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“It becomes more difficult if you pull a last minute stunt like you did today.”

“You call it a stunt,” said the other man, “I call it a quick dollar. And nobody knows.”

“We don’t need it. We have enough.”

“Just think of it as insurance, then. A couple more won’t hurt.”

Mr. Crowley grumbled something low.

“If you have something to say,” the other man said, “say it.”

“Every risk we take is another chance we’ll get caught,” Mr. Crowley said. I sensed movement, like fiddling with his coffee. “Like meeting in public coffee shops.”

“What’s more normal than us having coffee? It’s practically a requirement. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I just wanted to say hello and relieve you of a little anxiety.”

“No more tricks,” Mr. Crowley said. “No more last minute plans.”

“Right,” the other man said. A chair slid against the floor. Not Mr. Crowley’s. “From here on out, it’s just biding our time. That was the last deal.”

There were footsteps. The door to the coffee shop opened. I glanced out the window, but didn’t see anyone pass. Whoever it was went the opposite way of the library and the superintendent’s office.

Mr. Crowley continued to drink his coffee behind me. It was agony waiting for him. I wanted to get back to the library before anyone came to find me. Mr. Crowley mumbled to himself. Whatever it was, it was indecipherable.

It was another twenty minutes before he moved. When I sensed he’d opened the door to leave, I tucked my head away from the window, turning and staring across the coffee shop. Mr. Crowley walked past and was gone.

My heart was in my throat. I waited a few moments until I thought it was safe; I didn’t want to leave and bump into him on the street.

I’d found their third person. I hadn’t been able to check on who it was, but I was so close. I had something to bring to Mr. Blackbourne. Maybe he’d let me off the hook of being grounded.

I got up, collecting my half-eaten coffee cake, and tucked it back into the package it had come in. I picked up my cup, intending to take it with me.

I started to head for the door, but stopped at Mr. Crowley’s table. There was a napkin crumpled on top of the package for his donut, along with his coffee cup. The napkin drew my eye.

There were numbers on the napkin. The numbers looked familiar to me. A line of figures stretched out and then added up at the bottom for a total.

I glanced around, but no one was really paying attention, so I snapped up the napkin. I didn’t have a pocket, so I had to carry it with me.

I hurried down the street, heading back to the library. I may have more questions now, but at least I thought we were on the right track. This had to mean something.

NEAR MISS

Returning to the library wasn’t a problem. But once I was inside, I got completely turned around. I knew it was up the stairs, but finding the same corner was difficult. I first tried to cut through the bookshelves but ended up in a different section. I had to go back to the staircase and follow the windows.

Before I got back to my spot, I stalled, noticing through the rows of bookshelves someone in a blue shirt and jeans standing by the table. From where I was standing, I could only see mid-chest to waist, and that wasn’t telling me much other than it was a male. I stopped, waiting.

The person remained standing by the cushioned armchair. He turned left. Turned right. He put his hands on his hips. Waited. Was it a librarian trying to figure out why there was a black box stuck on the window?

I stooped low to get an angle of his face and spotted blond hair in a clip.

“Luke?” I stepped around the bookshelf now, my heart much lighter.

Luke turned. His eyebrows shot up, his dark eyes widened. “Sang,” he said. “Where were you?”

“I followed Mr. Crowley.”

His lips parted and he paused, like this was an answer he wasn’t expecting. And then his eyes swept over me, from my shoulders to the hem at my thigh and back up again. Was this distracting him? He just realized I changed clothes?

After a moment, he blinked back to life. “What?”

“He left the office. I caught him sneaking out. He went to the coffee shop down the road.”

“You weren’t supposed to leave,” he said. He turned his head. “Is that coffee?”

I nodded, holding it out to him so he could look at it. He took it from me, sipping the last half. He licked his lips, which I took it as a sign he liked it. The ear bud still in my ear started making noise, and I realized I was hearing footsteps. Mr. Crowley started talking to his secretary. “I didn’t mean to leave, but I thought I was supposed to keep an eye on him.”

“We’re not ready to follow him.”

“He didn’t see me,” I said. “And he met up with...” I paused. There was a lot to explain and I didn’t know where to start except at the beginning, but I wasn’t sure I should talk about it here. I was paranoid anyone could listen in.

Luke’s face softened and he took another sip of the coffee. “The office is closing now. He should be heading home.”

I pointed to my ear, silently telling Luke to be quiet for a moment. I listened to the conversation between the secretary and Mr. Crowley. “It sounds like he’s giving her some last minute instructions. He said he’s leaving for the day.”

“Right,” Luke said. “We can’t leave this here. So we’ll follow together.” He leaned over the table, plucking the device from the window. He put it in his pocket. I pulled the ear bud from my ear, relieved to not be hearing voices. Luke took my hand and he led me out of the library.

“So am I not grounded anymore?” I asked when we were on the street. “Is this a reprieve?”

Luke laughed. “No, you’re still grounded.”

“What am I supposed to do?”

Luke motioned to around the

corner where there was a parking meter and a black truck next to it. “Right now, we get to follow Mr. Crowley home just to make sure he doesn’t take detours, and I’ve got to make one more stop for the night. We’ve got babysitting duty.”

“I thought if you were grounded, you couldn’t do Academy work.”

“You can’t do the dangerous stuff,” he said. “You’ve been on surveillance. That’s the worst. Completely boring.”

“It started out boring,” I said. “But I got a lot of information. We need to talk to Mr. Blackbourne.”

“You’ll talk to him tonight. I think you’re going to his house.”

My jaw fell open. He stepped ahead of me, opening the truck door. I remained still, questioning him with my eyes to see if he was serious.

He caught my look and laughed. “Or Dr. Green’s. I don’t know yet. I am going to get a call tonight. Don’t look that way. When they ground us, we normally have to just stay home. Your house isn’t really a safe spot right now, and well... we’re sort of in hot water as it is since we were to blame for a lot of it. You have to stay with them.” He motioned to the passenger seat. “Get in. Tell me what happened with Mr. Crowley.”

Even inside the truck, we were waiting for a half hour before Luke spotted Mr. Crowley pulling out of the office parking lot. Luke followed a few car lengths behind. We hit rush hour traffic on the way to Mount Pleasant. I was able to tell Luke just about everything from when Mr. Blackbourne had me skip school, up to the part where Mr. Crowley met the third person they were working with.

“Huh,” Luke said as he drove. His hands twisted against the steering wheel. “Well, we knew there was an odd money trail. Some of their paperwork doesn’t make sense. I wonder who the third guy is.”

“Is this something the police would be interested in?” I asked. I’d been wondering about this for a while. They seemed to be investigating something that felt like it should have been handled by the police.

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