That night, it was more studying for Drew's two best friends. This time, both were more prepared for the overnight.

Drew was prepared, too. She had gone through the net and found a nice Italian take-out-slash-delivery place. The girls questioned, why Italian? Drew explained that she wanted pasta this time. What they ordered went well with the cake and soda Aunt Arlene brought. It was like a party.

The need to study did keep them pounding the books, though, and they relocated to the living room as soon as they were done with dinner. Drew brought slices of cake and Swamp Pop soda, though, so it wouldn't be completely pure studying.

They all changed into sleep clothes. Iola wore another shorty pajama while Drew wore a long-sleeved Henley over a pair of loose yoga-style shorts with an unseen thong-style gaff underneath. As for Callie, she wore a very sheer babydoll set. The nightie accentuated Callie's very shapely curves and was a bit over-the-top for a study night.

Iola's eyebrows shot up over that, but she kept her comments to herself. She had her suspicions why Callie picked that to wear, and resolved to talk with her about it later.

As for Drew, she couldn't stop her eyes from spinning. Callie giggled because she knew she was the one causing it, and draped herself over the couch in such a way that her cleavage was displayed to best effect. She demurely pulled the diaphanous jacket closed knowing it didn't really hide anything.

Drew didn't know where to look anymore but tried to play it cool nevertheless.

When Drew's dad got home, it was a kind of relief because she had a reason to go do something.

"Hi, Pop," Drew said.

"Hey, Drew. Hi, girls." He waved to the girls.

"Hi, Mr. Nance!" the girls responded.

Drew walked him to the dining table, got out some reheated lasagna, half of an Italian-style chicken and some Italian bread. She topped it off with a beer and a slice of Aunt Arlene's coffee crumble. And she kept him company while he enjoyed a leisurely dinner, and asked about work while she sipped some Swamp Pop.

After dinner, Carson thanked Drew for taking such good care of him, and gave her a little kiss on the forehead. Drew gave him a hug.

"Better get back to your friends," he said, and pointed to the living room couch. "Me, I'm going to work on some stuff." He explained that he had a courtroom hearing next week so he was prepping for it. He was a little nervous because this would be his first court case in five months. He retired to his "office" underneath the stairs to do some reading.

"Pop?" Drew said. "Can I talk to you about something? I think I have a suggestion about our housekeeper thing."

"Sure, honey," he said and they both walked into his office. After a bit, Drew went back to the living room.

"What was that about?" Iola asked.

"Nothing major," Drew said. "Tell you later. Go back to your studying."

Iola stuck her tongue at her.

The rest was a quiet night of studying, except for Drew's fidgeting. Callie was clearly having an effect on her, but all of them played dumb. Callie, however, had a little smile on her face as she continued her studying.

During breaks, though, Drew took the opportunity to talk about what they were going to be doing the following night. Iola didn't like burglary. She didn't like being caught doing burglary even more. But Drew said they had no choice.

She told them she was having some trouble deciding which office they were to... "burgle." There were two offices listed for Southern Cross: the office in the main section of Manhattan was the well-known one, but they had another one near Ninth Avenue.

She had done a bit of research and found out the Manhattan one was just the "branch office." The "main office" one was the one in upper New York.

"My idea is to go for the main office," Drew said. "If that doesn't turn up anything, then we have to try their New York office.

"Whatever, Drew," Iola said distractedly. "Just lemme study."

"What's with her?"

"It's just lack of sleep," Callie said.

"How 'bout you? You sound so much chipper but you've had even less sleep than Iola. She got to nap earlier."

"Gee, I don't know," Callie giggled, and leaned forward to buss Drew on the cheek. "Guess I'm just in a studying kind of mood."

Drew's thoughts went back to what her Aunt Arlene said, and what she had resolved to do: it was clear what's the right thing to do, but it was hard. It didn't used to be this hard when she was still Andy. In a way, it was so much easier when she wasn't popular. She sighed.

"Back to the grindstone," Drew said and gestured to her books.

"Party-pooper!" Callie said and went back to reading.

-----

One of the bigger things in school was that a lot of the kids had plans for after the exams tomorrow. Among these were the cheerleaders. Janine was very pissed that Callie and Iola said they couldn't join the all-night drinking that she had planned. But Callie said they needed to rest up after studying all night. Actually, Callie and Iola rarely joined them in their drinking anymore.

Her explanation didn't make Janine any happier, though, since she wasn't getting her way. Eventually, Janine's insistence pissed Callie off enough to get mad herself.

