“Hey, kid,” said Balthazar, approag the little girl he had met earlier in the guild house.

  Suze looked up from her sitting spot on the edge of the dock. She was busy ting the handful of s in her palm, and cocked an eyebrow at the crab.

  “Oh, it’s you again, Mr. Lobster,” said the street ur. “I don’t have your calipers anymore, if that’s what you came looking for.”

  “I told you already, I’m a crab, not a lobster!” the annoyed crusta told her.

  “Tomato, crabo, same thing,” Suze said with a nont shrug.

  “And no, I didn’t e looking for the calipers,” said Balthazar. “I actually came to seek your services again.”

  The girl pocketed her money and looked at the crab with both eyebrows now raised.

  “Really? That never happened before. Usually after my tour there’s some yelling and throwing of things while people chase me dowreet, but no one ever asks for a sed one.”

  She stood up from the floor and patted the dust off her legs.

  “I don’t do dists for returning ers, though. The price is still two s.”

  The little rascal extended her open hand towards the crab, her nose held high as she waited for payment.

  Balthazar foutitude vexing but also, in a tiny, deep down way… retable.

  “I’m not looking for aour,” he said. “I was hoping you could help me with something else.”

  “With what?” said the kid, retreating her hand and crossing her arms.

  “How well do you know these streets?” the mert asked.

  “Like the bay hand,” Suze promptly replied. “I have decades of experien them.”

  Balthazar’s eyestalks arched in suspicious fusion. “Didn’t you say you’re like ten, or something?”

  “Yeah, but living ireets really ages you, plus I work a lot of extra hours to earn my .” She gave him a quick shrug. “It adds up.”

  “Whatever,” the crab said. “The point is, I need someone who knows this city’s streets, and help me navigate my way through the more… unsavory spots. To reach the less… reendable crowds.”

  “You wanna talk to the bandits,” the girl bluntly said, while rolling her eyes.

  “Uh… yeah.”

  “Coulda just e out and said that.”

  The mert frowned in slight annoyance. “ you help me or not?”

  “Sure, I help you find those mango thieves for the baroness.”

  “Great, I was really—” Balthazar stopped, and his eyestalks jumped in pce. “Wait, who said anything about the baroness?! I didn’t say I was looking for the mango thieves for the baroness!”

  Suze tilted her head to the side, giving him the most “really?” stare he never imagined a child could give.

  “If you guys wao keep your e a secret then maybe you shouldn’t have been walking around the guildhall together,” the girl said. “Shiny mayor strolling around with a giant crawfish o her kinda stands out. Everybody knows she’s been trying to catch those mango thieves. Even a child put two and two together, you know?”

  Balthazar frowned in double annoyance.

  “You weren’t supposed to know that. And I’m not a crawfish!”

  “Don’t hate me because I’m smart,” said Suze, while throwing her hair back. “And yeah, I help you, but it will cost you a lot more than two s.”

  “How much?” the suddenly apprehensive crab asked.

  The little girl paused, ting with her fingers while mouthing silently.

  “At least five s.”

  “Oh… Alright then,” the mert said.

  “Wait, no, you accepted that way too fast,” Suze said, pausing again to t in her head. “It will cost you five s… times five!”

  “Hey now, hold on!” Balthazar excimed. “That’s 25 s.”

  “It is? Dang it, I thought it was 50,” said the disappointed rascal.

  “How about I make you a different deal for your help?” the crab suggested.

  The kid shook her head. “I don’t need more calipers, thanks.”

  “No, no,” the mert quickly said. “Something much better.”

  “Better than ?” asked the skeptical girl, arms still crossed, as she cocked an eyebrow at him.

  Balthazar smiled. “Do you like pie?”

  ***

  Daylight was quickly fading, but Balthazar was relieved to find Margo’s Baking Boutique still open.

  With Suze in tow, the crab stepped into the shing the tiny bell as he pushed the door open. Madame Margo popped her head out from behind a shelf, looking towards the door.

  “Oh, Mr. Balthazar, you’re back already,” she said.

  “As I said I would!” the gleeful crusta said. “I was hoping you still have some mango pie left.”

  “Lucky you! I have just ohe shopkeeper said, whisking herself to the ter.

  As she crossed the shop floor, her eyes nded oreet ur behind Balthazar, browsing the dispys around her with wide eyes like someone who had never seen so much dy together.

  “Oh, no, no, no,” Margo excimed, wagging a finger. “Excuse me, young miss, but I think you must be lost. We don’t have anything to give out today, please try a different store.”

  Suze frowned as the woman tried to shoo her towards the door, but as she opened her mouth to no doubt give Margo a piece of her outspoken mind, Balthazar intervened.

  “She’s with me, Madame Margo! I brought her along.”

  The shop owner froze and turo him with surprise on her face. “Really?”

  “Yes!” the traveler assertively replied.

  “So she’s with you? And you’re paying for her, right?”

  “…yes,” he responded, with a little more dismay.

  “Very well,” Madame Margo said. “If you’re sure…”

  The womauro the ter, while Suze threw her to and made a rude gesture towards the back of the baker’s head.

