The Madrona Heroes Register: Echoes of the Past

Chapter 17 - The Last Madrona Tree

“What do you mean?” Zach asked.

“The recording. The phone says the recording is only 18 seconds long.”

Binny hit the play button. The recording ended when Huitre let them in the door. “Argh! I was holding it, I must have accidentally turned it off.” Binny looked utterly dejected. All that for nothing!

Penny and Zach tried hard to stay quiet and not catch Binny’s eye. She was looking absolutely miserable. Penny looked up at the branches overhead. Zach chose to stay focused on Cassie to make sure his eyes didn’t wander. That’s when it caught his eye. A symbol he’d seen before.

“Cassie, what is that?” Zach pointed at the papers Cassie was holding.

“My coloring. Wanna see?”

Zach eagerly took possession of the papers.

“You’re looking at the wrong side.” Cassie said.

Zach was holding the first sheet, but Cassie’s drawing of a pink limousine was on the back of the page he was looking at. 

“I think you guys are gonna want to see this.” Zach said.

“You’re still looking at the wrong side.” Cassie whined.

Binny and Penny gathered behind Zach, looking at the back of Cassie’s drawing. The Luce Laboratories logo was at the top. As were the names Julie Jordan and Cassie Jordan listed as “TRIAL PARTICIPANT” and “TRIAL PARTICIPANT OFFSPRING”. In one corner of the page was a symbol that looked familiar to Binny, but she couldn’t quite place it. “What is this?” she finally asked Zach.

“I think it might be the proof you’ve been looking for.” Zach examined the papers further. “It looks like records of Mom’s participation in that trial. They don’t reveal anything about the purpose of the trial, but they do prove what Huitre said – that Luce Labs is interested in Cassie.”

 “I see you children have made some progress.” The children looked up over their shoulders to see Caleb towering over them, inspecting the papers Zach was holding.

Binny jumped a bit when she realized he was there. “Caleb, you scared us!”

“I wasn’t scared.” Zach joked.

“Shush.” Binny said.

“Sorry Miss Jordan. I do pride myself on keeping my noise pollution to a minimum. Next time I’ll rustle a few more leaves.”

“Thank you.” Binny accepted Caleb’s apology.

“Now let’s see what you have there.” Caleb said.

“It’s a pink limousine. My limousine.” Cassie tried to be helpful. 

Caleb smiled, as Zach offered up the papers. He reviewed them in earnest while the children waited for his verdict.

“Well, it is a pink limousine. And a sparkly and expensive one at that.” Caleb addressed his comment directly to Cassie, and then to the others, “But it looks like little Miss Jordan chose just the right scrap paper to draw on. Did you get this at Luce Laboratories?”

“No. We got mango there.” Penny offered helpfully.

“Then you got this at Dr. Huitre’s house I assume?” Caleb asked.

They all nodded.

“And he just let you leave with them?” Caleb added.

“He was uh, indisposed when we left.” Binny offered with a guilty look at Penny and Zach.