"You were right, Linc, she is here," Luan said, barely believing what she was seeing.

Luan, Lincoln and Lucy were lying flat on the ground behind a leafy hedge. Twenty feet in front of them sat Lyra on a bench, right where Mr. Crane had said he'd met with her. On her lap she held a well-used handkerchief in both hands. The teenager was looking at the ground. It was obvious that she had been crying.

They had gone to stake out her house first before coming to the park. Lincoln had argued with his sisters for the entire hour they were there, trying to make his case of checking the park bench for Lyra. His thought was, the girl had a habit of holding onto things and might go to visit the bench as a way to come to terms with what had happened. Luan and Lucy had finally given in and followed him to the park.

"What should we do?" Luan asked. "Remember what happened yesterday."

"We should call the police," Lucy said. "Or at least get dad."

"We'll police," Luan said. "They are looking for her anyway. Lucy, run home and call them. We will keep an eye on her."

Lucy crept away silently.

I really hope she doesn't move, Lincoln thought.

As if she knew what the boy was thinking, Lyra got up and started walking towards the street. Luan turned to Lincoln.

"Linc, let's follow her carefully, see where she goes."

They waited until Lyra was about twenty feet ahead of them before they quietly started walking behind her. The fifteen-year-old was wearing the grey sweatshirt that had been described by witnesses, her hands were shoved in the front pocket. They were walking in the direction of Luan and Lincoln's house. The siblings knew they would have to be very careful. There was little cover to hide behind in the front lawns of the homes they passed by.

Crunch

Luan's blood froze. She looked down to see what she had stepped on. Someone had swept gravel onto the sidewalk. She looked back up, first a glance at Lincoln and then ahead to where Lyra was staring at them with wide eyes.

"Lyra, please…" Luan started to say, but Lyra turned and shot off down the street.

"Not again!" Lincoln said, taking off after her.

The duo took off after Lyra, and like the day before, Lyra was easily able to out run the Loud kids. But this time, they didn't have to run very far. They were running along the street the Loud's house was located on and several of the Loud children had already noticed their approach. As Lyra drew up even with the large tree in the kids' front yard, Leni's homemade net emerged from behind it, enveloping the fifteen-year-old. The large net twisted around Lyra as she tried to keep running and get free from it at the same time. She cried out as she tripped and fell sideways into the long grass of the yard.

Leni and Lori stepped out from behind the tree, impish grins on their faces. They walked over to gloat over the struggling Lyra, who was just further entangling herself in the rag net as she moved. Lucy and Lynn Sr. came running down the front steps from the house. Lynn had the phone in one hand and Lily in the other.

"Yah, never mind about finding them at the park, they are in the front yard of my house now…Shush, Lily, dadda's on the phone," Lynn was saying into the phone, trying to quiet Lily, who was squealing in delight and pointing at Lyra.

By now Luna and Lynn Jr. had joined Lynn Sr., Lori, Leni, Luan, Lincoln, Lucy and Lily in a circle around Lyra. The girl had finally realized the futility of trying to free herself from the finely crafted net and lay still on the ground, sniffling softly.

"Can someone please get me out of this thing?" she asked.

"Not until the police are here," Lori shouted at her. "You've caused enough trouble."

"Yah, I can't believe I ever thought you were my friend," Leni said.

A minute later, two vehicles pulled up next to the house, one was a police cruiser and the other was a grey SUV. A uniformed officer stepped out of the patrol car and Det. Paulson and Det. Mason stepped out of the other. Lynn Sr. and the officer untangled Lyra from the net and helped her stand up. The officer handcuffed the girl in hopes it would dissuade her from running away. Det. Mason read Lyra her rights. The two detectives explained they had heard the call on their police radio and came straight over. During this time, another vehicle had arrived, juvenile probation officer Olivia Munson stepped out and joined the group.

"Is everyone alright?" Munson asked. "I heard about what happened yesterday with Miss Douglas. The dispatch center just called me to come out to deal with her."

"Yes, we are fine," Luan said.

Munson turned to Lyra, shaking her head and looking sad.

"I had such high hopes for you Lyra, we all did."

Lyra had previously had an angry and defiant look on her face. Her expression fell into one of sorrow and regret at Munson's words.

"I'm sorry, Ms. Munson. I didn't mean for things to go this way," she said, barely above a whisper.

"What happened, Lyra?" Munson asked.

"I got my mom's stuff finally. I found out my father's name."

"What do you mean?" Munson asked. "Tell me what led to all this."

"Well, you all know that I am adopted, the Douglas' are not my biological parents. They were originally my foster parents and then they finally adopted me. It just became official. I love my adoptive family so much, but I wanted to know more about where I came from. My mom, my real mom, never said who my biological father was. All I remember is a couple times when she referred to him as a worthless two-timer who abandoned us before I was born. She got really into drugs sometime after she had me and I was taken away from her when I was five. She never got it back together and finally signed away her parental rights when I was eight. I was too young to know what went on with the courts trying to find my biological father.

"She died about eight months ago and she apparently had a storage locker. There was just junk in it, but I found my original birth certificate and some other papers and returned letters. The birth certificate said my father was Alvin Crane, and in the papers and letters, it named Alvin Crane as my father. For some reason or another, I'd never been able to locate my birth record before. In the letters, my mom was begging him to come back to her and to help raise me. She sounded so desperate. It made me so angry at him when I read those letters, what she went through. I decided to get him the benefit of the doubt and reach out to him, maybe it wasn't all his fault. Maybe he had a change of heart and even though I have a new family now, we could be friends. I did the DNA test like he asked. I am his daughter, but he would have nothing to do with me. He rejected me like he did my mother."

Tears were flowing down Lyra's face and she was shaking with rage as she kept talking.

"He rejected me. Said I was just some state charity case wanting money! I didn't need or want his money! I just wanted revenge after that! I acted on impulse that day, stepping inside that house, I know I did the wrong thing. On day of the party, I saw my chance. I saw how he lived, how his son lived…my brother. I lived in foster care for so many years, going from house to house before I came to the Douglas' house when I was seven. Not knowing if I was going to be able to stay with them, with any of them. Most of the foster families, were OK, many were just overcrowded. Some of them were really nice to me, but I always had to move for a long time. It always made me very angry.

"So, I snuck inside the Crane house. No one noticed with the number of people there. I searched around and couldn't find anything. I thought I got caught when I nearly walked into Ben Crane harassing something in a pet carrier in one of the bedrooms, it was making a strange shrieking sound. Anyway, I had just gone into the master bedroom when Alvin Crane entered. I had just enough time to dive under the bed and hide. He walked into the closet and opened the safe that was in there. I saw him pull the bracelet from his shirt pocket. He looked at it and grinned before putting it inside the safe. When he left and I was sure no one else would be coming in, I picked the lock in the safe and took the bracelet. I didn't know that the diamonds were fake. I also didn't know that Luan would be blamed. I am sorry about that, Luan. I returned it because I thought maybe the police would ease up on you. I just used a bag I found in your garbage. I had the bracelet in my pocket that day. I didn't know it would have your prints on it and make things even worse. I am so sorry."

Luan said nothing.

The Loud family watched as Lyra was loaded into the back of the patrol car and Munson and the patrol car pulled away. The detectives left after assuring Mr. Loud and Luan that they would immediately start the proceedings for dropping the charges against Luan on their end. They warned the family that it could take some time though. They also praised Lincoln and Lucy for their thorough investigation of Luan's case, saying that they could have a bright future in law enforcement or in the courtroom as attorneys or prosecutors if they chose to go into those fields.

As the detectives pulled away, all the Louds present could be seen hugging Luan tightly.