“And,” I told him, “I think it’s safe to say we have our first real suspect.”

  ZOE LIVED IN a nice house on C Street between Ninth and Tenth in Southeast. I showed up that Saturday night with Gabe, Cedric, and Mateo. Ruby was already there, helping set up and everything.

  “This is about the most awesome party I’ve ever been to,” Gabe said, maybe ten seconds after we’d piled in the door.

  There were people jamming in the living room. A giant dining room table was practically falling over with the mountain of food they’d put out. And either Dee-Cee, or Zoe, or Kim was some kind of plant freak, too. The whole house was green all over, including a huge rubber tree with little Christmas lights that hung above the front door when you walked in.

  “It’s about the most awesome party?” Mateo said. “Like you’ve ever been to something better?”

  “Hey, hey, hey,” Zoe said, coming over with Ruby. “Wassup, fellas? Thanks for coming.”

  “Thanks for inviting us,” Gabe said.

  “How you doing, Zoe?” Cedric asked.

  “I’m good,” she said. She seemed it, too, which was cool to see. I wasn’t sure what to expect after the day before.

  “Check the custom J’s,” Ruby said, pointing at Zoe’s feet.

  They were black with white skulls all over, like the opposite of those pink ones Zoe liked so much. Except somehow, they were totally her, too. And probably at least three hundred bucks.

  “Sweet! Where’d you get those?” Cedric asked.

  “They were a present from Darnell,” she said. He was just walking by and gave her a little side hug on his way through.

  “Nice present,” Mateo said.

  “Right?” Darnell said, with those diamond studs flashing in his ears, and another big rock in the football ring on his left hand. Something told me money wasn’t one of Darnell’s problems. “Wear them in good health, darling,” he told her.

  As he walked away, Zoe kind of lowered her voice. “I’m not going to say being in the hospital was any joke,” she told us, “but I ain’t mad about the lucre.”

  “Lucre,” I said. “Good word.”

  “Girl’s a poet,” Ruby said, like we didn’t already know. “Check it out.”

  She pointed at this huge cake in the middle of the dining room table. It had white icing, with a pair of blue and purple wings airbrushed on top. And in chocolate writing, it said—

  I soar!

  Every day,

  Every minute,

  Every breath.

  Up, and up, and up,

  Rising like Maya.

  —ZK

  “You wrote that?” I asked.

  Zoe rolled her eyes. “It’s so embarrassing,” she said. “Dee-Cee can’t help herself.”

  We hadn’t been there very long, but Gabe was right. It was an awesome party, and we were already having a good time. The music was tight, and it kind of felt like we’d stepped into some bubble, away from everything else that had been going on for the last week.

  “Zoe, baby! Come here!” Dee-Cee called out from over by the piano. But then she saw me, and stood up. “Oh, hey, Ali!”

  “Hi, Ms. Knight!” I said.

  “Excuse me?” she said, coming over with that giant smile of hers.

  “I mean, hi, Dee-Cee,” I said, while Gabe stood there looking starstruck.

  “That’s more like it,” she said, and gave everyone hugs all around. “You boys make sure to stuff your faces, okay? Momma don’t do leftovers.”

  “Yes ma’am,” Cedric said. We’d heard about Dee-Cee’s cooking and we’d all skipped lunch on purpose.

  A second later, Dee-Cee was headed back to the piano, and the Ali Cross detective agency was headed for its next big mission—to make sure the dining room table didn’t collapse under all that cake, roast chicken, ham, greens, corn bread, beans, and mac and cheese, and I didn’t even know what else.

  But we were definitely going to find out.

  “SO YOU LIVE here with your mom and your aunt?” I asked Zoe a little later. We were both sitting with plates on our laps, stuffing our faces like we’d been told to do.

  “Yeah.” Zoe pointed her fork at the swinging door to the kitchen, where Kim was just coming out with a pitcher of iced tea.

  “Hey, Z,” she said. “How you hanging in?”

  “I’m good,” Zoe said. “Aunt Kim, this is Ali. You guys met at the—”

  “Hospital,” she said, and put down the pitcher. “Yes, hello again. Nice to see you.”

