“We can’t send it to the cops,” Teddy decided. “It’s not like they’ll thank us for helping after the last time.”
Anna asked, “Well, then, assuming we get the evidence, who do we give it to?”
“How about the Commerce Eye?” Teddy said. And why not?
She researched the judge, Roland, found his house—a very nice brownstone in the Upper Hill neighborhood. They would stand out, walking around in all black, so they’d have to keep to backstreets to get there. She studied his pictures, his schedule, whatever she could glean from websites and news stories. Fortunately, with the news about the case being dismissed there was quite a lot out there. He didn’t have much in his history suggesting he’d been bought by the drug lord. He was considered fair, if a bit of a hard-liner. Maybe they were wrong about him, and Scarzen really had been let go for a good reason. Maybe they were just looking for trouble. But that wasn’t what her instincts said. And one thing all the superhero memoirs said—and even her mother when she was talking about a business deal—was that you should listen to your instincts. If something didn’t feel right, it meant something was probably wrong.
Unless you were a paranoid schizophrenic like Plasma. But never mind.
If they didn’t find anything at Judge Roland’s house, then no harm, no foul. But if they did, they were justified.
They were getting better at this. Anna hesitated to call them “good” just yet. But they didn’t have to spend as much time on logistics, and they no longer fumbled putting on their masks.
They made excuses about studying at the library for a group project and took the bus. With her power, Anna had a bead on the judge, who was due to be out of the house for a legal society dinner, along with his wife. He was a social guy and went out most nights, they didn’t have any live-in staff and their kids were grown and out of the house, so the place would be empty. It would also likely have an alarm—so they wouldn’t go in through the door. Teddy would climb the fire escape behind the building and phase through the back wall.
Anna played a more active role this time, as lookout rather than just navigator. They had exactly until the Rolands returned home from their dinner, and Anna would have to say when that was. Teddy would set his phone to vibrate, and she’d call him to give a warning.
They arrived earlier than they expected and had to wait in the clean-swept alley behind the brownstones for the Rolands to leave. They seemed to take forever, and she and Teddy huddled in the shadow next to a Dumpster.
She explained for the millionth time the kind of thing he needed to look for: bank statements, hidden safes, weird-looking deposit slips, anything that didn’t look like it belonged. Take pictures of everything, put it all back the way he found it.
“How am I supposed to know what’s weird looking?” he argued in a whisper.
“I don’t know,” she argued back. “Haven’t you ever seen a bank statement or balance sheet? They just look a certain way.”
“Easy for you to say, your mom’s a financial genius. My parents are a librarian and a mechanic, I’ve never seen a bank statement in my life.”
She sighed. “You’re looking for numbers with a lot of zeros after them.”
“Okay, fine. Are they gone yet?”
They were lingering by the front door, and she couldn’t tell why, only that they weren’t moving. “No.”
They sat side by side on the concrete pavement. The ground was cold, and the air had a crystalline feel to it, like it was about to snow. She thought of Teia, but Lady Snow and the Trinity weren’t out tonight. They were at home, where they were catching up on sleep like sane people. She and Teia hadn’t talked in days. Anna kept waiting for her friend to call, but she never did, and Anna didn’t want to be the one to back down.
She wrapped her coat tighter around her and hugged her knees. Teddy started tapping his foot. The alley was quiet, which should have been a relief. No one was going to find them back here. But she’d be happier once they had what they came for and moved on.
When she shivered, Teddy looked at her a moment, then said, “Here,” and stretched his arm over her shoulders.
Her first thought was to shrug him away, but his arm settled against her, and it was warm. She just had to scoot an inch or two to be sitting right against him, so she did. His arm tightened around her, just a little. Her heart pounded, she was blushing, and then she felt a lot warmer. She couldn’t really look at him. He didn’t move, as if he worried that even twitching a muscle would make her flinch away. But she’d stopped shivering, so she huddled with him and didn’t say a word.
After five or so minutes, Teddy whispered, “Um, Anna, can I ask you something?”
She forgot to chastise him for using her real name. “Yeah?”
“I know it’s early to be thinking about, a few months out yet, but I was wondering, if you wanted to go to prom this spring, would you maybe want to go with me?”
For some reason, in that moment, she thought about Eliot and immediately felt guilty for it. “Um…” she stammered and tried to come up with a response, because she hadn’t thought much about prom—except when she’d met Eliot in the gym, and she didn’t really want to think about that right now. It was still months away, like Teddy said. And she honestly hadn’t thought about Teddy. Not until he put his arm around her, anyway, and now they were sitting here and she was having trouble focusing—
Judge Roland and his w
ife were gone, out of the house.
“Hey, they’re gone, it’s time!”
She shoved him to his feet. He looked stricken, staying rooted for a moment like he really was going to wait for an answer, but she gave him a push, and he nodded, vanishing before he’d gone two steps toward the brownstone.
She was alone in the alley, but she heard his footsteps slapping ahead into silence.