by Casey Lyall
“Okay, okay, okay.” Bradley stared at us and then laughed grimly. “I never wanted it to go this far in the first place. I only wanted to have fun with my friend.”
“Give us the name.” Pen in hand, Ivy had her notebook at the ready.
There, in our makeshift office at the Grantleyville Senior Center, Bradley Chen took a deep breath and spilled his guts.
Chapter Twenty-Six
Armed with all the dirty details, Ivy and I stood at the foot of a driveway only a few streets over from my own, staring up at the ringleader’s house.
“Delia,” Ivy said, still shaking her head. “I never would have pegged her for a stone-cold crook.”
“She had us all fooled. The best criminals always do.”
“Okay, but Delia?”
I scuffed at the driveway with my shoe. “What better way to stop a friend from ditching you than to destroy the thing they’re ditching you for?”
The soft sounds of a quiet neighborhood drifted around us as Ivy thought that over.
“When you put it that way,” she said. “I’m surprised the basketball team is still standing.”
The bark of laughter burst out before I could stop it. “Believe me, I thought about it.”
“Well,” Ivy said. “I, for one, am glad you decided to be the bigger man, relatively speaking—”
“Hey, now.”
“—and go in a more interesting direction,” she concluded.
“I’m glad you approve,” I said as the front door to the house opened and a small blond boy emerged.
“Kevin?”
“Howard Wallace!” His face lit up as he ran over to us. “Did you find Spaceman Joe?”
“Not yet,” I said. “Do you live here?”
“Yup,” he said. “I have a little more money saved. Do you want a deposit?”
“Don’t worry about it,” I said, eyeing the house and the opportunity Kevin presented. “Is your sister home?”
Kevin scrunched up his nose and made a face. “No. What do you want her for, anyway?”
“I don’t,” I said. “You’re just the man we came to see.” Ivy shot me a look, and I grinned.
“What would you say if I said for one small favor, I’d consider your case paid in full?”
“For sure! Name it!”
Clapping a hand down on his shoulder, I busted out all the confidence and charm I could muster. Everything hinged on Kevin agreeing to this plan. “We need you to let us in to Delia’s room,” I said.
The little guy laughed in my face before cutting off abruptly. “Are you serious?”
“Are your parents home?” I started across the lawn to the house.
“My mom’s in the backyard gardening,” he said, scuttling after me.
“Excellent,” I said and pointed at the front door. “Lead on, please, Kevin.”
He looked back and forth between me and Ivy. I could see the wheels turning in his head as he processed the situation. “You want to investigate something in Delia’s room?”
“Yes, Kevin.”
“She’s going to be pretty mad if I let you in there.”
“Probably.”
Kevin scratched at his nose while I resisted the urge to tap my foot. “Can I watch you work?” he asked.
I glanced over at Ivy, and she shrugged. “Sure,” I said.
“Cool.” He pushed open the front door and waved us inside. “Her room’s up here,” he said, leading the way up the stairs.
“Did you take money from a little kid?” Ivy hissed at me as we reached the landing.
“No,” I said. “Weren’t you listening? We’re on the barter system now.”
“What is wrong with you?”
The price of doing business with Kevin became clear as he began a running commentary almost immediately. “This is awesome,” he said. “I’ve never seen a real detective in action. Do you have a magnifying glass?”
I started to answer, but that didn’t appear to be necessary.
“Are you working for the cops? Did an anonymous tip send you here? Are you going to dust for prints? Do you need to wear gloves? This is Delia’s room.” He pointed at a closed door to the left of us. “I have some winter gloves in my room. I’ll go get them for you.”
Ivy and I exchanged grins as Kevin ran off to his room. “After you,” I said, bowing to my partner. She twisted the knob and opened the door.
“Wow,” Ivy said. “Years from now, when people study this case, they’ll say this is where she first went wrong.”
We were adrift in a sea of pastel pinks and purples, frilly bedspreads, and adorable cat posters. “Maybe gloves aren’t such a bad idea,” I said.
