The Case of the Missing Moola

by David Lewman

  “A thousand?” Nick said. All three of them looked shocked. Nick laughed.

  “You should see your faces,” he said. “Priceless.”

  Nick rubbed his chin, thinking. Even though he was only an eighth grader, it looked like he needed a shave.

  “Tell you what,” he said. “I’ll sell you one.”

  The three friends looked relieved.

  “That’s great,” Corey said. “Thanks.”

  “Yeah, I wasn’t finished,” Nick continued. “I’ll sell you one if you follow my instructions exactly.”

  “We can do that,” Ben said.

  “Meet me at four thirty today. Come to the park.”

  “At the fort?” Corey asked.

  Nick looked disgusted. “No, not the fort. That’s for little kids.”

  “Right,” Corey said. “Not the fort. The swings?”

  Nick stared at Corey. Then he said, “You know those big rocks? At the edge of the park?”

  “Yeah,” Ben said.

  “Behind those. Four thirty. Bring a hundred and fifty bucks. Cash.”

  Before they could say anything about not being able to get together a hundred and fifty dollars in cash by four thirty, Nick turned and then walked away.

  The three friends watched Nick turn the corner of the hallway and walk out of sight. Hannah wheeled on Ben and Corey.

  “Where are we gonna get a hundred and fifty dollars in cash?! By four thirty!” she hissed.

  “Well,” Ben said, “the answer is that I don’t actually know.”

  He started walking briskly down the hall toward their next class. Hannah and Corey followed him.

  “Maybe we could borrow it from Mrs. Ramirez’s desk,” Corey said.

  “Very funny,” Hannah said.

  “How much do each of you have?” Ben asked.

  “Maybe thirty bucks,” Corey said. “At home, not on me. A little more in the bank. But I can’t take it all out. I think there’s some kind of minimum you have to leave in there to keep the account open.”

  “I might be able to scrape together fifty-five,” Hannah said. “And then what I’ve got in my savings account, though I’m not really supposed to touch that. It’s for college.”

  Corey said, “I thought you were going to be a crime scene investigator.”

  “I am,” Hannah said, “but what’s that got to do with it?”

  “Crime scene investigators don’t go to college, do they?” he asked. “They go to the police academy.”

  Hannah shook her head. “No, they definitely go to college. They get degrees in science before they receive their CSI training. Or at least, I’m going to.”

  “Well, maybe you’ll get a scholarship,” Ben said. “Because we’re going to need your savings. Or at least part of it. I’ll get money out of my savings too.”

  They agreed to run home after school to gather up whatever cash they could find in their rooms. They’d also go to the nearest ATM to withdraw money out of their bank accounts. Together, they were pretty sure they could scrape together a hundred and fifty bucks. Barely.

  It was almost four thirty. Ben and Hannah were already impatiently waiting by the fort. Corey came running up.

  “Here,” he said, handing Ben some cash. “Forty-five dollars. It’s all I could manage. And that was with going through my drawers for change.”

  Ben quickly counted their money. “It’s just enough. Let’s go.” The three of them hurried toward the big rocks at the edge of the park.

  When they walked around to the back of the rocks, they saw Nick perched on one of them. On a nearby rock lay his backpack. He didn’t seem like the kind of guy who would carry his homework with him at all times.

  “Hi, Nick!” Hannah said, trying to keep things friendly.

  Nick didn’t smile. He lifted his chin less than an inch to show he’d heard her. He jumped down from the rock and slowly walked toward them.

  “You bring the money?” he asked, picking up the backpack without looking at it.

  “Yeah,” Ben said. “A hundred and fifty dollars. But not all in bills. I hope quarters are okay.”

  “Did you bring the Quark Pad?” Corey asked.

  Nick smacked his own forehead. “Oh, I knew I forgot something!”

  The members of Club CSI looked thrown. What were they going to do now? Give Nick the money and just trust him to give them the tablet later?

  Then Nick smiled. He pulled a Quark Pad out of the backpack. “Oh no, wait. Here it is.”

  Behind them, they heard a voice. “What are you doing?!”

  They turned and saw Alex Gray walking toward them quickly.

