"What if he was?" asked Mary Anne. "He's a nice guy, right? So, he talks to people at the mall. Why should that mean anything bad?"

Kristy sat down on the floor, and I stood up and took her place pacing around the room. I was thinking about Mr. Morton. I went over everything we knew about him. He had only managed the mall for a few months. He was a really nice, likable guy. He was willing to do all kinds of things to improve the mall and its image. The mall was in financial trouble.

"I wonder if - " Mary Anne began, but I interrupted her.

"Whoa!" I said. "I think I just figured it all out!" I stood stock still, next to my desk. Mary Anne and Kristy looked shocked. "Well, maybe not all of it," I went on. "But listen. I think I know what's going on. You know how everybody says Mr. Morton is such a nice guy? Well, that's the problem."

"What do you mean?" asked Kristy.

"What's wrong with being a nice guy?" asked Mary Anne.

'I'll tell you," I said. I started to pace again, around and around. Past the desk, past the closet, past the bureau, past the bed. Then I started talking fast. "That's how he got himself - and the mall - into such a mess. He's such a nice guy that he can't say no to anybody. He wants to do everything he can to help the mall and the community. So he says yes to benefit concerts, special discount programs, and even day-care centers."

"But those are all good things," said Mary Anne, looking confused.

"I agree." I stopped pacing and stood near my current favorite poster (it's a photo of a ba.s.set hound with a funny-sad expression). "But they cost money. In order to do those things, Mr. Morton must have run through all the money in the mall's account. Then maybe he started to, well, 'misappropriate funds,' like it said in the newspaper, to cover up his mistakes."

"Ohhh!" said Mary Anne. She was beginning to look excited.

"And then," I went on, "it came out that the mall was dose to bankruptcy. So he couldn't play around with the accounts anymore. But he didn't want to start saying 'no' to everybody. So then - "

"So then he started stealing things!" said Kristy, jumping to her feet. "All those big things, the camcorders and the treadmills and the wide-screen TVs!"

"Oh, no!" cried Mary Anne, putting her hand over her mouth.

"Oh, yes!" said Kristy. "Stacey, you're a genius! This explains everything. Mr. Morton must be the one stealing that stuff, because he's the only one who would know how to get around security to do it. He'd know how to dodge them on their rounds, and even how to avoid the video cameras so he wouldn't show up on tape."

"He couldn't have stolen all those big things by himself, though," said Mary Anne.

"No, he must have people working for him. People who would know where to sell the stuff, and people to help him take it. Like that guy you ran into in the stockroom, Stacey." Kristy was really excited now, and so was I. Mary Anne just looked dismayed. She can't stand to think the worst of anybody, even if it's somebody she barely knows, such as Mr. Morton.

"The guy in the stockroom," I mused, remembering that scary, masked face. Then I had a terrible thought. "Maybe those three kids are working for him, too!" I said.

"Oh, no," said Kristy. "He wouldn't do that. Too risky. I mean, that's really serious business, getting kids involved in a crime."

"But what if," Mary Anne said slowly, "what if the kids found out what he was doing?" She glanced up at her and I saw how frightened she looked.

For about thirty seconds, there wasn't a sound in my room. Mary Anne sat staring at her hands. I looked at the ba.s.set hound poster, without really seeing it. And Kristy plopped down on the bed again and just sat there, frowning.

"If they found out," I said finally, "I guess Mr. Morton would be pretty scared. Maybe pretty angry, too."

"He'd have to do whatever it took to keep them quiet," said Kristy in a low tone.

"And now they're missing," Mary Anne whispered.

There was another silence.

"Maybe they're just hiding," I said hopefully, after a minute. "Washington Mall is huge, but they probably know every inch of it by now, if they really are living there. I bet they'd know how to stay hidden."

"That's right," said Mary Anne, grabbing at the chance to feel optimistic. "They're probably hiding."

"I hope they are," said Kristy. She stood up, and suddenly she looked full of energy. "But I'm not counting on it. It's time we found out. We have to get to the mall right away!"

Chapter 14.

"I'll call Charlie and see if he can give us a ride," Kristy said.

"Who else can help us?" I asked. "We need all the people we can get."

"I bet Claudia's back from art cla.s.s by now," said Mary Anne. "And maybe Jessi can come. Mal and Shannon are both sitting/ though, and I doubt Logan is done with his tryout yet."

We got busy making phone calls, and before long Claudia and Jessi had joined us at my house. Two minutes later, Charlie (good old Charlie) had pulled up in Watson's van. He honked the horn and we came running out.

On the way to the mall, Kristy explained everything.

"Don't you think you should consider going to the police?" asked Charlie. "This sounds serious. I mean, there are three kids missing."

Kristy thought for a minute. "Okay, how's this?" she asked. "I don't really want to get the police involved unless we have to. I think it would scare those kids if they saw cops searching the mall, and they might hide themselves even better. How about if we give ourselves a deadline?" She glanced at her watch. "Ifs three-thirty now. If we don't find them by five-thirty, we'll call the police."

