Lincoln and Lucy had to wait until Monday to go to the police station. The front office was only open to the public on weekdays. Lincoln held the CD and copies of their notes from the pawn shops tightly to his chest as they walked to the Royal Woods Police Department. Built in the 1940s, the station was a square, redbrick building connected to a decommissioned fire station that was built at the same time. The fire department had moved to a larger, modern building a couple years earlier and now it was used for storage by the city.
The front office was exceptionally busy, even for a Monday. There were at least ten people packed into one side of the room, waiting in line. There were a couple more elsewhere in the lobby, sitting on a bench, standing next to the pop machine and one man was talking to a police officer next to the hallway leading towards the back of the building. The woman in the front of the line at the counter when the two kids entered the lobby was yelling loudly at the receptionist about a traffic citation. The receptionist did not appear perturbed in the slightest.
They had to stand in line for fifteen minutes before they made it to the counter. More people had stepped in to wait behind the kids. The receptionist looked up at Lincoln and Lucy curiously.
"How can I help you?"
"I'm Lincoln Loud and this is my sister, Lucy," Lincoln said. "We're here to talk to the detectives in charge of our sister's case. Our sister is Luan Loud."
"Well, that is really sweet of you, little guy," the woman said, dryly. "I don't believe they are here right now."
"How do you know, could you check?" Lincoln asked. "It's really important. I think one of them is call Detective Amos."
The woman smiled, but it didn't reach her eyes.
"Where are your parents, little guy?"
"At work," Lincoln lied. He knew that his parents were actually at the courthouse with Luan for her first court hearing.
"OK, well you go tell your parents to bring in whatever you have to us. Now run along, you don't want them to come home to find you missing do you?"
With that, the woman motioned the next person in the line forward and the siblings, not knowing what to do, were forced to step away from the counter. They went to stand between the pop machine and the wall.
"What do we do now?" Lucy asked.
Lincoln said nothing for a moment, a thumb and index finger cradling his chin.
"We have to get this information to Detective Amos and the other detectives," Lincoln said. "We have to do it quickly. I also want to know if the cops know about the fake diamonds and if they have made any breakthroughs."
"So, what do we do?" Lucy repeated.
"I have a plan," Lincoln exclaimed.
Lucy frowned, Lincoln's plans tended to be farfetched and were often unsuccessful.
"I'll stay here and keep watch while you sneak into the offices through the air vents to find the detectives," the boy said. "And give them the CD and notes."
"What if I get caught? This is not like at home."
"Make sure you don't then," Lincoln said. "I saw an air vent on the side of the building."
"I don't know about this, Lincoln."
"You are really good at it and you know it. You won't be caught."
Lucy sighed. She could admit it, the challenge of infiltrating the police station piqued her interest. But, it was a crazy thing to consider doing.
"I'll get you anything you want," Lincoln pleaded. "I'll get you the new Edwin comic."
"It's expensive and mom said no."
"She didn't say no to me. Come on Lucy, I know deep down you want to do this."
Lucy sighed.
"You're right. OK, I'll do it, but I want the collector's edition of the comic with the Edwin figurine."
Lincoln remained by the pop machine as Lucy left the lobby and walked around to the side of the building. She tucked the CD and papers into her waist band. The vent was there, only held to the building by four rather large, simple screws, one in each corner, but it was out in the open. She would have no cover to mask her movements.
First, all she did was walk to the vent cover and sit down next to it. She sat there motionless for a few moments before quickly unscrewing the two screws on her side of the grate using a dime. Lucy moved to the other side of the grate and after making sure no one was watching her, unscrewed the final two screws.
Lucy sat next to the unattached vent cover for several minutes. If anyone saw her opening the grate and entering the vent, they would surely alert the cops to her activities. She waited until she couldn't see anyone along the street in either direction and then she made her move. She flipped the grate down and slid feet first into the vent, setting the cover back in its place once she was all the way inside.
It took her a few moments to get herself turned around and oriented to the layout of the building. The summer before, the police department had put on a barbeque for the community. The Loud family had attended and Lucy, along with others, had been in and out of the public portion of the building to use the restrooms.
The restrooms were just a few feet down the short hallway off the lobby. Beyond them was the nonpublic area. Lucy had caught a glimpse of a breakroom and what appeared to be an office area during the barbeque. She went over what she could remember about the building in her head creating a rough map.
Realizing that the vent she was in would be located on the back wall of the lobby, behind the counter, she decided that she would want to turn to her right to find the office area as soon as she found an air vent going in that direction. She moved forward as silently as she could. The walls were thin and Lucy could hear people talking on both sides of the wall.
