Free Eleven and Holding by Mary Penney

but I guess I wanted to show it off.” I lifted, and then dropped, my shoulders, faking embarrassment.
    â€œWell, we all do things we shouldn’t now and then. Just part of growing up.” He grinned with a big piece of raisin blacking out his front tooth. Twee stepped hard on my foot under the table, alerting me to the presence of something gross. Yeah, like I could have missed it. I quickly revised my marriage plans to Officer Marley.
    He pulled out a shiny pen from his front pocket and clicked its end with great ceremony. He sucked at the raisin on his tooth, making a vacuum with his upper lip and tongue.
    Twee stepped on my shoe again. Gross plus.
    â€œYou say you looped the bracelet over the vehicle’s antenna, miss?” he asked, his pen poised over his official pocket notebook.
    â€œRight.” I shuddered, as if the loss of this nonexistent bracelet was painful to consider. “We were playing, uh, well, a bunch of us were out playing—” My mind went blank, and I shot Twee a desperate look.
    She bugged her eyes at me. She’d only agreed to sitting in on this conversation if she didn’t have to tell any lies. She thought lying to cops was probably just one notch down from lying to priests or nuns.
    â€œFootball,” I blurted. “Touch football.”
    â€œRight!” she said. “With this kid, Buster.”
    â€œAnd you know how that can go,” I said. “With all that grabbing and shoving, I thought I’d better put my bracelet somewhere safe. This van was just sitting parked in the street, so I hung it over the antenna.”
    He stretched his legs out into the aisle, looked over at Twee. “Then next thing you know, you look up and the vehicle is splitsville, right?”
    Twee gulped, looked over at me, back to him, and then nodded. I could see the sweat on her forehead. Mostly, it was supergreat having such an honest bestfriend, but now and then it would be helpful to have one willing to drop a whopper, even to a cop.
    I steered us back to the beans. “So, we figure the bracelet probably is still hanging on the antenna. All we gotta do is find the van and get it back. That’s where we hoped you might be able to help. It’s a pretty small town, and you spend a lot of time in traffic, don’t you?”
    â€œI sure do, miss, and there’s not much that gets by me. But I don’t recall a van with custom mags, and lima beans drawn on the side panel.” He held up one amazingly long finger, cocked his head to one side, and appeared to be listening to the hum of his radio, which was stuck under a strap on his shoulder. He adjusted the volume. “Wanda, I’m ten-seven at Divine Doughnuts, over.”
    The radio blasted with static. Followed by a garbled message from Wanda, who sounded like she was broadcasting from the bottom of the ocean.
    â€œRoger that. I’m ten-forty-nine toward home base. ETA sixteen hundred hours, over and out.” Officer Marley slid out from under the table and stood up, adjusting his scary-looking cop equipment. He had all but a portable guillotine hanging off his belt.
    â€œGotta go. Big meeting back at the station. We’re picking the design for our new league bowling shirt.”He held an imaginary ball up to his eyes, with his fingers splayed in position, drew his arm back in slow-mo, and then rolled a strike right through the front door. “Check back with me in a couple days, girls. I’ll keep my eyes open and ask some of the guys. Bet we’ll crack the bean-and-bracelet caper.” He gave us a wink, hitched his pants, and was out the door.
    â€œThink he bought your story?” Twee asked, picking up his leftover muffin and biting off the end.
    â€œTwee!”
    She opened her jaw for another bite. “What? I eat when I’m nervous. You know that!”
    I swiped the muffin from her, horrified. “You can’t eat the leftovers from someone you