Read Online Creeping with the Enemy by Kimberly Reid - Free Book Online

you?”
    â€œHell no, I wasn’t involved. I can’t believe you would even ask me that. You know I’m straight now, getting my GED and all. I can’t say how I know about it, I just do.”
    I figure it’s no use pressing MJ for more, not now anyway. But if she knows something, I might be able to get it out of her by telling her what had me up so early thinking about Cole.
    â€œNot that I’m an expert on robberies or anything, since this was the first one I’ve ever been in, but the whole thing felt off to me.”
    â€œOff like how?” MJ asks.
    â€œHow it happened in broad daylight, for one thing.”
    â€œRobberies happen during the day all the time,” MJ says. “My ex tried to rob that bank in the middle of the day.”
    She’s talking about the robbery that got her a two-year stint in juvie. I don’t bring up the fact we’ve already determined her ex wasn’t the brightest gangster out there, but stay focused on the bodega robbery.
    â€œTrue, but everyone in Denver Heights knows that Friday afternoon is the absolute worst time to hold up the Center Street bodega because it’s always packed with people buying tamales. But that day, the Friday Freebie line wasn’t going out the door even with half an hour to go until they returned to full price.”
    â€œThat don’t mean anything. Maybe Tastee Treets was running a special and everyone was over there instead.”
    â€œMaybe. But then the regular cashier, the one who has always been there since I started high school or something, wasn’t there.”
    â€œThat’s ’cause he’s the owner’s nephew,” MJ says.
    â€œHuh?”
    â€œI mean that’s why the same guy was always there. It’s a family-owned business and the whole family works all the time.”
    â€œI guess maybe you do know the owner.”
    â€œI said I did,” MJ says, sounding even more defensive than usual. Then she softens her tone and adds, “Big Mama knows the owner, okay? That’s how come they let me in the store before opening.”
    That’s plausible. Big Mama knows everyone. The owner is about the age of her average customer—MJ’s grandmother runs an illegal betting game called the Numbers. She’s sort of like the Godfather of Aurora Avenue, except she’s gray-haired and she would never kill anyone. I don’t think.
    â€œWhether you know him or not, you have to admit it’s coincidental that he picks the very day of the robbery to take time off. So did the lady who usually helps out on Fridays. And who is this new cashier, anyway? When did they hire him—just in time for the nephew to take the day off? Then they make him start work—alone—on the busiest day of the week. It’s also curious that I haven’t seen him in there since.”
    â€œFirst you ask if I’m involved. Now you think Eddie had something to do with it?”
    â€œWho is Eddie?” MJ has me totally confused.
    â€œLook,” MJ says, pointing behind me. “I see your bus coming.”
    I turn around and see the bus, but it’s still two blocks away, and I really want to know whether Eddie is the owner’s nephew, the new cashier, or someone entirely new in this convoluted story MJ’s telling. And why the nephew wasn’t there that day and why the new guy was gone when the cops arrived after Ada called them. Most importantly, I want to know what MJ knows and why she’s holding out on me, but by the time I turn around to ask her, she’s twenty yards down the block, yelling, “Catch you later, Chanti.”
    Â 
    As if this robbery wasn’t strange enough already, now I can add MJ somehow being connected to the list of oddities. Cole showing up in the middle of it looking like he got lost on his way to a polo match might actually be the least bizarre part of the weirdness. That’s what I’m