Mystery of the Midnight Dog (3 page)

“Watch, are you okay? What’s wrong, boy?” Jessie asked. She went to Watch and patted his head.

Watch didn’t seem to notice. He just peered out through the window screen into the night.

“What’s going on?” It was Kate Frances, with Lainey behind her. They stood in Benny’s doorway.

Benny turned to face everyone. “It was the ghost dog,” he said. “It was calling Watch and all the other dogs, too.”

“What? That’s impossible!” Kate Frances said.

“I
thought
I heard dogs howling,” Lainey said.

But Jessie said, “Real dogs, Benny. Only real dogs were howling. In the first place, there’s no such thing as a ghost.”

“It was probably an animal of some kind he heard,” Kate Frances said. “Just like he did during dinner this evening. Maybe a raccoon or a fox is living in the strip of woods along the creek that runs across the bottom of the backyard.”

“If it was just an animal, Watch would have barked, not howled,” Benny said.

“It’s nothing to worry about, Benny,” Henry assured him. “Why, Grandfather and Mrs. Wade slept right through it. If it hadn’t been for Watch, we probably would have, too.”

Benny sighed.

“Let’s get some sleep,” Henry said. “We’ve got a big day tomorrow.”

Kate Frances was frowning. But she said, “Right. Y’all are going to Elbow Bend State Park with Lainey and me tomorrow.”

When everyone had left and the room was dark and quiet again, Benny whispered to Watch, “If you see the ghost dog again, Watch, just howl. And we’ll catch it!”

But Watch didn’t howl anymore that night and when Benny woke up, sunlight was pouring in through the window. He jumped out of bed and got dressed as quickly as he could.

As he and Watch hurried down the stairs, his nose told him that someone had already made biscuits. He joined everyone else in the kitchen for a breakfast of buttered biscuits with blackberry jam, along with grits and ham. Even Watch got a piece of ham.

Grandfather said to Benny, “I hear Watch did some midnight singing last night.”

“He howled,” Benny agreed.

“I understand Watch wasn’t the only dog in town who howled at midnight,” Mrs. Wade said.

“Something made Watch and all the other dogs howl last night,” Benny said.

Jessie shook her head. But she only said, “I think I’m going to have another biscuit.”

“Me, too,” said Violet. “They are delicious.”

“When we’re finished with breakfast, it’ll be time to go to work,” Kate Frances said.

“Are we going to work with you?” Violet asked.

Kate Frances smiled. “Maybe we can find a job for you, if you want one.”

Elbow Bend State Park was by a big curve in the river. Kate Frances drove past a small ticket booth and waved at the older man inside, who was wearing an ELBOW BEND STAFF cap. She parked the car in a small parking lot behind a building made of rough-cut wood and led the way inside.

“Good morning, Kate Frances. Good morning, Lainey.” A woman came out of a small office right by the front door.

“Good morning, Ms. Hedge,” said Kate Frances. “I’ve brought some volunteers for the day.” She introduced the four Aldens.

“We have plenty of work for you. We need someone to stack all the pamphlets in our information booths and to help hand out maps.”

“I can do that,” Violet said.

“Me, too,” said Benny.

Ms. Hedge said, “Kate Frances, I’m counting on you to help me plan the Stories Under the Stars program. It’s only two days away, you know.”

“Stories Under the Stars?” asked Henry.

Ms. Hedge nodded. “Yes. There is a storyteller who lives near here. She’s a well-known storyteller and she’ll be here tomorrow night at our outdoor theater. You should come. She’s wonderful.”

“We will,” said Jessie.

“We can sit in the employee section,” Kate Frances said. “My grandmother was already planning on coming and I know your grandfather would enjoy it, too.”

“Good,” said Ms. Hedge. She turned to Lainey and continued, “The ground crew needs a little help today, Lainey, if you don’t mind pitching in. Someone knocked over all the litter containers on Bluff Trail and Overlook Trail.”

“Good grief,” said Lainey. “Who’d do a thing like that?”

“Maybe it was a wild animal,” said Violet. “A raccoon. Or a bear.”

