The Trap (5 page)

“Maybe you’d like to play Chinese checkers. We have a game board in the den,” Glenda said.

At the same time I blurted out, “Want to go swimming this afternoon, Ashley?”

Ashley was mumbling, “You probably have other things to do. Go ahead. I’ll help Gran.”

We were silent again as we all tried to sort out what we’d heard. I was the first to recover and came out with what had been on my mind since my early swim. “Aunt Glenda, I’d like to do some exploring. I haven’t
seen Uncle Gabe’s observatory. Could Ashley and I take a look at his telescope?”

Glenda seemed relieved. “Of course,” she answered. “Would you like that, Ashley?”

Ashley shrugged and nodded at the same time, which made her look like a turtle trying to escape into its shell.

Millie Lee looked a little nervous as Glenda removed the key to the observatory from the board near the back door. “I don’t know if that’s a good idea,” she said. “There’s a lot of expensive, breakable stuff up there, like that telescope. When the sun hits that brass, you can see the gleam a mile away. I once got fingerprints on it when I dusted, and Mr. Hollister like to have taken my head off.”

“Oh, dear. He does get touchy,” Glenda said. “But the girls won’t hurt anything.” She handed me the key. “They’ll enjoy using the telescope. You don’t have to use it just to look at stars. During the daytime you can use it to scan quite a bit of the countryside.”

“If you say so, Miz Hollister,” Millie Lee said. “But, Ashley, don’t you go touchin’ things you shouldn’t touch. Especially that model of the planets, with all those little balls sticking out on wires.”

“I’ll be careful, Gran,” Ashley said.

As soon as we were outside and out of hearing range, I laughed. “I wonder how old we have to get before people stop expecting us to break things,” I said.

I assumed that Ashley would think it was funny, too, so I added, “Sometimes my parents drive me crazy. And it’s not just parents. I’ve got aunts and
uncles breathing down my neck about everything. I can’t make a single decision without having to listen to everyone’s opinion.”

Ashley didn’t smile. She turned and gave me the kind of look a person would give a plate of brussels sprouts when she was expecting a hamburger. Okay, I told myself. She doesn’t want to be friendly. But maybe she’ll come around. She’s the only one my age on this ranch, so unless I want to spend all my time playing Chinese checkers with grandmothers …

I didn’t have to finish the thought. We had reached the stairs. “Let’s go up,” I said. I gave Ashley my friendliest smile and ran up the stairs, unlocking the door when I reached the top.

She was right behind me, but we both stopped short when we entered the room. We stood still and stared.

The walls were windows, tall and wide, and the room glowed from the sunlight that filtered through their gauzy blinds. The model of planets that Millie Lee had spoken about rested on a small table in the center of the room. It seemed to focus the light, drawing it into each of its shining brass orbs.

“Wow!” Ashley said.

“Let’s open the blinds,” I suggested, and as we did, there was plenty of time to note the astronomy books on a low bookshelf, the gigantic poster of the Milky Way that covered the inside of the door, and the charts and diagrams that were spread across Uncle Gabe’s desk.

When all the windows were uncovered, the room lost its mystic look. On the other hand, it gave us a gorgeous view.

“Look—down there,” I said, and pointed. “There’s the swimming pool and the clubhouse.”

I moved to the telescope that rested on a large tripod near one of the windows and focused on the pool. A black sedan slid in and parked in front of the office, and the Hunk climbed out. He pulled off his sweats, tossed them into his car, then scratched his chest and yawned widely. I giggled. He had no idea he was being watched.

Swinging the telescope in the other direction, I could see the Crouches’ home—at least the part facing the road. And not too far off someone on his knees, bent over as he pulled weeds in a small flower bed next to the Barrows’ house. In the distance, looking like my brother Trevor’s small Western action figures, rode two men on horseback. Ahead of them plodded a half dozen or so head of cattle.

“Do you want to take a turn?” I asked Ashley, and she silently moved to the telescope.

