- When asked if not going to school is against the law, Mr. Eberhardt informs Roy (and us) that it is—the correct term being "truancy".
- Roy's mother thinks that Roy is now scared to go to school (which isn't the case) and Roy decides to not mention his encounter with Mullet Fingers because he doesn't want to get the strange boy in trouble.
- Instead, Roy's dad begins to read aloud a story from the newspaper. Turns out that Officer Delinko made the headlines.
- But the story is mostly about his vandalized car and him sleeping on the job. And the article doesn't technically mention his name.
- The Police Chief, Merle Deacon, doesn't give out Delinko's name because he's part of the super secret surveillance team.
- But wait—there's more. The article includes information about the other vandalism happenings going down at the Mother Paula's construction site.
- Mr. Eberhardt continues to read the article, which talks about the uprooted survey stakes and the port-a-potty alligators.
- Roy's father says it best, "this is turning out to be an interesting little town after all" (6. 27).
- Looking at the newspaper himself, Roy recognizes the East Oriole street name.
- That's because Beatrice Leep's bus stop (and Roy's first sighting of the strange boy) is on West Oriole.
- Delinko is now in a meeting with his sergeant and the police captain. Needless to say, it's an uncomfortable scenario.
- The captain emphasizes how embarrassing the situation is and goes over the article with Delinko and his sergeant.
- Poor Delinko is effectively grounded and as punishment—he'll have desk duty for a month.
- He will still be able to drive his squad car but only to home and back—no patrolling. Essentially ignoring the penalty, Delinko is already planning on driving by the Mother Paula's construction site.
- Dana is absent from school again and Roy is expecting another fight upon his return.
- Giving his friend a heads-up, Garrett lets Roy know that some kids are taking bets on how many times Dana will beat Roy up.
- Naturally, Roy is less than ecstatic to hear this.
- But he does acknowledge the silver lining of the Dana situation: being able to following the strange boy to the golf course and receiving a two-week vacation from the school bus. It's a pretty good consolation prize.
- When he gets home, Mrs. Eberhardt receives a phone call and Roy takes this opportunity to grab a shoebox from his room and head off to the golf course again.
- First, Roy stops at East Oriole and Woodbury (aka the Mother Paula's construction site) where he has his first meeting with Curly who promptly yells at him to get off the property.
- From a kid's perspective, "the guy was acting like a total psycho" (6.89).
- When he finally gets to the woods by the golf course, he sees that everything has been cleared out. Not a single trace of Mullet Fingers.
- Making his way back to the fairway of the golf course, the sky opens up and Roy gets caught in a storm. And to make matters worse, he realizes that someone stole his bike.
- Now, he has to make his way home on foot and in the rain. Bummer.
- Roy is just about to cross the highway from East Oriole to West Oriole when a voice calls out from behind him.
- And who does he happen to see? Why none other than Beatrice Leep, who's sitting on Roy's bicycle asking what's in the shoe box.