Brothers, Smelly Socks and One House. Oh No...

Legally Blonde or Nancy Drew

A terrible revelation I've come to find, no one tells the kids anything. Any leads on Greg's case? 'Cannot disclose at this time.'  How long must I live with the foster family? 'Don't worry, they'll take care of you.' Any updates on when he'll come out of the coma? 'Don't you worry your pretty blonde head, he'll be fine.'

I'm sorry. No. No, he's not fine, he's in a coma. And I may be his baby sister, but I'm sixteen years old, you can give me the hard facts! I saw the evidence bag with his bloody coat in it, you think I can't take some info on finding any leads?! What happened to piece of mind for the families? But I guess that only applies for 'legal' ages or the parents, lot of concern they'd have, if they were even sober enough to know.

"I got the Walkie talkies!" Logan yelled as he came through the door, kicking it open and holding up his plastic-bag ladder hands like trophies.

"Why would we need walkie talkies, you idiot," Abby scrunched her nose at him, pulling a black turtleneck sweater over her head and popping out of the closet to inspect the rest of his loot. "We have cellphones, this isn't the seventies."

"We're spy's now Abbs, every spy needs a comms."

"Comms?"

"Communication Units," I tied my doc Martin's tight and tucked the laces in. "It's fancy surveillance speak. But yeah, we have cell phones, walkies are kind of pointless."

Logan forcefully placed one in my hand and gave me a sharp look. "I am a spy tonight. Don't ruin my moment."

'Oh my god,' Abby mouthed over his shoulder. I pinched my lips so he wouldn't see me giggle and blow Abby's stealth. This whole night depended on us not being caught. How terrible would it look for the sister of an honored detective to get caught breaking into a precinct?

Probably bad. Maybe jail time. Conclusion, don't get caught.

"The window is small guys, and we don't have a lot of time, the potluck isn't going to draw everyone away that long. An hour at most," I zipped up my jacket and looked at my friends, possibly best friends, who else would do something like this for you? "Are you ready?"

Abby cracked her knuckles and nodded.

"Wait!" Logan shouted, dashing out of the closet with a backpack. "Let me pack my snacks!"

"Logan are you kidding me?!" Abby smacked her thigh. "You ruined a movie worthy moment-uGHH! Let's just go."

With that, we piled into Abby's beetle and took off.
*********
The basement window to the bathroom was still unlocked, just how I'd left it earlier today when they had me come down to review the boys filing for custody of me in any extreme cases causing Greg inability to complete guardianship duties. It was strange to know they wanted me, rather than I wasn't just their roommates little sister, they wanted me back.

But that wasn't important right now. Grabbing the leathermen from my pocket, I flipped out a knife blade and began wedging it in to leverage the rusty window open from its frame. The creaks were worrisome, causing me to pause multiple times to check the coast was still clear. But after about three minutes, it was open, and our dank entrance was presented with only slight risk of tetanus.

"Wait." Logan stopped me from my serge forward. "I'll go first."

He slid in feet first, shimming through the hole until he let go of the frame and jumped fully through, landing on his feet. "Okay now you."

I wiggled in feet first like he did, but unlike him, my toes didn't have a chance of brushing the floor. Just before I jumped, I felt hands on my waist, lift-dip-twist. And then I was on the ground, Logan in front of me, "Thanks."

He nodded and signaled for me to move ahead. "Okay what's the plan exactly?"

"There isn't one," I opened the door and checked the hall outside, empty.

"What?!" Logan's screech caused me to slam the door shut again. "There's no plan and we just broke in to a prescient? Are you insane?"

"Okay the plan is to get into the record room and find out what they won't tell me," I hissed. "Other than that, don't get caught. So it would help if you stopped screaming."

"If we go to jail-" he started.

"I have a plan for that," he raised his brow, but didn't question it. "If you go with the flow and don't tense at following a plan, we're less likely to be caught, so chill out and follow me."

Checking the hall was empty, we started down it towards the stairs descending to the filing room. "Anyone ever say you have an aspiring criminal air to you?"

I resisted a smile. "Younger sibling tendencies."

"I'm not like that and I'm the youngest of three," he pondered.

"Maybe it's from my parents then," I muttered, eyeing the creaky door before supporting the hinge with my hand and pushing it open silently.

The newest file boxes, the ones still being looked into, we're in the first row. Scotts, was sitting there like a glowing treasure box. I lifted the lid off and stared at the contents before me, a puzzle, half made and barely building a picture.

"Oh... woah," Logan sucked in a breath. "Can you handle this?"

"Blood doesn't bother me," I steeled my mind as my hands moved the evidence bags holding his uniform out of the way. The files sat below, a Manila diary of the secrets everyone had been keeping from me for weeks. Not anymore.

Picture. Greg, smiling, full uniform, handsome role model brother. Victimology, ya da ya da— age, physical stats, possible collars recently released. Continuing on. More crap on following leads and knocking doors.

Boom.

They found him, illegal hand gun and residue on a coat. Full confession?

It didn't make sense, he wasn't anyone they suspected. In fact, he had no correlation to my brother at all.

Logan's flashlight shown down on the mugshot. Beady eyes, murky blonde hair and a scruffy beard, a splatter of freckles on a leather tan face. "Do you know who did it?"

My brain reeled through anything I knew about my brother and his cases, every picture and possible connection between people to get us to this man. It blanked like a software system screaming no matches.

"No, I don't."