"Listen, Janine," Callie said heatedly, "I need the grades. I'm not rich like you. I need the grades so I can get a scholarship. Otherwise, no college for me. And I need to start doing this now before I start senior year."

"College is so far away, Callie," Janine fumed. "You don't need to worry about that yet. You should think about your sisters and me rather than..."

"My SISTERS," Callie grated, "should also think about their fellow sisters, too, and if my sisters really loved me, they'd allow me to study so that I can get my chance."

Janine was about to let her have another one, but one of the others pulled her back.

"Callie's right, Janine," she said. "Besides, we can postpone our party for Saturday night, or we can just do it without Callie and Iola."

"But..."

"Give her a break, Janine. 'kay?"

"Yeah," the others said.

Janine threw her hands up in exasperation. "Whatever!" She huffed and walked away.

"Wow," Iola commented. "That's the first time you stood up to Janine."

"Well, she can't do much anymore," Callie said. "The season is over. What can she do to me?"

"True."

"Besides, we already promised Drew."

"Aha," Iola said cryptically.

-----

The following morning was a fairly unremarkable one: after Drew brought the girls to school, she went back home for an hour's soak in the tub, and then a nap after.

Right before lunch, she got ready and went over to school to pick them up again. After making quick trips to their houses so that they could get some stuff, they went to have a quick bite at a McDonald's, but since they practically fell asleep on their fries, Drew decided to bring them home for some sleep. She put them in her room, and they got some sleep on Drew's large queen-size bed.

She went downstairs and spent the afternoon in her dad's office surfing the net. After a few hours, she started getting bored. She shut the PC down, picked up the phone and dialed her dad's number.

After a while, Carson's secretary picked up.

"Hi, Alice, it's Drew. Is my dad there? Don't worry, I just need to ask him something. It won't take long."

"Hi, Drew. Just a moment, dear - let me check and then I'll put you through."

"Thanks, Alice."

Her dad picked up. "Hi. Drew. Listen, I'm real busy..."

"I know, Pop. I just wanted to let you know, I'm going out later with Callie and Iola. Is it okay if we stay out late?"

"You know the rules, Drew. No later than eleven on a school night."

"I'm exempted this week, remember? Besides, it's Friday."

"Oh! Right! In that case, nothing later than one AM."

Drew sighed. "Okay, okay!"

"Is that it?"

"More or less."

"Okay. See you at home then. Don't make plans for Sunday, okay? Just because I'm working again doesn't mean we give up our Sundays."

Drew giggled. "Of course, Pop. I got Sunday all planned out."

"Good. Seeya later. Love you."

"Bye, Pop. Love you, too."

She hung up and went upstairs to check on the girls. Quietly, she opened the door and peeked in. The bed was a mess and Iola was flat on her back, mouth open and snoring loudly. As for Callie, her head was resting on Iola's tummy, one hand on Iola's left breast.

Drew giggled quietly and shut the door. She had a thought and re-opened the door a crack and went downstairs.

In the kitchen, she brought out a few bagels from the freezer and set the coffeemaker. While she had the bagels warming in the toaster oven, she started cooking a few strips of bacon. It felt a little breakfast-y but it felt right. Besides what she was after was the smell of cooking bacon to waft upstairs. After all, that's why she left the bedroom door open and propped open the kitchen door.

Sure enough, she heard the girls start to stir. In a while, they stumbled into the kitchen like a couple of sleepy zombies.

"Hey, guys!" Drew said in an annoying, chipper voice.

The two grumbled as they sat by the counter. Drew giggled and poured them a couple of mugs of coffee. "Coffee, ladies."

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"Mmmph." Iola said and chugged the steamy brew. "Arrrgh! Hot!"

As for Callie, she poured in at least half a cup of milk and maybe four heaping teaspoons of sugar. Yikes!

"So... Are you guys awake yet?"

"What's with the bacon and bagels, Drew?" Callie asked as she picked up a bagel. "It's five o'clock in the friggin' afternoon. Who eats bagels and bacon in the afternoon?"

"I don't know. It felt like a bacon kind of day," she said as she watched Callie furiously put cream cheese on her bagel.

Callie stopped and followed Drew's eyes to her bagel. "Ha-ha-ha. You think you're so smart."

Drew laughed and got a bagel of her own.

"What's the plan for tonight, Drew?" Iola asked.

"Well..."

-----

About five hours later, the three found themselves in Drew's car and driving through the seedier part of New York's Garment District. Drew wondered why the Garment District - it was a detective agency after all, but she shrugged it off and concentrated on what they needed to do.

