by David Lewman
Now it was Ben’s turn to hesitate. “I don’t know. . . .”
“How can we be sure you’ll put the tablet in the backpack?” Hannah said.
“I thought you trusted us,” Nick argued.
Alex threw up his hands. “Come on! Enough talking! I told you seventh graders talk too much. Let’s just all go inside. I don’t like people seeing us out here with these dorks.”
Nick thought about it for a second. He didn’t like to argue with Alex. You never knew what Alex might do. He nodded and jumped the fence. Then he stood in the yard, motioning for Club CSI to come along.
Corey put his hands on the fence and vaulted over easily. Ben managed it, but had to put a foot on top of the fence as he climbed over. The fence rattled.
Hannah stood on the sidewalk.
“Come on, Hannah,” Corey said. Nick and Alex were already heading toward the front porch.
“I don’t think so,” Hannah said.
“What do you mean?” Corey asked. “You can do it.”
“Yeah, I can do it, but I don’t want to,” Hannah said. “I might rip my clothes.
“Come on!” Alex called. “Let’s go!”
“I’ll just wait for you out here,” Hannah said.
“Are you sure that’s safe?” Ben asked. “This doesn’t seem like the greatest neighborhood.”
They could hear a dog barking nearby. Another dog started barking back at the first dog.
“I’ll be fine,” Hannah said. “Just hurry.”
The four boys stood on the porch. Some of the boards were rotted, with gaping holes.
Alex was standing at the front door, spinning the dial on a padlock.
“How come you know the combination to that lock, but we had to jump the fence?” Corey asked.
“Because we put this lock on here, stupid,” Alex said. “The gate was already locked when we found this place.”
Click. The padlock opened. Alex took it off and hung it on the latch. He opened the front door and went inside. Nick, Ben, and Corey followed him into the house.
Inside it smelled like mildew. There was no furniture, but there were some empty soda cans and fast food bags on the floor.
Corey nudged Ben and whispered, “Look. It is their clubhouse.”
Alex headed down a hallway. Nick turned and held up his hand. “We’ll wait here,” he said.
Ben and Corey could see Alex go into a room, probably meant to be a bedroom. Then they heard a click and a creak, as though Alex had opened a closet door.
“You can give me the money now,” Nick said, holding out his hand and waggling his fingers.
They heard another sound, like something being pulled down from the ceiling.
“The money?” Ben asked.
“Yeah, the money,” Nick said angrily. “You’ve got it, haven’t you?”
“Yeah, I’ve got it,” Ben said. “I just thought I’d pay you when you gave us the Quark Pad.”
They heard sounds coming from above the ceiling. Maybe Alex was up in some kind of attic. The house looked small for a full attic, though.
“What happened to trusting us?” Nick asked. “Now, give me that two hundred bucks.” He took a step toward Ben.
“Hey, I know what you’re doing,” Corey said. “You’re gonna take our two hundred dollars yourself and then not share it evenly with Alex.”
Nick looked like that was the stupidest thing he’d ever heard. “How would I do that? Alex knows you’re paying two hundred.”
“Yeah, but maybe you’re gonna tell him we only had a hundred and eighty dollars or something,” Ben said. “That way you’ll get an extra twenty bucks.”
Nick shook his head in disbelief. “He’s my partner! I’d never do that. We trust each other. Besides, if Alex found out, he’d kill me. Now give me the two hundred bucks.”
As Nick took another step toward Ben, there was a quiet knock at the door. Nick spun around as the door opened.
It was Hannah.
“Hi,” she said. “I decided to come in after all. It’s kind of creepy out there.” She looked around the abandoned house. “Whoa. Creepy in here too.”
In the other room, they heard what sounded like someone climbing down and shutting some kind of door. A moment later, Alex came down the hall carrying a box.
“One Quark Pad, coming up!” he said. He pretended to toss the box to Corey, who quickly stuck out his hands to catch it. Alex laughed.
“Okay, now let’s have that money,” Nick said.
Ben nodded and dug in his pocket. “I’m just curious. Where do you get these Quark Pads?”
Alex smiled a thin, cold grin. “Curiosity killed the cat, buddy.”
“Why would we tell you where we got these?” Nick said.
“Did you steal them?” Corey said.
