Ali Cross Read online

  “Dad? What happened?” I asked.

  It turned out Nana was right. Sutter and Olayinka hadn’t been holding back on this investigation at all. I guess Mr. Qualls bugged out when they showed up at his door. He’d clocked Detective Sutter with an ashtray—she was wearing a big gauze bandage on her forehead now—and he’d knocked down Mrs. Qualls, too, just before he made a run for it.

  That’s where Dad came in. He’d been the one to apprehend Mr. Qualls, which explained why he looked the way he did. Now Mr. Qualls was in a holding cell downtown, and it sounded like he’d already admitted to a whole bunch of stuff.

  The house burglaries were something he’d started putting in place just after Thanksgiving. All he’d tell the cops was that he’d been picking out locations—starting with our house, since Gabe knew how to get in and out of there pretty easily. Just like I suspected.

  According to Mr. Qualls, he’d sent Gabe to live with his half-brother, Ramon. The two of them were responsible for the actual break-ins, and for gathering together all the stuff they’d be selling to make money for the family. The whole idea was for Ramon to find a place for them to live, and to store their stolen goods, without Mr. Qualls ever knowing where any of that was going on. He was like the boss, while Ramon and Gabe did all the legwork. Then, if the cops came after Mr. Q—which they had—he wouldn’t be able to turn his sons in, even if he wanted to. Because he didn’t know where they were. But his big mistake was planting my ID at the scene of the last burglary. Because his fingerprints directly connected him to that crime, whether he actually committed it or not.

  It wasn’t such a bad plan, to be honest. I guess even Mrs. Qualls was in the dark, since he’d been lying to her, too. She really thought Gabe had run away, and she didn’t know anything about the robberies. I wondered what she was thinking now, and how she was doing.

  I wasn’t sure why Gabe had agreed to do it in the first place, but my guess was that Mr. Qualls had threatened him so he didn’t have a choice. It wasn’t like that family had a ton of money, and my bet was that Gabe’s TV, PS4, and some other stuff in the Qualls’s house hadn’t exactly come from Best Buy.

  Meanwhile, the question nobody was answering yet was the one I most wanted to know: Where was Gabe now?

  “Did Gabe ever mention this brother to you?” Detective Sutter asked. “Ramon Qualls?”

  “Ramon?” I asked. “Yeah, I’ve heard of him, but I don’t know anything about him.”

  I didn’t admit that I only knew Ramon’s name from the time I’d sneaked onto Bree’s Accurint account. It wasn’t like that made a difference, so I kept it to myself.

  “What happens now?” I asked.

  “That brings us to why we’re here,” Sutter told me.

  She explained that Gabe was still in the dark. He needed to know it was safe to come home again, and that he wouldn’t be charged for the robberies, or anything else his dad and Ramon had been forcing him to do.

  “He’ll be what’s called a respondent in the case, not a defendant,” Sutter told me. “The Attorney General’s Office will have the authority to send him back to live with his mom, as long as Mr. Qualls is out of the picture. But meanwhile, Gabe doesn’t know any of that.”

  “Okay?” I asked. I still didn’t get what this had to do with me.

  “We want to leave a message for Gabe inside that gaming system of yours,” Sutter told me.

  “In Outpost?” I asked.

  “It’s possible that’s how his father has been communicating with him and Ramon,” Olayinka said. “We found a second PS4 in Mr. and Mrs. Qualls’s bedroom. And if we’re right about this, that means Gabe will be checking in there on a regular basis.”

  I knew gaming consoles were forensically trackable that way. But it was also true that those kinds of messages didn’t leave a digital footprint the way texting and emailing did. It made sense. It was pretty smart, actually.

  “Yeah, I’ll do it,” I said. “But only on one condition. Ruby, Cedric, and Mateo need to be there, too.”

  “This isn’t a negotiation, Ali,” Sutter said.

  “No, it’s not,” I said. “Because like I just told you, I won’t do it without them. Those guys have been in on this from the beginning. They deserve to know about this just as much as me.”

  I think that part surprised the adults as much as I surprised myself. And if I was bluffing—because basically, I was—they didn’t need to know that yet. I was going to do this for them either way. But first I wanted an answer.

