Mystery of the Stolen Snowboard Read online

  Benny cheered as she neared the bottom. Right behind her was Patricia, followed by Jasper and Hyun.

  As Mercedes and Patricia came through a tight bend, Patricia boldly made a move to sneak past Mercedes.

  The crowd went crazy, screaming and shouting, some cheering for Mercedes and others for Patricia. Watch put his paws over his ears and closed his eyes.

  Just as it looked like Patricia might swing in past Mercedes and take first place, Patricia’s board skidded out and she fell, tumbling a few feet down the mountain.

  The crowd gasped.

  “Oh no!” Benny shouted.

  When Patricia came to a stop, she lay in the snow and didn’t move.

  The town doctor and his medical team went to help her while the others finished the race. The boarders were trained not to stop, no matter what. Mercedes, Jasper, and Hyun came across the finish line but there was no celebration.

  Everyone was waiting to see if Patricia was all right.

  After a short time, she stood up, and with a nurse’s support, walked to the side of the racecourse. A sled was waiting to take her to the hospital clinic at the bottom of the mountain.

  All eyes were on Patricia when suddenly, Benny screamed. “Yeti!” He jumped up and down and pointed. Behind Patricia’s head, near the trees about halfway down the mountain, was a tall figure, covered in white fur.

  Watch bolted upright and started barking and pulling at his leash.

  “I told Watch to bark like crazy when he saw something important.” Benny looked up at his siblings. “Listen to him now!”

  Henry rubbed his eyes to clear them. “You were right, Benny,” he said. “It does look like a yeti!”

  CHAPTER 5

  The Yeti

  “Come on!” Benny shouted over his shoulder at Jessie, Violet, and Henry. “Hurry.” He hiked up the slope toward where they had seen the yeti.

  “I can’t believe he’s not complaining,” Violet said as her feet sunk in deep snow. “It’s freezing and climbing uphill is hard.”

  Henry took big steps with his long legs. “I’d never have thought I’d be having a hard time keeping up with Benny.” He stopped and watched Benny slip between two trees. “I’m breathing harder than ever.”

  “It’s the altitude,” Jessie said. “We are six thousand feet above sea level. The air is thinner here.” She put on her gloves and wiggled her fingers to keep them warm.

  “Benny has good lungs,” Henry said, picking up the pace. “Watch too.” The dog was at Benny’s side.

  “Look what I found!” Benny shouted from where he was stopped near some tall trees.

  The Aldens hurried to him, jumping though small drifts of snow.

  “Footprints,” Benny said. His breath puffed out in a big smoky gust.

  Violet took out the paper she’d been drawing on. She was going to make a quick sketch of the prints Benny found, but the foot size was bigger than her page. “Yikes,” she said, laying the page near the footprint and stuffing her cold hands in her pockets.

  Henry stepped in closer. “That one print is almost bigger than my two feet together, toe-to-heel,” he said.

  “It’s the mark of a huge, monstrous yeti.” Benny put a hand above his eyes and squinted in the direction the footprints went.

  The group followed Benny around a rock, over a fallen log, and through a small grove of snow-covered aspen trees.

  The yeti’s trail ended at an old mining cabin. The snow-covered wood was rotten and splintered, but it was clear that someone was living in the rundown shack. The glass on the windows was new and the cabin was fitted with two solar panels.

  Henry raised his hand to knock on the door.

  “No.” Benny blocked Henry’s hand. “If you knock, the hungry yeti will capture us all and eat us for dessert.”

  “This isn’t the witch’s house in Hansel and Gretel,” Henry said.

  “I wish it was. I’d break in by eating off the front door,” Benny told him.

  Henry gave a small laugh. “I think we should use our manners, even if we are going to meet a hungry yeti,” he said and knocked.

  There was no answer.

  “I’ll check around back.” Jessie took Watch around the rear of the cabin to peek in a window. She came back a minute later. “There’s no one here.”

  “But the footprints end at the door,” Benny said, scratching his head. “The yeti has to be in the cabin.”