I noticed that she lingered on the pool area a little longer than on anyplace else and I grinned, thinking that the Hunk didn’t know how much he was being appreciated.

“Bring your swimsuit tomorrow,” I said. “We’ll go swimming at the clubhouse pool.”

Ashley turned and studied me. “You really want me to go swimming with you? You weren’t just saying that to please my grandmother?”

Startled, I said, “I invited you to swim with me because I thought we’d have fun. You don’t have to if you don’t want to.”

“I
do
want to.” Ashley’s cheeks reddened, and she looked down at her toes.

I backed up a few steps, sank into Gabe’s heavily padded leather office chair, and leaned back, twirling from side to side. “We should come here at night,” I said, “and look at the stars, like Uncle Gabe does.”

“Great. I’d like that,” Ashley said, suddenly animated. “I found some terrific astronomy sites on the Internet, using Gran’s computer. It’s hard to find time, though, when she’s not on it.”

I was surprised, and asked without thinking, “What does she use her computer for? Freecell? Solitaire?”

Ashley shook her head. “No, she likes chat rooms and instant messaging. She talks to people all over the country.”

“How about you? Do you have computer friends too?” I asked.

“I don’t like chat rooms,” Ashley said. “I don’t know the people in them and I don’t want to write messages to someone I don’t know.”

“Me either,” I said. “I do a lot of instant messaging, but it’s to my best friend at home.”

“I love to find out new things on the Internet, like at the astronomy sites,” Ashley added, “but it will be even more exciting to see the night sky through a telescope. I didn’t realize it was your uncle who had the telescope.”

I was glad I’d brought up the idea, because for some reason it seemed important to me that I look through that telescope in the darkness. I’d taken a careful look around the office so that when I came after dark I’d know my way around. Maybe I’d discover that Gabe had seen something he wasn’t supposed to see, and that was why someone …

But I thought about the deep, silent darkness that enveloped the ranch at night, and about the heavy-footed cattle with their curious eyes and huge faces, and I knew I’d be too scared to come to the observatory by myself.

If Gabe had been right, and someone had wanted him to trip at the head of the stairs, and I found out who did it—

“Are you cold?” Ashley asked me. She sounded puzzled. “You just shivered.”

AFTER LUNCH GLENDA RECEIVED A CALL FROM GABE’S
doctor. The new medication was working, Gabe’s blood pressure was down, and he could check out of the hospital at any time. Since plans had changed, Millie Lee moved on to her afternoon people, as she called them, taking Ashley with her. Glenda gave Ashley a big hug and made her promise to come to our house the next morning with a swimsuit.

As Millie Lee reminded Glenda that she was almost out of tile cleaner, Ashley said to me in a low voice, “I don’t live here. They won’t want me in their pool.”

“No one will tell you to leave,” I said. “You’ll be my guest. You’re welcome, Ashley. I want you to come.”

She gave me a long look, but I noticed that she held her chin higher, and she tried to smile. “You don’t know much about me,” she said.

“I don’t need to,” I answered. “I’m glad to know someone here my age. We’re going to enjoy the pool together.” I grinned. “And you’re going to meet the Hunk.”

“I’ve met him already,” she said. “He rents the trailer next to Gran’s. He’s our neighbor.” She paused, then said, “I was there when he moved his stuff in. Some heavy gym equipment and a full-length mirror.”

We both broke out laughing at the same time. “See you tomorrow,” I said.

“What was so funny?” Glenda asked as she shut the door behind Millie Lee and Ashley.

“Girl stuff,” I answered, and giggled again.

Glenda didn’t ask for details, the way Mom would have. She smiled as she picked up her purse and handed me the car keys. She settled herself into the seat, and as I backed the car out of the drive and headed down the road, she said, “In order for Gabe to recuperate quickly, we’ll have to do our best to keep him from becoming upset about anything. He needs calm and quiet.”

I gave her a quick look, then turned back to the road. “That means I’m not to say anything about his fall on the stairs?”