  “Actually,” Olayinka said, “Gabe might be more likely to show up if he sees more of his friends logged on.”

  I wasn’t sure that was true, but I liked getting Olayinka on my side. Dad wasn’t saying anything either way, so now it was down to Detective Sutter.

  “Yeah, yeah, okay,” she said. “But only if they can do it right now. I’m not going to wait on this.”

  “Deal,” I said. And a second later, I had my phone out, punching in a group text as fast as I could.

  ME: You guys, listen to me. GET ONTO OUTPOST RIGHT NOW. Forget everything else that happened. If you care about Gabe’s case, I swear, you need to be on here. Meet me at his bunker. The code is QUBUQ. I’m here with the police and we have to move on this right away!

  IN THE BASEMENT, I set Sutter up with the spare headset and ran it through the splitter I used when Cedric or Gabe came over to game with me. Then I logged in to Outpost and got us moving.

  “This shouldn’t take long,” I said.

  “Where are we headed?” Olayinka asked. “Which sector?”

  I looked over at him. “You play Outpost?”

  “Sure,” he said. “Just leveled up my body armor with the new adaptive camo.”

  It was like every time I turned around, I learned something new about these detectives.

  “Well, we have to get over to Gabe’s compound in the northeast quadrant, fourth sector,” I said.

  “And you’ve been there before, right?” Olayinka asked. “So you can—”

  “Fast travel,” I said. “Yeah. This should just take a second. Hopefully our friends are going to show up, too.”

  Sure enough, when we got there, Cedric, Ruby, and Mateo were already waiting inside the bunker on the ground level. Or, at least, their avatars were.

  “Hey!” I said. “That was quick.”

  “I was already playing when you texted,” Cedric said. “I mean… you know. We were playing.”

  If it were any other time, it would have hurt my feelings to know they were gaming without me. But not today. It’s called bigger fish to fry.

  “This is crazy,” Cedric said. “Like we’re actually looking for Gabe inside the game.”

  “I don’t know what to look for, but if he’s logged on, he’ll see we’re all here,” Ruby said.

  “Here, in the bunker?” Mateo asked.

  “Duh. Where do you think he’d be?” Cedric asked.

  “Hey, you guys?” I said.

  “How would I know?” Mateo asked.

  “I’m just asking, fool,” Cedric told him.

  “You’re the fool, fool,” Mateo said, and they cracked up in my ear.

  “Guys!” I tried again. “We’ve got Detective Sutter listening in with us, okay? Try to act like this is serious—’cause it is.”

  “Oh!” Cedric said. “Sorry, Ms. Sutter. Or… ma’am… or…”

  “I think you mean Detective,” Ruby said.

  “No worries, guys,” Sutter said, smiling over at me. “Let’s get to this, okay?”

  “This place is amazing,” Olayinka said. He wasn’t hearing the conversation but he could see Gabe’s bunker on the screen.

  “This is nothing,” I said. “Hang on. Everyone follow me.” And I led them to the back of the room, through the trap door, down the spiral stairs, and into the lower level.

  “Whoa,” Mateo said. “This is what I’m talking about.”

  “This kid’s a genius,” I heard Olayinka say under his breath. I cou
ldn’t help smiling at that, too. At least they were figuring out what they were dealing with here.

  “And this is where he left me that note,” I said, putting Cassius Play by the spot where I’d last seen it. “But it’s gone now.”

  “That’s good news,” Olayinka told me. “That means Gabe’s been here at least once more.”

  “So what happens now?” Ruby asked.

  “Now, we leave him a note of our own,” I told her, and turned to look at Detective Sutter again. “What do you want it to say?”

  “I think you should each write one,” she said.

  “Cool,” Mateo said.

  “Really?” Ruby asked.

  “Sure,” Sutter said. “Ali, I’ll work with you on yours, but the rest of you, just put it in your own words, and ask Gabe to come home or at least call 911 and check in.”

  “He’s not in trouble?” Ruby asked.

