J.M.J.

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Chapter 3

"I'll need those paragraphs on Monday," Ned Nickerson said, once again writing the details of the assignment on the whiteboard. "You're also going to need to read the rest of the book, so we can talk about it in class on Monday."

One of the boys in the class raised his hand. "What if we don't have time to read that much and write a whole paragraph?"

"There are only five chapters left and they're pretty short, plus it's the most exciting part of the book," Ned replied patiently. "I'm sure you can do it. As for the paragraph, remember we talked about how a good paragraph is five to eight sentences long? I'm sure you can do that, too."

Another boy raised his hand. "You said the paragraph is supposed to be about our favorite animal. Can I write about dragons?"

Ned hesitated for a second or two. "Okay, sure. Dragons are fine."

A girl's hand shot up. "Can I write about unicorns, please?"

"Yes, you may," Ned replied.

A second girls raised her hand. "What about centaurs?"

"No," Ned replied. "They look too human. You can write about any mythical animal you want, as long as they aren't part human or look part human, okay?"

The kids nodded. Ned glanced at the clock on the wall. It was still two minutes before the bell would ring.

"Does anyone have any other questions?" he asked.

No one did, so Ned quickly reviewed a few pointers for writing paragraphs. Then the bell finally rang, and the kids rushed to get out. It was their last class for the week, and so Ned didn't blame them for being in a hurry. He wished he could rush out of there, too, but he had to do some lesson planning for Monday, and it would probably be almost five before he finished that.

When he finally was able to leave, he headed straight for the Drew house. He had a standing date with Nancy on Friday nights, and it was always something he looked forward to after a long week of he drove over, he realized that with Nancy working on a new case, she might not be home. Maybe he should have called. However, her car was in its usual place when he pulled up in front of the house.

It was Carson who answered the door. From the look on his face, Ned guessed that something was probably wrong after all.

Carson didn't give him a chance to talk first. "I'm glad you're here, Ned. I'm afraid Nancy's gotten herself into trouble."

"What happened?" Ned asked.

"Did she tell you about what happened the other day?"

"Yeah, but I haven't talked to her today. Have there been new developments?"

"I don't know for sure," Carson replied. "You see, that's the problem. I haven't been able to talk to Nancy for most of the day, either. Mr. Swift, the victim of this attempted murder, has connections to a little town called Paradise Valley. Nancy, Bess, and George went there earlier today, but I haven't heard from any of them since. They won't answer their phones, either."

"Nancy's car is in its usual place," Ned pointed out.

"I know. They took Bess's car. Nancy thought someone might run her license number and recognize her name. I don't like any of it. I'd like to go to Paradise Valley and see if we can find anything out."

"Where is that?" Ned asked. "I don't think I've ever heard of it before."

After Carson had explained, Ned suggested that the town might simply not have cell reception.

"It's possible, I guess," Carson conceded. "But I'm just going to assume that. I'm going to head over there still this evening. Do you want to come?"

"You couldn't stop me," Ned replied.

NDHBNDHBND

A few hours earlier, Bess and George were still hiding in the stand of trees, waiting for Nancy to return. As they minutes passed by and Nancy still didn't appear, the girls were beginning to get impatient, and a little worried.

"Do you think we should go and look for her?" Bess asked finally.

George bit her lip. "I don't know. If we leave here and Nancy comes looking for us, it could take us forever to find each other again."

"But if she's in trouble, we really will be waiting here forever for her to get back," Bess argued. After a couple of seconds' thought, she added, "I've got an idea. What if one of us stays here and the other goes and looks for her for fifteen minutes. At the end of fifteen minutes, the one who left comes back here, whether she found her or not. That way, if Nancy comes back on her own, the one who stays can tell her what's going on."

George nodded. "Sounds like a good idea. I don't think we'd better ask anybody anything. I'm starting to get the idea that there isn't anyone here we can trust."

"You're only starting to?" Bess replied, half-jokingly. "Which one of us should go?"

"We'll flip a coin." George reached into her pocket and took out a quarter. "Heads or tails?"

"Uh, tails, I guess."

George flipped the coin and caught it. It came up heads.

"Looks like it's me," she said. "I'll see you in fifteen minutes."

Bess nodded and watched as George cautiously made her way out of the stand of trees, looking around her in every direction as she did. She didn't think anyone could see her cousin, but somehow, she had the eerie feeling that they couldn't make a move without being watched.

As George darted across the street, she had the same feeling. The houses on either side looked bizarrely empty and unlived-in, yet she could imagine faces peering out of them whenever her back was turned. The sensation was so strong that she even tried whirling around a couple of times to see if she could catch any spies. Both times, there was nothing there. After the second time, George decided on a bold strategy. She ran right up to the front door of the nearest house and pressed the doorbell. No one answered, but a camera mounted just over the door moved to focus on her. Startled, George took a step back. She hadn't expected a camera, but now that she saw it, she realized she should have guessed that. If every house was fitted with a camera like that, then there really was someone watching no matter where she went.

She decided the best recovery was to play dumb. She looked right up into the camera and said, "Um, hello? Is anyone in there?"

There was no response nor could she hear anyone on the other side of the door.

"Is…Is Brooke there?" she asked half-heartedly.

