“It’s a very nice place,” said Tess.

“No, it isn’t,” said Jaime’s grandmother. “But maybe it will be. Someday.”

“Someday,” Jaime said, walking down a long hallway from where the bedrooms must have been. “Hi.”

Theo handed him the bag of cookies. “A Lance special.”

“Thanks,” Jaime said. “You guys want a drink or something?”

“Maybe later,” Tess said.

“Speaking of later,” said Jaime’s grandmother, “I’ll see you later. I have a packed schedule today. Lots of jobs all over the place.” She kissed Jaime’s cheek, and then Tess’s and Theo’s. “I’m glad to see you both. There’s lunch in the fridge. Keep an eye on this boy for me. And don’t do anything silly while I’m gone.”

Since everything they’d done for the last few months could be considered silly or dumb or even life-threatening, they all merely nodded as Jaime’s grandmother disappeared out the door.

“Well,” said Jaime. “You want to see my room? It’s about as thrilling as this one.”

They followed him down the long hallway, which was as conspicuously absent of photographs as the living room was, and into a huge bedroom that faced the river.

“This view is amazing,” said Tess.

“Hmmm,” Jaime said. He fed his hamster-hogs. One of them jumped on her wheel and ran furiously. “I don’t think Tyrone likes it, either,” Jaime said.

“How would she decide?” Theo asked.

“She’s very decisive,” Jaime said.

Tess sat in Jaime’s desk chair. On the desk itself, a sketchbook lay open. The pages were filled with sketches of the same woman in various outfits: armor, unitard, cargo pants, etc. Tess turned the page and found the woman wearing a plain gray coat that fell around her ankles.

Tess tapped the picture. “I like this one best so far.”

“Me too,” said Jaime. “But it’s not right. Not yet. I’m working on it.”

Theo sat on Jaime’s bed. “So about the clue.”

Jaime unwound the leather strap from his wrist. “I looked at it this morning but I don’t know what it means.”

He laid the strap on the bed. Tooled vertically into the leather, making one long strip, were these characters:

Jaime had copied the letters into his sketchbook horizontally:

EhhhxrleeeHedrcSodehlmsoriuapnbdelibreiltlosnpautttole

“I figure it’s the German word for ‘Ach, this clue is going to give you a giant pain in your neck’ or it’s some sort of transposition cipher,” he said, “but I didn’t get much by using some of the tools on the web.”

“There are some capital letters interspersed,” Theo said.

Jaime wrote down the capitals: E H S. “Hmmm. I don’t think that helps.”

Tess tugged at her braid, let go. “Okay. Can I have a piece of paper, Jaime?”