"Martin, Ann M - Baby-sitters Club Mystery 014 - Stacey and the Mystery at the Mall" - читать интересную книгу автора (Martin Ann M)

the police involved unless we have to. I think it would scare those kids if they saw cops searching the mall, and they might hide themselves even better. How about if we give ourselves a deadline?" She glanced at her watch. "Ifs three-thirty now. If we don't find them by five-thirty, we'll call the police."
"Good idea," said Jessi. "I have to be home no later than six> anyway. I left Becca with Aunt Cecelia, on the condition that I would get home in time to help with dinner. So, letТs synchronize our watches, like on TV."
"Okay." Claudia checked her Swatch and announced that she was already synchronized with Kristy. The rest of us made sure the time on our watches, matched theirs.
Charlie pulled up at the mall entrance. "I'll drop you off and go park," he said. "I'll catch up to you, wherever you are. I want to help find those kids."
We ran into the mall and gathered near the main escalators. "I've been thinking," I said. "We have to be careful about this search. I mean, we want to find the kids as soon as possible, but we don't want to scare them off. Also, we don't want to make anybody suspicious, especially Mr. Morton."
"ThatТs right," said Kristy. "Plus, we don't know if anybody else at the mall is working
with him. So we can't assume that anyone is trustworthy."
"We have to work fast, and work quietly," said Jessi. "No problem. Should we split up into teams?"
"ThatТs a good idea," I replied. "We do have a lot of ground to cover. How about if Claud and I start on the top floor and work our way down, while you and Kristy and Mary Anne work from the main floor up?"
"Okay," said Kristy. "What are we waiting for? LetТs go for it! We can check in with each other at Critters in, say, half an hour?"
The search was on. I felt as if I were in one of those adventure movies in which the hero has to find a bomb within one hour, or else it will blow up the whole city. You know, the kind of movie where they show a dock ticking away the minutes, and you feel more and more tense as the minute hand moves nearer and nearer to midnight? Well, in our case the minute hand was moving nearer to five-thirty. Here's how our search went:
Three-forty: Claud and I headed into the Cheese Outlet, and Mary Anne, Jessi, and Kristy hopped onto the escalator. In the cheese store, Mr. Williams was glad to see us and wanted us to taste some free samples. "We're in kind of a hurry," said Claud. "But thanks."
We glanced around the store, but didn't dare ask Mr. Williams if he had seen the kids. What if he were working with Mr. Morton?
Three-fifty: We checked the upstairs bathrooms. Charlie showed up just in time to look into the men's room. Report: no kids, but some sign of them. Charlie found a comb on the sink in the men's room, and in the women's room I found a towel Ч the stolen one? Ч draped over one of the stalls to dry. "We could be right behind them!" I said. "LetТs keep moving."
Four-ten: After searching through Stuff 'n Nonsense, the candy store (I had to drag Claud away from the jelly-bean display), and Soundscapes, we were beginning to feel frustrated. Since the bathrooms, we had seen no sign of the kids.
Four-fifteen: We met up in front of Critters. Nobody else had seen any sign of the kids, either. We decided to re-form our teams and stay on the bottom three floors where we'd spotted the kids most often. Jessi and I went down to the BookCenter, while Claud stopped in at the ArtistТs Exchange and Mary Anne visited her boss at Critters. Charlie and Kristy moved ahead to the food court, where we would all meet again in ten minutes.
I cruised up and down the aisles in the BookCenter, peering over displays and checking behind the puppet theatre. "Jessi!" I hissed at one point. I gestured toward a small blonde kid who I could only see from the back. He Ч or she Ч was nestled into one of the reading corners with a book. Jessi crept along one of the shelves, trying to remain hidden, until she could check out the kid's face. Just as she looked back at me and shook her head, I felt someone behind me.
"Can I help you girls?" asked Ms. Munro. "Aren't you friends of Mallory's?"
"No Ч I mean yes Ч I mean, we are friends, but we don't need any help, thank you," I stammered. "We're, uh, just looking." It wasn't a lie. We were just looking. We weren't looking for books, though.
Four-twenty-five: We met at a table in the food court. "Nothing to report," said Claudia. "The Artist's Exchange was pretty empty."
