Partners in Crime (9780545463119) Read online

  Mr. Fanning coughed into his hand and stepped closer to his wife. “Maybe these girls are right. Maybe we should give trust a try.”

  Mrs. Fanning rubbed her face with her hands. After a few moments of considering us with narrowed eyes, she said, “I suppose we could always keep one suitcase each packed, just in case they told.”

  I felt a burst of hope. “We wouldn’t tell,” I said firmly, and Darcy nodded, just as strongly.

  Mrs. Fanning studied us closely. “So you girls promise to keep our old identity a secret?”

  Darcy said, “Heck yeah!” She loved being in on secrets, and this was about the biggest one of our lives.

  Relief washed over me as I said, “I promise, too.” I would’ve felt horrible if our investigation had forced Fiona to give up her life, move away, and change her name.

  “Thank you, guys,” Fiona said to us, still looking tearful but no longer as distraught. To my surprise, she reached over and gave me, and then Darcy, a quick hug. Then she turned around, and her parents wrapped her in a giant, three-person hug.

  Darcy and I looked at each other, knowing we should give the Fannings — or the Bankses — their time alone. We collected our spy gear and headed back to my house. The investigation was over. Bailey Ann Banks was where she belonged.

  On Sunday, Darcy and I baked cupcakes in her kitchen. Not regular cupcakes. Celebration cupcakes. I expected them to taste even sweeter.

  We’d frosted them — yellow for me and chocolate for Darcy. While we stood waiting for them to cool (note: staring at cupcakes does not make them cool any faster), I thought about the case. It was funny … at the beginning I hadn’t even really wanted to get involved. But now I was so glad I had. We’d helped Fiona learn the truth about herself and her family. Darcy got some excitement in her life, which she always loves. And me? I felt proud.

  Less than three weeks ago, I was terrified to stand in front of class and give a presentation on a fake detective agency. And now? I’d hunted down clues, done a stakeout, and unmasked fake identities. Not too shabby for a goody-goody.

  The only downside? I was kind of sad that everything was over. I had gotten to like all that intrigue. Maybe I’d start watching Crime Scene: New York every week with Darcy.

  “The cupcakes should be cool enough by now,” Darcy said.

  We reached in and pulled a cupcake each out of the pan. I felt like we should mark the moment somehow. I held my cupcake out. “To us figuring out a mystery.”

  Darcy smiled and bumped my cupcake with hers. “To Partners in Crime and our first case.”

  I had already taken a bite when that word hit my brain. “First?” I said.

  “You really shouldn’t talk with your mouth full,” Darcy teased.

  I swallowed. “What do you mean … first?”

  Darcy tilted her head side to side with a sneaky smile on her face. “I didn’t take the website down yet. If we want to … we can leave it up.”

  “And accept more cases? How would we even get the word out? It’s not like we can advertise that we’re a real detective agency. We’re seventh graders!” These questions came pouring out of my mouth because that’s me — logical. But inside, I was thrilled by the idea of working on another case.

  “We can figure all that out as we go,” Darcy said and shoved half a cupcake into her mouth.

  And, for now, that was good enough for me.

  I had assumed Fiona was an airhead who only cared about clothes and makeup. But I was wrong. Well, she does care about clothes and makeup. A lot. But those aren’t the only things she cares about. She loves her little sister. She values the truth. And … as Darcy and I found out at school Monday morning, she can be a good friend.

  Darcy and I were standing at our lockers, trying to act normal after the Craziest Weekend Ever. Fiona strutted up to us, gliding gloss onto her lips as she walked. She stopped at our lockers — for the first time.

  “Want to try?” she said, holding out the lip gloss. “It’s Very Berry flavor.”

  “Um, no thanks,” Darcy said.

  “How are you?” I asked softly.

  “Great!” And from her beaming smile, I knew she meant it. “Things have really changed with my parents. We had some good talks this weekend. They told me stories about ‘everything that happened,’ if you know what I mean. I always thought of them as lame dorks. Buth they’re actually very brave and cool.” She shrugged and dropped her voice to a whisper. “Even if no one can know about it.”

  “That’s great,” I said. “We’re really happy for you.”

  Well, I knew I was happy. I assumed it was the same with Darcy, but she wasn’t a “let’s talk about our emotions” kind of gal.