“No bears around here,” Ms. Hedge said, to Violet’s secret relief. “And I doubt a raccoon is strong enough to turn over those big containers.” Her lips tightened a little. “No, it was someone’s stupid idea of a joke.”

“Well, let’s get to work,” said Lainey. “Henry, Jessie, you want to come along?”

“Sure,” said Jessie.

“And we can look for clues,” Henry added. “Maybe we can solve the Mystery of the Garbage Can Litterbug.”

Lainey laughed. “Maybe. Let’s get packs from the equipment room and some sandwiches. We’ll have a picnic lunch on the trail.”

Kate Frances said, “And we’ll have a picnic right here.”

“See you this afternoon,” Violet said. She and Benny went to work in the visitors’ center while Henry and Jessie set out on the trails with Lainey.

“Wow,” Jessie said as she stuffed newspaper into the litter sack slung over one shoulder. “Some people sure are litterbugs.”

It was hot, hard work. Henry and Jessie looked for clues that might help them figure out who would upend all the litter cans—or why. But there were too many footprints on the trail to point to any one suspect and they could find nothing else that helped.

“Whew! That’s done. Let’s head back,” Lainey said at last. “I just hope whoever pulled the trash can tricks doesn’t come back.”

“Me, too,” said Henry.

As they came out of the woods into the main clearing of the park, Henry said, “What’s that old cabin over there?”

“Oh. That’s one of the cabins of the original European settlers here,” Lainey said. “Or what’s left of it. In this corner of the park and back through the woods are what’s left of several houses of the people who used to live here over two hundred years ago. Dr. Sage sometimes camps out here. She’s the archaeologist in charge of digging up the historic sites in the park. Why don’t we go meet her?”

As Lainey, Henry, and Jessie approached the old ruined cabin, a woman peered from around the back of the house. “Stay between the ropes,” she barked. “Or you’ll be trampling on history.”

Henry and Jessie were a little startled by this sharp welcome, but Lainey seemed used to it. “Hi, Dr. Sage,” she said. “It’s just me. I brought some friends to meet you. This is Henry and Jessie. They’re staying with Mrs. Wade and doing some volunteer work in the park.”

Dr. Sage came out from around the corner of the house. She was a small, strong-looking woman, with dark skin. Her dark brown eyes seemed to miss nothing. She wiped one hand on the leg of her dirt-smudged jeans and said, “Hello.”

Jessie and Henry said hello and shook hands.

“So you’re volunteering. That’s good. Saves the park money. Money saved is money I can use to do my digging and research,” Dr. Sage said.

“I’m glad,” Jessie replied politely.

Dr. Sage gave a short laugh. “Just don’t mess with anything around our dig. It may look untidy, but we can tell when someone’s been here who shouldn’t have been. People on the tour groups have actually tried to pick up artifacts to take home!”

Jessie and Henry both were about to protest that they knew better than to touch historic ruins uninvited, but Dr. Sage stopped them by raising her voice and shouting, “Brad! You’ve got company!”

“Coming,” a voice called from the edge of the nearby trees. A few seconds later a tall, lanky young man with long hair pulled back in a short ponytail came ambling out of the woods. Although it didn’t seem possible, he was covered with even more smudges of dirt than Dr. Sage.

“Lainey’s here to say hello to you,” Dr. Sage said.

“And to introduce some volunteers,” Lainey said quickly. Henry noticed that Lainey was blushing. When he looked over at Brad, he thought Brad’s cheeks were red, too, but it might have been sunburn.

Brad smiled and shook hands with the Aldens. “Hi, I’m Brad Thompson.”

“Are you finding anything interesting?” Henry asked Brad after they’d been introduced.

“As a matter of fact, I’ve found some very interesting pottery fragments,” Brad said. “It leads me to believe that I’m on the right track to the town dump.”

“Dump?” ask Jessie, thinking of all the garbage and litter they’d just picked up along the trail.

Brad nodded eagerly. “Yes! Isn’t it great news?”

Seeing their puzzled looks, Dr. Sage explained, “If we study what people of earlier times threw away, it can tell us quite a lot.”

Jessie laughed. “Wait until we tell Benny that the scientists here are studying
garbage,
especially after we cleaned it up all day.”