"Same with Critters," said Mary Anne. "I did spot Mr. Morton on my way down here, but he was on the "up" escalator. He looked kind of preoccupied."
"We have something to report," said Kristy. "According to this guy Harry, who works at Casa Grande with Logan, somebody used the kitchen again last night."
"So the kids are still around!" said Mary Anne. "What a relief."
"We still have to find them, though," said
Kristy. "And they seem, to be lying low. Charlie and I are going to check the second-floor bathrooms next."
"I'm going to go back upstairs to Cinema World," said Jessi. "Maybe I can find out if anybody slept there last night, if I ask carefully."
"Mary Anne and I can check the women's room down here," said Claud. "Although I doubt we'll find anything there. This is beginning to seem hopeless! How will we ever find three kids in this huge mall?"
"We just have to keep trying," I said. "I want to stop in and see April. How about if we meet by the fountain in a few minutes?"
Five-oh-five: April was busy at Toy Town, so I couldn't really talk to her. But Sarah, her assistant, was setting up a display of new rubber stamps, and I spent some time talking to her. She mentioned that two "really polite kids" had been hanging around about an hour earlier. "I was amazed," she said. "They played with the Legos, but then they put them back neatly."
"I guess their mom came for them?" I asked casually.
Sarah wrinkled her brow. "I don't think so. An older girl stopped by Ч maybe their sister? Ч and herded them out of the store. I heard her say something about naptime."
Five-ten: "Naptime," said Kristy, when I met the others (who hadn't found any sign of the kids in the bathrooms or Cinema World) and told them what I had heard. "Where would they go to take naps?" She thought for a moment. "It would have to be someplace quiet, someplace hidden away. I know! There are some empty offices back by security. LetТs check them out."
Five-twenty: After an extensive check of the offices and rooms near security, we had found absolutely nothing. Kristy led us through a maze of hallways that I had never known about, but every room was empty.
"What are we going to do?" wailed Jessi, looking at her watch. "Our time is almost up."
"Naptime," I muttered to myself. "Nap-time." Suddenly I snapped my fingers. "I've got it!" I said. "Those mats the Exercise Shoppe donated for the day-care center! They're piled up in the back room of our storefront."
Five-twenty-eight: We were off and running almost before I had finished my sentence. But as we approached the day-care center, its door and windows soaped up until the center was ready to open, Kristy held up her hand. "Hold on," she said. ''We better do this carefully, so we don't scare them away. If they take off now, we'll never find them in time."
She seemed so sure that they were in there. I wasn't as positive, but I didn't have any better guesses. "Do you still have the key, Kristy?" I asked.
She nodded. "I've had it ever since the painting party," she admitted. "I forgot to turn it in to Ms. Garcia."
"Good thing," Charlie said. "Now, are there any nearby exits from the store?"
"One," said Mary Anne. "Down that hall." She pointed.
"I'll head down there and guard the door," said Charlie.
"Maybe a couple of us should guard this one, too, while the others go in," said Mary Anne. She and Jessi decided to stay by the door.
Five-thirty-one: "ItТs okay, we're on your side," Kristy was saying. She and Claud and I had opened the door as quietly as possible, tiptoed through the storefront, and entered the back room.
There, sound asleep on the mats, were the two younger children. The older girl sat nearby, reading a copy of A Wrinkle in Time. She was the one Kristy was talking to. When we entered the dimly lit room, she looked up in alarm. There was no time for her to run, though, so she just stayed seated, staring up at us with frightened eyes.
"Are you all right?" asked Kristy. "We were worried about you. We haven't seen you in days."
"We're Ч we're fine," said the girl. "How did you know about us?"
"We've been working at the mall," I explained. "And we've seen you around. I'm Stacey, by the way. This is Kristy and this is Claudia."
"I'm Mara," said the girl. "And thatТs Kyle," she pointed at the boy, who was sitting up and rubbing his eyes, "and Brenda." Brenda sat up too, and yawned. "I'm twelve, Kyle's eight, and Brenda is six."
"And you live at the mall, right? Why?" asked Kristy bluntly. "ItТs kind of a long story," said Mara. "In that case, letТs go get the others," I said. "They'll want to hear it, too."
A few minutes later, we were all gathered in the back room, seated on mats. And Mara began to tell her amazing story.