Chapter 3

"Junior detectives?" Arianna questioned.

"Yeah." Luke told her. "We all are going to find the professor's shooter, and put him or her to justice."

"How are we going to do that?"

"Find clues that will help us lead right to the culprit."

"I don't know about this, Luke. Your parents…"

"I know, I know. My parents will not allow me to do this, but sometimes you got to take risks, Arianna. And don't say that the police will handle this; Flora already told me that bit. But, what if they can't, or they do it, and it's too late? I just can't stand by and wait when the professor is in a coma. I have to take action."

"I understand Luke, but we're just kids. You don't know what you're getting into."

"I do know, Arianna, and 'we're just kids' is rubbish. We can make a difference. We may find something that the adults fail to."

"But…"

"Please, Arianna! Oh, and don't tell my parents about this." There was then silence. "Arianna?"

"I'm thinking! Okay, I'm in."

"Excellent!"

"Where should we meet?"

"Where should we meet… uh…" He hesitated, thinking.

"Luke?"

"I'm thinking!" Luke then snapped his fingers. "We should meet at the park. Can you be there in fifteen minutes?"

"If you want me to."

"Great! See you then!" He hung up, and looked at Flora. "We're meeting Arianna at the park, Flora." Flora began to protest.

"But…" Luke shook his head, holding out his hand like a stop sign.

"No, I don't want to hear it, Flora. I'm going, and you can't change my mind."

"But what if one of your parents come in here, and realize you're missing?" Luke realized she was right, and face palmed.

"Oh, you're right; I wasn't thinking of that."

"So, what are you going to do?"

"Just watch!" He went to his door, and opened it a crack.

"Mum, Dad!" He shouted. "I'm trying to solve a really hard puzzle in one of my books; don't bother me!" He turned to Flora. "Okay, let's go! Don't make a sound." And with that, the kids left the room.

They went downstairs, and tiptoed, to the door, careful Mrs. Triton wouldn't notice.

"Clark?" Mrs. Triton asked, while ironing a shirt. When he didn't answer, she shrugged. "He must have gone to the grocery store."

Luke hopped onto his bike, and strapped onto his helmet. He tapped the empty spot behind him. "Hop on behind me!"

"But what about my helmet?" Luke shrugged.

"You can trust me. Unfortunately, my parents' helmets are too big for you. You'll just have to risk it."

"Okay. I don't like it, but if I have to." She got on behind Luke, and the kids biked their way to the park.

They saw Arianna sitting on a bench when they arrived. Arianna stood up, and walked over to them.

"So," She started. "What do we know?"

"Well," Luke began. "We know that the glove that you found near the museum belongs to the man or woman responsible for firing the gun that shot the professor."

"We don't know that for sure. It might belong to someone else."

"True, then it might be our shooter. Also Alistair Painter might've paid someone to fire the gun."

"Plus, he escaped."

"Yeah, but that was after we presented the glove to the inspector, thus the culprit can't be Alistair."

"Did someone hate the professor so much that he or she would want him dead?" Luke shrugged.

"Don't know." He admitted.

"What about someone who you and the professor saw before, and helped get them arrested? I know if I were a criminal, and you helped in my arrest, I would be mad."

"Good point. I would be mad too."

"So would I." Flora piped up. "If only we remembered all who were at the museum on Friday. They might've known something."

"Yeah," Luke said. "If only." He sighed. "But, we don't."

"Hey, kids!" Someone said to them. They all looked, and were shocked. Standing in front of them was Collin Kidd. Next to them was a plump woman.

"Hey!" The kids greeted at once.

"What are you doing here?" Luke asked.

"Well, my wife and I are out here for a jog. When we saw you, we thought we'd say hello." The kids all smiled. Luke looked at the woman.

"Were you at the museum too?" The woman shook her head.

"Oh no." She answered. "I was working my job over at the preschool. The primary school where my husband works, didn't have school that day so he went to the grand opening instead."

"Wow! You two must really like kids that you work with them!" The couple nodded.

"And we'll have our hands full even more!" Collin said. "My wife's pregnant with not one, not two, not three, not four, but five babies!" The kids gasped.

