A Snitch in the Snob Squad by Julie Anne Peters Page A

eye.” She grinned.
    Max raised her walkie-talkie to her mouth. “Roger, over. This here’s La Cucaracha.” She grinned.
    Only Max would dub herself The Cockroach.
    “There they are!” Prairie pointed. Quickly she raised her walkie-talkie to her lips. “S-Suspect headed into World of Leather.”
    “Over,” Lydia replied. “Let’s go.”
    “Wait.” I grabbed her sleeve. “One of us goes in. The others hang back. Spread out. Take cover.”
    “I’ll go in,” Lydia said. She dashed toward the door, then stopped and spun around. Pressing her walkie-talkie close to her
     mouth, she said, “Can you hear me?”
    Her voice came out loud and clear. Max replied, “You’re supposed to say, ‘Breaker, breaker.’ ”
    “Excuuuse me,” Lydia said. It echoed in the mall.
    “Be careful, Lydia,” I said.
    “Sorry,” she whispered.
    I added, “Check in when you get close to them. Try to find out what they’re buying and how much it costs.” I told the others,
     “Let’s split up. Keep the World of Leather in sight.”
    We all headed off in different directions. I crouched beside a potted palm, while Prairie and Max slipped behind the giant
     fountain.
    A few seconds later my walkie-talkie crackled to life. “They’re leaving,” Lydia’s voice whispered through my box.
    “They buy anything?” I asked.
    “Negatori,” she said.
    Another voice came on. “Suspects headed to Pamela Petites,” Prairie said.
    Max replied, “I got ’em.”
    “Stay close,” I ordered everyone else.
    Reflected in the stores’ glass panes, Lydia slinked down the mall. If she wasn’t careful, she’d be picked up by the mall police
     for suspicious behavior. Max’s voice came online. “They’re looking through the shorts. Wait. Krupps is taking one to the fitting
     room.”
    Lydia said, “Like Ashley could get one leg into a pair of petites.”
    Prairie tittered.
    “La Cucaracha,” I called. “What’s Melanie doing?”
    “Nothin’ much. Standing around, acting stupid. She’s got a bag from Blockbuster. Looks like a CD or something.”
    Rats, I thought. We missed a purchase. Okay, she’d spent probably twelve to fifteen dollars on the CD. “Keep watching,” I
     ordered Max. “If Ashley picks anything out, go back to the rack and see how much it costs.”
    “That’s a five five,” Max said.
    We repeated the routine four more times. One of us would follow them into the store and note the prices on anything they bought.
     We were so good, so invisible, I considered adding covert operations to my list of career possibilities.
    It was after six o’clock by the time we trailed Ashley and Melanie to the exit. The four of us walkie-talkied our way to the
     food bazaar. Lydia called her mom to tell her she was eating with us; reassure her she wasn’t being corrupted. Meanwhile,
     I bought a pepperoni pizza and we jammed into a booth.
    “Okay,” I began. “I figure they spent about…” I counted all the places they’d been on my fingers, trying to remember all their
     purchases.
    Lydia said, “Here, I wrote everything down.” She withdrew a little spiral notebook from her pocket and flipped it open. “Give
     me a minute to add it all up.”
    “Lyd, you should be a Boy Scout,” Max said.
    Lydia gave her a dirty look.
    Max swallowed her mouthful of pizza. “What I meant is you practice their motto: Be prepared.”
    She met my eyes.
    “It’s a compliment,” I said. “Isn’t it?” I queried Max.
    She smirked. Lydia went back to eating and calculating. “They bought those matching sleeveless T-shirts for eight ninety-nine
     each, and the earrings, and those hair scrunchies.”
    “Don’t forget the CD,” I said.
    Prairie piped up, “Did you guys notice that Ashley p-paid for everything?”
    My eyes widened. “You’re right, she did.” That should add fuel to the fire. The fire with which we were going to burn Ashley
     Krupps to a crisp.
    “It comes to forty-eight dollars and ninety-nine cents,”