Alexis and the Lake Tahoe Tumult - Erica Rodgers [9]
“Probably because they’re nocturnal animals. They mainly hang out at night and sleep during the day. Night animals seem spooky to most people. Can you see where they got their name?” Lisa asked as she shoveled dirty straw into a bucket.
“The feathers on their heads, above their eyes,” said Bailey. “They look like horns!”
The day flew by, and before they knew it, the girls were walking to the office for some lunch.
“Uh-oh,” said Lisa as they approached the small building.
“What is it?” asked Alexis. Lisa pointed to a shiny black Mercedes-Benz.
“That always means trouble,” she said. “Or at least it means that Dad’s going to be in a bad mood.”
Alexis tromped up the steps with the others and entered the office.
“I’ll be right back. You wait here,” Lisa said as she disappeared into the other room.
Like the day before, a fire was burning in the fireplace. But Bubbles was nowhere to be seen. Instead, someone strange was at the counter talking with Jake. It was an older man in an expensive coat. His gray hair was slicked back away from his round face, and he hadn’t taken off his sunglasses, even though he was no longer outside.
“Come on, Jake,” the man was saying. “This is the last time I’m coming out here.”
“Good,” Jake said with a smile. “Then this is the last time I’ll have to tell you no.”
The other man slapped his hand down on the desk.
“Jake, you can’t be serious!”
“You know exactly how serious I am, Bruce. I don’t want your money.”
“You’ll wish you’d taken my money when they shut you down,” said Bruce. He had spoken in a quiet voice. Alexis was glad she had good ears.
Jake’s smile vanished, and he leaned across the desk toward Bruce. “Is that a threat?” he growled.
“No, Jake, no! Of course not!” Bruce laughed, but Alexis thought it sounded fake—like he was trying too hard to make the right sound come out. “I just mean that you’re in trouble. It seems like you’ve been having a few … problems here at the reserve.”
“How would you know about that?” asked Jake.
“Oh please, Jake! This is Tahoe! Tourists or no tourists, it’s a small town. People talk.” Bruce took his car keys out of his pocket.
“You know where to find me if you change your mind, Jake,” he said. He placed a card on the desk, and then he was gone. As Alexis moved closer, she saw that the card said Bruce Benton, Land Developer.
Jake picked up the card. “We can just throw that in the trash,” he said as he tossed it into the wastepaper basket.
Karen and Lisa came through the door, each carrying a stack of mail.
“I saw that Benton guy’s car and heard you talking to him. What was that all about?” Karen asked Jake as the ladies handed their piles of mail to him.
“Oh, same old stuff,” he answered. He took some of the mail from her and started opening it. “Bill, bill, bill,” he said. Then he stopped. “Another threat letter,” he said. He tossed it onto the desk.
Alexis and Bailey had wandered over to look out the window, but now they hurried back to the desk.
“Really?” Alexis said. “You got a threat letter?”
On the desk was a sheet of white paper with different sizes of lettering on it. Someone had cut words out of a magazine and pasted them together.
You think you’re helping, but you’re interfering with nature. Leave the forest alone! It will heal itself! If you don’t, more than letters will come your way!
No one had signed it.
“What in the world?” Alexis said. “This is awful!”
“It’s not as bad as you think,” said Lisa. “We actually get them a lot. A lot of people are unhappy with places like this reserve.”
Bailey and Alexis looked at Jake. They were puzzled. How could anyone be angry with a place that helped animals?
“It’s the same old thing, Alexis,” said Jake. “You can’t please everyone. Some people think we do too much.” He pointed to the letter Alexis held in her hand. “Others think we don’t do enough. Nothing ever comes of the letter, though. We don’t worry about them. We keep them all, just in case something worse happens, but that’s it.”
Alexis was still alarmed. She had received a threatening note once before,