  “Oh, great,” Hannah muttered.

  Alex did not look happy.

  “Just making a sale, dude,” Nick told him.

  “To these dorks?” Alex said, pointing a thumb at Ben, Corey, and Hannah. “What grade are they in?”

  Nick shrugged. “I don’t know. Uh . . . seventh, I guess.”

  Alex scowled. “We said no seventh graders. They talk too much.”

  Ben took a small step toward Alex and Nick. “We won’t say anything, Alex.”

  The big kid stared at Ben. “How do you know my name?”

  “Everybody knows who you are,” Ben said, hoping to flatter him. “Alex Gray and Nick Ross. You’re famous.”

  It worked. Alex actually smiled a little. “Okay, so you know my name. You’re still a seventh grader.”

  “They said they’d pay extra,” Nick explained.

  “How much extra?”

  “A hundred and fifty.”

  Alex considered this and then he shook his head. “No,” he said with a grunt. “A hundred and seventy-five.”

  Corey’s mouth dropped open. “We don’t have a hundred and seventy-five!” he cried.

  “How much do you have?” Alex asked.

  “A hundred and sixty-four,” Ben said. He figured Alex really didn’t care that much about the money. He just didn’t like it that Nick had set this up without talking to him.

  “Cash?” Alex asked. Ben nodded. Alex stood there for a minute, staring at him. “Okay,” he finally said. “A hundred and sixty-four.” He stuck out his hand.

  Ben started to give Alex the money. Corey whispered, “Ben! Shouldn’t we get the Quark Pad first?”

  “It’s okay, Corey,” Ben said in a normal speaking voice. “I trust Nick and Alex.”

  Hannah wasn’t sure about trusting these two guys doing business behind a pile of rocks in the park, but Ben’s tactic worked. Nick and Alex clearly liked being trusted.

  Alex took the hundred and sixty-four dollars from Ben, and Nick handed Ben the Quark Pad in a box that looked just like the ones Corey had seen in stores.

  “You guys are still getting a really good deal,” Nick said. “But keep your mouths shut about this. We don’t want all your little seventh-grade friends coming to us.”

  “Thanks,” Hannah said. She offered her hand to shake. Amused, Alex shook it.

  “Pleasure doing business with you,” he said, grinning.

  As the three friends started to leave, Nick said, “Put that box in your backpack. And don’t take it out until you get home.”

  “No refunds,” Alex added as he and Nick ran off. Club CSI went to Ben’s room to open the box and check out the Quark Pad. Hannah flopped down in the room’s one chair. “I didn’t like that warning about no refunds. I hope we’re not going to open the box and find it full of rocks.”

  “It’s not full of rocks,” Ben assured her.

  “How do you know?” Hannah asked.

  “It’d be heavier,” Corey said. “And it’d rattle. And smell like rocks.”

  “Just open it,” Hannah said.

  Ben opened the box and peered inside. Then he reached in and pulled out an electronic tablet.

  “Smells like a Quark Pad to me!” Corey said, delighted.

  In fact, it looked exactly like the one Greg had given to Brittney. Except that this one didn’t have any finger
prints on it—yet.

  “Let’s fire it up and see what she can do,” Ben said.

  He turned on the tablet and the screen came to life. They tried out every single app, and they all worked exactly the way they were supposed to. It was a fast, elegant device.

  “Well,” Ben said. “It doesn’t seem like a fake.”

  “And it doesn’t seem used,” Corey added. “It looks brand new.”

  Hannah said, “So it’s real and it’s new. But is it stolen?”

  Ben and Corey exchanged a look. They’d been enjoying trying out the Quark Pad so much that they almost forgot they were investigating how Nick and Alex were able to sell them so cheaply.

  “How can we tell?” Corey said. “Look for a sticker that says ‘stolen’?”

  Hannah used Ben’s desktop computer to do a quick Internet search. She found a company website that would tell you if a Quark Pad was registered as stolen. All you had to do was enter the unit’s serial number.

  Ben found the serial number on the tablet and read it out loud to Hannah. She entered the number into the website and hit enter.

  “Stolen,” she said.

