That evening, Multi and Coiley were over at the chief's house. Fluey had moved in with him and Phyllis. The boys were looking at some old high school yearbook photos.
"It's uncanny," Multi said. "But you look just like your dad, Fluey. Except I think his hair's shorter."
"And a lighter color," Phyllis said. "Jack's hair was dark blond. You definitely get your black hair from your mother."
"Hopefully, that's the only thing I got from her," Fluey grumbled.
"I don't know, she seemed pretty sincere about wanting to make amends, Fluid," Big D replied.
"I don't care," Fluey said. "I'd rather not see her again after what she did to me."
"I don't get why you're so bent out of shape about it," Coiley said. "I mean, you've pretty much forgiven your dad for this. Why not your mom?"
"Because my dad didn't know about me," Fluey said. "If he had known and just left me there at the orphanage, then I'd still be upset with him."
"But would he have taken responsibility for you?" Multi asked. "That's the main question, I think."
"He probably would have," Big D replied.
"Okay, okay," Coiley said. "I still think maybe you should try to make up with your mother."
"Oh what would you know about it, Coiley?" Fluey asked, glaring at his team mate. "You had a mom all your life!"
"Hey, whoa, Fluey, I don't think . . . ." Multi started.
"And I thought you'd be on my side over this!" Fluey shouted at the redhead. "You know a little about what I'm going through! After all, your parents split up when you were four years old! And every time you get a chance to see her, she's always doing something 'more important' than spending time with you!"
"Fluey, would you calm down already?" Multi groaned.
"All right, all right," Big D said. "That's enough."
Fluey sighed, and went back to the yearbook.
The next day, the boys were driving around, not really doing much of anything.
"How long is your mom in town, anyway, Fluey?" Multi asked.
"Are you guys still trying to convince me I should make up with her or something?" Fluey asked.
"We're just curious," Coiley said. "I mean, just because someone's related to a mob boss doesn't automatically make them a bad person. Look at you."
"Very funny," Fluey said, shooting Coiley a Look.
"Come on, why don't you want to see your mom?" Multi asked. "Other than the fact you're still mad at her for abandoning you."
"I don't know," Fluey said. "Intuition, I guess. Something's telling me nothing good is going to come from seeing my mother."
"What about calling?" Multi asked.
"Yeah, she left a number, didn't she?" Coiley asked.
"No," Fluey said, pulling the piece of paper his mother gave him out. "She just wrote down the name of the hotel and the room number."
"Well, it's a start," Coiley said. "We can call the front desk, and they'll put us through to the room."
Fluey agreed to that, and the boys pulled over. Fluey got out of the car, and ducked into the phone booth. He looked up the hotel in the phone book, and dialed. After going through the front desk, Fluey managed to get his mother's room. Multi, Coiley, and Skittles waited in the Impossi-Mobile. Skittles seemed a bit tense.
"What's with Skittles?" Coiley asked.
"Puppy intuition, I guess," Multi said. "I think she gets this uneasy feeling around Fluey's mom."
"Yeah, Fluey said he was getting his own weird feeling. You know his intuition is almost never wrong."
Multi agreed. After about five minutes, Fluey came back to the car, and got in.
"Well?" Coiley asked.
"She says we need to talk this over face to face," Fluey said. "I told her why we couldn't discuss things on the phone, and she said we needed to get together and talk this over in person. Alone. She wanted me to come over to her hotel. And let me tell you something, guys, I do not like the sound of that at all."
"Neither does Skittles," Multi said, as Skittles began whimpering. "I don't like it, either."
"That makes it unanimous," Coiley said. "So what are you going to do?"
"I told her to meet me at your mom's diner at noon, Coiley," Fluey said. "That way, she won't suspect anything."
"You expecting something to happen?" Multi asked.
"I don't know," Fluey shrugged. "But my instinct is telling me something might be up. I don't want to take chances."
Multi and Coiley agreed, and the trio (or rather, quartet) drove to the diner. When they arrived, the boys staked out a booth, and waited.
"I hate to leave Skittles out in the car by herself," Multi said.
"You know my mom doesn't allow pets in here," Coiley said. "The health department could shut her down if they found out."
"Besides, Skittles can hold her own," Fluey said.
At exactly noon, a black Corvette drove into the parking lot. Coiley, Multi, and Fluey just stared at it. It was a rental, they could tell that by the license plates. When the door opened, out stepped Maria Manikatti (or was it Maria Sheldon?)
