which is what we’re on now. If Connor was a mile ahead of us and was preparing to turn into a driveway, we did come too far. Now we’ll never find them!”
“We’ll find them,” Aunt Alice promised, starting up her car again and making a U-turn. “We’ll backtrack to River Road and start all over again.”
They retraced the route they had just covered until the frontage road loomed ahead and they could hear the sound of cars on the freeway. Then, Aunt Alice made another U-turn, glanced at her mileage gauge, and began to drive slowly back down Valley Road.
“It’s going to be about a mile to the spot where Connor slowed down,” she said. “Keep an eye out for lanes and driveways they might have turned onto. There can’t be many out here in the middle of nowhere.”
But a mile down the road they discovered that there were more options than they had anticipated. Several lanes intersected on either side of the road, each of them shielded by wheat fields, so there was no way to tell where they went. Some might lead to farmhouses, others to outbuildings, and others might end at locked gates.
“What do we do now?” Andi asked miserably. The situation was unbearable. They knew the dogs were out here someplace, but where? Whichever lane they turned down stood a good chance of being the wrong one.
“Now is the time we must use the Blue Sense,” Aunt Alice said. “Bruce, get out of the car and walk a short way down each of those lanes and see how you feel. You have a strong bond with Red Rover. Shut your eyes and call out to him with your mind. Tell him you’re trying to find him and ask him where he is.”
“That’s crazy,” Bruce said, but even as he said it he was reaching for the door handle. Because this was their only option. If this didn’t work, Red might be lost to him forever.
“Take as much time as you need,” Aunt Alice told him. “If you don’t feel anything on one lane, then walk down another. Whatever is going to happen is going to happen.”
Bruce got out of the car and walked along the edge of the road to the spot where the lanes intersected. He stepped into the entrance of the nearest lane and closed his eyes. He stood there for a long time, mentally calling out to his dog, but he felt nothing. This isn’t going to work, he told himself, but he kept on standing there, feeling foolish and ineffectual, calling silently, Red! Red! Red! Finally he became so frustrated, he went back to the car.
“You can’t give up yet,” Aunt Alice told him.
“Let Andi give it a try,” Bruce said. “She has a relationship with Lola. Maybe the Blue Sense will work for her.”
“You’re more bonded to Red than I am to Lola,” Andi said. “I was close to her when she was Friday, but her personality’s changed. I don’t know her at all as Lola. Please, Bruce, try that lane over there. You’re our only hope now.”
So Bruce crossed the road and entered a winding lane that led back into wheat fields. Again he closed his eyes and reached out to Red Rover with his mind, and again he felt nothing. But he stood there anyway, feeling the tension flow out of him as he allowed the peace and tranquility of his surroundings to encompass him. The sun was warm on his arms and on the back of his neck. The mesmerizing scents of summer were all around him, and suddenly the world that had seemed so silent was alive with sound. He was aware of the buzzing of bees and chanting of crickets. Birds were chirping and trilling, and somewhere in the distance he could hear the sound of a tractor.
He heard the lowing of a cow who wanted to be milked.
He heard the wail of a baby in some nearby farmhouse.
And then he heard a dog.
He heard the bark of a dog, and he knew that voice — it was as familiar to him as the voices of his parents and sister. It was the voice of Red Rover!
Bruce opened his eyes a
nd the other sounds went away, because all he could concentrate on now was the voice of his dog. There were other dog voices in the background, but they were overshadowed by the voice he loved so well. That voice was coming from the left branch of the lane, and it was loud enough so he knew it was not far off.
He raced back to the car and tumbled into the backseat.
“I heard him!” he cried. “I heard Red! It’s that lane over there! It forks when you get a few yards into it. We need to take the left fork to get to the dogs. I could hear them all barking.”
“Is this the Blue Sense?” Andi asked, entranced by the fact that her skeptical brother had apparently suddenly become psychic. “Aunt Alice, does Bruce have the Blue Sense? How did he do this?”
“Bruce doesn’t necessarily have the Blue Sense,” Aunt Alice said. “We can’t rule that out entirely, but it’s much more likely that he simply walked down that lane and really started listening and heard the very real noise the dogs were making.”