"Good idea," said Jessi. "I have to be home no later than six> anyway. I left Becca with Aunt Cecelia, on the condition that I would get home in time to help with dinner. So, let's synchronize our watches, like on TV."

"Okay." Claudia checked her Swatch and announced that she was already synchronized with Kristy. The rest of us made sure the time on our watches, matched theirs.

Charlie pulled up at the mall entrance. "I'll drop you off and go park," he said. "I'll catch up to you, wherever you are. I want to help find those kids."

We ran into the mall and gathered near the main escalators. "I've been thinking," I said. "We have to be careful about this search. I mean, we want to find the kids as soon as possible, but we don't want to scare them off. Also, we don't want to make anybody suspicious, especially Mr. Morton."

"That's right," said Kristy. "Plus, we don't know if anybody else at the mall is working with him. So we can't a.s.sume that anyone is trustworthy."

"We have to work fast, and work quietly," said Jessi. "No problem. Should we split up into teams?"

"That's a good idea," I replied. "We do have a lot of ground to cover. How about if Claud and I start on the top floor and work our way down, while you and Kristy and Mary Anne work from the main floor up?"

"Okay," said Kristy. "What are we waiting for? Let's go for it! We can check in with each other at Critters in, say, half an hour?"

The search was on. I felt as if I were in one of those adventure movies in which the hero has to find a bomb within one hour, or else it will blow up the whole city. You know, the kind of movie where they show a dock ticking away the minutes, and you feel more and more tense as the minute hand moves nearer and nearer to midnight? Well, in our case the minute hand was moving nearer to five-thirty. Here's how our search went: Three-forty: Claud and I headed into the Cheese Outlet, and Mary Anne, Jessi, and Kristy hopped onto the escalator. In the cheese store, Mr. Williams was glad to see us and wanted us to taste some free samples. "We're in kind of a hurry," said Claud. "But thanks."

We glanced around the store, but didn't dare ask Mr. Williams if he had seen the kids. What if he were working with Mr. Morton?

Three-fifty: We checked the upstairs bathrooms. Charlie showed up just in time to look into the men's room. Report: no kids, but some sign of them. Charlie found a comb on the sink in the men's room, and in the women's room I found a towel - the stolen one? - draped over one of the stalls to dry. "We could be right behind them!" I said. "Let's keep moving."

Four-ten: After searching through Stuff 'n Nonsense, the candy store (I had to drag Claud away from the jelly-bean display), and Soundscapes, we were beginning to feel frustrated. Since the bathrooms, we had seen no sign of the kids.

Four-fifteen: We met up in front of Critters. n.o.body else had seen any sign of the kids, either. We decided to re-form our teams and stay on the bottom three floors where we'd spotted the kids most often. Jessi and I went down to the BookCenter, while Claud stopped in at the Artist's Exchange and Mary Anne visited her boss at Critters. Charlie and Kristy moved ahead to the food court, where we would all meet again in ten minutes.

I cruised up and down the aisles in the BookCenter, peering over displays and checking behind the puppet theatre. "Jessi!" I hissed at one point. I gestured toward a small blonde kid who I could only see from the back. He - or she - was nestled into one of the reading corners with a book. Jessi crept along one of the shelves, trying to remain hidden, until she could check out the kid's face. Just as she looked back at me and shook her head, I felt someone behind me.

"Can I help you girls?" asked Ms. Munro. "Aren't you friends of Mallory's?"

"No - I mean yes - I mean, we are friends, but we don't need any help, thank you," I stammered. "We're, uh, just looking." It wasn't a lie. We were just looking. We weren't looking for books, though.

Four-twenty-five: We met at a table in the food court. "Nothing to report," said Claudia. "The Artist's Exchange was pretty empty."

"Same with Critters," said Mary Anne. "I did spot Mr. Morton on my way down here, but he was on the "up" escalator. He looked kind of preoccupied."

"We have something to report," said Kristy. "According to this guy Harry, who works at Casa Grande with Logan, somebody used the kitchen again last night."

"So the kids are still around!" said Mary Anne. "What a relief."

"We still have to find them, though," said Kristy. "And they seem, to be lying low. Charlie and I are going to check the second-floor bathrooms next."

"I'm going to go back upstairs to Cinema World," said Jessi. "Maybe I can find out if anybody slept there last night, if I ask carefully."

"Mary Anne and I can check the women's room down here," said Claud. "Although I doubt we'll find anything there. This is beginning to seem hopeless! How will we ever find three kids in this huge mall?"

"We just have to keep trying," I said. "I want to stop in and see April. How about if we meet by the fountain in a few minutes?"

Five-oh-five: April was busy at Toy Town, so I couldn't really talk to her. But Sarah, her a.s.sistant, was setting up a display of new rubber stamps, and I spent some time talking to her. She mentioned that two "really polite kids" had been hanging around about an hour earlier. "I was amazed," she said. "They played with the Legos, but then they put them back neatly."

"I guess their mom came for them?" I asked casually.

Sarah wrinkled her brow. "I don't think so. An older girl stopped by - maybe their sister? - and herded them out of the store. I heard her say something about naptime."

