When James returned to the office, he saw that it appeared someone was waiting for him. A bike leaned against his building in the alley with a young boy of about sixteen sitting on a milk crate next to it.
As he got out of his truck, the boy rose looking nervous. “Can I help you?” James asked.
“Are you the PI?”
He smiled. “I guess I am.”
“I need to talk to you.” He looked around to make sure there wasn’t anyone else around. “It’s about Billy.”
In that instant, he realized who this boy must be. “Todd?” The boy nodded. “Does your mom know you’re here?” The boy shook his head. “I’m not really supposed to talk to you without a parent present.” Then again, he wasn’t a licensed PI yet, was he?
“But I’ll tell you what,” he said quickly seeing the boy’s disappointment. The kid had been waiting patiently. He couldn’t turn him away especially when Todd might have valuable information. He glanced at the time. “What if we have another adult present who can advise you?”
Todd looked worried. “Who?”
“Hungry?” He asked the boy, remembering himself at that age. His father used to ask if he had a hollow wooden leg. Where else was all that food going?
Todd nodded but then hesitated. “What about my bike?”
“It’s safe there.” James pushed open the back door into the sandwich shop. Once that smell of fresh bread hit the kid there was no more hesitation.
LORELEI SAW JAMES first and started to tell him he was the last person she wanted to see—when she spotted the boy with him. Her gaze went from the boy to James in question.
“This is Todd. He’s hungry.” James turned to the kid. “What kind of sandwich would you like?”
“I suppose you don’t have a hot dog?” the boy asked her sheepishly.
“Let me see what I can do. Would you like some lemonade with that?” The boy nodded and actually smiled. Her gaze rose to James.
He shook his head since he didn’t have a clue what was going on. “We’ll just have a seat. We’re hoping you can join us. Todd wants to have a talk with us.”
“With us?”
“You’re going to be the adult in the group,” James said.
She smirked. “I always am.”
He smiled. “I knew I’d picked the right woman for the job. Mind if I go ahead and lock the front door while we talk so we aren’t interrupted?” He didn’t wait but went to the door and put up the closed sign and locked the door.
She did mind, even though it was past closing time. What was this man getting her into? She made Todd a mild sausage sandwich with a side of ketchup and mustard and poured three lemonades before bringing them out on a tray to the table. She put Todd’s in front of him.
“So, what’s this about?” she asked as she slid into the booth next to the boy. Todd had already bitten into his sandwich. He gave her a thumbs-up as he chewed.
“Todd was waiting for me behind my office. He wanted to talk to the PI.” She raised a brow. “I explained to him that we probably shouldn’t talk without an adult present. It’s kind of a gray area.”
Lorelei shook her head. “I’m not sure I want to be part of this.”
“I have to tell him about Billy,” Todd said, putting down his half-eaten sandwich. He took a drink of lemonade. “I know what my mom told you when you came over to see her. She forgot that I did have Billy’s other walkie-talkie headset that night and that after that, she threw it away.”
“You and Billy talked on the two-way radios the night he died?”
Todd nodded, looking solemn.
“About what time was that?” James asked.
“He woke me up. The electricity had gone off but I looked at my Spiderman watch. It was almost ten thirty. I told him not to do it.”
James shot her a look before shifting his gaze back to the boy. “Do what?”
“He said he had to go out. That he’d seen someone walk by his house in the rain and that he needed to follow whoever it was.”
“His mom told me that Billy didn’t like storms,” James said. “Why would he go out and follow someone?”
He picked up his sandwich, took a large bite and chewed for a moment before swallowing. “Billy and I had this game we played. We pretended we were spies. We used to pick someone to follow. It was fun. They usually heard us behind them and chased us off. But sometimes we could follow them a really long way before they did.”
“Who was he following that night?” James asked.
Todd shook his head. “He said he had to see what they were doing before he chickened out. I told him not to. He said the person was headed down the street in my direction and that I should watch for him and come out. I watched from the window, but I never saw him and then I fell asleep. I just figured he chickened out, like he said. Or his mom made him go to bed and quit using the walkie-talkies.”
“How did you pick the people you followed?” James asked.
The boy shrugged. “Sometimes we would just see someone who looked dangerous.”
“Dangerous?” Lorelei repeated.
“Sometimes we just wondered where they were going, so we followed them.”
“So, Billy just saw someone out the window and decided to go out into the storm to follow them?” she asked, unable to hide her incredulity.
“I guess. It might have been someone he’d been following before that.”
“Was it a man or a woman?” Lorelei asked.
“Billy said, ‘I just saw someone outside my window. I have to follow and find out what they’re doing.’ He sounded...scared.” The boy looked down at his almost empty plate. “When I heard you asking my mom about Billy, I knew I had to tell you.” He bit into what was left of his sandwich and went to work on it.
“Does your mom know about the call from Billy?”
The boy shook his head adamantly. “Billy and I took a blood oath not to ever tell our parents about our spy operations. But I think she was worried that I told Billy to go out that night and that everyone would blame me. I didn’t. I swear. I tried to stop him.” Todd’s eyes shone with tears. Lorelei watched him swallow before he said, “I think he would have wanted me to tell you.”
“Thank you, Todd. I’m glad you did,” James said.
Lorelei touched the boy’s shoulder. “You did the right thing.”
He nodded, swallowed a few times and ate the last bite of his sandwich.
She looked across the table at James. He held her gaze until she felt a shudder at what they’d just heard and had to look away.