"That's not what it looks like, is it?"
"I think so," Matt nodded.
"Um," Bo said, completely lost, "what does it look like?"
"The seal of the Asian royal family that was assassinated just over a month ago." Matt told him.
"Oh."
"But why on a hedgehog?" Shirley demanded.
"I'm assuming it was a pet," Matt said, gently righting the little animal, which looked dignifiedly grateful. "They tattoo horse; dogs; cats; so why not a hedgehog?"
"Where'd you find it?" Bo wanted to know.
"Pet store. I was just stopping in to say hi to my friend Kyle, and some woman had just brought this little guy in. I thought he was cute, so I had picked him up and started to play with him when I saw the tattoo.
"May I?" Shirley held out her hands. Matt put the hedgehog in them, and she began to gently examine it, checking the tattoo, feeling its feet, etc.
"After you saw the tattoo, did you buy it?" Bo wanted to know.
"Yes. I thought it looked familiar, and when I made the connection, I bought him right away. Then I logged onto thew Net, to try and find out what had happened to the Family's property after the murder."
"Well?" Bo prompted.
Matt, who had been watching Shirley make kissy-faces at the hedgehog with a smile on his face, hastily turned to Bo.
"The property was split among the new royal family. Everything from china to racehorses to gold and silver objets d'art."
"Then- Bo was baffled. Matt nodded.
"There is no good reason the hedgehog should have been in Kyle's family's pet shop. I tried to trace it to the woman who brought him in, but she'd given a fake name- all I know it that she had slightly Middle Eastern features, was tall for her nationality, and was in her mid-twenties at the most."
Shirley finally looked up from the hedgehog, which had decided it had fallen madly in love with her, to speak.
"We could plug all of that into Bart's database- it should get us something." Then she smiled at the hedgehog, and asked Matt:
"What's her name?"
"Her?" Matt was startled.
"Some cowboy you are!" Shirley teased. "This is a girl, alright."
Matt blushed, accepted defeat, and suggested "Sophia".
Shirley vetoed it, saying that she leaned more towards "Helena".
Bo said they were both crazy, and that "Polly" would suit her just fine.
A minor verbal scrimmage broke out, and the hedgehog emerged at the end of the ride with the name Emily.
Emily was deposited in Matt's pocket once more, and the cab driver unloaded Matt's bags, having first collected his fare.
Then Shirley took one, Bo the other, and they led Matt into the large stone house, and up to Shirley's attic lab.
While Bo and Matt made up the pullout couch that Shirley and Maya had unmade less than three hours earlier, Shirley picked up the phone, and dialed her mother's work number.
"Hi, is this Roger? Oh, hi Joan. Sorry. It’s Shirley- is my mum there? Okay- thanks."
It took less than five minutes for her to obtain permission for Matt to stay, and she hung up with a triumphant smile to deliver the news.
Then the three teens sat down, Watson draped across Bo's lap, Emily waddling back and forth from Matt's to Shirley's.
"What's your theory?" Shirley asked Matt, watching the hedgehog snuffle around his pockets.
"Frankly, I haven't got much of one," he admitted. "Obviously, there must have been some sort of conspiracy or underground passage that got Emily out of the country, but why? Why just Emily?"
"There's a chance, isn't there, that there's something special about Emily that you've overlooked?" Shirley queried. "I mean., is it possible she's carrying something valuable? A code, maybe, or something else important?"
"Shirley," Bo rolled his eyes, "it's not as if she's got a pocket to put it in."
Shirley gave him a Look and opened her mouth as if to say something, but quickly shut it as Matt spoke.
"It would make sense, in a way." he said slowly. "It would certainly qualify her as top-secret documents, and she would be given priority exit. But where would she be going? The Royal Family is all dead, and the new one probably doesn't even know about Emily- the king is just a distant cousin of the dead queen."
Shirley frowned. That did complicate things.
the three of them talked for a little while longer, but not about hedgehogs and dead kings. Instead, the focused on what had been going on since they last saw Matt, and he, them.
When Peggy got home from her sculpting class, she found three kids, a dog, and a strange ball all playing poker at the dining room table.
The little, prickly brown ball was nestled between the front paws of the dog, which was curled up on a chair at the head of the table. The kids were all sitting spread apart from each other, eyes roaming shiftily across the table to study their opponents.
"Am I interrupting?" Peggy asked, blue eyes twinkling. All three looked up and smiled at her.
"Hi, Gran!" Shirley said. "This is Matt Harris- he's staying with us for a few days. Matt, this is my grandmother."
"Hello, Mrs.Holmes," Matt smiled. Peggy returned the grin.
"Hello, Matt. Please call me Peggy- when you are as old as I, you begin to realize that life' too short for formalities."
"Alright, Mrs.- Peggy."
Gran turned, smiled at Bo, raised a questioning eyebrow at Watson's new little toy (really, she thought, it looked almost like a- but that was ridiculous), and walked into the kitchen.
