“So, call me crazy, but someone musta snuck in here and snatched her.”
“Nope, that didn’t happen.” Conrad spoke with certainty.
“Well, she didn’t just disappear.”
“You’re right about that.”
“So, if no one took her and she didn’t disappear, where is she?” Piper worried that Bernice or Abigail was going to come through the door at any moment.
“I don’t specifically know.”
“Great. So she’s just going to stay missing forever.”
“No.” Conrad snatched up a few pictures. “She was never missing. Look at this.”
He handed the pictures to Piper and she looked at them. “What do you see?” he pressed her.
Piper shrugged, flipping through the pictures. “Aletha’s room. Her stuff, her bed, her dollhouse.”
“Look more closely. Start with the dollhouse.” Conrad pulled out the dollhouse picture and handed it back to Piper. “Look,” he said, pointing.
Piper looked again, and then looked back to Conrad, shrugging. “It’s the dollhouse.”
“Come closer.” Conrad pulled her to the dollhouse. “No one’s touched anything, right? The room’s been sealed and these were taken as soon as they found her missing. But look here.” He pointed to the dollhouse. “The curtains in the dollhouse are closed. But they’re not closed now; they’ve been opened.”
Piper looked from the picture to the dollhouse, and a shiver ran up and down her neck.
“Now look at this.” Conrad handed Piper a picture of the bookshelf. This time Piper was careful to look more closely, but she still couldn’t see what he saw.
“Two books are missing, and this book here…” He pulled out a copy of Angelina Ballerina. “This one was replaced. Someone’s been reading the books.”
Piper felt creepy crawlies tingling across her back. “What is going on?” she whispered.
“Aletha is hiding,” Conrad said in a low voice. “When she feels it’s safe, she comes out. She gets bored and plays with her toys.”
“Hiding?” Piper looked around. “Where?”
“No.” Conrad squinted for a moment. “The question is not where but why. Why is she hiding? And from whom? And what is making her so afraid?”
Piper edged closer to Conrad, fear seeping into her as she imagined what could have driven Aletha to such an extreme measure. “If she’s in danger, then we’re in danger.”
“Yes,” Conrad agreed. “My father wants to get her before anyone else does. She knows something.…”
Suddenly the door to the room swung open.
Piper gasped.
Bernice glared at them from the doorway. “Twenty minutes,” Bernice said, her eyebrows raised as though she expected them to defy her.
“Thank you,” Conrad said, waiting for her to leave. Finally she did.
As soon as the door was closed, Conrad spun around and faced Piper, whispering in her ear. “Do exactly as I say, when I say it. We don’t have a second to spare.”
Twenty minutes later on the dot, the door to Aletha’s room was flung open for a second time. “Time’s up,” Bernice said.
When she saw the room was empty, her heart rate shot up. As she carefully checked the room her hands were shaking, and she noticed that her breath was catching in her throat.
She had to be careful when she walked down the hall to the First Lady’s sitting room. She couldn’t show how alarmed she was, or there would be questions. Abigail was waiting for her.
“They’re gone,” Bernice stammered. “I went in and they were gone. I checked the room. They’ve disappeared … just like Aletha.”
“No.” The color drained from Abigail’s face. “I don’t believe it.”
CHAPTER
20
Construction of the White House began in 1792. The whole place was burned in 1814 and rebuilt from the ground up. For the next 200 years every president who set foot in the place proceeded to make their own changes both large and small. Thomas Jefferson wanted toilets, Ulysses S. Grant had a penchant for Victorian decoration and electric lights. Other presidents not only renovated but added significantly. In all those years of change and evolution small things were forgotten with the passage of time and tenants. Alcoves that had been temporarily boarded up were lost altogether and cupboards and crawlspaces got concealed behind walls until no one even knew they were there anymore.
The fireplace in Aletha’s bedroom was originally built in 1792, and even when the White House was burned down it was one of the few things to remain. The bricks were old and the space was wide and ample and full of long-buried secrets.