  She didn’t wear a lot of makeup and jewelry like Dee-Cee. She had a short afro, and her clothes were simple—just a white T-shirt and jeans, with bare feet. I never would have guessed she was Dee-Cee’s sister, but I was mentally writing it all down for later. So far, Kim was the biggest question mark on my persons-of-interest list.

  “Ali, can I get you something to drink?” she asked.

  “No, thank you, ma’am,” I said. “I’ll grab something.”

  She kind of looked twice at me, and smiled. “Ma’am,” she said. “That’s cute. I like it.” But she didn’t tell me to call her Kim.

  “Hey, Kay-Kay?” Darnell said from the kitchen, and waved at her to come that way, which she did.

  “Yeah, so anyway,” Zoe said, “Aunt Kim’s like my backup mom, when Dee-Cee’s on the road. She’s where I got my middle name, too.”

  That made sense. I’d been wondering what that K stood for.

  “Cool,” I said. “Does your mom tour a lot?”

  “Just depends,” Zoe said. “Lately, there’s been a lot of work, so yeah. She’s trying to get an agent in LA.”

  I hoped that didn’t mean they were going to move away, but I didn’t say so.

  “Listen,” I said, after another bite of mac and cheese, “I was wondering if it would be okay with you if I wrote about what the city’s doing to that tent camp over on K Street.”

  Zoe looked like she liked that idea right away.

  “You’d do that?” she asked.

  I shrugged. “I’ve got to have a topic by Monday,” I said, and she punched me in the arm. “I’m kidding,” I said. “Yeah. It seems like a really important thing to write about.”

  “It is,” she said. “You should come back there with me.”

  “What about Mikayla?” I asked.

  “Don’t worry about her,” Zoe told me, even though she didn’t explain. “I told my dad I’d help him get his stuff ready to go before the cops come for that next sweep. What do you think?”

  I wasn’t positive I could pull it off, Nana-wise, and Dad-wise, but what was I going to say? No, sorry, I didn’t mean it? Besides, that was exactly the kind of “primary source” research Mrs. Achebe was always pushing us to do.

  “Sure,” I said. “That’d be cool.”

  “I’ll text you,” she said, and wrapped her foot around my ankle for a second, and smiled right into my eyes. I could have sat there like that all night, but it was over just as quick as our first kiss.

  “Zoe!” Dee-Cee yelled out from the piano. “Come sit with me, baby!”

  Zoe took a deep breath and stood up. “I guess it’s showtime,” she said.

  I didn’t know what was happening, but I followed her into the living room, where Dee-Cee was clanging a spoon against her glass to get everyone’s attention.

  “Hey, y’all,” she said. “Thank you so much for coming, and for helping me share the joy in having my girl home from the hospital.”

  Everyone cheered for that, and Zoe put her fists up, like a prizefighter, pink cast and all, which got a good laugh.

  “Also, thank you to my beautiful sister, Kim, for minding the kitchen all night while I’m out here with you people,” Dee-Cee said.

  She motioned to the back of the room, where Kim was leaning in the archway to the dining room. Everyone cheered for her, too, but she didn’t even smile. She seemed kind of unhappy, actually, and I wondered what it was like to have Dee-Cee Knight for a sister.

  But everyone’s eyes were back on Dee-Cee the next second.

  “We’re going to start off nice and easy here,” she said, and turned to the guy on drums in the corner. Then she spit out a baseline rhythm, and he picked it up from there. Another lady had an electric guitar, and she started riffing on top of that, while Dee-Cee sat down at the keyboard to add her own thing to the mix.

  It got even better from there. Dee-Cee sang some song I didn’t know, but just about everyone else seemed to. They were all singing along, and dancing, and still cheering, while I stood there thinking about how much my dad would have loved this. He plays piano, too, and listens to music every chance he gets.

  When it was over, and everyone was cheering their heads off all over again, I looked around, just taking in the room.

  And the only person who wasn’t clapping, or yelling, or even smiling, was Kim. She hadn’t moved from her spot the whole time, as far as I could tell. Not until I caught her eye. Then she turned away and slipped back into the kitchen like this was no party at all for her.

