Madhattan Mystery by John J. Bonk Page A

sooner.”
    â€œWhat?”
    â€œAll I’m saying is, we have to act fast, so come on.”
    â€œNo,” Lexi said. “No bullying. This is serious stuff. All three of us have to agree on everything from now on or forget it. Right, Kev?”
    â€œYeah, we definitely should vote.” His cheeks were already a splotchy red and getting redder by the second. “And I—seriously, I’m thinking camp. I mean, even if the kids already left for the park, we could probably still catch up, right? It might be fun.”
    â€œDude,” Kim Ling said with a disgusted sigh. “They do the same mind-numbingly boring stuff every year.” She squatted down, hands to thighs, and looked him straight in the eye. “Day one is always this moronic nature hunt looking for hummingbirds and chipmunks. I’ve done it three years in a row and never saw one freakin’ chipmunk. A couple of rats, one vicious badger, but not a single chipmunk. Then they separate the groups. The blues go row boating—that’s the older kids.”
    â€œAnd the greens?” Kevin asked, blinking up at her.
    â€œCarousel. So what’s your final answer, short stuff? Tick tock.”
    Kevin’s eyes were jetting back and forth like a ping-pong game on fast-forward. “Uh, I can’t think—I have to go to the bathroom. Number one. Wait—yeah, number one.”
    â€œNow?” Lexi squawked. “Who knows where the bathrooms even are in this place? I’m a potential eyewitness to a crime plot—what if someone sees me—”
    â€œCalm down, I’ll bring him. Just sit over there and breathe.” Kim Ling pointed to an empty spot at the end of a crowded wooden bench right behind them. “You can decide what you want to do today, okay?”
    â€œFine.” Lexi parked herself on what looked like a long, giant church pew and removed her backpack. “Just make it fast.”
    â€œAnd don’t look so worried, red. I’m not gonna kidnap your brother and sell him for spare parts. Or. Am. I?” Kim Ling laughed like Count Dracula and swept Kevin away in her invisible cape.
    Not remotely funny
. “Wait!” Lexi called out, motioning them back. “My hair stands out like a flare in the dark—I need coverage.” And she snatched Kevin’s baseball cap, piled her hair on top of her head, and screwed on the cap as best she could. “Okay, go, go, go.” They barely took off a second time when Lexi called them back again. “Kim, do you by any chance have any lip gloss? What if people think I’m a boy?”
    â€œWhoa.” Kim Ling slowly led Kevin away, shaking her head. “You really
are
a Miss America.”
    Lexi watched them disappear around a giant pillar, still jamming telltale curls into the swollen cap.
Miss America. Hmph. Like I’d be caught dead wearing a bikini with high heels
. She noticed her reflection in a glass-covered poster on the opposite wall and used it as a makeshift mirror. TAKE A TRAIN AND TRANSCEND TIME , the vintage poster read, and had a picture of a smiling woman in a white suit—from the forties maybe—holding a suitcase and boarding the train. Even though Lexi was surrounded by gobs of people, she suddenly felt very alone. She hugged her backpack to her chest, gazing down at the endless parade of shoes passing by—sneakers … stilettos … sandals … Oxfords—until they became a liquid blur.
    â€œI’m so glad you came to Atlantic City with me!”
    She heard her mother’s voice in her head with such clarity it made her heart quake.
    â€œJust in time for the Show Me Your Shoes Parade,” her mother had said, pulling nine-year-old Lexi along the crowded boardwalk. “I’ve never even heard of it before, have you, cookie?”
    â€œNuh-uh. We lucked out!”
    All the Miss America contestants had been perched on the trunks of shiny convertibles