Marked by Norah McClintock Page A

somewhere else, to tell them which street,” she said.
    â€œWhere?”
    â€œThere’s this box,” she said. She didn’t need to say any more. I knew which box she was talking about—the utility control box. “I leave a sign there, and the next day I leave another one on whatever street it is, to tell them which house. I do a lot of other tags too, you know, so it looks like there are a lot of kids tagging.”
    â€œAnd I’m always there first thing after the robbery, cleaning up the evidence,” I said.
    â€œI call this graffiti hotline,” she said.
    â€œYeah, well, lucky for them that your marks are always first on my job list,” I said.
    She gave me a look. “You think
that’s
a coincidence?”
    What did she mean by that?
    Oh.
    â€œIf they even suspect I talked to the cops, they’ll say my brother is the ringleader,” she said. “And he won’t give anyone up—no way. They’d kill him. There’s no way out.”
    I didn’t know what to say. But I did know that what she was doing was wrong.
    I took a step backward.
    The German shepherd growled at me.
    I looked at Alyssa. was she going to snap her fingers? Or did she have a different signal to get Cody to attack?

chapter thirteen
    She raised her hand.
    What would happen if I ran?
    I looked at the big German shepherd. Then I turned to Alyssa.
    â€œIt’s all a mistake,” she said. “My brother never should have gotten arrested. He was just helping a guy he knew move some stuff. It turned out that the stuff was stolen. My brother didn’t know. Then the guy—his so-called friend—blamed my brother when he got caught, so he told the cops mybrother was in on it. Then, once he was in prison, some other guys started giving him a hard time. I don’t want anything bad to happen to him. I want him to get out in one piece.”
    I believed her. If I had a brother and he was in a jam like that, I’d want to help him. But that didn’t make what she was doing right.
    â€œYou said it yourself, Alyssa,” I said. “These guys are dangerous. They break into people’s houses. They beat up your brother. You have to go to the cops.”
    She shook her head. “No way.”
    I glanced at Cody again. He still looked like he was ready to attack me. My mind raced. How was I going to get out of this?
    Two little kids ran past us on their way to the swings and slides. Two more little kids chased after them. C couple of women pushing strollers followed them. Alyssa looked at them. She called Buster, picked up his leash, and then she stood there for a moment, both leashes in her hand.
    â€œI meant what I said, Colin,” she said. “If you tell, you’ll be sorry. He’s my brother. What choice do I have?”
    She turned and walked out of the park.
    I didn’t know what to do. What if Alyssa told the guys she was helping that I had figured out what they were doing? What if they came looking for me? What if they beat
me
up?
    I thought of telling my mom what had happened, but she would just make me go to the police and tell them about Alyssa. what if Alyssa carried out her threat? What if she told them that I was in on it?
    Then I had another idea.
    Dave Marsh was surprised when I turned up at his office.
    â€œHow’s the job going, Colin?” he said. “Is everything okay?”
    â€œNot exactly,” I said.
    I took a deep breath and told him all about the markings on the utility control box and the utility poles. I showed himmy sketchbook. I told him about the graffiti hotline and how the first jobs on my work sheet were always the places that had the special markings on them. I didn’t tell him Alyssa’s name. Not at first. But I did tell him that the person who was marking the houses had been forced into it and that the person was scared.
    Dave Marsh leaned back in his chair. His face was more serious than I