Alexis and the Lake Tahoe Tumult (13 page)

Jake pulled a piece of paper out of his front pocket.

“You sent this, didn’t you?” Jake asked, waving the paper in Bruce’s face. Alexis recognized it as the latest threat letter. Bruce didn’t answer, but a large smile spread across his wide jaw.

“You did all of this! You painted my barn? You poisoned my coyotes and woke up a hibernating bear? You shot a kid with a BB gun? Bruce—you
hit me in the face!
”

Jake was furious now. If it hadn’t been for the music outside, Alexis was sure that everyone would be able to hear this.

That was it! Everyone
needed
to hear this! It was all the evidence they needed to stop Bruce Benton. The music stopped, and Misty’s voice drifted over the ballroom. Alexis had an idea.

She ran back into the ballroom, finally tossing off her heels as she leaped down the stairs. Alexis made straight for the DJ’s booth in the back. The young man running it looked at her bare feet and raised his eyebrows. Alexis ignored him.

“Jake needs another microphone,” she said. She was shocked when he simply nodded and handed her a cordless microphone.

“It’s on,” he said. “You just have to push that button to unmute it.”

“Thanks!” Alexis said.

In a matter of moments, she was sliding through the curtains again.

“You’re being stupid, Jake! We’re talking about millions of dollars!” Bruce Benton nearly shouted.

Alexis took the earpiece out of her ear and put it up to the microphone. She propped it there with one hand. Then she took a deep breath, pushed the mute button, and tucked the microphone a little behind her body, where her skirt would partially hide it.

“So you admit you’re the one who’s been hurting the animals and trying to ruin the reserve?” Alex called out evenly from several yards away.

Bruce Benton turned on his heels with alarm … until he saw it was only a young girl standing there. He didn’t even notice the mic she held.

“So what if I did?” Bruce Benton said with a sneer. “It’s my word against old Jakey-boy’s here. And I have more money…. Are the police going to believe an animal nut or a fine, upstanding businessman?

“Yeah,” he said, looking at Jake. “That’s a great angle. We’ll tell ‘em this animal nut has gone nuts and is causing his own attempts at sabotage. Going crazy. Trying to get insurance money …”

“No one will ever believe that!” Jake exclaimed.

“Sure they will. It’s your word against mine. No one will listen to a little girl like this, so it’s just your word against … Hey, what are you doing?”

While Benton had been talking, Alexis had slowly edged over to the curtains and started to pull the ropes to open them. Sometime during Benton’s speech, Misty had stopped talking.

“What’s going on here?”

Now with the curtains open, Bruce Benton could hear what he hadn’t heard behind the curtains—his voice booming over the room’s sound-system speakers, through Alexis’s microphone.

News reporters dashed from the back of the room toward the stage, but a police officer who’d been stationed in the back of the room beat them. Quietly, the officer stepped up to the stage, “Mr. Benton, we’ve heard your whole conversation there, sir. You’re under arrest for willfully harming animals and destroying property. You have the right to remain silent, sir. Anything you say can be used against you in a court of law….”

Alexis’s eyes met those of Bailey’s at the head table, and both girls exchanged smiles of pure glee.

The next morning, Alexis and Bailey barely made it to the slopes in time for Angelo’s race. They had stayed out so late that they had slept right through the hotel alarm. As a result, both of them were wearing beanie caps shoved low over their leftover curly hairdos from the party.

With Bruce’s arrest, Jake and Karen had told the group about the sabotage attempts on the animal reserve.

And after the grand unveiling of what Bruce Benton had been doing, Karen and Jake had told the whole room about Alexis, Bailey, and the other Camp Club Girls solving the mystery. When they told the room about Alexis and Bailey doing the documentary, stars had literally lined up in the room, eager to help the girls by saying a few words to their camera about the reserve and why they supported it.

With all the excitement, some of the tightest of fists had opened to spur a flood of donations. Everyone attending was so inspired that they all gave something. Even the DJ slipped a twenty-dollar bill sheepishly into the donation bin. Alexis and Bailey had been blown away by the selfless giving. Karen had called that morning to tell them that they had raised enough to build an animal hospital and hire on-site veterinarian help.

Now as they stood outside in the bright sunshine, Alexis took a deep breath. A unique fragrance drifted in on the cold air. It was the smell of snow—something that Alexis had never noticed before—and it made her smile.

“Look! There’s Angelo!” Bailey was standing on the top of a picnic table to get a good look at the race course. Alexis jumped up beside her and squinted into the sun. It was a beautiful day, and the snow was as bright as a mirror reflecting the sun.

