Snaggle

by PD Kiernan

  Suzie and Cassidy set out the next morning to scout out a good spot for the stakeout. They started by going to the buildings where Cassidy lost the thief. Suzie took a slow walk around. They looked like they housed some electric motor company, or used to. Now they were old and run down, but locked up tight. Suzie didn’t see anything out of the ordinary. An older man showed up out of nowhere and was walking around with a broom in his hand. He gave them a strange look so they decided to move on.

  They traced the path back Cass had taken to follow the thief. It went straight up Lefferts Boulevard. They looked at a few houses that looked like good candidates. They saw Roberto’s house, hidden behind its long wall of tall bushes. The garage was very visible from the street so it was easy to how the thief would have seen his bike.

  “Roberto’s house would be the perfect spot for a stakeout,” Suzie said. “It’s too bad the guy hit there already.”

  “Yeah,” Cass agreed. “You know who has a house with a very similar setup, right?”

  “And it’s on the next block,” Suzie said.

  They walked up Peter’s steps slowly this time and politely rang his doorbell only once. His mother answered and invited them in. Peter was up in his room and he called down for them to come up.

  They walked into his large bedroom and couldn’t help but notice how neat and clean everything was. He had toy soldiers lined up on a desk. His toy cars were arranged in size order. There wasn’t a speck of dirt or dust or anything misplaced. Everything was organized and had a place. The only thing slightly out of order was the unused pile of small blocks he had been playing with.

  “It must be nice not to have any brothers or sisters to mess up all of your stuff,” Suzie said as she picked up one of the army men and took a close look at it.

  “Actually, I wish I had a brother, or a sister. Somebody to play with would be nice sometimes.”

  “Yeah, but sometimes they can be annoying too, “ Suzie said as she picked up a little toy truck off of the desk the army men were all piled into.

  “I was in the middle of that battle. I am getting back to it. They are attacking the fort, just over the hill there. Can you put them back in the same exact place, please?” Peter asked nicely as he came over and checked on the location of the little soldiers.

  “Sure thing, Pete,” Suzie said as she carefully returned the truck back to its position and sat in a chair next to his bed.

  “We’re not here to play army men anyway,” Cassidy said.

  “Oh yeah, did you find your stakeout spot?” Pete asked.

  “Sort of, yes. We only need some cooperation from the person who lives there,” Suzie said.

  “Oh, well, I’m sure they would go along with it when they find out how important it all is,” Pete said as he sat back down on the floor and started to clean up his tiny blocks and place them in the proper container.

  “We were hoping you would say something like that, Pete,” Cass said as she sat on his perfectly made bed and looked at him with Suzie for a long moment in silence.

  Pete stood up and walked around a little in front of them. “Wait a minute- here? You want to have a stakeout at my house? What? How would that even work?”

  “It’s pretty simple, really,” said Suzie. “We use your bike as bait, like we planned. We put it near the front of your driveway. Then we hang around out of sight, and wait.”

  “Like, wait up here in my room or something?” Peter asked.

  “We probably should be somewhere outside, so we can easily hear him coming,” Suzie said.

  “Yeah, and get after him right away!” said Cassidy.

  “Follow him, remember?” Suzie turned to Cass.

  “Right, that’s what I meant,” Cassidy said a little disappointedly.

  “So, you want to be outside,” Pete said as he started to walk around his room. “This is great! We can have a campout!”

  “Stakeout,” Cassidy said.

  “Same thing. C’mon, this will be fun. We have a big tent. We can set it up right in the backyard. Make a campfire! S’mores!”

  “We’re not trying to earn one of your Cub Scout badges, ya know,” said Cass.

  “Hah! The stakeout patch. That would be so awesome!” Pete said.

  “Yes, it would,” said Suzie. “I don’t think the backyard will work. It’s too far from the front. We might miss him.”

  “We can set it up on the front porch. That is even better!” Peter said.

  “That would work. Would your mom be cool with that idea?” Suzie asked.

  “I’ll ask her right now. I don’t see why not. This is going to be so much fun!” Pete said. Suzie and Cass looked at each other. They hoped he was right.

  Chapter 16