  “I don’t know where he went,” Violet said. “But I know how he left the area without leaving any other footprints.” She showed the others a path through the trees. There was a thick, smooth trail over the top snow. “Whoever that yeti is, he knows how to ride a snowboard.” She pointed to a small bump in the snow where the snowboard tracks stopped. “The rider clearly jumped and then landed a few feet away,” she said.

  “I’m guessing most people who live around Hidden Hills can either snowboard or ski,” Henry said. “I’m not sure that’s a helpful clue.”

  “What about this?” Jessie trekked a few feet into the snow and picked up an extra large thermos. “Here’s a helpful clue.”

  Henry took the thermos and opened it. There was a small amount of liquid inside. He poured the liquid into the snow. The snow immediately melted into a small puddle where the liquid hit. “Warm water.” Henry put the lid back on the thermos. “It probably used to be very hot.”

  “A thirsty yeti?” Benny suggested.

  Jessie wrote down the thermos in her notebook as a clue. “This thermos looks new.” She turned it around in her hands. “No scratches or dents or anything.”

  “I think I’ll also draw a map of the cabin and the snowboarding trail, and mark the spot where you found the thermos.” Violet reached into her pocket for the drawing paper that Jessie had given her earlier. “Oh no,” she said. “I left the paper near where we first saw the footprints.”

  “We can get it on the way down the mountain,” Jessie said. “Do you want a clean page to draw something now?” Jessie pulled out her notebook.

  “That’s all right,” Violet said. There was a big recycling bin nearby. She lifted the lid and looked inside. “I can use any old scrap…” She took out a wrinkled piece of paper and smoothed it out. “Oh, look, it’s one of Mr. Fellows’s protest flyers.” Violet studied the flyer and then turned her attention to the snowboard tracks.

  “I’m just going to make a quick sketch of—” Violet turned over the flyer to draw on the back. “This is interesting. There’s an advertisement for a local writing contest on the other side.” After a quick read, she said, “It looks like Mr. Fellows edits a magazine when he’s not serving coffee or yelling at hotel guests. They are hosting a competition, looking for essays about nature.”

  “He must have reused the paper,” Jessie said. “Mr. Fellows told us to recycle the flyer when we were done reading it too. He’s a good role model for saving the environment.”

  “I’m pretty sure he’s also the yeti,” Henry said, cutting into the conversation.

  “You think Mr. Fellows is the yeti?” Benny asked, eyes wide. “Is he a shape-shifter?”

  “Sorry, Benny, nothing supernatural. It looks like Mr. Fellows is a man dressing up like a yeti,” Henry said. “The clues add up. The yeti footprints lead here. Mr. Fellows loves the environment, so I think he’s living in this cabin in the woods.” He pointed to the roof. “He’s a recycling yeti who harnesses solar energy.”

  Jessie opened her notebook and looked at his name on the suspect list. “We already thought Mr. Fellows might have taken Clayton’s snowboard to stop the competition…”

  “And when the competition continued,” Violet went on. “He dressed like the yeti and scared Patricia into falling.”

  “Coffee shop owner, writer, magazine editor, environmental protestor, snowboard thief…” Benny counted all the things Mr. Fellows did on his fingers. “He’s too busy to be a yeti. I still think there’s a real yeti.”

  “A yeti that snowboards?” Violet asked
. “It’s a good story, Benny, but I just don’t think it’s possible. That would be one amazing yeti.” She drew a quick sketch of the snowboard track on the corner of the flyer and put it in her pocket. When they got back to the hotel, she’d tuck the page into her sketch pad.

  Digging his toe in the snow, Benny said, “I was hoping there was a real yeti. Just one time, I’d like to find a live monster when we’re solving a mystery, not just a person dressed like a monster.” He frowned.

  “Sorry, Benny,” Jessie said, putting her arm around her brother. “No yeti. Not this time. We better go now and find Mr. Fellows before something bad happens to another snowboarder—”

  Just then a scream came from the snowboarding course.

  CHAPTER 6

  Injured

  The Aldens ran toward the shout.

  They found Jasper lying in the snow, grasping his ankle.

  Watch reached him first, followed close behind by Henry.