“Sorry, guys.” Kevin burst through the door, pausing for a minute to catch his breath. “I couldn’t find any.”
“Don’t worry about it,” I said. “Just put yourself somewhere out of the way so we can get to work.”
He scooted over to the bed and threw himself on top of it. Ivy and I poked around, opening drawers and combing through the contents.
“What did Delia do, anyway?” Kevin asked. “I mean, she did something, right? If you guys are here going through her stuff?”
“She made some bad choices,” I said, taking a book off her desk to flip through. “We’re here to help her make it right.”
“I can help, if you want.” He flopped onto his stomach and bent over the side of the bed to look underneath. “Kevin Potts, junior detective.”
Ivy chuckled and shook her head. “Sounds like a plan, Kev. Let us know if you find anything.”
I hoped he would, because we were coming up empty. Ivy and I’d rifled through all of Delia’s drawers and shelves, turned her closet inside out, and scoured her entire desk. No checks. That was unacceptable.
No checks meant no case.
“Any luck, Howard?” Ivy’s muffled voice came from behind the dresser.
“Nothing.”
Taking one last turn around the room, I circled slowly, hoping something would pop out at me. A shelf I’d missed, a hidey-hole, maybe a big, flashing sign that said “Checks Hidden Here.” We were running out of time.
The front door slammed. “Mom? Anybody home?”
Correction: make that out of time.
Kevin fell off the bed, his face ashen. “It’s Delia.”
“We gotta jet,” Ivy said. “She can’t find us here.”
He blocked our exit and herded us back into the room. “Don’t go downstairs. She’s coming up, we need to hide.”
“Where?” I looked around the ransacked room, which was getting smaller by the second. This was going to end in disaster.
Kevin stumbled over to the closet and opened the double doors. “Here, get in.”
“I’ve hidden in more closets this week than I have my entire life,” Ivy muttered.
“Kevin, you’d better not be in my room.” Delia’s voice rang down the hallway. “You know you’re not allowed in there.”
Ivy and I threw ourselves in the closet with Kevin close behind. I pulled the doors shut and pressed myself against the wall. Ivy was against the opposite side, and I could hear a slight rustle as she arranged the hanging clothes for camouflage.
Footsteps announced Delia’s entrance followed by a muted shriek. “Kevin, why is my door open?” Something thumped as Delia walked into one of the piles on the floor. “What have you done to my stuff? Where are you? Kevin!”
He took a step backward, jostling a few hangers. We all froze. Very slowly, I turned my head and tried to get a glimpse of what was going on through the slats in the door. Delia whipped around and stared at the closet. Barely even breathing, I didn’t dare move a muscle.
Our junior detective sneezed.
Delia leapt at the closet and threw open the door. She grabbed Kevin by the front of his shirt and hauled him out into the room. Sisterly rage clouded her vision. That and a surplus of winter clothes had allowed Ivy and me to escape detection. Delia only had eyes for poor Kevin.
“What are you up to?” She shook him once, and he held on to her arm for dear life.
“I was looking for Spaceman Joe,” he mumbled.
“I told you he’s not in here!” Delia flung out her arms, shoving Kevin and sending him flying into her bedside table. Picture frames and knick-knacks spilled across the floor as he toppled over.
Ivy gasped quietly. I tried to make eye contact with her before she could do anything rash. Delia advanced on Kevin, and Ivy growled, wrenching back the door of the closet. “Delia, that is enough.”
Not about to let my partner head out without backup, I scrambled out of the closet after Ivy and helped Kevin up off the floor.
Delia gaped at us, shock robbing her of full sentences. “Ivy? Howard? What are you—did you guys search my room?”
“Short answer—yes,” I said.
“Why would you do this?” She waved a hand at the wreckage in her room. “Does Meredith know you’re here?”
I kept my mouth shut, and Ivy did the same. Better to let Delia come to her own conclusions. Her eyes went wide, and she sank down to sit on the bed. “Am I a suspect?”
