Stone Investigations (Stone Series Book 4)

hisskateboard down the hill toward the school.  Malcom stayed on the bus for threemore stops before getting out at an apartment complex.  He walked up the stairsto the second floor.  When he reached 209, he unzipped the pocket of thebackpack and took out a set of keys.  He opened the door and went into theapartment.
“Very interesting,” Matthew thought.  “There weren’t any keyswhen the cop searched it.”
Once in the apartment, Malcom opened the backpack and dumpedthe contents on the table:  A book, some flyers, and a windbreaker.  He opened thebook, it had been hollowed out.  He counted out five foil packages that were insideit.  The packages were each in a small snack baggie; he looked at each, then putthem back into the book and closed it.
Malcom went into his bathroom and pulled a steel access paneloff the wall.  Matthew was expecting to see plumbing but there wasn’t any. Then Malcom picked up a screw from the bottom of the space.  He used it toscratch along the wall a bit, then he stuck it into a hole, turned it a fewtimes, and pulled a second panel out.  Behind it were plumbing pipes, Matthewassumed for the next-door apartment.  Malcolm grabbed a black coupler on thevertical pipe and twisted it until it slid up.  Then he grabbed a secondcoupler that was four inches below the first and twisted it until it sliddown.  With that done, it was easy to remove the four-inch section of pipebetween the two.  He then grabbed a ring that was sitting on the lip of thebottom pipe and pulled it up.  Four bags followed, each attached to the otherby a string.  He tossed them into the sink and then reached up and grabbedanother ring hanging from the top pipe.  He pulled it down and five bags slidout of the pipe.  To Matthew, it was obvious that they contained money and hadbeen wedged up into the pipe.
When he had the bags out, Malcom replaced the piece of pipeand twisted the couplers back into place.  Then he grabbed a tube of toothpastefrom the cabinet before he put the second panel back in.  He used his finger tosqueeze the paste into the gap until it was impossible to tell there was apanel there.  He replaced the steel panel and grabbed the bags of money off ofthe floor.
He washed the bags, then pulled the contents out and laid themon the counter.  The first set of bags contained loose pills.  Three of thebags were sealed, while the fourth was a baggie, it held fewer pills than thesealed bag.  Malcom took his shaving mirror and spilled the bag onto it.  Hecounted the pills out and put them back in the baggie.  Then he counted themoney from the other five bags, it added up to eleven thousand two hundreddollars.  Malcom added four hundred dollars from the envelope he’d gotten fromMs. Frye.  He went back to the living room and put the baggies in the bottom ofthe pack and stuck a cell phone into the side pocket.  Then he put the book andwindbreaker back into the pack and zipped it up.
He sat on the couch and grabbed a phone that was charging onthe end table, looked up a number, and dialed it.
“Hey, I was told to call you guys, this is Frankie Sutton.  Iwas just harassed by the cops.
“Huh, huh.”
“At the Starbucks on Clairemont Mesa.”  …
“No, the other one.”  Matthew laughed as he was forced tolisten to only half the conversation, but Malcolm was doing a good job ofhinting at the other side.
“Yep.  I bet they have the whole thing on tape.” …
“Yeah, okay.  I’ll wait here.”
“Bye.”  Malcom hung up the phone.  Matthew wondered if hisname was Malcom or Frankie.  He was guessing Frankie since it made sense thathe’d given the cops a fake name.
Matthew grabbed his stuff and headed off to school.  He hadto hurry or he’d be late.  He’d keep checking in on Malcom/Frankie, whoever,throughout the day.
◆ ◆ ◆
Matthew barely made it to class on time.  He snuck in theback door and grabbed the seat Emily was saving for him just as the bell rang.
"C'est gentil à vous de vous joindre à nous,"Ms. Duquesne said, ‘it’s nice of you to join us.’
“Je suis désolé, mais j'ai battu la cloche,” Matthewreplied.  ‘Sorry, but I did beat the bell.’
Ms. Duquesne ignored his apology and dove right into thelesson.
◆ ◆ ◆
“What happened?” Emily asked once class was finally over. “Did they make a bust?”
“No, they tried to but it was a total hash.  I’ll tell youabout it at lunch.”
“Come on, we’ve got a couple of minutes.”
“It’s complicated, but I have a lead.  I need to keepchecking on it, so we’ll have to see.”
◆ ◆ ◆
It was in the middle of Political Science that the next stepin the drama played out.  Matthew was checking in on Malcom.  He was holdinghis backpack and standing at the bus stop.
When the bus showed up, Malcom boarded, walked toward theback of the bus, and found a seat with an empty seat next to it.  Matthew hadseen this play before.
Two stops later a short Hispanic looking man boarded the busand took the seat next to Malcom.  He seemed to be about the same age as Malcomand was carrying a black backpack just like Malcom’s.
“Bad day, huh?”
“You could say that.”
“You okay?”
“Fine.  The phone’s in the pocket; code is 8-5-2-9.”
“By 3s, got it.  Which one was it?”
“Frye, you should try to take care of her, I got her moneybut didn’t make delivery.”
“No way, she’s burned.  I’m not getting anywhere close to her.”
“You’ll need to go back to the Starbucks.  Anyway, I guess Iwon’t be seeing you anymore.”
“Probably not.  You going to be okay?”
“Sure.  I’ve got some money set aside.  I’ll just finishschool, maybe I’ll be able to get back with you guys in a year or so down theroad.”
“Maybe.  This your stop?”
“Yeah,” Frankie said.  He pushed his bag across the floor ofthe bus and slid out past the new guy.  Matthew couldn’t be sure, but he’d beta dinner that they just exchanged backpacks.  “Hey, you might want to try