Wood Sprites(18)
“Yeah, I’ll take two boxes of Thin Mints.”
* * *
They managed to talk April into two Thin Mints, a box of Samoas and a box of Trefoils, scanned all the pictures of their sister, and copied all personal data on Tim Bell and his granddaughter including his phone number and address. Despite being out all night, April insisted on walking them back to the subway station. They barely kept her from escorting them the entire way home, escaping her protection only by promising to go straight home.
“Alexander Graham Bell.” Louise rolled the name around, trying to get used to the idea that they had an older sister, nearly eighteen. “Do you think she goes by Alex or Al or Alexi or Xander?”
“Xander?”
“I would,” Louise said. “Don’t you think it’s cool? Xander Bell.”
“Alexander Graham Bell is a stupid name. The acting guild would make you change it. The inventor would spam all hits on your name.”
“It would be a way no one could find you—if the first thousand hits was the inventor, people would give up looking for you. I think it’s ingenious.”
Jillian glared at her and then kicked at the seat in front of them. “It should be Dufae. Tim Bell is obviously Timothy Dufae, Leonardo’s father. Why is he going by the name Bell?”
“He’s hiding.”
“From who?”
“Whoever killed Leonardo?”
They had just boarded the last train, switching off the feed from mini-Tesla and reactivating Tesla link with their parents, when Louise’s phone rang. She squeaked with alarm: had their parents caught them?
“Hello?” she said tentatively.
Jillian scowled at her; apparently she sounded guilty. Why did her mom pick her to call? Because she knew Jillian lied better?
“Are you still at work?” Louise added to explain her tone. Jillian leaned against her to hear the full conversation. “I thought you’d be at the Forest Forever event until late.”
“Louise! Is Jillian with you?” their mother asked, voice full of concern. “Are you two okay?”
“Yes.” They answered the first question in unison.
“We’re fine,” Jillian said as Louise examined the question for traps. They hadn’t done anything to warrant a phone call, so something must have happened elsewhere.
“Where are you?” their mother asked with sirens blaring near her.
Louise was glad she could stick to the truth. “We’re on the N train, heading home. We just left Queensboro. Are you okay?”
“I’m fine.” And then hesitantly, she added, “There was an idiot protester with a car bomb but the police took care of it. It pushed our schedule back nearly two hours. I probably won’t be home until tomorrow. The company is paying for a room for me to sleep here tonight.”
“Okay,” Louise said. “But why are you asking if we’re okay?”
“According to a linked story, some of the protestors attacked a nine-year-old at Grand Central Station. Reports are conflicting. Some of them are saying it was a boy who was taken to a hospital and others are saying it was a girl and she wasn’t hurt. I know you were nowhere near there but I got worried and had to call to check on you.”
Louise winced. Since they’d taken the 7 train into the city from the cookie sales, they’d been at Grand Central Station earlier. It had been full of police but Louise had been so focused on their mission that she hadn’t considered why. The N train connected at Lexington Avenue, avoiding Grand Central completely. “We’re fine. We’re almost home.”
“I’ll call your father and have him meet you at the station.”
“Okay. Bye.” She hung up and stuffed the Chinese puzzle box into the small storage bin in Tesla’s torso. “Oh, god, that was close.”
Jillian was doing a little victory dance. “But we weren’t caught! We did it! We know all about our older sister and we got something from our genetic donor.”
But they hadn’t gotten any closer to saving their baby brother and sisters. But maybe something in Esme’s mystery box would help them.
5: PUZZLE BOX
The Chinese puzzle box took them the rest of the day to unlock.
“Esme’s lucky we’re smart,” Jillian complained.
“Maybe if we weren’t smart, she didn’t want us to open it.” Louise spread out the contents.
There were six old-fashioned 2D photographs within the box and an odd rectangle of metal slightly bigger than their pinkies.
“What’s this?” Jillian picked up the mystery item and eyed it closely.
“I don’t know.” Louise watched as Jillian carefully pulled the object into two parts. One piece was a cap that fit over some type of socket at the end.