Fear Stalks Grizzly Hill Read Online Free PDF Page A

words, Rusty jumped away from the opening to the cave, wiggling and barking. Sean, Alan, and Brian squirmed through the opening.
    Sean looked through his pockets and found a crumbled oatmeal cookie for Rusty while Brian examined the forest around them. There was no sign that anyone had been there with Rusty, yet Brian knew that Rusty hadn’t followed them. What if Rusty had come with someone and had obeyed that person’s commands?
    “Bri,” Sean said, “who tried to scare us? We’ve got to solve this case.”
    “We will,” Brian said. “But this time we’re going to work the way Dad does. We’re going to solve our mystery with the help of a computer.”
    He snapped his fingers at Rusty. “Let’s go back,” he said. “We haven’t got much time left, so we need to get to work.”
    As he turned on Alan’s computer, Brian said, “The animal we’re tracking isn’t from around here. None of us have ever seen tracks like that before.”
    “If it isn’t from around here, then how did it get here?” Sean asked.
    “Remember what Mr. Shaw told us about people who illegally smuggle wild animals into the United States and sell them? He talked about a coatimundi. Let’s look one up and see if that’s the animal Sean saw last night.”
    Eagerly, Brian and Alan stared at the photo that came up on the computer screen, but Sean shook his head. “I told you it wasn’t a coatimundi,” he said.
    “Okay. Let’s try this another way,” Brian told him. “Let’s list all the things we know about the animal. It comes out at night. It eats fruit and has wide feet with long claws for climbing trees. It has a tail that can anchor it to a branch, and it has a face and ears like a bear.”
    He typed all the facts into the computer, then waited. Slowly, a photograph began to form. As it finally turned into a complete picture, Sean sighed with relief. “A kinkajou!” he cried out. “Wow! That’s it!”
    Brian read the text aloud. “It’s sometimes called a honey bear,” he said. “Sean, you weren’t so wrong when you said it was a bear.”
    Alan read over Brian’s shoulder. “The kinkajou has a prehensile tail and soft woolly brown fur. It’s nocturnal and feeds on fruit, insects, and small mammals.”
    “Then why didn’t it eat our hot dogs, too?” Sean asked.
    “Hot dogs are not small mammals,” Alan said.
    Sean thought a moment, then made a face. “Yuck!” he said.
    “Listen to this,” Brian said and read aloud, “‘Kinkajous live in tropical forests from Mexico to Brazil.’“ He leaned back and looked at Sean and Alan. “That means someone must have brought it into the country or have bought it for a pet—someone in this neighborhood. We need to find out which of the neighbors traveled to Central or South America recently.”
    Alan frowned as he thought. “I’ll give you information about the neighbors,” he said.
    “Wait!” Brian told him. He pulled out his notebook and pencil then nodded. “Okay. Go ahead.”
    “Mr. Everitt travels a lot,” Alan said. “Last week he left Rusty with Mr. Shaw, who said something about taking care of Rusty again in another week or so.”
    Brian checked through his notes, then nodded. “Go ahead. What about Mr. Shaw.”
    “I fed Mr. Shaw’s pets the week before last when he said he had to go to Sacramento for a program about funding animal shelters.”
    “Don’t forget Mr. Webber,” Sean said.
    “I was just getting to him,” Alan said. “Mr. Webber was gone again last week on some kind of business, but his wife stayed home and fed their animals. She always does.”
    “We can leave out Miss Crane,” Sean said. “She doesn’t have pets.”
    “That’s what she told us,” Brian said. “But remember, every week or so trucks from the furniture company come and go from her house. She could be in the middle of an animal smuggling deal.”
    “How do we get one of them to admit they traveled to Central or South America for animals?” Alan