"Can we go now? It's been an hour." Victoria asked as she stirred the cherry in her already melted milkshake. 

"Not until my contact gets here." Replied Rutger. He had long finished his burger and fries. Now he sat intensely watching the front door of the diner.

"If this is another lost dog case I swear ..." Victoria threatened as she tightened her grip on her milkshake.

"Whether a crime be big or small, the Clean Up Gang can handle it all!" Heston exclaimed as he threw his hands into the air.

"Put your arms down people are staring. How many times do I have to tell you that we're not going to call ourselves the Clean Up Gang!" Victoria screamed as she flicked some chocolate from her cup onto Heston's face. He quickly brought down his hands and wiped the liquid off.

"More people are staring because of your screaming." Heston whispered .

"What did you say!?"  Victoria asked as she glared at Heston.

"N-n-nothing. I just think the Clean Up Gang is a great name. It means we clean the crime off the streets!"

"Do you think I wore my new chiffon dress today so that I could clean?"

"Guys stop fighting! I have a feeling that the next person through that door will be the one we're waiting for." Rutger interjected as he placed his middle and index fingers on his temples and stared more intensely at the door. At that moment, the door flew open and in came a pudgy, out of breath girl with a large knapsack on her back. 

"You're right Rutger! I was waiting for Claire to show up. Now I have a sane person to talk to." Victoria stated as she stood up to hug the girl. Rutger shrugged in defeat.

"Did I miss anything?" Claire asked as she slid into the booth.

"Absolutely nothing." Victoria replied.

"He said he was coming. He promised me a great case." Rutger said as he dropped his head.

"I might have a case." Claire said. Rutger's head shot up and his eyes sparkled in the fluorescent diner light.

"Claire, sweet Claire, tell us about it if you please." Rutger stated as he grabbed Claire's hands across the table. Claire's plump cheeks reddened and a shy smile crept onto her face.

"Look what I found earlier today when I went to the library with Dusty." Claire whispered as she pulled an ancient-looking map out of her knapsack. 

"You did not take that pigeon to a library!" Victoria exclaimed.

"Dusty is a hawk and you know it!" Claire shouted back. She locked eyes with Victoria and the two of them challenged each other with their stares for what seemed like forever. 

"It's an old map of London." Heston softly spoke as he reached for the map.

"A map of London!? What's that doing in a library in Pennsylvania?" Rutger asked as he snatched the map before Heston could grab it.

"Weird right? I found it in the 'About Our Town' section of the library. Only London isn't our town." Claire spoke as she broke eye contact with Victoria, effectively giving the other girl a victory in the staring contest.

"So where's the crime?" Victoria asked, skeptical. The other three looked at her awkwardly.

"I just thought it would be cool to look in to." Claire said meekly as she grabbed the map back from Rutger and stuffed it into her bag.

"Obviously someone just moved that map from the historical section to the our town section. People move stuff around in the library all the time. Mystery solved." Victoria stated as she nudged Claire out of the booth and stood up. 

"Why are you standing?" Heston asked.

"Because it's almost someone's curfew." Victoria replied.

"What time is it!?" Rutger screamed as he grabbed Heston's wrist to look at his watch. The time read 9:52pm.

"Vicky start the engine!" Rutger yelled as he ran out of the diner.

"You guys coming?" Victoria asked to Claire and Heston as she put enough cash on the table to cover everyone's food. The other two stood up and followed her to her car where Rutger was already sitting in the passenger seat.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

A few days later, Victoria raced out of her house and toward her car. Claire was already outside waiting for her with Dusty perched on top of Victoria's car. She lost the customary morning race to Claire again.

"Morning neighbor!" Claire said cheerily. 

"If that bird poops on my car I will fry it and feed it to Rutger." Victoria said through clenched teeth. Claire shooed the hawk off the car and it took to the sky. They got into the car and Victoria started driving without saying anything else.

"Where are we going?" Claire asked suddenly.

"To Heston's house, same as every other day." Victoria replied.

"He didn't tell you?" Claire asked in a concerned tone. 

"Tell me what? Did he move again?" Victoria asked. Claire nodded quickly.

"Where?" Victoria asked with a sigh.

