The next day Rozena was back in the underground headquarters of SCRAM. She’d spent a night without much sleep, worrying about the fact that only a few days were left in which to find evidence that she was innocent. Soon, Mr Peterson and the Rising Star competition people would meet and demand that she explain herself. What would happen if all she could do was say, ‘I didn’t do anything wrong’?

Luckily her mother was on night shift, and had to sleep during the day. That made it easy for her to sneak out of the flat.

Now she, Colin, Zazi and Trevor were sitting around, trying to come up with a new plan. So far, nobody had said anything useful.

“I still think that if we can get a really small helicopter–” said Colin.

Trevor shook his head, and Zazi rolled her eyes. “You’re just obsessed with helicopters, Colin,” she said. “How’s a helicopter going to help us? What if I were to dress up as a drug dealer–”

Trevor laughed, and even Rozena had to smile. The idea of the small, round Zazi trying to fool Devon into thinking she was a dangerous criminal was absurd.

“Well, then, we could dress Trevor up as a drug dealer,” said Zazi.

“And how would that help us?” said Colin.

“That’s just dumb,” said Trevor.

“Well, I don’t hear you coming up with any ideas,” snapped Zazi.

Trevor shrugged and stretched languidly. “Let’s just admit it. None of us have any idea what to do.”

“Actually,” said Rozena. “I have an idea.”

They all swung round to stare at her. “You do?” said Zazi. “Spit it out. What’s your idea?”

“Ah, she’s just saying that,” said Trevor, but the look he shot Rozena was more of a challenge than a dismissal.

Rozena felt herself blushing under his gaze. “Well, you know this app I developed for the Rising Star competition? The panic button app?”

They shook their heads.

“It’s what I made for the competition. An app you can load on your smartphone. A voice-activated panic button. If you get into trouble, you say a code word to activate it, and it will start recording everything that’s happening, so that it can send that information to the ambulance, or the police, or whoever is coming to help you. So they’ll know everything they need to know as they arrive.”

“Wow,” said Colin. “You developed an app like that?”

“I did,” said Rozena impatiently. “But the point is, I can adapt it. What if we could load this app on Devon’s phone? And make it record whatever he says, film everything with the phone’s camera, and send that recording to us?”

“You can do that?” Zazi sat up.

“I can. The app will also tell us exactly where he is, using his phone’s GPS coordinates. It’s actually quite simple.” She caught Trevor’s eye, and found herself blushing again. “Only problem is, how to get the app on his phone.”

“Oh, that’s no problem,” said Trevor.

“That’s true!” said Zazi. “Trevor’s an expert pick-pocket. He can get hold of Devon’s phone, we can load the app on it and Trevor can put it back in his pocket – without Devon ever noticing his phone was gone! You can, can’t you, Trev?”

“Ab-so-lutely. No problem,” Trevor grinned. “So, just to be clear. We’re going to put an app on Devon’s phone to catch him doing some illegal stuff, and then SCRAM will use that info to put the screws on him to confess to planting the drugs on Rozena here?”

“Exactly,” said Zazi. “But you’ll need time to change your app, won’t you Rozena?”

Rozena nodded. “I’ll need a computer to do the coding work for the app. Can I borrow one of the laptops you have here? Then I can work at home, tonight. I should have it ready by tomorrow.”

“A laptop? Of course!” said Zazi, jumping up.

“Then I’d better start right now,” said Rozena.

Tell us: Which of the SCRAM Kids are you most like? What skills could you bring to the crime-fighting group?

***