The older man in the baseball cap nodded. “I’ve been volunteering here for six years and I’ve never arrived to find the doors locked. I don’t think Cal’s ever missed a day of work in his life. As far as I know, he’s the only one who has a key. He certainly wouldn’t close the nature center without telling the volunteers.”
“What if something bad happened?” Benny asked. “Maybe he was out hiking without his GPS and got lost in the woods. Maybe a mountain lion got him!”
“I don’t think there are any mountain lions around here, son,” the man in the baseball cap said, patting Benny on the back. “Wherever Cal is, I’m sure there’s a logical explanation for why he hasn’t called. I just wish we knew what it was.”
“Well, maybe we should go ahead and hold our meeting outside again,” Mr. Robertson said. He walked toward the crowd and whistled to get everyone’s attention.
The club members talked a little more about Cal and how strange it was that he would just disappear without telling anyone where he was. Then the talk turned to the missing caches.
“The other mystery,” Benny whispered.
“What do you mean?” Violet whispered back.
“There are two mysteries here: where is Cal is one mystery, and what happened to the missing caches is the other mystery,” Benny said.
“Did you all have a chance to go check the geocaches you were assigned to over the weekend?” Mr. Robertson asked.
Everyone nodded.
“I’ve got my list of caches right here,” Mr. Greene said, opening his clipboard. “Let’s just go down the list and see which ones were found and which ones weren’t.”
Jessie opened her backpack and pulled out a small notebook and pencil. “I think I’ll make a list of which ones are missing, too,” she told Henry, Violet, and Benny.
It took about ten minutes to go through the entire list. When Mr. Greene finished, Jessie had a list of eight caches that were missing.
“That’s a lot of missing caches,” a man in a gray sweatshirt said.
“I wouldn’t be surprised if we missed one or two,” the woman next to him said. “But I don’t think we would miss eight of them.”
Several other people nodded.
“That proves there’s a thief in Greenfield,” Mr. Zeller declared.
“But why would someone steal our caches?” one of the college students asked. “There isn’t anything valuable in them.”
“Someone just wants to ruin our fun,” the man in the gray sweatshirt said.
“Do you think more caches are going to go missing?” Andy asked with concern.
“Could be,” Mr. Zeller said.
“What are we going to do about the contest if all our caches start disappearing?” the man in the gray sweatshirt asked.
“Maybe we’ll have to cancel the contest this month,” Mr. Greene said.
“We shouldn’t cancel it,” Zoe Zeller said, tossing her brown braid over her shoulder.
“Yeah,” her brother, Zack, added. “We can just say that whoever’s found the most caches so far wins! I’m sure that’s us.” Zack smiled.
“Now, wait a minute—” David Greene interrupted.
Mr. Robertson raised his hands for order. “I don’t think we have to give up on the contest just yet. Let’s see what happens. Let’s see if the missing caches turn up. Let’s see if other caches go missing.”
“Good idea,” several people agreed.
The meeting broke up shortly after that. The Aldens stayed and talked with Andy for a few minutes, then they decided to walk home through the woods so they could stop at the dog park and let Watch run around.
“I sure hope we can figure out what happened to all those missing caches,” Violet said as she kicked at an acorn on the path.
“I hope that more caches don’t go missing,” Benny said, holding tight to Watch’s leash.
“Me, too,” Jessie said.
All of a sudden Violet grabbed Jessie’s arm. “Shh!” she hissed. “I hear something.”
Everyone stopped and listened. Watch sat down on the path and cocked his head. At first all they heard was the wind through the trees. Then they heard voices.
The Aldens crept closer and peered around a big tree. They saw the Zeller twins sitting on a log talking.
“Maybe we should put them back,” Zack said.
“No, not yet,” Zoe said.
Watch barked and the twins looked up. They scowled at the Aldens. “Why are you guys always following us around?” Zack asked.
“Are you spying on us?” Zoe asked.
But before the Aldens could answer, the twins took off toward the nature center.
“That was strange,” Violet said.
“And what did Zack mean when he said, ‘maybe we should put them back?’ ” Jessie wondered. “Put what back?”
“The caches?” Benny asked. “Did they take the missing caches?”
“Why would they do that?” Violet asked.
“They’re members of the geocaching club. They don’t want the caches to go missing any more than anyone else in the club does.”
“Except they’re trying to win the prize for most caches found,” Jessie said. “If some of the caches go missing, then other people— like the Greenes—won’t find them.”
“And then maybe the Zellers will win the contest,” Benny said.
“I don’t know,” Henry said. “We shouldn’t jump to conclusions. Zoe and Zack could’ve been talking about anything.”
“Yeah, but I still think we should keep an eye on them,” Benny said.
“I agree,” Jessie said.
The next morning, the telephone rang bright and early at the Alden house. The children weren’t even out of bed yet.
Violet rolled over and looked at the clock on the nightstand between her bed and Jessie’s. “It’s only 7:30,” Violet said with a yawn as the telephone rang again. “Who could be calling us so early?”
“I don’t know,” Jessie replied. She threw her covers off and stumbled to the telephone in the upstairs hallway. Violet was right behind her.
