Free The Case of the Missing Deed by Ellen Schwartz

chatting.
    “… too much opposition from the locals?” Mark Saxby was saying.
    “No worries,” Stan Wilensky said in his booming voice. “We’ll take care of that.”
    They missed the first part of what Charlie said. “… plans moving along for the access road?”
    “Yes, indeed, as soon as we secure the last few properties,” Mark Saxby answered.
    The cousins exchanged a furious look.
    Peering through the leaves, Sébastien saw Mark Saxby reach into his briefcase and hand Charlie a stack of booklets. “Here you go,” he said. “These should come in handy.”
    There was the sudden roar of a float plane approaching the island. Growing louder as it taxied to the dock behind Wilensky Air, it drowned out the men’s conversation. They leaned close and spoke into one another’s ears. Then they shook hands and parted, Stan Wilensky and Mark Saxby strolling toward acoffee shop on the other side of the office, Charlie walking to his car, which the cousins now saw was parked down the street. He drove away.
    The children turned to face each other.
    “I can’t believe it,” Claire said, a sick look on her face.
    I can
, Sébastien was about to say, but just then the floatplane engine went silent, and an idea struck. “Wait here,” he said. “Be right back.”
    “Seb!” Alex said. “Where are you going?”
    “To have a look around Wilensky Air.”
    “You can’t just barge in there,” Geneviève said.
    “I’m not,” Sébastien said with a grin. “I’m going to sneak in. If they come back before I’m out, send me the signal.”
    Claire nodded. The signal when they were little, and hadn’t wanted their parents to catch them doing something forbidden, was to caw like a crow.
    Sébastien went around behind Wilensky Air. The float plane was now moored to the dock, and a young man, his arms laden with a stack of cardboard boxes, was approaching the back door of the building.
    Sébastien sprinted to the door and held it open.
    “Thanks, pal,” the man said.
    Sébastien followed him inside.
    “Delivery for Tantalus Mining,” the man said to a secretary, who had come into the back room.
    “Oh,” she said, looking flustered. “Mr. Saxby’s at coffee. Well, just put them in there.” She pointed to a room across the hall from the main office of Wilensky Air. TANTALUS MINING said a plaque on the door.
    Sébastien opened the door and stood aside. With a grunt, the delivery man dropped the boxes on the floor, then went back out for another load.
    Sébastien stayed put. He looked around. It looked like an ordinary office: desk, computer, shelves, phone. Display panels were stacked against the wall.
    Nothing unusual. Nothing that wouldn’t be found in any business office. Of course, Sébastien had no idea what he was looking for.
    He wandered over to the bookcase. There were stacks of booklets, all bearing the company’s lake-and-mountain logo. Sébastien recognized the one that Valerie London had shown at the open house, OTTER ISLAND TANTALUM MINE: ECONOMIC REPORT . He took one. Then he saw another pile: OTTER ISLAND TANTALUM MINE: ENVIRONMENTAL REPORT . That was the one that Wayne Cheng had presented. The one that there were no copies of at the open house. Sébastien took a copy of that one too. He stuffed them under his shirt, just as the delivery man came in with another load of boxes.

    Anxiously, Claire peered through the bushes, around the back of the building, through the bushes again. Where was Seb? What was taking him so long? The two men would probably be back soon and –
    Two sets of pant legs approached along the sidewalk. Careful not to be seen over the top of the hedge, Claire raised herself up and peeked. Stan Wilensky and Mark Saxby were strolling back, chatting, coffee cups in hand.
    She elbowed Geneviève, who alerted Alex and Olivia.
    “What do we do?” Olivia mouthed.
    The two men drew closer. “… profits should be excellent,” Wilensky was saying.
    “Yes, indeed, and there’s