Silence was the only response. Losing her nerve entirely, George backed off the porch and started up the street once more, heading back toward the police station. She froze when she rounded the corner that admitted it to sight. Bess's car was gone. She didn't think that Nancy would have moved the car, not unless some emergency had befallen her. And any emergency that would prompt her to jump in a car and drive away from the police station was not something George wanted to get involved with. She ducked back out of sight around the corner. At any rate, she was out of sight of the police station. Of course, if this entire crazy town really was a phony, all the doorbell cameras on the houses might feed right into the police station.

George checked her phone. There was still no reception, no data, nothing to get any kind of communication with the outside world. She stuffed it back into her pocket and ran all the way back to where she had left Bess, half afraid that she would find that something had happened to her cousin, too. Bess, however, was right where she left her, although she didn't look very happy that George had come alone.

"You didn't find her?" she asked.

"Nope," George replied. "But I did find out a couple of other things. Number one, your car's gone."

"What?" Bess said. "You mean it's been stolen?"

"I don't know about that. Nancy might have taken it."

Bess gave her a reproachful look. "Nancy would never leave us stranded here, and that's exactly what we are without the car. What are we going to do? This place seriously gives me the creeps."

"In that case, the other thing I found out isn't going to make matters any better," George told her grimly. "The houses around here are fitted out with doorbell cameras, but nobody to answer the doorbell. Well, I guess I can't definitely say that about all the houses. I only checked one, but that was enough."

"You mean, the houses in this town are watching us?" Bess asked aghast.

In spite of herself, George shivered. "Not the houses themselves. That just makes it sound even creepier than it really is. Also, I still couldn't get any cell reception, so we can't call for help. The way I see it, we've only got two choices. We can either keep walking around and looking for Nancy or we can try to hike out and get help."

"I don't like the idea of leaving Nancy here, if she is still here," Bess replied thoughtfully, "but if she's in some kind of trouble, then we'd probably be more useful going for help than just wandering around here."

George suddenly breathed a sigh of relief as a thought occurred to her. "I'll bet I know where Nancy is. She couldn't find cell reception anywhere in town, obviously, so she drove the car a few miles out of town, and if we strike out on the road, we'll meet her coming back and then we can all get out of here."

Bess instantly cheered up after hearing this theory. "I'll bet anything you're right. It makes perfect sense. Let's go, please. I don't want to be here another minute."

"You and me both," George agreed.

They set out immediately, trying not to pay any attention to the cameras which they were sure were monitoring their every move. Neither of them said it out loud, but they were both a little concerned that someone would try to stop them from leaving town. After all, whoever ran this town might not only dislike visitors but might also object to word of their town and what might have been seen there getting out.

Just as they reached the edge of town, a police car pulled up beside them. The girls stopped, unsure what they should do even though they didn't trust the police here. Meyers was in the driver's seat and peered out at them.

"Where are you going?" he asked them.

"N…nowhere," Bess stammered.

"We're just going for a walk," George added quickly.

"I thought you might be looking for your friend," Meyers replied.

Bess and George glanced at each other.

"Do you know where she is?" George asked.

"Yes. She's had a slight accident. We took her to the clinic. I'll give you a ride there."

Bess's eyes widened in terror at the idea of getting into the man's car. "What…what kind of accident?" she asked to stall for time.

"Maybe you'd better come and see for yourself," Meyers said.

George glanced behind her. There was a deep ditch separating the road from the ground next to it and then a short hill. Meyers wouldn't be able to drive after them if they tried running that direction, but he could chase them on foot. He was probably armed, too.

"We don't want to put you to the trouble," she told him. "If you just tell us where the clinic is, we'll just walk there. It can't be too far."

"No, it's not, so it won't be any trouble for me to give you a ride." Meyers stared at them intensely. "I insist."

George knew she had to make a decision quickly. If they got in the car with Meyers, there was a chance that they could still get out of this by playing as dumb as possible, but it was only the slimmest of possible chances. That meant that, poor though their chances this way might be, there would be a slightly better chance if they just ran.

"Okay," she said quickly, pushing Bess a step toward the car.

As had hoped, Bess planted her feet and refused to move. "George…" she protested.

George used the excuse to get close enough to her to whisper, "Turn around and run!"

Both girls were off in an instant. They heard Meyers shout in surprise, but it took him a second or so to react since he had thought the girls were coming with him. Then it took him another couple of seconds to get out of his car and chase after them. It wasn't many seconds to help them out, but it did give them time to get over the small hill.

Unfortunately, there was a field on the other side with no cover in it. It was also muddy and so the girls weren't able to run through it very quickly. At the very least, it slowed Meyers down, too. In fact, he paused at the crest of the hill to make a radio call, no doubt for back up.

"At least, he's not trying to shoot us," George thought as they ran as quickly as they could across the field.

They reached the other side, and Meyers was still a decent distance behind them. A small and empty-looking farm was on the other side of the field without so much as a chicken to make it feel alive. The good thing was that there were several buildings. Bess and George darted around the side of a shed and then were able to dart to a haystack without Meyers seeing them. They burrowed into it and then held perfectly still. They didn't even notice at first how dusty and hard to breathe it was in there, as they were too frightened to breathe freely.

They waited several minutes, wondering how long they would have to wait before Meyers would leave. But of course, he had called for back up. Whoever he had called would help him search until they had found the girls. In retrospect, the haystack probably wasn't the best hiding place.

There was a sudden rustling in the hay which almost made even George scream. It was repeated over and over and the girls realized, aghast, what Meyers was doing. He was stabbing the stack with a pitchfork.