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

don’t even know what he looks like now, or even if he’s still alive. That age-progressed picture is just somebody’s guess. In ten years he could have gotten fat or thin or have really bad acne or weird crooked teeth or who knows. But at least I know I’m not him.” He started to walk away.
    “Wait, I didn’t show you what I found!” Roni jumped up and ran after him. She pulled the newspaper articles from her pocket and shoved them at him. “I found the article about the kidnapping. Here’s a picture of Lance Doblemun.”
    Brian looked at the photo. “He looks better without the beard, but I still don’t know him.”
    “Keep reading. The guy burned his own house down to collect the insurance.”
    “How come he’s not in jail, then?”
    “He got off on some technicality.”
    Brian skimmed the articles and handed the papers back to Roni. “So what? We already knew he was a creep. None of this has anything to do with me.” He started walking away again.
    Roni said, “Yeah, but—”
    Brian spun around and faced her. “What’s your problem? None of this matters! I don’t want to know any more. Okay, so my parents were wrong not to tell me about my first parents, but now they have. Mystery solved.”
    “You’re giving up? I spent my mom’s hard-earned cash to get these stories about what happened to Bryce. Aren’t you even interested?”
    “What you don’t seem to get, Miss Shirley Holmes, is that this is my
life,
not some stupid newspaper article you want to write.” He walked away, skateboard under his arm.
    “I’m not giving up,” Roni said.
    “Fine.” Brian kept walking.
    Roni followed Brian down the long dock to the parking lot, wishing she’d kept one of the pebbles—or a brick—to throw at him. She hoped Lance Doblemun would come running up and kidnap him and drag him off to some cave. Brian would want her on the case
then.
She watched him drop his skateboard when he reached the parking lot, put one foot on it, and push off. He thought he was so cool. He had no idea how dorky he looked.
    What she was really mad about was that she had no idea how to go about finding Bryce Doblemun. He was justa missing kid who happened to look like Brian. Maybe Brian was right—maybe it was over. Brian had learned everything there was to learn about his past, and without her help. Now she was at a dead end. P. Q. Delicata, teenage reporter, had reverted to Roni Delicata, teenage schlump.
    It made her furious.
    Brian, rolling across the none-too-smooth parking lot, looked as if he would topple at any moment. So far he was staying on his board, holding his arms out for balance, acting as if he were going a million miles an hour down a huge hill when he was only going as fast as most people could walk.
    Just then, Roni noticed she wasn’t the only person watching Brian. A woman sitting in a little green car had her eyes fastened on him. Roni decided to try to get a little closer and see if she could get a good look at the woman.
    She nonchalantly walked across the parking lot to get a better view. It definitely was not the old orange-haired woman. This woman had long black hair. She appeared to be Asian, maybe in her late twenties or early thirties. The woman watched Brian until he reached the street and turned onto the sidewalk. As soon as he disappeared from view, she pulled out of her parking space and started after him.
    Roni yelled, “Hey!” She ran toward the car.
    The woman looked at Roni, startled, then tromped on her accelerator and roared out of the parking lot, tires spinning, barely checking to see if any other cars were coming.
    Heart pounding, Roni pulled out her trusty notebook and pencil and scrawled down the woman’s license plate number.

21
    ojinx-o teegim
    The next day, Brian managed to avoid thinking about his adoption, about Lance Doblemun, or about Roni Delicata. He did this by designing two new paper airplanes, then spending a few hours at the skate park trying to learn the