Simon's POV

What am I doing? I followed her so I could be released from this cover up, not sink deeper into it. How had I gotten myself in so deep? I followed Eleanor to beg her to let me off without anyone knowing I was her accomplice! How had my initial intention been warped into becoming her less than qualified assistant? I didn't know how to stop a heist...if there even WAS a heist. There was something seriously wrong with my judgment!

I suppose I really DID want the adventure. I wanted to know more about this secret crime stopping life Eleanor seemed to think she had. She knew I did. Somehow, she could read me like a book. I was compelled to follow her wherever she went. At the same time though, I didn't want her to cost me my reputation.

She already said I was getting better at being sneaky. That wouldn't bode well in the long run. Sneaky people are often regarded as less trustworthy. I did NOT want anyone knowing that I was a sneaky person. Alvin already did know, but let's face facts...who would believe him over me? No one. It's not often that I embrace my sneakier side. I strive to keep it that way.

"Have you thought of anything yet?" Eleanor asked, dragging her mint and lavender tennis shoes along the sidewalk.

I mulled over the clues we had so far. It wasn't much to go on. "Not yet."

"Well, think harder, Simon." She ordered. "We're so close to the next clues...I can feel it!"

"My first instinct is to locate their headquarters." I told her softly as we entered downtown again. "But I'm not sure how we'd go about that. We don't even know their names."

Eleanor's green eyes flashed with passion. "I bet I could find us their names." She said with a smirk.

"How?" I asked, fearing the answer wouldn't be good.

The Chipette folded her arms. "You'll see. We just gotta make a trip home first and get my laptop."

"I really don't like the sound of this." I moaned.

"Didn't think you would." She grinned a mischievous grin. "But, this is our only way to advance the case."

I didn't know what she was up to for certain. If she needed her laptop though, I suspected it was for hacking. I could only imagine what sort of chaos she was cooking up in that brain of hers.

When we got to the treehouse, I poured myself a mug of piping hot Chamomile tea to calm my nerves. I waited patiently for Eleanor to grab her laptop. One of Brittany's fashion magazines was lying on the table, so I took a short browse through it. There wasn't much in the magazine that grabbed my attention, but it was a delightful way to pass the time and prevent my mind from thinking about the consequences of my actions.

"Got it." Eleanor's voice rang out as she raced down into the kitchen.

"You shouldn't run down the stairs." I told her as I flipped the magazine closed.

She furrowed her furry blonde eyebrows. "Who do you think you are? My dad."

"No." I responded. "I'm a concerned friend who doesn't want to see you smash your face into the floor."

"Relax. I'll be fine." Eleanor tapped her foot restlessly. "Ready to go?"

"Can I finish my tea first?" I asked, taking another slow sip of contemplation.

She sighed. "Can you be fast?"

I continued to drink the tea at a pace that would make a snail impatient. She growled at me, but ultimately let me continue sipping.

Eventually, she opened up her laptop and started typing something. "I didn't want to do this here, but we've gotta get a move on." Her eyes darted toward the window and she got up to pull the curtains in front of it. Yep. She was CLEARLY doing something illegal on that laptop.

"Eleanor, are you hacking?" I asked, in an attempt to sound casual. My words came out more nervous than I intended.

She focused back on the laptop screen. "Uh, yeah. It's the best way to find top secret information."

"Are you sure it's THE BEST way?" I stirred my tea with my spoon, feeling queasy.

"Pretty sure." She continued to type and hack...whatever she was hacking.

Did I dare look? I couldn't take being left in the dark, so I cautiously side stepped around the table to see what exactly she was doing. I instantly regretted it. "Oh no."

"Chill. It's only the police database. I've hacked in dozens of times and never gotten caught." She bragged.

I was almost hyperventilating. "Eleanorrrr." I groaned. "If anyone knew you were doing this, you would be serving so much jail time."

Her fingers became a blur as she typed even faster. "Which is why they don't know."

I sat back down and stared into my mug of Chamomile tea. The liquid began to ripple as a vision appeared inside the confines of the cup.

Inside the vision, I was being handcuffed and dragged into the police station. Officer Dangus and the police chief were yelling at me.

"How could you allow her to break every law!? We trusted you, Simon!" They said angrily.

"Please!" I begged. "Let me explain!"

"And then you let her get away. We're gonna lock you up for a long long time, buddy boy." Officer Dangus undid my handcuffs and gave me a sign with a bunch of numbers on it. 2386201? Did that mean anything?

I stood still, holding the sign with a wild look in my eyes. It was my very first mugshot. The camera flashed and Eleanor jumped up onto my back. She slapped a yellow EVIDENCE sticker on my forehead and smiled at me.