"It's her," Fluey said. "You guys better split."
"Right," Multi said, and he and Coiley moved to the counter.
Maria walked in, and looked around the diner. She spotted Fluey in the booth, walked over, and sat down.
"So what was wrong with talking at my hotel?" she asked.
"Personal reasons," Fluey said.
"But, Tony, it's so noisy in here," Maria said. "And there are just . . . . so many people around. There's no way we can get any privacy here."
"Tough luck. We either talk here, or we don't have this conversation at all."
"Fine."
"So start talking. What took you sixteen years?"
"Like I said the other day. I was young, I was naive, I was in love. Teenage girls tend to think their first serious relationship is true love. And they don't think straight, either. Jack and I didn't consider the consequences. My father would have wanted me to give up the baby, but I wanted to keep it."
"Yeah, then I came along and three days later, you dropped me on a doorstep."
"I know, sweetie, I know. And I want you to know I've regretted that decision. But I couldn't go home. My father would have literally killed me."
"And you couldn't try to locate me earlier because . . . . ."
"I just didn't think about it until I read the newspaper last month. Really, Tony, I'd like a chance to start over."
Fluey clicked his tongue against his teeth. He slowly began inching his way out of the booth. He couldn't explain it, but he wanted to get out of there, and fast.
"I have an idea," Maria said. "Why don't we go for a quick drive? Just you and me."
"I'd rather not, if it's all the same to you," Fluey said.
"But it'll just be a quick one. Come on, it'll give us a chance to get to know each other better."
"I think I know enough about you already!"
And with that, Fluey got to his feet and raced out of the diner as fast as he could. Multi and Coiley ran after him, and the three of them took off, converting to Impossi-Jet along the way. Maria tried to follow them, but the minute the boys converted to their jet, she lost sight of them.
"What was that about?" Coiley asked.
"I don't know, but I don't trust her," Fluey said. Skittles barked in agreement.
"She's trying to get me alone," Fluey continued. "But for the life of me, I can't figure out why."
"We'd better be on our toes," Multi said.
Fluey and Coiley agreed.
Late that night, Fluey was practically tearing Big D's bookshelves apart, trying to find out more on Maria, when both Big D and Phyllis caught him in the act.
"Fluid, it's nearly midnight," Big D said. "May I ask what in the world are you doing?"
"Sorry, chief," Fluey said. "I just wanted to see if you had anything here about Maria Manikatti. I'm not positive on it, but I think she might be up to something."
"What makes you say that?" Phyllis asked.
"I don't know," Fluey shrugged. "I called her hotel room to talk to her, but she said she wanted to talk about this in person. She was kind of reluctant to meet me at the diner in town, as well. I also remember Manikatti saying something about her being mentally unstable."
"What do you think, Dad?" Phyllis asked, turning to Big D.
"I think this deserves looking into," Big D said. "But not tonight. It's too late."
"Besides, it'll look suspicious," Phyllis said. "The night watchmen are trained not to let anyone, and I mean anyone into the building after six PM. Not even the chief. You never know if it's the real thing or an impostor."
"I can dig that," Fluey said.
"Come on, let's go to bed," Phyllis said, stifling a yawn.
At around two in the morning, a figure in black crept across the lawn. It was obviously a woman. The black catsuit she wore showed off her figure quite nicely. She grabbed a ladder, leaned it against the house, and slowly climbed up to the second story window. She managed to get the window open, and slowly, she crawled into the empty bedroom. Then, she snuck down the hallway, and slowly opened a door to another room. Inside, she found Fluey, sound asleep. The woman in black began sneaking into the room, hoping she wouldn't wake him up. But as she came closer, Fluey stirred, and started to wake up. He looked over at this strange woman in his room. Before he could say anything, the woman clamped her hand over his mouth, and pulled him to his feet. Fluey struggled, and managed to grab the woman's black ski mask. He was able to pull himself away, and unmasking the woman as well.
And it turned out to be Maria Manikatti. Before Fluey could even react, Maria grabbed him, covered his mouth with her hand, and practically dragged him out of the room, and down the stairs.
"Don't make any noise," she warned him. "We wouldn't want to wake up your grandfather and your aunt. You and I are going on a little trip, whether you like it or not, Tony."