Free The Bloodwater Mysteries: Doppelganger by Mary Logue, Pete Hautman

like, ominous and full of meaning.”
    “Meet at the marina? End of the pier?” Brian said.
    “Give me half an hour,” Roni said. “I’m reduced to travel by foot.”
    “Ah, yes. Poor Hillary.”
    “Poor Roni, you mean.”
    Roni preferred it when she was the one to deliver earth-shattering news to Brian, not the other way around, so before leaving, she printed out three of the articles she had found in the
Star Tribune
archives. First was an article about the abduction, showing a photo of the three-and-a-half-year-old Bryce Doblemun. The second article, dated a few weeks later, was a short human-interest piece about the Doblemuns’ house burning down. Lawrence Doblemun was portrayed as a tragic figure who had lost his wife, his child, and now his home. The article included a photo of a younger, beardless Lawrence Doblemun standing in front of the burned-down house.
    The third article, several months later, said that Lawrence Doblemun had been charged with burning down his own house to collect the insurance money.

20
    pebbles
    “So, you see, there’s no mystery,” Brian said after telling Roni what he had learned from his parents.
    Roni stared at him. “No mystery? Are you crazy?”
    “Nope. Perfectly sane.” They were sitting on the endmost dock at Bloodwater Marina, looking out across the Mississippi. Brian threw a pebble into the water. A gull sailed low over the widening ripples. Sometimes people threw pieces of bread, or fish guts, or some other delicacy. This time, the gull was disappointed.
    “You don’t even know who you are!” Roni said.
    “I am Brian Bain, formerly Brian Samuels.”
    “Yeah, and you were found on the steps of a Korean police station. Who were you then? And why did your parents
lie
to you?”
    “I guess I was pretty messed up after the Samuelses died. They just thought it would be better for me to forget. It’s not like there’s some huge conspiracy.” He tossed out another pebble. The gull returned, once again hoping for a scrap of food. “It’s kinda sad. I mean, I
knew
them, but I didn’t
know
them, if you know what I mean.” He threw another pebble. This time, the gull ignored the splash.
    “Give me a pebble,” Roni said.
    “Why?”
    “So I can have fun teasing the seagull, too.”
    “I told you to pick some up as we were crossing the parking lot, but no, you couldn’t be bothered, and now you can just sit there and watch as I toss my pebbles and watch the ripples move out from them in perfect concentric circles.”
    Roni held out her hand. Brian made her wait a couple of seconds, then slowly counted out two pebbles and placed them in her hand as if they were gold coins.
    Roni tossed out both pebbles at once, but even the double splash did not entice the gull to return. The ripples faded into the river.
    “So I guess that’s that,” Brian said.
    “What’s what?”
    “The great doppelganger mystery is over.”
    “Not by half. We still don’t know what happened to Bryce Doblemun—”
    “Vera Doblemun abducted him to get him away from her creepy husband. Besides, the police have had the case for ten years and gotten nowhere.”
    “—or why he looks so much like you. And what about the orange-haired lady?”
    “What orange-haired lady?”
    “Darwin said there was an orange-haired lady asking where you lived.”
    “There was?”
    “I didn’t tell you,” Roni said.
    “Why not?”
    “I forgot. Oh, and I might have seen her. I mean, I saw this orange-haired lady at the library a couple of days ago.”
    “And she was asking about
me
?”
    “I don’t know. She was talking really loud, and Ms. Paige sort of ignored her, so she took off in a huff.”
    “Why would she be looking for me?”
    “I don’t know. Maybe it’s something to do with the paper-airplane article.”
    “Weird.” Brian tossed out his last pebble, stood up, and picked up his skateboard. “If I see her, I’ll ask her what she wants. As far as Bryce Doblemun’s concerned, we