"Sorry for throwing you under the bus, blue boy. I hope you understand. It's nothing personal." She disappeared by fading away into nothing.

"ELEANOR! Please! Don't leave me here alone! I can't survive!" I shouted. It was no use. She was gone.

The police dragged me away from the mugshot wall and threw me in a cell. Alvin was in the cell with me playing his harmonica.

"Don't say I didn't warn you." My brother squeaked.

I gripped the bars of the cell tightly. "Nooooo! Let me out! I'm innocent! I swear! This is all a huge misunderstanding! She manipulated me!" No answer.

The vision in the mug of tea faded. A mugshot in a mug. Clever. No time to appreciate the humor though.

"Earth to Simon." Eleanor snapped her fingers in my face. "Simon!"

"Huh?" I was startled from my terrifying vision.

The Chipette closed her laptop and looked at me. "Did you hear anything I said?"

"Uhhh..." I fumbled for an answer.

"I didn't get their names. Just pictures of them." She showed me two pictures that she had printed out while I was having an anxiety attack. "I have a new plan though."

I finished up my tea quickly and set the mug into the sink. "Please tell me it's safer than your "hacking the police database" plan."

"We're going on a stakeout." She set the pictures in front of me. "Memorize these two faces. Chances are, they're still in town somewhere...probably planning a new heist. We'll find them, follow them, and that's how we'll find their headquarters."

My memory was above average, but under extreme stress it tended to be unreliable. Still, more reliable than either of my brothers'. "O...Okay." I agreed. At least walking around town looking for the shifty couple wasn't illegal.

I stared at the two faces, noting their features. The woman had hazel eyes and a medium toned complexion. Her lips were thin and her nose was upturned slightly. It reminded me a little of a pig's nose. The man had a strong browline, but lacked much of a defined chin. His skin was paler than the woman's and his eyes were grey colored. I focused all my effort on saving those two faces in my memory bank. When I finished, I closed my eyes and visualized them both without looking at the photos.

I nodded my head at Eleanor. "Got them." I said confidently.

She hurried upstairs to put her laptop away again. "Good job." She said, upon returning. She grabbed ahold of my hand and we were off again. This time, hopefully, we would learn that this whole "heist" was only a result of Eleanor jumping to conclusions. Or perhaps Eleanor would finally be able to let the real detectives handle the case. I made a promise to myself to pull out if things started to go wrong. I refused to leave my life in Eleanor's hands. I was independent enough to fend for myself if I needed to. All I needed to do was trust my gut and the second my gut tried to make me bail, I would bail.

"It's only a stakeout." I said internally. "You'll do fine."

We arrived downtown again, in front of the local grocery store this time. There were two plastic crates positioned in front of the entryway. Each one had a flower pot inside it. I assumed the plastic crates were to protect the soil in the pot from being tampered with.

Eleanor pointed to those flower pots and then looked at me with a wink. She wanted us to hide inside the plastic crates. It would be a very cramped hiding spot, but excellent for being unseen. The crates even had small holes that we could peek out of.

"Do you come here often?" I asked my partner.

Eleanor put a finger to her lips. "Shhhh!" She hissed.

Another question I wouldn't get an answer to. Fantastic.

The two of us peered at the crates from behind the trash can across the street. "I'll go ahead and distract everyone while you hide." The blonde girl whispered.

"In the crate, right?" I asked, worried my initial instinct about the situation was wrong.

She groaned. I was upsetting her with my constant questions. "Where else, Simon?"

"Okay." I nibbled my lip. It was my last chance to back out, yet I chose to follow Eleanor's vague instructions.

She strolled into the grocery store and started talking to the cashier.

With the cashier not looking out the window, I crept up to the plastic crate and climbed inside. I squeezed myself down until I was undoubtedly hidden from view. This wasn't a crime technically, was it? A human being couldn't do this, but I was smaller than they were. It's really no different than a human sitting on a bench outside the store.

Suddenly, I felt myself getting squashed even MORE inside the plastic crate. I had assumed that Eleanor would use the other crate, but apparently she chose to share my hiding spot. I really should stop assuming things so much. Why had I agreed to this? Why had I squandered my chance to break free? Now, I would be stuck with Eleanor in this tiny space, growing more and more uncomfortable by the second for who knows how long. Real smart, Simon. Real smart.

Eleanor's POV

I peered through one of the holes in the crate, watching the townspeople walk by. Simon's foot was shoved into my side, but I ignored it. The thrill of spying on unsuspecting citizens was worth a little rib pain.

The first person I saw was Ms. Croner. She went into the store and exited a while later with a large bag of cat food. Derek rode by on his bicycle and nearly crashed into her.

"Sorry!" He called out, swerving at the last second.

"Watch where you're going, you hooligan!" The grouchy elderly woman snapped.

