Mr. and Mrs. Bunny—Detectives Extraordinaire! (15 page)

Meanwhile, back in the factory basement, the Grand Poobah was pacing back and forth in front of a tired Flo and Mildred. They had been grilled all night, and for the last two hours without even a single language lesson to relieve the tedium, but still their memories remained a blank.

“Isn't his house by a big tree?” Flo asked Mildred wearily. They had been over this hundreds of times.
Where
exactly was Uncle Runyon?

“Oh, that's no good. There are big trees everywhere on the island. Wasn't there a lake?” asked Mildred.

“I don't think so. There might have been a pond.…”

“Wasn't he north of Duncan?”

“YES! YES, he was!”

“Aha!” said the Grand Poobah. “Finally we narrow it down!”

“Or south …,” said Flo. “It was one or the other.”

“You really should just ask Madeline!” wailed Mildred. “She knows for sure. She probably has the address memorized. That's the type of person she is. I can't believe I gave birth to the type of person who memorizes addresses. My doula never warned me of
that
.”

“Ask Madeline? Ask Madeline?” said the Grand Poobah, his face getting progressively redder and his voice louder. “ASK MADELINE? We DID try to ask Madeline. We sent two foxes there in the dead of night to steal her away. And guess what,
Madeline is gone! So we're left with just you. So LET'S START FROM THE BEGINNING! WHERE IS THIS RUNYON'S BLASTED HOUSE?”

“She's gone?” asked Mildred and Flo, looking at each other in alarm. “Where could she be?”

“Well, don't worry, my stupidimentos. She won't be hard to find,” said the Grand Poobah. “She is sure to have left a trail. I have my finest foxes scouting for her now. It's only a matter of time. The two of you will be kept alive just until we find her and just until she tells us where this decoder is. Then it's curtains for all of you! You may have lima bean–sized brains, but lima beans, my dears, are very tasty! And guess what? We have been reading your hooman cookbooks and have decided for dinner to have—FINGER FOOD! Guess what the key ingredient is? MWA-HAHA! MWA-HAHA! MWA-DOUBLEHAHAHAHA!”

And he approached them, his grin widening until all they saw were teeth.

 SOMEONE IS IMPRISONED AND IT ISN'T THE BUNNYS 

M
rs. Bunny waited outside for Madeline and Mr. Bunny to pick her up. When they arrived, they seemed tired and discouraged.

“The fox finder found nothing,” said Madeline.

“I wouldn't say that,” said Mr. Bunny. “We know now where the foxes are
not
. We also know where marmots are not, because we went over to see if The Marmot had remembered anything else, but when we got there he had moved.”

“So we Googled his new address and went there,” said Madeline.

“But he had moved again by the time we got there,” said Mr. Bunny.

“We spent the whole afternoon doing that, and we never did catch up with him,” said Madeline.

“And we can't do anything tomorrow morning because we have to go to the Bunny Council,” said Mr. Bunny.

“And then what?” said Madeline. “What if they throw you in prison?”

“Nonsense,” said Mrs. Bunny stoutly. “Mr. Bunny will never let us get thrown into prison. He'll think of something. He always does. And you must never give up hope, Madeline. I have lived many more years than you, and I can say with certainty that something always turns up. Especially when things look blackest.”

“Maybe you should tell the Bunny Council about the foxes' factory. Wouldn't it help if more bunnies were out looking for it? Maybe we need to organize.”

“I'm telling you, it's pointless without evidence. We need the translated file card and at least two other pieces of evidence. In fact, the fox SWAT team emergency panic button is right outside the council hall, but there is a terrible fine for pressing
it without solid evidence of foxes. And besides, the fox SWAT team will do us no good until we know where the foxes
are
.”

“What about the kidnap note?”

“Anyone could have written that. They didn't even sign it ‘The Foxes.' They signed it ‘The Enemy.' No, be patient, Madeline. We need more.”

They rode silently, some of them sulkily, back to the hutch.

When they arrived, there was an envelope stuck to the door. Mrs. Bunny opened it and gasped.

“Great,” said Mr. Bunny. “More Bunny Council threats?”

“No,” said Mrs. Bunny. “Wait until you read this. This is the break in the case we've been waiting for!”

She passed the note to him and he read, “ ‘So you think you're so smart spying on me, do you? Meet me at the top of the cliff edge, under the oak tree. Signed, your enemy.' ”

Madeline squealed. “The foxes! They must have been spying on us while we tried to spy on them!”

“Hmmm,” said Mr. Bunny. “It would appear so, but I find it hard to believe that the fox finder didn't sound an alarm. The cliff edge is right before you come to the bunny shopping district. Seems an odd place for foxes. Everyone knows they hate paying retail.”

“Let's go right now,” said Madeline.

“We can't. It's too late and we have to be up early for the council. I promise we'll go right after the Bunny Council meeting.”

“But suppose they throw you in jail?” said Madeline.

“They won't. And whatever you do, Madeline, you are not to go alone. Have you got that?” said Mr. Bunny sternly. “This note is excellent news. It means that those foxes are more scared of us than we are of them, or they would have just kidnapped us today when they had us unawares.”

