Lizzie! by Maxine Kumin Read Free Book Online Page A

eat, like grapes or tangerines and oatmeal cookies. After pigging out we went into the study where my computer is. It used to be my mom’s and we sort of shared it but then she got a new one. So now this is my own Mac and it does everything but talk. After a few minutes Mom called in to say she was going down to the beach to catch a swim, did we want to come?
    â€œI think we’ll hang out here. I’m going to show Josh some of the stuff on my computer.”
    After I heard the door close I swore Josh to everlasting secrecy, even under torture or in durance vile , like in the Middle Ages, and then I described what I’d seen in the warehouse. “Little monkeys—at least thirty of them all in cages, about six or eight to a cage—all swinging on the bars and climbing all over each other on these big tops of trees someone had put in, and curling up in these wicker baskets that were tied to the treetops, and keeping up this constant sort of chuckling and trilling.
    â€œI couldn’t tell whether it was a distress call or just their way of communicating. They’re beautiful, Josh. They have these—I don’t know what to call them—manes, I guess, all silky yellow.”
    â€œLet’s Google them,” Josh said, and we did. There were about twenty entries for small monkeys and after we browsed through them all we printed out a promising one.
    â€œ ‘Golden lion tamarins,’ ” I read. Josh had wheeled in so close to me that I could smell the freshly ironed smell of his shirt and our wheels were in danger of locking but I didn’t care. “ ‘Slightly smaller than squirrels. They are about twelve inches tall, not including the tail, and can weigh up to two pounds.’ ” We learned all sorts of facts. Like when they mate, the mother always has twins. The father stays around to help take care of them and he often carries the babies on his back. They live in the rain forests of Brazil and they are endangered because farmers are clearing the rain forests to make room to grow crops for their families. The tamarins have lost 95 percent of their natural habitat.
    â€œWell, if they’re endangered, whoever’s importing them is breaking the law.”
    â€œBig time,” I agreed. “But who do you suspect is smuggling them? And how? It can’t be Henry. And I’m pretty sure it can’t be the older kid we met, the one who takes care of them and swore us to secrecy. He looked pretty scared himself.”
    â€œWhat about the guy you were telling me about—the guy you met that day with your mother?”
    â€œJeb Blanco, that’s what he says to call him. His whole name is Jesús Ernesto Blanco.”
    â€œRight. Let’s Google him.”
    There were thirty-four hits for Jesús Ernesto Blanco . One was a convicted felon from Colombia. Another was a prizefighter in Texas. Another was the owner of a grocery store in Nebraska who was accused of swiping produce at night from a market chain to sell in his store. Another was a hero for performing the Heimlich maneuver on a diner who was choking at a neighboring table at La Zesta somewhere in Manhattan, and so on.
    â€œWait a minute!” said Josh. “I bet this is our guy: ‘Jesús Ernesto Blanco, owner of Imp-Ex, a major import and export firm with headquarters in New York City, has recently acquired Miami Flash, an importing nexus for rare objects from around the globe. Two years ago, Miami Flash was indicted for illegally importing three orangutans, ostensibly intended for zoos in St. Louis, Denver, and Seattle. An alert customs agent is credited with discovering the animals in a shipment of teak lumber; one of the orangutans was dead and the other two were in respiratory distress. Miami Flash stock tumbled and the firm barely averted bankruptcy.’ ”
    â€œWow! First orangutans, now tamarins. This guy is a major, major criminal.”
    â€œBut what