NO ORDINARY OWL (10 page)

“What’s that?” she asked.

“Sounds like a bunch of people talking,” Vee said.

“No, it’s not that. Not people,” Sunny disagreed.

“Chickens. It’s chickens,” Esther said, listening hard and pulling the monocular from her side cargo pocket.

Peeking through the pines, the girls saw pens of chickens way off. The different feathered birds scratched here and there, pecking at whatever was on the ground.

“Esther was right,” Sunny breathed.

Why was it such a surprise she was right? Esther rolled her eyes. Now what would Imogene do with a chicken farm? How was a chicken farm going to help with finding clues about that Awful Person? Smothering a sigh, she remembered none of the other Squad adventures had been this hard to figure out.

While Sunny spilled what she remembered her uncle Dave had said about some guy opening a free-range chicken farm a few months ago and that he didn’t seem to know much about chickens or free range, Aneta and Vee squatted down to listen. Each traced sticks through the pine needles. Esther remained a few steps apart, staring at the farm through the monocular.
She
was staying focused.

What did she care about a chicken farmer and if he knew about raising chickens? The girls kept forgetting the plan was to
help the owls be safe
. The tightness in her tummy gave her a nasty taste in her mouth. Maybe they didn’t care if they solved the mystery.

She was about to turn to them and yell, “Why don’t you care?” when she caught a flash of something larger than a chicken. Before her brain could tell her legs to crouch, her legs collapsed on their own, thumping her on the pine needles. A man. A man staring right at her while she’d been staring right at him!

“Uh, guys,” she said, her breath coming in fast bursts, interrupting Sunny who had detoured into a long story about Uncle Dave getting ready to take Aneta’s mother out.

“—slicked back his hair, and you know his hair. It looked so—what, Esther?” Sunny sighed and paused.

“We’ve been spotted. He’s coming for us.” She wasn’t sure she wanted to tell them what the man was carrying.

Save the Beake Man!

R
un!”

“Run fast!”

Were they kidding? They would all make it back to the mansion, and she’d be stumbling right in the guy’s way. Esther needed a different plan, a better plan. She ran along behind them, looking for a bush, a cave, a secret passageway. Nothing. She sighed and started looking for something else.

A tree to climb.

The man passed them and was nearly out of sight in the trees before the girls blew out the breaths they’d been holding. Sunny, Aneta, and Vee sat high in an evergreen tree, Esther on the lowest branch of another.

“Esther, you didn’t tell us he was carrying a
hunting rifle.”
Vee sagged against a big branch behind her.

“For pizza sakes, we get into trouble!” Shaking her head, Sunny stood up, balancing on a thick branch highest up. She’d been the quickest to scramble up the tree when Esther changed their plan. Aneta was across from her.

“I am glad I had climbed a tree already today,” she said. “It was a very good opportunity.”

The other two laughed at Aneta’s use of
opportunity
, her adoptive mother’s favorite word. Esther, who had her arms wrapped around the branch she was straddling like a pony, said not a word. If she opened her mouth, she might fall out of the tree and bounce a couple of times on the ground. This had to be the worst Squad adventure ever. Sure, they had had trouble before, but never had she messed up so many times.

They could do better without you
. The thought wriggled up her stomach again.
I am the worst on the Squad. I can’t run fast, I’m no good at climbing trees, and I can’t chop up a mouse
. But she was so smart in school. She could find things on the Internet. Once those snaky thoughts slithered into her heart though, more followed and repeated,
They’re better off without you
.

“Um, guys,” Sunny said, looking down at them from her perch. “While we were in the carriage house, Vee and I heard Byron on the phone with some guy who was really angry.”

Poor Byron. He’d been nice enough to let her use the monocular. Esther grabbed for her pocket.
Whew. Still there
. So were the owl pellets. Was that man going after Byron?

“We’ve got to save Byron!” she yelped, jerked, and fell right out of the tree.

Thump!

Ow. More skin off her elbows.

The worst Squader
.

As soon as the rest of the girls descended the tree—losing no skin—they trotted after the man. Vee checked her pocket to make sure she still had her tiny notebook and pen.

“We need a plan,” she said.

“You can’t write in your notebook while we’re hurrying,” Esther snapped, stumbling again on the uneven ground. She hated, hated,
hated
hurrying, even though she knew they were saving Beake Man.

“I know that.” Vee shot her the Vee Stare. “What’s up with you?”

“In case nobody noticed, I am all scraped up, I’m limping, and—
oowf!
” Something leaning against a large stone sent her sprawling on the softish, fragrant, piney ground. Could she just please stop sprawling on the ground?
Pinch
.

