Box That Watch Found (7 page)

“Is that what you were talking about when we saw you in the woods after the geocaching meeting?” Jessie asked. “You said something like ‘maybe we should put them back.’ Were you talking about the caches you’d taken?”

“Yes,” Zack said. “Zoe thought we should take the treasure out and put the empty boxes back where we found them. But I thought it would be hard to keep track of what belonged in which box if we did that.”

“That
would
be hard to keep track of,” Violet agreed.

“We started gathering up caches with travel bugs in them last weekend,” Zoe said. “In case you were wondering what we were doing behind the mall that day you saw us back there.”

“I sure wish we knew who took all those other caches,” David said.

“So do we,” Zoe said. “Our dad’s been talking to a lot of people in the geocaching club. If the real thief isn’t caught soon, we’re probably going to disband the club.”

“My dad said the same thing,” David said. Nobody wants to keep the club going if somebody’s going to steal all our caches.”

“Then we’re going to have to work hard to find the real thief before the club disbands,” Violet said.

“Well, we know something about the missing caches,” Benny announced. “They were all hidden by the same person!”

Zack, Zoe, and David all turned to Benny.

“They were?” David asked. “That’s interesting.”

“Who hid them?” Zack and Zoe asked.

“Cal Edwards,” Violet replied.

Zack and Zoe’s eyes widened. “And he’s missing, too!” Zoe exclaimed.

“Actually, he’s not,” Henry said. “He got called out of town suddenly to take care of his mother.”

The Aldens told the other kids about their visit to Cal’s house and about their conversation with Mrs. Michaelson.

“Well, I’m sorry about Cal’s mother, but I’m glad he’s okay,” David said.

“So are we,” Zack and Zoe said.

The Aldens were happy to see the Zellers and the Greenes agreeing on something. Maybe they could all work together now and find the missing cache?

“One thing we can tell you about Cal—his caches are more fun to find than anyone’s,” Zoe said with a smile.

“That’s true,” David agreed, smiling back.

“Why?” Violet asked. “Why are his caches more fun than anyone else’s?”

“I think he puts more time into them than other people do,” Zack said. “He puts them in really interesting containers. For instance, there was one he made out of a piece of plumbing pipe.”

“And there was that other one that was part of a Halloween decoration,” Zoe put in.

“Oh, that’s a great one!” David laughed. “That’s the ‘Halloween Horror’ cache,” he told the Aldens. “You guys should try and find that one. You’ll love it!”

“He also hides the containers in really interesting places and he always has the best trade items,” Zack said.

“Yeah, once we found a Chinese kite in one of his new caches,” Zoe said. “We were the first to find that one.”

“We found a twenty-dollar bill in one of the ones that we were first to find,” David said.

“It’s strange that all the missing caches were Cal’s,” Zack said.

“Unless Cal took them himself,” Benny said.

Everyone stopped to stare at the youngest Alden.

“But why would he do that?” Zoe asked. “He knows everyone loves to hunt for his caches.”

“Well, maybe he didn’t mean to keep them so long,” Benny said. “Maybe he meant to put them back, but he didn’t have a chance to put them back before he left town.”

“But why would he take them in the first place, Benny?” Henry asked. “That’s the one thing we still don’t know.”

Benny sighed. “And it’s a big thing.”

Violet could hear Jessie tossing and turning in the other bed in their room, but the room was still dark. Watch was asleep on the floor between them. Violet could hear him snoring. She wished she were snoring.

“Jessie?” she whispered, “What are you doing?”

“I can’t sleep. I thought I’d get a glass of milk,” Jessie said.

“I can’t sleep, either. Maybe I’ll get a glass of milk, too.”

The two of them tiptoed out into the hallway. Watch padded behind them.

“Hey, there’s a light on downstairs,” Violet whispered.

The light was coming from the direction of the family room.

“I wonder who else is up?” Jessie whispered back.

