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voice trailed off.
    â€œHe’s untangled now,” Robin pointed out.
    â€œI know, but since I was here it seemed like a good time for the two of us to—”
    â€œPlay,” Robin completed for him.
    â€œYeah,” her son said, nodding eagerly. Jeff was well aware he’d done something wrong, but had difficulty admitting it.
    â€œMr. Camden doesn’t want you in his yard, and we both know it.” Standing next to the laurel hedge, Robin watched with dismay as Cole opened his back door and stepped outside. Blackie barked in greeting, and his tail swung with enough force to knock Jeff off balance.
    When Cole saw Jeff in his yard, he frowned and cast an accusing glare in Robin’s direction.
    â€œJeff said Blackie’s chain was tangled,” she rushed to explain.
    â€œHow’d you get over here?” Cole asked her son, and although he didn’t raise his voice it was clear he was displeased. “The gate’s locked and the hedge is too high for him to jump over.”
    Jeff stared down at the lawn. “I came through the gap in the hedge—the same one Blackie uses. I crawled through it.”
    â€œWas his chain really tangled?”
    â€œNo, sir,” Jeff said in a voice so low Robin had to strain to hear him. “At least not much…I just thought, you know, that maybe he’d like company.”
    â€œI see.”
    â€œHe was all alone and so was I.” Jeff lifted his eyes defiantly to his mother’s, as if to suggest the fault was entirely hers. “I go to Mrs. Lawrence’s after school, but it’s all girls there.”
    â€œDon’t you remember what I said about coming into my yard?” Cole asked him.
    Jeff’s nod was sluggish. “Yeah. You said maybe I could sometime, but not now. I thought…I hoped that since you let me help you wax your car, you wouldn’t mind.”
    â€œI mind,” Cole said flatly.
    â€œHe won’t do it again,” Robin promised. “Will you, Jeff?”
    â€œNo,” he murmured. “I’m sorry, Mr. Camden.”
    For a whole week Jeff kept his word. The following Monday, however, when Robin came home from the BART station, Heather told her Jeff had mysteriously disappeared about a half hour earlier. She assumed he’d gone home; he’d said something about expecting a call.
    Unfortunately, Robin knew exactly where to look for him, and it wasn’t at home. Even more unfortunate was the fact that Cole’s car pulled into the driveway just as she was opening her door. Throwing aside her briefcase and purse, she rushed through the house, jerked open the sliding glass door at the back and raced across her yard.
    Her son was nowhere to be seen, but she immediately realized he’d been with Blackie. The dog wasn’t in evidence, either, and she could see Jeff’s favorite baseball cap on the lawn.
    â€œJeff,” she called, afraid to raise her voice. She sounded as though she was suffering from a bad case of laryngitis.
    Neither boy nor dog appeared.
    She tried again, taking the risk of shouting for Jeff in a normal tone, praying it wouldn’t attract Cole’s attention. No response. Since Jeff and Blackie didn’t seem to be within earshot, she guessed they were in the fort. There was no help for it; she’d have to go after him herself. Her only hope was that she could hurry over to the fort, get Jeff and return to her own yard, all without being detected by Cole.
    Finding the hole in the laurel proved difficult enough. The space was little more than a narrow gap between two thick plants, and for a distressing moment, Robin doubted she was slim enough to squeeze through. Finally, she lowered herself to the ground, hunched her shoulders and managed to push her way between the shrubs. Her head had just emerged when she noticed a pair of polished men’s shoes on the other side. Slowly, reluctantly, she glanced up to find Cole