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  We were about halfway there when I saw a figure to our left. I tapped Colin on the shoulder and put a finger to my lips. I pointed at the form moving through the trees. Sunlight reflected on the lens of the person’s binoculars. “Ava! What are you doing here?” I called.

  Ava dropped her binoculars and stared at us. She scooped her binoculars back up from the ground. “Same thing you are, I’m looking for the Kirtland’s warbler.”

  I frowned. “But you said you didn’t want to look anymore, that the grade we already got was good enough.”

  “I know, but I got home and realized that I wasn’t ready to give up, so I promised myself one more try.”

  “You could have told us,” Colin said. “We would have come with you.”

  She scowled. “I wanted to do it alone.”

  “Colin and I aren’t here for the Kirtland’s warbler.” I licked my lips. “We have bigger problems. We know who is stealing from the graves and who is pretending to be the ghost to scare us away.”

  “It’s my aunt Claudette.” Colin stared at the tops of his sneakers.

  “And your brother, Romero,” I added.

  “My brother would never do that,” Ava snapped.

  Colin placed his hand on a low branch. “It’s true. Andi found the ghost costume in his truck.”

  Ava folded her arms. “Impossible.”

  I chewed on my lip. “I know your mom is sick. Your brother told me.”

  Ava glared. “What do you know about it?”

  “Romero said that you missed school to go with your mom to the doctor, and he helped Claudette because he needed the money for your family.”

  Angry tears filled Ava’s eyes. “Don’t pity me with that sad puppy look. You live in that great big house with your aunt and sister and don’t have a care in the world. Meanwhile, I live in a tiny apartment with my brother, who doesn’t care about anyone, and my mother, who is too sick to get out of bed most days.”

  “My life isn’t perfect,” I said.

  She gave a bitter snort. “I know a perfect life when I see it.”

  “At least you have your mother,” I snapped. “You can talk to her. What do you think I would give to do that?”

  Ava jerked back as if I had slapped her.

  “Come on, Colin.” I marched back to the path.

  Colin hurried after me.

  “Where are you going?” Ava called after us.

  “To stop Romero and Claudette,” I said.

  After a few paces, I glanced back and saw Ava trailing behind us.

  CASE FILE NO. 18

  We crept to the edge of the cemetery and hid behind a huge rhododendron bush about four feet from the edge of the ravine. I pointed to the drop, and both Colin and Ava nodded that they saw it.

  Claudette and Romero were digging in Harold’s grave. She ran a metal detector over the ground as he dug.

  “That’s Bergita’s metal detector,” Colin whispered. “Claudette must have gotten it out of our garage.”

  I nodded. That made sense since Officer Handly had confiscated the one Colin and I had been caught using on Sunday.

  Claudette stepped away so that Romero could dig. “What were you doing with her sister? She never would have connected this to you if you hadn’t been hanging around her family.”

  Romero plunged the spade into the earth. “I like Beth.”

  “I don’t pay you to like anyone. I pay you to dig up artifacts that I can sell.”

  “Well, maybe I want to stop. It’s just getting too weird and the police are involved. What if I tell the police what I know about you?” He folded his arms and smiled smugly. “That would be bad news for you.”

  She glared at him. “Then, they will ask why you didn’t report me when you caught me digging in the woods in the first place.”

  Romero’s face fell.

  She smiled. “Wait till I tell them that you threatened to tell the police what I was up to unless I let you help me and gave you half of the money from selling the coins online. I don’t think the police would look very kindly on that, do you?”

  “Only to help my mom.” He gripped his spade so tightly his knuckles turned white.

  Claudette shrugged. “Do you think that will matter to the police? And who do you really think they would believe between the two of us? A juvenile delinquent or an upstanding elderly citizen?”

  Romero looked down at the hole he was digging.

  Claudette’s lips curled into a smile. “I thought so.”

  Ava looked like she wanted to jump out of the trees and tackle Colin’s aunt.

  “I still can’t believe Claudette is behind it,” Colin whispered under his breath. “My own aunt stealing from those graves . . . who knows how many other places she has stolen artifacts from over the years.”

  “I know,” I whispered back.

  “I found something.” Romero reached his free hand into the hole and came up with a mud-covered coin. He held it up to Claudette.

  She took it. Claudette rubbed dirt from the coin and held it up in the sunlight, breaking through the trees. It looked to be the same size and shape as the coin I had found. “Excellent. Another Liberty Gold Eagle coin. Pure gold from 1861.” She grinned. “This one will fetch a good price online once I get it cleaned up. Good job, Romero. Now we can close up this site.”

  “What do we do?” Ava whispered.

  “Bergita is on her way,” I said. “She will talk some sense into Claudette.”

  “So my brother can take the fall.” Ava glared at me. “I don’t think so.” She jumped out of the brush. “Romero!”

  Her brother dropped his spade. “Ava?”

  Colin and I joined her.

  Romero looked at all three of us standing shoulder to shoulder. “You’re with them?”

