“A GRIZZLY IS MOST ACTIVE FROM DAWN TO DUSK, BUT WHEN STOCKING UP FOR HIBERNATION, A GRIZZLY MAY BE AWAKE MORE THAN TWENTY HOURS A DAY.”
“Did you see inside the case?” Toni asked as soon as the RV door closed.
“No, Rek left. Did you notice that kid at the airport with the hoodie? He and his mom are camping there now. He said they got there this afternoon. But I’m certain Rek has something to do with the missing cubs,” Buck said as they walked up the campground road. “I just can’t figure it all out. The bears were there after the moose shot on Tuesday. And we now know Rek was hiding nearby when we shot the moose.”
“The bears were missing Wednesday morning,” Toni added, “and remember, on the bus Monday? It looked like Rek was taking GPS coordinates of every animal, including the sow and cubs.”
“Wait a second. We have to get organized,” Buck said. “Give me your sketchbook and a pencil.” Buck sat down at a table in a vacant campsite. “It’s just like with a shoot. We have all these different episodes recorded all out of order, but then we have to put them together so they’ll make sense.”
Buck turned to a new page in the sketchbook and wrote Missing Grizzly Cubs at the top. The two of them started naming off all the important clues they could think of, and Buck wrote them down in the correct order.
1. SUN—Saw man with red backpack and black case at airport. His name is Rek Malkum and he camped at Site 13.
2. MON—Saw cubs with the sow. Rek took GPS readings of bears’ location.
3. TUES—Rek was hiding in the bushes during the moose shot. Saw his red backpack and black case in the video. Saw cubs with sow after the moose shot.
4. WED—Cubs gone in morning before first bus got there. New campers moved into Site 13 before noon so Rek left Tek before noon.
Buck finished writing and read it out loud.
“There’s something missing,” Toni said.
“Yeah, the most important part,” Buck said. “How he did it.”
“And why,” Toni added.
“Why is easy. For money,” Buck said. “Some rich guy will pay a lot of money to have his own personal bear cubs.”
“But that’s illegal.”
“Yeah, that’s why we have to catch Rek.”
“I think we should tell our dads.”
“They’d just say we’re imagining things. But if we can figure out how he did it, then they’d believe us.”
As they walked back through loop one and headed toward loop two, they brainstormed more.
“He couldn’t just grab two bear cubs,” Toni said. “The sow would kill him.”
“That’s another easy one. Rek could have tranquilized the sow and the cubs.”
“But how would he have gotten them out of there?” Toni asked. “He can’t just walk onto a green bus carrying two bear cubs.”
Buck stopped. “I think I know what he did. He tranquilized them. Then came back here, packed up his camp, drove back, and put them in his car. But he’d have to have time. Do you remember what time it was when we shot the moose scene?”
“I don’t know,” Toni answered, “but we got back to Tek before eight, so it had to be around five thirty. Why?”
“I think I’ve got it! Come on! We have to find out what time the last bus leaves.”
They ran to the main road and over to the bus stop. Tacked to the wall on the inside of the pavilion was a schedule. Buck followed his finger down a column.
“You were close. The bus we saw just after the moose shot left Eielson at five thirty. It takes about fifteen minutes to get where we shot the moose. That must have been the bus Shoop edited out of the moose scene. So it went past us at about five forty-five. We left shortly afterward and saw the sow and cubs. So they were still there at about five fifty-five or so.”
Buck quickly jotted the times down in Toni’s sketchbook. Then he turned back to the schedule, tracked another column, and scribbled down more times, explaining as he wrote.
“There was only one more bus after the five-thirty one. It left Eielson at six thirty. So it went past Stony Dome at about six forty-five and was back here at Tek about eight fifty.”
“So?” Toni said.
“Don’t you see? It was the last bus. Rek was still hiding out there when we left, so he had to get on that six-thirty bus, and it got to Tek at eight fifty.”
“I still don’t see what difference that makes.”
“It’s all about timing. Rek was here at almost nine. It would take him about two and a half hours to get from Tek back to the tranquilized bears and then another two and a half hours back to Tek. That’s five hours.” Buck looked at the schedule again. “Add another forty-five minutes to get to the checkpoint and another thirty to the park entrance. That’s six hours and fifteen minutes.”
Buck looked at the schedule one last time. “The first bus coming into the park in the morning gets to Tek at seven twenty-five, and it would take two and a half hours before it would get to the bears. That’s about ten o’clock. So . . .” Buck started counting backward on his fingers, but Toni spoke up before he could finish.
“I get it! He’d have to leave Tek by three forty-five in the morning on Wednesday in order to have time to get the bears and get out of the park before Jerry came along in the first bus and found the cubs gone!”
“Except he’d have to have time to get the bears into the car, too,” Buck said, “so if he left Tek by two forty-five, that would give him an hour to mess with the cubs.”
“We’ve done it! We’ve figured it out!” Toni was so excited, she was jumping up and down. Buck was already running from the bus stop.
“Come on!” he yelled back. “Let’s go ask Romana and Gerald what time Rek left Tek! They would surely hear someone starting a car in the middle of the night. That would prove our theory.”
When they got to the Rails’ campsite, the blinds had been shut and the RV was dark. Buck listened but couldn’t hear a TV playing.
“They must have gone to bed,” Toni said.
“Yeah, we’ll have to get over here to ask them before they leave tomorrow morning,” Buck said. He opened the sketchbook and crossed out clue number four and wrote two new clues.
4. TUES/WED—Rek left Tek between 9:00 Tues. night and 2:45 Wed. morning to get cubs and get totally out of the park before cubs were found missing.
5. WED—Cubs gone in morning before first bus got there. New camper moved into Site 13 before noon.
“He’d probably leave after sunset so no one would see him,” Toni said after reading what Buck wrote. Buck crossed off 9:00, wrote in 10:24, and handed the sketchbook back to Toni.
Satisfied, they headed back to loop two. Soon they could see Shoop through the window, sitting at the table in his RV and working on his laptop.
“Should we tell our dads now?” Toni said.
“We don’t want to accuse someone without proof,” Buck said. “We’ll know as soon as we talk with the Rails in the morning. Then we’ll tell our dads. They wouldn’t do anything tonight anyway.”
“Okay, see you in the morning,” Toni said, and headed toward her RV.
Dad was sitting outside by a small campfire when Buck got back to the Green Beast.
“The show is going to be awesome!” Buck said, pulling up a chair and trying to act like nothing else was on his mind.
“I think so too. To be honest, I had my doubts about whether this whole thing would work. I was worried about how responsible you’d be. But I’m not worried anymore.” Dad reached over and patted Buck on the shoulder. “You’re doing a great job, and I’m really proud of you.”
“Thanks,” Buck said.
“So, tell me about your day. How was the compass class?”
Buck told his dad about K’eyush and talked excitedly about the student conservation program and how he would like to be involved with something like that when he was older. But as they watched the fire burn to embers, Buck kept quiet about his theory on how the cubs were taken. He also decided not to ruin the moment by telling his dad about their hike with the Rails.