The Garment District had been in decline for quite a while now, and many parts of it had gone to seed already, and the area where they were going was one of the worst hit. Drew was worried about undesirables cruising the neighborhood, but hoped it wouldn't be too bad since the streets should be mostly deserted - it was near eleven in the evening after all.

Drew's hand strayed into the pocket of her jacket and fingered her little Mace sprayer and felt the weight of the aluminum collapsible police baton in the other pocket. Hopefully these would be more than enough if things went south.

"Where're we goin'?" Iola asked.

"I'm looking for a parking lot at the moment," Drew said.

"Don't you think that's a little lame for a bunch of criminals? Looking around for a parking space? Oooh! We're so dangerous! We're looking for parking! Why don't you just park in the street?"

"No. I don't want Tiger carjacked. Plus, we have to park far from the, ummm, 'scene of the crime' so they can't track us down through Tiger."

"There's one!" Callie pointed. It was an open parking space surrounded by a chain-link fence, and it was only half-filled with cars. The attendant in his little booth looked up from the newspaper he was reading when they pulled up.

He raised the wooden bar blocking the entrance.

"Hi!" she said to the guy.

"How long?" the man grumped.

"Pardon?"

"I asked how long you'll be parking!"

"Oh. Maybe just a few hours."

"That'll be twenty bucks."

"Twenty bucks!" Iola reacted. The man shrugged, dropped the gate back down and went back to his newspaper.

Drew put a placating hand on Iola's arm.

"Twenty?" Drew asked and the man nodded. She took out her purse and forked over the money. The man relented and raised the gate again.

She parked in the middle part of the lot, in clear view of the attendant.

They were all in black and carrying backpacks. Their backpacks were mostly empty in case they found anything they wanted to bring home.

Callie and Iola were dressed in black jeans and black turtleneck sweaters while Drew wore a thin, black long-sleeved crew-neck bodysuit over black leggings. She had on a leather motorcycle jacket over that.

"My boobies feel cold!" Drew exclaimed as they stepped out onto the sidewalk. "Thank God for the jacket."

Well, who decided to wear leotards anyway?" Callie said.

"They're not leotards! And I didn't have any dark sweaters. I didn't have a choice."

"Sure, sure, sure," Callie giggled.

"Why did we have to park two blocks away?" Iola said.

"Like I said, so no one can connect Tiger to this 'coz they might get it on camera, or someone might see it."

"Speaking of which..."

"Yeah, I have the balaclavas and the gloves."

"What're balaclavas?" Callie asked.

"They're like ski masks. So they won't see our faces."

After two blocks of walking, Drew pointed to the next street. "Look. There's the corner."

"Time to put 'em on now. That way, if there are any CCTV cams over there, they won't see our faces. And no more talking as of right now." She handed out the balaclavas and disposable medical latex gloves.

They ducked into an alley and looked for any cameras. Seeing none, they put on the gloves and knitted caps that covered their faces except for their eyes. There could have been hidden cameras but Drew decided not to tell the girls that.

When they stepped back out of the alleyway and hurried down the street, no one was around. Drew looked at the building numbers until she saw the one she wanted. They stopped at the door of the offices of the Southern Cross Detective agency.

Drew looked it over and peeked through the glass front. It looked unused and run down. This couldn't be it. She pulled out her notebook from her jacket and looked through her notes. The address was right.

The place had a glass front. The only thing missing to complete the hackneyed image of an old-time detective's office were the words Spade and Archer or something like that painted on the glass, and a wooden plaque by the door. Surprisingly, the glass was completely intact. It should have been broken by this time, either by vandals or time, but it was intact. She peeked through the glass and it was dark and silent inside.

Drew led the others to the side of the office, and Callie and Iola acted as lookouts near the alleyway entrance while Drew ran her little penlight over the side door's jamb. She couldn't see any sign of an alarm, and the lock looked pretty simple - a doorknob and a simple Yale padlock was bolted to the jamb and door. Drew brought out some tools and started picking the padlock and doorknob. She had the door open in less than a minute.

After opening it, Drew ran her light over the edge of the door again and the inside of the jamb and there were no tripwires or other alarms. She waved the girls over and they all went in. Drew gently closed the door and they brought out big flashlights

The first thing Drew did was point her flash at the walls, ceilings and corners, and other than a lot of dust and cobwebs, no cameras were revealed. Keeping their heads down lest people from the outside see their silhouettes, they started rifling through the desk drawers and filing cabinets. Callie sneezed several times at the displaced dust but other than that, they kept quiet.

