Electric Boogerloo by Mark Maciejewski

Author:Mark Maciejewski
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Aladdin

CHAPTER 14

The rest of the afternoon I avoid the hallway in front of the office as if it were filled with dentists wearing clown masks. Lockhart obviously realized she’d been set up by a fake Wahoolie, and if she was fired up enough to beat the Arch in a footrace back to school while wearing high heels, I don’t want to bump into her.

After the final bell I rendezvous with Moby in the parking lot to walk home. I don’t want to call the Getter from my house, so I’m hoping we can go to his place instead.

Moby looks sheepish. “So what do we do now?” he asks.

I look around to make sure there aren’t any authority figures lurking nearby, then urge him around the corner with a jerk of my head. When we’re behind the ivy-covered fence the Arch climbed over earlier, I say, “When I met with Margot Mercedes at the Clairmont last week she told me something that I totally forgot about until this afternoon.”

Moby’s jaw slackens. “Whoa!”

“I haven’t even told you what she said yet.”

He closes his mouth and shakes his head like he’s clearing out cobwebs. “Sorry. What did she tell you?”

“She told me she didn’t have the Boogerloo, but that she had just sold the old kangaroo mascot costume with a Gatorade stain up one arm.”

I give him time to put it together on his own. After several seconds without one, something like realization hits him and his jaw flops open again.

He stops walking, looks at the ground, and puts on his most focused look. After a minute he tries and fails to snap his fingers. “Wait! Are you saying Mr. Kraley, the janitor, who usually wears that costume, stole the Boogerloo?”

I slap my forehead. “What? No! I’m saying Margot knows who the thief is because she sold them the suit last week. We have to convince her to tell us who she sold the suit to, and there’s the thief.”

We start walking again. It’s quiet for a second, then Moby says, “Or Margot stole it and she’s just trying to throw you off.”

I think back to the two-second glimpse I got of the surveillance video. It could’ve been almost anyone, but I doubt it was the shortest kid in school. Still, if your looks are a dead giveaway, you’d probably wear some sort of disguise during a daring daylight caper.

“I don’t consider her a suspect just yet; let’s call her a person of interest.”

I think we’re alone on the stretch of sidewalk, so the voice behind me makes me flinch.

“I hope you aren’t talking about me.”

Megumi is a little too good at appearing out of nowhere and making me download a folder in my shorts.

“Geez, Megumi. You gotta stop sneaking up on me like that.”

She gives me a raised eyebrow. “I’d think a smooth criminal like you would be a little bit better at looking over his shoulder,” she replies. “Hi, Moby.”

I half expect Moby to have disappeared into Hong’s market when I turn around, but to my surprise he’s still there.

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