  “Not if his father’s been compelling him to do this,” Sutter said. “Tell him that, too. He needs to know it’s safe to come back.”

  Already, I was pulling down the main menu and choosing MESSAGE, then CUSTOM. I made it bright blue instead of yellow, so Gabe couldn’t miss it.

  It didn’t take long to type in the message from there. Outpost had a keyboard app plug-in so I could use my phone for longer strings of text. Which is what I did.

  ME: Gabe! I don’t know how much you already know, but your dad was arrested tonight. He’s not going back to your house, and I don’t know if there’s any way I can talk you into coming home, but you should DO IT. It’s safe now, I promise. I’m working with the police.

  ME: Ruby, Cedric, and Mateo are all here, too. I’m really sorry about opening it up like this. I know you asked me not to, but everything’s changed now. Please, please, please come home. Or at least hit us back up here. We can work something out. I know we can. You’re safe.

  ME: Your friend, Ali

  THE NEXT DAY was day two of Dad’s trial, but once again, I wasn’t allowed to be there. I had to go to school and try to focus on other things. Lucky for me (if you can call it “lucky”), I had the Gabe stuff to work on.

  And even better, I was back in with Ruby, Mateo, and Cedric. I got to eat lunch with them that day, which was a huge relief.

  I was right about Ruby, too. She hadn’t stopped working on this case for a minute. Now we had more than twenty kids signed up to go looking for Gabe after school, block by block, handing out flyers, knocking on doors, and working in teams.

  I knew Dad didn’t want us investigating Gabe’s disappearance anymore, but there was no rule against talking to people and asking if they’d seen a missing kid. Or, at least, that’s what I told myself. Because there was no stopping us now. Even Ruby and Mateo’s parents had gotten on board. As long as they partnered up with someone and got home by five thirty, they were allowed to get out there with us.

  I’d brought my map of DC to school, and we were all looking at it now while we ate.

  “So you said somewhere between 14th and 17th, he turned off of E Street,” Ruby said. She had the map folded back to the line of yellow highlighter I’d drawn over Gabe’s route from school to home.

  “Yeah,” I said, using a French fry to point at the three-block stretch she was talking about. We were going to start from Wash-Latin, so that was just two blocks down from where we were already.

  “But here’s what I was thinking,” she said, looking up again with that Ruby look in her eye. The one that said I’m as smart as anyone, so bring it. “You also told us Gabe was begging you to stop looking for him, right?”

  “Right.”

  “And these robberies. They’ve all been pretty near your house, right?”

  “Keep going,” I said.

  “See, I think maybe we’re focusing on the wrong neighborhood,” Ruby said. “Actually, let me put that another way. I think maybe we’re asking ourselves the wrong question.”

  “Huh?” Cedric said, and I was kind of with him on that.

  “What do you mean?” I asked Ruby. “What’s the right question?”

  “The right question is, why was Gabe so concerned about you not looking for him?” Ruby answered.

  “Because he didn’t want to get caught,” I said.

  “Yeah,” she said. “But maybe that’s only half the answer.”

  “Just tell us what you mean, already,” Mateo said.

  Ruby leaned in again and ran her finger across the map, from our school, over to where my house was on 5th Street.

  “Maybe he was afraid that if you looked hard enough, you’d actually be able to find him,” she said. “And maybe that means he’s hiding out somewhere close by where you live.”

  We all let that sink in for a minute.

  On the one hand, Gabe could have been anywhere. On the other hand, Ruby was making some sense. Also, we had to pick something to run with, or we’d never get anywhere. Just like in Outpost.

  “I like it,” I said.

  Ruby nodded and sat back. “Right? Let’s stop thinking about where Gabe was last seen and start thinking about where we know he’s been since then.”

  “Like in Ali’s hood,” Mateo said.

  “Exactly,” Ruby said.

  Mateo had a sign-up sheet for all the other canvassing volunteers, and he pulled it out now. “I’ll tell everyone else and start making assignments.”

  “Awesome,” Cedric said. “I mean, I didn’t really follow all that, but whatever. I’m in. We got a real operation here, don’t we?”

  And he was right. We really did.