"So, you're going to have quintuplets?" Flora questioned. "Congratulations!" The future parents smiled.

"Thank you." Mrs. Kidd thanked her.

"Do you have any names for them yet?"

"Well, we're thinking Riley, Finn, and Devin so far. We'll know for sure when they're born in seven more months."

"I see. You want to see what they look like." Collin's wife nodded.

"Oh, and my name is Pam. It's a pleasure to meet you all." Collin then

frowned. Luke noticed this.

"Your brother?" He wanted to know. Collin nodded. "You haven't told him yet?"

"Yeah, and I kept it a secret from him. He won't be happy about this. He'll want us to get rid of them the moment they're born."

"And you don't want to give them up?" Collin shook his head.

"Of course not!"

"Then, you have to tell him."

"That's what I told him." Pam said. Collin turned to his wife.

"But, you know my brother. He hates kids. He won't want to be an uncle."

"Doesn't matter. If he's mad, he's mad. He's your brother. You tell him. He can't lead your life." Collin sighed.

"You're right…again." Collin then looked at Luke. "It might be my fault why he hates kids." Luke and his friends were confused.

"What do you mean?" Luke wanted to know.

"Yeah!" Flora added. "How could it be your fault?" Collin sighed.

"It all started after I was born." He began. "You see, he and I are 13 years apart. When he was visiting me at the hospital, mum said that he was wearing a hoodie that day, and I pulled on his strings. He didn't like that. And when he was going on a date with his first girlfriend, I was sick that day, and I threw up on the suit that he just bought that day for the occasion. That is when I was three. I also played pranks on him as the years went by. I put my fingerprints covered in paint on his new car too, and I ruined his graduation cake."

"But you were a kid." Luke said. "You were just goofing around, and at times you didn't know better. That's what kids do."

"Yeah, I thought they were funny at the time, but my brother didn't." He sighed sadly. "Boy; I didn't like it when he moved out." Collin then changed the subject, and looked around. "Are your parents around, kids?"

"No." Luke told him. "We came here ourselves." Collin looked back at Luke.

"They know you're here?"

"Yes." Luke lied. Pam nudged her husband.

"Of course their parents know!" She stated. "They look like nice kids. They wouldn't be here without their parents knowing." Collin laughed nervously.

"Right! I don't know what I was thinking." The kids smiled.

"My parents don't know." Flora said. "On count that they're both dead." The couple frowned.

"My father's dead too." Arianna added with a frown.

"Oh, my wife and I are so sorry." Collin said. "It must be awful having your parents die at a young age."

"It's hard no matter how old you are." Pam said as well. She changed the subject. "Well, we should get going. Good day, children."

"Good day!" The kids all said together. She and her husband then left.

"I do hope John handles the news alright." Flora piped up.

"He should." Arianna assured her. "After all, he's his brother. He should be happy for him."

"Maybe since he hates kids so much," Luke said. "He'll never want to see him ever again. I can't imagine never seeing my uncle because him and my parents in a feud because of me."

"That won't happen." Luke shrugged.

"At this rate, it's very likely."

"So, what about the mystery?" Flora wanted to know.

"Right! If it was someone who got arrested because of us before, we should find out." Flora and Arianna was confused.

"How are we going to do that?"

"We need to look into their files." Arianna gasped.

"Luke," She began. "You're not thinking…." Luke looked at her.

"We need to sneak into the police station, and look into each and every file of them. We might find something or two."

"Will you remember them?" Flora questioned.

"I will. Now, come on; to the police station!" He, and Flora went off on Luke's bike. Arianna hesitated, unsure, but went after the boy anyway on her bike.

"I can't believe we're doing this." Flora said when they were all hiding in the bushes. A police station stood before them. "The police won't let three kids search the computers on all of their criminals."

"If we faked a crime or two, they'll leave, thus leaving their computers alone. We'll then get on them, and find whatever we can."

"File a fake police report?" Arianna asked. "That's illegal! We can't! We'll go to jail!"

"We should file more then one, so more officers leave the building." He then snapped his fingers. "I'll file a false robbery. Now, how about you two?" Flora and Arianna both hesitated, not knowing what to do.