Five-ten: "Naptime," said Kristy, when I met the others (who hadn't found any sign of the kids in the bathrooms or Cinema World) and told them what I had heard. "Where would they go to take naps?" She thought for a moment. "It would have to be someplace quiet, someplace hidden away. I know! There are some empty offices back by security. Let's check them out."

Five-twenty: After an extensive check of the offices and rooms near security, we had found absolutely nothing. Kristy led us through a maze of hallways that I had never known about, but every room was empty.

"What are we going to do?" wailed Jessi, looking at her watch. "Our time is almost up."

"Naptime," I muttered to myself. "Nap-time." Suddenly I snapped my fingers. "I've got it!" I said. "Those mats the Exercise Shoppe donated for the day-care center! They're piled up in the back room of our storefront."

Five-twenty-eight: We were off and running almost before I had finished my sentence. But as we approached the day-care center, its door and windows soaped up until the center was ready to open, Kristy held up her hand. "Hold on," she said. ''We better do this carefully, so we don't scare them away. If they take off now, we'll never find them in time."

She seemed so sure that they were in there. I wasn't as positive, but I didn't have any better guesses. "Do you still have the key, Kristy?" I asked.

She nodded. "I've had it ever since the painting party," she admitted. "I forgot to turn it in to Ms. Garcia."

"Good thing," Charlie said. "Now, are there any nearby exits from the store?"

"One," said Mary Anne. "Down that hall." She pointed.

"I'll head down there and guard the door," said Charlie.

"Maybe a couple of us should guard this one, too, while the others go in," said Mary Anne. She and Jessi decided to stay by the door.

Five-thirty-one: "It's okay, we're on your side," Kristy was saying. She and Claud and I had opened the door as quietly as possible, tiptoed through the storefront, and entered the back room.

There, sound asleep on the mats, were the two younger children. The older girl sat nearby, reading a copy of A Wrinkle in Time. She was the one Kristy was talking to. When we entered the dimly lit room, she looked up in alarm. There was no time for her to run, though, so she just stayed seated, staring up at us with frightened eyes.

"Are you all right?" asked Kristy. "We were worried about you. We haven't seen you in days."

"We're - we're fine," said the girl. "How did you know about us?"

"We've been working at the mall," I explained. "And we've seen you around. I'm Stacey, by the way. This is Kristy and this is Claudia."

"I'm Mara," said the girl. "And that's Kyle," she pointed at the boy, who was sitting up and rubbing his eyes, "and Brenda." Brenda sat up too, and yawned. "I'm twelve, Kyle's eight, and Brenda is six."

"And you live at the mall, right? Why?" asked Kristy bluntly. "It's kind of a long story," said Mara. "In that case, let's go get the others," I said. "They'll want to hear it, too."

A few minutes later, we were all gathered in the back room, seated on mats. And Mara began to tell her amazing story.

"We haven't lived here for very long," said Mara. "We used to live in those apartments over on Sycamore Street, with our mom. We never had much money, but we got along." She swallowed. "But then Mom had to go to the hospital. And my aunt was supposed to come take care of us, but she never showed up. I didn't want to worry my mom, so I just decided we could take care of ourselves. We did okay for a while, but then the money she left ran out, and the electricity got turned off, and the rent was due. I knew the landlord would be coming around, so we had to get out of there fast. This was the only place I could think of." She blurted out her tale so fast my head was spinning.

"We didn't steal anything," said Kyle, suddenly. "I mean, nothing we didn't need, anyway. And we were going to pay the stores back as soon as we could."

"We didn't steal big stuff, like Mr. Morton," added Brenda. Mara shot her a warning glance.

"You knew about him?" I asked.

Mara nodded hesitantly. "But then he found out about us, too. He found us sleeping in the movie theatre one night. From then on, we sort of had an agreement. We wouldn't tell about him if he wouldn't tell about us. It really seemed like he wanted to help us, too. Anyway, it worked fine until last Tuesday."

"What happened then?" I asked, leaning forward. My heart was beating fast. Finally the pieces of the puzzle were beginning to come together.

"I guess he started to worry that we would tell on him. He kind of threatened us," said Mara, looking scared again.

"Yeah, but I showed him," Kyle spoke up proudly. "I pulled the fire alarm and shut down the whole mall. That way we had time to find a bunch of new hiding places, so he could never find us."

"But what - "I began. I had about a million questions to ask them. Just then, I felt somebody tugging on my arm. It was Kristy. She pulled me away from the group and started talking in a low voice.

"We have to call the police," she said. "I know we might get the kids in trouble, but this is not something we can handle on our own. Anyway, Mr. Morton has to be stopped."

I glanced over at the three scruffy kids who were talking with my friends. I was kind of in awe of them for surviving on their own. But they needed help - more help than I could give them. I knew Kristy was right.

Chapter 15.

"I, um, need to call my mother," I said, when Kristy and I had rejoined the group. And it wasn't a lie. I really did need to call my mom. She was planning to take me out to dinner, and she'd be wondering where I was.