Glenda sighed. “We can count on Gabe continuing to carry on about his fall not being an accident. He’s bound to pester you, Julie. Ignore him. Please.”

I wasn’t sure how to reply, so I said, “Maybe his fall
wasn’t
an accident.”

Glenda suddenly gripped my arm. I was so startled I swung over the dividing line on the highway and back. Luckily, no traffic was coming toward us.

She said quickly, “I needed a relative … a friend … someone I could trust to just be around, to give me a little peace of mind. If there is something
going on around here that shouldn’t be, please don’t stir it up, Julie. Please.”

“You’re afraid,” I blurted out. “You really don’t think Uncle Gabe’s fall was an accident, do you?”

She waited a long time before answering. Then she said, “It really doesn’t matter what I think. The doctor said Gabe’s broken ankle will heal properly. He doesn’t expect problems. Gabe’s coming home, so everything will be all right.”

Unless whoever caused him to fall decides to try again, I thought. I gave her a quick look and knew by the tightness and strain I saw in her face that for now I’d better keep that opinion to myself.

Later, on the way back from the hospital to Rancho del Oro, Gabe gave us a long, grouchy list of things he didn’t like about the hospital. On occasion, he interrupted himself by reminding me about the speed limit (which I was observing), pointing out a truck that was a good quarter mile away, and worrying in general about the safety of the nation when kids could get driver’s licenses at such an early age.

It took both of us to get him into the house and safely tucked into one of the comfortable living room chairs, with his feet propped up on a hassock and his crutches at hand.

Glenda turned to me. “Julie, please entertain your uncle Gabe while I get supper put together.”

“I’ll help you,” I offered.

“What are we having?” Gabe asked.

“Beef stew,” Glenda said.

“You’ll need help,” I insisted. “I can peel and slice the carrots, potatoes, and onions.”

She shook her head. “No need,” she said. “It all comes in a package. I just have to take it out of the freezer, put it in a skillet with a half cup of water, and let it simmer for ten minutes.”

She disappeared into the kitchen, so I sat in a chair next to Gabe. “Ashley and I visited your observatory today,” I told him. “It’s beautiful.”

He beamed. “Made it myself,” he said, then added almost grudgingly, “Well, with a little help from Luis.”

I smiled. “When do you usually visit your observatory?”

“At night, of course, after it’s dark enough to clearly see the stars.”

“Are you ever there in the daytime?”

“Sure. Once in a while,” he said. “It’s easier to go over my charts in the daylight than it is at night with the glare of electric lights. Old eyes, you know.”

“When you’re in your observatory in the daytime, do you ever use your telescope?”

Gabe nodded. “Once in a rare while. If the day’s clear, I like to guess how far I can see.”

“How about close at hand? Have you ever seen something unusual around the ranch property?”

“Unusual? Like what?” He sat up a little, shifting in his chair.

“I don’t know,” I answered.

“Well, I sure as shootin’ don’t know either, so what are you getting at?”

I wasn’t certain how to answer. “I used your telescope this morning,” I said. “I couldn’t believe all the small details I could see. I watched someone working in a flower bed and someone over at the swimming pool.”

“Yeah,” he said, and smiled. “That’s a great telescope. I decided if I was going to buy one, I might as well get only the best. Wait until you try it at night.”

Suddenly he twisted to look toward the kitchen. Then he leaned forward and lowered his voice. “Now’s a good time to tell me,” he said. “Did you examine the stairs to the observatory? Did you find anything?”

Sooner or later I’d have to answer. I gulped down the lump of guilt that threatened to stick in my throat, deciding, in spite of how Glenda had cautioned me, to tell him now and get it over with. “Uncle Gabe,” I said, “you asked me to search for something that might have caused your fall. I did. I found two tiny nail holes opposite each other on the supports at the top of the stairs, about four inches above the stair.”

He frowned, looking puzzled. Then the idea hit him and he said, “Nails? With a string tied between them?”