“Hello?” Jessie said in a raspy voice.
“Jessie? This is Andy. I’m sorry to call so early. Did I wake you?”
The boys’ bedroom door opened then and Henry and Benny stepped out into the hallway.
“It’s okay, Andy,” Jessie said. “I was just getting up anyway. What’s up?” Violet, Henry, and Benny squeezed in so they could hear, too.
“My dad and I were out geocaching this morning,” Andy began. “We were going to grab the travel bug out of the ‘Strike Three’ cache because we’re going to visit my grandma in Pine City tomorrow. So we thought we’d put the travel bug at a cache near my grandma’s house. Except now we can’t.”
“Oh, no,” Jessie said. “Is the travel bug missing?”
“The whole cache is missing,” Andy said.
“That’s terrible,” Jessie said.
“We found something else in its place, though,” Andy said. “A folded up piece of paper.”
“Did you open it?” Jessie asked. “Was there anything written on the paper?”
“Just two words,” Andy said. “ ‘Ha-ha.’ ”
Chapter 7
Late Night Clues
“ ‘Ha-ha’,” Benny read the two words on the paper on the table in front of him. The words were written in red crayon and they took up most of the page. “What does that mean?”
“That’s what we’d all like to know,” Andy said, his hands wrapped around a steaming mug of hot cocoa.
After talking on the phone, Andy and the Aldens decided to meet at the coffee shop to discuss the mysterious note Andy and his dad had found.
“It sounds like someone is laughing at us,” Violet said glumly.
Jessie took a sip of her cocoa, then said, “I don’t think they’re laughing at us exactly. I think they’re laughing at whoever found the paper.”
“Yeah, it’s like a joke on them because they were expectin
g to find a geocache and instead they found this note,” Benny said.
“Then whoever left this note is probably our thief,” Henry said, leaning back against his chair.
“That’s right,” Andy agreed. He broke off a piece of his pastry and nibbled on it.
“So, who left the note?” Violet asked.
No one had any ideas.
“Could it be someone who knows what geocaching is, but they’re not a member of the geocaching club?” Jessie asked.
“Why would they steal the caches?” Henry asked. “What would they get out of it?”
“I don’t know,” Jessie said. “Maybe they just don’t like the geocaching club for some reason?”
“How can the geocaching club be bothering anyone?” Violet asked. “It’s not a private club. Anyone who wants to can join.”
“And all the caches are hidden on public property,” Andy pointed out. “So it can’t be someone who doesn’t like people trespassing on their property.”
Andy and the Aldens were stumped.
Jessie finished the last of her cocoa, then set her mug down. “Was the Strike Three cache there last weekend when we all went out and checked on all the caches around Greenfield?” she asked.
“Yes,” Andy replied. “The Zellers were assigned to that one. They said it was there over the weekend.”
“The Zellers were the last people to find this cache?” Benny asked.
“I think so,” Andy said. “Their nickname is the Zees. I’m pretty sure theirs was the last entry in the online log.”
“What about the Greenes?” Benny asked. “Have they found this cache before?”
“I don’t know,” Andy replied. “Their nickname is the Green Lights. I didn’t notice if they’d signed the online log. Why?”
Benny shrugged. “Maybe the Zellers would have taken that cache to play a trick on the Greenes.”
“Yeah, maybe they did it so the Greenes wouldn’t find it and then they’d be ahead in the contest,” Violet said. “They really want to win that contest at the end of the month.”
“So do the Greenes,” Jessie pointed out.
“But do you really think either family wants to win badly enough that they’d steal some of the caches?” Henry asked.
“I don’t know,” Andy said. “My dad said the geocaching club might have to break up if these caches keep disappearing.”
“Oh, no!” Violet said.
“That would be terrible,” Benny said.
“I don’t think either the Zellers or the Greenes want to see the club end,” Henry said.
“Nobody does,” Andy said. “But there’s no point in having a club if all our caches are going to disappear.”
“Well, what can we do to make sure more caches don’t disappear?” Violet asked.
“I don’t know,” Andy said with a shrug. “That’s the problem. We can’t very well stake them all out and try to catch the thief in the act. There are too many caches to watch.”
“And too many hours in a day,” Henry said.
“So all we can do is wait for the thief to strike again?” Jessie asked.
“Or try to figure out where he or she might strike next and be ready,” Violet said. “Which is almost impossible!”
Andy nodded. “Do you see why my dad is so frustrated?”
“If only Cal was here,” Jessie said. “Maybe he’d have some ideas.”
“What are you doing, Jessie?” Violet asked. It was nine o’clock and the girls were ready for bed.
Violet had come downstairs for a drink of water and found Jessie sitting at the computer. Jessie was staring at the geocaching website. Her notebook lay open on the desk in front of her.
“I’m just looking at the information for all these missing caches to see what they have in common,” Jessie said.
“Have you found anything yet?” Henry asked as he and Benny walked into the family room. They were dressed in their pajamas, too.
“Nope,” Jessie said, resting her chin in her hands. “They’re all different kinds of caches. They’re all located in different parts of town. Some are rated easy to find; others are rated hard. It seems like the only thing they have in common is that they’re all missing.”
