The Search for Baby Ruby

Author:Susan Shreve
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Scholastic Inc.
Published: 2015-06-10T16:00:00+00:00

When Teddy stepped out of the elevator on the sixth floor, she heard Delilah’s voice flying down the corridor as if her voice had tiny feet. Teddy could hear every word she said from two corridors away.

“When is the last time anyone saw Baby Ruby?”

Two policemen were standing by the door and a third one, Detective Van Slyde, was taking notes.

“Where is Jess?” Delilah asked Teddy. “Do you know anything?”

From the bathroom, a high-pitched wail — a single unbroken note, a long straight line of sound.

Beet, Teddy thought, shivers down her spine. Teddy was not a calm girl, but she needed to be calm now.

“Teddy.” Delilah’s voice was hoarse and cracking. “Officer Van Slyde is the detective in charge of finding Baby Ruby and he wants to know, where is Jess?”

Teddy sat down beside her mother, a little breathless. The panic attacks she had been having, like the one at Whee’s rehearsal dinner, came out of nowhere. Out of the blue, no known cause.

But this was a real emergency, and in a real emergency, she couldn’t have a panic attack. An act of will. A decision.

“Have you seen her?” Delilah asked again, leaning on Teddy’s shoulder.

“I have,” Teddy said. “Baby Ruby disappeared from the room while Jess was in the bathroom. Jess is on her own search.”

“What was she doing in the bathroom?”

“The bathroom door was closed.”

“That’s not what I asked. I asked why she was in the bathroom with the door closed and why, when you discovered that Ruby was gone, you didn’t go immediately to the police or tell us. Come into the rehearsal dinner and tell me that she had been kidnapped.”

Teddy hesitated, taking a deep breath.

“We just didn’t. I came upstairs when I told you I was going to come upstairs.”

“But you came back into the Bay Room as if nothing had happened after you knew.”

“Teddy,” Detective Van Slyde said. “This is a serious situation and we must have the truth as you know it. Where is your sister?”

“She has a clue. Not a big one. She’s following a hunch.”

“Where did you last see her?”

“In the lobby. I just came upstairs on the elevator and I could see her in the lobby leaning against a red leather couch as the doors closed. That was less than five minutes ago.”

“They’re locking down the hotel any minute, and with any luck, she is still in the hotel and she won’t be able to get out,” Detective Van Slyde said. “I’m going to radio a description of her.”

“She’s small,” Teddy said. “A round face with freckles and slightly curly hair and bright blue eyes. A little plump. Just a little.”

Detective Van Slyde called in the description.

“Wearing?” he asked.

“Pink shirt, jeans, and sneakers.”

“Send out an alert and track her down,” he said to the officer on the phone. “So what happened when you came upstairs from the rehearsal dinner?”

“I got a text from my sister more or less saying there was an emergency and I rushed up here to the room.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.