"If he hasn't told you...it's not really my place." Claire said.

"And how is he going to get to school, Claire? Walk? Teleport? Is your hawk going to fly him there?" Victoria asked as she slammed on the brakes. Multiple angry horn honks came from behind as she did this. 

"Trailer park." Claire said, sinking down into her seat as far as she could. Victoria made a U-turn in the street and headed toward the trailer park. 

As they pulled into the trailer park, Victoria didn't have to ask which trailer was Heston's. Both of his parents were out front tending a garden. 

"Hello Mrs. Charles, Mr. Charles." Victoria yelled happily as she waved to Heston's parents. They waved back with large smiles.

"Heston! Victoria and Claire are here!" Mrs. Charles yelled into the trailer. Heston came stomping out of the trailer with the grumpiest look on his face and got into the back seat.

"You told her!" He said angrily as he glared at Claire.

"Your ride to school needs to know where you live." Victoria said snappily.

"I could have ridden the bus." Heston said in a huff. 

"You'd rather ride the bus than tell me where you've moved to." Victoria said not angrily, but as a simple statement of fact that had always and would always be true.

"We're going to be late." Claire said to break up the awkward silence. Victoria started up the car and headed to their next destination. 

They pulled up to a large wrought iron gate. The hint of a house could be seen off in the distance. Victoria got out of the car and pressed the intercom button on the gate.

"Ulrich residence." Said a snotty sounding french voice through the speaker.

"Hello Winston! This is Victoria Faires. I'm here to take Rutger to school." 

"Oh Ms. Faires!" The voice immediately warmed up. "The young master will be out shortly."

The large gate opened and Victoria scurried back to the car.

"Why don't we ever just drive up to his house?" Claire asked as she stared at the open gate.

"Have you ever been to Rutger's house?" Victoria asked. Claire shook her head briskly.

"The security in that place is no joke." Heston stated.

"It's better to stay down here." Victoria added. Claire looked past the gate curiously.

"He's coming." Claire said with a chuckle. Heston and Victoria looked up to see Rutger speeding down the hill on the bike. Once he was through the gate, he threw down the bike and hopped into the car.

"What about your bike?" Claire asked.

"Someone will get it." Rutger replied as he buckled up.

"Seriously?" Victoria asked in an aggravated tone.

"Yeah." Rutger said with a shrug of his shoulders. Victoria sighed heavily and refused to start the car.

"What?" Rutger asked in a state of oblivion.

"At least leave the bike inside the gate." Victoria said. Rutger moaned incessantly as he climbed out of the car and pushed the bike through the gate. When he returned to the car he was greeted with a smile from Victoria.

"Shall we?" She asked rhetorically as she started the car.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Claire, Rutger, and Heston were in the same home room. Their class sat quietly and waited for about 5 minutes before deciding that their teacher wasn't coming. A few students left to find snacks and others pushed their desks together to talk more comfortably. Claire stood from her desk at the front of the room and walked to the back where Heston and Rutger sat next to each other.

"Did you two watch the news last night?" She asked as she unfurled the London map over their desks. The two guys shook their heads in unison.

"There have been a string of fires in the area. Nothing too big, just trash cans and dumpsters catching fire randomly in alleyways. The cops are chalking it up to dry weather and floating embers from brush fires but I know better." Claire said excitedly as she drew on the map. 

"What are you doing?" Heston asked, standing up to get a better view of the map.

"If the Thames is Main Street then the sight trash fires would be here, here, here, here, and here." Claire replied as she drew X's on the map.

"The locations of the fires form a circle." Heston said. At this point,  Rutger jumped up from his desk and joined the other two at the map. Claire drew a large X in the center of the circle.

"Do you boys know what building sits here?" Claire asked as she tapped the large X. Rutger quickly shook his head while Heston rubbed his chin thoughtfully. 

"Should be City Hall." Heston whispered to himself.

"City hall?" Rutger asked to Heston.

"Yes! City Hall! Good job Rutger!" Claire exclaimed. Rutger smiled as he put his arms around Claire and Heston.

"There's a mystery to be solved here and we're just the ones to solve it. To City Hall!" Rutger shouted as he pointed to the sky. Just then the bell rang signifying that they needed to get to their next class.

