A Simple Case of Angels Read Online Free Page B

handed June Bug’s leash to Mina, then crept up the front steps. The living-room drapes were partly open. Nicola could see through to the dining room, where everyone was still at the table eating mince pie. She recognized Aleisha, who was in her class. The Durmazes looked too happy to be people whose turkey had been stolen.
    Nicola trudged back down the steps. June Bug was sitting on Mina’s boots now, shivering.
    â€œCan I take June Bug home?” Nicola asked, but her mother said no.
    They looked in the window of every house on the street. If the drapes were closed, there was usually a slit Nicola could peek through. Even if they knew the people, Nicola and Mina were too embarrassed to ring the doorbell and ask if their turkey had gone missing.
    â€œStrange,” Mina commented. “Hardly anyone put up Christmas lights this year.”
    â€œWe didn’t,” Nicola said.
    â€œYou’re right. Why didn’t we?”
    â€œI guess for the same reason the leaves didn’t change color,” Nicola said.
    â€œDidn’t they?”
    â€œNo.”
    When they got to the end of the block, they watched to see if June Bug would turn left or right or keep going straight. June Bug about-faced and tried to take off for home. Nicola picked her up.
    They’d checked half the houses in the neighborhood when a police car pulled along beside them.
    â€œI don’t believe it,” Mina said.
    Nicola was so frightened that she let June Bug go. The dog landed on all fours, lifting one paw at a time off the snowy sidewalk and shaking it.
    A police officer stepped out of the car and addressed Mina. “May I ask what you’re doing, ma’am?”
    â€œWe’re trying to return something. Sort of. It can’t actually be returned. No one would want it back. But we want to make amends. It’s Christmas.”
    The officer said, “We’ve received complaints. Suspicious behavior in the neighborhood. Possibly an attempted break-and-enter.”
    Mina put a gloved hand over her face. “The trouble that dog gets us into!”
    â€œI notice there’s something under your coat,” he said. “Or are you having twins?”
    â€œIt’s the rest of our turkey!”
    Mina pulled the package out and opened it for the officer. He peered at it to make sure it really was turkey, not someone’s silverware.
    â€œHave some,” Mina said.
    â€œMmm,” he said, pulling off a piece of meat and tasting it.
    Mina tapped on the window of the police car to offer some turkey to the officer behind the wheel. He was wearing a Santa hat. He nodded, and when Mina opened the car door, June Bug leapt right inside and bounced off the passenger seat into the back where the criminals ride.
    â€œHo-ho!” said the Santa officer. “Someone’s in a big hurry to get arrested!”
    â€œShe’s the guilty one, all right,” Mina told him.
    â€œLet’s take her down to the station and book her. Get in.”
    Mina got in the back seat, taking Nicola’s hand and pulling her in. Up front, the two officers turned on the siren and the flashing lights. They drove off with June Bug crouched in the back window, bobbing her head exactly like a dashboard ornament.
    All the way home Nicola held back her tears, hoping that this wasn’t Chance Number Three.

7
    â€”
    Later that night it started snowing. It was still snowing the next morning, Boxing Day, when Nicola walked June Bug over to Our Lady of Perpetual Help Church. Out front, the nativity scene was blanketed in white. All that showed were the heads and shoulders of the three plywood wise men and the plywood angel hovering above them, painted gold.
    Nicola didn’t really expect to find Ignacio at the church. She only hoped. She hoped, and there he was, shoveling the steps in a big hat with earflaps.
    Eventually he noticed June Bug — her black patch, one black ear and two pleading black