Chapter 15

    The Boss snickered in a way that people do when they want people to be intimidated, but they are not actually laughing. “That’s what the boys said!” he smiled. “But, they were more confident, more assertive, and hopefully more wrong.”
    Wrong, wrong, wrong. They got it wrong. Tria thought. Wrong. They got it wrong. Hey! They got it wrong! Tria gave Chloe a quick look that meant: We still have a chance!
    Chloe looked too concerned to smile, but a little nod would do. Tria was happy, almost. She could not possibly feel good in this situation. There was a long pause.
    “But, I won’t get my hopes up,” The Boss said, sighing with what seemed like joy. Evil joy. He rounded his desk with two gleaming sets of handcuffs. Tria stumbled backward, but she was not quick enough. Clip! That little flame of joy was immediately snuffed out.
    “Wait, what?” Tria asked, confused and afraid. “But, we… you don’t know if… but, you can’t….” Chloe yelled out, “NO!” She opened her mouth to say something else other that a one syllable word, but she couldn’t. Tria shook her hands hard, but it hurt, the handcuffs were too tight to get out of. Her lips were shaking, words were popping onto her brain, but she could not manage anything out of her mouth. She was terrified. How does this… but how? ARGH! Tria thought. Her brain couldn’t even find the words to describe her thoughts.
    “Now, don’t try to get out! You’re going to jail. And you’re going to stay there for a long, long time!” The Boss was slowly approaching Tria. “Don’t think you should be doing this now, right?”
    “I-I-I well-” Tria mumbled.
    “You wish you never started now don’t ya?” The Boss said, his horrible smile still drawn on his face.
    “Um…” Tria stumbled.
    “Yeah, Yeah?” Sniffed The Boss, towering over Tria. Tria was crumpling up, curling lower and lower. She was so afraid she could not dare move her head to look a Chloe. Oh, gosh! What will mom think? What will dad think? And Ellie with a big sister that went to jail?
    Suddenly, a very tall woman burst in the door. Her expression became very cross. “GERALD! Are you tormenting some poor kids again? You haven’t even let them explain their case yet have you? Well, those boys were an exception, but no matter. Oh, and stop pretending that you’re the boss!”
    Gerald crumpled down to Tria’s level. Maybe he was not the boss. Maybe she was. “Come now!” The lady said gesturing towards Chloe and Tria. They were happy to oblige-any way to get away from Gerald. Gerald whimpered as they left.
    The lady led them to a room that was much better organized, it was as amazing as the rest of the building. “I’m sorry children,” the lady said sympathetically.
    “Oh, well,” Tria said sadly. “We probably won’t do any better than he thought.” Chloe gave Tria a bad glance, and Tria immediately felt bad for saying that. Augh! Why did I say that? Tria thought. Just stay positive.
    “I hope not, but the only way to know if your theory is correct is if you tell me, and we test it!” The lady said. “We’ll take the offer, Ms…” Chloe trialed off. “Oh,” said the lady. “Zebra. It’s Ms.Zebra.”
    “Okay, Ms.Zebra,” Chloe said quickly, and then she explained everything to Ms.Zebra. “So…” Ms.Zebra repeated. “We just have to wait until his store closes, then he will change into his black outfit, and then we can catch him on his way out.”
    “Perfect!” Chloe said to her. “Okay, I’ll get an officer to come with us,” Ms.Zebra said. “Wait, we get to go?” Tria asked. “Of course!” Ms.Zebra said on her way out. “Now, stay here you two. I’ll be back in a bit.”
    “Fwoo! She’s only got 17 minutes…” Chloe said nervously. Stay positive! “Oh, don’t worry Chloe. This will work out, and if it doesn’t, we can be jail buddies!” Tria said, comfortingly.
    About 8 minutes later (they still had time), Ms.Zebra’s head emerged in the doorway. “Come, come, dears!” Ms.Zebra said, rushing. Outside of the door was a young officer with some gleaming handcuffs. The same shimmer that was on Chloe and Tria’s handcuffs. Ms.Zebra took them off as soon as Tria looked down at them.
    It was night time outside. The sky was navy blue, and the moon was shining the slightest light on the little group, making their skin look very pale. “There it is!” Chloe whisper-yelled. She pointed at a small building with a sign on it that read: BILL’S BAKERY! GET FRESH BUNS AND PIES EVERY DAY!
    They hid behind a bush. Two minutes ‘till closing time: 9:00 p.m. They waited, and waited, but no one came. Well, a man and a woman came out at 9:01, but they were just late customers. They were not Bill. By 9:05, Ms.Zebra and the officer were getting impatient. “No, don’t leave!” Chloe had whispered to them when they had proposed to leave. “Bill might still be getting ready!”
    9:06…9:07…9:08… No one had come out of the door yet. “I’m sorry kids,” Ms.Zebra said slowly, getting up. “It’s real hard to ever get something like this right.”
    As they turned around to leave, to go to jail, something flashed in the corner of Tria’s eye. The other must have seen it too by the look on their faces. The dark, sneaky figure. The figure that they did not notice until now, and does not notice them yet.