Luckily, they didn't have to think of false information, for a horde of police officers came out.

"What's happening?" Flora wanted to know.

"Don't know." Luke replied. "But, they're leaving, which is good." The police got into their cars, and drove off, their sirens blaring.

When the last officer left, Luke ushered his friends to follow. They did, and the children went towards the building.

Luke tried to open the door, but couldn't. He gave up, exhausted.

"Drat!" He cursed, pounding hard on the doorknob in frustration. "It's locked! How could I not think of this before?" Flora saw something from the corner of her eye. She went to it, and picked it up. It was an ID.

"Hey! It's an ID! One of the officers must have dropped it!" The kids noticed that the door had a card scanner on it. "If we scan the card by the door, we can get in."

"Then do it!" Luke said. The girl went to the door, and showed it the id. The scanner blinked, telling them it had read it.

"Okay, get in!" Flora tried to open the door, but the door didn't budge. Arianna sighed.

"You were too slow." She said. "You need to try again." Flora tried again with the same result. She kept on trying. Luke sighed.

"Any day now, Flora!" Flora shot a look at Luke.

"I'm doing my best!" She said sternly. "This isn't easy as it looks.."

"It's true." Arianna told her. "This is just like getting into your hotel rooms. I tried a few times on trips when my father was alive, and was also too slow. My parents had to help sometimes. Cut her some slack!" Luke looked at her.

"But, we don't have time! The police may come back any minute."

When Flora failed to open the door, Luke sighed, and grabbed it.

"Hey!" She cried. Luke swiped the id in the scanner, and seconds after it beeped, he opened the door with ease.

"There!" He said. "We're in!"

"Luke," Flora stated. "I like you, but you're such a showoff." The kids went in.

When they got to the room with the most computers in it, Luke pointed to the computers he wanted his friends to use.

"Arianna," He began. "You take that computer; Flora, you take that computer." He sat at his. "And I'll take this one. Tell me when either one of you find something."

"But, Luke," Flora stated. "We won't know all of the criminals you and Layton put behind bars. And even if we did, we wouldn't remember them all."

"I'll tell you!"

"Wow, Luke!" Arianna observed. "Skipping school? Disobeying your parents? Lying to strangers? Breaking into a police station, and using their computers? You have officially become a bad boy!"

"Shut up, Arianna. Just do your work. Anyways, Collin isn't a stranger. We met him at the museum." And so, the kids went to work on the computers.

A half hour went by, and the children haven't found anything.

"Unbelievable!" Luke said in disbelief. "All of these people are either still in prison, dead, or released, and we don't have a clue on where they are! We're going to have to Snoogle the addresses." He produced out his pencil and notebook. He was about to write the first address, when he heard voices getting louder and louder.

"Hide!" He told the others. The three all went down on their hands and knees, under the desks where the computers were. They all peeked out to see officers coming in.

"Hey!" An officer cried out when he saw Luke's computer was on. "Somebody used my computer!"

"We'll find the culprit," The police chief assured him. He talked into his dispatch. "Somebody used Stu's computer. Search the perimeters; over!" The police then all looked around. Flora and Arianna gave Luke a look.

What?! Luke seemed to say. He then held his hand for all of them to stay put. Arianna scooted over to him, but not before looking both ways. Luke looked at her.

"I told you two to stay put!" He whispered loudly at her.

"I have to tell you something." She whispered back. "But first, why did you leave your computer on?"

"I didn't have time." Luke answered. "I panicked." He then changed the subject. "What do you have to show me?" Arianna showed him a flash drive.

"I stole this out of an officer's desk."

"Wow; Arianna!" Luke observed. "That is really bad!"

"You're turning into a bad boy yourself!"

"I guess." He then smiled. "Good for you. Now, we must wait until the officers leave this room, and make our escape! It's too risky to stay here." Arianna agreed with a nod. The two looked out again, waiting on the cops.

When all but one of the officers left the room, Luke ushered Flora to go. They all snuck out, careful not to get caught.

Once out of the room, they all ran to the doors. But, the doors were being guarded by guards. They quickly hid behind pillars, and looked out.

