Without a kid.
She had her back to us, so I couldn’t see her face, but from where we sat, I could tell she was about our age. Her hair was stick straight blond shot through with pale pink highlights, and she had on black skinny jeans, black slouching boots, and about a dozen silver bracelets on each wrist.
She walked into the playland, then did a quick look over both shoulders before crouching down (with difficulty, due to the tight jeans), next to Mr. Kangaroo’s back left paw.
Bingo.
Chapter Nine
SAM AND I POPPED UP FROM THE BENCH AND CONVERGED on the girl. She stood and turned to go, and I recognized her face immediately. Drea Barlow.
Drea was a cheerleader at our school, which meant she was constantly walking that fine line between sophisticated and slutty. Tight clothes, thick eyeliner, and padded bras were the uniform of all cheerleaders at our school, both on and off the field. Half the squad had tattoos, 90 percent had eating disorders, and every year they lost at least two of their ranks to unplanned pregnancies where serious calculations were needed just to figure paternity.
While Drea was the last person I expected to be clever enough to be selling the cheats, her moral standards were just about right.
“Busted,” I said as Sam and I approached her.
Drea blinked at me. “Hartley? What are you doing here?”
“Catching you in the act,” Sam answered for me.
“In the act of what?” she asked, playing dumb. Or, honestly, maybe not acting all that much.
“In the act of selling Sam the answers to next week’s history test.”
“No way.” Drea shook her head. “I’m not selling anything. You’re totally wrong.”
“Then what are you doing with my hundred bucks?” I asked, pointing to the cash in her hand.
She looked down at it, then quickly shoved it into the back pocket of her jeans. Or it would have been quickly if they hadn’t been painted on. These were beyond skinny jeans. They were like a denim wet suit. She wiggled a little, struggling to hide the evidence as she continued shaking her head. “I found that money.”
“We watched you walk right to it,” Sam pointed out.
Drea bit her lip. “So? I can walk wherever I want. It’s a free country.”
I gave her a “get real” look.
“Get real,” Sam said, not content to stick with just a look. “Drea, you knew the money would be there because you’re the one who told us to put it there.”
She shrugged. “Prove it.”
Sam narrowed her eyes at her. “Fine.” Then she pulled her cell from her pocket and dialed the number we’d texted our request to yesterday. I heard it ring three times on Sam’s end, but the phone I could clearly see outlined in Drea’s right front pocket remained conspicuously silent.
“See?” Drea said with a smirk. “I’m innocent. Now, if you don’t mind, I have things to do.” Then she brushed past us, making a beeline down the mall.
Sam moved to stop her, but I put a hand on her arm.
“Wait,” I whispered as we watched Drea’s boots clomp away. “Let’s follow her.”
Sam raised an eyebrow. “Why?”
“Clearly Drea is not the sharpest crayon in the box.”
“Clearly.”
“Which means she’s probably picking up the cash for whoever is really behind selling the cheats.”
“Like a mastermind?”
I shot her a look. “Are we in an Austin Powers movie?”
Sam shrugged. “What? It’s a very accurate description.”
I had to admit, it kinda was.
I nodded as Drea turned the corner at the Orange Julius. “Fine. A mastermind. Now come on. Let’s see where she goes.”
Sam and I jogged past the Orange Julius, then peeked around a potted palm tree. Drea was paused in front of the Forever 21, three stores down. We watched as she checked out the window display, then walked inside.
Sam and I quickly ran to the front of the store, then slipped inside and ducked behind a rack of “flirty cap- sleeve” Ts.
“What’s she doing?” I asked as Sam peeked around the side shelf.
“She’s looking at the earrings,” Sam whispered back. “Now she’s checking out a belt… and a matching cuff bracelet.”
Fabulous. Drea was on a shopping detour.
“Is she meeting anyone? Talking to anyone?”
Sam craned her neck around a pile of clothes. “She just said something to the salesperson, but I think it was about the bracelet’s price tag.” She paused. “I think it might be on sale.”
I rolled my eyes. “What’s she doing now?”
“Checking out a sweater… Oh, it’s really cute. I wonder if that’s on sale.”
“Focus, Sam,” I said, but I couldn’t help peeking around the display. She was right. It was a cute sweater. I made a mental note to come back later.
Unfortunately, I watched as Drea took the sweater and headed back toward the dressing rooms.
“This is pointless,” I decided. “Let’s go.” I nodded toward the door, and we slunk out of the store.
“Now what?” Sam asked.
I shrugged. “I guess we wait for her to finish shopping.”
Sam nodded, her gaze slowly surveying the mall. “I’m gonna get a Julius. Want one?”
I shook my head. “I’ll keep watch,” I offered, gesturing to Forever 21.
Five minutes later, Sam came back with a smoothie, a pretzel, and a carton of chili cheese fries.
“Dude.”
Sam blinked at me. “What? I haven’t had lunch.”
“Didn’t I see you down a chicken platter at Chuck’s?”
She shrugged. “That was a mid-morning snack. Besides,” she said, shoving a fry in her mouth. “I have a lacrosse game later. I need my strength.”
I would have argued that chili cheese fries were hardly the lunch of champions, but out of the corner of my eye I saw Drea leaving Forever 21 with a plastic shopping bag in hand.
I elbowed Sam in the ribs. “Let’s go.”
We did, following her at a pace of three stores back as she walked toward the center of the mall. She paused again outside Hot Topic, slipping inside. I followed (leaving Sam outside the store to down her feast), ducking around displays as I watched Drea grab a micromini and head for a dressing room.
Four outfits later, she finally made a purchase and headed back out again.
I let her get ahead, lingering near the wall of T-shirts with cartoon characters spouting inappropriate slogans (at least that’s how my mom would characterize them-I actually thought a couple were kinda funny), then slipped back outside to find Sam hot on Drea’s tail four stores down.
Unfortunately, we only got a few feet before Drea ducked into Pacific Sun and started eyeing bikinis.
Half an hour later, Sam’s meal was a thing of the past, she’d sucked the last of her smoothie, and Drea had taken us on a tour of pretty much the entire mall.
“Maybe she’s not meeting the seller today,” Sam suggested.
“Maybe he’s just late.”
“Maybe she really did just find the cash. Or maybe she saw us put it there and decided to take it.”
I pursed my lips together, really not liking that theory. “Five more minutes. If she doesn’t lead us anywhere by then, we’ll call it a bust.”