Chapter 14

Tria ran all the way over to the police station. As soon as she got there, she kneeled down to catch her breath. She looked up to see if Chloe was there. Her vision blurred and then focused. Well, of course, Chloe was there!

“Wait, what the…” Tria said slowly. “WHY ARE YOU WEARING A DRESS!? A PINK DRESS!?” Chloe was wearing a large pink bow, shiny pink shoes, and a cute pink dress, with a buckle that had little spikes on it. “But, you never wear dresses…”

“I was going for the look,” Chloe said, feeling very itchy from the inside of the skirt. “And of course I never wear dresses, I hate them!” “THE LOOK? What kind of ‘look’ is that!?” Tria said loudly. “Shush shush! What do you call that?” Chloe said, pointing at Tria’s old blue shirt, and jeans. “I dunno, um, the casual detective?” “Okay, okay, I’m just thinking that with a more, let’s say innocent outfit, the police will more easily let it slide if we don’t nail our prediction.”

Tria winced just at the idea of going to jail. This is so going to turn out bad. Wah. This can’t be a time to think positive can it?

“Let’s go,” Chloe said, tentatively. Then, they stepped into the doorway.

“Goodness Chloe!” Tria breathed. “I think I’m going to die, this place is unbelievable! The outside didn’t look nearly as good as this!” “True!” Chloe agreed as she gazed around her.  “The ceilings go higher than Mount Everest! Oho! This place is better furnished than a Google building!”

No one could ever believe that this was a police station. The walls climb so high up to the roof, you can barely see. The walls. They were beautiful, with long windows, and perfect white shelves on rows. Countless numbers of amazing embroidery hung on the walls. The floor was so shiny, perfectly stained, and shiny. There were a bunch of long antique-looking tables that were painted to match the room exactly. The cushions on the chairs were the same as the pillows children dream in castles. Everything was so perfect, you could bet any criminal here would five-star star restaurant food!

The two walked over to a nice, marble counter, with a lady standing tall behind it. “Need something?” She asked, with a smile that looked like it had been forced for years. “Uh,” said Tria cringing a bit. “We’ve solved a crime…”

“Right this way!” She said, trying and failing to sound enthusiastic. She showed them to a door and pointed. Before Tria or Chloe could say anything, she rushed back to her counter. The door frame was cracked and falling apart. Hanging beside the door was dirty lettering: The Boss. They entered the room.

‘The Boss’ room was crowded with papers and old, used office materials. A half-eaten donut was sitting on his desk. “Yes?” He said slowly and intimidatingly. The room smelled of dust and compost.

“We believe that we have solved a crime Sir,” Chloe said calmly. The Boss chuckled without making a noise. “Don’t tell me it’s about the robber that robbed, and left the hats behind and blah, blah, blah. Some boys came in about an hour and a half about that one.”

Blood rushed up to Chloe’s face. Tria took a sharp breath in and finally said, “Um, it is?”

      "Yes, That's it! Oh, perfect!" Hal said to a cute little creature. He was helping out a kindergarten creature school. They were working on a task where they would write the name of their favourite animal, and draw it.
         "Um, Mister?" A very little, little creature said, his tiny arm sticking up. "I don't know what to do!"
         "Well, what's your favourite animal?" Hal asked.
         "A cow!" The little creature said excitedly.
         "Okay, then write cow on the paper and draw a picture of a cow," He said patiently. The little creature quickly scribbled down on the paper. After, he held up his masterpiece. 
         Hal looked thoughtfully at it. "But, that's not a cow..."

Chapter 13

Tria arrived at the schoolyard to find Lily chatting with Chloe. “I hate books where they have a character, don’t tell you anything about them, and kill them off.”

“I know right?” Chloe agreed.

“It’s like, Ken was walking in the forest. Ken was happy. Ken fell off a cliff and died,” Lily said.

“Wait, who’s Ken?” Tria asked.

“EXACTLY!” Chloe and Lily said in unison. Tria was still looking very stumped.