It was dark in that part of the duct system. She could see about five feet ahead of her was a grate leading to a room she assumed was the lobby. It provided the only source of light ahead of her. Before she reached it though, she found a dark vent branching off to her right. She ventured carefully down it, stifling a sneeze. She wondered if the vents had ever been cleaned in that building.
Dim light came from a vent about ten feet ahead. Lucy crept up to it and peaked out. The grate was partially covered by a piece of furniture, but she could see a wood desk with a computer monitor sitting on top. The room was quiet and Lucy was about to continue along the duct when she heard the sound of a door opening and then voices.
"I don't think she'll go anywhere," a man said. "I'm fine with letting her stay at home."
The speaker, plus another younger man, stepped into Lucy's view. The speaker was the male detective Lucy knew to be working on her sister's case.
"Jim, I think we are going to have a problem though," the younger man said.
"You mean that fingerprint?"
"Of course I am. As soon as the defense learns of it, they will twist it to get the Loud girl off."
"Frankly, Wes, I'm not worried. It's just an incidental. All the other prints belong to Luan."
Lucy had to suppress an exclamation of surprise. They had found a fingerprint on the paper bag that was not Luan's? Lucy could barely contain herself. The detective referred to as Wes opened a drawer in the desk and grabbed something from it. He shut the drawer and the two men left the room.
Lucy squeezed out from the air duct and dusted herself off. Knowing she didn't have much time she went right to work on Lincoln's plan. There were three desks in the room. Each had a computer and a name plate on it. The desk in front of the vent belonged to Wesley Mason. The desk directly across from his belonged to Jena Amos. The third was facing the door and belonged to James Paulson.
Lucy tried all three computers. They were all password protected. Based on what she knew and had heard about the detectives, she believed that Paulson was the most senior of the three in the office. She placed the CD and copies of her notes on Paulson's desk where he would immediately notice them. She decided to take a peek at the files that were laid out on the desks and in the drawers.
Luckily for her, the file on Luan was set out on Paulson's vinyl desk pad. Lucy carefully opened the half inch thick manila folder. The first thing she came across was a list of all the catalogued evidence including the bracelet and brown paper bag. The list had page numbers of the reports on each item. She went first to the page on the bracelet.
There was no mention of the diamonds being fakes. They were noted as being real, but it didn't say if the cops had tested them or not. The report did note, however, that the cops had to clean peanut butter and strawberry jam off the bracelet. It had been transfer from the inside of the paper bag.
"That's interesting," Lucy murmured to herself, quickly writing down the information in her notebook.
She moved on to the report on the paper bag. It was small, the kind often used for kids' lunches. Inside the bag was a portion of a bread crust and more peanut butter and jam residue and a string cheese wrapper. Lucy noted that it was the kind of string cheese favored by her and her siblings. Eight fingerprints had been found on the bag, noted as a right thumb, two of the same right index fingers, one right middle, one right ring, a partial right pinky, a left index and an additional unknown finger. The additional finger belonged to an unknown person. The rest belonged to Luan.
There was a diagram of where the prints were found on the bag. The complete set of five fingerprints were on the outside of the bag, at the opening and laid out as they would be if someone was carrying the bag. Of the two single index prints belonging to Luan, one was inside the bag and the other was at the top on the outside. The unknown print was at the top, next to the thumb print.
At the end of the report it was noted that the paper bag had what appeared to kitchen oil and coffee grounds on the outside and had a slight smell of bacon grease on it. The stains had not been officially analyzed, according to the report.
It's like the bag was pulled from the garbage, Lucy thought. Like it was just there and the thief happened to need a bag.
Lucy wrote that thought down in her notebook.
The eight-year-old looked through the rest of the file quickly, but it contained information that she either already knew or wasn't going to be useful to clear Luan. She did notice that the Crane neighbor that had seen the mystery girl at the Cranes' house had also told the police. Lucy was turned the page to see if the police had followed up on that lead, when a sheet of notebook paper fell out of the file and drifted to the floor. Lucy picked up the four by six inch sheet and read the printed writing that was on one side.
Jim, I was thinking, look into Alvin Crane. Misty told me that he comes in ~2X a day to demand bracelet released. Becoming more agitated about it. Does not want us to touch it at all, thinks it will be damaged apparently :/ Jena
Lucy quickly stuffed the note back into the file and backed into the vent as she heard someone unlocking the door. She had just enough time to put the vent cover back in place before a woman she recognized as being Det. Amos entered the room and sat down at her desk. She silently began to make her way out of the station's HVAC system.
As she crawled out of the duct, an idea came to Lucy.
Mr. Crane does know the diamonds are fake! She thought. He doesn't want them examined in case the cops find out what they really are.
Lucy didn't see the officer as she exited the air duct, but he had to be close by, because he grabbed her by the back of her collar as she was setting the grate back in place.