From time to time, the place was illuminated by the headlights of passing cars, but otherwise the place was in darkness. Callie brought out her cell phone and snapped pictures of the place, the flash like little lightning flashes in the night revealing the thick coating of dust on the floor, tables, in fact the entire office.

Drew went to the bank of metal filing cabinets on the far wall and tried opening them. They were all locked but Drew made quick work of the locks. She put her penlight in her mouth and used its light as she rifled through the folders.

There weren't many files, actually - except for a dozen or so folders, the cabinet drawers were empty. In the third cabinet, Drew struck paydirt and found several folders and manila envelopes marked Falcone. Not bothering to open them, she pulled all of them out and put them aside. It was her intention to take pictures of the pages. But before she did, for good measure, she went through the rest of the cabinets first, quickly but thoroughly. But she found no other papers relating to Luigi Falcone.

As for Callie and Iola, they went through the desk drawers and tabletops, and found nothing of relevance. There were only four desks after all, so they finished quickly. At the rear, there was one final desk and Iola went there. There was a whole mess of papers on top of it, but the drawers were empty. So Iola sat in the creaky old swivel chair and started poring through the papers on the desk.

Callie, finishing up with the desk drawers, creeped over to the side wall of the office, sneezing occasionally. Drew winced every time she did, but what could she do about it?

Callie found an old sink by the side, obviously the office's kitchenette. But the sink was halfway filled with a layer of dust and old cobwebs that hadn't been disturbed in a very, very long time, and the old-model drip coffeemaker on the counter was yellowed and cracked from disuse. Callie decided to experiment and turned on the water tap. Nothing at all happened. Yep. No one had been here for a long time.

In the corner was an old Kelvinator fridge. She opened it and it creaked open. The refrigerator light didn’t turn on but there was enough light from the street to reveal a desiccated pile of dust that was probably an old apple. Aside from that, there were old, blackened beer bottles and old jars of jelly and peanut butter. She closed the fridge with a small look of disgust.

Callie then looked to the coffee pot and her eyes fell on the little row of mismatched coffee mugs beside it. She ran her hands over the mugs there and wondered who had used these mugs, and all the things that must have happened in the little office.

There must have seen a lot of exciting times - it was a detective agency after all. She imagined herself as a private eye coming in from a recent case, and her sexy office secretary taking her coat. She even took one of the mugs, imagining herself taking a gulp of some dark bitter coffee brewed by the girl.

Suddenly, a crash from outside broke her daydreaming. They all ducked and creeped towards the glass front windows to find out what happened, and they saw two men arguing over their cars and the fenderbender they just caused.

Drew started to panic. Somebody would be calling the police soon if they weren't on the way already, so she signaled the girls to wrap up.

In panic, since she didn't have time to look through them anymore, Iola just scooped up all the papers on the desk and put them in the shopping bags Drew had brought for this exact occasion. She then stuffed them into her backpack

Drew also did the same thing with the files she found and closed and locked all the cabinets. They then hurried to the side door.

After they were outside, Drew locked the door and snapped the padlock back on. Callie peeked out of the alley and, while the two drivers were preoccupied with yelling at each other, she signaled the others and they calmly walked out of the alley.

There were a couple of beat cops there already, and the sight of them panicked Drew's friends.

"Aaah!" Iola screamed and ran down the street. That triggered Callie, too.

"Aaah!" Callie screamed as well and ran after Iola.

Drew sighed in defeat and ran after them.

One can imagine how the image of three girls wearing balaclavas running away and screaming would look like, so the two cops started after them.

"Stop!" the cops yelled.

The two girls were very fit - they were cheerleaders after all. So they ran very fast. But Drew was faster and was quickly overhauling them.

"Girls!" Drew called. "Turn left at the next corner!"

The two heard her and skidded almost to a stop. But Drew couldn't brake fast enough and bowled them over. They ended up in a pile.

"Dammit!" Drew swore. "Get up and run! Now!"

They struggled to get up on their feet and turn into the next corner.

The cops after them were the stereotype overweight New York policemen so they weren't too fast compared to the girls. They had still a ways to go before they caught up with them - they were still half a block away from the corner before they had to turn.

"Stop!" one of them yelled. "Police!"

The three of them ignored that and ran on.

"Why did you guys run!" Drew cried.

"We panicked, okay!" Callie replied. "So shut up and keep running!"

Drew passed them and ran past two parked cars. She skidded to a stop, went in between the cars and waved the girls over.

