She stared up at the old brick building and nodded in satisfaction, confirming to herself that she was at the right place. She walked inside and down the hall until she reached the correct door and then raised a fist to knock.

A boy not any older than 20 opened the door and stared straight over her. Well, she did know she was a little short for her age. She waved cheerfully to get his attention, "Hi!"

He looked down and blinked. "Oh, there you are."

She nodded, determined that he must be a good detective. "Yep. I’m Anna. Are you a detective?"

"Um, sort of . . .I’m Sid." He held out a hand uncertainly.

She hoped it was all right even though he wasn’t even sure he was a detective and shook his hand. "I need some help. I wanna find my big brother."

He blinked at her again. "Where are your parents?"

"At home." She replied cheerfully, as though there was nothing at all unusual about her being alone. "Can you find him for me?"

"What happened to him?"

"He left home about a year ago." She smiled at the detective a little, convinced he would help her now that he was asking questions.

He sighed, "Do you know where he would have gone?"

She shook her head. “No . . . Maybe home to Brooklyn . . . “

He hesitated for a moment. "Your brother, he didn’t do . . . bad things. Did he?"

She shook her head again. "Um . . . I don’t think so. Wait, he did skip classes sometimes to play baseball. Papa thought that was bad."

"Oh yeah, that is bad." He smiled a little and nodded, going into the office and pulling out files to look at.

"Can you find him?" She asked again.

"What’s his name?" He looked up from one of the files.

She watched him intently as he looked through the files. "Cassiel Devereaux."

He looked at the file and then back at her again. "Why do you want to find him?"

"I want to go where he is." She replied matter-of-factly.

"Shouldn’t you tell your parents about this? As them about it?"

She quickly shook her head. "No, no. Papa would never let me go and then I’d never see him again! Please, just help me find him. Please." She peered up at him, her eyes large and teary.

He watched her sympathetically and knelt next to her. "I’ll send a letter to a friend of mine and try to find him for you."

"Thank you!" She grinned and threw her arms around his neck.

He smiled a little and hugged her back. "I know how you feel, you know. My sister left a few years ago."

"Are you going to find her too?"

He looked away, avoiding the subject. "I don’t think I can find her. I need you to do something for me though. I need you to promise that you’ll leave your parents a note if you go to your brother."

She nodded eagerly. "Uh-huh, I will."

"All right. Well, I’ll talk to my friend and see if I can find him, but you need to go home again."

She grinned and hugged him again. "Thank you, thank you, thank you!" She gave him one more hug and then hurried back home, waving to him on her way. "Bye!"

***

A few weeks later Anna had packed her bags and left with Sid for New York City, where he had found her brother. She held his hand as they stepped off of the train and onto the platform. Sid looked around. "Here we are. Back in good old New York. . . again." Anna just held his hand a little more tightly and he looked down at her. "Ever been here?"

She nodded. "Yeah. I don’t remember it though."

"That might be a good thing in some ways." He looked through the crowd. "I wonder where Elise is?"

Anna moved closer to him, shyly. "There are lotsa people."

He kneeled by her. "Hey, don’t worry. I’m here to protect you, and Elise is even tougher than me."

She smiled a little. "Really?"

"Yep! We just need to..." He trailed off as he looked over where an older man was arguing with a girl about whether or not she had taken his wallet.

Anna glanced at Sid and whispered, "Are all the people here like that?"

He blushed slightly. "No. Just the insane ones." She hugged him and he returned the hug, asking her, "are you good at running?"

She nodded quickly. "Yeah. I used to run from Billy all the time after he pushed me because then I’d kick him and he’s get mad and chase me but he never caught me."

"Good. Get ready."

Anna watched him curiously. "Okay. Why?”"

Before Sid had a chance to answer the girl who was arguing with the man caught sight of some cops and quickly hurried away from the scene. "Let’s go." Sid said, taking Anna’s hand and running after the girl. Anna held his hand tightly and followed until they finally saw the girl dart into an alley. "Ah, she’s still the same. Let’s say hello." Sid walked into the alley behind her and adopted an Irish accent. "Freeze right there, lassie. You’re surrounded."

The girl let out a surprised sound. "I didn’t take..." She stopped as she saw Sid. "That’s not funny!"

Anna couldn’t help but giggle at the girl’s reaction and the accent Sid had picked up.

"Sorry, I couldn’t resist. You should really stop doin’ that, you know. One day you’re going to get caught." Sid said, walking closer.

"Didn’t do nothin’." The girl said, looking down. "You should be nicer. I’ve gone out on a limb here for you."

"I know, I..." Sid paused as he felt Anna tug on his arm as if to say, 'Hey, introduce me!' "Oh! This is Anna. Anna, this is Elise, or Heist, whichever you feel like at the time."

Anna smiled at her. "Hi!"

Heist kneeled by her and smiled. "Hi there! So you’re Gavin’s sister, huh?"

She started to nod but then hesitated, "Uh . . . wait . . Gavin?" She looked up at Sid curiously.

He looked back down at her. “She means Casey. See, when someone joins one of these lodging houses, like he did, sometimes they pick out a nickname.”

"Oh." She nodded. "Why?"

He shrugged. "Got me. I’m still Sid. The crazy ones pick out nicknames." He grinned at Heist as he finished.

She stuck her tongue out at him. “Don’t be sassy with me just ‘cause you’re uncreative.”

"My brother’s not crazy though." Anna replied seriously.

He smiled at her. "No, I’m sure he’s not. Well, I better get. I need to go find another friend of mine."

"You’re leavin’?" Anna looked up at him, somewhat disappointed.

He kneeled beside her. "Yeah. Elise will take you to your brother. She knows him. You can trust her, since you don’t carry much money." He smirked a little at that and Heist rolled her eyes.

Anna hugged him. "I’ll miss you, Sid."

He hugged her back and smiled. "I’ll miss you too, kid. I’ll try to visit you guys though."

She smiled. "Really? You promise?"

"I promise." He ruffled her hair a little. "Now you two behave, and say hi to your brother for me."

"All right." She hugged him again. “Thank you, Sid.”

"You’re welcome." He smiled and gave Heist a hug. "Thanks you you too."

She hugged him back some and mumbled. "Yeah, yeah. Go on."

He saluted. "Will do. Take care you gals." He gave one more wave and walked out of the alley.

Anna waved and then looked up at Heist expectantly. Heist kneeled by her again. "Well, are you ready to see your brother? I don’t know if he’s home yet, but he will be sometime tonight.” Anna nodded and grinned as Heist stood and held her hand. "Don’t worry. I’ve got some fun tricks to show ya while we’re in the big city..."

More to come