  “What are you doing, Romero?” Ava put her hands on her hips.

  Her brother scowled. “I’m helping our family.”

  “By stealing?” Colin asked.

  “You’re going to be in a lot of trouble,” Ava said. “How can you put Mom through this now?”

  “I was helping Mom.”

  “You were helping yourself,” she countered.

  Romero glared at Colin and me. “Where’s the duffel bag?”

  “I hid it,” Colin said.

  I groaned. I knew Colin wanted to take the heat off me, but he didn’t need to do that.

  “Where?”

  “I’ll never tell.” Colin lifted his chin.

  Romero dashed toward Colin, but Ava jumped in the way. In an instant, I watched her topple over the edge of the ravine.

  I screamed, “Ava!”

  Romero teetered on the edge and then stepped back. “Ava!”

  Claudette put a hand to her face. “What did you do?”

  “I — I didn’t mean it.” He peered over the edge.

  I ran to edge of the ravine too. Ava was at the bottom moaning and holding her ankle. She wasn’t that far down, maybe ten feet. But it looked as if her right ankle was bent at an odd angle.

  “You had better go help her,” Claudette said to Romero.

  “Where are you going?” Romero asked.

  “I’m leaving.” She slipped the coin into her sweatshirt pocket.

  “But what about my sister?” Romero cried.

  “She’ll be fine. I’m sure you kids will find a way to help her.” She started for the path.

 
“Aunt Claudette.” Colin’s mouth fell open.

  “I’m sorry, Colin, but this is how it must be. I can’t afford to stay a moment longer.” She jogged into the trees and disappeared.

  I hesitated for a moment, wondering if I should go after her. Instead, I grabbed Colin’s arm. “Come on, we need to make sure Ava is okay.”

  I sat on the edge of the ravine. “The best way to get down will be to slide.”

  Colin put a hand on my arm. “Wait. I have a better way.” He unshouldered his pack and removed Bergita’s grappling hook.

  I stared at it.

  “I’ve had it in my pack all week, in case we needed it while birding. I forgot to take it out when we left camp.” He secured the hook onto a young sturdy tree and handed me the coil of rope.

  Holding the rope, I half walked-half skated down the slick, muddy bank.

  Colin came down after me.

  Romero didn’t bother with the rope and ran down the ravine to reach his sister. It was a miracle he didn’t break a leg in the process.

  “Ava, are you okay?” Colin knelt beside her.

  Tears streamed down Ava’s face. “My ankle.” She gritted her teeth.

  “Is it broken?” I asked. I could already see her ankle swelling under her sock.

  “I don’t know,” Ava snapped. “It hurts.” She angrily brushed the tears from her cheeks.

  Colin and I helped her sit up and then stand. Romero stood a few feet away frozen in place. “I can carry her up the hill,” he finally said.

  “Don’t touch me.” Ava wrapped her arms around Colin and me for support. “My friends will help me.”

  We made slow progress up the hill, gripping the rope the entire time, and then down the path to the parking lot. Ava hopped on one foot and gritted her teeth. Romero walked behind us. A couple of times, I turned around and saw him wipe away a tear.

  I knew Claudette would be long gone by now, out of the park, out of Killdeer, maybe even out of the state.

  As we broke through the trees, I heard Bergita’s voice. “How could you do this?”

  “No one was using those artifacts. The dead don’t need them. Why can’t I make money selling them? Now get out of my way. I’m leaving,” Claudette said.

  “You’re not going anywhere, sister.” Bergita held up the spark plugs from what I assumed was Claudette’s Jeep.

  A siren wailed and two police cruisers, one driven by our pal Officer Handly, turned into the parking lot.

  Claudette stared at her sister. “You called the police on your own sister.”

  “You didn’t give me much of a choice.”

  The officers climbed out of their cruisers.

  “What’s going on here?” Officer Handly wanted to know. His eyes widened when he saw Colin and me, and I don’t think it was because we were covered in mud. “You two again?”

  “They didn’t do anything wrong,” Ava said through clenched teeth. She pointed at Claudette. “She’s the one who has been robbing the graves, and my brother’s been helping her.”

  “Don’t be ridiculous,” Claudette said. “As you can see the child is hurt and possibly delusional.”

  “I’m not hurt or delusional,” Bergita said. “Ava’s right. My sister’s guilty of this crime, and it’s not the first time, is it, sister? How else can you fund all those birding trips across the globe?” Her voice was filled with disappointment.

  “Have you really done this other places?” Colin asked. “Have you stolen from historical places before?”

  Claudette didn’t answer.

  “Ma’am,” the burly officer said. “I would like to ask you a few questions.”

  “This is an outrage. I didn’t do anything wrong!” Claudette yelled loud enough that I wondered if Bethany and Amelie heard her back home.

  “She’s lying,” I said. “She has a coin in the pocket of her sweatshirt right now. She stole it from the cemetery.”

  Claudette glared at me.

  “Please show me what’s in your pocket, ma’am.”

  She didn’t move.

