Breathing heavily, heart pounding, he forced himself to stop running as he made his way over to his locker to take out his books for fourth period.

He did not look back at the library.

****

When his dad picked him up after school, Nick told him about the text he’d received and about seeing Mr. Worthington in the library. He half-expected to get a lecture because he hadn’t reported it to the principal or vice principal or anyone in authority, but his father must have understood the situation better than expected because he said nothing. Nick didn’t tell him about the shadow, but that was the reason he didn’t want to be home alone, and he surprised his dad by saying that he wanted to go back to the bookstore with him instead of heading to the house.

It felt weird being this close to the bank. Just a wall separated them, and beyond that who knew what was happening? Logically, he understood that customers were probably just withdrawing cash or making deposits, workers calculating totals. But in his mind, the bank had become mysterious and horrific, and no matter what rationality suggested, he could not help thinking that bad things were going on in there.

The bookstore had no customers, and there was no real work to do. On the checkout counter was a facedown paperback that his dad had obviously been reading. Nick had homework—some problems in math, and reading for English and social studies—but he wasn’t in the mood right now, and he stepped behind the counter and sat down in the chair that used to be Gary’s.

“Did they ever find out who broke in?” he asked, although he knew his dad would have told him if someone had been caught.

His father shook his head. “No prints, no clues, nothing.”

“Do you think it might have been Gary?”

“Maybe,” he admitted. There was a short pause.

“What?” Nick asked.

“Even if it wasn’t Gary, I bet the bank had something to do with it.”

They were both silent for a moment.

“There’s another First People’s Bank in town now,” Nick said finally. “I didn’t say anything, but I saw it when you were driving me to school this morning.”

His dad sighed. “I saw it, too. That makes three.”

“Three?”

“They opened one up by the mayor’s law office last week.”

Nick’s pulse quickened. “I thought they just built a new one so they could have a parking lot.” He pointed at the wall. “I thought they were going to close this one.”

His dad shook his head grimly. “It doesn’t look like it. I think they’re just expanding.”

“But how many banks can Montgomery have?”

“I guess we’ll find out.”