Jaime ate his eggs and bugbacon hungrily, angrily. He didn’t know whether they should keep trying to solve the Cipher or if they should be out combing every one of the five boroughs for Nine and Karl. He remembered that Mrs. Biedermann was going to go out to Hoboken to interview Cricket and her family. He wanted to know what she learned.

It was easy to convince the twins that they were better off trying to figure out the new clue—if the strap now around his wrist was a new clue—the next day, after they’d had a chance to rest.

Tess said, “Let us come to you next time. It’s not fair that you’re the one that has to go back and forth.”

He didn’t tell her that he hadn’t wanted them going back and forth, that if no one visited him at the new place in Hoboken, it would keep only being temporary, it wouldn’t become real. But he didn’t argue. He told her which trains to take and then headed to the place he didn’t want to call home.

He pushed open the doors of his building at around noon to find Cricket and her brother, Otto, in the lobby. Both of them were dressed in green camo. Both were on foot—no tricycles or scooters. And both of them were inspecting every corner of the place, every nook and cranny. Cricket even had a magnifying glass. She used it to inspect the security desk. The guard, a large black man with a shiny bald head, smiled indulgently as she turned the magnifying glass on him and declared that he had a mole that he should probably get looked at.

“Cricket,” said Jaime. “What are you looking for?”

Cricket turned the magnifying glass on Jaime, instead, one of her eyes about the size of a baseball. “Clues,” she said. “What do you think?”

“What kind of clues?”

“The clue kind of clues.”

“Okay. Can I help?”

“I don’t know,” said Cricket, lowering the magnifying glass. “Can you?”

Otto ran over, holding a candy bar wrapper. “Is this a clue, Zelda?”

“Don’t call me Zelda. And no, that’s just a piece of trash.”

“It could be a clue,” Otto insisted. “What if the person who took Karl dropped it?”

“What if he did?” Cricket said.

“We can dust it for fingerprints!” Otto said.

“No, we can’t,” said Cricket.

Otto’s face got all red, the way Otto and Cricket’s father’s did before he started yelling about something or another. “Can, too!”

“That’s a great idea, Otto,” Jaime said. “Why don’t you let me hang on to that while you check for more clues?”

Otto grinned and gave Jaime the wrapper. “Okay! I’m going to look by the elevators.” He dashed off.

Cricket crossed her arms, then uncrossed them. “You are good with children,” she told him.