Free Something Suspicious in Sask by Dayle Gaetz Page B

moved down the slope. “Look at that!” Katie pointed. “Another nest basket, like the one by the hay field.” Directly above the duck, the man-made nest was partially hidden by reeds, but she could see that it was made of long grasses tightly wound around a wide cylinder made of chicken wire.
    A second duck swam over. It had a brown head, pure white chest and neck, and a dark back and tail, but its most noticeable feature was its long pointed tail feathers.
    â€œThat must be the male,” Rusty said.
    Katie nodded. “What’s that lying in the grass?” She crouched at the edge of the slough and worked to free a small section of chicken wire entangled in the long green grass.
    â€œIt’s the same as the stuff in the equipment shed.” “And the wire that got caught in the cutter bar.” Katie looked across the shallow water. “I wonder who made that nest basket?” She climbed back up toward the road, searching the grass for other chunks of wire that might have been dropped. She stopped abruptly. “Look at this!” Close beside one of the tire prints, at the edge of the long grass, lay a small closed cell phone.
    â€œHey! Weird.” Rusty picked it up. It had a black leather case with a large plastic clip on the back. Rusty opened it and the little screen lit up.
    â€œIt still works, so it hasn’t been here for long,”
    Katie said. “Hold on, I have an idea.”
    She opened her own phone and pushed a few buttons until the word Redial? popped up on her screen.
    She pushed Send.
    Seconds later a raucous tune filled the air. It stopped. And started again. Rusty stared at the phone in his hand. “It’s ringing! What do I do?”
    â€œAnswer it.”
    The phone rang once more before Rusty figured out which button to push. He put the phone to his ear. “Hello?” he said nervously.
    â€œHi, Rusty,” Katie said. “What’s new?”
    Rusty pulled a face and disconnected. “So, it’s Megan’s phone!” he said. “Cliff was right. Scott must have taken it. He must have chucked it out after he was done. But why?”
    Katie closed her phone. “I don’t know.”
    â€œLook who’s coming!” Rusty said.
    Broad shoulders hunched forward, muscular arms hanging out from his sides like a gunslinger’s, Cliff strode down the center of the road toward them.
    â€œWhat are you kids doing there?” he yelled.

11
    â€œLet’s get out of here,” Rusty whispered. His face turned so pale the sprinkling of freckles across his nose and cheeks stood out in pink blotches.
    â€œWhy? We aren’t doing anything wrong.”
    Katie stepped sideways to place herself between the rapidly approaching man and her cousin. “Don’t let him see the cell phone,” she whispered over her shoulder. “Stick it in your pocket.”
    â€œI don’t have a pocket!”
    â€œThen clip it to your belt. Face it away; hide it behind your hands.”
    â€œWhat belt?”
    â€œRusty!”
    â€œOkay, okay. But I don’t know why. I still say we should run.”
    â€œToo late.”
    Cliff’s heavy workboots sent up little puffs of dust with every step. His face looked tight and angry. He didn’t slow down until the toes of his boots almost touched Katie’s sandals. She curled her toes and refused to step back.
    Cliff towered over the two kids. “What are you doing here?” he repeated, more quietly this time.
    â€œWalking,” Katie said. “We were way full from pigging out on birthday cake and we needed some exercise.”“So we can eat more cake later,” Rusty added.
    â€œThen what are you doing with that wire?” he nodded suspiciously at Katie’s hand.
    Katie glanced down, surprised to see she was still holding the chunk of chicken wire. “Nothing,” she said. “I found it down there,” she pointed toward