The Panda Puzzle (4 page)

The kids hurried to Josh’s house. His parents were waiting.

“We’ll be back in about an hour,” Josh’s mom told him as she climbed into the family car. Josh’s dad waved and pulled out of their driveway.

“I wanna ride the pony!” Brian yelled, tugging at Josh’s arm.

“No! I wanna catch turtles in the river!” Brian’s twin brother, Bradley, bellowed, yanking the other arm.

“You can’t do either one without Mom and Dad’s permission,” Josh said.

“Then we get candy!” Brian said.

“No, we get ice cream!” Bradley argued, bolting for the house.

Josh sighed and followed his brothers. Dink and Ruth Rose laughed, trailing after Josh. Inside, Josh poured five glasses of orange juice.

Brian jumped off his chair and ran from the room. He was back in a flash with a flat cardboard box.

“Let me help!” Bradley said.

“No, it’s my puzzle!” Brian yelled. “Josh!”

“You guys do the puzzle together or not at all,” Josh said, “and don’t get your sticky little fingers all over the pieces.”

“What’s the puzzle, Bradley?” Ruth Rose asked.

“Gwizzly bears!” Bradley answered, dumping the pieces onto the table. The picture on the box top showed a mama grizzly bear and her cub.

The puzzle pieces were large, just right for four-year-old fingers. Brian and Bradley had done this puzzle before. Their hands flew over the pieces, jamming them into place.

A few minutes later, the puzzle was complete, except for one piece. The baby grizzly bear’s face was missing.

“You took it!” Brian yelled at Bradley.

“Did not. You did!” Bradley yelled right back.

“Don’t argue, guys,” Josh said. He dropped down to the floor and looked under the table. “Not here. Maybe it’s in your room.”

The twins flew out of the kitchen and thundered toward their bedroom.

Twenty seconds later, they charged back into the kitchen. Bradley held the missing piece in his little hand. He lurched back onto his chair and fitted the piece into place.

“Where’d you find it?” Josh asked.

“Under my bed,” Bradley said, grinning.

“I wish finding a missing panda bear was that easy,” Dink said.

Ruth Rose sat up. “That’s it!” she said. “Maybe we should be looking for Winnie,
not
the guy who took her.”

“But where?” Dink asked. “He could’ve stuck her anywhere.”

“If I kidnapped a panda bear,” Ruth Rose said, “where would I hide it?”

Josh took a bowl of apples out of the refrigerator and gave one to Brian and one to Bradley. “You can feed the cores to the pony,” he told them.

The twins shot out the back door, racing each other to the barn. Pal waddled after them.

Dink, Josh, and Ruth Rose took their apples outside. They sat on the back steps and watched the twins pet Polly through the corral rails.

“Baby panda bears aren’t house-broken like regular pets,” Josh said, munching his apple. “You couldn’t really hide one in your house.”

“And I bet Winnie misses her mom,” Ruth Rose said. “She’d probably cry a lot. People would hear her.”

“Right,” said Josh. “So the kidnapper probably hid her where it’s already noisy.”

Dink watched Polly the pony chomp Brian’s apple core. “The kidnapper
has to feed Winnie, so he’d keep her nearby.”

“I know a place,” Ruth Rose said. “It’s noisy and smelly, and not far away from the petting zoo.”

Josh grinned at Ruth Rose. “I do, too. The fitness center, right?”

Ruth Rose nodded. “If Flip stole Winnie, that would be a perfect place to hide her.”

“Should we go back and have a look?” Dink asked.

“But what do we do about Flip?” Josh asked. “If he really is the kidnapper, won’t he be suspicious when we show up again?”

Dink reached into his pocket and brought out the passes. “Kids get in free today,” he said.

“Excellent!” Ruth Rose said. “We can go over for a swim and a snoop!”

CHAPTER 8

The kids met in front of the fitness center an hour later. They were carrying their bathing suits and towels.

Flip and Kate were behind the counter. The gym was crowded, and the music was still blasting.

“Back again?” Flip asked.

Dink laid the three passes on the counter. “We came for a swim,” he said.

“Great idea,” said Kate. “Come on, I’ll show you where to change.”

She led the kids toward the pool.
There were a lot of other kids splashing around. A few grown-ups sat on the side, watching. The lifeguard prowled around the pool, keeping a sharp eye on the swimmers.

Kate stopped in front of a row of four doors. Two of them were labeled
MEN
and
WOMEN.
But the two doors in the middle were unmarked.

