Read Liar & Spy for Free Online

Every once in a while it goes dark because there’s an automatic timer that shuts it off, and Safer has to push the button to make the picture come back. When I am positively, absolutely, one hundred percent sure ten minutes have passed, I check my watch.
    Six minutes.
    Safer is completely intent upon the screen, his pen hovering over his spiral notebook.
    At first I try to stifle my yawns, but it’s hopeless. I’m yawning and yawning. Safer doesn’t catch a single yawn. Maybe the coffee helps.
    I think I’m falling asleep when Safer says “Look!” He elbows me in the ribs and I almost fall off my stool, knocking his pen on the floor. I bend over to pick it up and smack my head against the wall. I stand up with one hand on my forehead.
    “You missed it!” Safer says. He snatches his pen from my hand and scribbles in his notebook. He grabs my wrist, looks at my watch and mumbles, “Four-fifty-one.”
    “What?” I say. “What happened? Four-fifty-one what ?”
    “It was him. Mr. X.”
    “No way.”
    “Way.”
    “What was he doing?”
    “Coming into the building. With his key.”
    “Oh. Right. What was he wearing? Was he wearing black? Did he have any suitcases?”
    “Of course he was wearing black. I told you, he only wears black. No suitcases this time. But he looked …”
    I wait. “He looked like what?”
    Safer clicks his pen a few times. “He looked furtive.”
    “Furtive,” I repeat.
    “It means ‘secretive.’ ”
    “I know what it means.”
    “Don’t feel bad,” Safer says. “You’re still in training, remember?”
    I think about what Candy said, that it took me and Dad forty-three minutes to get pizza. A tiny little kid can sit still in front of this thing without falling asleep, but I can’t.
    Something occurs to me: “How did Candy know we went for pizza yesterday?” I ask Safer. “We didn’t bring it home. We ate at DeMarco’s.”
    He looks at me thoughtfully. “Good question. Let’s ask her.”
    “Oh, that’s okay, I don’t need to—”
    “Candy!”
    In two seconds, Candy is in front of us. In case Safer decides to quiz me, I take note that she’s changed again, into overalls (denim, with front and back pockets) and a long-sleeved green T-shirt. She’s still wearing the pig slippers.
    “How did you know that Georges and his dad went for pizza yesterday?” Safer asks her.
    “Cup,” she answers.
    He nods.
    “What?” I say.
    “It was a cup,” Safer says. “Were you or your dad carrying one?”
    Then I remember that Dad had a lemonade from the fountain at DeMarco’s, and he finished it on the way home. The cup must have been in his hand when we came in.
    “You memorized what the cups look like at DeMarco’s?”
    She shrugs. “Everyone goes to DeMarco’s. I’ve been going there my whole life.”
    “Well, so have I,” I tell her.
    “Then close your eyes,” Safer says. “Don’t you know what their cups look like?”
    I close my eyes. “White,” I say, “and there’s writing …  Have a Nice Day or something like that.…”
    “Thank You for Coming,” Candy says.
    “Yeah— Thank You for Coming ! Written over and over, in a spiral. And the letters are green and red?”
    Candy claps for me and then heads back to her room. To change clothes again, I’m guessing.
    Safer nods at me. “Now you’re beginning to think like one of us.”
    I guess I am.
    I have to go downstairs to start homework. Safer walks me down the hallway toward his front door.
    “Safer?”
    “Yeah?”
    “Who’s Pigeon?”
    “My brother.”
    “Is he here?”
    “No. He’s never here. See you at the next meeting.”
    “When’s that?”
    “I’ll be in touch.”
    Which reminds me. “Safer?”
    “Yes?”
    “How did you get into my room yesterday?”
    “Oh, I come and go,” he says.
    I don’t say anything.
    “Wait—did it bother you?”
    “Kind of.”
    “Say no more. It won’t happen again.”
    I smile. “Thanks.”
    Downstairs, I can’t find my protractor,