  After school on Monday, Nick and Alex were hanging out near the parking lot. They hadn’t set up any sales in the park. But they didn’t want to go home yet. So they were just chilling.

  “I gotta say, dude, this is working out great,” Nick said.

  Alex nodded slowly. “Yeah, it’s pretty good.”

  “Pretty good?” Nick repeated. “It’s the most money we ever made! So sweet! And easy, too. The customers come to us, begging to buy the tablets.”

  Alex nodded. They just sat there, thinking about money.

  “What are you gonna do with yours?” Nick asked.

  “My what?”

  “Your money!”

  Alex thought about this. At first, he’d just liked the idea of making the money. Then it was exciting seeing it add up. He’d bought a couple of video games, but mostly he’d just stuffed the money in his sock drawer where his nosy brothers wouldn’t find it. He hadn’t really thought about what he was going to spend it on.

  “I don’t know,” he said. “Maybe a car.”

  “You can’t drive a car,” Nick pointed out.

  “Not yet,” Alex agreed. “But soon.”

  “Okay,” Nick said. “That’s a good idea. Maybe I’ll buy a car too.”

  “No need,” Alex said, enjoying himself. “I’ll let you borrow my car.”

  “Thanks, man,” Nick said. “Very generous.”

  Alex made a sweeping gesture across the parking lot. “See any models you like?”

  “Nah,” Nick said. “Teachers can’t afford good cars.”

  Just as he mentioned the teachers, he noticed that they were starting to come out of the school, heading toward their cars.

  “Maybe we should get out of here,” Nick said.

  “Yeah.”

  They stood up. Then they noticed three kids walking toward them. Alex peered at them. “Who is that?”

  “I think it’s those three dweebs we sold the Quark Pad to the other day,” Nick said.

  “The seventh graders?” Alex said.

  “Yeah.”

  Alex shook his head. “I told you we shouldn’t sell to seventh graders. They’re probably coming to whine because they couldn’t figure out how to turn the thing on.”

  Nick and Alex laughed.

  Ben, Hannah, and Corey walked up to the two eighth graders.

  “I said no refunds,” Alex said with a growl.

  “We don’t want a refund,” Hannah said.

  “That’s good, ’cause you’re not getting one,” Nick said calmly. “See ya.”

  Nick and Alex started to walk away.

  “Wait!” Corey said.

  Alex turned quickly around and put his face close to Corey’s. “Look,” he said in a low, mean voice, “we told you not to talk about our business transaction. That includes talking to us. Get it?”

  Corey didn’t back down, even though he felt nervous. “I get it,” he said. “It’s just that we want to buy another Quark Pad.”

  “Another one?” Alex said. “No. One to a customer.”

  “We’re willing to pay more this time,” Ben said. “Two hundred.”

  Alex hesitated. He and Nick exchanged a quick look.

  “Two hundred?” Nick asked. “Cash?”

  Ben nodded. “We’ve got it on us.”

  Alex scratched his jaw. “I don’t know if—”

  “What’s going on here?”

  It was Principal Inverno. He’d walked up to the group of five kids in the parking lot without them noticing. Whenever he saw kids hanging out after school, he wanted to know what they were up to. Especially if two of the kids were Nick Ross and Alex Gray.

  “Nothing, Principal Inverno,” Ben said. “We’re just talking.”

  “Well, school’s over for the day,” he said. “The teachers are going to be driving through here, so I’d like you to head home. We’ll see you tomorrow.”

  “Okay,” Hannah said. “See you tomorrow.”

  She started to walk away, then turned back. “See you at the rocks!”

  It looked as though she were talking to Ben and Corey, but Nick and Alex could hear her too.

  “See you there!” Ben said.

  “Yeah, at the rocks!” Corey said. “In the park!”

  Hannah, Ben, and Corey waited behind the boulders. Hannah drummed her fingers on the rock she was leaning up against.

  “I don’t think they’re coming,” she said.

  “They’ll come,” Ben said. “Didn’t you see their eyes light up when I said two hundred dollars cash?”

  “I kind of wish Principal Inverno hadn’t seen us talking to those guys,” Corey said. “He might think we’re hanging around with them.”