The three turned and hurried back to help her up.

“Look, Esther—look what you tripped over!” Aneta held up a metal something with a dangling—what?

“Slingshot.” Sunny put her hands on her knees, drawing in a couple of slow breaths. “For pizza sakes, Aneta and Vee, you guys have such long legs!” She collapsed on the ground, only to spring up again. “I bet—”

“That Awful Person used that to hit the owls!” Esther interrupted. Sunny bobbed her head in agreement.

“And that guy came this way and must have dropped it!” Vee thrust her hands in her jeans pockets and kicked around the area where Esther had splatted. “I don’t see anything else.”

With her knee smarting enough to make her eyes sting, Esther shifted from one leg to another. “Then we better get going.” Stuffing the slingshot in her other bellows pocket, she finished, “If that guy would zing baby—”

“ —‘teenage,’ Beake Man said.” Vee turned to run again and missed Esther’s glare. “But yeah, if he’s mad enough at Beake Man, he could zap him with something bigger!”

Esther remembered how gentle Beake Man was with the birds, how he made sure he didn’t slam the carriage house doors.
Okay. Stop complaining!
she told herself sternly. They had to save Beake Man. Grunting, she slapped at the slingshot in her pocket and said, “C’mon.”

They heard the two men before they saw them between the carriage house and the mansion.

“I’m sick of you teaching your killer birds to practice on my chickens!” that Awful Person roared, reaching up to poke a finger at Beake Man’s skinny chest. He was quite a bit shorter than Byron.

“If you’d take your blinkers off, you’d see it’s not my birds playing havoc with your chickens!” Beake Man’s voice, though thinner and a little gaspy, sounded equally angry.

The girls hid behind two big trees that shared a massive trunk. Sunny on her knees with Aneta crouched over her. Vee peeking from the other side with Esther sitting cross-legged and peering out through the pine branches that grew close to the ground. She pulled out an uncomfortable pinecone from beneath and seconds later had an idea.

“Hey,” she hissed, holding up the pinecone. “We’ve got to break this up before they start fighting.” If the Bad Guy hit him in the face or bumped Byron’s mask, bad things might happen to Byron’s face. The Squad was becoming very fond of Byron’s face.

Esther tipped to all fours and pushed herself to her feet. They had to move quickly. Spy Mode.

“Nothing like this happened before you moved in!” that Awful Person was saying.

The girls looked at the two men. Esther shared her plan, gesturing with the pinecone.

“Spy Mode then!” Esther directed the girls to slink from tree to tree until they were on the side and behind that Awful Person.

“Take off your sweatshirts.” Sunny demonstrated why with her hoodie that had a picture of a horse on it.

Good idea
.

Now that Awful Person was telling Beake Man he ought to punch him in the face. Beake Man was backing up, fists clenched.

I bet he wants to pop that ole Awful Person
. Esther knew just how he felt. Someone had made fun of Siddy once when her little brother was doing something strange. Good thing Mom had been there and said something about rising above the situation. Esther hadn’t liked it, but it helped her not hit the kid, which was a good thing. The kid had been a lot bigger than her.

“Brilliant!” Vee said, stripping off her Moby Perkins Elementary red-and-yellow hoodie.

“The Squad thinks of everything,” Aneta approved and followed suit with her bright Cunningham Academy hoodie.

For a very quick second, Esther wished her hoodie wasn’t still swinging off the spikes out front. But—she
grinned—she
had the slingshot. “Once you’re in position, I’ll give the signal.” The girls nodded and dropped to scuttle like monkeys, using their arms to keep their balance so low to the ground. In a blink, they were in position.

She looked right. Vee was filling her makeshift ammo holder with pinecones. Looking left, she noted Aneta and Sunny doing the same.

“You can use my pinecones,” Vee whispered.

Esther nodded. “Right. Time to act.” She raised both arms up, pressing them against her ears. Peering around her arms, she smiled. Vee was ready. She turned left. Sunny and Aneta nodded. They would attack that Awful Person’s left side.

She brought her arms down hard, squatting quickly to load the slingshot.

Imogene Moves

E
sther loaded and pitched the first pinecone, a solid, unopened one. Playing endless catch with her brothers—and especially Siddy who was remarkable for his age with catching, though not throwing—she had an arm. She released the rubber sling, and the pinecone whizzed through the afternoon sun breaking through the drizzle and smacked that Awful Person on the neck.
Ha!
Surely an Imogene move.