Alexis and the Lake Tahoe Tumult - Erica Rodgers [33]
Alexis: Good! It’s about time for us to leave, so it’s almost like it’s tonight or never! And we haven’t failed a CCG case yet! I don’t want this to be the first one.
Elizabeth: Jesus asked His disciples: “You of little faith … why did you doubt?” And I think that’s the message He has for us today, too.
Sydney: Speaking of messages for today, I’ve been doing some pretty intensive work on the Internet.
Alexis: About what?
Sydney: I just have a feeling that developer who has been bugging Jake and Karen is involved in this in some way. The feeling wouldn’t go away.
Elizabeth: That’s exciting because God often works in our lives by giving us ideas that won’t go away!
McKenzie: I’ve been thinking about the developer, too. If he’s rich and he’s used to having his way, well, it sounds like he’s pretty ruthless. Sounds like he can only think about what he wants, not about what’s best for the animals and people around the reserve. Those kinds of people can be pretty impulsive.
Sydney: Wait. You haven’t heard what I did.
Alexis: Well, what did you do?
Sydney: I took the name of the company you gave us the other day, and I looked it up on the Internet. I thought maybe it would tell us the name of his assistant or secretary. Then we could see if that Chloe girl was his assistant. Assistants often do things like scheduling equipment—like snow-blowers or snowmobiles or whatever that thing was—for their bosses.
McKenzie: What did you find out?
Sydney: Nothing. From the website, that is.
McKenzie: Aww. You got our hopes up for nothing … not to mention Alexis and Bailey’s.
Sydney: Wait a minute. You keep interrupting. I couldn’t find the names of any of his staff people at his office, but I found the phone number. And I called it.
Alexis: Did you ask him if he’d been threatening anyone or committing acts of sabotage?
Sydney: No, silly. But I did ask if I could talk to his assistant. And I told the person who answered the phone, “Now what’s her name?”
Alexis: And? …
Sydney: And your instincts are completely true! The assistant’s name is Chloe Stevens!
Alexis: Chloe Stevens! Wow, so Bruce Benton is Chloe Stevens’s boss!
Kate: I hate to throw a damper on things, but even if Chloe Stevens rented a snowmobile for her boss, how do you know that her boss is the spray-paint person?
Alexis: We haven’t told you yet, but we heard Chloe talking on the phone earlier today. She told the lady at the store she was talking to her boss. And then she said something about his getting the permanent red paint off of his hands.
Bailey suddenly spoke up. “Uh, Lexi, I just realized something. That was on another call. She’d hung up from her call with Benton and was talking on the phone again when she said that.”
Alexis sat stumped for a moment. Bailey’s right! We don’t know for sure that she was talking to Benton again.
After she got her breath back from the surprise, she typed this new information onto the screen for the girls to read.
McKenzie: So all we really know is that she was telling someone how to get red paint off his or her hands, right? We don’t even know it was a man.
Alexis: Yeah, her tone of voice hadn’t changed much, so I just assumed she was still talking to her boss. But it might not have been. What are we going to do? Any suggestions?
Sydney: Can you shadow Chloe tonight? Watch her and see who she talks to. See if any of the men have a red hand.
McKenzie: Will you have time to keep on her trail?
Alexis: I don’t know. I have to work on filming the event and filming Bailey interviewing people.
Kate: Too bad you can’t pull a James Bond and plant some sort of monitoring device on her.
Alexis: Kate, you’re brilliant! I can go James Bond on her. I forgot about the lapel mic! It’s actually to put on Bailey while I’m taping her. She talks into the lapel mic, and I can receive it through a device in my ear, even if I’m in another room. If I could plant the mic on Chloe, I could hear everything she says.
Elizabeth: But wait, you wouldn’t be able to see the men or their