Al Capone Does My Homework

The kids have no trouble entering apartment #2E by kicking in the charred door. Looking at the extensive damage, Moose wonders again if Natalie might have done this. Also troubling is that the police have not, thus far, investigated the fire. In the ruins of his bedroom, Moose is relieved to find his baseball glove still intact. The kids comb the burned-out kitchen for any evidence of arson, such as a gasoline can or matches, but find only a half-burned hatbox, which Piper recognizes as Janet Trixle’s “pixie house”: the seven-year-old’s makeshift home for her imaginary pixie friends. None of them can explain what it is doing in the Flanagans’ kitchen since Janet has not visited recently. Suddenly the kids hear footsteps outside the door, followed by an all-too-familiar voice bellowing through a bullhorn: Darby Trixle, who angrily tells them to leave. Moose tells him that he has a perfect right to visit his own home, but Darby barks at them that the place is dangerous and that a “task force” has been assigned to investigate the crime scene. The kids manage to conceal from Darby their discovery of his daughter’s pixie house in the burned-out kitchen.