Rita Loud had corralled her eight remaining children by the large tree in the front yard. Lori was away at golf practice. Luna was practicing with her band at the home of one of the other members. After Luan had been taken to the police station the other kids had wanted to cancel whatever plans they had going on for that day, but she had insisted they go about their daily routine, thinking it would keep their minds off what was happening to Luan. Lori and Luna were the only ones with plans that afternoon though.

The police had been searching the Loud's house for an hour now. They had not discussed anything they had discovered or thought they had discovered with Rita. At the start of the search, Rita had stood in the living room to watch, but they had not permitted her to go into the other rooms and would not answer any of her questions, just referring her to the search warrant she held in her hands. She had decided to join her kids around the tree to keep them calm and in one spot.

The kids had bombarded her with questions about what was going on in the house. They were all aware of why the police were there, Rita had explained the situation to them. She really couldn't say more than the police were searching all the rooms, she didn't know more than that. She didn't know exactly what they were looking for, other than possibly the bracelet.

With Lily sitting on her lap, Rita and the seven other kids sat shoulder-to-shoulder, backs against the tree. Rita had positioned herself so she could watch the front door. Lisa sat to her left, Lincoln to her right. Lucy sat next to Lincoln. The eleven and eight-year-olds were squished together watching the house closely.

"This is such bull-!" Lincoln started to say, loudly.

"Lincoln, language!" Rita exclaimed.

"Well it is," he said, falling silent again.

"We have to do something to help Luan," Lincoln whispered to Lucy.

"But what can we do?" she replied. "They won't let us in the house."

"You can get in there unseen," Lincoln said quietly, looking to make sure his mother wasn't listening. "You sneak in and out without being seen all the time."

"Mom might notice that I am gone."

"I'll cover for you."

"Fine, this could be fun," Lucy said, smirking

Lucy peaked down from the second floor hallway air vent at the police. There were two uniformed officers on the first floor and two uniformed officers plus a female detective in plain clothes on the second floor. The detective was standing in the hallway at the top of the stair, talking on a cell phone. It sounded to Lucy that she was talking to her boss. The other two officers were in Luna and Luan's room and Lisa and Lily's rooms, one in each.

The Gothic girl crept silently to the air vent in Luna and Luan's room. The officer there was going through Luan's chest where she kept her Funny Business equipment. He had most of the items laid out on the floor separately. The girls' closet was open. All the clothes were still hung up, but anything that had been on the floor, such as shoes, or anything that had been on the shelf above the clothes had been taken out of the closet and laid out on the floor like Luan's business supplies.

Lucy noticed that there was a small pile of nylon bags on Luan's bureau. They all appeared to be empty, but on the floor by the door, there were a few bags lined up. They had been sealed up with red tape and she could see that there were items inside the bags, but she couldn't tell what they were. Her attention was drawn by the female detective entering the room, having finished her phone call.

"Mr. Loud has lawyered up," she said. "Jim said that they got through most of the interrogation before the father asked for one."

"I'm nearly done with this room, Detective," the officer said. "No sign of the bracelet. Found two lock picking kits in here in addition to the one found in the older girls' room and the one found in the goth kid's room."

"Dang it," Lucy thought. "That set cost me four months' allowance."

"Also found a dozen sets of cloth gloves, most are white, but there are some black ones, red, ones purple ones," the officer continued. "There is also a single white, left hand glove. I have yet to find its mate. It was under the bureau here."

"The lock pick sets are in these bags?" the detective asked.

"Yes, one in each. I also found a set of antique skeleton keys. They were in the goth girl's room."

"Dang it," Lucy thought, again. "I've spent a lot of time collecting those."

"Skeleton keys?" the detective repeated, picking up the bag that contained them. "They wouldn't fit in that safe lock."

"I realize that, but the search warrant called for anything that could open locks without the lock's specific key."

"It's a long shot with these."

"True, but we can return them later," the officer said, finishing laying out the items from Luan's chest. "Better to have them and not need them than the other way around."

The second uniformed officer from the second floor walked into the room at that moment.

"Det. Amos, I've finished with that room," he said, shaking his head. "To be honest, I think we need to call the bomb squad."

