Page 71 of Don't Cross Mo Ellery

But I know that every time it comes out to $11,500. (Except for that one time I missed a bill and it was $11,400.)

And it is in stacks all over my floor.

No wonder Tond wanted it back. I, too, would want to recover $11.5K in cash stuffed into an envelope with my literal initials on it. Especially if it happened to be lying on the floor of a dead woman’s house.

The dogs sniffed at the cash, and then daintily settled themselves down, and now I’m wondering if this sort of thing is normal for them. Because it is not normal for me. On the contrary, I amfreaking out.

Whydoes this neighborhood run on murder and bribery??

I’m just about to count it again when my buzzer goes off and I jump about a mile in the air. It’s fine, I tell myself. Just a package delivery or something.

Not that I’m about to buzz anyone in while I have all this cash lying around like a friggin’ drug kingpin.

I ignore the buzzer and sit still in my chair. They’ll just go away. They’ll leave the package outside the door and go away.

I believe this for about two minutes, until someone bangson my actual apartment door. A thousand warnings flash through my head, the loudest of which isHide the money!So I rocket out of the chair, scoop an armful of hundred-dollar bills off the floor, and run to the bathroom, dumping it all in the tub. It takes me a few trips, and all the while someone is banging down my door.Goddamnit, Sheila, if you let this person in and I get arrested or murdered here, I am going to haunt this place so bad you and Roy never rent it again.

Once I’ve got all the money in the tub, I swing by the kitchen counter, grab the knife I’d used to open the envelope, and then head to the door. I look out of the peephole, clutching the knife in my sweaty fist. The person at my door is younger than I’m expecting.

Marlowe.

A very mad Marlowe. I put down the knife.

“Open up, Mo,” her voice comes from the other side of the door. “I know you’re in there. I’ve tracked your phone.”

I open the door and try to position myself in the doorway to keep her from coming in, but she breezes past me. She takes a look around at the boxes and the piles of clothes and shoots me a look of disgust.

“I just moved in,” I say meekly.

“Whatever.” She shrugs and plops down in my pink chair. “I can’t believe you lied to my mom.”

“You lied to your mom first,” I say, shutting the door and slumping back against it. “But for real, Marlowe. If I told your mom the truth, I guarantee we would not be working together anymore. And I can’t afford to get sued, okay?” I take a deep breath. “Also, Ithought something really scary was happening to you. Two people have beenmurdered. You can’t blame me for being relieved it was just your mom.”

Her expression softens. “I guess. Anyway, they couldn’t hold me for long. Fake internship for the win.”

“School isn’tjail, you know,” I say.

She ignores that and continues. “I’m here because I thought you might want to know: I sent the video to the cops during recess. And I got to thinking— If Benny really is getting a kickback, I figured I might find evidence in his apartment. So after math class, I staked the place out.”

Is it possible that I amhersidekick? No, I refuse to accept that. I am the grown-up! I am the grown-up!

“Marlowe.” Also this kid is going to give me a stress migraine. “First of all, you should not have gone on astakeoutalone. You absolutely can’t do that again.”

She raises an eyebrow. “And second?”

I sigh. “Second, what did you find out?”

Marlowe grins and makes me wait for a moment—this kid is such a little dirtbag. Finally, after she’s milked the moment as much as she can, she says, “Well, I didn’t get a chance to pick the locks and look around because the cops beat me there. They took Benny in for questioning.”

This is amazing. I can’t believe it. We did it. The cops might just take this whole thing more seriously.

“Now he’ll get all jammed up,” Marlowe adds viciously. “Just like he deserves.”

I pause. “I’m sorry? What now?”

“You get brought in for questioning in the city, you get jammed up. Rolled.Burged.”

“Still not sure what you mean.”