Close Encounters (Nancy Drew (All New) Girl Detective Book 21) by Carolyn Keene Read Free Book Online Page B

road, rounding the bend and moving out of sight.
    “The producer wants to document our reaction to the UFO sightings. Because,” I quickly added, “I think they’re hoaxes.”
    “You do, do you?” He snorted. He passed through the gate to the front yard and waited for us to follow him. Then he looked at Bess. “And you, blondie—what do you think?”
    I cringed. Bess hated being called “blondie.” I could feel her tense up—but she surprised me by smiling at Aldwin.
    “I’m not sure,” she admitted. “What do you think?”
    He gave a tight-lipped smile. “Until today I thought it was all hogwash. But now, after what happened here last night when those lights starting circling up yonder, over the hill—well, I’ve become a believer.” He limped up the stairs onto the porch. “You can see for yourself, though.”
    He led us out to the barnyard. The kennel occupied a large area, out of sight of the road. I noticed it was divided into three parts, two of which had severallarge individual dog runs. At the sight of us, young bloodhounds raced up to the fencing, their baying shifting into expectant whines and barks.
    “Down, you critters.” Aldwin poked his fingers through the links. The dogs scrambled to lick his fingers. “It’s not feeding time.”
    A smaller third pen held a doghouse. I noticed the gate had been left open. The doghouse and pen were unoccupied.
    Aldwin walked up to the empty pen. “Like I told you, he’s gone missing.”
    “But what makes you think he was abducted?”
    “By aliens,” Bess added, examining the cage. “You said he’s a really good tracker. Is it possible that a hunter stole him?”
    Aldwin snickered. “Do you really think a tough watchdog like Sherlock is going to just head off with some stranger?”
    I wasn’t about to argue—but any dog can be lured by a raw juicy steak. And wasn’t an alien a stranger? “Okay, so he wouldn’t let a stranger take him, but obviously someone—or something—did, Aldwin. What makes you think it had to do with our supposed space visitors?”
    Aldwin leaned against a stump and launched into his story. “Sherlock’s been acting kind of off for about four weeks now. . . . That’s when the first UFOs cameto town. He’d been baying at nothing and heading back that way into the woods,” he said, pointing to the area where we’d sighted the supposed UFOs the other night, “anytime he was left off his lead.”
    “That’s unusual?” Bess asked. She was petting one of the dogs through the fence.
    “For him? Absolutely. He’s trained to stay in the barnyard when he’s loose.”
    “When he went into the woods, did he seem to be tracking something or someone?” I asked.
    Aldwin nodded. “Mind you, whatever he was tracking, he never ventured far into the woods. I figured someone was probably camping where they shouldn’t. Illegal campers usually set up just far enough into these woods not to be visible from the house or the road. The forest is deep, and it’s too easy to get lost.
    “Sherlock is pretty protective of the farm and generally stays within its bounds. Occasionally he crosses into the state forest that surrounds and borders us, but not by more than twenty yards or so.”
    I made a mental note to scope out the forest while it was still light today, or tomorrow. Anyone camping would leave some kind of evidence. Sherlock sniffing out campers certainly made more sense to me than his being dognapped by UFOs.
    “But, like I said, Sherlock seldom goes out of thebarnyard. But lately he’d started going over there pretty regularly. I didn’t think a whole lot of it, until last night. I was in the middle of my chores when those lights turned up again over the mountain.” Aldwin stopped and pointed at me. “Like you, I thought they were some kind of trick. But Sherlock started howling—set the whole pack baying. I managed to get him inside his pen and tied him up good. All at once there was a big blast of light. Never