  Being a sensitive dog, Watch put his nose up to Jasper’s leg, as if he was a doctor checking the injury.

  “I’m okay, boy,” Jasper said, sitting up and giving Watch a pat on the head. He tried to stand, but he fell back down into the snow with a grunt. “Ouch.”

  “What happened?” Henry asked.

  “Jasper twisted his ankle.” Hyun was kneeling next to his friend, looking very concerned.

  “You need to ice the injury immediately,” Jessie said, scooping a small mound of snow and setting it onto his leg.

  “Are you going to be able to compete?” Hyun asked.

  Jasper took a moment to roll his foot around. “It hurts, but thanks to Jessie and this snow pack, it should heal really fast.” He tried again to stand, but decided against getting up yet. “I think I’ll sit here and rest for another few minutes.”

  Jessie set a fresh layer of snow over his injury. “Why were you up here on the mountain?”

  Hyun answered, “When Patricia crashed, she dropped a mitten. The medical team took her away so fast they left it here. Since the chairlift is closed for the day, Jasper and I offered to hike up here to get it with her.”

  “We found it easily,” Jasper said.

  “We were about to go back down when Jasper tripped.” Hyun pointed at a tree root that was sticking out of the snow. “The snow melted around the root, but Jasper didn’t see it until he fell over it.”

  Violet stepped over the dangerous root and walked a few feet away. They were nearly in the same spot where she’d left the drawing paper so she went to get it. The page from Jessie’s journal was wet and soggy. She put the paper in her pocket and began to step back to the others when she realized something important.

  “Did you say that the snow around the root was melted?” Violet asked Hyun.

  “Of course,” Hyun said. “We see this all the time on the mountain. If the sun hits the snow and warms it, the snow turns to mush. There might be water around in little pools too.” He took a fistful of snow and blew on it with his warm breath.

  Jessie went to the root and stood near Violet. Together they examined the way the snow was melted. “Interesting,” Jessie muttered.

  “Roots are a hazard on any ski or snowboarding slope,” Jasper said. “The snow covers the plants and earth below. It’s scary when part of a tree sticks through—and can be really dangerous. A lot of places groom the slopes before winter to keep the plants from growing too much.”

  “Hidden Hills is known to be wild,” Hyun said. “It’s part of what makes boarding here so tricky.”

  “Once this place becomes Majestic Mountain,” Jasper continued, “they’ll have a lot more slopes—and they’ll take better care of them.”

  Jessie looked around at the thick forest. “If they made more slopes, they’d probably need to cut down a lot of trees.”

  “Another reason to suspect Mr. Fellows,” Henry said. “He would never want anyone to cut down the trees.”

  “Maybe it’s time to go to the sheriff,” Violet suggested. “I’m worried what might happen next.”

  “We can’t accuse Mr. Fellows of anything until we know more,” Henry said. “We need real proof. We’re still guessing he took Clayton’s snowboard and we only think he is trying to scare the other snowboarders.”

  “We need to find out the truth,” Jessie agreed.

  Jasper said his ankle felt a lot better and he was able to stand up. Still he needed Henry and Hyun to help him down the mountain. Watch and Benny led the way to the medical clinic.

  A nurse put Jasper in a room while another nurse filled out paperwork.

  With a mystery still to solve, Henry, Jessie, Violet, and Benny decided to leave. They would come back and check on Jasper later.

  As they headed to the door, they ran into Patricia.

  “Are you all right?” Henry asked her.

  “Yeah.” She lifted the edge of her coat to show him her hip. A big black bruise had already begun to form.

  “That looks nasty,” Violet said, turning her head away.

  “Athletes always get scrapes and bumps. This was small compared to some of my other crashes,” Patricia said. “The doctor said I’m okay to snowboard in the final round tomorrow.”

  “What happened on the course today?” asked Jessie.

  Patricia sighed. “I should have picked a less difficult spot to try to pass Mercedes.” She shrugged. “I was going really fast and not paying attention to the surroundings. I fell over a tree root.”

  “You too?” Violet asked.

  “What do you mean?”

  “Jasper fell over a tree root and hurt his ankle looking for your missing glove,” Jessie explained.