"After school." Claire said. She gathered up the map with the rest of her belongings and ran out of the room. Rutger pouted as he realized he would have to wait.

The next class for Claire and Heston was AP Bio. Rutger and Victoria had History together. The history teacher was lecturing about something that Rutger didn't care about. Instead of listening he was writing notes. He wrote  To Vicky in large letters on the note after he folded into a neat square. Victoria's seat was on the other side of the room so to get the note to her Rutger had to pass is through four other students. By the time the note made it to Victoria it had been opened a couple of times. She unfolded the note and read it.

Oh Vicky, there is a crime to be solved! To City Hall after school for an adventure!

Victoria looked toward Rutger. He had two thumbs up and was doing a dance. A few snickers came from the four students who sat between them. Victoria balled up the note and threw it at Rutger. It hit him square in the forehead. The reaction of Rutger was priceless as his head flew back and he faked a gruesome death. Victoria ignored Rutger for the rest of class.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

After school, Heston and Claire were sitting on a bench as Victoria and Rutger walked out. Just as Claire jumped up to greet them, Dusty swooped down and landed on her shoulder. Heston jumped back from the shock of seeing the bird.

"Ready to go to City Hall?" Claire asked excitedly. 

"We can't. I have to take the car home. Valerie is visiting from college and my dad wants me to give the car to her." Victoria said. 

"The prodigal daughter returns." Heston added in a soft voice. No one heard him.

"My beautiful crime! Who will solve her now!?" Rutger exclaimed as he dramatically dropped to his knees.

"Why's the crime a woman?" Heston asked.

"Everything is a woman!" Rutger looked at Heston as if he were insane for even asking.

"Unless one of you has a car I can drive, we can't go." Victoria added.

"I have a car! My dad got it for me when I got my license." Rutger said as he stood from the ground.

"You don't even have a license, though." Claire said.

"I had one for two days....but it was revoked." Rutger replied.

"What did you do to get your license revoked?" Claire asked with a confused look on her face.

"Oh God, don't ask. It can't be a worthwhile story." Victoria said, waving her hands in front of her  as if to clear the air of nonsense. 

"Anyway, my dad trusts Victoria's driving skills completely. He won't mind if we borrow the car." Rutger said as he pulled out his cell phone.

"Dude, what's with the old school Nokia?" Heston asked with a wide eyed glance at Rutger's phone. 

"I got my new phone taken away last week." Rutger stated as he dialed the phone.

"Should I even ask why?" Heston questioned. Instead of answering, Rutger just smiled meekly like he had never done anything to deserve punishment in his life. He turned away from the others and had a brief yet intense phone conversation. 

Before Heston had time to ask any more questions, a large SUV pulled up in front of the school. A tall man stepped out of the vehicle. 

"Hello Winston!" Victoria squealed as she ran over to the man.

"Bonjour Ms. Fairies. I will entrust the young master to you once again." Winston said as he handed the keys over to her.

"What about my car? If I don't get it to Valerie my dad will kill me." Victoria said with unease in her voice. 

"Winston will take care of it. He'll get your car home." Rutger said happily. He took Victoria's keys from her and handed them to Winston.

"Let's keep our girl alive." Rutger said to Winston with a smile. Winston nodded once and headed off toward Victoria's car.

The others piled in to the luxury SUV. Last in was Victoria who was staring at her car drive off in the distance. She wondered if everything would really be ok this way.

"To city hall! Adventure! Adventure!" Rutger chanted rhythmically in the passenger seat. Claire shimmied her shoulders in time with the chant while Heston tapped out a beat on the back of Victoria's head rest. Annoyed by the vibrations to the back of her head, Victoria whipped her head around to glare at Heston. He immediately stopped thumping. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

They reached City Hall after not too long. Rutger jumped out of the car before it even came to a stop.

"Hey!" Victoria shouted at Rutger who was already running into the building. As she came to a screeching stop, Heston and Claire jumped out of the car as well.

Claire was too excited to stay in the car. She didn't want Rutger to solve the crime before she got there. Heston, on the other hand, chased after Claire out of an unwillingness to stay in a car alone with Victoria. The two reached the front desk of City Hall and Rutger was already romancing the secretary.