“Shut up,” Nick barked. “And give me the two hundred bucks!”
Ben handed over the cash. Just as Alex handed him the box with the Quark Pad in it, Hannah put two fingers in her mouth and whistled. Loudly.
The front door banged open. Two cops burst in. “Police!” they yelled. “Stay right where you are!”
Alex and Nick tried to turn and run, but Corey tackled Nick while one of the police officers got Alex. Just as Nick was about to punch Corey, the other police officer grabbed Nick’s arm.
“You narcs!” Nick screamed at Club CSI. “You’ll pay for this!”
“I don’t think so,” the first police officer said. “You two are under arrest for selling stolen goods.”
Alex sneered. “One stupid Quark Pad. That’s nothing.”
“There’re more tablets,” Ben told the police, pointing down the hallway. “Down there, in the bedroom. I think they’re hidden up in some kind of attic.”
While one police officer stayed with Nick and Alex, the other headed down the hallway.
Club CSI was meeting with their faculty advisor in the forensics lab the next morning before school. Miss Hodges was beaming.
“I am so proud of you three,” she said. “How did you get the police to come at just the right moment?”
Ben smiled. “We arranged all that ahead of time. We talked to Principal Inverno’s brother, the police officer.”
“He tried to talk us out of it, though,” Corey said. “Thought it was too dangerous.”
“But we already knew Nick and Alex,” Ben said. “We were pretty sure they wouldn’t hurt the three of us. They’re dishonest, but they’re not dangerous.”
“I think they would hurt us now, though, if they got the chance,” Corey said.
Miss Hodges shook her head. “They won’t get the chance. You won’t be seeing those two around Woodlands Junior High anymore.”
“Anyway,” Ben continued, “we’d planned that Hannah would somehow manage to get off by herself long enough to call the police and tell them where we were.”
“That’s why I didn’t climb the fence and go in with them at first,” Hannah explained. “I was calling the police. Then I went inside and whistled when it was time for the police to catch Nick and Alex in the act of selling us stolen goods.”
Miss Hodges nodded. “I see. Well, it turns out the whole thing went way beyond Nick and Alex.”
“It did?” Corey asked. “What do you mean?”
“Principle Inverno’s brother filled us in on everything,” she said. “It turns out that Nick and Alex were just the representatives at this school. They were recruited to sell the Quark Pads by a big ring of adult thieves. The thieves stole the tablets from the company that makes them, then recruited kids like Nick and Alex to sell them to school kids at a really cheap price.”
Corey sighed. “It was such a good price. Too good to be true. And we had to turn in the first tablet we bought as evidence. I still want one.”
“So you’re saying that Club CSI helped catch a major ring of thieves?” Hannah asked excitedly. “That’s awesome!”
“I sure am,” Miss Hodges said. “You should be very proud of yourselves!”
Mrs. Ramirez stuck her head in the door of the lab. “Knock, knock? I figured I might find you here.”
“Come in!” Miss Hodges said, smiling warmly at her colleague.
Mrs. Ramirez stepped inside the door, holding something behind her back. “I don’t want to interrupt your meeting, but I thought you’d like to know the company that makes Quark Pads is so grateful that they’ve made a very generous contribution to our school trip fund!”
“That’s great!” Ben said.
“Will we be flying to Washington in a luxury jet?” Corey asked.
Mrs. Ramirez laughed. “Not quite. But we might be able to take an extra museum trip or have a special meal while we’re there. But they also sent something along specifically for the members of Club CSI. They thought maybe these might help you with your future investigations.”
From behind her back, Mrs. Ramirez revealed . . . three brand-new Quark Pads!
“For us?” Hannah said.
“For free?” Ben said.
“Now that’s a good price!” Corey said, laughing and reaching for his.
David Lewman doesn’t remember any funds being stolen when he was in school, but he does fondly remember a class trip to Springfield, Illinois, to learn about Abraham Lincoln. David has written more than sixty-five books starring SpongeBob SquarePants, Jimmy Neutron, the Fairly OddParents, G.I. Joe, the Wild Thornberrys, and other popular characters. He has also written scripts for many acclaimed television shows. David lives in Los Angeles with his wife, Donna, and their dog, Pirkle.