“So how does the Blue Sense fit into this?” Andi asked.
“It was the Blue Sense that caused me to send Bruce out there,” Aunt Alice told her.
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
Aunt Alice pulled into the lane that Bruce had indicated and took the fork to the left. Almost immediately they all could hear the dogs, and the barking grew increasingly louder as they bumped along the rutted road. Red Rover’s rich voice was louder than any of the others. It was almost as if he could sense his master was coming.
At the end of the lane, a clearing appeared before them, and they found themselves looking at the remains of what once had been part of a small farm. There was a dilapidated barn with a roof that was missing whole sections and a door that was half off its hinges. A rusted tractor served as a trellis for a tangle of vines, and a rotted wagon slumped dejectedly next to a drainage ditch. It was clear that the place had been deserted for a very long time.
In startling contrast, a shiny silver Miata was pulled up so close to the barn that its bumper almost touched it. Aunt Alice made a sharp turn and brought her own car to a stop, parking it broadside directly behind Connor’s car.
“You’re going to have to climb out on the driver’s side,” she told Andi. “There won’t be room for you to get out the passenger’s door.”
Bruce had already leapt from the car and was racing around the side of the barn. As the dogs caught sight of him, the din of their voices became deafening.
“They’re here!” Bruce shouted. “Bully and Trixie and Lola and a whole bunch of others! And Red!”
As Andi and Aunt Alice rounded the corner of the barn, they saw that the dogs were confined in a wire enclosure in front of a chicken house. At Bruce’s approach, they had gone wild with excitement and were hurling themselves against the mesh. Bully and Ginger leapt up and down in unison, obviously having renewed their friendship. The only dog who wasn’t jumping was Lola. She was standing apart from the others, pink and smug-looking. She seemed proud of the part she had played in the rescue mission, and she clearly expected to receive the “World’s Best Dog” medal.
“There’s a padlock on the gate!” Bruce cried. “We’ve got to get it off!”
“First you have to take pictures,” Aunt Alice told him. “We need a photographic record of all the evidence.”
“Well, what do you know!”
It was a voice that Bruce knew all too well, and it came from directly behind him. He turned and saw Jerry Gordon, holding a sack of dry dog food. Jerry was dressed in the same black T-shirt and baseball cap as the faceless person that Bruce had photographed snatching Lola, but now the cap was pushed back and his face was visible. Keeping his eyes locked on Jerry’s so as not to indicate what he was doing, Bruce slid his hand down to rest on his camera and surreptitiously started clicking the shutter.
“Connor, you’ll never believe this, but we’ve got company!” Jerry called out.
“Well, this is a surprise!” exclaimed Connor, materializing behind Jerry in the doorway of the barn. He, too, wore a black T-shirt and baseball cap, and his smile was as sunny as always. “It’s Bruce and his sister and Mrs. Scudder! You must have received the same information we did!”
“What information?” Andi asked him.
“We had a call from an anonymous tipster,” Connor told her. “He said a bunch of stray dogs were trapped in a chicken yard and no one was taking care of them. We drove out here to bring the dogs food.”
“And how did you think you were going to get to them?” Bruce asked him. “I guess you must have a key to unlock the gate?”
“A key?” Connor responded innocently. “How could we have that? We don’t know where those dogs came from or how they got in there. We were thinking about tossing dog food in through the mesh, but that might make me late for my volunteer work. Now that you’re here, you can feed them. Maybe later we can figure out a way to get that lock off.”
“I want the key!” Bruce insisted, trailing the two around to the front of the barn. “You locked those dogs in there, and you can get them out!”
“You heard Connor,” Jerry told him. “We don’t have a key, and we don’t have any idea how those dogs got trapped there. We’ll leave the dog food with you, but we’ve got to get going. Connor has business to tend to.”
“I bet he does,” Andi murmured bitterly to Aunt Alice. “And I bet it has to do with taking money out of library books.”
“Don’t worry, dear,” Aunt Alice said softly, so only Andi could hear her. “Those two are not going anywhere until we allow it.”
A moment later Connor shouted, “Mrs. Scudder, come move your car! You’ve got me blocked and I can’t back out!”