".....so I said 'Crime only pays if your currency is pain and consequences'." The secretary laughed sweetly at Rutger's punchline. 

"Fire." Claire said as she panted, trying to catch her breath with her palms planted firmly on the desk.

"Is something on fire?" The secretary asked urgently.

"Trash cans all over town!" Claire replied. The secretary relaxed back into her seat and placed a strained smile on her face. 

"Yes, little girl, I've seen the news stories about the trash fires. The police said they were due to stray sparks from controlled burns. Why don't you drink something and calm down." The secretary stated. She handed Claire a drink. As soon as Claire opened the container, black liquid sprayed out at her.

"What is this?" Claire asked as she frantically brushed her shirt.

"Venom energy. Taste the V!" The secretary said energetically.

"Didn't that stuff get discontinued for flammability?" Claire asked, concerned.

"Yes, but I love it so much I bought a bunch of cases online. They're a bit shaken up from the delivery process. You should really go wash that off." The secretary added.

"You'd need a permit to start a controlled fire. I wonder if anyone got a fire permit recently." Heston whispered to the floor while Claire ran off to the bathroom.

"You need a permit to start a fire?" Rutger directed this question at Heston with a shocked expression. The secretary perked up at hearing this.

"The permit department is down that hall and to the right. Please head down there now." The secretary said almost rudely. Heston and Rutger headed in the direction that the secretary pointed.

"Claire we're going to the permit department!" Rutger yelled out as they walked away.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

At the permit department, Rutger smooth-talked the woman at the desk again. While he was doing this, Heston inquired about recently acquired fire permits. There were none in the past month.

Right when Heston and Rutger were ready to leave, Victoria was just entering the building.

"What took you so long?" Rutger asked to Victoria. 

"Someone had to park the car after you all just jumped out haphazardly." She replied with her arms crossed. 

"Well this place was a bust anyway. No one has gotten a fire permit in months." Rutger said with downcast eyes. 

"Aw man! I really thought we would get somewhere with the permits." Claire stated. Everyone else took a step back out of shock. No one had noticed her return from the bathroom.

"Done tasting the V?" Rutger asked with a chuckle.

"Definitely. I think it ruined my shirt." Claire said as she continued to rub a damp paper towel over a V shaped stain on her shirt. 

"Can we go home now?" Victoria asked impatiently.

"Home!? But there's crime afoot, Victoria! Criiiiiiiiiimmmmeee!" Rutger said in a whiny tone.

"What crime? Where? We've got no clues, no leads, and no suspects. This is stupid!" Victoria exclaimed as she made emphatic hand gestures.

"Then why are you here? You hate crime solving and mysteries. All you do is criticize and order us around because you're the only one that can drive! But, you could easily be replaced by three bus passes and Claire's bird if we taught it a few insults." Heston screamed at Victoria. Everyone was shocked by this outburst, including Heston. Victoria slowly walked up to him with rage in her eyes. Even though he felt like he would wet his pants, Heston stood his ground. Victoria began to speak, but her voice faltered.

"Why am I here?" She finally squeaked out as she turned to head out of the building. The others looked confused as they scurried after her in silence. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

In the car, it was silent for a long while. Things seemed awkward, especially between Heston and Victoria. Finally, Rutger broke the silence.

"Where are we headed?" He asked as he looked out the window. 

"To the trailer park. I need to get Heston out of this car as soon as possible." Victoria replied with a strong attitude. 

"You moved again?" Rutger asked, turning to look at Heston.  Heston nodded. Victoria let out a chuckle.

"At least I'm not the only one who wasn't informed." She said with a sneer. 

"Seriously, Heston? It's me, Rutger, the old Rut Bag. You could have told me. I'm your friend." Rutger said.

"What does that make me? Chopped liver?" Victoria asked in an aggravated tone. Just then a siren blared behind the car and blue lights flashed in the rear view mirror. Instinctively, Victoria slowed down and began to move toward the side of the road.

"Don't pull over." Rutger said.

