Trapped!

by James Ponti

  For the first time in a week I saw Margaret smile.

  “Are you busy?” she asked.

  “Not at all.”

  “Okay, why don’t you come along with my mom and me?”

  “Sure,” I said. “Where are we going?”

  “You’ll see.”

  We went back to her house, and her parents both seemed happy to see the two of us together.

  “Hello, Florian,” said Mr. Campbell. “How are you today?”

  “Much better than I was yesterday,” I said.

  “Florian’s coming with us,” Margaret told her mother. “Although he doesn’t know where we’re going.”

  “He’s a good detective,” said Mrs. Campbell. “He’ll probably figure it out.”

  We drove over into Northeast Washington, not far from where Marcus’s parents lived. And despite Mrs. Campbell’s faith in my detective skills, I had no idea where we were headed.

  And then I saw it. Fatou’s Salon.

  “The big chop,” I said.

  “I told you he’d figure it out,” said Margaret’s mom as she parked the car. “Have you ever been in a beauty parlor before?”

  “Not that I remember,” I said.

  She laughed. “Oh, you’d remember if you had.”

  Judging by the pictures in the window and the women who were inside, Fatou’s was exclusively for African-American women. Needless to say, I stuck out when we walked through the door. All conversation came to a grinding halt.

  “Well, hello,” said a woman in her fifties. “Who do we have here?”

  “Hi, Miss Fatou,” said Margaret. “This is Florian. He’s my best friend.”

  She still considered me her best friend.

  “Hello, Florian,” she said. “Welcome to my salon.”

  “Thank you,” I replied.

  She read my facial expression and said, “It’s the heat from the flat irons.”

  “What is?” I asked.

  “That smell you’re trying to place. We use the flat irons to help straighten hair, and it has a distinctive odor.”

  “Okay,” I said, not knowing where to take the conversation from there.

  “Well, I won’t have to worry about flat irons today,” said Margaret. “We’re here for the big chop.”

  “Well, that’s good news,” said Fatou. “Let’s get started.”

  Mrs. Campbell and I sat down as Margaret went over to a sink and had her hair shampooed. I looked around the salon at all the women who were there. So often Margaret was with me in a world where everyone was white except for her. It was eye-opening to have it the other way around. And despite the chill of the past week, it felt like she was letting me into her life more than she ever had.

  “I didn’t want to lie to her,” I said to her mom. “I was just trying to protect her.”

  “And I appreciate that so much,” she said to me. “And whether she ever says it to you or not, so does she.”

  Margaret moved from the shampoo sink to the chair and was sitting directly across from me but facing the other way so that she looked into the mirror. Her mother got up and walked over to her, but I stayed in my seat.

  “Are you sure you want to go through with this?” asked Mrs. Campbell. “It’s not like you have to do it today.”

  “I’m sure,” she said. “I feel like my identity’s gotten a little twisted and tangled lately.” Then she looked up into the mirror and right at me. “Kind of like the Gordian knot. And you know, there’s only one way to undo that.”

  She smiled, and I grinned right back at her.

  “All right, Miss Fatou,” she said as she closed her eyes. “Start chopping!”

  Acknowledgments

  It is a thrill and an honor to write books for kids, and there are so many people who make that possible. While some of their contributions may be invisible to the reader, they are all invaluable to me.

  First of all, I want to thank the amazing TOAST team at Aladdin led by my editor, Fiona Simpson, and publisher, Mara Anastas. They are joined by a group of Simon & Schuster all-stars, including Jodie Hockensmith, Rebecca Vitkus, Katherine Devendorf, Laura Lyn DiSiena, Steve Scott, Sara Berko, Tricia Lin, and Stephanie Evans. You do all the hard work, and all you get in return are semiannual cupcakes from Magnolia Bakery. Thanks for welcoming me on the fourth floor.

  Grazie mille to the one and only Rosemary Stimola and everybody at the Stimola Literary Studio.

  I’d like to give a huge shout-out to my hair and style experts, Fatoumata Diallo, Letitia Moye-Moore, and Anntionette Brown. I am so lucky to have you as friends. Also a major spasibo to Carey and Laura Cavanaugh for their Russian language skills and Terence Cavanaugh for his many creative suggestions.

  My Golf Channel family is beyond supportive, and I’d especially like to acknowledge Keith Allo, Jay Madara, Chris Murvin, and Courtney Vargas.

  This book is all about librarians, whom I worship in their many varieties. For their help researching this book, I’d especially like to thank the dedicated staff at the Library of Congress, including Michael J. North of the Rare Book and Special Collections Division and Sasha Dowdy with the Young Readers Center.

  Finally, I’d like to thank my family, without whom none of this would be possible.

  About the Author

  JAMES PONTI was born in Italy, was raised in Florida, and went to college in California. After receiving a degree in screenwriting from the USC Film School, he began a career writing and producing television shows for the likes of Nickelodeon, Disney Channel, PBS, Spike, History Channel, and Golf Channel. James loves writing, travel, and the Boston Red Sox. He lives with his family in Maitland, Florida.

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  BY JAMES PONTI

  The Framed! trilogy

  Framed!

  Vanished!

  Trapped!

  The Dead City trilogy

  Dead City

  Blue Moon

  Dark Days

  This book is a work of fiction. Any references to historical events, real people, or real places are used fictitiously. Other names, characters, places, and events are products of the author’s imagination, and any resemblance to actual events or places or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

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  First Aladdin hardcover edition September 2018

  Text copyright © 2018 by James Ponti

  Jacket illustration copyright © 2018 by Paul Hoppe

  All rights reserved, including the right of reproduction in whole or in part in any form.

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  Jacket designed by Laura Lyn DiSiena

  Interior designed by Laura Lyn DiSiena and Steve Scott

  Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

  Names: Ponti, James, author.

  Title: Trapped! / by James Ponti.

  Description: First Aladdin hardcover edition. | New York : Aladdin, 2018. | Series: Framed! ; 3 | Summary: Middle schoolers Florian and Margaret are determined to catch a spy who is implicating their FBI supervisor, Marcus Rivers, in a variety of crimes—even if they have to break into, and out of, the Library of Congress to do it.

  Identifiers: LCCN 2018005076 | ISBN 9781534408913 (hc) | ISBN 9781534408937 (eBoo
k)

  Subjects: | CYAC: Mystery and detective stories. | United States. Federal Bureau of Investigation—Fiction. | Friendship—Fiction. | Spies—Fiction. |

  Library of Congress—Fiction. | Washington (D.C.)—Fiction. | BISAC: JUVENILE FICTION / Mysteries & Detective Stories. | JUVENILE FICTION / Action & Adventure / General. | JUVENILE FICTION / Humorous Stories.

  Classification: LCC PZ7.P7726 Tr 2018 | DDC [Fic]—dc23

  LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2018005076