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caught her attention. When I turned back again, she was right in my face.
    â€œIt was you, wasn’t it?” she said.
    â€œ
What
?” What was she talking about?
    Then the cops were there too. One of them was the cop who had talked to me twice already.
    â€œThat boy was hanging around outside Mrs. Eakins’ house just after it was broken into,” she said.
    That’s when I recognized her. She was one of the two women who had been out running that day.
    â€œHe heard me,” she said to the cops. “It’s my own fault. Rob is always telling me I should be careful what I say. I tease him about being paranoid, but it looks like he’s right.”
    The cops looked as confused as I was. One of them said, “M’am, if you could just—”
    â€œHe heard me,” the woman said. Her voice was loud and shrieking. “He heard me tell my friend.”
    â€œWhat did you tell your friend?” one of the cops asked. The other one, the one who had talked to me before, kept his eyes on me.
    â€œI told her that my husband put up security stickers to scare off burglars, but we didn’t really have any security alarms. He heard me. He was hanging around and he heard me.” She turned to me. “Who did you tell? Who was in on it with you? Where’s my car?”
    What?
    The cop who had spoken to me before said, “I think we should have a talk, Colin.” He led me away from the woman. She kept coming after me, but the other cop finally got her turned around. He took her back to her house. The first cop took me over to the police car. He started to explain that he wanted to ask me some questions, but that I didn’t have to talk to him if I didn’t want to. He said I could phone my mom if I wanted to. He kept asking me if I understood what he was saying.

chapter nine
    I felt terrible calling my mom and making her to leave work to come to the police station. She asked me what had happened. She sounded worried, not mad, when I told her. She didn’t yell at me. That made me feel a little better.
    â€œI didn’t do anything,” I told the cops.
    â€œDid you hear Mrs. Franklin say that there was no real security at her house?”
    â€œYes,” I said. “But I didn’t know until today where she lived.”
    I couldn’t tell if the cops believed that.
    â€œDo you belong to a gang, Colin?”
    â€œNo, he does not,” my mom said. She was angry—at the cops.
    â€œHave you ever been a member of a gang, Colin?”
    â€œNo,” I said.
    They asked me a million more questions. I told them how I had got the job. I gave them Dave Marsh’s name and Ray’s and Stike’s. I let them look at my work sheet so that they could see that I had been near that woman’s house this morning because I was supposed to be there. They made my mom and me wait while they left the room. When they finally came back, they said, “You can go for now, Colin.”
    For now?
    â€œHe didn’t do anything,” my mom said. “He’s a good boy.”
    The cops didn’t reply, but one of them held the door for my mom.
    Stike wasn’t the only person in the warehouse when I got there the next morning. Ray was there too, his arms folded across his chest.He watched me ride up the long driveway to the warehouse. His eyes never left me. He made me so nervous that my bike wobbled when I got off it. Stike waved me over. He stepped aside to let Ray do the talking.
    â€œThe cops called me,” Ray said. “They asked a lot of questions about you. What’s going on, Colin?”
    â€œI didn’t do anything wrong,” I said.
    Ray looked long and hard at me.
    â€œDo you remember what I said about second chances?” he said finally.
    I nodded.
    â€œWell, I meant it. I’m going to believe you, Colin. But if the cops call me about you again, I’m going to have to let you go. I’ll have no