  “One more thing,” Fiona said. “I texted Slade and told him the double date wasn’t going to happen. Ever. He texted back asking why and I replied …” She smiled. “Well, let me just show you.”

  She slipped her phone out of her bag, scrolled down to find the text, and held it up for us to see.

  That’s for Darcy and Norah.

  Darcy’s eyes widened. “No. Way.”

  Fiona giggled. “Yes, I did.”

  “That’s awesome!” I said.

  “So …” Fiona looked down at her heeled boots, almost shyly. “I have a question. If your detective agency gets another case … could I maybe help you guys again?”

  A few weeks ago, the idea of me spending time with Fiona Fanning would have been laughable. But after getting to know each other better, we were still opposites but also … kind of … friends. And from the huge grin Darcy was sporting on her face, I knew Fiona had earned points with her.

  Darcy and I shared a quick look and I nodded.

  “Sure,” Darcy said, holding a fist out.

  We smiled as Fiona and I brought our fists in, and we all bumped.

  Partners in Crime was expanding!

  On my way to second period, I ran into Maya Doshi. I always felt like a giant tree when I stood next to her. But I really wanted to finish the conversation we’d started in the library.

  “Zane told me that he’s been walking you home to protect you from Hunter,” I said, trying to sound casual.

  “Yeah.” She pulled her books close to her chest. “It’s sweet of him.”

  “Is that the big secret you were talking about?”

  Maya chewed her lip. “No.”

  “Can you tell me what it is?”

  Maya sighed. Like she really wanted to tell me. I held my breath.

  “Not yet,” she whispered.

  Then the bell rang and she ran off.

  That night, I’d finished my homework and was checking out my favorite astronomy blog online. Mom came into the living room with a laundry basket full of clean clothes. She started to fold mine. They were all the same. Jeans, T-shirts, plain sweaters. Nothing like the cool clothes Mom wears. Nothing like Fiona’s wardrobe.

  “Hey, honey,” Mom said. “What are you up to?”

  “Um, just, you know, my thing,” I said. Like she’d be interested in planetary observations.

  Mom threw her head back in laughter. She has such a pretty laugh. “Can you tell me what your thing is?”

  “Okay, sure.” I cleared my throat. “Every two years, Mars comes to opposition, which means that it and the sun are on opposite sides of the sky, and Mars is closer to Earth. Which means it’s easier to see in the night sky. Now is that time. It’s pretty cool.”

  “That’s interesting,” she said, putting a folded sweater on top of the pile of clothes.

  I went to turn back to the computer, but Mom asked, “Could you show me?”

  I spun back around and smiled. “Really?”

  “Yeah, let’s go look through your telescope.”

  I jumped up and grabbed her hand. “Nope. For tonight, you only need your eyes.”

  I pulled her out the back door and shut off our outside light. It felt a little strange, standing in my backyard in the dark with my mother, but nice at the same time. />
  “Okay,” I said. “Do you see the bright object up there with a bit of a red tint to it?”

  She followed where I was pointing and then her face lit up when she found it. “That’s it? That’s a planet?”

  “Yep. Mars.” Then, since I had her attention, I started rattling off my favorite Mars facts. “Mars has two moons. It has higher mountains than Earth and the solar system’s biggest volcano. And we think Mars used to have water but it all evaporated after the atmosphere …”

  I stopped. Mom wasn’t looking up anymore. She was staring at me.

  “Wow,” she said. There was a bit of awe in her voice. “It’s amazing.”

  “Yeah, I know. And in the polar caps —”

  “No, not Mars,” she interrupted. “It’s amazing that out of all the girls in this big, wide world … I ended up with the best one.”

  I blinked quickly, not quite knowing how to respond. Mom pulled me into a tight hug.

  I wasn’t the best girl in the entire universe. That was crazy talk. But my mom thought I was. And isn’t that what really matters?

  My heart felt as light as zero gravity. I’d solved a mystery and made a friend out of the last girl I ever thought I’d be friends with. Now, just when I thought my day couldn’t get any better, I realized something else. I didn’t have to have anything in common with my mom for her to be glad I was her daughter.

  I hugged her even tighter.

  Dad opened the door and started yelling something into the yard. I had to break up our hug to hear what he was saying.

  “Did you hear me?” he yelled again. “Darcy’s on the phone!”

  I smirked. “You see, Mom? If I had a cell phone, Darcy could have just sent me a text and it wouldn’t have interrupted our bonding moment.”

