It was getting close to school time, so I pushed Play, then held down the Fast Forward button. Everything was black, but I noticed a blip on the screen at about midnight and returned to normal speed.

  The sound was muffled, but I heard a vehicle pass, turn around, and come back. I bet it was Randy’s truck.

  Then it happened. Someone whooped, then a whack, and a guy yelped and cursed. The voice sounded familiar. Was it Randy? I’d certainly never heard him use those words before.

  Then the truck peeled out and raced away. My camera would have been in perfect position to capture the license plate—if it hadn’t been on the ground.

  I got dressed and came down to find Ashley eating breakfast.

  “They came back last night,” I said.

  “Great! You got them on tape?”

  I shook my head. “Dylan must have knocked it off. I got them swearing when they hit the box, but you can’t see anything.”

  I hurried out to the mailbox where I noticed a dent in one side. I couldn’t imagine what it must have felt like to hit concrete with a bat.

  On the ground lay a splinter of wood with blotchy lettering on the side. So Randy had graduated from aluminum to wood.

  Chapter 69

  The doctor still hadn’t called by the time Bryce and I left for school. I told Mom I’d call her at lunch to find out what he said.

  As if enough wasn’t going on in my life, I had a test in Ancient Civilizations and got the Mayans and the Romans mixed up.

  At lunch Mrs. Garcia thanked me for what I was doing. “It’s enough that someone believes me. I never thought anyone would.”

  “If you’re right, we’re going to find Danielle,” I said. “Is there any chance your babysitter’s name was Zulauf and not Zoloff?”

  She shrugged. “I’m not too good with names.”

  Bryce came up as I walked to the phone. “I just heard some mailboxes near town were smashed last night.”

  “Really?”

  He nodded. “Talk to Mom yet?”

  I shook my head.

  “Use my cell,” he said.

  I dialed and my hands shook.

  “I’m worried about Leigh,” Bryce said. “If she knew her boyfriend was—”

  I raised a hand as Mom picked up the phone. I just wanted the facts. (Actually, I didn’t want to hear anything but that the doctor couldn’t find anything wrong with me.)

  “Bottom line,” Mom said, “the doctor still doesn’t like what he sees. He’s considering other options. Another change of medicine. Blood tests. That kind of thing.”

  I didn’t want to cry, but I couldn’t help it. Bryce, who didn’t usually do this kind of thing, put an arm around me.

  “I hate this,” I whispered. “I wouldn’t wish this on Boo Heckler.”

  “Might be an improvement for him,” Bryce said, and I had to smile.

  My biggest fear was that I would never grow out of this. Jeff’s words came back to me as I whispered a prayer.

  Chapter 70

  Leigh showed off her license that evening, though the picture looked like one of those wanted criminals you see on TV. “Can I drive over and show Randy?”

  Mom said she could, and Leigh bounded up the stairs to get ready.

  I cornered Mom. “You sure you want to let her go to his house?”

  “It’s not that far, Bryce.”

  “I don’t mean the driving. . . .” I hadn’t told Mom what I suspected, so I caught Leigh as she headed out the door.

  “You might not want to spend so much time with Randy,” I said.

  She slowed and glared at me. “Why?”

  I followed her onto the porch. “He might be mixed up in something bad.”

  “Like what?”

  “I can’t say.”

  “You don’t know what you’re talking about.”

  “How could you know if I know what I’m talking about if you don’t even know what I’m talking about?”

  She stared at me. “What?”

  “I have proof,” I said, but she jumped in the car and drove away.

  Chapter 71

  To take my mind off the doctor’s report, I sat at the computer and tried to find a phone number for Mrs. Zulauf. I came up empty, so I found a site that would find anyone’s number in the U.S. for only $9.95. It would also tell if the person had a criminal record, a traffic ticket, even what that person’s neighborhood was like.

  I asked Mom if I could use her credit card, and she frowned. “Do you have 10 dollars?”

  I checked my wallet. Two dollars. “I’ll babysit Dylan for the rest of it.”

  Mom gave me a knowing look and sat at the computer. “Sam and I can go out to dinner this weekend.” She entered her credit card information and clicked the mouse. “Okay, you’re set. But this gives you only one search.”

  I typed in all the information I knew and clicked the Search button.

  The computer whirred and acted like it was choking. Then the screen turned blue, and a green light at the bottom pulsed searching. My heart pounded with each flash as I hoped, prayed.

  Finally a window popped up, and the following appeared on the screen:

  Tonya Zulauf

  2342 Shore Lane

  Memorial, CO

  It also showed her unlisted phone number and listed her daughter’s name as Maria. I nearly knocked Mom over when I stood.

  “Sorry,” she said. “Just looking.”

  Chapter 72

  I followed Sam to the barn. When he put his cell phone away, he said he’d been talking to a Colorado Rockies baseball player, who had recently been taken off the disabled list. “He just got the okay from his doctor to join the team in San Diego. Wants to know if I can get him there for the game tonight.”

  “Can you?”

  “Gonna try. What’s up?”

  “It can wait.”

  Sam sat on the edge of his desk. “Come on. I’ve got time.”

