They canceled school. They couldn’t get around my passwords, which surprised me. Pedlam blasted through my walls within an hour. The house was empty when I got there, but that wasn’t surprising. Shelly and Kevin had left a message the night before to tell us they wouldn’t be home till the following week, but the neighbor would be checking in daily. When I played it for Austin the next morning, he let out a whoop of joy and said he was headed back to his friend’s house. Mandy burst back into tears.
It was hours later when I heard people downstairs. As I left my bedroom, I heard Mandy giggling. “We can get so much done now that we have the whole day off. I heard it was Mark Jenkins and his gang.”
“I heard it was Tyler Guerros.”
I paused on the stairs.
“Whatever. We all know who was behin