"Darn it!" Luke cursed. "How do we get out?"

"We have to distract them somehow." Arianna said. "Without being seen." The kids thought about this.

"I'll slide the ID on the floor." Luke declared. His friends were confused.

"But Luke," Flora started. "If you slide the ID on the floor, how will we get outside?"

"As they look at the ID, I'll quickly swipe one of their IDs, scan it, and we'll bolt out of here." Both kids were unsure, but nodded. "On the count of three. One…two…three!" Luke skidded the ID across the floor. Both guards went over to look at it. Luke took out one of the men's wallets, and looked for an ID.

"What's Stu's ID doing out here?" One man wanted to know. The other man shrugged.

"Don't know." He admitted. "Maybe Stu dropped it. I'll bring it to him." He picked it up as Luke found the ID. He quickly took it out, scanned it in the scanner, opened the door as it beeped, and all of the kids ran out, Luke dropping the ID behind him. Both of the officers looked up.

"Hey!" They cried. They both looked out the windows, but didn't see anyone. The kids had already hidden.

"Drat!" The first one cursed. He picked up his friends' ID, and showed it to him. "Hey, Mike. Here's your ID." Mike gasped. He took it from him.

"The ID thief has stuck again." He observed.

"Don't worry." The other officer assured him, "We'll find him or her." He radioed in, and both remained on guard.

"How will we find these places?" Flora wanted to know. Arianna showed her the flash drive. Her eyes widened. She turned to Luke. "Luke, you didn't…" Luke shook his head.

"Not me." He admitted. Flora was confused.

"Then how…?"

"I stole it." Arianna confessed. Flora looked at her.

"Arianna?" She questioned. "You?" Arianna nodded. Flora gasped. "You and Luke are turning into rebels!"

"A lesson in detective work, Flora," Luke began. "Don't always assume. You could be wrong."

"I'm sorry. I guess you're right. But you are going to return that flash drive back to that officer, right, Arianna?" Arianna nodded.

"I will." She said. "When I'm done with it, and we don't need it anymore." Flora sighed.

"Good." She gasped again. "We could go to jail. No; I'm too young to go to jail. In fact, I should never have agreed to this. We should report ourselves. You and I will go back to your parents Luke, if we aren't all arrested that is, we'll leave this in the hands of Inspector Chelmey and the police, wait for the Professor to get better, and we'll never, ever do this again."

"Okay, Flora." Luke agreed. "We'll never do this again." Flora smiled.

"So, we'll stop?" Luke shook his head.

"Nope!" He replied. "After all of this; we'll stop." Flora groaned with disappointment.

"We should go somewhere where there are computers." Arianna stated. "So, we can find, and print off the maps on where to go."

"And we can't go to my house." Luke put in. "My parents are there, and surely will find out. And we can't go to your house because your brother might get suspicious and call my mum and dad."

"So, where will we go?" Flora wanted to know. Arianna and Luke thought about this. "Well?" She realized something. "Oh, you two are thinking." They then snapped their fingers at the same time.

"The library!" They said at the same time.

The kids locked their bikes at the bike rack in front of the library. Arianna had lent Flora her brother's bike helmet.

"Okay," Luke said to the others as they headed in. "We each sign to get a computer, and we'll go to work. Arianna, since you're the one with the flash drive, you find the addresses. Flora and I will go into Snoogle Maps, type in the addresses, and print them off. Got it?" The kids nodded.

"Got it!" They both said at once.

The kids signed up, and had to wait a while for three computers to be available. One went to each computer when free. When all three computers were free, they really went to town.

Arianna told Flora and Luke the addresses, they typed it into Snoogle maps, and once they got them, they printed them up. Flora went to get each one.

"I couldn't help but noticing all of these maps that you are printing." The librarian spoke to her as she came for the tenth time. "Mind telling me why?"

"It's for a school project." She lied to her. "You see, we're learning about maps."

"I see. But, you're wasting ink, and we need it for the others that want to print."

"Sorry." She picked up the page, and left.

"There!" Flora said to Luke and Arianna when she came back. "I lied to a librarian about what we're doing? Are you two happy?" Luke smiled.