The next thing I saw was Vanessa roller skating with her pet myna bird following her. After Vanessa, came three middle aged guys who bought a lot of soda pop. I stared across the street. Was that someone in a black cloak? Nevermind….just the owner of the comic book store. Not a suspect. Or maybe….no, no, not a suspect.

"Your tail is in my face." Simon whispered as softly as he could.

I moved my tail with great difficulty. "Stop talking." I commanded. "Stakeouts are supposed to be quiet."

"Well, I can't stake out properly if I can't see." Simon replied.

I tried to scoot away from him, but there wasn't enough room left in the crate to move very far. "Is this better?"

"It'll...work." His elbow hit my knee as he shifted position.

"Simon, stop moving." I hissed.

He froze instantly. "Sorry, sorry, I was trying to get comfortable."

"You aren't going to be able to, so just suck it up and hold still." I regretted bringing him along.

He sighed and shifted position again, this time his foot hit my butt. After that, he didn't move much. I think he was embarrassed he quite literally kicked my...insert word that means donkey here.

I looked out through the small opening again. Kevin, Warren, and Cheesy were heading toward the store. I wondered what they were going to be buying.

"Watch...watch. It's crazy. Look!" Cheesy got in front of the automatic sliding doors. The doors refused to open for him. How interesting.

Warren stepped forward and the doors slid open. "Whoah, that is crazy!"

"Why doesn't it work for you?" Kevin questioned his friend.

Cheesy shrugged. "Beats me. It used to."

Warren and Kevin entered the store. Cheesy went to follow him but the doors slid closed before he could step inside. He smacked right into the glass.

"Sorry! Sorry!" Kevin stood in front of the doors to open them again, allowing his friend to walk inside.

"Oh no." Simon whispered.

I gulped. "What?"

"If the door isn't opening for Cheesy, it probably has a security camera attached to it. It knows his face." The chipmunk explained.

"That means…" my breath caught in my throat. "It saw you hide….and I have another security tape I gotta grab."

"Why are you so sure it only saw me and not us?" He asked.

I tried to turn my head to look at him, but gave up when I couldn't make it move more than an inch. "Because I'm a lot stealthier than you'll ever be."

"Uh huh." He didn't sound convinced. "If you say so. I would have thought a true master of stealth would be smart enough to, you know, use the empty crate instead of shoving herself where she can't fit."

"It was too risky." I explained. "There was someone near the other one."

"Who?" He questioned.

I hesitated. "Theodore." I said, bracing myself for Simon's comeback.

Instead, he seemed to understand. "The one person who always notices you."

"Yeah." I didn't want to say much more on the matter.

I watched as Cheesy was chased out of the store by a lady holding a broom. "For the last time, young man! The free samples are ONE PER CUSTOMER!"

"Then they should say that! All they said was "try me" how was I supposed to know they're limited!?" The redhead with the bowl haircut shouted back.

"Use your common sense!" The lady set the broom down.

While that commotion was going on, I slipped out of the crate and into the store.

Less than three minutes later, I had disabled the security camera and stolen the security tape with Simon, and possibly myself on it. It was a cakewalk. I dumped the tape in the garbage can after stomping on it.

"She's so stealthy." I sang quietly in my head. "She's so quick. She can go anywhere. She's that slick!"

Back outside, I bumped my hip against Simon's hiding spot. "Make a break for it." I whispered to my friend, who was still concealed by the crate. "We're going to the roof."

"I'm sorry. We're what?" He asked, climbing from the crate and rubbing his sore back.

"You heard me. We'll be able to see better and further from up there." I scurried up the side of the building, hoping my partner would follow.

And follow he did, Simon may have broken the record for the fastest anyone has ever climbed up anything.

"Where'd you go?" He questioned.

I felt my cheeks flush. "Don't get mad. I…..I kinda destroyed the security tape….to protect you." And also because I love covering my tracks by any means. No digital footprint for this Chipette.

"Of course you did." He frowned. "Guess I better get used to that sorta thing if I'm hanging around with you."

The two of us then sat in silence on the roof, looking down at the groups of people on the sidewalk. Still no sign of the mysterious people who had taken the golden baseball card from Jason. Had Jason lied? Was there no heist? Were those two people secretly relatives of his? No. No. Jason is faaar too dumb to set up a ruse so complex.

Oh crud! I caught sight of Officer Dangus again. He was munching a croissant sandwich as he patrolled around. I hid behind Simon as the dopey cop passed by. That was another close call. If he found me sitting on the roof of the grocery store, he would know I'm spying.

