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choice. The utility companies won’t like it if the cops think that someone who’s working for them is up to no good.”
    â€œBut I’m not—”
    â€œKeep your nose clean, kid,” Ray said gruffly. He turned and went back inside.
    â€œI didn’t do anything,” I mumbled to Stike.
    â€œDo your job and you’ll be all right,” Stike said.
    It’s a good thing I didn’t see any cops that day because I sure looked suspicious. The whole time I was working, I looked around to see if there were any cop cars sliding by. There weren’t, but that didn’t help me relax. Every time I pedaled around a corner, I held my breath. What if my next stop was right near another crime scene? What then?
    The same thought was still on my mind when I took my break for lunch.
    The cops had questioned me about those break-ins.
    That one cop had asked me, “Am I supposed to believe it’s a coincidence that every time there’s a break-in in this neighborhood, there you are?”
    The question had scared me.
    Then I thought, it’s also insulting to be asked that. I mean, how stupid would I have to be, to be standing right near the scene of the crime every single time? It was bad enough that the cops thought Iwas a criminal. It was even worse that they thought I was a stupid criminal.
    My mom was waiting for me when I got home. I held my breath again. Had the cops called her? Had they been to the apartment?
    But no.
    â€œWe’re going out to eat,” she said, grinning.
    I stared at her. We were on what my mom called a tight budget. We only ever ate out on my birthday—and that was more than a month away.
    â€œAren’t you going to ask why we’re going out?” my mom said. Before I could answer, she told me. “I was offered a job today. As a dental hygienist. I have to pass my exams, of course. But one of the dentists who teaches us has his own practice. He said I’m the best student he’s ever taught. His hygienist is moving in a couple of months and he has to find a replacement. He asked me if I would be interested. He said if I do as well as he thinks I will on my exams, the job is mine.”
    â€œYou’ll do great, Mom,” I said. “I know you will.” No one worked harder than my mom.
    When we got home from dinner, my mom went to bed. So did I. We both had to get up early. But I couldn’t sleep.
    I pulled out my sketchbook and started to flip through it, looking for a blank page. I started to sketch a girl—alyssa. But it wasn’t very good, so I erased it. I stared across my tiny room. I had a whole shelf of books. My mom was a big believer in reading. Okay, so most of my books were secondhand. A whole pile of them had been bought at library book sales for twenty-five cents each. A lot of them were either picture books or books with a lot of pictures in them, like a book about the history of railroads and another full of pictures of animals. My mom bought them so that I could practice drawing. One was about dogs. I flipped through it until I found a picture of a Jack Russell terrier. I propped the book open to that page and started to sketch. I drew it so that the dog was jumping up the wayBuster had jumped up on me. I sketched in his trailing leash. And I drew the same black-and-tan markings that Buster had. It looked pretty good, if you ask me.
    When I finished, I flipped back through my sketchbook. I had pages of tags that I had copied. I knew I was right about them. They were done by the same person. But I didn’t care about that anymore. All I cared about was keeping my job and not ruining my mom’s summer.
    The next morning, I got the jitters all over again.
    My first stop after the utility control box was on the same street where the first robbery had happened. In fact, it was the exact same utility post.
    I was getting my spray bottles out to clean it when I heard a car slow down behind me. One