"Where?" Joey asked quietly, searching the darkness.
He soon caught movement near a clump of bushes out of the corner of his eye.
Judging by the figure, it was probably a man. He was tall, with a black hood covering his head. He glanced furtively around, then vaulted into the yard.
"What are you waiting for?" Nome called out, jumping down from the tree first. In a few swift movements, he was already in the bookseller's yard.
Before the intruder could do anything, Nome pinned him to the ground.
"Let me go!" the man screamed desperately.
Joey climbed slowly down from the tree. He didn't have Nome's physical abilities.
He pulled back the man's hood and said in surprise:
"It's not him?"
Nome now got a clear look at the man's face as well. He wasn't the clerk they had met at the bookstore at all.
He released the man, his face full of irritation and a trace of anger. "Who are you? What are you doing here?"
The man looked suspiciously between them, his eyes wary. Seeing that they were both dressed in black too, he broke into a strange, snickering grin. "Fellow professionals?"
He casually flexed the arm that had been hurting from Nome's grip.
"Why didn't you say so? I know the rules. This house is all yours."
Nome turned toward Joey in disbelief. "Does he think we're robbers?"
Joey nodded solemnly. "Most likely."
"Aren't you?"
Nome put on a stern expression and took a little red booklet from his coat. "I'm an investigator with the Sheriff's Office. I now suspect you're connected to a murder."
When someone like Nome got serious, the authority he radiated was genuinely intimidating.
A moment later, the man collapsed to the ground with a thud.
"Don't arrest me, officer! I just