As Simon and I watched from our perch, there were plenty of entertaining antics from the rest of the townspeople. Annie got her shoe stolen by Mr. Wheeler's dog. Bruce lost a trading card in the sewage grate and Warren helped him fish it out using an actual fishing rod. Miss. Smith got a call from her sister Clarrissa and judging by the tone of her voice, it was packed full of sibling rivalry as the two hurled insults back and forth. How I wished I could hear the entire conversation and not just Miss. Smith's end of it.

The day continued to drag on. More people I didn't recognize walked by. I struggled to keep my eyes open. I was still recovering from my late night adventure. As the sun dipped lower and lower in the sky, I grew even more weary. Eventually, I fell asleep…right there on the roof.

I woke up to Simon shaking me. "Do you usually fall asleep on your stakeouts?" He questioned.

I blinked my tired eyes. "No." My stomach growled. I needed something to eat to keep me awake. "This is way more boring than usual."

"Maybe we should take a break." He suggested.

I shook my head. "Maybe we need a new place to spy from." I got to my feet and the adrenaline started to race through me again. I leapt from the roof of the grocery store, to the roof of the jewelry store next door, then the movie theater.

"What are you doing?" Simon shrieked.

"What does it look like?" I asked. "I'm finding a new spot for our stakeout!"

"Do stakeouts have to last all day?" The chipmunk in blue asked, as he looked at the gap between the roof of the grocery store and the jewelry store next door.

"It depends." I replied.

"On what?" He closed his eyes and took a leap, landing on the roof of the jewelry store and then opening his eyes again.

I waved for him to jump again, and join me. "On whether or not we gather enough evidence. Right now, we got squat."

He got a running start this time, and soared over to the roof of the movie theater. I grabbed onto him as he started to slip down the side of the roof. Now we were both slipping. I managed to get back up on my feet, but my partner was dangling off the edge.

"Eleanor…" he gasped. "I'm slipping."

Mustering all my strength, I grabbed him and hoisted him back up before he could fall. His tiny body would never survive a fall from a 3 story building. "You okay?" I asked.

He nodded. "I think so, but I'm feeling a little nauseous." He clutched his stomach.

"Are you hungry?" I wanted to eat, but as part of my super spy training, I couldn't show weakness. If Simon said he wanted to eat, then I would have a good reason to get a snack and refuel my energy.

Thankfully, he nodded. "Very. I could eat anything right now."

I spotted an Italian restaurant across the street. "How about we stop there?" I pointed to it.

"I could go for some pasta." He nodded. "We….We don't have to jump there, do we?"

Simon had almost fallen to his death because of my roof jumping stunt. Of course we weren't going to attempt a jump all the way across the street. I wasn't crazy. "Nope. We can get down now." I slid down the drainpipe of the movie theater.

Simon followed me, very slowly.

I looked up at him when he was halfway down the drainpipe. "Don't look down." I said forcefully. "Just keep going until your feet hit solid ground."

His eyes were still closed when his feet hit the ground. "Did I make it?"

"Great job!" I teased. "That only took you…." I looked at my watch. "…about 15 minutes."

"I'm sorry. I'm new at this." His fur bristled.

I shoved him toward the crosswalk in the street. "I'm just messin' with you, rookie. You're doin' fine."

"Y…You think so?" He asked hopefully. "Because, uh, no offense, you aren't the best teacher and…I'm not really a hands on learner."

"You're doing fine, Simon. Don't worry so much." We crossed the street and I pushed against the door to the Italian restaurant.

One plate of spaghetti and a bunch of breadsticks later, we resumed our stakeout. This time, we mingled along between all the people on the crowded sidewalk.

"Somehow, I don't think this is much safer than jumping on rooftops." Simon commented, narrowly avoiding having his tail stepped on.

I continued to pull him along, searching desperately for the two mysterious people who were my ticket to proving I could solve the most difficult mystery yet. No luck. They were nowhere to be found.

I sat down on a park bench and rested my head in my hands. "It's hopeless." I admitted. "We'll never find them. We don't have any clues that could lead us to them. I'm sorry I wasted your time, Simon. I just thought….well….that I finally HAD something." I threw my hands in the air. "It's all just a shot in the dark. You were right. I'm not cut out for this."

To my surprise, Simon sat down beside me and told me that I didn't need to throw in the towel yet. "Actually, I've been thinking back to the moment we saw Jason hand over the card." He smiled confidently. "And, I think I kinda stumbled on something that you overlooked."

A clue? That I overlooked? Was he serious? Was he fibbing to make me feel better? "Tell me." I commanded. He was my assistant after all. If he was fibbing, I would make him pay. If he wasn't, then I was in business! The world seemed to slow down at that moment. What clue would Simon have found that I couldn't? Was it connected to his amazing memory? I was on the edge of the park bench, eagerly awaiting the answer. The case wasn't a dead end after all!