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As the door swung shut behind them, Walt leaped to her feet. Sprinting across the room, she scooped up Butterbean’s rawhide chew and pushed it into the gap, preventing the door from closing completely. The girl didn’t notice.

“Bingo,” Walt said. “Tape, Oscar?”

Oscar flew into the kitchen and tore a piece of tape off the dispenser. Then he flew over to Walt, who carefully took it from his beak and taped it over the latch on the side of the door. They repeated the process until they were sure the latch was completely covered.“Better safe than sorry,” Oscar said.

After patting the tape in place to make sure it was secure, Walt batted the rawhide chew out of the way and let the door swing shut. Then she jumped up onto the handle and opened it again.

“Nice work,” Oscar said, flapping his wings happily. “And totally disgusting distraction, by the way.”

Walt grinned.

Part one of the plan was a success.

Outside at the elevator, Butterbean wasn’t feeling quite so optimistic. There was a weird new stain by the stairway door that she was just itching to investigate, but she didn’t think it was appropriate with a rat hanging from her tummy. Even a nice rat.

In fact, now that she thought about it, there were a couple of other things she wasn’t sure she could do with a rat hanging from her tummy. Two things, in fact. Two very important things.

“Polo,” Butterbean hissed. “What do we do about… you know.”

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“What?” Polo said, trying to maintain her grip on Butterbean’s hair.

“YOU know,” Butterbean said again.

“I don’t,” Polo said.

“If you’re under there…” Butterbean said. “And I need to… you know.”

Polo didn’t say anything.

“I’m on a WALK, Polo.”

“OH!” Polo stopped adjusting her grip and just dangled. “We need to rethink this.”

“I don’t want to pee on you!” Butterbean said in a low wail.

“I appreciate that,” Polo said. “We need to figure this out fast.”

The original plan had been for Butterbean and Polo to go out for Butterbean’s usual walk, and when Butterbean smelled the mystery coin owner, Polo would drop down on the ground and investigate. But they hadn’t really considered the actual purpose of Butterbean’s morning walk. Until now.

For the first time in her life, Butterbean was glad the elevator in their building was so slow.

Polo tried to think.“Okay, so let’s be honest. It’s unlikely that you’ll smell the man outside of the building, right? I mean, you definitely found the coin in the lobby?”

“Right,” Butterbean said, craning her head down to look between her legs at Polo.

“Keep your head up! I’m not here, remember?” Polo squeaked.

“Right, not there. Yes, he was definitely in this building.” Butterbean was almost 90 percent sure of that. Maybe a little less. Maybe 80 percent.

“Good. Is there a hiding place in the lobby? Trash can, potted plant, anything like that?”

“Yes, both,” Butterbean said softly.

“Okay, good. This is what we’ll do. I’ll wait there while you head out to do your… um… stuff. Then I’ll grab you when you come back in. I’ll keep an eye on things in the lobby while you’re gone. Heck, maybe I’ll spot him myself.” Not that it was likely, but if it meant not getting peed on, Polo was all for it.

“Okay, got it. New plan,” Butterbean said nervously.

“Look, here’s the elevator,” the girl said, patting Butterbean on the head. “It’s okay, little guy!”

Butterbean barely noticed the head pat. She just hoped the girl was right.

Oscar pecked at the remote in the living room, periodically craning his neck to peer at the Television.“I know one of these is the surveillance channel. We’ll be able to monitor them as soon as I find it.”

“I should’ve just gone with her. I don’t like this. Too much could go wrong,” Walt said, pacing back and forth.

“You could hardly have hidden on Butterbean’s stomach,” Oscar said, rolling his eyes. Walt was a little bit of a control freak. “Now move. I think you’re blocking the signal.” Walt stalked over to the sofa and sat down.

“Don’t worry, they’ll be okay. Polo will keep Butterbean on track,” Marco said, munching on a sunflower seed in front of the TV.

“Found it!” Oscar said, sitting back and eyeing the screen. The channel was divided into four different views from four different cameras. One showed the lobby and the elevators, one showed the front entrance to the building, one showed the back entrance, and one showed the garage entrance. “We can ignore that last one. I don’t think they’re going to drive anywhere.”

“You never know,” Walt said darkly. “It’s Butterbean. Anything could happen.”

“Look! There they are!” Marco squealed. “They’re on TV!” He hopped up and rushed to the screen, scattering sunflower shells in his wake.

“So far so good,” Oscar said. “The plan is going off without a hitch.”

“Don’t jinx it,” Walt said, flicking a piece of sunflower shell off of her tail.

On the screen, a black-and-white version of the girl and Butterbean walked out of the elevator and crossed the lobby.