"Good job, Flora!" He congratulated her. "I know you don't like it now, but it'll turn out in the end. You'll see." Flora sighed.

"I doubt it."

"Okay." Luke said to his friends as they left the library. "Most of these places we're going to use the Underground to get to. And one of them is all the way in Wales."

"But where will we get the money to get to these places?" Flora questioned out loud. "How are we going to get all the way to Wales?"

"We're going to have to take a train

"But, how? How are we going to pay for all of this?

"We don't. We simply have to tell the train attendants that our parents are waiting for us there." Flora sighed again.

"Of course." He faced the bike rack. "Hey; where's my bike helmet?"

The bikes were there, Arianna's bike helmet were there on her bike's handlebars, but Luke's bike helmet was missing.

"It must have fallen." Flora suggested. The kids looked all over, but didn't see a dropped helmet. "I don't see anything."

"I don't see anything either." Arianna added. Luke sighed. He then looked serious.

"I guess I'll have to ride without mine." He said, Flora and Arianna gasped. They turned to him.

"Are you crazy?! You can't ride your bike without a bike helmet."

"You'll fall!" Flora put in.

"It's a risk I must take. Don't worry; I'll be careful."

"But Luke, Arianna went all the way to her house, and lent me her brother's, because she was concerned for my safety." Arianna nodded.

"And now I'm concerned with yours." She said.

"Same with me. "Luke, you need a…"

"Look," Luke began. "We don't have time. The culprit could strike again. We need to…"

"You better listen to your friends, Fluke." A familiar voice interrupted. The kids gasped as they saw Clyde emerge from the bushes. He had Luke's helmet in his hands.

"Clyde!" Luke said, surprised. "What are you doing here? You hate the library."

"Yeah," Flora added. "You said that "reading are for wimps"!"

"I do hate them." Clyde agreed. "But, I had to check out a book for my Mum." The kids ahhed.

"Aw; that's nice." Luke said. Clyde looked mad.

"I'm not a mumma's boy!"

"Surrreee you aren't." Flora said.

"I'm not!" Luke then noticed his helmet.

"My bike helmet!" He cried.

"Give it back to him, Clyde!" Arianna demanded of him. "He needs his helmet for safety."

"Oh, I'll give it back to him all right." Luke tried to grab it, but Clyde took it away. "If you answer me one question."

"What question is that?" Flora asked.

"Okay, Clyde." Luke told him. "What do you want to know?"

"What were you three doing on the computers printing all of those maps?" The kids gasped at this.

"You were spying on us?" Flora wanted to know. Luke sneered at him.

"It's not your concern." He told the bully.

"Oh, I think it is, Fluke. Are you running away from your parents because you are all grounded for playing hooky?" Luke clenched his fist.

"No."

"Then what are you…"

"If you must know we're all going to solve the mystery of who shot Professor Layton at the art museum." Clyde just looked at him, and burst out laughing.

"You all? You won't be able to solve this; leave this to the professionals."

"We can do it, and we will." Clyde laughed again.

"Good luck! Do your parents know about this?" There was no answer. "They don't?! Oh, you are in so much trouble! You're be grounded for months!"

"And you won't tell, will you?" Clyde shrugged.

"I might, I might not. I can't promise anything." He was also to leave on his bike, when Luke cleared his throat. Clyde looked at him, and noticed his outstretched hand.

"What?!" He then realized something. "Oh, you want the helmet. Here, think fast!" He threw it at Luke's stomach. He lost his balance, and was about to fall on his bottom, when Arianna caught him. She helped him up. Clyde strapped on his bike helmet.

"Thanks." Luke thanked her. He was about to shout at Clyde, when he saw that he and his bike were already gone. He sighed. "Come on, let's go home before our parents realize we're missing." They all put on their helmets, unlocked their bikes, and rode to their houses.

As Flora and Luke rode home, they noticed police by their house.

"Oh no!" Luke said to himself. He and Flora quickly got off their bike, and put it away. They tiptoed to the gathering of the police officers.

What Luke and Flora saw next confirmed Luke's fear. His mom was crying, and Mr. Triton was comforting her. They thought Luke had run away.