  “Oh no!”

  “He’s okay,” Henry told her. “Let’s go see him.”

  Patricia and the Aldens returned to Jasper’s room.

  “Is it broken?” Patricia glanced at Jasper’s ankle.

  “Nah. The doctor wants me to stay here and ice it a bit longer, but I’m fine,” Jasper assured her.

  Patricia sighed in relief. “What’s the news from the competition?” she asked her friends.

  Hyun said, “Mercedes is first.”

  “Of course. I should have been able to pass her.” Touching the bruised place on her own leg she moaned, “Rotten tree root.”

  “Are you sure the yeti didn’t scare you and make you fall down during the race?” Benny asked.

  “Yeti?” Patricia looked confused. “What are you talking about?”

  Jessie explained, “We’ve been working on the mystery of Clayton’s missing snowboard and we think Mr. Fellows has been dressing like a yeti to scare the snowboarders and get them to leave Hidden Hills.”

  “I don’t understand,” Patricia said. “I didn’t see a yeti. I hit the root. That’s why I fell.”

  “Hmmm.” Jessie made a note in her journal.

  “I came in second,” Hyun continued, and he and Jasper high-fived.

  Henry was impressed at how the snowboarders, while competing for slots at the camp, remained good friends who truly cared about one another.

  “Jasper came in third today,” Clayton said.

  “That makes me fourth,” Patricia said. “Drat.”

  “Better than fifth,” Clayton grumped.

  “Don’t forget who lost.”

  “You didn’t lose,” Patricia said. “You didn’t race. We all know you’d have beaten us.”

  “Yeah,” Clayton said with a chuckle. “You’re right. I’d have beaten you all. Mercedes wouldn’t have seen me as I blew past. I’d have been an orange-helmet blur.”

  Everyone laughed.

  “We better go,” Jessie whispered to Henry.

  “Right,” Henry replied. “We need to find Clayton’s board before tomorrow’s half-pipe.”

  The half-pipe was the most exciting, and most dangerous, event. It was when Clayton would show off his move: the Hollow.

  “I added something different to the Hollow,” Clayton told the others. “I’m going to give the move a br
and new name.”

  “Is it another spin?” Hyun asked. “I dream about rotating my board as fast as you do yours.”

  Clayton zipped his lips and didn’t say.

  “I bet it’s a grab,” Patricia said. That was when a snowboarder grabbed the edge of the board in a trick.

  Clayton kept his lips tightly shut.

  “I can’t wait!” Benny said. “Let’s find Clayton’s board so he can do the new trick.” He looked at Clayton and asked, “You could call it the Benny!”

  “Find my board, and I’ll name it after you for sure,” Clayton told him.

  “Let’s hurry!” Benny tugged on Jessie’s hand. Then he stopped and let her go. “Wait. Before we find the board, you promised linner.” His tummy growled. “I can’t possibly solve this mystery with a grumbly tummy.”

  “Okay,” agreed Henry. “But let’s make a quick stop at the hotel first. We should let Grandfather know where we are.”

  As the Aldens were about to leave the clinic, the doctor came and told Jasper he could go.

  “I’d like to get something to eat with you, Benny.” Jasper rubbed his own belly. “I’m starving.”

  “Burger Bonanza?” Patricia asked. “We can all go.”

  Clayton shook his head. “I’ll go with you to hang out, but I won’t eat. The food is awful.”

  “It’s not bad if you’re very, very hungry,” Jasper said.

  “‘Not bad’ sounds good to me,” Benny said, putting on his gloves and hat for the walk.

  Just outside the clinic, Mercedes was talking to her coach.

  “We’re going to Burger Bonanza,” Henry called out to her. “You can come if you want.”

  Mercedes gave Henry a blank look that he didn’t understand. Her eyes seemed sad, even though she’d won both races that day.

  “Do you think she heard me?” Henry asked. They were a few feet away.

  “She looked at you,” Benny said. “I think she heard you but can’t talk because she’s meeting with her scary coach.”

  “He’s probably yelling at her for not being faster than lightening,” Jessie whispered to Violet.