This was the Delia I recognized, not the one who’d freaked out on Kevin and had Bradley running scared. But just because it was familiar didn’t mean it was the truth.
Tears filled her eyes. “Please,” she said. “I don’t understand. Will you tell me what’s going on?”
Grabbing the desk chair, I sat facing our prime suspect. Two could play at this game. “Well,” I said. “We had a lead.”
“If you call Bradley blabbing everything a lead,” Ivy piped up.
“I didn’t want to get too technical about it,” I said, propping my feet up on the bed. Delia’s eyes darted from me to my feet to Ivy and back. “I guess you’d call it more of an overflowing confession of guilt than a lead.”
“He started talking, and he wouldn’t shut up.” Ivy picked up a book from the floor and set it back on the shelf.
“Please don’t touch my things,” Delia said. “Howard, please don’t put your shoes on my bed.” I plopped my feet back on the floor, and she winced when a small clump of dirt rolled onto the carpet. “We always figured Bradley was involved, but what does that have to do with me?”
“You didn’t make the best choice of partner-in-crime,” I said. “He spilled the beans, right, Ivy?”
My partner was juggling a load of fairy statues and attempting to put them back on the desk. “Oh, yeah,” she said. “Bradley cracked like a nut.”
“Put those down,” Delia snapped.
“What do you think I’m trying to do?” Ivy plunked the last statue down and dusted off a wing. “Where was I?”
“Bradley,” I said. “Cracked like a nut.”
“Yes.” She snapped her fingers. “He sang like a bird.”
“Squealed like a pig,” I said.
“Popped like a zit—”
“Stop it!” Delia yelled. We were finally getting to her. “I am so sick of you two and your detective—”
“Language, Delia,” Ivy said. “Not in front of the kid.”
All three of us turned to look at Kevin lurking in the doorway. I’d almost forgotten he was there until things turned PG. “Did he spill like a glass of milk?” he asked, eyes wide.
“Get out of here, Kevin!” Delia leapt at the door and slammed it after Kevin fled into the hallway. She rounded on us, and the mask of Sweet Delia fell away completely. Her smile went sharp, and her eyes turned flinty. “So Bradley talked, and you think you know everything.”
“Pretty much.” I glanced over at Ivy, who nodded. I wasn’t sure if this was progress or dangerous.
“You obviously don’t have the checks,” Delia said, strolling back toward the bed.
“We don’t,” I said. “But you do.”
“What did I tell you about touching my things?” Delia shot a look at Ivy as she put a clock back on the side table.
“Just trying to help tidy up,” Ivy said. She bent to pick up more stuff from the ground.
“You guys have already made a big enough mess. Stop making it worse.” She paced around her room. “You’re not getting anything out of me. You might as well leave.”
“Delia, this is your friend we’re talking about,” I said. “Don’t you want to do the right thing?”
“You don’t get it, Howard,” she said.
“Of course I do,” I snorted. I probably understood better than anyone else at our school. If Delia wasn’t so bent on total destruction, we could’ve had a bonding moment.
“That’s right. I forgot about Miles,” she said, sinking back into a frilly pink cushion. “You let him go pretty easy. Maybe you weren’t such good friends.”
Ivy scoffed from her corner. “Is that your measurement for friendship? The more you care, the harsher the punishment?”
“I’m not concerned with your opinions, Ivy,” Delia said. “I’m speaking to Howard right now.”
“It’s none of your business,” I said through gritted teeth. I needed to step up before I lost control of this conversation.
“Seems only fair since you’re right in the middle of my business.” Delia cocked her head to the side. “Does it still hurt? Being left behind?” She played with the ribbon on the bedspread. “I could help with that, you know.”
Losing control had taken us to a very interesting place. “Do tell.” I sat up in my chair, and Ivy watched us both from across the room. Delia smiled, pleased to have my full attention.
“Let this thing with Meredith play out,” she said. “And I’ll help you with Miles.”
“How would you do that?”
