Operation Orca Read online

Drake Turner kept walking, heading for the dock.

  Dink waited five seconds, then stood up. “Come on,” he said. “This is getting interesting!”

  They followed Drake Turner, staying in the shadows. He moved quietly along the dock and seemed to be studying each boat. Finally, he stopped walking and let out a low whistle. After a few seconds, a light on one of the boats switched on. Drake hurried over and climbed aboard.

  “What is he doing?” Josh whispered. They were huddled behind a trash Dumpster.

  “Getting on a boat,” Dink said. “Talking to some guys. I can’t hear what they’re saying.”

  The kids left the shadow of the Dumpster and stepped onto the wooden dock.

  “Look, there’s Rafe’s boat,” Ruth Rose whispered. She pointed along the dock. The Jamaica rested in its slip, about ten boats away from the one Drake Turner had boarded. A yellow glow shone through one of the Jamaica’s portholes.

  The kids approached the boat where Drake Turner and three men were talking. Twenty feet from the boat, Ruth Rose stopped short, and Josh ran into her.

  “That’s NOT MY FALT!” Ruth Rose exclaimed.

  “No problem,” Josh said. “It was my fault.”

  “No, the boat Drake Turner just got on is called Not My Falt!” Ruth Rose said. “That fishing boat we watched go out yesterday.”

  They crept closer until they were only ten feet from the boat. Hiding behind a tall wooden crate with FIRE HOSES printed on the side, they looked right onto the aft deck.

  Four men stood on the deck, talking quietly. Drake Turner handed the gym bag to a man with muscled arms.

  The man pulled open the zipper and looked inside.

  CHAPTER 10

  “Are you set to make the transfer early tomorrow morning?” Mr. Turner asked quietly.

  The man with the gym bag nodded. “Before the sun comes up,” he said. “Is the Miranda ready?”

  “She’s got a tank of water in the hold, like yours,” he said.

  “Where is she moored?” another man asked. He was taller than the others and had a bald head.

  Drake Turner pointed over his shoulder. “Mooring number fifteen, right out there,” he said. “The Miranda is too big to tie up here.”

  “We’ll find her,” the bald man said.

  “Can I see the calf now?” Drake asked.

  The other two men shoved a thick pile of nets to one side. One of them bent over and pulled open a trapdoor fitted into the deck. All four men looked down into the space. Drake Turner got on his knees and reached a hand into the opening.

  The kids saw something wet move under Drake’s hand. He stood up, nodded at the other men, and left the boat. The kids crouched as he passed their hiding place.

  “It’s Lily’s baby!” Ruth Rose whispered.

  Dink and Josh nodded.

  They watched the men on the boat. On their hands and knees, the kids inched closer.

  The man who had taken the gym bag stared down into the hold. He said something to the baby orca, then shook his head. “You know, I would never have done this if I didn’t need the money,” he told the other two men. “My wife is having her second surgery this week.” He held up the gym bag. “I…I really need this money.”

  Suddenly Ruth Rose jumped up and raced straight toward the Not My Falt. She had her camera in her hand and snapped a picture.

  When the flash went off, the men turned. One of them yelled, “HEY, YOU!”

  Ruth Rose bolted down the wooden dock as fast as her legs would carry her. Behind her, she heard a voice yell, “It was some kid with a camera!”

  Ruth Rose raced back to Dink and Josh. “Pine tree!” she called out as she shot past them.

  Dink and Josh flew after Ruth Rose. Seconds later the boys dove through the tree’s lower branches and threw themselves into the pine needles and dirt. Ruth Rose was already there. Dink felt his heart thumping hard in his chest. He thought he was going to faint.

  The three men thundered past the tree. “Where the heck did the kid go?” one of them shouted. “We need that camera! Look everywhere!”

  Josh was on his back, gulping mouthfuls of air. “I think I’m going to throw up,” he gasped.

  “You said you wanted excitement,” Dink whispered.

  “Yeah, the kind of excitement that gives me goose bumps,” Josh said. “Not the kind that gives me a heart attack!”

  “We can’t stay here!” Ruth Rose whispered. “They’ll come back and start searching!”

  “All I want to do is go back to bed!” Josh said.