  “Behave,” Balthazar muttered while they moved to the ter as well.

  “So, another slice for you?” Margo asked, while bringing a pte of pie up to the wooden surface.

  “Yes, please!” the bright-eyed crab said.

  “And two for me!” the kid o him excimed, somehow even more bright-eyed.

  The baker eyed the girl before her gaze jumped to Balthazar, as if looking for firmation.

  The crab bounced his shell from side to side as he rolled his eyes up. “Yeah, sure, go on…”

  “Actually, make it three!” Suze excimed. “I’m starving!”

  “What?! That’s not what we agreed to!” the agitated crusta said.

  “I agreed to help you if you got me pie. No pie, no help.”

  Grumbling, Balthazar the shopkeeper to proceed.

  As soon as the pte nded in front of her, the little girl pounced on it like a hungry animal on its prey.

  Madame Margo watched on with a sdalized expression, the fork she was about to pext to the pte still pinched between her fingers as the street ur gobbled up rge pieces of the pie with her hands.

  Balthazar stared at her with a small k of his own slice held in his pincer, mouth half open in bafflement.

  So this is what Madeleine must feel like whenever she brings me a pie…

  “Itsh justsh sho good,” Suze said, her mouth full and her eyes glistening.

  The crab smiled and finally remembered to toss his piece of pie into his mouth.

  He had almost fotten how pies tasted better wheen with pany.

  “So,” Margo said, “I trust my letter to our mayor found its way to where it o go?”

  “Oh, yes, of course,” Balthazar said, between chewing. “I gave it to one of the guild girls at the front desk, and she forwarded it to the baroness.”

  “Any clue who’s been taking your mango supply?” the little girl with cream all around her mouth suddenly asked.

  The crab’s eyestalks jumped up from his pte. “Suze! What are you doing?!”

  “What?” she said. “I thought the reason you wao e here was because their supply has been hit by the thieves multiple times and would be a good pce to start looking for leads.”

  Balthazar stared at the kid for a few seds, blinking as he thought about it.

  I just wao e back here for the pie…

  “I mean, of course, that art of the pn,” the crusta suddenly said. “But you weren’t supposed to be so obvious about it. People weren’t supposed to know that the baroness asked me to find the mango thieves.”

  Suze paused halfway through taking anenerous bite onto her sed slice of pie.

  “I didn’t say anything about that,” she said, rolling her eyes. “But you just did.”

  “Oh…” whispered the traveling mert.

  “Oh my!” excimed the Marquessian mert, leaning forward on her ter. “So the baroness has finally gotten someoo iigate the fiends taking our mangoes?”

  “I… ’t firm nor deny that, Madame Margo!” the nervous crusta said, trying to keep his eyes on the pie.

  “Little te for that…” Suze said, while nibbling on her slice.

  “Ah, of course!” the boutique owner said. “I uand now. Baroness Marquessa must have hired you from far away to maintain a low profile and catch these thieves off-guard. A private iigator who must keep secrecy to perform his iigation. It all makes sense!”

  Balthazar stared dumbfou the baker, mango cream on both ers of his mouth.

  It does?!

  “Don’t you worry, Mr. Balthazar,” the woman said, l her voice to an unnecessary whisper. “I will make sure to keep your iigation under s.”

  She made a zipping motion in front of her lips and leaned back to close the kit door.

  “Everybody knows she’s the biggest gossip in town,” Suze whispered to the crab.

  “You know,” the baker started, still whispering, “there was ohing my Marvin told me earlier…”

  “What was it?” Balthazar asked, leaning closer to her along with Suze.

  “He said that before the guards came a him away, he looked ihe barhe stolen mangoes were, aiced a very strong onion smell.”

  The crab frowned. “Who stores mangoes o onions?!”

  “That’s the thing,” said the shopkeeper, “our supplier doesn’t even produything other than fruits. That barn stoothing but mangoes.”

  “Hmm…” said the thoughtful crusta, rubbing his full of crumbs.

  “e on, I know where we o go,” Suze said, quickly shoving the third slice of pie in her mouth with uling ease that impressed even the crab.

  “What?! Just like that?” he said. “I haven’t even finished my pie yet!”

  “Well, I didn’t mean to be rude or anything,” the store owner said, “but I am past my closing hours.”

  “Perfect!” the little girl said, looking out the shop’s window. “It’s night already. Let’s go.”

  “Go where?!” Balthazar asked, hurriedly pulling his money bag while trying to finish his mango pie.

  “Oh, please, o pay this time,” Madame Margo said. “If you find those damnable mango thieves, I will be happy to let you have all the free pie you eat.”

  Thrilled, but still in a hurry to keep up with the kid already heading for the door, Balthazar skittered after her, one cheek still full of pie.

  “Slow down!” he pleaded. “It’s nighttime, shouldn’t we tu and keep looking in the m?”

  Suze turo him, shaking her head in disapproval.

  “Silly fish. You want to find those bandits, don’t you?”

  “Uh… yes?”

  “Do you think thieves hang around in the open during the day?”

  “Oh…”

  The excited girl pulled the door open with a loud “ding” of the bell above.

  “It’s time you got to know Marquessa at night!”