Maybe they’d just arrived and hadn’t been there when he called.

Feeling a little better, Nick stepped onto the porch and rang the bell. He hoped Mrs. Clark answered the door. His friend’s mom was definitely easier to talk to than his dad.

A minute passed.

He rang the bell again, then knocked on the door, even though he’d heard the bell’s three-toned chime sound inside the house.

Maybe whoever was home was in the bathroom. Or maybe Victor’s parents were having sex. Maybe they’d come home for a quickie—which would explain why neither of them had answered the phone.

Nick smiled to himself. Maybe Victor’s mom was getting boned by the gardener.

But when no one came to the door, and when he realized that he could hear no noise at all coming from inside the house, Nick began feeling slightly unsettled. It was the Explorer in the driveway that concerned him. If it wasn’t for that, he would have assumed no one was home, but with the SUV here and no one answering either the phone or the door, he couldn’t help wondering if something had happened to Victor’s mom. Or dad. Or both.

His cellphone rang, and Nick jumped, startled.

He pressed the Talk button. “Hello?”

“Nicholas Decker? This is Mr. Worthington from The First People’s Bank. How are you this afternoon?”

“Uh, fine,” Nick said warily.

“Great! Great! I’m calling because we’re reaching out to younger people in Montgomery, people like yourself, in order to let them know about all the services we provide. For instance, do you currently have free checking?”

“I’m…I’m not really interested,” Nick replied.

He was about to end the call, when the man said forcefully, “Don’t hang up.”

It was an order not a request, and though Nick’s first instinct was to say something rude and sarcastic before defiantly clicking off, he found himself suddenly afraid to terminate the conversation.

“Now listen to me carefully.” The man’s voice was low, deadly serious and brooked no argument. “Get off Victor Clark’s porch, leave his yard, stay off his property and stop snooping. Do I make myself clear?”

How did the man know he was here? Even as Nick looked in vain for signs of a security camera, he was thinking, Why would the bank be monitoring Victor’s house?

“Do you understand me? Leave. Now.”

Nick did end the call, turning his phone off completely, but he also hurried off the porch and back to his bike, pedaling away as fast as he could.

What the hell was going on?

He wasn’t sure. But with Gary defecting from the bookstore to the bank, and Aaron’s dad pressuring Aaron to open a bank account, and the bank spying on Victor’s house and ordering him to stay away, something was up, and it definitely had to do with First People’s.

Frightened and feeling cold, Nick pedaled hard all the way home, letting himself into the house and locking the door behind him.

And when the telephone rang, he did not answer it.