  I traced a line on his carpet with my shoe. “What if you think you know someone who did something wrong, but you’re afraid of getting that person in trouble because . . .”

  “Because?”

  “. . . that person is a friend of someone related to you? And that person could be locked up for a long time.”

  Sam scratched at his mustache. “How sure are you?”

  “All the clues point to one person.”

  “Randy.”

  I nodded, wondering how he knew.

  “How much evidence?”

  I laid out everything.

  Sam folded his arms. “That is a lot, but it’s all circumstantial. Know what that means?”

  I took a stab. “It’s not enough?”

  “It means you have a lot of reasons but nothing concrete.”

  “There’s concrete in the mailbox.”

  Sam smiled. “Pun unintended. Anyway, don’t jump to conclusions when you’re not 100 percent sure.”

  I didn’t like Sam’s answer, but I knew he was right. “What if I want to warn this person that he’s being watched?”

  Sam chewed the inside of his cheek. “I suppose if it were me I’d appreciate it. And if I were that person’s girlfriend, I’d appreciate it even more.”

  Chapter 73

  I dialed the number but nearly hung up before the answering machine picked up.

  “Hi, it’s Tonya and Maria. Leave a message and we’ll call you back.”

  “Here comes the beep!” Maria said.

  I hung up before the beep. Mrs. Z was the only mother Maria had ever known. Maybe she really was Mrs. Z’s child. Could Mrs. Garcia be using me?

  Later Bryce and I watched a show about the police reopening an old case to figure out a murder. To find out the identity of a body, they took a strand of hair and did DNA testing on it. With that they were able to tell who the dead person was related to.

  If I could get strands of hair from Maria and from Mrs. Garcia and have them analyzed, we could find out for sure if they were mother and daughter.

  Chapter 74

  Ashley’s strong-minded and has her own way of doing things, but I could tell the doctor stuff was wearing her down. At lunch two days later I thought she’d flipped her lid when she asked to borrow one of my sandwich bags for Mrs. Garcia’s hair.

  “The bag has peanut butter in it.”

  “I don’t care.”

  Mrs. Garcia didn’t seem half as mean as she used to. Ashley whispered to her, and while Mrs. Garcia gave her a strange look, she took off her plastic gloves and pulled out a couple of strands of hair.

  Ashley stuffed them into the peanut-butter bag and headed for her next class.

  “Now all I need is a DNA expert,” Ashley said. “And one more thing.”

  Chapter 75

  I rushed home after school to run errands with Mom. I asked her to drop me off at the elementary school just before it let out so I could give Angelique something. But of course that wasn’t my only reason.

  I went by Angelique’s room and peeked in. I thought about interrupting, but I waited until the bell rang to get her attention. She ran over to me, and I gave her a bag of goodies. “Hope you like them.”

  “Thanks!” she said, beaming.

  “Do you think you could help me find Maria?”

  “Mrs. Z’s daughter?” she said. “Sure. There she is.”

  The sight took my breath away. Mr. Cheplosa’s picture had come to life. Her teeth were a little shorter, and her hair a little longer, but her face was so close it was amazing.

  She looked at me suspiciously as I held out my hand. “Hi, I’m Ashley, Angelique’s tutor.”

  “Hi,” she said, grabbing her backpack. I noticed a hair on her shoulder. I brushed at it, then picked it off.

  “Excuse me?” a woman said from behind me.

  I jumped and turned around.

  “Hi, Mrs. Z!” Angelique said.

  “Hello,” the woman said, not taking her eyes off me.

  I dropped the hair and reached out to shake her hand. She shook like she had a dead fish at the end of her arm.

  “I’m Ashley, Mrs. Z,” I said, smiling and pumping the fish up and down. “Angelique told me about your daughter.”

  She squinted. “Do you have a reason to be here during school?”

  “Just dropping off a present to the best . . . tutee in school. She’s really making progress—”

  Mrs. Z turned on her heel and walked Maria down the hall. The girl looked back as they rounded the corner.

  I looked at the floor, but the strand of hair had disappeared.

  Chapter 76

  On Saturday Randy’s team would play two games—assuming they won the first—so Derek and I had plenty of time to explore the nearby park.

  I bought a big bag of red licorice when we got there, and within an hour I had finished the whole thing. My stomach felt like it was going to explode, so I wound up stretching out in the backseat of Randy’s truck. I left the windows down, hoping for a cool breeze.

  “Randy, lover boy, get over here!” someone yelled.

  “Here he comes,” someone else said. “The Red Rock Casanova.”

  The first game must have been over. They were laughing and sounding happy, so they must have won. It sounded like half a dozen guys. I wondered if Leigh was with them. Didn’t sound like it.

  “We’re watching the final tape tonight, Randy,” a younger voice said. “Did you make a copy of it?”

  “It’s in my glove compartment,” Randy said.

  “How about we watch it at your house?”

  “I don’t know,” Randy said. “My brother’s a pest, and my mom and dad are home.”

  “We can go to my house,” another said.

  I felt even worse, and it wasn’t from the licorice. I scrunched back as far as I could and hoped they couldn’t see me.