Lainey shook her head and smiled. “I guess we should go and let you get back to work.”

“Good idea,” Henry agreed.

They all said good-bye to Dr. Sage and Brad. Brad looked up and said, “ ’Bye, Lainey, and, uh ... everyone.”

Dr. Sage didn’t even notice that they were leaving.

“Are they always like that?” Henry asked.

“Worse,” said Lainey with a little sigh. “Brad and Dr. Sage would work all day and all night if they could. They’d be happy if we closed this park to everyone but scientists and historians.”

“But you’re practically a historian, aren’t you?” Jessie asked.

“I’ll be a historian when I finish college. Right now I’m just a history student,” Lainey said, with one last glance back at Brad.

“Look,” said Jessie. “There’s Violet outside the visitors’ center.”

“And Benny, too,” Henry said.

Violet had a map in her hand and was pointing to it while she talked to an attractive woman with sleek black hair. The woman had on tiny square-framed sunglasses and bright red lipstick.

Violet then gave the map to the pretty tourist, who stuffed it into a pocket and walked away.

Benny and Violet hurried over to join Henry, Jessie, and Lainey.

“We’ve given out about a million maps,” Benny said.

No one got a chance to answer because just then an angry voice shouted, “Hey! Stay on the paths, like you’re supposed to!”

A tall, strongly built man in work pants, work boots, and a long-sleeved shirt that said ELBOW BEND STAFF stomped up to them. He had a rake in one hand, which he waved. “Can’t you read?” he demanded. “What does that sign say?” He gestured toward a small green-and-white sign at the base of a tree.

“ ‘Please stay on the ... trails’ ” Benny read aloud.

“And where are you standing?” the man growled.

Benny looked down at his feet. He looked over at Violet. “I guess we kind of took a shortcut
between
the trails,” he said.

“Huh,” said the man. “First you walk right through the leaves I’ve raked up. Then you go and knock over all my garbage cans. Tourists!”

“We work here,” Violet said, finding her voice.

“And we didn’t knock over anything,” added Benny.

The man stepped back, pushed up his cap, and studied them.

Just then Kate Frances came up the trail. She said, “It’s true. These are friends of mine and they’re doing some volunteer work.”

“Well,” the man said grudgingly, “I guess you’re not tourists. I guess you’re not
so
bad. I’m Joshua Wilson, head of the grounds crew. You can call me Joshua. That’s good enough for me.”

He paused. “But you still have to obey the rules.” He stalked off, waving his rake and muttering to himself.

“Wow. He’s grumpy,” said Jessie.

“He’s proud of this park. It upsets him when people don’t treat it right. And you can’t blame him for being grumpy after someone knocked over all the garbage containers,” Kate Frances told them. “Joshua thinks we should limit the number of tourists allowed in here. He says it would be better for the park.”

“Did you find any clues?” Benny asked, turning to Henry and Jessie, just remembering the garbage can mystery.

Henry shook his head.

“Not a single one,” Jessie said.

Then Benny remembered another mystery. “Hey, Kate Frances,” he said as they walked toward the car to drive home for the evening. “Are there any ghosts in Elbow Bend State Park?”

“Nope,” said Kate Frances. “Not even a ghost dog.”

But as it turned out, Kate Frances was wrong.

The next morning, as the Aldens walked toward the Elbow Bend State Park visitors’ center, they saw Dr. Sage and Brad. Henry and Jessie had told Violet and Benny about the scientist, and Lainey and Kate Frances had promised to introduce them.

But the two girls didn’t get a chance.

Dr. Sage turned toward them as they came up, put her hands on her hips, and said, “You children didn’t do any volunteer digging last night, did you?”

“No!” said Henry.

“Why? What’s wrong?” Lainey asked.

“Someone’s been at the site. Whoever it was made several holes. We just reported it,” Brad said.

“May we see?” asked Jessie.

“I guess so,” Dr. Sage agreed. “Come on.”

When everyone reached the site, Dr. Sage led the way on a worn footpath lined by vivid yellow nylon cord strung between metal stakes. Signs taped to the cord said, OFFICIAL STATE HISTORIC SITE and KEEP OFF.