“Did you ever look to see whether the Greenes visited the Strike Three cache?” Benny asked.
“No, I didn’t,” Jessie said. “But we can look right now.”
The children pulled up chairs while Jessie pulled up the website for the Strike Three cache. She scrolled through the log.
“Here it is,” Jessie said, pointing to an entry signed by the Green Lights.
“It looks like they were here three days before the Zellers were.”
“Then I don’t think the Zellers would have taken that cache,” Henry said. “What would be the point? They’ve already counted that cache for the contest. And so have the Greenes.”
“And the Greenes wouldn’t have any reason to come back and steal it after the Zellers already found it, either,” Jessie said.
“I wonder if the Greenes and the Zellers have both found all the other missing caches,” Violet said.
“Let’s check,” Jessie said, reaching for the mouse.
While Jessie scrolled through the information on each of the missing caches, Henry took notes.
When they finished going through all eight, Henry looked at the paper in front of him. “It looks like both the Greenes and the Zellers have visited all of them,” he said.
“If both families have already been to all those missing caches before they disappeared, neither one is gaining anything by taking them and preventing the other family from finding them. They’ve already found them!” Jessie said.
Violet and Benny nodded. But Henry just stared at the computer screen. All of a sudden he sat up a little straighter.
“Can we scroll back through the other missing caches one more time?” Henry asked.
Jessie turned to him. “Did you see something?”
“Maybe,” Henry said. “I don’t need to read all the logs. I just need to see the main page for each one.”
“What are you looking for?” Benny yawned. He wasn’t used to being up so late.
Henry pointed to the screen. “Look at this line,” he said.
“It says, ‘placed by Hammer Ed,’ ” Violet read. “So?”
“Look at who placed all the other caches,” Henry said.
The children all leaned closer to the screen and watched as Jessie loaded the information for each of the missing caches.
“They were all placed by Hammer Ed,” Violet said.
Benny yawned again. “So who’s Hammer Ed?”
“That’s a good question,” Henry said.
Chapter 8
Where Is Cal?
“I have a surprise for you,” Mrs. MacGregor announced when the children sat down to breakfast the next morning.
“What?” Benny asked eagerly.
“It smells like … scrambled eggs,” Violet said, breathing in the delicious smell.
“But it doesn’t look like scrambled eggs,” Jessie said as Mrs. MacGregor set a plate of stuffed burritos in the middle of the table. “It looks like breakfast burritos.”
“Yum!” Benny said. “What’s inside them?”
“You’ll have to bite into them to find out,” Mrs. MacGregor said with a smile.
“Hooray! Geocaches we can eat!” Benny said, reaching for a burrito.
Everyone laughed.
“And just think, we didn’t have to use a GPS to find them,” Henry said.
“No. All we needed was our noses!” Violet said. “Our noses led us straight to the kitchen.”
“It looks like there are eggs, sausage, onions, peppers, tomatoes, and cheese in the burritos,” Jessie said. “These are very good, Mrs. MacGregor.”
“Thank you, Jessie,” Mrs. MacGregor said. “I’m glad you like them.”
While the children ate, the talk turned to Hammer Ed, the person who had first placed all the mis
sing caches. Who could Hammer Ed be, they wondered.
“Have we met anyone at the geocaching club named Ed?” Jessie asked as she dished up some fruit for herself, then passed the bowl to Henry.
“Not that I remember,” Henry replied.
Benny helped himself to another burrito. “Have we met someone who likes to build stuff?” he asked.
“Maybe we have,” Violet said. “But we don’t know it. All we really know about any of the people in the club is that they like geocaching.”
“It’s too bad Andy and his dad are visiting Andy’s grandma,” Henry said. “Otherwise we could call and ask them. They probably know everyone in the club.”
“They might even know who uses the nickname Hammer Ed,” Jessie said. “Andy knew the Zellers’ nickname and the Greenes’ nickname.”
“You know who else would probably know all the club members?” Violet said. “Cal would. Andy said he was one of the people who started the geocaching club.”
“Yeah, but nobody knows where Cal is,” Benny said.
“People have tried calling him, but I wonder if anyone has actually gone to his house to see if he’s home,” Jessie said as she wiped her mouth with her napkin.
“I wonder,” Henry said.
“If he’s not home, maybe we can figure out where he went,” Violet said.
Henry nodded. “If everyone’s done eating, we can go right now,” he said, pushing back his chair.
“Wait! Can I have one more burrito before we go?” Benny asked.
Violet laughed. “You’ve already had three!”
“I know,” Benny said. “But they’re geocaching burritos! Maybe if I eat another one, it will help us solve this mystery!”
While Benny gobbled up another burrito, the other children looked up Cal’s address in the phone book. He lived on Seventeenth Street.
Then, when Benny finally said he was full, the children set off on their bikes for Cal’s house.
It was a warm but windy day, and the children found themselves pedaling against the wind for much of the ride. Empty garbage cans and recycling bins that had been left outside were rolling all around the road.
“Looks like it’s garbage day in this neighborhood,” Violet said as she swerved around a green garbage can.