“Where?” asked Alexis.

“Up at the start!” said Bailey. “He’s wearing his green jacket and a bright yellow helmet.”

“I see him! Go, Angelo!” Alexis shouted.

Within minutes, the horn sounded, and Angelo took off down the mountain. His guide stayed well ahead of him, and the way Angelo skied made it look like he’d been born to fly over the snow. He weaved in and out of the red and blue flags, shaving so close to them he made the crowd gasp.

“You would never know he was blind if you didn’t know him,” said Alexis. She was amazed. When she had first met Angelo, she remembered feeling sorry for him and a bit protective. This week had taught her a lot of things though, and one of them was that people and things that seem helpless almost never are. In fact, without Angelo they might not have solved this case … and she might have been eaten by a cranky bear. It had been him, after all, who pulled her back onto the snowmobile when she fell off.

Within minutes, the race was over. Angelo had beaten his opponent by a wide margin, and Alexis and Bailey ran to meet him.

“Angelo! That was amazing!” said the girls together.

“You totally toasted that guy!” said Bailey.

“Did I? I thought it felt like I was alone up front,” Angelo said, but Alexis could tell by his smile that he knew exactly how badly he had beaten his opponent. “That was the semifinals. This afternoon I’ll race for first place!”

“That’s awesome, Angelo!” said Alexis. “I wish we could stay to see it, but you’ll have to e-mail me. We have to leave after lunch. Bailey flies out from Sacramento tomorrow morning, so we have to get home tonight.”

“I’ll miss you,” said Angelo, “but I’ll send you pictures. My mom’s watching.”

Angelo pointed over to the stands, and Alexis and Bailey saw a beautiful woman waving at them. She looked just like Angelo, only prettier.

“I wanted to thank you two,” said Angelo. “I wouldn’t have been able to race without you. I had a blast yesterday practicing, too. You really made this vacation great. It started off awful … but most of that was probably my bad attitude.”

“Don’t mention it,” said Alexis. “You taught me a lot, too. I’ll never assume that a ‘disability’ makes someone need me. I think I needed you more than you needed me anyway!”

“I
did
save your life, I guess,” laughed Angelo.

“Hey,” Angelo said, looking serious. “Remember the day we met?”

“When I hit you in the head?” said Bailey.

“No, the next day, just over there on that bench.” The girls nodded. “Well, you asked me what I liked to ‘observe,’ and I was really rude. I never answered you.”

Alexis and Bailey looked puzzled.

“You see,” continued Angelo, “I observe with all of my other senses. That day I was paying particular attention to the smell of snow.”

“The smell of snow?” asked Bailey.

“Yep!” said Angelo. “Try it sometime, and think of me.”

Bailey and Alexis each gave Angelo a hug and waved good-bye to his mother. Within an hour they had eaten and were back in the car with Alexis’s family driving Highway 89 back down toward the Valley and Sacramento.

In the back of the car, Bailey and Alexis had the laptop open and earphones on. They were editing tape for their documentary, and they were surprised to see how much it looked like a suspense movie. They had tons of information about the animals on the reserve, but they had also documented the reserve’s struggle against Bruce. Bailey had taped a lot during the party, and she had caught Bruce’s confession, too.

The final two minutes of film were a huge surprise.

“Did you tape this?” Alexis asked Bailey.

“No,” she answered. “I thought you had.”

The girls sat in silence and watched. It was a close-up of Misty Marks, famous actress, speaking directly into the camera.

“The goal of the Tahoe Animal Reserve is simple,” she was saying. “Watch over those who cannot watch over themselves. This applies to our animals, but it applies to our everyday interactions as well. Everywhere we go, there are people who
need
. Look around you. Notice the needs and fill them when you can. The smallest good can fill the largest gap.”

Misty smiled broadly into the camera.

“Thank you, Camp Club Girls, for filling our gap. We are forever grateful.”

Alexis couldn’t see the screen anymore. The tears in her eyes were getting in the way. She wiped at them with the back of her hand and turned to Bailey who was smiling through her own tears.

As Alexis watched the Jeffrey pines race by outside the window, she said a silent prayer:
Thank You so much, God. Thanks for helping us. Thanks for helping these people. Please help me to always see the little gaps that I can help fill in people’s lives—even when they look too small to be important
.

Alexis looked back at the screen. She had never been so excited about a project in her life. She knew this documentary would be a winner—whether it made it on the Discovery Channel or not.