Sleight Read Online Free

Some connection, and then it had hit me all at once. When I’d managed to prevent Rusty Witkowski and Coby Munger from blowing up the school and shooting up the gym I had quickly been engulfed in a sea of media speculation: who I was, people trying to locate me, interview me and get close to me. It had been intense and nonstop, until a massive fire on the waterfront had burned down most of a pier and a bunch of shops. That became the headline in the media and my brief rise to fame had faded quickly.
    At the time I’d been so wrapped up in my grief over losing Mr. Goodturn and Maddy’s moving away that I hadn’t given it much thought. I had just been thankful that all of the unwanted attention had gone away. Now, with ashes and burned furniture in Breno’s apartment, and the food wrappers, I felt I had just connected several dots.
    The bus pulled into a stop across the street from Pier 57 and I got off. The fire had been at Pier 56, so I decided to head there first. What I was hoping to find was hard to say, but most of the food wrappers in Breno’s apartment had been from the waterfront.
    The whole area still smelled like a campfire, even though the fire had taken place many weeks ago. The closer I got to Pier 56 the stronger the smell got until it was overwhelming. The normal smells of wet wood, mold and rotting seaweed were hardly noticeable. Gulls swirled overhead, looking for scraps to fight over. The heavy cement supports for the freeway viaduct overhead cut off part of my view of the pier until I crossed the street. Bright orange barricade fencing had been erected all around the burned-out pier and work crews were repairing the sidewalk and street while dump trucks labored to carry away debris and burned timbers.
    One of my knacks is the ability to camouflage myself so that to a casual observer I am hard to see because I blend in with my surroundings. It isn’t true invisibility and if I move quickly it’s less effective. This handy knack had helped me get in and out of several difficult situations, using it now to get around the construction barriers was like second nature.
    The construction crew was so focused on their work that I had no trouble getting past them and into the main building of the pier. The exterior walls of the shopping area were heavily damaged and most of the roof had collapsed. Stepping carefully through the debris and past weakened spots in the floor I made my way through the large pedestrian hallway that had led to the end of the pier with shops flanking both sides.
    Most of the businesses were completely burned out. When I got to the end of the retail hallway I arrived at what had been a landing designed for viewing the water. To the north it was so damaged that it looked unsafe. On my left to the south there was a metal staircase that led to the lower shops of the pier. It looked relatively intact. Cautiously walking down the stairs, I winced as strange groans and metallic ringing followed my descent. I gripped the handrail and white-knuckled it all the way to the lower landing.
    The fire hadn’t reached this part of the pier and although the smell of smoke was pervasive, the lower level showed almost no damage from the fire. There was however, lots of water damage from firefighters using hoses while trying to contain the blaze up above. There had been fewer occupied businesses on this level, with leasing signs plastered on the windows of vacant shops. Several had their windows soaped over.
    So far my mission had netted me zip. As I slowly limped by the abandoned shops I noticed that the door to one of them had several fast food boxes strewn around it. When I got closer I recognized several from the same place as the ones I’d seen in Breno’s apartment. I nudged the trash with my shoe and saw a receipt underneath a bag. As I reached down to pick it up I steadied myself by placing my hand against the shop’s door, and almost ended up on my ass because the door swung open.
    Catching