Marked by Norah McClintock Read Free Book Online Page A

she seemed to relax a little.
    â€œI’m Alyssa,” she said.
    â€œI know. I heard that doctor say your name—Dr. Evans. What kind of doctor is he, anyway?”
    â€œHe’s a vet,” she said. “I worked for him on the weekends during the school year last year.”
    â€œThat’s how you got into the dog-walking business, right?” I said. “You walk dogs for people who visit that vet.” I figured that out from what she had said to him.
    She looked surprised, but she nodded.
    â€œIs your brother okay?” I said.
    Her eyes clouded. “He’s still in the hospital.”
    â€œI’m sorry.”
    She gathered up all the leashes. “I have to go,” she said. “I have to get these guys home.”
    â€œI should get back to work.” I started to get up. “See you,” I said, like that was ever going to happen.
    â€œYeah,” she said, smiling just a little, but smiling all the same. “See you.”
    I watched her go. I wished I was good enough to draw a picture of her from memory.
    After she left, I put my sandwich wrapper in the garbage and picked up my sketchbook to put it away. I flipped it open to look at the picture of Buster. Alyssa was right. It
was
good. I thumbed through some more pages. Some of my other sketches were good too.
    Then I saw some of the graffiti I had copied—the loopy initials and the other stuff.
    I stopped at one page and stared. It was the first triangle I’d cleaned up—the one with the
E
and the nine and the
N
. It was from the street where the first break-in happened. I stared and stared at it.
    Then I flipped to the next page where I’d copied another triangle. I stared at that too.
    I jumped on my bike and raced back to the most recent crime scene.
    I stared at the last triangle I had copied down and counted the houses on the street. My mouth was hanging open. What were the chances? I thought.
    Then I saw someone come out of the house. It was the woman who had accused me of being involved in the break-in. I got on my bike and got out of there, fast. I headed back to the park where I’d had lunch so that I could think.
    I sat on the same bench and flipped through my sketchbook. I looked at all three triangles.
    â€œHey,” someone said behind me.
    I turned. It was Alyssa. She had only two dogs with her now—Buster and Cody, the German shepherd.
    â€œHey,” I said.
    â€œI thought you said you were going back to work.”
    â€œI thought you said you were taking the dogs home.”
    â€œI am,” she said. “I have one to go.” She looked down at my sketchbook. Her smile faded. “What are you doing?” she said.
    I had been sitting there wondering who to tell. The cops? Would they believe me or would they think I’d been involved? Ray? What would he think? I knew my mom would listen to me. She would believe me. But what about a regular person? What would a regular person think?
    â€œYou know the areas where I’ve been working?” I said. “There’s been a bunch of break-ins—at the house where the people were on vacation, at the house of an old lady who’s practically deaf, and at a third house that has security company stickers but doesn’t really have an alarm system.” I had been thinking about it and thinking about it. “I think that whoever broke into those houses knew what they were doing.”
    â€œWhat do you mean?” Alyssa said.
    â€œI think they knew that family was away. And that the old lady was deaf—if she hadn’tgot up to get a glass of water, she would never have been hurt—”
    â€œWhat are you saying, Colin?”
    â€œI think someone marked those houses,” I said.
    â€œMarked them?”
    â€œMaybe someone who knows the people who live around there left marks to tip off the thieves.”
    She shrugged out of her backpack and sank down onto the bench beside