“Well,” Lily said. “What have you so out-of-breath-came-here to say?” “I kinda needa talk alone with Chloe…” Tria said, hinting at Chloe. Chloe took in a sharp breath in and looked at Lily with a pleading look.

Lily took a look at Tria, and then Chloe, and then back to Tria. “Okay,” she said finally. “But, I intend to hang with both yous at break.” “Thank you,” Tria said so truthfully that it showed.

“Great, what is it?” Chloe said after Tria pulled her over to the sidewalk. “No one can know! Remember.” “Yeah, but she’s our friend, she’ll understand,” Tria said. “What I came here to say was: I know who the robber is. I can explain. I can tell you it all and my theories.”

Just then, three tall, older teenaged boys walked up to Tria and Chloe. “What crime you talking about?” One of them said and smiled. “Oh, the one with the robber who robbed over what? Four robberies? The one where a hat is left at every crime scene?” Tria gasped.

Another one of them chuckled and said, “Yeah, you kids shouldn’t be messing with the officials.” “And we’ll get to them first!” The last one said. “Where does that bring you?” All three pointed to the ground, and then they pushed Tria and Chloe onto the grass. “See you in Jail!” They said and walked away in a ‘cool’ fashion. Tria’s brain started whirring around. But, she was frozen in terror. These boys could get them in jail!

“You know what, this was a bad idea,” Tria said and shook her head. “We can get into jail for this, and we will.” Something was making Tria just so full of anger and regret. Why did I ever think this was good? Solving Crime? “I should never have agreed to…”

“No, Tria!” Chloe said kind of pleadingly. “We’re helping people all over!”

Tria started to walk away, and then she turned around to Chloe. “Well, if we get caught, I don’t know what I’ll do. YOU got me into this mess!” Then Tria left. There was no point in saying anything else to Chloe.

“But, Tria…” Chloe called after her and stomped her foot so hard on the ground it hurt.

Why? WHY? Why did I agree to this? This is her fault! “Argh!” Tria whispered.

Lily gave Tria a happy, hopeful glance when she saw her coming. “Sorry, Lily,” Tria said. “We can’t ‘hang’ today. I’m not very happy with Chloe right now.”

“Come on!” Lily said in a quiet yell. “Can I ever…” But, she would not finish her sentence. Tria had no reason to bother asking her the rest of it. This is all just useless!

To add onto her already quite bad mood, Tria’s class just happened to have a triple lesson on science, and extra history work. Yay! Tria thought. Who knew you could be sarcastic in your thoughts?

That night, Tria received a call from Lily. She had considered not answering, but a good friend should never do that. Despite feeling very cross and annoyed, Tria picked up the phone. “Yeah, hey Tria?” Lily’s voice rang out as quick as Tria picked up the phone.

“What?” Tria said in a very irritated tone.

“Do you want to talk about what happened -you know- this morning?” Lily asked.

“No,” Tria said stubbornly.

Tria could almost see Lily roll her eyes on the other side of the phone. “Well, did you ever even tell her about the overly important thing you were going to tell her?” Did I? Oh, no, darn I didn’t! Tria Thought.

“No, but I need to. Thanks so much!” Tria said quickly. She rushed to hang up and quickly dialed Chloe’s number.(Which she had memorized)

“Hello?” Chloe’s mother’s voice said.

“Hi, I really need to talk to Chloe!” Tria said so quickly it sounded desperate.

“Um, she’s in her room you know… *pause*... uh, not feeling well. Is it an emergency?”

“YES! IT IS!” Tria said, actually a bit desperately. She waited for a bit.

“What is it?” Chloe said, sounding very sad and mopey.

“Look, I’m really sorry that I was mean to you. I realize that Maybe doing this can help the community by a long way. But that is not what I need to tell you.”

“Thank you,” Chloe said, sounding a bit more solid.

“It’s about the robbery. I know why he left the hats for the last few times with bread and HOME on them. It’s because he is Bill from Bill’s Bakery!”

“You’re saying-”

“YES! I am! And we need to tell the police that before those boys do. We have a chance… if… if you want to take the risk.”

Chloe was silent for a few seconds, probably deciding what to do. “I say we do it. *sigh* It’s not our fault if we want to help others. But I completely understand if you know, don’t want to…”

Tria felt concerned. “Okay… meet me at the police station.”

Sorry about the unusually long chapter, but my head was just so full of words and I couldn't lose a single one!

Chapter 12

Chloe's mother started to recall some very embarrassing child memories of Chloe. As usual, Chloe’s face turned very red, and for some reason, Tria’s face was turning even brighter of a shade.