"Are you crazy? I'm not going to run from the cops. I haven't done anything wrong." Victoria said calmly. She looked over to Rutger who had his face contorted in the strangest way.

"Why are you looking at me with your guilty face? What did you do?" Victoria asked, her voice slowly creeping into a yell. 

"Well..." Rutger hesitated and anxiously rubbed the back of his neck.

"Spit it out!" Victoria yelled. She had already pulled to a stop.

"The car may have been reported stolen!" Rutger yelled with his eyes closed. Victoria pulled her hands away from the steering wheel as if it was hot.

"But this is your dad's car and you asked his permission to borrow it." Victoria said, trying her best to keep calm. 

"He's out of the country. I couldn't reach him." Rutger replied.

"But Winston brought the car to us and he would never do anything without your dad's  say-so." Victoria said.

"I lied and told him dad agreed. He couldn't check because dad was unreachable. Plus, when I told him that you were involved, he stopped questioning it." Rutger said. He placed his hands in front of his face to shield himself from Victoria. 

"You used my name to decieve Winston!?" Victoria said through gritted teeth.

"I didn't think the car would be missed." 

"There are employees at your house who come and pick up your bike from behind the gate everyday. You didn't think that there might also be someone who checks on your dad's cars!?" Victoria raised her arm to strike Rutger  just as the cop knocked on her window. She quickly lowered her arm and rolled down the window. Automatically, she plastered a gorgeous smile on her face.

"License and registration." The officer said in a stern voice. As Victoria fished through her wallet for her license, the cop's radio clicked on.

*We have a B702 at the city dump. We need all units. I repeat, all units to the city dump.*

The officer looked down at his radio then looked back at Victoria. His eyes softened slightly at her smile.

"Drive safely." He said as he walked away from the car and answered into his radio. Victoria breathed an audible sigh of relief.

"B702! That's a dead body! We've got to go to the dump!" Rutger exclaimed. Victoria looked at him like he was insane.

"We just barely escaped getting arrested and now you want to go to a place swarming with cops? In a stolen car!?" Victoria screamed.

"But the crime..." Rutger said with his head hung low.

"A dead body is no joke. It's no place for a bunch of high school detectives." Victoria replied

"You always criticize our cases, saying that they aren't real crimes and that we shouldn't investigate them. But now the crime is real and you still won't investigate. What a hypocrite." Heston said. Victoria swung her head around to look back at him and for the first time ever, he didn't avoid her gaze. 

"Fine, but don't say I didn't warn you." Victoria said as she flung the car around and floored the gas. Before anyone knew it, they were at the dump. The police had already blocked of the area with yellow tape so Victoria couldn't drive closer. Claire pulled a pair of binoculars out of her knapsack and scanned the scene.

"Whoa." Claire said as she handed the binoculars to Rutger.

"The body is burned to a crisp." Rutger added as he fought off Heston's attempts to take the binoculars.

"Suspect!" Rutger suddenly yelled as he threw the binoculars to Heston and jumped out of the car to chase a hooded figure.

"Oh My God! We have to go after him." Victoria said to the other two as she got out of the car. 

"I have exercise induced asthma." Claire said. She began to wheeze at the thought.

"These aren't really the right shoes for running." Heston added as he looked down at his feet.

"I'll go. You two bring the car around." Victoria said. She sprinted into the darkness after Rutger.  Claire and Heston were left staring at each other in the back seat.

"I can't drive." Claire said.

"Neither can I." Heston replied.

"I don't have a license." Claire asserted.

"I don't even have a permit yet." Heston said as he looked at Claire with wide eyes. Claire thought back to how she got her permit a month ago and sighed.

"I guess I'm driving." She said as she climbed into the front seat.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Victoria ran into the darkness without a clear idea of where Rutger had gone. She ran for half a mile before someone grabbed her arm and pulled her to the ground. A scream tried to escape her throat, but a hand covered her mouth tightly. Victoria threw a strong right hook and hit her assailant right in the jaw.

"Ow!" Rutger whisper screamed as he rubbed his jaw.

"What are you doing?" Victoria asked, anger seething through her words.

"I was chasing the suspect but it turns out he has a flamethrower. When he noticed me behind him, he began to chase me instead. So now we're hiding." Rutger whispered.

