“That’s your little band of researchers?” Stenway watched them go. “An interesting little group. That small one has it out for you.”

  “Don’t try to be friendly. You just ruined my life.”

  “T.J., I could have had you arrested. Let’s be thankful.” Stenway folded his arms. “Where were we?”

  “The box disappeared?”

  “Hm, yes. How strange.” Stenway looked back at the fellows. “Who’s the leader of your little gang?”

  “None of your business. Can we get back to our fight because I’m really angry at you. And boy, is Syd going to catch it when I get home.”

  “Look. I can’t fire you, because I’m not your boss. And there’s no good way to talk about this to Mr. Left or Ms. Higley. So you’ll stay on at the house. But you will perform your duties and get out. Is that clear?”

  “I thought you weren’t my boss?”

  “I’m letting you off easy.”

  “I suppose you’re going to ask for a favor in return.”

  He smiled wryly. “You know me so well. I’m going to ask you for a few favors. Alright, first off, I don’t care if you fight with Sydney, just leave me out of it.”

  I stared at him.

  “It’s not my fault you fought with your sister, it’s not my fault she told me.”

  “Looking out for number one, are we?”

  Stenway rolled right past me. “Two, well, this is less of a favor and more of an order, stay in the kitchen or in the back room. Never roam into the rest of the house.”

  “I guess I can live with that. Don’t want to see your face any more than I have to.”

  “Three, don’t talk to anyone else, and I mean anyone else, about the ‘evidence’ that you found. And I would very seriously look back over all of it, young lady.” Stenway glared down at me.

  “Is that all?”

  “I actually have one more.”

  “Surprise surprise.”

  “Tuesdays, you know, before the big dinner, Ms. Higley will need help. She’s been having a rough recovery, and she could use an extra set of hands.”

  “Yeah, okay.” I looked at my feet. “Are we done?”

  “That’s all that I have.”

  “Okay. My turn.”

  Stenway looked at me. “What are you bringing to the bargaining table? You’re the one in the wrong.”

  “What’s in the box?”

  Stenway merely shook his head and walked away. It was worth a shot.

  I watched him walk towards the statue, stopping as I had done to observe the line of sight. I should mention that to the fellows.

  Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on the original website.

  They were well within their rights to kick me out. I was on my own now… What had Stenway said? Something important. Something that he’d said had stood out, I just couldn’t put my finger on it. I walked back through the park and waited for the bus, thinking. What was it? We talked about the box, me breaking into the office…

  Wait, why couldn’t he, or wouldn’t he, tell Mr. Left about me breaking into the office? Stenway was a smart cookie, he could think up a pretty good lie, so that he didn’t have to tell the whole story. Or perhaps he couldn’t let his boss know that he’d lost whatever was in the box? Heck, he could even blame it on me, I stole it, and he fired me. That would wrap it all up in a neat little bow.

  The bus pulled up and I stepped on, thinking hard. Nothing Stenway had said made me question the theory that me and the fellows had been working on. So we assume that Mr. Left is Stenway’s boss, as in Stenway is his sidekick. And Stenway didn’t know that the box was gone. Allegedly. Therefore, Stenway had not removed the box. That fit in with what Clive and I had assumed. Someone else had removed the box, presumably Mr. Left. Ms. Higley never touched Stenway’s office, that much had been clear from the few minutes I spent inside of it, and I don’t think Ms. Lytar would have dared set foot in there.

  I plopped my chin into my hand. So Mr. Left had removed the box without Stenway’s knowledge.

  Either Stenway knew what was in the box, or he didn’t. Assuming he did, Mr. Left removed the box to…? Keep it safe? Study it further?

  Assuming he didn’t, Mr. Left had removed the box to… to what?

  This was so much more difficult without the fellows.

  Assuming Stenway knew what was in the box, Mr. Left just grabbed it before Stenway was prepared for it to be gone. Either way though, I guess that held true. But it didn’t look like Stenway knew what was in the box. He looked like he’d been trying to figure out how to open it…

  I needed to find a way to talk to Donny. He was always the nice one. He and Peach had even seemed a little bit sorry that I’d gotten kicked out. I wondered how to get in contact with him.

  It turned out to be a lot easier than I expected. When I got to class on Monday, I slid into my seat and dropped my books down. I sank into my seat, careful not to make eye contact with Clive as I did so. Our teacher came in and started to talk dully about one of the branches of government. Something scraped against my leg. A fly. I swatted it away. A few minutes later I felt it again. I swatted a second time.

  This time, though, I realized it wasn’t a fly. I felt the object, which had been stuck to the bottom of my desk with a bit of tape. I unstuck it and pulled it out carefully, opening my book as I did so and slipping the little note inside. I peeled it open gently. I recognized Donny’s handwriting instantly.

  Dear T.J., sorry about what happened Saturday. Peach and I are sorry although we don’t let on. We think that you can still help us, it was not smart of Chris to kick you out although he didn’t really have a choice. We will write you notes and put them at your desk, like this. If you need to write us a note, do the same except on Peach’s desk, right before lunch. Be careful Clive doesn’t see you.

  Yours truly, Donny.

  That somehow made me feel a thousand times better. I folded the note back up and stuffed it into my pocket. I wrote a note back to Donny, telling him how interested Stenway had been in the hollow statue, and how he didn’t know that the box had been taken from his study.

  Something definitely seemed fishy about the whole house. Stenway had told me to take a good long think about all the evidence we had, and I needed to do just that. The next day, Tuesday, I had a note back from Donny, thanking me for the information and saying how tricky it was to tell the other fellows the things that I said without giving away the fact that they were still talking to me.

  As Stenway had requested, I went to the house after school to feed the cats and to assist Ms. Higley. I guess I should say at this point that I had not reamed Sydney out for speaking to Stenway about my secrets, but then I wasn’t speaking to her at all. It made times at home awkward, her chattering away and my trying to ignore it, but I resolved not to say anything at all until she figured it out. How she could go on pretending like she hadn’t done the very thing I asked her not to do was beyond me.

  At any rate, I was quick to feed the cats, then I helped Ms. Higley with setting the table. I didn’t know so many forks existed for one meal. She puttered around, arranging things, popping in and out of the room with little table arrangements. Everything was normal, with her, and later when Mr. Left strolled in to ask a question about the dinner, he didn’t even seem to notice me.

  I felt at loose ends for the next few days, no-one to meet, no-where to be, just school and homework and feeding the cats. I wasn’t speaking to Sydney, so there was no one to see at home. Mom and Dad practically moved out Wednesday night, saying something about a “critical moment” at the laboratory, so I didn’t even have them.