"Why do you say that?" Det. Amos asked, looking alarmed.

"There is a very advanced chemistry set in that room. There are chemicals in beakers all over the place. I don't know what any of it is, but it could be dangerous."

"Very well, let's clear the building."

She grabbed the bagged gloves, keys and lock picks and the three of them headed out of the room and down the stairs, shouting at the other officers to vacate the house as well.

Lucy quickly made her way out of the air ducts and joined her family out by the tree. She jogged up to Lincoln and stood next to him as Det. Amos confronted Rita.

"Mrs. Loud, one of my officers has informed me that there are some potentially dangerous chemicals in one of your upstairs bedrooms along with an advanced chemistry set. Care to explain that? I've already instructed him to call the state police's bomb squad."

"Oh, that is mine," Lisa said, stepping forward, adjusting her glasses on her nose. "I can assure you, there are no volatile chemicals in the house at this time."

"At this time?" Det. Amos exclaimed. "Mrs. Loud you allow your children to have volatile chemicals?"

"Well, I don't necessarily encourage her having dangerous chemicals, Lisa has a PhD and is a Nobel Laureate. She knows the proper procedure for handling these chemicals. I do encourage her to explore and expand her mind, as I do with all my children."

Det. Amos opened and closed her mouth like a fish, no sound coming forth for several moments. When she finally found her voice she said,

"How old is this child?"

"I am four years of age," Lisa responded.

"I saw her degrees on the wall," the officer who had searched her room spoke up.

Det. Amos looked at Lisa in complete disbelief.

"That's-that's-that's absolutely amazing," Det. Amos said.

Lisa smiled with pleasure.

"Why, thank you," she said.

Det. Amos cleared her throat.

"Well, anyways, I'm still going to have the bomb squad check everything out. Better safe than sorry," she paused. "Now, I remember where I've heard of this street. I know that there have been some explosions reported on this street."

"Yes, a few of my experiments got out of hand," Lisa said, a hint of guilt in her voice. "They weren't in vain though, I was able to adjust my calculations and have never made the same mistake twice on a single experiment."

"Glad to hear it," Det. Amos muttered.

The bomb squad showed up about fifteen minute later and Rita and the Loud kids watched in fascination as a half dozen men and women filed out of an armored van. They were all wearing body armor and round helmets with clear plastic face guards. One of the officers opened a hatch on the side of the van and pulled out two heavy and thick body suits.

"Hah, Luna and Lori are gonna be sorry they missed this!" Lana shouted, excitedly.

"Yah, too bad the popcorn is in the house!" Lynn Jr exclaimed. "This is better than the movies!"

Once the two officers had put on the puffy armor they entered the house, talking back and forth the rest of the bomb squad on ear mounted mouth pieces.

Lincoln took Lucy to the side.

"What did you find out?" he whispered.

"They took all the lock picks, mine, Luan's and Leni's, and my collection of antique skeleton keys. They also have all of Luan's gloves they could find. Said they couldn't find a right glove though. Don't know what that means."

"Oh that is interesting."

Lincoln and Lucy jumped at the sound of their mother's voice from immediately behind them. They turned to face her, a guilty look on Lincoln's face. Lucy was wearing her usual blank slate expression, unreadable.

"Yah, I noticed your little whispering session at the tree," Rita said, crossing her arms. "I also noticed that you disappeared, Lucy. I figured you were going to get information from the house. I know my children well."

"Sorry?" Lincoln offered her.

"I know you aren't, and don't worry, I am not mad at you. I wanted to know what they were up to as well," Rita took a deep breath. "We'll just have to see how this plays out."

"I also heard Det. Amos say that dad has asked for an attorney."

"Things are probably not going well at the station then," Rita sighed. "I just can't fathom why anyone would consider Luan as a suspect. The stupid bracelet probably just fell behind a bureau at the Cranes' house. Or, how about the housekeepers? They would know where the bracelet was kept."

Rita walked over to the detective.

"Det. Amos, now that we have some time on our hands, I would like some answers to my questions," Rita said. "I won't take no for an answer. You people come in and disrupt our lives, accuse my fourteen year old daughter of a nasty crime and say nothing to me other than 'read the warrant.' This piece of paper isn't giving me the answers I need," she waggled the papers in the detective's face as she spoke that sentence, "I deserve and my children deserve an explanation!"