"So what you're saying is that you, and unarmed teenager, went running after an armed murderer?" Victoria asked in shock at Rutger's stupidity.  

"I'm not unarmed." Rutger said as he held up a screwdriver.

"Did you take evidence from a crime scene!?" Victoria asked with eyes bulging. 

"I took a screwdriver from the dump. Basically, I recycled." Rutger replied.

"That thing has blood on it." Victoria said. Rutger turned the screwdriver over and stared at the tip that was covered in blood. 

"I think I took the murder weapon." Rutger said with a stunned expression. Victoria couldn't do anything but drop her head into her palm.

"Well hello kids, I've been looking all over for you." Said a deep voice. The two looked up to see a scruffy man in a dark green uniform. On his back was a square apparatus with a hose extending from it. 

"Run!" Victoria screamed. She and Rutger dashed around a bush and just missed being grabbed by the man.

"Stop!" The man screamed as he chased after them. Luckily, the flamethrower apparatus slowed him down. Suddenly, a low tree branch caught Rutger in the side of the head, causing him to fall. Victoria tried to help him up but she couldn't do it fast enough. The scruffy man was catching up. 

"Guys!" Came a scream from up ahead. It was Heston leaning out of the side of Rutger's car. Claire was in the driver's seat with a fearful expression on her face as she drove the car over logs and bushes. 

"Get in!" Claire yelled as the car skidded to a stop. The two jumped in with Victoria taking over the driver's seat.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Where are we going?" Claire asked from the back seat.

"As far away from the dump as possible!" Victoria exclaimed.

"We've got company!" Heston yelled while looking out the rear window of the car. Lights flashed erratically from behind and Victoria looked in the rear view mirror.

"Is that a garbage truck!?" Rutger asked nervously." 

"We've got to get somewhere safe! But where?" Claire asked.

"Rutger's house." Victoria replied without thinking twice. 

"What!?" Rutger and Claire asked in shocked unison.

"It's a fortress. We'll be safe." Victoria said as she steered toward the Ulrich mansion. Once they reached the gate, Rutger pulled out a remote and typed in a complicated number sequence. The gate opened just wide enough for the SUV the slip through it and then quickly closed. Victoria floored it up the hill and stopped right at the front door. 

At the front door, Rutger pressed a panel under the doorknob and a keypad appeared. He typed a code into the keypad and placed his thumb on a scanner. The door opened slightly and Rutger pushed his way through. 

"Young master?" Asked Winston as he rushed down the stairs into the foyer. 

"Oh! Hey, Winston. Just thought I'd bring over some frien-" Victoria slapped Rutger up the side of his head before he could continue speaking.

"We're being chased by a criminal!" Victoria screamed. 

"I'll call the police." Winston said as he hurried off.

The intercom suddenly buzzed. Rutger ran up to the intercom and threw the screwdriver to Heston for safe keeping. 

"You're caught red handed, murderer!" Rutger screamed through the intercom. A muffled voice answered back.

"I'm...I'm sorry. I just wanted to get the waste off the street. I work as a garbage man and people are just so wasteful. Getting rid of the dump was my final act. I never meant to hurt anyone! That body lit up with a fiery V across his chest. I couldn't put it out in time!" The voice exclaimed. 

A police car pulled up just as the man was done confessing.

"Cal Buckley, you're under arrest for the murder of the city's tax auditor." Said the officer.

"I got it!" Claire and Heston exclaimed in unison.

"I solved the murder!" Heston said.

"No, I solved the murder!" Claire replied.

"I know who did it." Said Heston.

"So do I! Plus I know why they did it!"

"I know all that and how they did it!"

"Dang. You solved the murder." Claire said, dejected. Heston pumped his fist in victory.

"To City  Hall!" Heston exclaimed. 

When they returned  to city hall with the police in toe, the front desk attendant crumpled almost immediately. The evidence was hard to refute. The murder victim had a V stain on his chest just like Claire. Not to mention, the screwdriver had property of city hall written on it. It was a leap to assume that she was embezzling from the city. Luckily she admitted to it.

"It all happened so fast." She said as the police cuffed her.