Hard Hat by Bonnie Bryant Page A

sending her receipts for all the work he’s done,” said Mrs. Evans.
    “I think you could more correctly refer to that as the work he’s
claimed
to have done,” said Detective Martin.
    “See, what we found there were dozens of files. In fact,there was a whole room of filing cabinets and cartons that were filled with papers about work he’d been paid for at that house and at several other sites. This guy is a big-time fraud. I mean, big-time. Frank Justin is the man’s name, and he’s got a guy who works with him named Maurice Ayers. We’d thought there was some funny business going on for a while, since the buildings department found a pattern of problems with work he’s done. We couldn’t prove anything, though. We suspected bribery and extortion plus outright fraud, but there was no concrete evidence. Until last night.”
    Detective Martin continued the story. “What we found when we got into the house is enough evidence to send these guys up the river for a very long time. One interesting thing was that there was evidence of a fire, indicating the likelihood of some sort of insurance fraud scheme as well. These men are bad, big-time, and last night’s investigation is the culmination of a major effort on our part. It seems ironic that the whole thing came together just because one mounted policeman thought he heard someone calling for help. Can you imagine that?”
    Stevie could imagine that.
    “Of course, since we’ve had them under investigation,we knew where to find them. They’ve both been apprehended and are in custody now.”
    Apprehended
. That meant arrested. That meant that the two people they’d caught weren’t Peter and Ann. It was Frank and Maurice.
So what about Peter and Ann?
Stevie thought.
    “These guys were into a lot of things,” said Detective Martin. “And last night’s investigation suggests there’s another side to this, too.”
    That was when he looked at the backpack and then at Regina.
    “Do you recognize this backpack?” he asked.
    Stevie could tell that Regina was wrestling with the truth. However, since the backpack had a large ID tag, and Regina’s name and address were clearly written on it, there didn’t seem to be much point in trying to deny it.
    “Why, that’s mine!” she said as if she’d just recognized it.
    “We thought so,” said Detective Martin. “This was found in the room where all the evidence was stored,” he continued.
    Stevie thought it best to say nothing and wait. Regina must’ve thought the same thing.
    “It’s a good thing that all he got was your backpack,”said Detective Eaken. “That’s one bad man, and if he wanted to get more, he’d find a way.”
    “Anyhow,” said Detective Martin, “I’m sure you’ll be glad to have that back. It had some food in it and some candles and flashlights, which our lab is going over, but it also contained some math homework, and the lab boys thought you’d be glad to have that back.”
    “Thank you,” Regina squeaked.
    “We thought you wouldn’t want your math homework to get into the wrong hands,” said Detective Martin.
    And then he winked.
    Stevie was sure of it. It was definitely a wink and it was definitely aimed at Regina and herself and not at either of the mothers. The detective
winked!
    The men stood up. “Thank you, ladies,” he said to the mothers and girls. “We’re awfully sorry to disturb your morning, but we wanted to return this stolen property to its rightful owner.”
    Stevie and Regina stood up, too—it was the polite thing to do—even though it was very hard because their knees were shaking.
    “Um, we don’t think we’ll need any further involvement from the girls,” said Detective Martin. “I’msure we’ll have enough evidence to convict those guys for fraud without going into the issue of backpack theft. We wouldn’t want to subject these nice girls to any unnecessary court appearances.”
    “Of course not,” said Mrs. Evans. She escorted the men