  Which, for all I knew anymore, it wasn’t.

  LATER THAT NIGHT, I was hanging out on the stairs with Gabe, Cedric, and Mateo, just yapping and arguing about the best superhero movie franchise. Like we do. It’s Avengers, obviously, but try telling that to Cedric. He was mouthing off about Dr. Strange and cracking us up with his crazy opinions, when Ruby caught my eye.

  Everyone else was in the living room, talking and listening to Dee-Cee play. But Ruby was standing alone in the dining room. Something about the way she looked at me said, come here, right now.

  “Be right back,” I told the fellas and walked over. She was at the end of the food table closest to the kitchen, holding an empty plate like she was getting ready to load up again.

  “Are you seriously still hungry?” I asked, but she cut me off.

  “Shh! Something’s going on,” she whispered.

  So I shut up and listened. Sure enough, there were voices coming from the kitchen. I couldn’t hear all of what they were saying, but you could tell they were getting heated about something in there.

  “… don’t lecture me…” someone said. It sounded like Kim.

  And then Darnell. “If Dee-Cee finds out about this—”

  “She’s not going to find out!”

  “She will if the cops know.”

  The cops? That last part jumped right out at me. Ruby, too. She was eyeballing me now like, see? She also started putting carrots and dip on her plate, almost in slow motion, just trying to look like we had some reason for standing there. Because something was definitely going on.

  “Back off, Darnell. This is none of your business—”

  “Keep your voice down!”

  “Excuse me? Last I checked, I don’t work for you.”

  “Come back here!”

  The kitchen door swung open, and Kim walked right by us. Then she went straight over to Dee-Cee at the piano, leaned down, and whispered in her ear.

  I couldn’t read anything on Dee-Cee’s face. She just nodded and kept playing without missing a note. Zoe was on the piano bench next to her mom, and she was watching it all happen, the same as us. When she saw me, she smiled like nothing was wrong, but I wasn’t so sure.

  Kim didn’t wait around, either. She went from the piano to the front door, took a jacket off one of the hooks, and left.

  “What was all that?” Ruby asked.

  “Wish I knew,” I said.

  Before I could think about it anymore, a loud crash came from the kitchen behind us. It sounded like breaking dishes or glass.

  The music stopped, and everyone looked in our direction. Then the kitchen door opened again and Darnell stuck his head out.

  “My bad!” he said. He was smiling, but I noticed he was breathing hard, too, like he was still worked up.

  “That’s coming out of your next check!” Dee-Cee yelled back, and everyone laughed, before Darnell ducked out again and the party went back to normal.

  This seemed like a chance to do a little digging, if I made it quick.

  “I’m going to go in there and help clean up,” I told Ruby. She nodded because she knew exactly what I meant.

  “Maybe I’ll go get a little fresh air,” she said. And I knew what she meant, too.

  So while Ruby went outside to see which way Kim had gone, I pushed through that kitchen door to see what I could find out about Darnell.

  He was pulling a broom and dustpan out of a closet when I came in. There was a bunch of broken pieces on the floor, and a big food stain splattered on the wall.

  “Hey, little man,” he said. His smile still looked forced to me.

  “You need a hand?” I asked.

  My heart was kicking the whole time. I wasn’t afraid of Darnell, exactly, but he was a big dude. It didn’t take a lot of imagination to think about what else he could do if he got mad enough.

  “I’m good,” he said. “Just dropped a plate.”

  I wasn’t buying it, though. That stain on the wall looked a lot to me like someone had thrown a plate, not dropped it. So I tried to keep the conversation going.

  “Hey, those are some dope Jordans you got for Zoe,” I said. “Where’d you pick those up?” Mostly, I wanted to see if Darnell responded to Zoe’s name. If she was already on his mind, it might show on his face somehow.

  But he didn’t even answer.

  “You sure you don’t need some help?” I tried again.

  “Why don’t you go back out there and enjoy yourself?” Darnell asked.

