“According to Mom he quit his job so he could write a book. He moved to Alaska and that’s the last she heard of him.”
“So maybe he’s a famous writer and you don’t even know,” said the Chief with a smile.
“Maybe,” Ellie allowed. “And maybe he doesn’t even know he has a daughter.”
“You know what you should do? Go find him. And then you can write an article about how you found your dad.”
“You know, I was thinking the exact same thing. And if I find him, maybe the two of us could write a book together, father and daughter.”
“Wouldn’t that be something?” said Odelia’s uncle as he picked a cream donut from the box and managed to eat it whole in three big bites.
“Uncle Alec is an accomplished donut eater,” Dooley remarked.
“He’s a cop, Dooley. Eating donuts comes with the territory.”
“Do you think they teach donut eating at the police academy?”
“Of course. It’s part of the curriculum.”
He studied me for a moment, then smiled.“You’re pulling my paw, aren’t you, Max?”
“Yeah, I guess I am, Dooley.”
Inside the office, Ellie had gotten up.“I have to go. I have a meeting with the school principal.”
“Oh, you’re not in trouble again, are you?” asked the Chief.
“No, no. She called my mom yesterday and asked me to come in. She wants to discuss my future after my week’s suspension.”
“If you want I’ll put in a good word for you,” Uncle Alec suggested.
“No, that’s all right,” said Ellie. “Odelia has already done that.” She held out a hand. “Thank you so much for the interview, Chief Lip.”
“Just call me Alec,” said the Chief as he wiped his fingers on a napkin then shook the junior reporter’s hand. “And you’re very welcome. I think you did a great job on your first interview all by yourself.”
Ellie beamed with pride.“Thank you, Alec. Well, see you around, I guess.”
The moment she’d left, Uncle Alec turned to us and said, “Did you get all that, you nosy parkers?”
“Yeah, we got all that!” I confirmed.
“Eat another donut, Uncle Alec,” Dooley said, “You’re really good at it.”
Uncle Alec must have understood, for that’s exactly what he did—and with relish!
28
As Odelia followed Chase and the four Hampton Heisters into the interview room, she had to confess she was more than a little curious what they had to say. Only last night they’d attempted another breakin, and yet here they were, turning themselves in!
“This is Odelia Poole,” said Chase, introducing Odelia. “Our civilian consultant. Now tell me what the hell is going on here.”
They’d all taken a seat, and the foursome first exchanged hesitant glances, then finally a girl with long blond hair piped up, “We’re the Hampton Heisters, and we would like to turn ourselves in.”
“You’re the Hampton Heisters, and you’re…” He read from his notes. “Lorie Mitford?”
“Dawn Strain. She’s Lorie Mitford.”
“So you claim to be the Hampton Heisters, Dawn?”
The girl nodded.“At least that’s how the media has started calling us.” She directed a glance at Odelia.
“But why? Why this sudden attack of contrition?”
“Emma,” said Dawn. “We don’t think it’s fair for one of us to end up taking the blame for what we all did.”
“So Emma is the reason you had a change of heart?” asked Odelia.
The foursome nodded in unison.“We read that Emma is being accused of attempted murder,” Dawn continued. “And we want to state for the record that she’s innocent. She never attacked Carl Strauss. None of us did.”
“So who did?”
“I have no idea. But he was already knocked out on the floor when we got there.”
“Yeah, we found him like that,” said Lorie Mitford, who was the brown-haired mousy type, and certainly did not look like a vicious wannabe celebrity heister to Odelia. In fact none of them looked like hardened criminals. More like the foursome from Scoobie Doo.
“Why did you do this?” she asked. “Why burgle these people’s homes and steal their stuff?”
“It started as a dare,” said Dawn, who seemed to be the unspoken yet outspoken spokesperson for the group. “We’ve always been addicted to social media, and we’ve been obsessing about celebrities for ages, so one day we decided we wanted access.”
“Access?”
“Yeah, we wanted to see where they lived. We wanted to lie in their beds. We wanted to step in their shoes and poke through their wardrobes. And we wanted to get our hands on something that belonged to them. And at first it was a lot of fun. We broke into the homes of the people we’ve been following online for years, and suddenly we were right there: right where they lived. It was so cool, and exciting, and since we were there anyway, we decided to grab a few souvenirs.”
“You took more than just souvenirs,” Chase said.
“I know. I guess we got carried away.”
Chase now addressed a dark-haired boy with attractive features.“Miles Cotts?”
The kid nodded nervously.
“What do you have to say for yourself, Miles?”
“Well, it’s not as if they were ever going to miss that stuff,” said Miles as he swept a dark lock from his brow. “These people are so rich I don’t think they’d miss a couple of rings or watches or a small pile of cash. All they need to do is post an update on their Insta and they’ve earned it back already. So no, I don’t feel like we did a bad thing.”
“So what happened the other night, when you broke into Carl Strauss’s place?” asked Chase. He pointed to the second boy, who wore glasses and looked a little nerdier than his colleagues. “You, Hank… Choice?”
“Hank Joyce,” the kid corrected him, then pushed his glasses up his nose. “It was really strange. For one thing, there was no alarm we needed to cut. The doors were open, and the alarm was turned off. And then after we’d already gone through the place, we suddenly found Carl—Mr. Strauss—on the floor, and just as we were debating what to do, whether to call an ambulance, suddenly you showed up, and we had to make a run for it. And then you caught Emma.” Four sets of eyes stared at Odelia with a touch of hostility.
“So now what?” asked Chase. “You expect us to believe you? For all we know Carl caught you breaking into his house and you knocked him out cold, either in a panic or in an attempt to get rid of him before he called the cops.”
“Look, I’m telling you, we didn’t do it,” said Dawn emphatically. “And if you don’t believe us, ask Carl. He’s not dead, is he?”
“No, but he’s still in a coma.”
The foursome exchanged startled glances.“But… we thought he was okay,” said Lorie.
“Who told you that?”
“It was on his Facebook. It said he’d come to and he was saying that Emma did this to him. That she’d taken a swing at him and put him in the hospital.”
“You shouldn’t believe everything you read on Facebook,” said Odelia.
“Besides, Carl Strauss doesn’t have a social media presence,” Chase added. “We asked his manager, and he decided a long time ago that he didn’t want that kind of exposure.”
“But… he has a Facebook page. It even has the blue tick.”
“What blue tick?”
“The blue tick that says that the page is representative of the real person.”
“I don’t know about any ticks, whether blue or otherwise, but Carl is still in the hospital, and he hasn’t come to. But you are right that Emma is still our main suspect, so you made the right decision when you decided to turn yourselves in.”
“What’s going to happen now?” asked Dawn in a small voice.
“Now you’re all going to be charged with multiple cases of burglary and in the morning you’ll appear in juvenile court to be arraigned.” He paused. “So if I were you, I’d get in touch with a good lawyer.”