Piper flew up the chimney but Conrad had to climb it. From his position on the floor he had seen telltale signs that the chimney had been in use and he climbed it with care, following the small handprints that showed him exactly where he could go. Piper held up his flashlight device on his PDA so that they could use that light as a torch.
“There is no way she climbed up here. She’s how old?”
“Four.” Conrad grunted, clinging on.
Hovering up above, Piper studied the brick patterns. “And you think she climbed up here to get away?”
“She’s been coming up and down here a lot the last three or four days. Look at this.” Conrad pointed to the wall. Flying downward, Piper peered over his shoulder to see fingerprints in the soot.
“Amazing. But where was she going? There’s no way out, unless you’re smoke.”
“We’ll see about that.” Conrad pulled himself up bit by bit. It took all his strength to hoist his body upward and he had to pull on the bricks to do so. Suddenly the brick he was holding gave out and he only just managed to wedge himself in place by throwing his legs out and pushing his back into the wall. Piper quickly flew down to him and picked up the brick off his stomach, where it had thankfully come to rest instead of crashing into the fireplace below.
As Conrad panted they both heard voices below. Bernice and Abigail had figured out that they were missing. Conrad placed his finger on his lips.
“Shhh.”
With the greatest care Piper quietly and gently pulled Conrad up and helped him to find his footing again. Once he was in place they both pushed themselves into the hole that now gaped in the chimney.
“There’s a room on the other side,” Piper whispered. Conrad nodded and pointed to the other bricks. One by one they worked together to carefully and silently slide bricks from their place until at last there was a hole just big enough to squeeze through. Piper helped Conrad through first and hovered patiently until he had scrambled safely over to the other side. Wiggling past the hole, she found herself in a small cramped passageway. This time Conrad was using the light from his PDA to discover any clues he could. He didn’t have to look hard because he soon found crumpled food wrappers. Holding up a shiny silver one, he turned it over and both Piper and Conrad studied what remained of a cereal bar.
Conrad smelled it. “It’s fresh.”
From that point on it was a matter of following the trail of debris along the passage: a peanut pack, mini Cheerios boxes, Goldfish Crackers, almonds, two juice boxes, and finally a fun-size Milky Way all led to a cracked panel of wood. Piper traced the seam of the crack until she could determine that it formed a one-foot-by-two-foot opening.
Conrad grabbed hold of the bottom of it. Piper wedged a finger into a crevice in the wood to gain traction and together they silently coordinated their efforts, easing the wood from its hole. Once free they propped it up against the wall and peeked into the darkness.
As their eyes adjusted it became clear to them that they were in a storage area that rested high above the East Portico. It was a large chamber lined with wooden shelves, each one holding carefully labeled boxes. Conrad slid through the opening and crouched down in the room. He felt Piper crouch next to him. Once in position neither of them moved a muscle. Slowly their eyes adjusted to the dark and Piper was able to make out a blanket in the corner of the floor, next
to which were several bags and some scattered toys. She poked Conrad and pointed to it but Conrad already had his eye on it.
Taking out his light, Conrad directed it at the clutch of debris bundled in the corner.
“Where is she?” Piper mouthed to him. Both of them craned their necks and scanned the area but could see nothing. Conrad scooted forward and began to pick through the remains. More wrappers crinkled and fell like confetti about the floor. In the blanket was also a small doll no bigger than a finger. Picking it up, Conrad saw that it was clothed in a little pair of blue shorts and was missing a shoe.
“She’s here somewhere,” Conrad whispered back to Piper.
In the distance the sound of helicopter blades pumped the air but they ignored them.
“She’s small and she could hide anywhere.”
Conrad agreed and suddenly sat down, leaning his back against the wall. He took several deep breaths and put the light on the floor so that it lit them from below.
“What are you doing?”
“The easiest way to find someone is to make them want to be found,” Conrad explained.
