Milford - The Thief Knot A Greenglass House Story

Clarion Books

3 Park Avenue

New York, New York 10016

Copyright 2020 by Kate Milford

Illustrations copyright 2020 by Jaime Zollars

All rights reserved. For information about permission to reproduce selections from this book, write to or to Permissions, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company, 3 Park Avenue, 19th Floor, New York, New York 10016.

Clarion Books is an imprint of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.

hmhbooks.com

Cover design by Sharismar Rodriguez

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Milford, Kate, author. | Zollars, Jaime, illustrator.

Title: The thief knot : a Greenglass House story / Kate Milford ; with illustrations by Jaime Zollars.

Description: Boston ; New York : Clarion Books, [2020] | Summary: When Marzana's parents are recruited to solve an odd crime, she assembles her own team, including a ghost, to investigate the kidnapping.

Identifiers: LCCN 2019004987 (print) | LCCN 2019012810 (ebook) | ISBN 9780358164272 (e-book) | ISBN 9781328466891 (hardback)

Subjects: | CYAC: Mystery and detective stories. | Adventure and adventurersFiction. | KidnappingFiction. | Mothers and daughtersFiction. | GhostsFiction. | BISAC: JUVENILE FICTION / Mysteries & Detective Stories. | JUVENILE FICTION / Action & Adventure / General. | JUVENILE FICTION / Fantasy & Magic. | JUVENILE FICTION / Fairy Tales & Folklore / General.

Classification: LCC PZ7.M594845 (ebook) | LCC PZ7.M594845 The 2020 (print) | DDC [Fic]dc23

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019004987

v1.1219

To Gracie and Charlotte,
the newest members of the Knot;
and, as always, to Tess, Griffin, and Nathan,
my favorite adventuring companions.

T HE TWO CONSPIRATORS met as planned at three p.m. at the corner of Cafender and Thomasine Streets, in front of the old iron faade of the Ambrose Bank. Yesterday the faade had been whimsical in design, framing each window and entrance with wrought vines and flowers and bells in the shape of lilies that rang periodically for no apparent reason. Today the iron had dialed down the caprice and reconfigured itself into something more befitting a bank, with big staid columns topped by fussy capitals on either side of the massive main doors. The perfect backdrop for a heist.

The taller girl, her seal-brown hair done in braids, caught the glance of her shorter, pinker accomplice in passing. Then, without a word, she pulled a pair of sparkly green sunglasses down over her dark, deep-shadowed eyes, pushed herself off from the fluted column shed been leaning against, and strode up the street in the wake of a young man the other had been following. She knew without looking that her partner would follow at a safe distance.

Just as he had every afternoon for the past week, her quarry walked another dozen yards down Cafender Street, then stopped at the outside counter of a caf where he purchased his usual (Americano, cream, two sugars). He sat on a bench and sipped his beverage. As he sipped, he watchedsurreptitiously, but to the trained eye, his attention was unmissablethe jewelers shop across the narrow lane.

The tall girl in the green shades strolled over to the counter and bought a cup of decaf with milk and cinnamon, which she carried to a table under the cafs awning, where she could see the man with the Americano as well as the shop he was watching so closely. A moment later her friend appeared with her own cup and a basket of steaming soft breadsticks, which she deposited wordlessly on the table between them. The two sat in silence, watching.

The man finished his coffee. He stood up and tossed his cup into a trash can next to the bench.

So far, so normal.

Then something happened that had not occurred before. The man hesitated. Instead of heading off to the right, as he had done each of the past six days hed been casing the jeweler, he leaned back on the bench and glanced at his wrist. A moment later, in what was clearly an arranged meeting, a young woman the girls had never seen before walked up and sat next to him.

The two adults on the bench looked at each other.

The pink-cheeked girl peered at them over the rims of her tortoiseshell shades. Hes nervous.

The woman spoke. The girls leaned as far as they dared in the direction of the bench and could just barely make out her words. You ready for this?

The taller girl grabbed her friends arm at the same time Tortoiseshell reached for hers.

I think so, the man said quietly, glancing back at the jewelers. Yeah. Yeah, Im ready. You know what youre going to say?

The woman nodded. Im your cousin from out of town, and Im looking at rings so I can bring my soon-to-be-fianc back to take a look while were visiting.

Get her talking.

Wont be a problem. She grinned at him. Shall we, cousin?

He nodded resolutely. They stood, and headed for the street. They waited for a break in the passing bicycle and foot traffic, then crossed.

The two girls looked at each other.

Is this going down? asked Green Sparkles in a disbelieving undertone. She glanced at her own watch. At three p.m., in broad stinking daylight?

I... Tortoiseshell hesitated. Oh, wow. I think it might. Mars, what do we

Shhh. Green Sparkles put down her coffee and stared as the man opened the door of the shop for his companion and followed her inside. Both girls scrambled to their feet and nearly fell over their own chairs and several bicyclists in their haste to follow them. All efforts at subtlety gone, they darted to the jewelers front window, crouched side by side to peer over the bank of red cyclamen flowers in the window box, and watched as the man theyd been tailing and his obviously fake cousin walked up to a pretty redhead who was busy arranging merchandise in a glass case on one counter.

Theyre just going to? the taller one began.

I mean, theyre trying to look like customers, right? her companion finished.

The man and the young woman at the counter exchanged a few words; then he introduced the lady hed come in with. Green Sparkles frowned. Looks like they know each other, doesnt it? The guy and the girl who works there?

Her companion nodded. Yeah, it does.

That seems less-than-ideal. If you were going to rob a place, you wouldnt go somewhere they knew you well enough to identify you, right?

I wouldnt, but then I also wouldnt have been so obvious about casing the joint.

Inside, the redhead and the fake cousin fell into deep conversation. After a moment, the redhead began to take rings from a glass-topped display table and arrange them on a piece of black velvet on the counter. The fake cousin made a show of trying some on, and after a moment she even had the redhead popping rings on and off her own fingers. Shes good, Green Sparkles said, shaking her head. That sidekick, shes really good. Look, shes got the woman who works there acting like theyve known each other all their lives and theyre just out shopping together.

A second clerk materialized from a back room and began polishing a nearby, already-spotless counter. He probably thought he was playing it cool, but it was obvious to both girls that he suspected the aimlessly browsing young man might be up to something and thought hed better keep an eye out.