"Was that the right one?" Shirley asked Bo after he hung up the phone.
"Nope," Bo answered. "And that was the last Brock in the
phone book."
It was the next day and the two friends were in Shirley's attic.
They had just called up all the Brocks listed in the phone book.
Watson, Shirley's pet basset hound, lazily watched them from
a chair.
"Thirty people named Brock and none of them has a son named Arthur
who
works at Derrick's," Bo recalled. "Let's face it, Shirley, we're
sunk."
"Not if Blake has better luck," Shirley said.
"Speaking of Blake, where is he?" Didn't he say he was going to help us out?" Bo asked.
"Well..." Before Shirley could finish, she heard her mother
cry out
from downstairs, "Shirley, Blake's here to see you."
In a flash, Shirley bolted down the attic steps followed by Bo
and
exited via the bookcase. She found her mother, Dr. Joanna Holmes,
standing near the house's entrance with Blake.
"Ah, here she is, Blake," Dr. Holmes said, seeing her daughter.
"Shirley, look who I ran
into at the door."
"Hi, Shirley. Hi, Bo," Blake greeted with a wave and a smile.
"Hi, Blake," Shirley greeted back. "Did you bring the 'school assignment?'"
"Right here." Blake patted his pants pocket. "Shall
we go look at it?"
Shirley led the way to the attic. "I take it you couldn't
find Arthur
Brock's address?" Blake asked.
"Too many Brocks in the phone book," Shirley answered.
"And not one of them was the right Brock," Bo added glumly.
Once the three friends were in the attic, Blake took a piece of
folded
computer paper out of his pocket. "Good thing I did this for
you,
Shirley," he said as he handed the paper to her.
"Was it too hard?" Shirley asked.
"Nope. It was a cinch." Blake saw the look of worry
on Shirley's
face. "Don't worry. I didn't get caught and I carefully
covered my tracks."
Shirley opened the paper and looked at its contents. "Yes!" she exclaimed.
Bo pointed to the paper. "What is that?"
"Arthur Brock's home address," Blake answered.
Bo looked at Blake suspiciously. "Just how did you get it?"
"I just hacked into the police department's computer system and
found
Brock's criminal record," Blake said matter-of-factly. "I found
his
address there." Bo's eyes bugged out. "You did what?"
"I also looked at Mr. Derrick's financial records to make sure,"
Blake
told Shirley, producing another folded piece of paper and handing it
to
her. "He's not in debt or anything else bad, so this isn't aninsurance
scam."
Shirley nodded and looked at both papers. "Good job, Blake.
Brock's
definitely our man."
"I don't believe this." Bo was trying to take it all in.
"You broke
into the police department's computer system AND someone's personal
computer files?"
"Blake's an accomplished computer hacker," Shirley revealed.
"You knew?" Bo looked at Shirley in disbelief. Although
he once
hacked into someone's itinerary, he did not practice hacking on a regular
basis.
"He mentioned it during our date," Shirley admitted.
"How do you think I learned about the probe into my dad's 'death?'"Blake said.
Bo sighed. "Great, I'm now friends with a probing detective
AND a computer hacker."
Blake simply smiled. Shirley put the papers away.
"I believe it's time to meet this Arthur Brock," she said.
-End of Part 2-