“How are you going to make Aletha want to be found?” Piper sat down opposite Conrad in the dark.
“Talk,” Conrad said simply.
Piper’s confusion mounted. She was sitting in a dark, dirty secret nook in the White House looking for Conrad’s sister, whom he’d never met, but who was hiding—and all he wanted to do was … talk?
“Uh, okay.”
“Did I ever tell you about the day I found out I had a sister?” Conrad said in a normal voice. They had been whispering since they began the journey up the fireplace and his voice seemed inordinately loud.
“No,” Piper replied in her normal voice.
“It was after Letitia Hellion took me away to I.N.S.A.N.E. I kept trying to call my father, but he wouldn’t take any of my calls.”
The sound of the approaching helicopter was growing closer. Beads of sweat burst upon Piper’s forehead. She looked upward toward the sound, but Conrad’s gaze drew her back to the conversation. “You called your father?”
“Not often,” Conrad admitted. “Only when I could sneak to an empty office and manage to get to the phone. One day I called and my father had just gotten a new assistant, and when I told him that I was the senator’s son, he told me that the senator only had one child, a baby girl, who had been born the week before. He told me that they had named her Aletha.” Conrad repeated the name, tasting it in his mouth. “A-letha. And that is how I found out I had a baby sister.”
Piper quietly listened.
“I used to think about her all the time. I would look at the calendar and know that she was crawling or had probably started to walk. I would imagine her first word and think about what it would be like to be a big brother to her. I imagined what my name would sound like when she said it. I wanted to show her things like how to do fractions and how to figure out quantum mechanics.”
“Quantum mechanics?” Piper raised her eyebrow.
“There’s nothing like figuring out your first real problem.”
“If you say so.”
“Mostly I just wanted to be a brother and have family. To have someone who I could always be there for and who would always be there for me. Blood. Family. That’s what I wanted.”
“Me too,” Piper said softly.
“But I guess she never even knew about me. And even if she did she probably doesn’t want a brother.”
The darkness against the far wall was quietly moving. Piper was tempted to react but Conrad squinted his eyes at her and almost imperceptibly shook his head. They both remained still and tried to watch out of the corners of their eyes without watching.
“You would be a great brother,” Piper offered up.
“I would try my best,” Conrad affirmed. “I would do my best and do everything I could for her. And if we were ever to meet, I’d never leave her again.”
The shadow crept closer and closer until it breached the light.
Making no sudden movements and careful to keep neutral expressions on their faces so as not to frighten her away, Piper and Conrad turned toward a delicate waif covered from head to toe in soot. Her clothes had become rags over the last three days and she had lost weight too. She was tiny to begin with, hardly more than thirty pounds, but she appeared to have become thinner. Her skin was so dirty that the only part of her that flashed white was her eyes. She kept those eyes on Conrad.
“Aletha,” said Conrad quietly. “I am your brother. My name is Conrad.”
Slowly and with the utmost tenderness, Conrad took her small hand in his.
“Smart,” said Aletha, looking at her brother.
Conrad smiled and nodded. “This is my best friend. Her name is Piper McCloud.”
Piper broke into a mile-wide smile and was only just able to restrain herself from seizing the child and covering her in a massive bear hug.
Aletha returned Piper’s smile. “Flyer,” she said simply.
The helicopter was directly over them and could no longer be ignored. Piper shot Conrad a look and Conrad worried that Aletha might flee in alarm, so he remained gentle and unruffled.
“We have to leave now. All of us.” Conrad pointed to all of them, including Aletha in the group. “I’m going to take you somewhere safe where you won’t have to hide. Okay?”
Aletha nodded.
Conrad’s first brotherly act was to take Aletha’s hand and help her escape from their parents.
CHAPTER
21
What would Conrad do? Jasper thought over and over again, holding his head.