  Ruth Rose was already crawling out from under the branches. “Rafe’s boat!” she said as she sprinted toward the boat slips.

  Dink and Josh raced after her onto the dock. This time they weren’t trying to be quiet. Their sneakers pounded the wood planks as they ran.

  In seconds they were standing next to the Jamaica, sweating and out of breath.

  “Rafe!” Ruth Rose said. “Are you in there?”

  Rafe Johnson’s head popped out of his cabin door. “Ruth Rose?” he said. “What’s going on, girl?”

  “Can we come aboard?” Dink asked Rafe. “Some men are chasing us!”

  Rafe grabbed Ruth Rose and pulled her onto the boat. Dink and Josh followed, and all of them clambered down into the cabin. Rafe slid the cabin door into place and threw a bolt.

  “Now, what’s going on?” he asked the three kids. “Who’s chasing you?”

  “The men who took the baby orca!” Ruth Rose said. “We found the calf!”

  Rafe dimmed the lamp and turned off the TV. “Sit,” he told the kids.

  They squeezed together on a narrow sofa. Interrupting each other, they told Rafe how they had followed Drake Turner to the Not My Falt.

  “He gave the guys on the boat a gym bag full of money!” Josh said.

  “They’re supposed to bring the calf to his yacht, the Miranda, tomorrow morning!” Dink added.

  “The Not My Falt is Hector Falt’s fishing boat,” Rafe said. “I can’t believe Hec would take a young orca away from its mother.”

  “We heard him say he really needs the money,” Dink said. “I guess his wife is sick.”

  Rafe nodded. “Some of us took up a collection to help pay her hospital bills,” he said quietly. “I guess it wasn’t enough.”

  “I saw Lily’s baby,” Ruth Rose said. She found the picture and handed the camera to Rafe.

  “Wow, great shot,” he said. “I see the calf’s head. But you only got the men’s legs. Without seeing their faces, we can’t prove who was there.”

  “We know Mr. Turner was there,” Ruth Rose said. “We all saw him hand over the money!”

  “What about the calf?” Dink said. “How long can it go without Lily’s milk?”

  “A day or two,” Rafe said.

  “I think we should ask Mr. Turner to give the baby orca back to its mother,” Ruth Rose said.

  They all stared at her.

  “But he just paid money for it!” Josh said. “He’d never return it.”

  “He might,” Ruth Rose said. “But if he won’t, we can call the police.”

  Dink nodded. “Let’s go try,” he said.

  Ruth Rose asked Rafe to bring his tape recorder and the tape of Naomi’s cries.

  The four of them left the Jamaica and hurried toward the Turner Hotel.

  “I bet he won’t even talk to us,” Josh said.

  The kids and Rafe trooped into the hotel lobby. Chester was still snoring in his office as they headed for the elevator.

  “Can I push the button, please?” Josh asked once they were all inside.

  “Go for it,” Dink said.

  Josh mashed the button with the big 4-P on it. The elevator hummed as it took them to Drake Turner’s penthouse. When the elevator door opened, they stepped into a small carpeted room. There was a chair, a mirror on the wall, and a vase of flowers. Next to the flowers was a door with a peephole.

  Dink leaned his ear against the door. “I think I h
ear a TV,” he said.

  Ruth Rose looked at Rafe. He set the tape recorder outside Drake Turner’s door and inserted the tape. “Ready,” he said.

  Ruth Rose knocked on the door. Nothing happened. She knocked again, louder.

  “I think the TV went off,” Dink whispered.

  “Who’s out there?” a voice asked through the door.

  “Ruth Rose and Dink and Josh,” Ruth Rose said. “We’re staying in your hotel.”

  “What do you want?” the voice asked. “It’s late.”

  “We want you to listen to something,” Ruth Rose said. She nodded at Rafe, who switched on the tape recorder. The hallway was suddenly filled with whale cries. Naomi was grieving for her lost baby.

  CHAPTER 11

  A minute later the door opened. Drake Turner stood there. His eyes were red. “What’s that?” he asked, pointing at the recorder.

  “Orca cries,” Rafe said. “It’s a mother orca whose baby died.”

  Mr. Turner listened to the awful sounds. When the tape ran out, the hallway was quiet. “Who are you?” he asked Rafe.