The girls crept down the stairs. But rather than head for the kitchen, they turned toward the family room.

“Henry!” Jessie whispered. “What are you doing up?”

Henry was sitting at the computer. His notebook lay open in front of him.

“I couldn’t sleep,” he said. “I can’t stop thinking about those missing caches. There has to be something we’re just not seeing.”

Just then Benny wandered sleepily into the room. “What’s everyone doing?” he asked out loud.

The others jumped in surprise.

“Benny!” Jessie said. “What are you doing out of bed at this hour?”

“I wanted to find out what you guys were doing out of bed at this hour,” he replied.

Violet smiled. “I guess none of us could sleep.”

“We’re all worried about the geocaching club,” Jessie said. She, Violet, and Benny sat down on the couch.

Henry nodded. “I would hate to see it disband.”

“Especially before Cal gets back,” Violet said.

“Too bad Cal isn’t here to fix everything,” Benny said, resting his head against Violet’s shoulder.

“Wait a minute,” Jessie said, sitting up a little straighter. “That’s it! Cal was fixing something right before he left. Remember?”

The others looked confused.

“What does that have to do with anything, Jessie?” Violet asked. “We don’t even know what Cal was fixing.”

“Well, what if he was fixing some damaged cache boxes?” Jessie asked, her eyes dancing with excitement.

“Then maybe Benny’s theory was correct,” Henry said.

Benny was still confused. “What theory?” he asked. “And what
is
a theory, anyway?”

“A theory is an idea you have to explain something,” Violet said. “But you don’t know for sure you’re right.”

“Oh.” Benny nodded. Then he wrinkled his nose. “What was my theory again?”

“You wondered if Cal had taken the caches,” Henry reminded Benny. “You said maybe he didn’t mean to take them for long, but he got called away before he could put them back.”

“The only thing wrong with your theory was it didn’t explain
why
he took them in the first place,” Jessie said. “But if Cal took them because they needed some repair work, then that would explain everything.”

“Is there any way to test this theory?” Violet asked.

“We could go online and see if there are any comments about damaged caches,” Henry suggested.

“Good idea, Henry,” Jessie said. Henry turned his chair back around so he was facing the computer. The others gathered around as he logged into geocaching.com.

Henry pulled up the web page for the first missing cache, then scrolled down to the list of comments.

“Yup. That one says the container is coming apart,” Violet said, pointing to the second comment from the top.

Henry went to the next cache on their list and read the third comment out loud. “ ‘Great hide! No trade items in container. No log book, either.’ ”

“Isn’t it possible Cal would’ve taken that one, too, just to fill it with things to trade again?” Violet asked.

“It’s possible,” Jessie agreed.

The Aldens checked the listings for the other missing caches. All had reports of damage or missing trade items.

“So maybe my theory is right!” Benny said.

“Maybe,” Henry said. “We won’t know for sure until Cal comes back.”

“But what if the geocaching club shuts down before that?” Violet said.

“We’ll just have to convince them to stay together,” Jessie said.

The Greenfield Geocachers Club met again that Friday. Once again, the nature center was closed and the club members were gathered out front when the Aldens arrived.

The Robertsons were back from visiting Andy’s grandmother, but the Aldens didn’t have a chance to chat with them. Everyone was talking about shutting down the geocaching club.

“How can we shut down without Cal?” one of the college students asked.

“Well, we don’t know where he is or when he’ll be back,” another college student responded.

“We can’t go on like this,” the man in the blue jacket said. “Several of us were out geocaching yesterday and we discovered several caches that were there last weekend are missing now.”

“Yes. Instead of finding caches, we found notes that said, ‘ha ha!’ ” the lady next to him said with a frown.

“I don’t think we have any choice but to shut down,” said the man beside her.

“Wait!” Benny interrupted. “Don’t do that!”

“Cal’s not missing,” Violet said.

“And we’re the ones who left the notes that said ‘ha-ha!’ ” Zoe spoke up.