  It wasn’t like a question, though. More like an order. I didn’t have the spine to push it any further, so I headed out like he wanted me to, while my mind ran, and ran, and ran.

  I had about eighteen different questions poking at me now. Most of all, I wondered if that argument had anything to do with Zoe. Maybe it was about something else completely, but they had mentioned the cops. I felt like I had some good reasons to be curious.

  And either way, it sure seemed like every time I turned around, there was another secret coming out of that house. Now, more than ever, I wanted to know why.

  THERE WASN’T ANY chance to update the guys at the party. Instead, I texted them when I got home and we all met online. Ruby was spending the night at Zoe’s. She was going to report back later. Meanwhile, I told Gabe, Cedric, and Mateo about everything we’d seen and heard.

  “You think it had anything to do with Zoe?” Gabe asked.

  “That’s exactly what I’ve been wondering,” I said. “I couldn’t get a read on Darnell, and I’m still waiting to hear from Ruby about what’s up with Kim.”

  “Long as we’re talking, what about Orlando Fletcher?” Cedric asked. “Isn’t he the one we should be focusing on, anyway?”

  “Yeah, but I just don’t know how,” I said. “It’s not like we can do real surveillance.”

  “Actually,” Gabe said, “I set up some Google Alerts on him, and I’ve been watching his Instagram.”

  “Seriously?” Cedric said.

  Gabe was way more low-key about his skills than he needed to be. But that only made it cooler when he pulled out something like this on his own.

  “Orlando doesn’t have any other socials, as far as I can tell, but I did get his home address,” he said. “So I guess you could say we are surveilling him.”

  “That’s all legal, right?” Mateo asked.

  “I’m just surfing the web,” Gabe answered. “No harm, no foul.”

  “Nice,” Cedric said. “So what happens next?”

  “We wait to hear if Ruby got anything on Kim or Darnell,” I said. “And maybe we can find a way to put some real eyes on Orlando, too.”

  “Somehow,” Gabe said.

  “That sounds like a me kinda thing,” Cedric said. “Mateo can back me up.”

  “I can?” Mateo asked.

  “Yeah.”

  This whole investigation was turning out to be way more complicated than I ever thought it would get. It was all still just a bunch of puzzle pieces, and I couldn’t even figure out which ones belonged, and which were part of something else.

  The weirdest thing, though, was Zoe herself. She was the one who could tell us who had done this to her. But something was obviously keeping her from it.

  And that something was the core of everything else. That’s what my gut told me. It was the biggest blank we still had to fill.

  The good news was, I like puzzles, and I tend to be good at them once I get started.

  The bad news? Something told me I wasn’t going to be getting a whole lot of sleep that night.

  RUBY: YOU AWAKE?

  ALI: Yeah. Can’t sleep.

  RUBY: I thought so. Thinking about Zoe and all that?

  ALI: I was. Now I’m working on my social studies report, like the geek I am. Hello, Saturday night. Still can’t sleep.

  RUBY: Hey, whatever it takes:-)

  ALI: Lol… what’s up? You find anything out?

  RUBY: Kim never came home. I even texted her to see if she was okay, but she didn’t answer.

  ALI: Maybe she has a boyfriend or something?

  RUBY: If she has a boyfriend, that’s news to me.

  ALI: Where are you?

  RUBY: Zoe’s room. She’s out cold.

  ALI: What about Darnell? You get anything after we left?

  RUBY: Nope. He went home around twelve. Never said anything about Kim as far as I know.

  ALI: Keep me posted, ok?

  RUBY: For sure

  ALI: Thx

  RUBY: What are you doing for your report, anyway?

  ALI: Something about homelessness. What about you?

  RUBY: I was going to do a profile on Dee-Cee, but then the whole shooting happened and I thought maybe not. But now maybe it’s okay to jump back in…??

  ALI: It might be good, if you know what I mean. See where Dee-Cee’s head is at.

  RUBY: I’ll see what I can do. Catch you later.

  ALI: Hey one other thing. Did Z ever say anything to you about her dad since this all started up?

  RUBY: Nothing. Why?

  ALI: Just curious. Later! Get some sleep…