Disappearance at Hangman's Bluff Read Online Free Page A

sorry.”
    â€œNot as sorry as they’re gonna be,” he growled. He glanced at Cyrus. “Excuse me, deputy. I apologize if you have already covered all of this, but I need the girls to tell me everything.”
    Grandma Em had written down all the details she’d made us recall, and Bee had typed them up on the computer and printed them out. We handed our report to Judge Gator, and he read it over fast, then pointed his finger at one line in the report and raised his eyes to us.
    â€œYou said their gun made some kind of funny noise. What kind of noise?”
    When Grandma Em made us think hard about all the details, Bee and I remembered that we had never heard a gunshot. “I didn’t hear anything,” I said. “But Bee said she thought it sounded like somebody spitting.”
    The judge frowned. “Was Yemassee knocked backward by the shot?”
    Bee shook her head. “No, sir. She just sat down and then keeled over.”
    The judge rolled his jaw around, and his eyes got very small. “Sounds like it was some sort of tranquilizer gun,” he said quietly. He looked at Daddy and at Cyrus. “I bet they wanted my puppies.”
    Cyrus nodded. “Last year we had about five Boykins stolen right here on the island. I wonder if it could be those same people stealing dogs again.”
    The judge nodded. “I think that’s got to be it. And I’m betting it’s somebody local.”
    A few minutes later, having promised to put out a notice to all the local police departments to be on the lookout for a heavy-duty white pickup with the two men we had seen, Cyrus left. Grandma Em invited Judge Gator, Daddy, and me to stay for dinner and share the spaghetti and meatballs she had made earlier. We accepted in a blink, even Judge Gator, because nobody, and I mean nobody, turns down a chance to eat Grandma Em’s cooking. Not even somebody whose heart is breaking because his best friend has been stolen.
    While the grown-ups sat on the front porch and had cocktails before dinner, Bee and I walked out onto the dock and watched the tide go out and the fiddler crabs scooting across the pluff mud. For a time neither of us said a word. I kept thinking about what it was like for me when I almost lost Daddy, and I knew Bee was probably thinking the same thing, maybe what it was like when she lost her mom.
    â€œThe judge’s wife died a couple years ago,” I finally said. “Now Yemassee is all he’s got.”
    Bee nodded. “I was thinking the same thing. I mean, losing a relative is terrible, but if you lose the only living thing that helps fill an empty house, is it any less bad because it’s a dog?”
    â€œKnow what I think?” I said.
    â€œWhat?”
    â€œGrandma Em said there aren’t nearly as many six-wheeled pickups around as standard ones. And Judge Gator said he was sure someone on this island stole Yemassee. There are only so many places where someone could park a truck like that . . .”
    Bee scowled and nodded and threw a stick in the water and watched it float out of sight. “Force and Force,” she said, after a long silence.
    I looked at her, and suddenly I got it. My eyes widened, and I snapped my fingers. “Yes!” I said. “Force and Force Investigations. We’ll find Yemassee.”
    Â 
    Nobody said much at dinner because, in spite of how good the food was, we all felt the judge’s sadness. Afterward the judge drove Daddy and me home to our tenant house, and when we got out of the car we stood outside and watched the judge’s old Mercedes disappear down the drive.
    â€œI feel terrible for him,” Daddy said.
    â€œMe too,” I said, but I kept the news to myself that Bee and I were going to find Yemassee and get her back. If I’m being honest, I had a feeling Daddy wouldn’t want me poking around in strange backyards, and I didn’t want him to squash our