Part Eleven

"I cannot believe that this school is so lax about their closing procedures," Noura said as she followed the secretary down the corridor towards the computer lab.

"It's not that lax," the woman protested, throwing a nervous glance at the set expression on the face of the man walking beside her. "The teachers close the rooms they're responsible for, and the custodians lock everything up before they leave. Students are all out of the building by now. Visitors must check in at the office. I'm telling you, your children and this detective can't possibly be..." She swallowed her words with a gulp as the dark glasses turned to look at her.

"Well, they're not supposed to be here," she muttered, picking up the pace a bit.

They were in the corridor leading to the library and computer lab when they heard a rhythmic thumping, followed by a thunderous crash. Kermit pulled out his Desert Eagle and ran; motioning for the women to stay put. Virginia and Noura ignored the command, following close on his heels. The school secretary stopped in her tracks at the sight of the gun.

The door from which the crash had come was locked, but that didn't stop the ex-mercenary. Without even pausing, he kicked it open. "Stay there," he snapped at the two mothers, who froze at his command. He stepped through the doorway, his weapon leveled.

Ayaas lay motionless, half in and half out of the duct; eyes wide with panic, positive that Mrs. Wilcox had come back. He looked towards the kicked-down door, expecting to see one of the counterfeiters. The last person he expected to see was Peter's mysterious friend. Their eyes met, and the boy visibly relaxed. "Anyone else in here?" Kermit demanded, still cautious. Ayaas shook his head, and Kermit tucked the gun away.

The detective looked from the hole in the wall to the boy, and took in the dust-covered clothing, the dirty face, streaked with what looked like tear stains, the ungraceful sprawl. No injuries were apparent. "Your mother is right behind me," he warned. "Where are Peter and Sophie?"

Ayaas flushed red, then the blood drained from his face, leaving him pale as he pulled himself out of the duct. "Mrs. Wilcox and two men took them away. I got stuck in here." He scrambled awkwardly to his feet. "I wanted to stop them, but I couldn't."

Kermit took pity on the bedraggled figure. "It's better that you didn't. Tell me what you saw, and the one-oh-one will locate Peter and Sophie. Much safer..." He was interrupted by the boy's mother.

"Ayaas! What happened to you? Are you all right? You're a mess! Where's Sophie? What have you been doing?" One worried mother scolded and hugged and breathed a sigh of relief.

The other wrapped her arms around her own suddenly cold body, wishing that they were around Sophie as her daughter's best friend bit his lip and valiantly tried to hold back tears.

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Sophie crouched on the floor, studying the figure lying before her. The room she had just been thrust into was dark and cold, but she could make out the shape of his face. "Peter?" she whispered. "Peter, wake up." She reached out one hand to touch the bump on his head. Her fingers came away bloody. "Oh, Peter..." she said mournfully as she wrapped her coat around her tightly and settled in to wait.

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"This is highly unorthodox," the woman said, her voice uncertain. "No one is supposed to use these computers but our faculty. I think it's illegal..."

"The police are on the way," Kermit replied impatiently, his eyes fixed on the screen. He made a wordless sound of approval as the record he was searching for came up. "Mrs. Catherine Wilcox...spouse Robert...address...address...." His eyebrows rose above the glasses as he looked at the listing. "Don't you confirm your employee addresses?" he asked, looking over at the school secretary.

She looked uncomfortable. "I don't think so. Why would we need to?"

"Because it's usually standard procedure to have a residence on file. Catherine Wilcox's address is a post office box. Don't you have a home address?"

"Whatever we have is in the file. She's only been working here a few months. Maybe she hasn't settled into a new home yet."

Kermit shook his head with disgust. "What's the custodian's name?" he asked Ayaas, who was standing at his side with his mother.

The boy looked upset. "I don't know. He's new though."

"Describe him."

Ayaas shrugged helplessly. "About as tall as you, brown hair, kinda wide, as old as my dad...he's got a tattoo on his wrist of a skull. I saw it one time in the lunchroom."

Turning to the secretary, Kermit growled, "Sound familiar?"

"Jim Smith," she answered with a shiver. "I noticed the skull too."

Turning back to the computer, the detective pulled up the custodian's file. "What do you know, another P.O. box," he muttered as he printed out both files.

"What are you going to do?" Virginia asked, touching his shoulder for attention.

"Find out where these people are and go get your daughter and my friend."

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Part Twelve

Peter groaned as he came back to consciousness. His head hurt, his mouth was dry, and he had the nagging feeling that there was something he should be doing. "Owwww..." Painfully, he forced open his eyes and saw a small dark shape huddled against him. He blinked. "Sophie?"

"Wha...?" the form stirred and moved, pulling away from him. "You're awake," a sleepy voice noted.

"Yeah. Are you all right?" A muffled groan squeezed past his lips as he pushed himself into a sitting position.

"Uh-huh. We've got to stop doing this," the girl scolded, pretending to laugh. She ruined the effect by then throwing herself back against him, sniffling.

Wrapping one arm around her, with the other braced behind him on the rough floor, Peter sighed. "You're really okay? Where's Ayaas? What happened?" More questions crowded into his mind, but a twinge from his aching head made him forget them.

"I'm fine," Sophie said, her voice muffled by his coat. "I don't know where Ayaas is, but he's probably still stuck in the air duct in the computer lab, unless he figured a way to get out."

"The air duct?" Peter closed his eyes to recall the room. In his mind's eye, he could picture the grate near the corner of the room. Although he hadn't sensed Ayaas's in the room upon entering it...near the end, just before someone had hit him, he had felt a familiar presence nearby. "I think he was there," the detective said, opening his eyes. "What, exactly, was he *doing* in the air duct?"

