The Casaday Girls, Book 1: Super Kids. Michael Inc. Markey

at somebody and say the wrong thing.”

      “Please. No meltdowns with Mom, okay?”

      They made the jog to the lake playground in record time. Looking around to make certain nobody saw them turn in at the parking lot, Rachael took the lead as Alexa watched behind them with her extraordinary vision.

      “Keep moving, Rache. I sense something again.”

      “Like last night? What is it with you?”

      “There’s no harm in being too careful.”

      They retraced their steps to where they thought the man lay. Rachael got down on her knees and examined the scene thoroughly, something Officer Mulligan couldn’t do in the darkness and fog.

      “Look, Alexa. You see that? These weeds are all smushed down, like something, or somebody, was lying here. We’re not crazy after all.”

      Alexa gave it a super stare. “I sense that it was human.”

      Rachael looked again. “The person was bleeding. See those drops of blood? There, and there. Over there, too.” She pointed to a spot on the ground several feet away.

      “I believe you but I don’t want to get dirty. My sweats were just washed.”

      “Okay, Neat Freak, don’t look. I’m just saying that we didn’t see this last night in the dark.”

      “Well, if I had looked more carefully, maybe I would have seen it. Of course, then Officer Mulligan would’ve suspected something about my powers of super vision. We don’t want him to know about our powers.”

      Rachael looked to her right. “Then someone dragged him in that direction. You can see the marks in the sandy soil and broken weeds.”

      They followed what appeared to be two heel marks between the clusters of pines. The girls discovered droplets of blood about ten or twelve feet apart. Every minute or so, Alexa gave a look, scanning in a total circle to check for danger before they moved on. They followed the tracks through the woods until they reached the hard road.

      “What do we do now?” Rachael asked.

      “I don’t know. That’s the end of the heel marks. Should we check out the houses on the other side of the road?”

      “Maybe they threw the guy in the back of a car, or something. That would end all signs of the mysterious man.”

      “Let’s just say that’s what happened. Then we should find more blood along the curb where they loaded him in that car, right?”

      A sedan suddenly approached. Both girls raced to the edge of the wooded area again to remain unseen to traffic as the car flew by. Alexa looked up, straining her eyes and ears.

      “Do you sense anything now?”

      “No, but I haven’t been practicing the hearing thing lately.”

      “You should, Alexa. It just might save our lives someday.”

      A passing shadow overhead caused Alexa to look up. Above them, two large birds circled, perhaps seventy-five feet in the air.

      “You see them? They’re not geese.”

      Rachael looked up, too. “Definitely not geese. Even from down here, you can see they’re too big. I think they might be vultures.”

      “Ooh, what would vultures want out here?”

      “Dead things. Vultures are scavengers,” Rachael smirked. “So don’t stand in one place for too long. You might be their next meal!”

      Alexa shivered. “It’s almost like they’re watching us.”

      The birds disappeared after a few minutes of circling the lake, and the girls continued their investigation.

      Then Alexa’s nose twitched. Looking both ways for traffic first, she crossed the street. Rachael scampered behind her.

      “Just as I thought. More spots of blood.” Alexa continued to the yard of the house directly in front of them. “Guess they didn’t take the injured man away in a car.”

      They looked at each other.

      “Should we keep looking around?” Rachael asked.

      “No. Not today, anyway. We’re in enough trouble already, after last night.”

      “Yeah, I suppose you’re right.”

      “The trail leads to this house, though. I can smell it.”

      Rachael yanked on Alexa”s elbow. “We better get away from here before someone sees us.”

      They worked their way back through the wooded lakeside. Rachael collected some of the blood samples as best she could in a zip-lock bag. She carefully scooped up a sample of sandy earth and vegetation with it.

      “What are you going to do with that?” Alexa asked.

      “Don’t know. Something to show Mom, mainly to prove to her that what we saw last night was real.

      If their mother still believed the story at all, Rachael thought.

      “The way it looks to me, somebody took the man away while we were at home. They didn’t want anyone to discover him,” said Rachael.

      “Right.”

      “Gee, you don’t tell me I’m right very often.”

      Alexa ignored the remark. “Looking at it another way, maybe they didn’t want the police to find him. Just us.”

      “Yeah. Why would they do it?”

      “You mean, besides making us look totally stupid? I don’t know. I’m just saying--”

      A car door slammed. “Hear that? It was from the direction of the house over there,” Alexa whispered.

      “Come on, let’s go peek.”

      “No, Rache--”

      Rachael paid no attention to Alexa and ran back the same way they had come. She crossed the street again, hiding near some evergreens on the property. Two youthful guys appeared, crawling out of an SUV in the driveway of the house on the hillside. They were well dressed in khakis, white shirts and ties.

      “Stay down. We can’t let them see us,” Alexa said, following behind her.

      “Alexa, how are we going to find out what happened if we don’t do anything?” As she spoke, Rachael reached down and grabbed a broken branch about three feet long.

      Alexa grabbed at the branch. “What do you plan to do with that?”

      “It’s just in case. Why do you think I trained myself to fight?”

      “You’re delusional. Can’t you see? There’s two of them.”

      “Only two? Yeah, I guess that gives me an unfair advantage.”

      “Oh Rache--”

      As Alexa and Rachael watched, the two figures entered the house.

      “They don’t seem to be full adults, but older that us,” Alexa said.

      “Maybe high school age?”

      “Too well dressed to be coming home from our high school. Maybe they work, or go to college.”

      “Or a private school. Let’s get closer.”

      “No way. I know all I want to know for one day. Let’s go home.”

      They made the jog back home as if it was just another routine run in their neighborhood. After a few closing stretches at their front door, the girls charged for the kitchen, to cool down with energy drinks.

      “So what should we do now?”