Touch of Fear ▸ House of Anubis [2]

chapter fifty-six. house of snoops

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            "Just one bag left."

            Patricia hands her bag over to be searched. I glance at Nina again as Victor and Vera start rifling through it. They're going to find the cowbell and Patricia's going to go down for the theft. "And..." There's a metallic clanking from inside the bag. Nina mutters that this isn't good. No, no... "What did we tell you?" Victor holds up a brightly colored pencil case.

            Where'd she get that from? I don't remember Patricia owning something so bright, but at least it's not the cowbell.

            Victor roughly searches Patricia's bag, throwing stuff out onto the chair. "No. This is impossible."

            "Um, please accept my apologies," Sweet says. "We seem to have been acting on unreliable information." Victor turns to glare at Sibuna, but all we do is shrug and smirk. Sibuna wins this round. "Well, now, back to the joys of physics and the genius of Sir Isaac Newton."

            Before we leave the room for our next class, Nina says, "You are good, Patricia."

            "Come along, Nina," Sweet orders. "Let's no waste any more time."

            Fabian looks at us and asks, "What just happened there?"

            "I don't know," Nina responds, "but I think Victor's after more than the missing bell."

            "Do you think it was him," Amber inquires, "who planted it in Fabian's room?"

            "I don't have any other suspects as of now."

            I open my mouth to agree, only to notice that Patricia's disappeared. "Where's Trixie?"

—

            After physics, which Patricia didn't show up for, ends, we finally spot her across the hall beckoning us toward her. So Sibuna join her, and since I'm interested to know where she disappeared to after Victor searched her bag, I inquire, "Where'd you go?"

            "I had to get changed, remember?" Patricia replies. Okay, still doesn't make much sense. "Check it out. 100% vomit free."

            "So where's the cowbell?" Nina asks.

            Patricia carefully and cautiously pulls the cowbell out of her bag. As Nina takes it, putting it in her own, Trixie informs, "Jasper was in the library. We need to think of a way to get the bell back."

            "You mean like stealing," Alfie says, "but in reverse." Patricia nods.

            "A re-heist," Nina muses. "Let's go."

—

            We came up with a plan on the way to Frobisher Library to put the cowbell back where it belongs. Alfie and I are going to be on the second level, providing the distraction to get Jasper up there with us, while everyone else is on the ground floor putting it back like it never disappeared. That's where Alfie and I are right now, waiting for Fabian to give us the signal to start our distraction.