This choice: Continue reading "The Mystery of the Wandering Wizard" • Go Back...Chapter #47The Mystery of the Wandering Wizard (4) by: Seuzz   Chapter Four
Things That Aren't Where They Should Be
The next morning came, and there was no mention in the newspaper about a car wreck on the highway leading out of town, so Joe and Frank rode their motorbikes to the main police station downtown. "Let me do the talking, Joe," Frank said when they arrived.
"Why, you think you're better at talking than me?"
"They'll take me more seriously."
"No, you think they'll take you more seriously."
"It's the same thing."
"No it isn't," Joe said. "One is at best an opinion and at worst a delusion. The other's a putative fact of doubtful truth." Frank just gave him a look.
Despite their apprenticeship with a kind of crime-fighting league, the boys and their mentors had neither an official nor an unofficial connection with the local police, only the normal kind of contact that most citizens would have. Frank approached the desk sergeant with a deferential tilt of the head. "Excuse me, sir," he said. "Would you be able to—"
"You have a crime or accident to report," the man asked brusquely.
"No sir. We were wondering if a car accident has been reported."
"Traffic detail, Room 37A."
The boys thanked him and went off in the indicated direction. Inside Room 37A they found a few people filling out forms, and a police woman behind a counter. For a moment only Frank thought she was enormously fat, then he realized she was pregnant. "Is this the place to ask about accidents," he inquired of her.
"Why, you want one?" she asked. "If you've just got your learning permits, one will probably find you."
Frank looked discomfited, but Joe smiled brightly. "See, that's just what I told you, Frank!" He leaned in toward the policewoman. "He's so looking forward to his first one."
She laughed. "Do you have an accident to report?"
"Not exactly," Frank said, seizing control of the conversation again. "We would like to know if there was one yesterday."
"You're in luck," she said. "We've got at least a half dozen you can pick from. Would you like a fender bender, or were you in the market for a full vehicular roll?"
"We were wondering if there'd been an accident on Road 57 yesterday afternoon, involving a green sedan."
"How about a red sports coupe instead?"
"Was there an accident out there with a red sports coupe?" Frank asked, his jaw dropping.
"No, but green sedans are kind of boring, don't you think?"
Joe jumped in. "How about an accident involving a giraffe?"
"An escape from the zoo?" she asked.
"No, the giraffe would have been driving."
"Joe," Frank said in a tired voice, and rubbed his eye.
"If you leave your name and number," the policewoman laughed. "I'll let you know if one comes in."
"What about Road 57, yesterday afternoon, with a green sedan," Frank asked again.
"I'm sorry, but we don't have anything in that line," she said. Her expression turned serious. "Are you sure you don't have one to report?"
"We're not sure, and that's why we're asking." Frank briefly described their encounter with the mystery car, though of course he left out the bit about the car possibly flying off into the clouds.
The officer was sympathetic but couldn't help. "No, no one reported anything like that." She looked at them carefully. "If we do get a report, though, would you mind leaving some contact information?" The boys obliged, then left.
"We should go back out there and look around some more," Frank said. "Even if there wasn't an accident at the spot where we checked, maybe it happened farther up or farther down."
"Or maybe it just didn't happen at all," Joe said. "Anyway, I see something else I'd rather check out." He nodded at the building across the street.
It was the animal shelter, and both boys recognized the car out front. Frank made a face. "Theresa doesn't like me," he groaned.
"I don't care if she doesn't like you," Joe retorted. "I like her and she likes me. Come on."
Joe and Frank homeschooled with their father, and with other Stellae who came through to extend their training, but they knew many of the kids in town. James Hopkins was a senior at Olympia High School, but his sister Theresa was a freshman, which made her about the same age as Frank and Joe. Like her brother, she was a red-head, but James had more freckles. As the boys were walking up to the shelter, the door opened and their two friends came out. Theresa smiled broadly at Joe, and greeted him in a warm, chirping voice. But her eye dimmed and her voice cooled a little when she greeted Frank.
Joe sidled up to her with puppy dog eyes. "If you're looking for something to pet, Theresa, I'll let you scratch behind my ears."