  IT WAS PRETTY great, having so many kids pair up and cover my neighborhood after school that day. For about an hour and a half, it was like we were everywhere you looked.

  I went with Mateo, Ruby went with Cedric, and we all knocked on as many doors as we could before people had to start cutting out. It didn’t get us any new leads, but at the same time, it just felt good to cover so much ground.

  When I got home, the first thing I did was check Gabe’s bunker. All of our messages were still there, but that didn’t mean Gabe hadn’t seen them. He could have easily read them and left them where they were. Either way, he hadn’t responded.

  And then late that night, the four of us were back at it. Not knocking on doors, but group texting and brainstorming, thinking about next moves.

  MATEO: You think Gabe’s brother has an apartment around here?

  ME: Don’t know. Not in his name anyway, or the cops would have found it.

  MATEO: I’m thinking maybe some old abandoned place or something.

  RUBY: Under the highway? Over by the tracks? Maybe in the park?

  ME: Nah. Too cold out. Also, if he has PS4, he has electricity.

  CEDRIC: And internet.

  RUBY: Could be hacking in somewhere. Or using a hotspot.

  MATEO: I’ll bet he is. But WHERE???

  ME: We just gotta keep trying. I say we stick to this neighborhood for now.

  CEDRIC: Totally.

  MATEO: I’m down.

  RUBY: Okay.

  All of a sudden, while I was sitting there going back and forth with my friends, I heard Dad’s ringtone, coming from up in the attic. It was quarter to twelve by now. That could only mean one thing—some kind of police business. And I wanted to know what it was.

  Hang on. I think something’s happening. Be right back.

  Then I pulled one of my usual moves. I got out of bed, snuck over to the door, out into the hall, and took a position. This time, I put myself at the bottom of the attic stairs, where I could hear Dad talking in his office. I didn’t know what was up yet, but my gut told me something was about to change, all over again.

  ALEX CROSS SPENT several more hours at his desk that night, mostly worrying about the trial.

  Day two had been another long haul, this one devoted to his defense. Deirdre Tennant had called a city engineer to tell how the Yangs’ front steps hadn’t been built to code, and a doctor from Mr. Yang’s medical team to emphasize what
had already been established about Mr. Yang’s bruises following his accident. None of it was a slam dunk, but it helped, anyway.

  Now it was just a waiting game for the verdict. Alex had tried to put on a good game face during dinner that night, but it was hard not to worry. The whole family was on edge, and for good reason. This time tomorrow Alex would be looking at a guilty verdict and a jail sentence—or he wouldn’t. The jury could go either way.

  So when a call came in from Isaac Olayinka late that night, it was a welcome distraction. Alex’s first guess before he answered was that Gabriel Qualls had finally turned up, but he also knew how unpredictable these things could be.

  “Hey,” he answered.

  “You’re not going to believe this,” Olayinka told him. “Or maybe you will.”

  “They found him,” Alex said.

  “Nope. Another robbery,” Olayinka said. “Three, actually. I’m thinking Ramon Qualls is stepping up to the plate. Either that, or his dad had these in the hopper ahead of time. But in any case, we aren’t done yet.”

  “What do we know about this Ramon kid, anyway?” Alex asked. He started googling the name as they spoke, but it didn’t turn up much.

  “He’s twenty years old, and his last known residence is in Baltimore, but he hasn’t been seen there since August,” Olayinka said. “As a juvenile, he was in and out of the system since he was twelve, with a long record to show for it.”

  “Where are you?” Alex asked. “I’ll come by if it’s okay.”

  “Closer than ever,” Olayinka said. “F Street Terrace, number 529.”

  “529 F Street Terrace,” Alex repeated back. “Got it. I’ll see you in a few.”

  “You really don’t have to,” Olayinka said. “There’s nothing that needs doing. Just thought you might want to know.”

  “Yeah, well, it beats sitting around here not getting any sleep.”

  “Why? You waiting on a verdict tomorrow?” Olayinka asked.

  The answer was yes, but Alex’s trial was the last thing he wanted to talk about right now.

  “I shouldn’t be more than a few minutes,” he answered, and hung up the phone.