"And just what do you think you are doing, kid?" the grey haired officer asked sharply.
"I-I-I thought I saw a cat, I…"
"Oh come on, we'll go find your parents."
The officer escorted her to the front door to the lobby. His hand still on her collar.
While Lucy was sneaking into the private portion of the station, Lincoln remained tucked behind the pop machine, watching people mill around the lobby. What felt like an hour to the boy, was really just ten minutes. He was deciding on whether or not to go find Lucy, when a commotion erupted amongst the people in the room.
Alvin Crane slammed open the door, causing everyone to stop what they were doing to stare at him.
"Where is Detective Jim Paulson? I want to talk to him immediately!" he shouted at the receptionist from across the room.
Lincoln tucked himself farther behind the pop machine. He definitely didn't want to be seen by the man.
"Detective Paulson is not available," the receptionist said, calmly. "You can leave a message for him."
"That's not good enough," the man continued shouting, "I want my bracelet back today! I cannot wait any longer!"
Det. Paulson and Det. Mason walked out into the lobby from the hallway leading to the back portion of the station.
"Mr. Crane," Paulson said. "I'd advise you to lower you voice and check your tone. You can be heard shouting from the back of the department. How can I assist you?"
"All I want is my bracelet," Mr. Crane said, more calmly than before, but he still had an agitated edge to his voice. "It's not too much to expect ones property to be returned to them once it has been recovered."
"I understand that you are frustrated by this situation," Paulson said. "And you will get your bracelet back, but not until we have concluded our investigation."
"What more is there to investigate? That Loud girl stole the bracelet, case closed!"
It was at this point that Lucy was escorted through the lobby door by the elderly officer. Mr. Crane had been shouting loud enough that he could be clearly heard by Lucy and the officer while they were walking to the door.
"You want it back so bad because the diamonds are fake, don't you?" she blurted out.
Mr. Crane jumped in surprise, his eye looked like they were about to pop out of his head and his mouth dropped open, but no sound came forth. Paulson and Mason both raised their eyebrows at the girl. No one in the lobby said anything for a few beats. The public in the room looked from the dumbfounded man to Lucy to Paulson. They waited eagerly for what was coming next.
"Th-th-that's not true, that's a lie!" Mr. Crane spluttered.
His face had turned a ghostly white after Lucy's announcement.
"And you know they are fake because you are the one who switched them," Lucy continued.
Mr. Crane's face had gone from white to purple with rage.
"How did you-no, that's a lie!" he screamed.
The rather burly man took a step towards Lucy. The elderly officer that had escorted her into the lobby let go of her collar and stepped around Lucy, partially blocking her from the man. Lincoln rushed out from behind the vending machine to stand next to his sister. Det. Paulson walked up to Mr. Crane to stand beside him.
"I would appreciate it if you would calm down," Paulson said.
Being told to calm down seemed to infuriate Mr. Crane even more.
"I won't be accused of things by a little girl!"
He turned again to Lucy, pointing a finger at her.
"You are a liar from a family of liars an-and thieves!" he cried. "I'll sue you for slander! I'll bury your family in so much litigation your grandkids will be paying me back!"
"Mr. Crane, if you cannot calm down, then you will need to leave," Paulson said. "The bracelet is not going to be released anytime soon, so you can just go home."
Mr. Crane looked like he was going to refuse to leave, but Det. Paulson took a step towards him.
"Do you require an escort out of the building?"
The man shook with rage, but turned away from the detective and stamped out of the lobby. The public that were milling around, watching the confrontation went back to what they had been doing prior. The two detectives turned to Lucy.
"What made you say something like that?" Paulson asked her. "What are you two kids up to?"
"I found this one," the older officer nudged Lucy forward, "Coming out of the air vent on the side of the building."
"Oh, really," Paulson said, incredulously. "And what were you doing?"
"We had no choice, sir," Lincoln said. "The lady at the front desk wouldn't listen to us. We had evidence to give you about our sister's case. It couldn't wait any longer."
"Evidence, what evidence?" Mason asked. "Where is it?"
"I put in on Det. Paulson's desk," Lucy said. "A copy of my notes and a CD. This officer caught me on my way out of the building."
"Sgt. Danner, thank you, we can take it from here," Det. Paulson said to the silver-haired man. To the kids he said, "Come back to our office you two, we'll have a little chat about trespassing and breaking and entering."
Lincoln and Lucy followed Paulson and Mason to their office. Sgt. Danner left through the front door. Det. Amos was typing on her computer when the four walked in. She stopped what she was doing.
"What you are two up to?" she addressed the two detectives.
"Clearing up a couple of things, Paulson answered, sitting behind his desk. He picked up the CD and notes. "These what you left for me?"