A windstorm was blowing in the Grand Canyon at the site where Nalen and Ahmed had disappeared. The wind made it tough for the teams; they had diligently worked their way through Conrad’s search grids to no avail. Just as Smitty had said, there weren’t any clues to be found. High hopes had turned to despair, and the kids hung about aimlessly, wondering what they should do next and waiting for Jasper to set out a plan.
“Maybe we should go home and wait for Conrad,” Smitty said over the wind.
“Yeah, it’s not like we’re doing anything here.” Kimber was slumped on a rock, tired from all the work.
“N-n-no,” Jasper said adamantly. “Conrad said we have to f-find clues.”
“But there aren’t any,” Myrtle offered quietly. “We looked.”
“No.” Jasper shook his head. “We must find a clue.”
What would Conrad do? Conrad had said that Jasper was ready. He said that he was a leader, and Conrad was the smartest person in the world.
The swirling wind picked up small rocks and pebbles and pelted them at the kids as they waited for Jasper. Lily, in particular, was bothered by the dust.
“Yuck! Can we just go home and get out of this wind?” For the millionth time Lily smoothed her skirt and fixed her hair, but it was a losing battle; she was covered in filth—her dress was ruined and her hair was a disaster. “Ugh! I’m moving over there.”
Lily picked herself up, marched thirty feet away, and plopped herself down on a rock out of the wind. This seemed like the only sensible plan going, and the others followed in her footsteps and huddled around her. Jasper remained where he was, pacing back and forth.
“Ugh!” Lily suddenly shrieked. The wind had started up around them once again and she was being pelted with shale. “You’ve got to be kidding me!!!”
“Can’t we just go?” Smitty called out to Jasper, an unmistakable note of frustration in his voice.
Jasper stopped pacing and stood very still, looking at his friends as they covered their eyes and braced against the force of the wind. It was then that he noticed the wind was no longer blowing where he was standing. Goose bumps rose on Jasper’s arms.
“Listen to me!” Jasper yelled. “Come here!”
“Why?” Violet wanted to know.
“Just do it!” Jasper spoke with an authority that got not only their attention, but also their immediat
e action. When they rejoined Jasper, questioning looks on their faces, Jasper raised his hands as though to say “be quiet and watch.” They did as directed—but saw nothing. Then suddenly the wind started again.
“Really?” Lily moaned.
“Don’t you see?” Jasper said with quiet intensity.
They didn’t.
“The wind. It’s following us. When you moved over there it went with you. But now that you’ve come back here it’s with us again.” Jasper swung around to Smitty. “When you were here yesterday was it windy?”
Smitty’s face transformed. “Yes! Yes, it was. Really windy.”
“The wind is the clue.” Jasper felt his body exploding into fireworks.
“I get it.” Kimber jumped up and down. “It’s Nalen and Ahmed. They’re creating the wind.”
“Exactly.” Jasper pointed to her. “They’re sending us a message. They want us to find them.”
“But where are they?” Smitty looked around. “I can’t see them.”
“They have to be able to see us,” Jasper reasoned, “or they wouldn’t know how to direct the wind. They are watching us right now.”
“Jasper, you’re brilliant!” Lily squealed.
Jasper swelled—he was a leader, just like Conrad said he was. Once again Conrad had been right.
“So what do we do next?” The kids hung on his every word now.
“Where haven’t you looked?” Jasper directed his question to Smitty.
“I’ve looked everywhere!” Smitty threw his hands up in despair. “I checked in the caves, I looked through the rocks, I—I looked everywhere.”
Jasper imagined he was Smitty and looked as he had looked. He walked a few paces and the kids followed behind him, matching his movements. When he stopped, they stopped. “But you were only looking down,” Jasper pointed out.
“Of course.” Smitty shrugged. “Why would I look up?”
The moment he said it they all looked up. Way up. Immediately Smitty’s vision located a strange propeller in the clouds. Hanging from the propeller, bound and gagged, were Nalen and Ahmed.
“I see them! I see them! They’re right over us!” Smitty pointed to them, but no one else could see what he saw.