Chapter 13
“What are you doing here?” Bobby asked, quickly trying to hide the box.
“Working. Now you answer that question and don’t lie to me.”
Trixie watched Bobby look at the other two. She realized they were Larry and Terry Lynch. Her gaze returned to Bobby. “I’m waiting.”
“Trixie, you need to understand something.”
“That you’re now into stealing?” Trixie demanded. “Bobby, give me the box.”
“Trixie...”
“Now, Bobby.”
He pulled the box from behind his back and handed it to her.
“Why did you do this? Why did you steal this box?”
Bobby looked down at his feet, as did the Lynch twins.
“Fine, don’t answer me, but this is not the end of this.”
“Can we go now?” Bobby asked.
“No,” Trixie said. “You’re going to return this box and tell the owner what you did. Then, we’re going down to the station.”
“Trixie, if we go down to the station, they’ll call Moms and Dad,” Bobby said, pleadingly.
“You should have thought about that before stealing this box. Let’s go. All three of you.”
The three boys turned around and made their way back to the booth with Trixie close behind. When they reached the booth, Trixie saw a man looking around frantically. The man looked at her and said, “I’ve been robbed.”
“Are you missing a box?” Trixie asked.
“How did you know?” he asked slowly.
“Boys,” Trixie said.
The three boys looked down at the ground.
“Did they take it?” the man asked.
“Bobby, answer him.”
Bobby lifted his head and looked at the man. “We did.”
“How could you do that? What were you thinking?” the man bellowed.
“Sir, do you want to press charges against them?” Trixie asked.
He looked at the three boys. “I think I will.”
“Let me get one of my fellow officers and I’ll take your statement.” Trixie radioed for another officer and a few minutes later, Steve appeared.
Bobby tried to convince Trixie that they shouldn’t get in trouble and there was a good reason, but they couldn’t tell her.
Steve took the boys away from the booth so Trixie could talk to the man.
“I can’t believe those kids would steal from me,” the man said.
“Was there a lot of money in there?” Trixie asked.
He looked at her surprised. “Money?” He laughed. “No, there wasn’t any money in there.” He took the box from Trixie and opened it, revealing several dog biscuits. “These are Angel’s, my collie’s, treats. Angel is back at the trailer with my wife. We usually bring her along, but since my wife wasn’t feeling well, I left Angel at the trailer.”
“Sir, do you really want to press charges against them for taking the dog biscuits?” Trixie asked, hoping he would answer no.
“Probably not, but I think they need to learn that stealing is wrong.”
“I agree.” Trixie turned slightly so the boys couldn’t see her face and smiled at him. Will you follow my lead?”
The man smiled. “No problem.”
Trixie and the man moved over to Steve and the boys. She could see the apprehensive looks on the boys faces as they approached. She stopped right in front of them and said, “Guys, I tried, but he’s going to press charges.”
“He can’t!” Bobby protested.
Trixie turned to the man. “You’ll need to come down to the station to sign the report.”
“I’ll be down as soon as I close the booth.”
“That’s fine.”
As the man returned to the booth, Trixie moved to Steve pulling out a note book. She wrote “not pressing charges” and two phone numbers as she said, “These are the numbers to their parents. They’ll need to come down to the station.”
“Trixie, isn’t there something you could do so they won’t call Moms and Dad?”
“I’m sorry, Bobby,” Trixie said. “He wants to press charges. And we wouldn’t be in this situation now if you would’ve thought about what you were doing.”
“Trixie, this was something we had to do,” Bobby pleaded.
“Why?”
“I...I can’t tell you,” Bobby stammered. “There is a reason, but I can’t say.”
Trixie let out a breath. “I’m really sorry, Bobby, but if you can’t give a good reason, I can’t help you.” She looked at Steve. “Go ahead and take them to the station. I’ll be there soon.”
“Trixie?” Bobby begged, batting his blue eyes at her.
She shook her head. “That’s not going to work. You did something wrong and need to suffer the consequences.”
“Let’s go boys,” Steve said.
“I’ll be there soon,” Trixie repeated.
Trixie watched the three boys walk away with the officer. She was stunned that Bobby had started stealing. She knew Moms and Dad would be feel the same way.
All of a sudden, her phone rang. “Hello?”
“Trixie, it’s Jim.”
“Hey there,” she said looking around, making sure nothing else was going on.
“You sound distracted. Maybe I should call you later.”
“No, it’s fine.”
“What’s going on? Has something happened?”
“Yeah, something has, but it doesn’t have anything to do with the case.”
“What happened?”
Trixie was about to respond when she saw Aristotle making his way through the crowd of people still milling about. “Jim, I’ll call you back.”
“Trixie, what’s going on?”
“Jim, I can’t talk right now. I’ll call you back.” She ended the call and slid the phone into her jean pocket. She spotted Aristotle moving past the rides. She didn’t see the other man usually with him anywhere. She followed him past the rides into town. She stayed back far enough so Aristotle wouldn’t spot her. She couldn’t understand what he was doing, but she was determined to find out.
They made their way toward the center of town. She could see Hoppy, the weather vane, that stood atop a building in the middle of town. They walked past Wimpy’s. Aristotle went down the alley next to Wimpy’s. Trixie stayed by the edge of the building and watched as he continued down the alley. She saw someone standing at the other end in the shadows.
The other person stepped into the streetlight and she realized it was the other man she had seen before with Aristotle and he was carrying a bag. They stood there and started talking. A dumpster was between her and the men, so she made her way through the shadows and crouched behind the dumpster, peering around the side.
“You know,” the second man said. “I think we should forget this plan.”
“Quit worrying, Marcus. This will work.”
“But what about the girl? She’s a cop.”
“So what?”
“She’s going to be trouble. I should’ve taken care of her when I ran into her outside our room.”
“Don’t worry about her,” Aristotle said, dismissively. “We just need to focus on the goal. We know where to get the money. We heard enough about it in jail.”
“It’s not going to work,” Marcus disagreed. “We should pack up and get out of here. You heard what the townpeople said about her. She always catches the person she’s after.” Marcus got into Aristotle‘s face. “I spent my time in prison and I won’t go back.”
“You won’t be going back. Marcus, you need to relax. Tomorrow night, while the fireworks are going off, we’ll break into the building and be long gone before anyone knows what’s going on.”
“I still think she’s going to be trouble.”
“Well, if she causes any problems, we’ll deal with it then.”
“So, what time will we meet at the Academy?”
Academy? Trixie thought. They can’t be talking about Jim’s school.
“The fireworks are scheduled for ten,” Aristotle said. “We could probably meet at the field around eight, then we’ll go there and get what we came for.”
“Are you sure the fireworks will get all the people into town?”
“I think so. This is a celebration everyone has been talking about. We’ll have an easy time getting it.”
“I hope you’re right,” Marcus said doubtfully, unconvinced.
“Come on. Let’s go enjoy some of the festivities.”
“All right.”
Trixie took a step back, slipping on some garbage and hit the dumpster.
“Who’s there?” The Marcus hissed, “Someone’s been listening.”
Trixie slid back against the wall hoping to stay hidden. A moment later, Aristotle and Marcus were standing in front of here and they didn’t look happy.
Trixie looked up and over the dumpster and saw the two men were staring at her. Marcus said, “I knew it was you.”
Trixie knew in her mind that she needed to get out of there, but the message hadn’t reached her feet.