Sophie burrowed against his shirt. "You'll get mad," she said, avoiding answering.

"No I won't."

"It was *stupid*! You will."

"Sophie...."

With a sigh, the girl pulled away. "We found out that the fake money was being made after school by looking at the computer files, but we didn't know who was doing it. So, we decided to get the grate off that ventilation duct and wait inside and see who. But when we got the grate off, we found out that we couldn't hide inside unless one of us stayed outside and put it back on."

"You didn't think that maybe it was time to call for reinforcements?" Peter asked, following the slightly confused words and keeping his voice gentle.

The girl shook her head, looking guilty. She sniffed once and continued. "So Ayaas got in, and I put the grate on, then went to call you because I was worried, but I used the phone in the office, and then Mrs. Wilcox came in with the kids who help teach us from the high school, and I hid in the office, but that scary new custodian came in and found me." Sucking in a deep breath after the delivery of this rattled-off recitation, Sophie stopped her nervous recounting momentarily.

Peter patted her back comfortingly. "Go on," he said. "Did they hurt you?" His voice was calm, but Sophie could feel the tension in the arm around her.

When she spoke again, her voice was low. "No. But they made me go with them. I was going to scream if we saw anyone, but we didn't. I had to get in the trunk of their car, and then they closed it and it was really dark. Then they opened it and threw you in." Sophie shivered, and Peter pulled her back towards him. "You landed on me," she said accusingly.

"Sorry, sweetie. Then what?" he encouraged.

"It's okay. I was glad to see you, even if..." the girl said in a tiny voice. She paused, taking a deep gulp of air, then continued. "They drove for awhile, and stopped. Mrs. Wilcox opened the trunk, then her husband and the other man picked you up, and shut the trunk again. Then the other one came back for me and put me in here with you. I was waiting until you woke up, but I guess I fell asleep." She sighed deeply, and in the dim light, Peter saw her breath hanging in the air.

Peter looked past the girl into the darkness beyond. Dim light from a bare bulb above them didn't quite reach the shadowed walls. "Where are we?" He shivered as he noticed the coldness of their prison. Now that his eyes were adjusting to the dim light of their surroundings, he saw stone walls, a few boxy shapes, and a flight of stairs leading up. At the top landing, thin slivers of light indicated that someone was on the other side.

"It's a cellar," the girl said, as Peter figured it out. Sophie followed his gaze up the staircase. "No one has come in since they left us," she said. "I've heard people moving around though."

"Great, first an attic, now a basement," Peter said, referring to their last prison.

"Maybe next time we'll be in the regular house."

With a crooked grin, Peter said, "I don't know about you, but I'm hoping there won't be a next time." Grunting, he pushed himself to his feet and began walking around the basement, Sophie trailing behind him.

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Part Thirteen

The Rosedale Police Department was thorough, just not...inspired. Kermit kept one eye on them as they interviewed Ayaas. They were still at the school, where detectives were gathering evidence from the computer lab, the office, and the small locker Jim Smith used to store his personal effects. So far, nothing had been uncovered. No one knew where the teacher or the janitor lived, and the kids with then had not yet returned home.

Kermit had retrieved his laptop computer from the car, and had it plugged into a phone line. He was searching in a different way for any trace of the counterfeiters.

"Have you found anything?" Virginia Li's worried face studied the tapping fingers and rapidly changing screen.

Kermit looked up from his highly illegal search of phone records. "Not yet. These people are professionals. They used post office boxes and cell phones, all of which were purchased in the last three months. They didn't leave a trace." His grim words seemed to strike the woman with physical force. "Don't worry," he said, his voice softening. "We'll find them."

"Maybe Mrs. Wilcox will come into school tomorrow," Ayaas suggested, obviously freed from his interviews. "And we...you can catch her and make her tell us where they hid Sophie and Peter."

"Maybe," Kermit said, his voice noncommittal. He didn't want to crush the boy's hopes, but that would be too easy.

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"Couldn't we break a window and climb out?" Sophie asked, craning her neck to see the recessed windows. "We could fit through there." She looked at Peter critically. "Well, you probably couldn't. But I'd go and find a phone or something."

Peter was making his way around, taking in everything. For what seemed like a very old basement, there were very few objects in it. The Blaisdell basement was full, with everything from winter sleds to gardening tools to a carpenter's bench. This place held a furnace, a hot water heater, a couple moldy chairs, and a box of old seeds. It hadn't been recently cleaned, so their "hosts" probably hadn't cleaned it out especially for them.

Looking up at the windows that Sophie had pointed out, Peter could see that they were boarded over. If he could pry away the boards...if he didn't make too much noise...if Sophie could get through... Too many ifs. There had to be an easier way. He leaned against the hot water heater to think, and relaxed against the heat. "If you're cold, come stand close to this," he said to Sophie, who promptly moved closer.

"Nice," she sighed, leaning against the tank and closing her eyes with pleasure as warmth permeated her shivering body. She could almost pretend she was out in the sunshine. Almost.

"Yeah," Peter replied absently, his mind already turning over a plan as his eyes moved from the hot water heater, to the furnace, to the fuse box mounted on the wall between them. A slow grin covered his face. "Do you think you could put up with the cold just a little longer?"

Sophie's eyes flew open. "You've got a plan!" she exclaimed with delight.

"I do." The detective looked at his watch, slightly surprised that it was still on his wrist. "But it's too late to do it now. We need other people to be awake."

"Why? What are we going to do?"

"You'll see."

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