"Come over here and scooch down!"

"What?"

"Here, between the cars! Scooch down! Now! Before the cops turn the corner!"

They ran to her and they hid between the cars.

"Shhh! Here they come!"

Eventually the two fatties ran past them.

Callie was about to stand up, but Drew pulled her back down.

"Not yet, Cal!" Drew whispered. They stayed there for about a minute until Callie couldn't take it anymore.

"So, can we get up now?"

Drew sighed and nodded.

When they peered over the car, they saw the two cops already over up to the next block.

"Whew! Okay, I think we're safe."

"What now?" Iola asked.

"We quietly go back..."

They creeped back to the corner they just turned, and when they cleared the corner, Drew started running again. "Now, we run back the way we came!" she cried.

So they ran back, and at the next corner where they originally turned, they turned right onto that street.

"Over here!" Drew cried, gesturing them into the first alley they ran into.

When they were away from everyone's eyes, they took off their balaclavas and gloves. Drew stuffed them into her backpack. When they were about to step out of the alley, Drew put out an arm to stop them.

"Wait!" she said.

"What?"

"You know, they may still recognize us, even without the masks. Listen, what are you guys wearing under those sweaters?"

"Why?" Iola grumped.

"I'm wearing a t-shirt," Callie said.

"I'm wearing a Henley," Iola responded

"Okay," Drew said. "That 'll work. Take off your sweaters."

"Again, why?" Iola repeated, but they both complied.

"So that they won't recognize us." For good measure, Drew doffed her jacket, too.

So, just clad in their shirts, they stuffed their sweaters and jackets into their backpacks. They then stepped back out onto the sidewalk and started walking back to the parking lot.

"Okay," Drew said, "no one panic anymore, and no running. Just walk calmly."

Callie shivered. "Jeez, I'm freezing my tits off!"

"Stay tough, Cal," Drew said. "We'll be back in my car in a bit, and I'll turn the heater up full. Here." She drew Callie to her and draped her right arm over her shoulders.

"Better?" she asked, and briskly rubbed Callie's upper arm up and down.

"Lots!" Callie said, and took advantage of the situation and snuggled in some more.

Drew pulled Iola in under her left arm as well, and tried to keep them both as warm as she could.

"That was exciting!" Callie whispered.

"We're not yet home free," Drew said. She looked the two over. "Comb your hair, Iola."

Iola nodded and ran a comb over her shoulder-length brown hair, and Callie dusted herself and Drew off a bit.

They casually walked back to the parking lot and tried not to shiver too much. A police car passed them by, undoubtedly on the way to the car accident, and the three struggled to keep calm, keep their pace and not break into a run.

Iola started to whistle. Though she tried to whistle nonchalantly, all she was able to do was to sound nervous. Callie and Drew broke into laughter.

"Screw you guys," Iola said, and giggled herself.

They didn't change their casual pace and, in fifteen minutes or so they were back. Callie and Iola ran the rest of the way and waited impatiently for Drew to come and open the car. They dumped their stuff in the boot, jumped in and left the parking lot, waving at the attendant.

Drew turned the heater on high, kept her speed down and drove back the way they came.

"Ooh, Drew!" Callie said and hugged her around the neck. "That was so exciting!"

Tiger swerved. "Watch it!"

"Ooops!" Callie said and giggled.

"Iola?" Drew called "Are you okay back there?" She saw Iola in her rearview, and saw her grinning from ear to ear.

"Superfine, Drew," Iola said. "Let's do that again!"

Drew laughed.

"What now?"

"Well, we can go back home and look at the stuff we got."

Callie looked very disappointed.

"Callie? What's wrong, honey."

She sighed. "Aunt Arlene texted," Callie said. "She's asking where I am. Can you bring me home? I don't want her to get mad at me."

"Didn't you tell her that we'd be going out? Besides, it's not even midnight."

"Yeah, but I've been out for three nights already. I don't want to push it."

"I guess me, too," Iola said. "Can you bring me home as well?"

Drew sighed. "Well, okay."

"Hey, don't sound too disappointed, Drew," Callie consoled her. "We're seeing each other again tomorrow."

Drew smiled at that. "I guess."

In less than an hour, they were back in Staten Island, and were pulling up at the Morton's. They all got out and walked Iola to their door.

Iola hugged Callie and then Drew. "Thanks for a fun night, Drew."

"Yeah, it was sort of fun, actually."

"So see you girls later. Night!"

Drew and Callie walked back to Tiger and drove away.