The Aldens told everyone what they knew about Cal, and the Zeller twins explained why they took some of the caches and replaced them with notes that said “ha-ha.”

“Okay, but what about the other missing caches?” Mr. Robertson asked. “The ones the Zellers didn’t take?”

“We have a theory about that,” Benny said. Benny liked the word
theory
now.

“What’s your theory?” Andy asked.

“We think Cal took them!” Benny said.

“What?” Mr. Zeller asked with disbelief. Mr. and Mrs. Greene shook their heads.

“Why would he do such a thing?” Mrs. Greene muttered.

“Because they were his to begin with,” Henry explained. “If you look up all the missing caches on geocaching.com, you’ll see that they all had some kind of damage.”

“Or they needed to be refilled with new things to trade,” Jessie added.

Henry continued. “We think Cal went around and took the caches so he could repair them. But then, before he could put them all back, he got called out of town.”

“That’s a very interesting theory!” said a voice behind them.

Everyone turned toward the voice.

“Cal!” the Aldens cried.

Cal carried a bulging black garbage bag. It looked like the same bag he’d been carrying in the dog park.

The whole group ran to him and shook his hand or patted him on the back.

“We’re glad you’re okay. How is your mother?” someone asked him.

“She’s much better, thanks,” Cal said. “I’m sorry you were all so worried. And I’m sorry the nature center has been closed all this time. I wish I had taken the time to leave a key with one of my volunteers, but at the time all I could think about was getting to the airport.”

“That’s okay,” Mr. Robertson said. “We understand.”

“And I should have called one of you to let you know what was happening,” Cal went on. “But I’m afraid I didn’t think to make phone calls until my mother started to get better. I was too worried about her. I didn’t even think to bring my cell phone with me.”

“We’re just glad you’re back, Cal,” Andy said.

“Thanks, everyone,” Cal said, smiling. Then he reached into his pocket, pulled out a key, and unlocked the nature center. Everyone went inside.

“So, what about my theory?” Benny asked Cal, once everyone was settled. “Was I right? Did you take the caches?”

“Yes, I did,” Cal replied. “And it was just like you said. I saw there were problems with several of my caches, so I gathered them up that day I saw you kids at the dog park.”

Cal opened the garbage bag and took out some metal boxes, covered pails, and other containers. He set them all on the table in front of him.

“So you weren’t collecting garbage like we thought,” Violet said. “You were collecting caches!”

“That’s right,” Cal said. “In fact, I was going to tell you what I was doing and ask you if you knew what geocaching was. But then I got that phone call about my mother. I’m glad you kids found out about geocaching on your own.”

“We ran into Andy and his dad just a few minutes after we left you,” Benny said. “They told us all about it.”

“And you thought we were stealing all the caches just to prevent your family from winning the contest,” Zoe told David Greene.

“I did,” David admitted. “I’m sorry about that. But I bet you thought I was doing the same thing. I bet you thought I was trying to prevent you from winning the contest.”

“We’re sorry, too,” Zack said.

“Speaking of contests,” Mr. Robertson said, holding up his hands. He held a computer printout in one hand and a GPS box in the other. “Yesterday was the last day of the month.”

“So the contest is over?” David said.

“Do we have a winner?” Zoe asked expectantly. “Do we know who wins the new GPS?”

Mr. Robertson scratched his chin. “Well, there’s a slight problem with that,” he said. “It seems we have a tie. The Green Lights and the Zees both found eighty-three caches this month.”

Everyone clapped for the Greenes and the Zellers.

“Great job, all of you,” Mr. Robertson said. “But I don’t know how we can split this GPS in two.”

“I have an idea,” Zack said. “We already have a pretty nice GPS. And I’ll bet the Greenes do, too.”

All three members of the Greene family nodded.

“I think we should give the new GPS to the Aldens to thank them for solving the mystery of the missing caches,” Zack said.