On Sunday, Amelia watched Duke slowly push the end of the plastic syringe, dripping the antibiotic into Winston’s tiny nostrils. When he was finished, he filled another syringe with water and squirted it into the tortoise’s mouth.
“He was nibbling his hay today,” Amelia said. “That’s good, isn’t it?”
“Very good. We just gotta make sure he doesn’t get dehydrated. And I’m going to set up another heat lamp for him.”
“He’s getting better, right? The tetracycline stuff is working. We probably won’t even need that other expensive drug.”
“I can’t believe your mom let you do that,” Amelia said.
Roshni was staying overnight at her house. Diane had let her in, and Roshni had surprised Amelia in her bedroom with a loud Ta-da!
“Do you love it?” Roshni said.
Amelia stared at the wild turquoise and pink streaks in Roshni’s black hair. She opened her mouth to say something and then changed her mind and closed it.
“Well?”
“It’s different.”
Roshni seemed satisfied with that. “I know. You should ask for streaks too. For your birthday. No offense, but you need a bit of jazzing up.”
“Thanks a lot.”
“When exactly is your birthday anyway? Are you having a party?”
“July 22. And who would I invite? You and Liam? Three whole people. That would be a lot of fun. In case you haven’t noticed, I don’t exactly know anyone else around here.”
“Yeesh. Calm down. Fire-engine red. Your streaks. I dare you.”
Amelia and Roshni spent the next half hour trying to get Mango to say, “I’m a pretty boy” (wasn’t he supposed to be a parrot?) and then went downstairs to check on Winston.
Usually the apartment door was open, but this time it was shut, and when Amelia knocked, no one answered.
“They must be out.” She stood on tiptoe and peered in the window of the reptile room, but the curtain was pulled and all she could make out was Bill’s cranky eye glaring back at her through the crack.
“Let’s go make some popcorn,” Roshni said.
“Okay.”
But when Amelia and Roshni turned around the side of the house, they came to a sudden stop. A motorcycle was idling on the street at the end of the walk, and a guy with a thin ponytail, dressed in black leather, called out, “Is this where Duke lives?”
“Yeah,” Amelia said. The guy had an accent, but he didn’t sound like Gabriella. “In the basement apartment.”
The guy turned off his motorcycle and climbed off. He was wearing cowboy boots, and several loops of chain hung from the sleeves of his leather coat. “The door is where?”
“Around there,” Amelia said, pointing.
“But Duke’s not home,” Roshni added.
He frowned and walked past the girls, disappearing around the back.
“Wait a sec,” Amelia said to Roshni. She followed him to the corner of the house, poking her head around cautiously, and then reported to Roshni, “He’s looking in the windows!”
Then he was back, his chains swinging.
“Ciao,” he said.
“Ciao,” Roshni called as they watched him climb on the motorcycle and speed away. She turned to Amelia. “That’s Italian for hello or goodbye.”
“Italian?”
They stared at each other. “OH MY GOD!” they said at the same time.
“We just came this close to the Mafia,” Roshni said.
“Maybe,” Amelia said.
“Maybe? Black leather? Chains? And did you see his face when I said Duke wasn’t home?”
“He was smiling when he came back.”
“A sinister smile.”
“I should have asked him if his name was Domenico,” Amelia said.
“How many other Italians d’you think are looking for Duke? He’s gotta be Domenico.”
“What do you think he wanted?”
“The money, Amelia. Isn’t that obvious? Gabriella’s right. Duke was majorly dumb to borrow it.” Roshni stood at the kitchen window, gazing out at the shadowy street. “Is your mom getting home soon?”
Was Roshni really that scared? Hard to tell. “She said ten thirty at the latest. She’s practising her massage moves at Jeannie’s.”
Amelia counted the pops coming from the microwave. When it slowed to three, spaced far apart, she opened the door and took out the bag of popcorn.
“One good thing,” Roshni said. “Domenico knows that Duke lives in the basement.”
“Why is that good?” Amelia dumped the popcorn into a bowl and started picking out the burnt kernels.
“He won’t come after us by mistake.”
Amelia snorted. “He’s gone, Roshni. Are you going to stay by that window all night?”
“Maybe—oh!”
“What?”
“There goes that triplets woman you’ve been looking for.”