  Chapter 77

  I stood behind Mom and looked into the mirror as she put on her earrings. She was wearing a dress too. She and Sam were about to take me up on my babysitting debt. Dylan was pumped that we were going to eat pizza and watch a movie.

  “Mom, remember that guy you interviewed for the murder mystery you wrote?”

  She paused. “The DNA expert in St. Louis? Sure. Officer Jim Deavers.”

  “Do you know if he liked the book?”

  “Matter of fact, he did. I gave him credit in the front and sent him copies to pass around.”

  “How long does it take to analyze DNA?”

  Mom turned so fast I thought she was going to smear her lipstick. “Why? What are you up to?”

  “Just investigating,” I said, retreating a step.

  “Ashley, you have to be really careful with things like this. You’re not looking for a lost coin or who ate the last Twinkie. These are people’s lives. They have a right to their privacy.”

  “But if Mrs. Garcia’s daughter is who I think she is, doesn’t she have rights too?”

  Mom pursed her lips and sighed. “When you get older, you’ll understand that Mrs. Garcia is a troubled woman. I’ve learned some things about her.”

  “Like what?”

  Mom sat on the bed and ran her hand across the spread. “She’s . . . she’s . . . well, a little unpredictable. People aren’t sure if the things she says are always true. And you said yourself that she’s been in three different schools—”

  “She’s been looking for her daughter.” I was insulted that Mom thought I could be fooled. But what if Mrs. Garcia wasn’t telling the truth? What if she was the one who wanted to steal a child? Maybe she was using me?

  Sam knocked. He was wearing cowboy boots, a Western shirt, new jeans, and a hat the size of Oklahoma. “You look nice, hon,” he said. He looked at me. “Dylan’s counting the minutes.”

  Mom put a hand on my shoulder and kissed my forehead. “Don’t forget to take your medicine tonight.”

  Adults!

  Chapter 78

  I stayed as still as I could and prayed the guys would leave. It was clear there was a bunch of them involved, and I wondered how the police would charge all of them. Their voices trailed off, so I thought I was in the clear.

  Then the door opened. It was Derek. “How are you feeling?”

  “Like I never want to see another piece of licorice in my life.”

  “Wanna watch the second game? It’s for the championship.”

  “Give me a few more minutes,” I said.

  When Derek left, I sat up. My stomach churned and my head spun. I had to get out of the truck.

  I didn’t want a repeat of a year before. At a carnival I had eaten two corn dogs slathered in mustard, then played miniature golf. Then Ashley pointed to the Tilt-A-Whirl and said she would race me. She barely beat me. We were three spins in when I remembered the corn dogs. Or, I should say, they remembered me. Let’s just say it wasn’t pretty.

  I climbed out of the truck and took a deep breath. From the diamond I could hear them announcing the starting lineups.

  I moved to the front of the truck, slid in the passenger side, and popped open the glove compartment. Underneath a pile of napkins was a videotape. The same tape I had seen under Randy’s bed—the one with the smudged word mailbox on it.

  “What’re you doing?”

  I nearly lost my licorice. It was Leigh.

  “Getting ready to come to the game,” I said.

  “Derek said you weren’t feeling well.”

  “I’m okay now,” I said. But I wasn’t. In fact I felt even sicker about the whole thing.

  Like Sam said, every clue before this had been “circumstantial.” I finally had the “concrete” I’d been looking for.

  Chapter 79

  I doodled in the sandbox beside Dylan while our pizza cooked. All I could think of was Mrs. Garcia and Danielle. For all I knew, she had stolen a picture of Mrs. Z’s baby. No wonder the girl looked like the computer-generated older picture.

  I told Dylan I’d be right back and went in to check the pizza time. Still a few minutes to go. In the kitchen I found Mom’s day planner. I turned to her work section and looked up the phone number for Jim Deavers in St. Louis. I took the cordless phone outside so I could be with Dylan.

  It took a while for Officer Deavers to come to the phone, and I apologized for bothering him at home. When he found out who I was he laughed and said it wasn’t a problem.

  “I’m working on a missing person case,” I said, then felt dumb for calling it a case. I asked how long it would take to analyze hair from two different people to see if they’re related.

  “The technology is improving all the time. Probably a few days.”

  I took a breath. “If I sent the samples, could you look at them?”

  “Not a problem,” Mr. Deavers said. “As long as your mom makes me famous in one of her next books.” The phone clicked, and he said he was getting another call.

  I held on for a few minutes, then hung up. I figured I would talk with him in a few days.

  Dylan pointed at the house. “Ashley, what’s that noise?”

  Chapter 80

  Randy had a single in the first inning, a double in the third, and a homer with one out in the bottom of the seventh to give his team the championship. Who knows, maybe he would have hit a triple and hit for the cycle if he’d had another turn at bat. The players walked off the field sweaty and dirty, looking like they needed a garden hose.

  Leigh gave Randy a big hug, even though he was filthy, and I felt worse for her all the time. She had to know the truth—and soon.

  “Bryce,” Randy said, “could you carry this to the back of the truck?” He handed me his trophy and a long, heavy, green duffel bag.