"Very well, if you will take a step back, Mrs. Loud," Det. Amos said. "I will try to answer your questions."

Rita complied, and took two steps back.

"What would you like to know, Mrs. Loud?"

"Why do they think Luan stole the bracelet?"

"Luan is capable of picking locks, as demonstrated in her magic act from the party," the detective began. "I don't know of many people, let alone kids who can do that…"

"I can," Leni piped up, thoughtlessly. "I taught Luan and Lucy to do it."

Rita shot her daughter a dark look.

"Ok then, anyways," Det. Amos continued. "The bracelet was kept in a safe opened with a key. The lock to the safe showed signs of being picked open. Your daughter was alone on the second floor for some time before and after the party. She instigated a search of the house and property, stated it was for her missing rabbit, but no one can verify if that is true…"

"I can," Lincoln interrupted. "I found Gary by the garbage cans. He was terrified of something."

"Also, Luan has motive. The Cranes didn't pay her her full fee."

"What about fingerprints on the safe?" Rita asked. "Surely, there would be some."

"The safe was dusted for prints," Det. Amos said. "No prints not belonging to the adult Cranes were found, but your daughter was seen wearing gloves, white gloves during her act. The absence of her fingerprints do not clear her in this case."

Rita shook her head and gave an exasperated sigh.

"You just don't understand. Luan simply wouldn't do that. No matter what the Cranes did to her, she…would…not…do that!"

"I wish I could take your word for it, Mrs. Loud, but I can't. Luan is a viable suspect at this time. If she is innocent, I'm sure we will be able to prove that."

"Prove her innocence?" Rita scoffed. "Isn't it, prove her guilt?"

"You know what I mean, Mrs. Loud."

Rita and Det. Amos increasingly heated exchange was interrupted by the reemergence of the two bomb squad technicians that had entered the house.

"All clear," one of them called out. "We've cleared out all the chemicals. They weren't dangerous, but there's no need for them to be in a child's room."

"Tch, there does a week of hard work," Lisa grumbled from somewhere behind Rita.

The bomb squad left and Det. Amos and her officers resumed their search. They had been close to finishing when the officer had warned the detective about the chemicals. Lucy watched them from the vents, but didn't learn anything new or useful to her and her family.

The sun was just about to be swallowed by the horizon and he officers and Det. Amos were getting into their vehicles to leave, lock pick sets, keys and gloves with them, as another patrol vehicle pulled up. The officer driving was not known to the Loud family. He got out of the car and opened the back, passenger side door. Lynn Sr. and Luan stepped out. Their family immediately swarmed them, hugging them and peppering them with questions.

Luan remained silent, but accepted hugs from her siblings before finally latching onto her mother, who held her tightly to her chest. Lynn Sr. would only say that Luan had been cited and released, but couldn't leave town. She was still being charged with the theft. Lynn was appalled by what went on at the house while he was gone.

No one felt like cooking, so they ordered pizza. Once the food had arrived and slices had been handed out to everyone, no one touched their food. After staring at their food for a half an hour everyone just went to their respective beds. No one felt like eating or even talking about the events of the day. They were all just too tired. Lori and Luna had missed the search of the house and bomb squad, but even they felt muted and in shock. They admitted that they had not been able to concentrate at their activities.

Lincoln had been lying in his bed for around two hours, unable to fall asleep. His attention was caught by some rustling coming from the door to his closet bedroom. He rolled over to see what the noise was. It was Lucy. She was quietly closing the door behind her.

"What's the matter, Lucy?"

"I think we should work together again. I think Luan needs our help to find out what happened."

Lincoln thought for a moment.

"Like we did on the Princess Pony case?"

"Yes."

"But remember, you were the perpetrator on that case."

Lucy's face remained unreadable, but her tone of voice signaled that she was slightly offended by Lincoln's comment.

"It won't be like that. I didn't steal the bracelet and neither did Luan."

Lincoln smiled slightly.

"I think it's a good idea. We'll start the investigation tomorrow."