She turned a little pink, but her smile was tight, and her expression turned grave. "Actually, we're here looking for our dog. I don't think you can replace him, Joe."
"Buster is missing?" Frank asked, frowning with sympathy. "What happened?"
"We don't know," James said. Like Frank, he was much more serious than his younger sibling, and he tilted his chin in a very adult way. "We let him roam free through the woods and hills, you know, and sometimes he's gone for days at a time. But this time he's been gone far too long."
Frank and Joe nodded as they listened. The Hopkins lived in a big, rambling house outside of town. They had visited there many times, so they knew Buster well—a big Husky-like dog. He was a smart and athletic dog as well, perfectly at home in the forests and hills, so it seemed unlikely that an accident could have befallen him.
"We should have checked with animal control earlier," Theresa said with a faint moan, "but we didn't really think about it until he'd been gone for a week."
"Did they pick him up?" Frank asked, having made the obvious deduction.
"Yes," said James grimly. "And they said they gave him away yesterday."
Joe's mouth dropped open. "Dude! That's messed up!" As Theresa gave a little snuffle, he drew her into a comforting embrace. "Didn't he have tags and a collar?" he asked James.
"Of course. But animal control said he was caught without them. Which is—" He caught himself before he could say a bad word. "And then yesterday a man came in and claimed him."
"Could you find out who it was?" Joe asked.
"We asked, but they won't give out the information."
"Are you sure it was Buster?" Frank asked. "You said this dog didn't have tags."
"Buster is pretty distinctive, Brennan," James said stiffly. "Based on the way they described the dog they gave away, it was him."
"If you want us to come out after school and help you look, we will," Joe offered. He squeezed Theresa a little more tightly.
"We've already scoured the woods," James said. "But thanks for the offer. Come on, Theresa," he said, pulling his sister away from Joe. "We should back get to school."
"I was wondering why you were skipping," Joe said. "I'm sorry this is the reason."
"Are you going to Kayla and Cody's birthday party on Saturday?" Theresa called over her shoulder. She resisted her brother's tug.
Frank shook his head. "We haven't gotten an invitation."
"That's funny," Theresa said. "They were talking about— Well—" She turned a little pink. "They were talking about maybe asking if you guys could entertain at the party."
Frank pressed his lips together, but Joe hissed a laugh through his teeth. He knew the suggestion bothered Frank, for the two of them had accidentally gotten a reputation with their peers as knowing how to do some magic tricks. And sure enough, Frank said, "You know, if we're going to be the entertainment, it would be nice to get paid for it."
"Don't be that way, bro," Joe said, and punched Frank in the shoulder. "Tell Cody and Kayla it'll be our present to them," he told Theresa. "If they ask us, that is."
"I really would like to see you there, Joe," Theresa said with a blush. The four kids then called their goodbyes, and James and Theresa got in the boy's car while Frank and Joe returned to their motorbikes.
"Way to volunteer us, Joe," Frank said peevishly. "I don't want to spend my free time— And besides, it's not a good idea, showing off our prodigies at parties."
"No one knows they're prodigies," Joe retorted as he settled into the saddle of his bike. "They just think they're tricks."
"They're serious gifts, which we've been given for a serious purpose—"
"Like the way Dad materializes a whole tree at Christmas time?"
"That's different. That's for the house party. Besides, he's talking about sending us out to chop one this year."
"That'll be fun," Joe allowed, and with a quick jog of his leg started up the bike. "But I wanna have some fun pulling a rabbit out of a hat." He bit the inside of his cheek, and grinned. "It'd more fun if we could pull Buster out of a hat for Theresa, though."
"We've got more important things to worry about than a missing dog," Frank said as he put his helmet on.
"A missing wizard, a missing car, a missing dog," Joe mused. "I'd accuse you of having a missing sense of fun, but you never had one to lose."
"Let's just go see Dad," Frank said. He and Joe carefully pulled out into the street before opening the throttles and racing off to their dad's workplace.  | Members who added to this interactive story also contributed to these: |
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