“Here are the changing rooms,” Kate said. “No diving, no running, and listen for Danny’s whistle. If he blows it once, everyone freeze. Then he’ll blow it again twice. That means kids get out of the pool for fifteen minutes while the adults swim. Have a good time!”

“See you in three minutes,” Ruth Rose said, and disappeared into the girls’ changing room.

Dink and Josh went into theirs and found themselves alone. Blue metal lockers lined the four walls. At the far
end were showers, sinks, toilets, and a floor-to-ceiling mirror. The floor was carpeted, and there were benches to sit on.

Dink walked over to a small closet with
STORAGE
stenciled on the door. He peeked inside.

“See any pandas?” Josh whispered.

Dink glanced at Josh in the mirror. “No, but I see a skinny redheaded monkey.”

“You are so dunked when I get you in the pool,” Josh said.

The boys changed, stashed their clothes in two lockers, and headed for the pool.

The lifeguard stopped them. “Hi, guys,” he said. “I’m sure Kate explained the rules, right? You’ve got about ten minutes before adult swim. Have fun!”

“Thanks, we will,” Dink said.

Ruth Rose came out wearing a lime
green bathing suit. The kids jumped into the water at the shallow end.

“Now what?” Josh asked, glancing toward Flip behind the counter.

“I wonder what’s behind those two other doors,” Dink said.

“One might lead to the bowling alley,” Josh said. “I think it’s right below us.”

“Maybe we can check them out during adult swim,” Ruth Rose said.
“When the whistle blows, make sure you climb out on that side.”

While they waited, the kids swam and splashed each other. Josh tried standing on his head underwater. He came up coughing.

Suddenly the whistle blew.

Everyone in the pool turned and faced the lifeguard. “Adult swim!” he yelled, and blew the whistle twice more.

There was a wet stampede as the kids clambered out of the water. At the same time, the adults tried to climb into the pool.

Most of the confusion was right in front of the changing rooms. No one noticed as Ruth Rose tried the handles on the unmarked doors. One was locked, but the other one opened.

“Come on!” Ruth Rose whispered as she slipped through. Dink and Josh were right behind her.

When Dink pulled the door closed, it was pitch-black.

“Where the heck are we?” Josh asked, shivering. All three kids were dripping pool water.

Dink put his arms out and touched smooth walls on each side. He inched one bare foot forward and felt the edge of a wooden step.

“I think we might be at the top of a staircase,” he whispered.

“Let’s try to find a light,” Josh said. “I hate the dark.”

“Not yet,” Ruth Rose said. “Let’s feel our way down and see if there’s a light at the bottom.”

“Watch out for slivers,” Dink said.

The kids made their way down the dark stairs. They reached a hard, cold floor and stopped.

“Okay, I’m not going any farther without light!” Josh announced. “I feel like one of those blind fish that live in a cave.”

They felt around on the walls.

“Got it,” Ruth Rose said. There was a click, and the lights came on.

The kids were standing at one end of a corridor. The floor was smooth stone. The bottom half of the walls was rougher stone, with newer-looking painted boards on the top. The ceiling was a mess of ancient wooden beams, rusty pipes, and spider webs.

“Check this out,” Dink said. Scratched into the mortar between two stones was a date: 1902. “This wall was built a hundred years ago!”

“And it’s still creepsville,” Josh said through chattering teeth. “These stones are c-cold!”

The narrow corridor was filled with broken gym equipment, rolled-up floor mats, and large paint containers. A row of cardboard boxes lined the right-hand wall.

There were no other doors in the corridor.

“What’s that noise?” Ruth Rose asked. “It sounds like thunder.”

Dink leaned his head against the wall on his left. “I think the bowling alley is on the other side,” he said.

The kids began walking along the hallway.

“Let’s look in every box,” Ruth Rose
said. “Winnie’s small, so she could be hidden anywhere.”

Five minutes later, they’d run out of boxes. Most had been empty, but a few held white packing peanuts. The kids stood at the end of the corridor and thought about what to do next. A floor mat had been left there. The kids flopped down on it.

Josh rubbed his bare feet and shivered.

“It’s weird that they’d have this long hall with no doors,” Dink said.

“Maybe it was an old basement before the fitness center got built,” Ruth Rose said.

“Ouch!” Josh said.

“Now what?” Dink asked.

“I don’t know, but it hurts!” Josh got up and poked the mat where he’d been sitting.

“Help me lift this thing,” he said.
“There’s something under it.”

The kids got up and helped Josh lift the mat. Hidden underneath was the metal handle of a trapdoor.