“I’m terribly sorry,” Aunt Alice said as she and Andi joined the boys at the front of the barn. “I never was very good at parking.”
“Give me the keys, and I’ll move it myself,” Connor told her.
“I don’t have the keys,” said Aunt Alice.
“You must have the keys,” Connor said impatiently. “You drove in here, didn’t you?”
“Perhaps I dropped them when I got out of the car,” Aunt Alice said. “With all the commotion those noisy animals were making, I got a bit rattled. Why don’t you and Jerry search the ground on the driver’s side? Andi, see if I left them in the ignition.”
“What about your purse?” Connor demanded, his voice rising in exasperation. “Women always put their keys in their purses.”
“I don’t know where my purse is either,” Aunt Alice said. “It’s a slippery purse and it sometimes slides out of my hands. Andi, while you’re in there looking for the car keys, please see if I dropped my purse.”
“Why don’t you just ram her car and shove it over?” Jerry suggested to Connor.
“Why, Jerry!” Aunt Alice gasped. “I can’t believe what I’m hearing! You’re encouraging your cousin to ram your neighbor’s car? I’m afraid that Connor has not been a very good influence.”
“I’m not about to dent my Miata!” Connor cried, getting more and more furious by the minute. “Do you know how much that baby cost me?”
“You must have sold a lot of subscriptions to be able to afford such a lovely vehicle,” Aunt Alice said. “On that subject, I still haven’t started receiving Happy Housekeeping. I’ve been looking forward so much to reading that magazine, because I’m thinking of redecorating my living room. Jerry, you’ve been in my home. Do you think it needs redecorating?”
“Enough of this babble!” Connor shouted. “I want those keys!”
He stormed over to Aunt Alice’s car, yanked the driver’s door open, and dragged Andi out. She kicked futilely at his legs and tried to jab him with her elbow.
“Let go of me!” she cried. “You’re hurting my arm!”
“Give me the keys!” Connor said.
“They weren’t in the ignition,” Andi told him. “But I did find Aunt Alice’s purse. It was under the seat. Here, Aunt Alice — catch!”
Jerking free of his grip, she
tossed the purse to her great-aunt, who made an amazingly good catch as Connor again grabbed Andi’s arm.
“Let go of her, Connor,” Aunt Alice said. “I will search in my purse for the keys. But before I do that, I must take an allergy pill. So many dogs held together like this is overwhelming to someone allergic to dog hair.”
“That’s another ploy and I’m not going to fall for it!” Connor yelled, losing his cool altogether. “You’re not the sweet ditzy old lady that everyone thinks you are! For all I know, you have a gun in that purse!”
He made a lunge for Aunt Alice and, grabbing her purse with one hand, shoved her hard with the other. Aunt Alice’s feet shot out from under her and she tumbled heavily backward onto the ground.
“What have you done, you idiot?” Andi screamed at Connor, dropping to her knees beside her great-aunt. “Now you’re not just guilty of dognapping but assault and purse snatching, too! They’re going to drag you back to Chicago in handcuffs!”
“That’s not going to happen,” Connor said, back in control again now that he had what he wanted. “Mrs. Scudder slipped and fell. Old people do that. I’ve got Jerry as a witness, and people always believe Jerry. He’s got the Gordon charm and can use it just like I can.”
He dug through Aunt Alice’s purse until he found her car keys. Tossing the purse on the ground, he got into her car and deliberately backed it into the side of the tractor.
Then he jumped out of her car and into his own.
“Come on, Jerry!” he yelled. “You and I are out of here!”
Jerry glanced at Aunt Alice, who was lying flat on her back staring up at the sky. Her chest was rising and falling in a frightening manner, and she seemed to be gasping for air.
He said, “Mrs. Scudder, this wasn’t supposed to happen. No one was meant to get hurt, not even the dogs. Connor got carried away. I’m sorry about that.”
“It’s a little too late to be sorry,” Bruce said angrily. “You’ll never be able to make up for all the pain you’ve caused people.” He picked up Aunt Alice’s purse and rummaged through it until he found her vial of allergy medicine.