“Why would they be scared of us?” asked Mrs. Bunny. “They weren't scared of Flo and Mildred.”

Madeline cleared her throat. “Nobody could be scared of Flo and Mildred. I love them dearly, but they're, well, not exactly fearsome foes. Come on, let's go to the cliff edge now. We can rescue Flo and Mildred and be back in time for the Bunny Council.”

“Listen, Madeline, you don't ever want to go after a fox at night. Their night vision is extraordinary, and they're sure to be lying in wait for us. We must hunt them by daylight. Now, Mrs. Bunny and I have a lot on our minds with the council meeting in the morning. You and I have had a busy spy day,
and Mrs. Bunny is exhausted from cavorting. We'll go to bed, wake up refreshed and, after the council meeting, charge off to confront this dastardly foe.”

“All right,” said Madeline. “I guess I could use some rest. Since I can't go to the council meeting with you, I may as well sleep in. Could you not wake me in the morning, please?”

“Of course, dear,” said Mrs. Bunny, patting Madeline. She threw Mr. Bunny a look. “You sleep as late as you like.”

Mrs. Bunny put Madeline to bed with a glass of warm carrot juice, which was just as delicious as it sounds.

When Mrs. Bunny returned to the hutch, she was surprised to find Mr. Bunny rapidly pacing in front of the fireplace.

“I'm getting worried about Madeline. She's so worked up about those ridiculous parents. She seems to have no faith in our ability to rescue them. She doesn't seem to realize that a bunny always gets his man.”

“I think that's a Mountie, dear,” said Mrs. Bunny.

“Whatever. I'm sure it applies to rabbits. Anyhow, Madeline is too young for such cares. She should leave it all in our capable detecting paws. And isn't it time to be thinking about
her graduation ceremony? It's in two more days. I have an idea, Mrs. Bunny. Instead of you going by bus with the other hat clubbers, why don't I drive you and Madeline up? Then, after the parade, we can go inside and clap our little paws off for Madeline.”

“Oh, oh, Mr. Bunny! That is a brilliant plan! Except I think I will even skip the parade. I don't want to risk missing Madeline's big moment.”

“Wait a second, what about the white shoes?”

“Let me worry about that. Oh, look, Madeline finally turned out her light. Thank goodness, she is getting some sleep. Let's go up and do the same.”

But Mrs. Bunny was wrong. Madeline had closed her light. But she had not gone to sleep.

Madeline crept softly along the ground. The giant moon had waned since Luminara but still glowed behind the clouds, and there was enough starlight to see the way to the edge of town.

“I like the dark. I like the dark,” she chanted. “I liked being alone in the dark woods on Hornby.”

But this was not the Luminara-lit woods of Hornby, and the errand she was going on was not a carefree one. Instead, she was going over strange countryside to meet with kidnapping murderous carnivorous foxes. This was not a friendly welcoming darkness; it hid things. Leaves fluttered and twigs crunched. Suddenly she regretted going out alone. But she couldn't wait for Mr. and Mrs. Bunny forever. They had their council meeting and might even be in prison tomorrow. And she couldn't wait for her uncle to come out of the coma. Even if he was willing to help her, there was no longer a file card for him to decode. Who knew how much of it he had managed to decode before his coma? The only word they seemed to have was
rubber
, and that was getting them nowhere. No, Flo and Mildred had one person they could count on right now, and that was she. As usual, she alone must save the day.

As Madeline approached the cliff, she spied sawdust arrows on the ground. Clever, she thought. The foxes can easily brush them away afterward, leaving no trace. She moved from arrow to arrow until she came to the oak tree. Now what? she wondered, reading the note again. It didn't say. So she followed the last arrow.

Would the foxes be there under the oak or in the oak, waiting
for her all this time? The thought that perhaps they could see her and she couldn't see them chilled her. She turned for a second. Maybe she should come another time. There could be an awful lot of teeth to contend with. Suppose they ate her first and asked questions later? But no, she could not delay.

Madeline walked to the end of the last arrow and started to say, “No guts, no glory,” but it came out, “No guts, no gloooooooooooory!” for what looked like firm earth instead gave way and she dropped down, down, down, down, down into darkness.

Madeline dropped a long time before she finally landed in some kind of huge cloth bag. It immediately closed around the top of her head.

Oh no, she thought, I'm trapped.

It was just as total panic ensued that she heard a sound at the top of the hole. A sound oddly like millions of leaves being scuttled about by millions of feet! Fox feet! A voice boomed down into the hole, “HA! At last you are mine! Say your prayers, I've got you now!”

As scared as she was, Madeline felt that there was something somehow wrong with these words. They were so theatrical. But she'd never spoken to foxes before. Perhaps they had sophisticated thespian societies. Before she had time to think about this, she felt a sharp jerk and the bag was slowly drawn upward.

Now she felt herself being hefted onto the backs of many foxes and carried along. It was not uncomfortable. It was a soft furry bed, but she supposed such comfort would not last long.