  Officer Handly walked up to her. “Hold out your arms.”

  Wordlessly, Claudette complied. Officer Handly fished in Claudette’s sweatshirt pocket and came up with the muddy coin. “What’s this?”

  “I’m not saying another word without a lawyer.” Claudette snapped her mouth closed.

  Officer Handly shrugged as if it was no concern of his. “We are going to have to take you to the station.” He removed handcuffs from the back of his duty belt. “You have the right — ”

  Nearby a bird broke into song, cutting the police officer off. Claudette’s head snapped up and stared at a nearby tree. The Kirtland’s warbler sat on a branch a couple feet away singing his heart out. Claudette’s hands flew to her heart, and her eyes fixed on the bird.

  Officer Handly started telling Claudette her rights again, but it was clear she wasn’t listening. She was staring at the bird. “It’s so beautiful.”

  The Kirtland’s warbler hopped to a lower branch, and tears sprang to Claudette’s eyes. I bit my lip. What she did was wrong, but in a weird way, watching her stare at that bird, I knew why she did it. Birding really was her life.

  As Officer Handly marched her to his squad car, she kept looking back over her shoulder at the bird. “I saw it. I saw it, and no one can take that away from me.” Claudette said over and over again until the police officer closed the car door after her and we couldn’t hear her any more.

  EPILOGUE

  I knocked on the apartment door and waited. Colin stood next to me and fidgeted from foot to foot. The door opened and a frail-looking woman with a blue scarf wrapped around her bald head opened the door. She smiled. “Hello, you must be Andi and Colin.”

  “Is Ava here?” I asked.

  Ava’s mother moved away from the doorway with unsteady shuffling steps. “She’s in the living room. It’s so nice of you to stop by. Please come in.”

  We followed her into the apartment. The brief entryway opened into a living room. Ava sat on the couch with her foot propped up on an ottoman.

  “Hi,” Colin and I said.

  “Hi,” Ava said back.

  Colin held up the basket he was carrying. “It’s from Bergita. She sent cookies.”

  Ava didn’t take them, so Colin set them on the coffee table next to her foot.

  Carefully and with the slightest wince, Mrs. Gomez lowered herself onto the couch next to her daughter. She chuckled. “More sweets. Everyone has been so kind to us since my relapse. I have eaten more sugar in the last month than I have my whole life.” She smiled. “And I intend to enjoy every last bite.”

  “We came by to thank you. Thanks for jumping in front of me at the cemetery,” Colin said to Ava.

  “Yes, thanks,” I added. “It was really brave to stand up to your own brother like that.”

  “It’s no big deal,” Ava said, but her cheeks were pink.

  Her mom reached over and tucked her daughter’s long dark hair behind her ear. “Ava is my modest girl.”

  Modest?

  “She is always there for me. I’m glad she was there for her friends.” Tears were in Mrs. Gomez’s eyes. “And I’m so sorry about what Romero put you through. He feels terrible about what happened. He was only trying to help our family. Sometimes he just doesn’t know the right way to do it.”

  “Will he get in trouble?” Colin asked.

  Mrs. Gomez gave us a sad smile. “Claudette took most of the blame, but Romer
o has community service to do. He and Bethany were going over the list of places he could serve it earlier this morning.” She looked at me. “Your sister is a good influence on him.”

  “Thanks,” I said. It was odd to think Bethany was a good influence on anyone, but ever since I had heard her tell Romero she wished she and I got along better, I had tried to cut her more slack.

  Mrs. Gomez turned to Colin. “I’m sorry about your aunt, Colin.”

  Colin flinched. “It’s weird to think my aunt is in prison for stealing, and that she’s going to be there at least two years. Her lawyer thinks she will get out early, unless she does something else wrong.”

  Ava’s mother slowly rose to her feet. “Anyway, enough of that unpleasant talk. There is too much sadness in this world as it is. How do you kids feel about cheesecake? A lady from church just dropped off a chocolate strawberry one. There is no way Ava and I will be able to eat it all.”

  “Cheesecake?” Colin asked. “I love cheesecake. I can help you.”

  Mrs. Gomez laughed. “All right. You can lick the knife after I cut it too.”

  “Awesome.” Colin followed her out of the room.

  I perched on an armchair. “How’s your ankle?”

  “It’s okay. The doctor said it’s only a bad sprain.”

  “Too bad. That won’t get you out of gym class for very long.”

  She laughed. “That’s exactly what I thought.”

  I smiled, and after a beat, I asked, “Friends?”

  “Friends.” Ava leaned back in her seat. “But don’t think I won’t beat you when science fair season rolls around.”

  We would see about that.

  ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

  To my readers, young and old, this book would have never have happened without your support of my work and your love of mysteries. Thank you!

  Undying thanks to my agent, Nicole Resciniti, who always goes above the call as an agent and friend. And thanks to my first reader, Molly Carroll, for your enthusiasm for all my books, and to my dear friend Mariellyn Grace, who helps me plot when I’m stuck, which happens often.