After breakfast with her dad, and her morning routine, drew spent Saturday morning going over the stuff they got from the office. Her dad kissed her and left for his usual morning golf with the other neighborhood dads so she was all alone by the time she started going over the papers. As she worked, she sipped on a cup of coffee and listened to the local news on their entertainment system. There was no news about their little caper and she breathed a sigh of relief. The car accident in front of the Southern Cross office wasn't mentioned either, but that wasn't too much of a surprise - there must have been at least a dozen car accidents in New York since last night, and something so minor wouldn't have merited a mention on the news.

The material she retrieved from the filing cabinets did indeed provide all the information they needed, but what Iola got, though not relevant to what they were looking for, was a big eye-opener. But Drew put that aside for the moment and looked at what Callie got.

Drew reached into Callie's shopping bag and brought out... four old coffee mugs. What? She giggled and put aside the mugs as well, and concentrated on the stuff she got from the cabinets. "Callie must have been so panicked last night that she picked up the mugs by mistake," she thought.

She put together everything that they found about Luigi Falcone. She also did some sleuthing and tried to find out about a certain bank account. Working in her usual quiet, efficient way, she had all her ducks in a row by the time Callie and Iola arrived.

As soon as they did, Drew dragged them to the Hall of Records, photocopied a few pages of documents, and drove to Queens.

An hour or so later, they were looking down at a little cemetery marker in Calvary Cemetery in Queens. On it, it said, in small letters, "Luigi Francisco Falcone, Rest in peace. March 13, 1939 - November 5, 1999."

Callie snapped a picture.

"So," Callie said, "he wasn't assassinated after all."

"Yeah." Drew sighed. "He had died a month before Southern Cross dropped the case. He was dug up and reburied here courtesy of someone named Margot T. Pelligrew. Aside from her, no one knew he'd died."

"Who's Margot Pelligrew?"

"I don't know who, but she knew about Luigi and the Falcones." Drew pointed further down. "Luigi's dad and brothers are buried about there."

"Wow," Callie said. "So she had him re-buried close to his family."

"It's so sad," Iola sniffed. "So unfair."

Drew hugged Iola. "I know."

They spent a moment in silent contemplation.

"Well, at least Eva and Marlee can move on."

"Yes."

"What's next?" Callie said.

"Next, we pay a visit to Eva."

So they drove back to Riverdale, and to 43 Merrimack.

-----

"Hello, Ms Jacobs," Drew said after Eva answer the doorbell.

"Oh!" Eva said. "It's Drew and her friends! Come in. I hope you came with good news from your father, Drew."

"We have news, Ma'am. But not from my father."

"Oh, Drew! I told you to call me Eva."

The girls sat down.

This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

"Eva, we need to tell you something."

So, over tea and crackers, Drew told her about the information they found.

Apparently, Luigi did escape assassination and had been living in Seattle, Washington ever since that time at the theater, living under the pseudonym Francis Jacobs. He worked as a paralegal for the Seattle Public Defender's Office until the day he died, and never did work as a lawyer again.

Eva was right - he stayed away in order to protect them. But he didn't forget. He probably heard about their financial problems because, yearly, he would send money to them, but the checks were always intercepted. Drew showed her the checks that he sent. They were in the files they found.

Luigi eventually figured out what was happening because he stopped sending checks around 1990. And in 1999, Luigi died quietly. Someone found out and had him exhumed and re-buried in New York. Drew asked Callie to show Eva the picture of Luigi's grave.

"But who had him re-buried?"

"The name of the lady was Margot Pelligrew," Drew said. "We haven't found out who she is yet."

"Margot!" Eva exclaimed. "It must be!"

"Do you know her?"

"Yes! She was Margot Susan Tate at the time. She was one of Marlee's classmates in college, and her biggest enemy. She had a big case of boyfriend envy. Luigi was very popular with the coeds. Margot was obsessed with him. But Luigi only had eyes for Marlee, and Margot never let that go."

"Hmmm. I guess we can conclude who was making your family's life a living hell, and stopped your investigation, too."

"But Margot has been dead for a while now. She passed away years ago. How can she continue..."

Drew shook her head. "I don't think anyone is actively doing anything anymore."

"You mean...?"

Drew nodded.

Eva sighed. "All this time... I could have..."

"Anyway..." Drew continued.

Apparently, even though he hadn't been sending checks anymore, Luigi had arranged to have about five hundred dollars anonymously deposited into their dad's Northfield Savings Bank account once a month, from 1990 to 1999.

"But that account has been empty for a long time! It should have been closed!"

Drew estimated that the bank account should have about ninety-eight thousand dollars. She didn't let on that she had verified that already. Though not a million dollars, it was a pretty hefty pile of change nevertheless.

Eva listened to Drew, and after a moment, she broke down and cried. Drew moved to her side and allowed her to cry on her shoulder.

After a while, Eva recovered enough that Drew could explain further.

She explained that the reason the three of them did this was because they were moved by her story, so they tried to get some information for her and try and shed some light on the disappearance of Luigi Falcone. They visited the offices of the Southern Cross Detective Agency (which was strictly true, after all) and were able to acquire some documents from her old case (again, strictly the truth, but not the whole truth, of course).

She showed Eva all the relevant papers that they had retrieved from Southern Cross as well as the papers that they had just photocopied from City Hall. Eva pored through all the yellowed paper, and read everything in wonder. Drew was sure she wasn't getting even a tenth of what was in the folder, but she allowed her to go through them nevertheless.

As a final piece, Drew handed her the note and picture from the clock that started everything.

Eva read the words that Drew first read weeks ago. Drew wouldn't forget them anytime soon.

"Louie," the note said in girlish, curlicued half-faded letters, "they found out. I'll leave the key to the safe deposit box in my dresser at Riverdale. There's a gun there, too, just in case you need one. I'll meet you back here tomorrow, but for now, I have to keep up appearances - Rocky and I are taking the Imperial to watch Kismet before it closes. I'm going to Chloe's now to get my party dress. Promise to lie low and watch out for Ziggy and his gang. Don't get yourself killed! My telephone number's on the back of the picture. Call me later. I love you - xoxo - Marlee."

Eva was crying as she read it. And then she turned to the picture.

It was remarkably well-preserved, even though it was a little old and yellowed. It was a picture of a pretty blonde girl in a cardigan and a poodle skirt standing outside an expensive-looking house with a gabled roof, a very large, well-manicured front yard dominated by what looked like two fruit trees, and an open four-port garage on the side of the house, with four fifties-era cars parked inside. The girl was smiling widely and was posing in front of the door of the house making a kissy face. There was a house number plate near the door that said "43."

"Oh, Marlee," Eva sighed.

-----

It was around five in the afternoon. The three of them were driving back to the island. Drew had the top down, and the cool air whipped their hair around them. Except for Drew, of course - her short hair just got rifled in the breeze.

Everyone was unaccountably quiet, but, eventually Iola broke the silence.

"So." Iola said. "I guess that's that."

Drew smiled. "Yep."

"Do you think this'll get in the papers?"

"Gee, I hope not."

"Huh? Why not?"

Callie playfully bopped Iola on the head. "'Coz, doofus, then people would know we broke into that office."

"Oh, yeah! I didn't think of that."

After a short while, Iola broke the silence again.

"So does that make us criminals?"

Drew and Callie laughed all the way to Iola's house.