Island of Lost Girls - Jennifer McMahon [25]
Rhonda nodded.Gone. Hopping off into the sunset, hand in paw.
So this is what Ive been able to figure out: the rabbit had been visiting Ernie for at least three weeks. The last time we know he saw her for sure was this past Thursday: Ernie told her mom she missed the bus and the rabbit brought her home. She drew pictures of him hiding in the bushes by the playground at school and talking to her through her bedroom window. But most of the pictures looked like this, Katy said, slipping a page surreptitiously out of a school binder that saidGIRLS RULE in sparkly letters on the covera bright crayoned drawing labeledRABBIT ISLAND in crude letters.
Shouldnt the police have this? Warren whispered.
Katy shrugged. Ernie made so many drawings of the same scene. Crowley got all of them. I figured I should save one, just in case we never get the others back, you know? Theyre evidence now. And it didnt seem right to give every last one away. It seemed like, I dunno, bad luck or something. Like I was giving away every last piece of her.
How pleasant it looked, Rhonda thought, like a scene from a brochure showing a tropical island getaway. She studied the palm trees, the multicolored rabbits lounging on neat rows of rocks in the sun, the pale clouds shaped like hopping bunnies. The island was surrounded on all sides by dark, shark-infested water. A small black fence circled the island, and to get in, you walked through a swinging gate guarded on either side by giant bunnies. Pulled up in the water next to the gate was a small brown submarine.
Thats obviously the Volkswagen, Warren said, pointing to the sub. Look at the shape. Shes just added a periscope and propeller to it.
But how could the rabbit have used Laura Lees car again and again? Rhonda asked. I mean, I can see taking it once and her not noticing, but he must have used it several times. That seems pretty chancy.
Not if it was someone Laura Lee knew, Katy said. Someone she trusted. Someone who had his own set of keys.
Rhonda shook her head, looked back at the picture.
She saw Ernie and Peter Rabbit in the center of the island, Ernie smiling, holding the rabbits paw.Rabbit Island. Rhonda imagined Ernie there right now, happy and warm in the sun. Maybe Rabbit Island was the place everyone who disappeared went to. Maybe, Rhonda thought in spite of herself, Lizzy and Daniel were there too. Perhaps, thought Rhonda as she touched the missing childs drawing, Rabbit Island was a place populated by all who were lost. She shook her head.Be logical, she told herself.Look at the evidence.
So if the sub is the car, then Rabbit Island is probably an actual place, too, she said.
A zoo maybe? Warren guessed.
Looks more like a park to me, Katy said.
Rhonda nodded. Chances are its not all that far away. When the rabbit took her for these rides, they couldnt have been gone long. He always got her back home before Trudy noticed shed been missing.
With all this water, Warren said, it might be some place by the lake.
Could be, said Rhonda. The lake doesnt have any islands but there are plenty of small beaches and rocky outcroppings.
Theres another thingsomething only the police know, Katy said as she looked up from the drawing. For some reason or other, the rabbit had this weird name he called her.
Weird name? Rhonda asked.
He called her Birdie, Katy said. I heard my aunt tell my mom. Crowley found a card from Peter Rabbit tucked under Ernies mattress. It was addressed to Birdie.
Jesus, Rhonda said.
Bizarre, Warren said, sucking in his lower lip and biting down.
But you didnt hear the Birdie thing from me, Katy said, sliding the drawing back into the folder and sticking the folder in her backpack. And if anyone sees Ive got this, itll go straight to Crowley. If my aunt catches me talking to you,