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Madison scrambled to her feet.“So anyway. Sorry to disturb you.” She twisted the leash around her hand as she took a step back.

“You should go,” the man said, his face stony. “Now.”

“Yes, sir,” Madison said, backing away toward the elevator. “Leaving. Right now.”

She bolted through the open elevator door and jabbed the fourth-floor button, holding her breath until the door had shut.

“I didn’t like that guy,” Polo said quietly as she crawled into position under Butterbean’s tummy.

“He never stopped looking at her, not once. Polo, that was him. The Coin Man,” Butterbean whined under her breath. “It was bad, Polo.”

“I saw.” Polo shuddered. She was glad that she had Butterbean’s hair to hide her.

Butterbean kept her eyes on the door. She hardly even noticed the rat hanging from her underside.

“We’ll tell Oscar. He’ll know what to do.” Polo tightened her grip on Butterbean’s hair. “We did our part. Oscar will know what to do.”

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8

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THERE WAS ANOTHER BIG FLAW in their plan, one that they didn’t figure out until they were back in the apartment. They had to keep acting like normal pets until Madison left.

This was harder than it seemed. Oscar didn’t think he’d ever seen anyone take so long to clean a litter box.

“Did you have to poop so much, Walt?” Butterbean grumbled, watching Madison hard at work with the litter sifter.

“Can it, Bean,” Walt said, not looking at her. “I know you used it too.”

“It was an emergency!” Butterbean started to wail, lowering her voice just in time.

Marco and Polo tried desperately to cover up the soiled corner of their cage with clean cedar chips so Madison wouldn’t feel the need to change their bedding too. It didn’t work.

“Doesn’t she need to be somewhere? Talk on the phone to someone? Eat dinner? Do ANYTHING?” Marco said, hiding behind the water bottle and clutching his rat-head corn. “Why is she hanging out with us?”

Polo peered at the girl from behind the food dish.“Something’s not right here. It’s like she doesn’t want to leave.” Polo frowned and crouched lower behind the dish. The last thing she wanted was to end up in a tub of sudsy water.

By the time everyone’s food and water had been refreshed, the animals were practically twitching with anxiety.

“Okay, well, I guess I’ll see you later, guys,” Madison said, watching them with narrowed eyes. They seemed awfully edgy. She could’ve sworn one of the rats was wringing its paws. She just hoped they wouldn’t destroy the apartment.

As soon as the door closed behind her, the dam burst.

“Finally!” Butterbean squealed.

“You’re not going to believe what happened!” Polo said, launching herself out of the aquarium. The two blurted out the whole story so quickly that at one point Polo started hyperventilating and had to put her head between her knees.

But it was all worth it. The Coin Man was real. The mission was a success.

“Bravo! Excellent work!” Oscar crowed. “Your plan didn’t have the elegance and subtlety of my original plan, but I have to admit, it was effective. So we have a target—Apartment B on the top floor.”

“That’s the one,” Butterbean said, nodding her head. “It was definitely him. He smelled just right.”

“Oh boy was he creepy, though,” Polo said, shivering. “I didn’t like the way he was looking at that girl.”

“I didn’t like the way he was looking at me!” Butterbean said. “I’m glad we won’t be seeing him ever again.”

“Yeah, we’ll just steer clear of that guy,” Polo agreed.

“Um, yes.” Oscar frowned. He was having a creeping feeling that the others weren’t as clear on the “heist” concept as he’d thought. “We will definitely steer clear of him. After the heist, that is.”

“Wait, what?” Butterbean said, cocking her head.

“About that,” Marco said. “How does this heisting work, exactly?” He shifted uncomfortably. He hadn’t seen a lot of the crime-type shows that Oscar had seen. He was feeling like he and Polo were at a severe disadvantage, heist-wise.

“Well, he’s got the coins, so he’s the target of our heist,” Oscar explained.

Butterbean’s head cocked ever farther to the right.

“This is how it works. Now that we’ve identified the Coin Man, we’ll do some surveillance,” Oscar said, pacing back and forth across the coffee table like he was teaching Heisting 101. “We’ll locate his coins, and then we’ll set the heist in motion. Don’t worry, I’ll plan all that. Right now, you’ll just need to do some legwork.”

“Oh, okay,” Marco said uncertainly. He’d heard of legwork. Mrs. Food did legwork every Wednesday and Friday. He thought his legs were in decent shape already, but he was willing to put in a couple of workouts for the cause. He was pretty good on the wheel.

Polo still wasn’t convinced. “But me and Butterbean, we already did our part, right? So we’re done?”