  “Nice try.” She patted me on the head. “Go ahead and answer it. I’m going to finish up the laundry.”

  I ran inside and grabbed the phone off the kitchen wall. “What’s up, Darcy?”

  “Guess what,” Darcy said quickly. She seemed excited about something.

  “Chicken butt. I don’t know. Tell me.”

  “Our detective agency just got another e-mail.”

  I gasped. “A threat?” I’d thought this was over!

  “No, not a threat,” Darcy said. I could almost hear her smiling through the line. “A new case.”

  Darcy, Maya, and I quietly made our way back downstairs and sat on the couch. The TV was still on, and it cast a bluish light over the dark living room.

  “I think I know what’s going on,” Darcy said.

  Maya’s eyes widened. “You do?”

  “You think it’s Anya,” I said, and Darcy nodded.

  “My sister?” Maya face scrunched up in confusion.

  “She has the means and the motive,” Darcy said. “She could’ve easily snuck into the room, whispered those words, and snuck back into her room before we got up there. All just to mess with us … you … whatever.”

  I usually rolled my eyes at the conspiracies Darcy came up with, but this one seemed spot-on.

  “There are two problems with that theory,” Maya said. “First, Anya wasn’t here the other two nights I heard the voice. I was home alone with my brother.”

  “Maybe you thought she was out but she really snuck in to trick you?” Darcy suggested.

  Maya shook her head. “I doubt that. Plus, there’s the other problem. This is the third time I’ve heard that voice on the monitor. And it’s not Anya’s voice.”

  “How can you tell?” Darcy said. “It’s fuzzy. There’s so much interference, I couldn’t even tell if the voice was male or female.”

  Darcy was clinging to her theory, but I wasn’t so sure. Maya had some good points there. Though Anya could have disguised her voice.

  “Anya’s a definite suspect,” I said, “but we need to investigate other possibilities. Gather more evidence. Someone really could be scared, and need help. It might not be a prank.”

  Darcy heaved a sigh. “Yeah, you’re right.”

  I had a thought, and turned to Maya. “Has the monitor ever picked up any other interference before?”

  Maya nodded. “When we first got the monitor, it picked up the sounds of a TV show from somewhere. My parents thought it was funny.”

  “And it never happened again?” I asked.

  “They changed the channel thingy,” Maya said pointing at the back of the monitor, “and that seemed to fix it.”

  I picked up the monitor and saw a switch with two options: channel one and channel two. I wanted to play around with it, but didn’t want to mess things up.

  Darcy’s face lit up. “The monitor probably couldn’t pick up interference from too far away. Let’s go outside and check out the neighbors, see if anyone’s watching TV.”

  Maya wrapped her arms around her chest. “Like … sneak around in the dark and look in their windows?”

  I understood how scary it sounded, but being a detective with Darcy had helped me become a bit braver. “We won’t have to get that close,” I explained to Maya. “At this time of night, people watch TV with the lights off.” I pointed at the TV in front of us as an example. “All we have to do is look for the glow.”

  We slipped our sneakers on and headed outside. The crisp night air was chilly against my cheeks and I was really glad I’d worn a sweatshirt. We walked down the sidewalk and stopped in front of Maya’s neighbor. All the lights in the house were off. “Looks like it’s all dark in this one,” I whispered.

  “They might have a TV room in the back, though,” Darcy pointed out. “We should circle the house.”

  Maya and I murmured in agreement. We tried to walk stealthily along the side of the house, but dead leaves and twigs kept crackling under our shoes. The moon was only a sliver of light in the black sky. Goose bumps rose up on my arms, but not from the cold.

  I suddenly had the feeling we were being watched.

  My eyes roamed all around … left, right. I was casting a nervous glance over my shoulder when I slammed into something.

  Kim Harrington is the author of several critically acclaimed novels for young adults. Sleuth or Dare is her first middle-grade series. She lives in Massachusetts with her family. You can visit her on the web at www.kimharringtonbooks.com.

  Cover art by Erwin Madrid

  Cover design by Tim Hall

  e-ISBN 978-0-545-46311-9

  Copyright © 2012 by Kim Harrington

  All rights reserved. Published by Scholastic Inc. SCHOLASTIC and associated logos are trademarks and/or registered trademarks of Scholastic Inc.

  First edition, May 2012

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