“Howard.” Ivy’s voice was a low warning meant for my ears alone, but I couldn’t help myself. I wanted to peek over the edge of the dark side and see what it had to offer.
“Tell me your plan.”
Ivy groaned softly as Delia grinned. “Are you looking for reconciliation or retribution? I think door number two, in your case,” she said. “There are a number of . . . creative ways to get someone kicked off a sports team. Or even better, get the team shut down all together.”
“You seem pretty confident in your abilities.”
“I’ve gotten this far, haven’t I?”
“Delia, are you listening to yourself?” Ivy stomped over and stood between us. “Reality called. It misses you. It wants you to come back.”
“Mock me all you want, Ivy,” Delia said. “Howard understands.”
I shook my head. “No, I don’t, actually,” I said, relieved to know it was true. There was a time when I might have thrown my lot in with Delia, but not anymore. “I think you’re talking five types of crazy.”
“True friends don’t let anything come between them,” Delia declared, slamming a fist down on the bedspread. The myriad of decorative pillows behind her were sent tumbling from their perfectly arranged pile.
“If you’re really friends with someone, you deal with whatever comes between you,” Ivy said. “If you can’t, then maybe extracurriculars aren’t the problem.”
“Oh, be quiet, Ivy.” Delia scrambled off the bed. “I didn’t ask for your opinion.”
In that moment, I felt nothing but pity for Delia. I’d been in her place. It was lonely and sad and full of confusion. But she’d still made a choice. A very deliberate one. “Do you think Meredith is going to want to be your friend once she finds outs out what you’ve done?”
“How’s she going to find out? You have no proof.”
“But we have a lot of questions.” Ivy said.
“And when we start asking them,” I said. “People will start connecting the dots.”
Ivy stood beside me, arms crossed. “On a path that leads straight to you.”
“Seriously. Stop it,” Delia said with a laugh. “You guys are too cute. You’re not going to say anything.”
“How do you figure that one?”
“You start talking, I start talking,” Delia said. “Your office at school was cleare
d out. Something tells me you’re not supposed to be investigating anymore.” She wagged a finger at me. I couldn’t deny it, so I just glared.
“That’s what I thought,” she crowed. “And you definitely aren’t supposed to be breaking into my house.”
“Technically, Kevin let us in,” I said.
Kevin’s voice came muffled through the door. “That’s true.”
Delia let out a little scream and stalked up to the door. “Go away, Kevin.” She gave it a good kick before looking back at us. “I think it’s time for you to go.”
“I think you’re right.” As much as I hated to back down from an interrogation, we weren’t getting anywhere with Delia. It was better to retreat and regroup if we had any chance of coming up with a new game plan.
Delia escorted us to the front door with minimal gloating. Kevin was nowhere in sight. Smart lad.
“You shouldn’t have come here today,” she said as we made our way down the front steps. “Meredith’s ready to drop the case. Everything was going to turn out fine.”
“And now?” Ivy asked.
Delia stood in the doorway, steely-eyed and resolute. “Now you’re a problem.”
“Funny,” I said. “I was thinking the same thing about you.”
“The difference being that I like to make sure I take care of my problems,” Delia said. “There are twelve hours until school tomorrow. Plenty of time to figure out how to dump this whole situation in your lap.”
She slammed the door with a force that shook me down to my toes. Ivy and I were left in silence and failure. Mulling over everything we’d discovered, and more importantly, hadn’t discovered, I sighed.
“I think that went well, don’t you?”
Ivy burst out laughing, and I joined her. There wasn’t much else we could do. Heading down the sidewalk, our laughter trailed off and reality set in.
“This is not good,” I said. “I thought Friday was bad, but this is bad.”
“It does look dreadful,” Ivy said.
“That was our last chance.” I kicked at a mailbox as we walked by. “Now we have no proof against Delia, and she pretty much declared war on us.”
“Yes,” Ivy said, reaching into her pocket. “If only we had some sort of evidence.” She pulled out a rectangular package and tapped it against her chin. “That would have been helpful.”