Lucy nodded. She and Lincoln were instructed to sit in the two chairs in front of the desk. Mason sat on the corner of his desk closest to Paulson's.
"Now before we get into this new evidence you're submitting," Paulson said, rather loudly. "You'd be well advised not to break into places, police stations especially. You are not doing your sister any favors by committing crimes on her behalf. I could easily file charges against you, Miss Loud. What you did is unacceptable. If you were older, Sgt. Danner would have called for armed back for what he caught you doing. I will be having a talk with your parents. Now, what have you brought me?"
The middle-aged detective slid the CD into his computer tower. As the computer worked on pulling up the video, Paulson looked closely at Lucy and asked:
"So what made you say that the diamonds are fake? Especially to Crane's face?"
Mason snickered quietly.
"I said it to get a reaction from him," she said. "His reaction and his statements prove he knew and that was why he was coming in every day to get the bracelet. He didn't want you to know."
"Why do you think the diamonds are fake?" Paulson asked.
"The video is from Bob's Pawn Shop," Lucy began. "On Thursday a teenage girl tried to pawn diamonds there, but they were fake. The video will show the girl and also the owner, Bob, breaking a diamond to prove to her that they are fake. I wrote all the info we got from Bob in my notes, the girl's description, what Bob said happened and out theory. It's all there. We figured whoever stole the bracelet would want to sell it, but took the diamonds separately so it wouldn't be suspicious. This girl was the only one to be pawning diamonds in town after the theft and they were fake. I figure all the diamonds in the bracelet would be fake. We decided to see if you all knew about the fakes."
Det. Mason had been looking through her notes.
"You did take detailed notes, young lady, I'll give you that," he said.
"There's no mention of the diamonds being tested in the report," Amos said, looking through the online report. "Since these two went to such lengths to get us their information, I'll go see about verifying if they are real or fake."
Det. Amos got up and hurried from the office.
"It shouldn't take her too long," Mason said.
It took Paulson's computer a few minutes to open the file containing the pawn shop video. Paulson and Mason watched it several times through without comment.
"It's too bad we never got a look at her face," Mason said.
"It's not Luan though," Lincoln said. "This girl doesn't have braces, Luan does."
"That is true," Paulson conceded.
"So you can drop the charges against Luan now," Lucy stated.
"We'll we still haven't connected this girl to the stolen bracelet," Paulson said. "It could be unrelated."
Det. Amos returned at that moment. She had a surprised look on her face.
"It's true, I had the lab tech look at all the diamonds. They are all glass! The gold is real, but the diamonds aren't!"
The two male detectives were stunned.
"Does that tie the girl to the case?" Lincoln asked.
"It certainly suggests a connection," Paulson said after a few seconds.
"And you saw how Mr. Crane reacted when I said he wanted the bracelet back because it was he knew the diamonds were fake," Lucy said. "He's the one who switched the real ones for glass ones and he doesn't want anyone to know."
"That's some astute reasoning, kid," Mason said. "I say, we get Mr. Crane in here for an interview. Ask him why he didn't mention his diamonds weren't real."
"Insurance probably," Lincoln said.
Paulson nodded and chuckled.
"Luan is a lucky girl to have siblings willing to work so hard and risk it all to help her," he said.
Paulson tuned to Mason.
"Please contact their parents now."
"Oh, you don't have to do that!" Lincoln exclaimed.
"After what you two pulled, I'm afraid I do," Paulson said.
"No one was listening to us, we had no choice," Lincoln said.
"I'm sorry about how the receptionist treated you," Paulson said. "But you didn't do the right thing either."
"Will finding out the diamonds are fake change anything?" Lucy asked.
"Well, we will be following up with the Cranes and inform the prosecutor's office about the fakes," Paulson said. "The bracelet will be worth significantly less than originally reported. It could bring the larceny charge down to a misdemeanor. We will also try to track down this girl. I promise, we will take this new info seriously."
The kids nodded.
"Went I was in the vent," Lucy said. "I hear you talking about a single unknown print on the paper bag along with Luan's prints."
"Yes, what about it?"
"You called it an incidental. What does that mean?"
"We all touch things casually throughout the day and throughout our lives," Amos spoke up. "Those casual prints we leave behind are called incidental prints. I saw that you incidentally touched Detective Paulson's desk as you sat down, for instance. Someone at some point happened to touch the bag that Luan used."
"It's just as plausible that Luan's prints are the incidentals then?" Lincoln stated.
Paulson and Amos looked at one another.
"There are far too many of her prints on the bag for them to be incidentals," Amos said.
"But the bag was clearly being used as a…" Lincoln began.
"I got ahold of their father," Mason interrupted. "He's on his way."