Total pages in book: 60
Estimated words: 57888 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 289(@200wpm)___ 232(@250wpm)___ 193(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 57888 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 289(@200wpm)___ 232(@250wpm)___ 193(@300wpm)
“Oh.” I rush right behind him. “Now what?”
“I’m betting you’re better with computers than me.” He nudges the laptop toward me.
“Are you sure you didn’t set off the fire alarm?” I joke because this plan would be brilliant. I’m just kicking myself that I didn’t come up with it.
“Nah, but you can pull it at the next school.” I snort a laugh, which he doesn’t join me in, letting me know he’s dead serious. Holy crap, Bam is going to be the most kickass, interesting free assistant a girl could have.
“So, attendance,” I mutter, checking that first. “There are too many.”
“Grab as many files as possible and email them to yourself.”
“Well shit, are you sure you shouldn’t be doing this?” I ask, but I’m already doing as he said. When I’m done there, I hit the teacher’s emails and see if there have been any to the school staff overall. There are quite a few. I don’t have time to read them all, so I just start forwarding them one after another and then go back to the sent box and delete that I’d done it at all to cover my tracks.
“All right, we have to go.”
“Maybe I should just take the whole thing?” I mean, there is so much more information on this that could clue us in on what the heck is going on. I hate that I’ll have to leave stuff behind. Each and every clue is important.
“What have I turned you into already?” Bam smirks. “They might block shit if they know someone jacked her laptop, and it will lock at some point.”
“Fine,” I huff. I know he’s right, and stealing is bad, but what if it’s for the greater good? That would be very Batman of me. Sometimes you have to be the villain. A means to an end kind of thing.
“Come on, rebel, now I smell fire.” He grabs my hand, linking his fingers in mine to tug me toward the window. Bam opens it, jumping out first before turning back around to hold his hands out to help me jump down too.
“Is the building on fire?” I ask. I hadn’t smelled anything, but I heard the sound of the fire trucks in the distance.
“Could be a small distraction fire, who knows.”
“Exactly!” I point out. “Who knows? That’s where we come in.” Maybe we shouldn’t be leaving if the action is happening here.
“We should focus on one crime at a time,” Bam suggests.
“What if there’s a link?”
“Not saying you’re wrong, but we will need to wait for the police and fire trucks to clear out before we go poking around.” Once again, he’s being the logical one.
“Fair point.” Bam keeps a hold of my hand, so when he starts walking again, I’ve got no choice but to go with him. I see his eyes tracking everything, and I start to do the same but pay more attention to the people that are standing around. I pull out my phone and start snapping pictures of the crowd.
Arson is an interesting crime, at least the people behind it are. People who fraternize with fire more often than not have a bigger fascination with destruction and chaos.
“What are you doing?”
“The same thing as you.” I keep snapping pictures.
“I’m making sure there isn’t a threat.” Ah, well, yeah. I’m doing that too but slightly differently.
“And I’m seeing who is the threat.” I’ll go through the pictures later but slowly to study each person. “People who are into fire enjoy watching the mess they make. It’s part of the fun for them.”
“It can also cover your tracks.” I nod in agreement. It could be that too. If that was the case, then they would have gotten the hell out of here.
“Now what?” I ask when Bam finally stops on the sidewalk a bit down from the crowd of people that has formed outside the school.
“How’s your blood sugar?”
I shrug. Bam’s mouth presses into a firm line. “It’s fine if the sensor doesn’t go off.” It’s adorable that he’s worried about me. I can’t even get mad at it.
“Those things can mess up.” Sure, but I get a warning.
I usually wouldn’t even check it, but since Bam is being sweet, I make a show of pulling out my phone to look at what my reading is. “All good.” Bam grunts a response.
“So?” I bounce on my heels, itching to keep on cracking this case. “Can we burn down your school next?”
“Josie,” Bam mutters my name under his breath and starts walking again. I notice a few people glance our way.
“I was joking!” I shout back at them. “It was a joke,” I say again with a huff to Bam.
“I know.” Bam is shaking his head, but a smirk plays on his lips. “But now we’ll have to wait a few days to burn mine down.”