Norah McClintock presents...

The Chloe & Levesque series

Break and Enter

First it’s cheating on a test, then breaking into her teacher’s car... Somebody is trying to set Chloe up, but who’d want to get her into trouble? As she tries to figure out who’s framing her, Chloe hears about a series of break and enters…and ultimately stumbles upon a dead body and a big mystery.

Scholastic Canada Ltd.
ISBN 0-439-95635-8 PBK
224 pages
Ages 12+
4 3/16" x 6 ¾"

Excerpt

Mr. Green must have attracted a lot of attention on his way out of the school to nab me because by the time he hauled me back inside, a crowd had gathered. I heard someone say something about Mr. Green’s car, but I didn’t see who it was. A lot of people were whispering.

Ms Jeffries glanced through the wall of glass that separated her office from the main administration office. She got up slowly, shaking her head. She reminded me of my mom whenever she caught me tormenting Phoebe, again. Her expression said, How many times are you planning to disappoint me, Chloe? Before Ms Jeffries reached us, Mr. Green was proclaiming that he had caught me breaking into his car. The next thing I knew, I was occupying what was fast becoming my chair in Ms Jeffries’s office. Mr. Green told his side of the story, then Ms Jeffries looked expectantly at me.

“Well, Chloe?” she said.

“Well, what? He didn’t catch me breaking into his car. He saw me near his car and he assumed that I did it.”

“One of the windows was broken,” Mr. Green said.

“I didn’t break it.”

“A very important file is missing.”

I felt like asking why he’d left it in his car if it was so important, but that probably would have made things worse, not better.

“Why don’t you call the police?” I said. “They can even fingerprint me.”

“That would be as useful as calling in a fox to do a head count in the henhouse, wouldn’t it?” Mr. Green said.

“Hey!” I said. He could say what he wanted about me, but there was no way I was going to let him insult Levesque or suggest that Levesque would play favourites.

Ms Jeffries sighed. “I’ll take it from here if you don’t mind, Mr. Green.” Her weary voice matched her tired face.

Mr. Green seemed startled to find himself dismissed, but he got up and left the office. Ms Jeffries leaned back in her chair and sighed again.

“What’s going on, Chloe?” she asked. “You don’t strike me as the kind of girl who cheats on tests and breaks into cars.”

I told her exactly what had happened in the parking lot. She peered into my eyes while I spoke, looking for something. The truth, I think.

“The incident is going to have to be reported,” she said.

I nodded.

“Maybe if you could just stay out of the parking lot . . . ” she said.

I had a better idea. I was going to put a stop to whoever was framing me. Someone — besides me — was going to pay.