The Big Dip Read Free Page B

could hear her very well with the door shut, but because I was feeling irritated. Why did Skip always have to be the one to think of what to do? Did I have to be slow Joe all the time?
    Wishing I was Skip, with his perfect personality, perfect grades and perfect vacation at Lake Okanagan, I called the police. I told the operator about Jake and his weird message, about running away, about the attack at the school.
    And about how Trenchcoat, who had my id, could be after me at this moment.
    The operator said they’d treat this as an emergency. The police would come right away.
    Please don’t let Trenchcoat show up, I thought. Or, if he does, let the cops get here first.
    I thought of what Skip had said about how valuable the Margaret rose was.
    I whistled again and noticed how the whistle echoed in the silence.
    The silence…
    I stood up so fast that I knocked my chair backward. In this house, silence was the wrong sound.
    I zoomed downstairs.
    The front door was open, the lock smashed. By closing my door upstairs, I’d blocked out Ellie’s chanting—and the sound of someone breaking in.
    The hot still air from outside rushed through the door and pressed in on me, smothering my breath.
    â€œELLIE!” I yelled.
    There was no answer. I heard nothing but the buzzing of bees in the rosebush.
    Propped just inside the door was the knapsack that Ellie never went anywhere without.

Chapter Four
    The hall phone rang. It was buried under a stack of Ellie’s Owl magazines. I unearthed the receiver just as the call clicked into our message machine.
    â€œ Ellie ,” I said.
    â€œWrong-oh, Mojo,” hissed a voice. “Not Ellie.”
    Trenchcoat, I thought.
    The voice went on, “Though little Ellie happens to be my guest.”
    My spine turned to ice. “No,” I said. “No!”
    There was a rustling sound, and then Ellie’s voice drawled over the line. She sounded like she’d just woken up. “Joe?”
    â€œEllie!” I exclaimed. “Where are you?”
    â€œI’m so tired, Joe,” she sighed.
    In the distance, sirens wailed. The police were coming.
    â€œEllie—!”
    The hissy voice came back on. “Want to see her again, Joe? Lemme tell you how to arrange that. Bring the Margaret rose behind the roller coaster tonight at closing time. It’ll be dark then.” The voice chuckled. “Dark as my soul. We’ll do a trade— if you come on your own. If you don’t bring the cops or anyone else with you.”
    â€œBut I—,” I started to protest. I stopped myself. I don’t have the rose. Trenchcoat thought I had the Margaret rose. And that was my only chance to get Ellie back.
    I pulled the front door shut. I didn’t want Trenchcoat to hear the sirens.
    â€œOkay,” I got out, through a throat as dry as gravel. “Behind the roller coaster, at closing time.”
    â€œBe there, Joe—or the item I have for trade gets taken off the market… permanently.”
    Click.
    The phone almost slid out of my sweaty hand. Numbly, I put it down. I couldn’t think, couldn’t breathe. He had Ellie .
    Ellie, her braids flying with every cartwheel. Ellie, chanting about the lady with the alligator purse. Ellie, my noisy pest of a kid sister.
    Ellie was worth more to me than all the stupid Margaret roses on the planet.
    I’d been mean to her before she was kidnapped. I’d been a brute, not a brother.
    I wiped my eyes with the back of my hand. Then I realized that red lights were flashing through the living-room window. A police car had pulled up. The lights spun around me, making me dizzy, like I was stuck on a merry-go-round.
    No cops, he’d said. If I told anyone, Ellie would be… I had to get out of there.
    I had to get to VanDusen, to the Margaret rose.
    Money . I needed money for the admission. My wallet was still on the floor at the school.
    Mom kept an emergency twenty under