The poker game ended a while later, Bo triumphant and twenty-seven dollars, forty-eight cents richer, and they all wandered out onto the lawn to talk, and lie (or sit) on lawn furniture under the towering trees in the backyard.
"Is Redington always this - eh - peaceful?" Matt asked at length.
"You mean, boring." Shirley frowned. "No, not usually. I'm typically always working on something, but for the past three days . . . Nothing."
"Yeah," Bo sighed happily, kicking back in a well-padded lounge, "Nothing. Isn't it terrible?"
Shirley glared. Matt laughed.
"So- how's school?" he asked. "Did you go today?"
"No- Mum and Dad agreed I should stay home, and say good-bye to Maya. We don't know when I'll see her again."
Shirley's expression became suddenly wistful.
"I'm really going to miss her."
Matt and Bo gave her sympathetic looks but said nothing, which was just as well, since they didn't know what to say.
"School itself," she said, after a pause, "is alright. We did a project on explosives- it's amazing the variations they have in existence."
"Sounds right up your alley," Matt smiled. "What did you get?"
"An A minus," Shirley admitted. "I think that out Science teacher was a bit turned off by the firecracker we brought in as a demo."
Matt winced.
"Made quite a mess," Bo said, with some degree of satisfaction.
"Men," Shirley muttered. The expression on the face of Emily, who sat contentedly in Shirley's lap, was one of wholehearted agreement.
Then they lapsed once more into silence until around five o'clock, when there came a rustling from the dense bushes on the other side of the chain-link fence that bordered the Holmes backyard.
The three kids sat up, tensing. There was a brief pause, and then Dr. Joanna Holmes entered her backyard by way of the back fence.
The problem was, there was no gate in the back fence. Shirley's mum was, however, very much like Shirley in the fact that she refused to be thwarted by problems, instead electing to solve or deter them.
This one she simply vaulted over.
The kids stared. Then Matt spoke.
"Wow! Now, that's a woman!"
"Hello!" Joanna looked surprised, and somewhat embarrassed. "I was just - er - keeping up my - that is - keeping in shape."
"More jungle knowledge, Mum?" Shirley asked with a knowing grin.
"Er- well - yes." Joanna admitted. "So, won't you properly introduce me to your friend, Shirley?" she paused, noticing the hedgehog. "The one without quills, I mean."
Matt smiled, stood, extended his hand, and said, "Matthew Harris. And- Dr. Holmes, I presume?"
"Yes," Joanna nodded, shaking his hand. He noticed that, despite her recent leap over the fence, her immaculate brown silk pantsuit and creamy blouse and scarf she wore were just that- immaculate. Not a strand of hair was out of place, and her flat leather briefcase had miraculously stayed shut, her shoes remaining on her feet.
He gave a mental whistle.
"So, Matthew- where did you meet Shirley?"
"At a ranch," Matt said. "They won a trip to where I was working from their science fair."
"Ah," Joanna smiled. "So, you're Matt, then."
"Yeah," Matt nodded, shooting a curious glance at Shirley, whose cheeks were pink, "I'm Matt."
"Well, why don't you kids come on inside? Bo, you wouldn't by any chance be allowed to stay for supper, and try some tuna casserole?"
Bo turned slightly green- he had been visiting every night for the past several days, and had grown steadily sick of fish. Even at his home, where they owned a fish market, they didn't have fish every night.
"Oh, gee, Dr. Holmes - Joanna - I'd really love it, but you see I just have to- to- not."
Joanna nodded, smiling, and led them all into the house.
"Traitor," Shirley hissed under her breath, as they were walking.
"Hey, Bo whispered back, "don't push it, okay? There's a difference between saving your life every now and then, and eating fish every night, every afternoon for a week! And not just any fish, either- gross fish! Really gross fish!"
"I have to eat it for breakfast, too, you know," Shirley reminded him primly. "Oh, fine- you go on home and eat something nice and normal, while I suffer!"
As he was leaving she hollered after him:
"They even gave it to me in the hospital, Bo!"
"Gave what to you?" asked Robert Holmes, getting out of his car as Bo vanished around the corner.
"Fish." Shirley made a face. Robert smiled. Then his eyes went past his daughter to rest on the boy who stood slightly behind her, a tiny smile tugging at the corners of his mouth.
"Who's your friend, Shirley?" he inquired.
"Oh- Dad, this is Matt Harris, my- friend. Matt, this is my dad, Robert Holmes." Shirley said.
"Hi, Mr.Holmes," Matt smiled.
"Hello, Matt," Robert replied, walking up the steps briefcase in hand. "So- what are we having for supper tonight?"
"Fish." Shirley groaned.
"Oh." Robert couldn't keep his expression from falling to his shoelaces. "Oh. I see. Fish."
Shirley laughed, slipping her hand into her dad's, leading him into the house. As they walked, she reached out, and took Matt's hand, too.