  “Rafe Johnson. I own the Jamaica, one of the whale-watching boats,” Rafe said. “I keep a slip near the Not My Falt.”

  Ruth Rose showed Mr. Turner her camera. “I took a picture of you and those guys on the boat,” she said. “And the baby orca you stole.”

  Drake Turner backed away from the door. “I…I have nothing to say,” he muttered.

  “Could we talk to you?” Dink asked. “It’s important!”

  “The baby whale could die!” Josh said. “It needs milk from its mother!” Josh picked up the tape recorder. “That baby whale you took has a mother, and she’s crying, too.”

  Drake Turner stared at the floor. Then he nodded. “Please come in,” he said.

  All the lights were on in the apartment. The carpet was thick and white. The furniture was black leather. The gray walls were hung with photos of Mr. Turner with a smiling redheaded woman and a redheaded boy. The pictures showed them at the beach, aboard the Miranda, and in front of a Christmas tree.

  “This way,” Drake Turner said. He led them down a hallway and stopped in front of a closed door.

  He let out a big sigh. “My wife took my son away from me a year ago,” he said. His voice was shaky. “I…miss them terribly. I’ve tried everything to get them back, searched everywhere, but nothing came of it.”

  He glanced at Josh. “Tyler has hair the same color as yours,” he said, opening the door and switching on a light. It was a little boy’s room. A mural of whales swimming in the ocean had been painted on one wall. A bulletin board held pictures of whales. A whale mobile hung from the ceiling, and a stuffed whale lay on the little bed.

  “Tyler loves whales, as you can see,” Drake Turner said. He pointed to a little kid’s crayon drawing of a whale. “The night Miranda and Tyler left, I found that on my desk. I don’t know why he colored it green.”

  He sat on Tyler’s bed. He picked up the stuffed whale and held it on his lap. “I know I’ve been stupid, but I was desperate. Tyler’s birthday is next week. The baby orca is for him, if I ever find him. I…know I broke the law. But Tyler’s not coming back, so it was all for nothing,” he said.

  “But how would you even keep a baby orca alive?” Rafe asked. “The young ones need their mothers for at least a year. They need saltwater. They need their orca families.”

  “At my place down the coast, I built a special pond,” Mr. Turner said. “It’s an inlet of the ocean, and I dammed it up to form a sort of outdoor aquarium. I hired a whale expert to help take care of it. The calf would have everything it needs.”

  “But that pond would be like a prison to an orca,” Rafe said. “It needs its mother and her milk. Orcas live in family pods. The baby would be miserable alone in a pond. It would probably die within six months.”

  “We came to ask you to return the baby to its mother,” Ruth Rose said. “Please.”

  “There’s still time, Mr. Turner,” Rafe said.

  Drake Turner stroked the stuffed whale, then set it on Tyler’s pillow. “Of course I will,” he said. “I never thought about the mother’s milk. I never meant to cause it any harm. I just wanted my family back.”

  Everyone got quiet.

  The sad man stood up. “I’ll go talk to Hec Falt,” he said. “I’ll persuade him to release the little orca as soon as possible.”

  “Thank you!” Ruth Rose cried.

  Josh was studying the drawing of the green whale. He looked at Mr. Turner. “Do you have a computer?” he asked.

  “Of course, but why…?”

  “I think I know where your son might be,” Josh said. “I can show you on a computer.”

  Drake Turner hurried from the room and returned with his laptop. He booted it up and handed it to Josh.

  Josh found a search engine, typed in a few words, then waited while something came up on the screen. “Do you know that book Tyler was so crazy about?” he asked.

  Drake Turner shook his head. “I’m afraid I never took the time to read with him,” he said. “I don’t know what books Tyler was reading.”

  “He loved a book called Wonderful Island,” Dink said.

  “He got everyone in the hotel to read it to him,” Ruth Rose said.

  Josh pointed to Tyler’s green whale drawing. “That’s not a green whale,” he told Mr. Turner. “That’s a picture of the island that Jamie went to with his parents in the book. The island is shaped like a whale. Tyler copied it when he made the drawing.”

  Josh showed the picture on the laptop screen. It was a photo of Frye Island, taken from the air.

  “It does look like Tyler’s drawing,” Drake Turner said.

