Free Uncovering Sadie's Secrets by Libby Sternberg Page B

Barrington?”
    I had no choice. I had to tell her. But I kept the information flow to a minimum. I didn’t want to get Sadie in trouble and I didn’t know yet what the full situation was. I only told Connie about Sadie’s mom, the phone conversation, and my sense that something wasn’t right.
    “Is that why you wanted to leave early?” Connie asked me. “To find this Sadie person?”
    “She sounded like she needed help, Con,” I pleaded. “It would only take a minute, right? To drive past her house?”
    “You don’t even have a house number, for God’s sake,” Connie said, shaking her head. “All you have is ‘Barrington.’ You don’t even know how many Barrington streets, avenues, roads there might be.”
    “Give me your cell phone,” I said.
    “What? It’s in my purse.”
    I rummaged in her bag until I found it and punched in Kerrie’s number. After explaining to her what I was doing and why, I asked her to look up Barrington Street on a map.
    “Wait a minute,” Kerrie said excitedly. “My dad has one of those criss-cross directories. You know the ones that list people by their addresses, not their names. Let me get it.” It was typical of Kerrie to go for the more complicated solution. Instead of grabbing a map, or going on-line, she had to dig up a fancy directory.
    But in a few seconds she was back on the phone and I could hear her whipping through the pages of a directory while she looked. “Barrington Street. Barrington Arms! That has to be it, Bianca! The Barrington Arms. It’s a condo building in Towson, not far from the mall. That’s probably it, but I don’t see any Sinclairs listed.”
    “Maybe her mother’s last name is different,” I volunteered. “But where’s Barrington Street? Check that out too.”
    “Oh, no, I don’t think so. It’s in Glen Burnie. They’ve got a great new mall down there. With a Gap and everything.”
    I knew exactly what she meant. There was no need to stray far from one’s home mall if it offered what you needed. If Sadie had been in the Towson mall, it was because she lived nearby, and probably in the Barrington Arms. The Barrington Arms, however, was a plush high-rise condo. Lawyers, financial gurus, and doctors lived there as well as a few retirees who had invested well. And the pedigree of most of the folks in the building was blue-blood Baltimore. Sinclair or not, Sadie didn’t strike me as the Barrington Arms type.
    “What are you going to do?” Kerrie said. “And what about your date?”
    “I have some time,” I reassured her. “My sister and I will just do a quick drive-by to see if everything is okay.”
    “Bianca,” Kerrie said, and I thought for sure she was going to tell me to be careful, “what are you wearing—the peasant blouse or the silvery tee?”
    “The peasant blouse,” I told her. “Look, I gotta go. I’ll call you.”
    “You better!”
    We hung up and I gave the scoop to Connie, who just raised her eyebrows and stepped on the gas. “Okay, sis,” she said, “we’ll do a little look-see at the Barrington Arms if it’ll make you feel better.”

    T HE B ARRINGTON Arms was a huge curved building on a prime piece of real estate in Towson. Its rows of windows looked like some crazed jacko-lantern’s teeth, with some of them blacked out and others shining brightly. As I stared at it, I wondered how I would ever know which lights belonged to Sadie’s apartment.
    “Come on,” Connie said after parking the car. “Let’s go inside.”
    We walked along the darkened street toward the large, brightly lit foyer. No doorman. Hmmm, I would have thought a ritzy place like this would have a doorman. But then I saw the rows and rows of buttons next to intercom speakers. Obviously, we wouldn’t get in the front door without being buzzed in. And we wouldn’t get buzzed in without knowing which apartment to buzz.
    Nearing the door, I noticed a big expensive black car parked right out front. It was the Deadly Duo’s