“We know where he is, dear Tess,” said Priya gently. “A long time ago, he asked us that if anything should happen to him, we might look after you. Nothing intrusive or obvious. Observe from afar. And that’s what we’ve been doing. Just checking in once in a while. Seeing that you’re okay, especially after, well, Edgar, and 354 West 73rd Street. We did some walk-throughs of Jaime’s building, visited your aunt’s house in Queens a few times. Everything seemed fine. You even seemed happy, mostly.”

Omar snapped a monogrammed handkerchief and used it to wipe sweat from his brow. “But then we heard about Nine. And your aunt called and asked us to step up the surveillance. So lately we’ve had to use three teams instead of one.”

“You’ve been spying on us?” Theo said.

“No!” said Omar.

“Yes,” said Priya. “But only to make sure you were safe, that’s all.”

“Who else has been spying?” said Tess.

“Delancey, Imogen, Ray, and Gino. Most of the society.”

“But some of us are better at this clandestine stuff than others,” Omar said. “We’re the bottom tier, sadly.”

“I told you the trench coats were a terrible idea,” Priya said.

“This is an all-season coat!” said Omar.

Priya rolled her eyes. “Uh-huh. So what are you doing here in Washington Square? You seemed to be having a very intense conversation.”

“You don’t have listening devices?” Jaime asked.

“Of course not!” said Priya. “We wanted to make sure you were all right, not meddle in your personal business.”

The very definition of spying was meddling in someone’s personal business, but Theo didn’t mention that.

“We assume you were hatching a plan to find Nine,” said Omar. “Or that funny little raccoon who likes the cheese snacks.”

This time, Tess gripped Theo’s arm to keep him from blurting out whatever she was worried he’d blurt. “Yes, that’s exactly what we were doing. I know my mom is looking really hard for them both, but we want to help.”

“And you can’t tell her that?” Priya asked.

“She doesn’t know if the people who took Nine and Karl are dangerous. She doesn’t want us hurt.”

“Karl?” said Omar.

“The raccoon.”

“Ah,” Omar said. “Well. Maybe we can help. I’d like to get out of this heat for a while. Perhaps you three would like to come back to the society with us? Say hello to everyone there? We all miss you. And you can tell all about your plans.”

“That sounds great, but we’d—” said Tess.

Again, Theo gripped her arm. “We’d love to. Would it be okay if we stayed the night? We don’t want to be traveling home too late.”

Priya beamed. “A sleepover! What a fabulous idea.”

Omar said, “We’re going to need extra toothbrushes.”