  Josh handed the laptop to Mr. Turner. “I think your wife took Tyler to Frye Island,” he said. “I’ll bet Tyler drew the island and left the picture on your desk as a clue. I’ll bet anything he wants you to go there and find him.”

  Mr. Turner studied the laptop screen and Tyler’s green drawing. “This Frye Island really exists?” he said.

  “It’s in Sebago Lake, in Maine,” Ruth Rose said. “We read the book in the library today.”

  “Why would Tyler’s mother take him to Maine?” Drake Turner asked. “She’s never been there. She used to go to Europe, so I’ve had the detectives search Paris and Rome and the other big cities. Miranda would never take our son to some little island in the middle of nowhere.”

  “Maybe Tyler wants to do all the things the boy in the story did,” Ruth Rose said. “He could have talked his mom into taking him there. Plus, she knew you’d never think of looking for them in Maine.”

  Mr. Turner pulled a cell phone from his pocket. He tapped in a number, then said, “Mr. Cosgrove? This is Drake Turner….Yes, I know it’s after midnight. I’m sorry if I woke you. I need you to have your detectives check out Frye Island. It’s in Sebago Lake, in Maine. Yes, Maine. Check the hotels and bed-and-breakfasts. There’s a chance that my wife and son are there.”

  Mr. Turner listened. “Thank you, Mr. Cosgrove. This means everything to me.”

  He hung up. “Now let’s see if Hec Falt answers his phone in the middle of the night!”

  Then he tapped in another number. “Mr. Falt?” he said. “This is Drake Turner. I’m calling to ask for a special favor from you.”

  He handed the phone to Rafe. “Please explain to Mr. Falt how he should release the baby whale,” he said.

  CHAPTER 12

  Rafe stepped into the hallway with the phone.

  Dink pulled out his own cell phone and called his father. First he explained why he wasn’t asleep in his room. Then he told his dad they had found the baby orca. “We’re all going to release it right now!” he said. “Meet us in the lobby!”

  —

  Ten minutes later Mr. Turner, Rafe, and the kids took the elevator to the lobby. Dink’s father was there. His eyes looked sleepy, but he was smiling. “Every time I take my eyes off you kids, you get involved in some myste
ry!” he said.

  He and Rafe and Mr. Turner all shook hands. It was after one in the morning.

  Suddenly Chester popped his head out of his office. His hair was standing up, and his shirt was wrinkled. “What’s going on?” he asked. “Is the hotel on fire?”

  Drake Turner laughed. “No, Chester. You can go back to sleep,” he said. “We’re going to the docks.”

  “Fishing?” Chester asked, rubbing his eyes.

  “No, Operation Orca!” Mr. Turner said.

  —

  Hec Falt had sent his crew home. So it was just Hec, Rafe, Mr. Turner, Dink’s father, and the three kids aboard the Not My Falt when it headed out to sea. The sea and sky were dark, with only a few stars reflecting on the water.

  While Hec steered the boat, Rafe stood next to him and they talked quietly. After a few minutes, Rafe motioned for Mr. Turner to join him and Hec. Then Hec handed Mr. Turner the gym bag with the B on its side. All three men shook hands.

  Rafe walked over to the kids and Dink’s father. “Mr. Turner apologized to Hec for involving him in this orca capture,” Rafe said. “They’re both going to turn themselves in to the authorities tomorrow. Hec feels terrible about taking the baby, and he’s anxious to return it to its mother.”

  Mr. Turner left Hec and joined the others. He set the gym bag on the boat deck.

  Dink remembered the briefcase. “Mr. Turner, did you give some guy your briefcase yesterday? One with your initials on the side?” he asked. “He has a van with Cool Pool Brothers on it.”

  “I think you mean Dennis Toomey,” Drake Turner said. “He and Chester are brothers. They own the pool business together.”

  “I thought Dennis Toomey looked familiar,” Dink said. “He looks like his brother!”

  “We think he gave Chester some money yesterday,” Ruth Rose said. “We thought the Cool Pool guys were the ones who took the baby whale. We thought it was your briefcase because it had D.T. on it.”

  “I don’t own a briefcase with my initials on it,” Mr. Turner said. “And I believe Dennis gives Chester money to put in the safe now and then. Money from their pool business.”