Chloe grabbed a kleenex and clapped it to her nose. “I’m all good! I’m all good! But now Tria and I are going to go up to my room.” “Yes, YES! YES!” Tria agreed quickly. “Oh, no. You could stay just a little longer to hear the story about Chloe and the spider.” She started laughing loudly, hysterically, and crazily.

“We’ll just be going now…” Chloe said and grabbed Tria’s arm. They sneaked past Chloe’s wildly laughing parents and they ran upstairs. Chloe locked the door right after she shut it behind her. She looked very awkward, just staring at Tria and Tria just staring at her.

“Okay, let's do this!” Chloe said in a deep voice. And she marched over to her computer.

“I-I got this new book called Land Of Lions…” Tria said out of the blue, realizing how random it sounded.

“That’s a silly name!” Chloe exclaimed.

“Silly? How is it silly?” Tria asked.

“You don’t know?” Chloe said. “It spells L.O.L.!”

“Oh…” Tria said slowly, still processing the joke. “Oh… oh Oh OH OOHH! HAHAHAHAH!”

The girls broke out into a weird laughing fit. Don’t worry, it was not nearly as bad as the laughing from the couple downstairs who were still laughing. Tria patted Chloe’s back and said, “Ok, we should probably get down to business now.” “Yes,” Chloe said and pretended to wipe dirt from her nose. All Tria could do was smile at her because the little motion made no sense.

“Aaaaaaaaanyway…” Chloe said, stretching back in her seat. “I found out that after each robbery, he leaves behind a hat. On the corner of the hat will be a little symbol. The fourth latest  burglary where he broke into the greenhouse, he left behind a hat with a symbol of a strawberry on it. Then, he robbed Mr. and Mrs.Berry and left behind a hat with a coin picture on it. Then, he robbed the bank. But since then - the last two - he’s left a hat behind with a picture of a bread on it.”

“Well,” thought Tria out loud. “He’ll rob Bill’s Bakery!”

“That’s the funny thing,” Chloe sighed. “He hasn’t robbed it yet.”

“Anything else?” Tria asked.

“Well, one thing… On both bread symbol hats he had wrote HOME in black marker.” Chloe explained.

“Interesting,” Tria stated, sounding deep in thought.

“Yes, very. Tria, that’ll give you enough to ponder about for the day won’t it?” Chloe said brightly.

“Quite enough,” Tria said and exchanged smiles.

Tria had been pondering about the hats to help her fall asleep. Just before she fell into a dreamless sleep, something in her brain clicked. Now she knew.

Chapter 11

Days passed, and Tria never went to the All3way again. She had decided to do something fun that spoke to her instead of moping around there about an old friend. She hung out with Chloe a whole lot.

“What are you doing at Chloe’s so much?” Tria’s mother had asked. Tria thought it would be great to say: “A detective mission mwahaha!” But she knew that it could be very dangerous. Instead, she replied hesitantly, “Stuff that could change your life!” Tria’s mom laughed. “Okay then, you can go.”

Tria headed out the door. She was already late by what? 3 minutes?

“Whoo!” Chloe said when she saw Tria burst through the doorway, exhausted from her run there. “I thought you’d never come!”

“You *pant* seem awfully calm to be saying that. *pant*” Tria observed. Chloe worriedly glanced behind her. “My parents are home. You should quickly get off your coat and boots. I don’t know if we’ll be able to sneak past them like last time.” It wasn’t that Tria was not supposed to go to Chloe’s house, but just thinking of her parents made Chloe and Tria recall some very embarrassing memories.

Four days ago, Tria had visited Chloe. Her parents had been there, but Tria nearly got spotted. Chloe's dad was cursing at a newspaper crossword, and her mom was trying to book a hotel over the phone. The person selling her the room must have been half deaf, because she kept having to repeat herself.

“Why don’t we go around the kitchen, so my mom doesn’t see you…” Chloe said quietly, peeking around the corner. They started tip toeing, Chloe in the lead. (Mission Impossible music starts playing) In a flash, Chloe’s dad opened the door and hit Chloe square in the face.

“Ooooooh hoo hoo hoo!” Chloe’s Dad said. “That would make an amazing AFV movie!” “Do you really care that I got hit?” Chloe asked, putting her hand over her face where her nose was bleeding.

Chloe’s father furrowed his brow. “No, I do care, let’s get you to the kitchen.”

Tria almost jumped out of her skin when she saw Chloe’s mother. “Oh no!” Chloe whispered to Tria.