Chocolate-Covered Crime by Cynthia Hickey Page B

landed on another stack of magazines and perched there like a phantom, yellow eyes glowing in the light.
    “I’m going to throw up.” April sniffled behind me. “I’ve never been more frightened in my entire life.”
    Horror . That was one of the things in life that terrified me the most: someone losing their dinner in front of me. Had Nancy Drew suffered li nRd ofke this with her friends? I didn’t think so.
    “I’ll never let you talk me into another one of your adventures. Somebody hit me if I do. You’re criminally insane, Summer.”
    I tuned her out. Obviously, April didn’t know how to have fun.
    Ta-da! At the end of one of the rows of magazines sat a battered desk and a computer. The little green light showed it was on. Now, if only Larry didn’t use a password. . .
    My fingers flew across the keyboard, and I held back a shout of triumph. He didn’t. The man obviously didn’t expect someone to snoop through his computer. Another few taps of the keys, and we were in. I scrolled down his history usage. Chat room after chat room. I clicked on one and read as quickly as my eyes could scan the words. Who was Lola? Whoever she was, she laid on the flowery talk. Obviously Larry had an Internet sweetie.
    “We shouldn’t be doing this.” April leaned over my shoulder. “Eew. Such talk. Who is this guy?”
    “A little mouse of a man. I only saw him once. At Mae Belle’s funeral.”
    The sound of the front door squeaking open reached us. The car! I’d left it out front. Nothing like announcing our presence. I shoved April. “Run! Out the back door.”
    She spun and bumped into a tower of magazines. I reached for the wobbling mass of paper then dodged to safety as it fell, knocking my flashlight from my hand. On my knees I dug through the papers and tried to stifle my giggles. A sense of déjà vu overcame me. I’d done the same crawl and search in the fun house at the fair.
    “Snowball?” Larry’s voice sounded shrill in the dark room. “Are you knocking things over again?”
    April tugged at me. “Come on. Please.” Her harsh whisper seemed loud as it bounced off the towers around us.
    “Wait.” Found it. I jumped to my feet and clicked off the light. Which way? I grabbed April’s hand and pulled her to the right. Dead end. We swerved in another direction and found ourselves in the bedroom. Piles of laundry blocked our path. We bolted for the window.
    “Bad kitty.” Larry’s voice followed us. “Making more work for Daddy.”
    With a heave, I shoved the window open and slammed my palm against the screen. It fell to the ground with a clatter. April barreled into me, sending us both over the sill and crashing into the bushes outside. I landed on my sore knee and bit my lip to prevent myself from groaning. I struggled to my feet, pulled the window closed, and did an awkward limp-sprint kind of lurch around the corner of the house. April stayed close behind. My knee throbbed again, worse than when I’d fallen in Joe’s office. I held up a hand for April to stop.
    We doubled over, breathing labored. My heart beat a thousand times its normal rate. I coul nRdizedn’t stop the grin that split my face. What a rush. This sneaking into places could easily become habit forming.
    “What. . .is so. . .funny?” April stood, chest heaving, hands on her hips.
    “Don’t tell me you didn’t enjoy that. Wouldn’t I make a great cat burglar?”
    “Almost getting caught snooping through someone’s personal things? That’s not my idea of fun, and cat burglars are silent. Come and go without being seen or heard.”
    “Don’t be such a stick-in-the-mud. Come on.”
    “Where are we going? Home? And why are you limping again? We could have been killed. Lord, help us. My brother is going to annihilate me.”
    “I told Ethan where we were going, and I banged my knee again falling out the window. I’ll be fine. Stop exaggerating.” I glanced over my shoulder. “Larry’s seen the car, April. We have to say