Read Online The Inside Job by Jackson Pearce - Free Book Online Page A

SRS.”
    No one else weighed in, not even after we got back to the farmhouse—I wasn’t sure if this was because they believed me, because they believed Otter, or because they just didn’t want to get in the middle of it. Instead we sat down at the kitchen table and sorted through the lists of birthday party attendees, Hastings’s family friends, and household staff. By dinner I’d memorized nearly all of them.
    â€œI just don’t see any history that makes me think these people would steal,” Beatrix said for the thousandth time, shaking her head as she looked at photos of the party attendees. She’d easily grabbed them off the Internet—as it turns out, famous people get their pictures taken a lot.
    â€œThe friends, at least, are superrich. They can probably make a crime disappear,” I said. “Especially if they weren’t stealing the art to sell, but just to keep. There was some guy who stole two hundred paintings once just because he was trying to put together a personal collection.”
    â€œRight!” Kennedy said brightly—she hadn’t been able to contribute much, and seemed pumped to know something. “He got caught, and his mom tore them all up to try and hide the evidence!”
    Ben looked horrified. “Really? Two hundred paintings? I don’t know what I’d do if someone tore up all my blueprints. How do you two know all that?”
    My voice hitched, so Kennedy wound up beating me to the punch. “Our parents told us the story.”
    And then we all fell silent again, because by this point, everyone had heard Otter’s theory about my parents’ thieving past. No one believed it, of course—at least, I hoped no one did.
    â€œThey knew a lot about a lot of stuff,” I said swiftly. “It doesn’t mean anything. Agent Otter never much liked my parents. I think he’s just trying to blame them, and we’ll end up wasting time following that, got it? Let’s focus.”
    Kennedy took a big breath and then looked around the room. “I think Hale’s right. Let’s go through the list and start clearing people who were in the house twenty years ago.”
    Walter clapped his hands. “All right, yeah. I trust you, Hale. You got us this far, right?”
    I tapped the table, trying to hype myself back up. “Okay, so—tomorrow. Kennedy, why don’t you visit the people who used to work in the house? Just nose around, get some preliminary information. Ben, want to go with her?”
    Ben whooped. “Yes! It’ll be perfect for me to test out the BEN-ray gun. It’s sort of an X-ray gun. It’ll send a digital X-ray photo to Beatrix’s Right Hand. If we’re able to get into anyone’s house, we can X-ray safes or secret rooms to get a look inside. Plus I think I’ve gotten the misfires down to just one every ten shots, really.”
    â€œGood. Be careful. With the BEN-ray gun, I mean,” I said. Ben looked a little affronted but then nodded reluctantly. Kennedy gave me a thumbs-up and a grin.
    â€œAnd then, Beatrix—I’ll need you to run mission control from here for me and Walter. We have all the comm devices here, right?”
    â€œYep, Ben and I packed them all,” Beatrix said.
    â€œAll right. We need those, and we need suits or something.”
    â€œSuits? Are we going on a fancy date?” Walter asked, leaning his chair onto its legs. He balanced there for a moment and then tipped back to the floor.
    â€œWe’re going to the Geneva Country Club,” I said.
    When Otter woke up the next morning, Kennedy and Ben were already on their way to visit the homes of a few retired Hastings employees—a maid or two, and the butler. Beatrix had rerouted a dry-cleaning delivery to the
poney
farm, so Walter and I had suits on the way, and she’d also secured us cover identities—we were going in as the sons of some sort of