Alexis and the Lake Tahoe Tumult - Erica Rodgers [22]
“And we think that’s how the person woke up the bear. She was shooting BBs into the cave.”
“This is a lot more serious than you made it sound, Karen,” said Misty. “I thought you all had just forgotten to lock the cages a couple of times.”
“That’s what we thought, too,” said Jake. He was at the back door stomping snow from his boots and shaking it out of his hair. “Hi, Misty. Good to see you.”
“You, too, Jake,” said Misty. “So what’s really going on?”
“Well, we thought everything was falling apart and that it was all our fault,” said Karen. “But then these girls showed up, and we realized that someone is sabotaging us. We found chocolate wrappers near the coyote cages the day they got sick, so we think someone fed them chocolate to purposely make them sick. And we think someone has been sneaking our keys and letting out animals. And just yesterday someone woke up a brown bear out of hibernation.”
“How is the bear?” asked Alexis. “Did you find him?”
“Oh yeah,” said Jake. “We tranquilized him and took him back to the cave. Hopefully when he wakes up, he’ll realize he’s comfortable and go back to sleep.”
“Speaking of getting comfortable, let’s go sit down and talk about this for a few minutes,” Karen said. She led the group to the couches, and everyone sat around the fire.
“Alexis,” Karen said. “I’m worried. You could have really gotten hurt. What if that BB had hit you in the eye?”
“She got hit by a BB?” asked Jake, and Alexis told her story all over again. She could see Jake was getting angry, so before he could suggest that she and Bailey stop investigating, she told him about the snowmobile and the “Chloe” girl they thought was responsible.
“We’re getting close to figuring this out, Jake,” said Bailey. “It won’t take too long now.”
“Okay,” said Jake. “So you know that a girl named Chloe rented the snowmobile. How are you going to find her? Do you even know where to start looking?”
Alexis hadn’t thought that far ahead yet. Tahoe was a big place, and her dad wasn’t just going to let her and Bailey wander around it looking for some girl with red hair.
“We’ll just have to pray for another clue that leads us in the right direction,” said Alexis. She smiled her most confident smile.
“Well, I guess we already know it’s not a tourist or any of our environmentalist groups,” said Jake.
“Really?” said Bailey. “How do we know that?”
“Well, the environmentalists usually ride around town on bicycles. They’re not really the type to rent a top-of-the-line snowmobile. And a tourist wouldn’t have known where to find the bear caves.”
Jake was right. Alexis’s head was spinning. What did this mean? Whoever was doing this was probably a resident—someone who lived in the Tahoe area. Either that, or they were very familiar with it. What she and Bailey really needed was another clue. A real one that would point them in the right direction.
Laughter interrupted Alexis’s thoughts. The group’s conversation had shifted. Now they were talking about Bruce Benton, the rich guy from the resort.
“Yeah,” Misty was saying, “I ran into him at breakfast, and he wanted me to remind you how far all that money could go. He really thinks this mountain would be the perfect place for an upscale resort. It’s on the quiet side of town, away from all of the noise and gambling over in Stateline. He’s right, you know—”
“What?” said Jake. “You really think I should sell my family’s heritage to that no-good, slimy—”
“No, no! Jake, let me finish,” said Misty. Alexis was amazed. Jake had all but yelled at the actress, and Misty Marks was still smiling her Oscar-winning smile. It was like there was a joke that no one knew about but her.
“What I was going to say, Jake, is that he’s right about the location. It would make a great resort, but there are plenty of resorts around this lake. I reminded him that this was the only reserve of its kind in the area. And it’s in a great central location to serve both California and Nevada. Even if you did want