Page 32 of Be A Detective, They Said. It’ll Be Fun, They Said

“Okay, if that was an illusion, why does someone want me to think a child needs help? To distract me from finding Neerie?”

Both Marty and Nina remained silent for a moment until Marty said, “Good point. That doesn’t make sense.”

“Okay, so let’s go with the theory some shit’s going on at the school and Neerie was looking into it. I don’t know how the fuck it has anything to do with an alien or some cleaning supplies, but if that’s the case, does that mean the kids who disappeared are somewhere in the school, and that’s how you heard them?”

My pulse began to pound in my head. “I think she found something out that she shouldn’t have and got caught. I think someone kidnapped her. I think, while Neerie is a little left of center when it comes to conspiracies, and some of them are completely bananapants, she’s not entirely full of bunk.”

Nina scoffed with a grin. “It’s shit, Wanda. C’mon, you can say it. Neerie isn’t entirely full of shit.”

I laughed out loud, some of the tension leaving my body. “Shit. How’s that? Neerie isn’t entirely full of shit.”

Nina wiped a pretend tear from her eye. “I’m so proud of my girl. But don’t do that again. It sounds awful coming from your high-falutin’ ass. Leave the potty language to me.”

I laughed again, giving her a hug. “I love you. Thanks for always being there for me.”

Hugging me back, she winked at Marty. “See? Told ya I was her favorite, Ass -Sniffer.”

“Oh, knock it off, vampire. Get in here, Marty,” I said with more laughter, holding out an arm.

“Group hug!” Marty chirped, pushing her way between us.

For the first time, I felt a bit of hope spring up in my chest. Maybe, just maybe, we could figure this out.

* * *

Two hours later, I wasn’t so sure. We’d made calls to the parents of the missing children, hoping they’d return them if they recognized us from our OOPS escapades.

Until then, we went back over what we had. “So now we know Melba the Mystic has an alibi. I checked the pottery teacher. She said Melba is a really nice lady, but her pottery blows chunks.”

Marty lobbed a stress ball at Nina’s head. “She did not.”

Nina caught the flying object without even looking up. “She didn’t have to. Look at this damn bowl she made.” Nina turned her desktop computer to show us a lopsided bowl. “But it’s proof she was there. Solid alibi.”

I winced at the bowl and fought a comment. I’ve never tried pottery. Maybe it’s really difficult. What do I know?

“Next up, Solange. Between the hours of five and eight, she was at karate class with her son. Confirmed by the dojo. They had dinner at Susie’s Bistro, also confirmed by Susie herself—who’s lovely, by the way, and offered us a free egg sandwich. Anyway, then from eight until about midnight, she was binge-watching a Korean drama with her mother, who lives with her, and the neighbor who lives across the street, who watches with them. Solange gave me her number to call. Her name is Lucy Barrows.”

I felt a small sense of relief that neither of the women appeared to be involved. “I didn’t really think either of them had anything to do with it, but thanks for checking. I texted Principal Mathers and she directed me to the secretary, Janine Sampson, who handles all the ordering of supplies. She just sent me a text, so hang on. Let me read it.”

As I read, I paced. It helped me think.

Nina came and paced beside me. “What’d she say?”

I stopped short. “Janine confirmed she orders all of the supplies, office and cleaning, and Neerie asked her about them last week.” Holy kittens.

I texted back to ask what Neerie wanted to know about the supplies.

Marty came to look at the return text.

“Neerie wanted to know if Janine had to order extra supplies for Mr. Yannis, the janitor, and for the classrooms. She suspected someone was stealing from the supply closet. She accused him of as much, and said she was going to Principal Mathers with her suspicions.”

I scratched my head. “Why the heckle would Agnew steal paper towels in bulk?”

“Maybe it was the kid, Cooper. He’s in college, right? Maybe he needed ’em to clean up bulk puke.”

I rolled my eyes at Nina. “He’s a vampire, Nina. He doesn’t drink.”

“Forget the why, Wanda, look at the timeline. The timestamp on the alien photo is from two weeks ago. Neerie noses around, finds something out about the missing supplies, and talks to Janine Sampson a week later. Right after that, she goes missing. Are they connected? And if they are, how the fuck do cleaning supplies, an alien, and whatever the fuck happened to you, connect to missing kids and a missing Neerie? Did an alien kidnap her? And why? For that matter, are aliens even real? And still, I maintain there are no missing kids at Sam and Olivia’s school.”

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