  Hannah smiled. “We are hanging around with them.”

  “Not really,” Corey said. “We’re just—”

  “Hey, dweebs!”

  It was Alex and Nick. They walked up slowly with their hands in their pockets.

  “Today’s your lucky day,” Nick said.

  “We talked about it, and we’ve decided to make an exception to our rule about no repeat customers. We’re gonna sell you another Quark Pad,” said Alex.

  “Two hundred bucks,” Nick said. “Cash. But if you go around telling all your little seventh-grade friends, you’ll regret it.”

  “We’ll make you regret it,” Alex threatened.

  “Okay, we won’t talk about it,” Ben said, taking money out of his pocket.

  “We’ll meet you here tomorrow with the tablet,” Alex said.

  “Tomorrow,” Ben repeated.

  “But we need it today!” Corey said.

  “Too bad,” Alex said. “We don’t have one on us right now. You’ll get it tomorrow. Of course, if you want to go ahead and give us the money, that’s fine.”

  “Oh no,” Hannah said. “No Quark Pad, no money.”

  “Fine,” Nick said, shrugging. “See you tomorrow.”

  Ben turned to Corey. “I just thought of something. I’ll bet Greg would sell us his today. For a hundred and fifty dollars. He could really use the money.”

  “That’s a great idea,” Corey said. “Let’s go find him.”

  They started off, but Alex put his hand on Ben’s shoulder. “Wait a minute,” he said. “Just wait a second.”

  While Club CSI watched, Alex and Nick stepped away, turned their backs, and talked to each other quietly. Ben, Corey, and Hannah couldn’t hear what they were saying, but it was obvious that they soon came to an agreement.

  Nick turned back to the three seventh graders. “You want the tablet today? For two hundred bucks?”

  “That’s what we said,” Ben said.

  “Okay,” Nick said. “Follow us.” He turned and started to walk away with Alex.

  “Where are we going?” Corey asked.

  “To get your Quark Pad,” Alex said. “Let�
�s go.”

  Hannah, Corey, and Ben looked at one another, then followed the two toughs out of the park.

  It was a part of town the three friends hadn’t spent much time in.

  Or any time in, for that matter.

  Lots were empty. Buildings were boarded up. Dogs barked behind metal fences.

  Nick and Alex just kept walking down the sidewalk. They didn’t talk. Corey, Ben, and Hannah followed them, getting more and more nervous.

  “Where are we?” Hannah whispered to Ben and Corey.

  “I think this is what they call the wrong side of the tracks,” Ben answered.

  “I don’t remember crossing any tracks,” Corey said, confused.

  “It’s just an expression,” Ben said.

  “I don’t like it,” Corey said.

  They reached a small house with a front porch. The yard was mostly dirt with a few weeds. There was a metal fence around the yard. The windows were covered with boards. It looked as though no one had lived in the house for a long time.

  Alex and Nick stopped in front of the house. “This is it,” Nick said.

  “You live here?” Corey asked.

  Alex looked insulted. “No, we don’t live in this dump. Why would you think we’d live in a crummy place like this?”

  “I don’t know,” Corey said. “It’s a house. You live somewhere. I thought maybe you lived here. Is it more like your clubhouse?”

  “‘Clubhouse,’” Nick retorted with a sneer. “Little kid stuff.”

  “Wait here,” Alex grumbled. The gate was locked with a chain and a padlock. He put his hand on the fence and started to jump over.

  “Shouldn’t we come in with you?” Ben asked.

  “No, you wait here,” Nick said forcefully.

  Alex had already vaulted over the fence and into the yard. Nick was about to follow him.

  “But if you go in and get the merchandise and then bring it back out here to us, someone might see you,” Ben said.

  “So?” Nick said.

  “Then they’ll know where you keep the stuff,” Ben pointed out.

  Nick hesitated. On the other side of the fence, Alex shook his head, annoyed. “I’m starting to think we shouldn’t have brought them here at all.”

  Nick said, “No one needs to see the merchandise. Give me your backpack. We’ll go inside, put the tablet in your backpack, and bring it back out to you. Then you get out of the neighborhood before you look in the backpack.”