The figure either didn't have a face or it was too dark to see it, but all four people were positive that it was Dr. Minyak. Henry turned around and mouthed Text Ray to Charlotte; he knew that calling him wasn't an option, or Piper would hear- he still didn't know she was suspicious of him.

Charlotte nodded in agreement and pulled out her phone. Jasper watched her type (Piper was still staring out the window).

Charlotte knew now wasn't the best time to make sure every little word and punctuation mark was grammatically correct, but it was force of habit that made the message take so long to type. That, and she was afraid that Ray would be suspicious and wouldn't get here on time.

Piper finally looked at her companions right after Charlotte put her phone away. "Uh… should we call Captain Man or something?"

The three others exchanged a look. They hadn't thought of just calling him as normal citizens. "Sure," said Charlotte, pulling out her phone again. "That's a good idea."

Charlotte called on audio without the camera so Ray wouldn't see her (because, well, Piper) and tried not to give anything away.

"Captain Man and Kid Danger emergency hotline, what is your emergency?"

Anyone else might not have noticed, but Ray sounded just a teensy bit annoyed, probably because his sidekick just left and he would have to call him.

"Captain Man?" Charlotte tried to keep her voice down so Ray wouldn't talk too loudly. "Hi, um, my friends and I are out driving and we see a person with a sack, and-"

"Wait, who is this? Where are you?"

Standard questions."Um, my name is Charlotte. Charlotte Page."

"Charlotte? What's going on? Are you all okay?"

"Yes, we're all fine-" Charlotte glanced up and saw that everyone was watching her, including Piper. "-and we're in a car." Please, please figure it out, Ray.

"Oh, I get it. Are you on speaker?"

"No."

"Good. So Piper is there too, right?"

"Yes."

"Anyone else? Are Henry and Jasper still there?"

"Yes."

"Aw, geez… okay, listen. I can't call Henry without Piper noticing, so I'm going to take this on my own. Tell him- discreetly- to just wait at home for news."

"Okay."

"Now go home, or, actually, go to Henry's house. I'll feel better knowing both of you are in the same place. And Jasper too, I guess. Where are you?"

Charlotte gave the street names on the sign they were next to. "Alright, we'll head out. Good luck," she added under her breath. She hung up and turned to Piper.

"Piper, Captain Man said to drive away, so let's just all go to Henry's house and wait for this to blow over."

"Okay." Piper surprised everyone by agreeing right away, but no one said anything.

A few minutes later, Henry, Charlotte and Jasper were sitting at the Hart kitchen table with some soda. Henry's parents were still out, and Piper had retreated to her room to go to bed.

That's what she told them, anyway. She was actually at the top of the stairs, struggling to hear everything her brother and his friends were saying.

"Why hadn't he called back yet?" Henry ran his hand through his hair nervously.

"I don't know." Charlotte used her straw to stir her soda, resting her head on her hand.

Jasper shrugged. "I don't know. But at least we know he's okay."

Charlotte stopped stirring. "How do you know that?"

"Well, he's indestructible, isn't he?"

"True," said Henry, "but there is such thing as emotional distress. And what if he got captured?"

The three teens didn't have much time to think about it, because Henry's phone started buzzing.

"It's Ray!" He lunged for it and answered, putting it on speaker.

"Ray?"

"Are you alright?!"

"What happened?"

"Slow down!" Ray cut their questions off. "Everything's okay, but I need to talk to you three. Henry, is your family home?"

"My parents are out, and Piper's asleep."

"Good, because I'm on your front porch."

"What?" All three teenage heads whipped around to the front door. Sure enough, Ray was standing there, his phone pressed to his ear.

They all ran to answer it, but Henry got there first (for obvious reasons) and unlocked the door before flinging it open.

The three teens immediately bombarded Ray with questions, but he told them to sit down and he'd explain.

The four of them settled on the couch, and Ray started talking.

"So I get to the place, and sure enough, I see someone with a sack. So I chase after him- I really wished you had been there, Henry, you could've caught him so much faster- and I finally reach the guy, and get this, he's not Minyak at all." Henry, Charlotte and Jasper opened their mouths again, but Ray cut them off. "Save the questions until the end. Anyway, I cuff the guy to a thick tree branch, and I ask what the butt he's doing, and he's like, 'Uhhhhhh I was practicing to be Santa Claus for the holidays,' which I didn't believe for a second, even when he threatened to put me on the naughty list. Anyway, I demand that he tell me the truth, making sure my later was visible, and, well, the guy sang like a canary and handed me his bag."

"So it was Minyak's sack, right?" Henry cut it. "He forced the guy to take it, or something?"

Ray shook his head. "No… it turns out the guy barely knew who Dr. Minyak is. He told me that his dad was the boss in a secret business that specializes in shoplifting goods, and he made him start helping. Rookie slipped up."

"Then what happened?" Charlotte seemed a bit concerned for the guy.

"I took him down to the police station so he could tell the cops, and when I was leaving they were asking him all sorts of questions- who else was involved, was anyone else being forced to help, stuff. One of the cops said something about keeping the guy in prison so he'd be safe from his dad. There were a lot of… unpleasant things that went on when that guy's dad didn't get what he wanted, apparently.

"So this whole time there's been a secret shoplifting business right under our noses, and we only found out because someone messed up their job. And we still have no idea where Minyak is right now. So, yeah." He slumped back.

"Just out of curiosity," Jasper said after a brief pause, "what was in the sack?"

Ray shrugged. "I didn't see all of it," he confessed, "but the stuff on top was mostly small things, like lipstick. Actually," he sat up, "I think all that may have been collected over a long period of time, because we would have heard about a robbery that big. My theory-" Henry, Charlotte and Jasper leaned in. "-is that they only steal enough at a time that no one will be able to notice something's missing."

Charlotte nodded. "That makes sense."

They stay in silence for a minute before the sound of the garage door opening made them all jump.

"My parents!" Henry grabbed Ray's arm and dragged him toward the front door. "Hurry, let us know when you're back at the Man Cave." Henry locked the door and turned to his friends. "Quick, make it look like we've been doing homework, or something!"

In their haste to fool Mr. and Mrs. Hart, not one of the three of them heard the squeak of a sneaker come from the top of the stairs.

What? You didn't forget Piper was listening to all that, did you?

I'm a big believer in planning ahead, but honestly, some things in this story just got written out of nowhere and expanded.

Ciao, and Happy Reading!