Read Nothing to Lose for Free Online

them. I think there were half a dozen of them in my backpack.”
    â€œYou had six radio transmitters in there?” Stan said. He glanced over my shoulder to where my father was standing. I knew exactly what he was thinking.
    â€œYou have to activate them before they start sending out a signal,” I said. “And they weren’t activated.”
    Stan shook his head. “Too bad. Do you think you would recognize the thief again if you saw him?”
    I said I wasn’t sure. The thief had been wearing a hat pulled down low over his forehead and a scarf pulled up high over his chin and mouth. The only part of his face that I had really got a good look at—and only for a second or two—was his eyes. Stan closed his notebook.
    â€œI can’t make any promises,” he said. “But you never know.” He stood up and tucked his notebook into a pocket. He glanced at Nick again but didn’t say anything. “I’ll be in touch if anything comes up.”
    My father thanked Stan for coming and showed him to the door. They stood out in the hall for a few minutes. I heard them talking in low voices. When my father came back inside, he looked at Nick. His eyes lingered on Nick’s turned-up collar. Nick started to squirm. Then the phone rang. My father answered it, carried the phone into his office, and shut the door. I turned to Nick.
    â€œYou know that cop, don’t you?” I said.
    â€œI’ve seen him around.”
    What did that mean? “Is he a friend of Glen’s?”
    Glen Ross was Nick’s aunt’s boyfriend. He was also the reason that Nick was living on his own instead of with his aunt. The last time Glen and Nick had had an argument, Nick had ended up with a sprained wrist.
    Nick didn’t answer.
    â€œDid you have another argument with Glen?”
    â€œI haven’t seen him in over a week,” he said. From his bitter tone, I guessed that he hadn’t seen his aunt either.
    â€œSo how did you get that bruise on your neck?”
    â€œWhat bruise?”
    â€œWrong answer, Nick.” I reached out and pulled down his collar.
    â€œOh, that,” he said. “I had a difference of opinion with someone else. It’s no big deal.” He slipped an arm around my waist and held me close. I knew he was only doing it to stop me from asking more questions, but I have to admit, it felt good.
    â€œIt could be a big deal if the other person got hurt and decides to press charges,” I said. I felt him tense up against me.“I don’t want you to end up in trouble again.”
    â€œNeither do I,” he said. “Especially now.” Now that he was sixteen, he meant, when the courts could go harder on him if the trouble was serious enough. He held me tighter, then suddenly let go and stepped back. I didn’t need eyes in the back of my head to know that my father had emerged from his office.
    â€œSo, what are you two up to this weekend?” he said.
    Nick just shrugged. What was wrong with him? He and my dad usually got along great. Nick even told me once that he admired my father. But today he was closed up tighter than a bank after business hours.
    â€œNick has the weekend off for a change,” I said.“We’re going to spend some time together.” I grabbed my jacket off the chair where I had dropped it when I arrived.
    â€œI need a word with you before you go, Robbie.”
    I looked at him expectantly.
    â€œIn private,” he said.
    Nick shifted uncomfortably and stared at the floor.
    â€œExcuse us for a minute, Nick,” my father said. I followed him into his office. It was one of the few “rooms” in the place that had a door, but my father left it open. “That phone call I just got—it was business. I have to go out of town.”
    â€œNo problem.”
    â€œI probably won’t be back tonight. I want you to stay with Henri.”
    Henri is Henrietta Saint-Onge,