Free Partners in Crime (9780545463119) by Kim Harrington Page A

disappointment in her voice. As we started up the stairs, she yelled, “Let me know if you want any snacks!”
    â€œI’m sorry about that,” I whispered to Fiona.
    She waved me off. “No problem. Your mom’s really cool.”
    Once we got upstairs, I closed the door to my room behind us. I slipped my backpack off my shoulder and dropped it on the bed, then motioned for Darcy and Fiona to do the same. I assumed Fiona’s special notebook was in her backpack. We’d have to find a way to take a look at some point.
    â€œWhat’s this?” Fiona pointed to my telescope. “Do you spy on your neighbors?”
    â€œOf course not,” I said. Darcy started laughing, since she was my neighbor. I explained, “It’s a telescope for watching the skies. You know, stars, planets, moons. I’m really into astronomy.”
    â€œOh, cool!” Fiona said. “I’m an Aries.”
    Darcy was really laughing now. I wanted to put my face in my hands, but instead I calmly said, “Horoscopes and stuff … that’s astrology. Totally different.”
    Fiona frowned. “Oh.” She seemed much less interested now.
    Darcy flopped onto her usual beanbag chair and I settled into the other. Fiona just stood there. ThenI realized the problem. I only had two beanbag chairs. I’d never had more than one friend in my room before.
    I slid off the chair. “Fiona, you can take this one. I’ll sit on the rug.”
    Darcy shot me a disapproving look and I glared back.
    Yeah, we didn’t know yet if we could trust Fiona. But I was still going to be a polite host until we knew for sure.
    â€œOkay, let’s go over what we have,” I said.
    Darcy opened a notebook she’d been writing the case information in. She read out loud, “Bailey and Fiona were born on the same day, in the same hospital, in the same city. There were also two baby photos showing two different babies who looked almost exactly alike. The parents’ names were too faded to read on Bailey’s birth certificate, though, so we can’t be sure Fiona and Bailey have the same parents. And then there’s the question of why Bailey would have a different last name. But we know that Fiona wasn’t adopted or kidnapped, because she looks exactly like her mother.”
    Fiona fiddled with her pearls. “Though if I was kidnapped, that would explain a lot.” She saiddreamily, “Maybe my real mother lives in New York City and works at Vogue and has spent her whole life mourning her daughter, who was kidnapped as an infant.”
    â€œLet’s focus on the facts,” I said. Just because Fiona’s mom was nothing like her, that didn’t mean she wasn’t her mother. Case in point: my parents and me. Nothing in common. At all.
    Darcy frowned, flipping a page in her notebook. “The strange thing is that, though Bailey exists on that birth certificate you found, she doesn’t exist in the database.”
    â€œWhat do you mean?” Fiona asked, her forehead creasing.
    I explained, “Darcy looked up all the Bailey Ann Bankses through this online website that private investigators use.” And people like Darcy , I added silently. “There are no Baileys with that birth year born in South Dakota. Nothing that matches the birth certificate. It’s like she doesn’t exist.”
    â€œOr that her existence was wiped,” Darcy said.
    Thinking out loud, I asked, “But who would do that? And why?”
    â€œKidnappers!” Fiona said.
    She really seemed to be sticking with that theory.
    â€œOkay,” I said. “So she’s not in the secret database. Files can be deleted. Why don’t we go to the source? Get the original birth certificate.”
    Darcy snapped her fingers. “That’s a great idea, Norah!” She pulled out her smartphone and typed something in.
    â€œWhat are you doing?” I