Sleepover Stakeout (9780545443111) by Kim Harrington Read Free Book Online

“She’s only lived here a few weeks and has no friends.”
    Darcy said, “But she’s a client.”
    â€œSo?” I crossed my arms. “Fiona was a client and now she’s our friend. Aren’t you glad we talked to her?”
    â€œShe did buy me this cookie,” Darcy said with a smirk. Fiona jokingly stuck her tongue out at her.
    â€œMoving on,” I said. “Let’s make a list of suspects.”
    Darcy whipped her case notebook out of her backpack. It was just a regular notebook with a black cover, but we used it only for Partners in Crime business.
    â€œLet’s start with the obvious,” I said. “Hunter Fisk.”
    â€œEvidence?” Darcy said, pencil poised to fill in the column.
    I listed off, “He lives right next door to Maya. He may have heard that we were coming over. And he just happened to come outside to scare us when we were investigating. Plus, he has a history of teasing Maya.”
    Darcy finished writing and moved on to the next column. “Motive?”
    I thought for a moment. “Does being a jerk in general count?”
    Darcy nodded. “I’ll write ‘bully behavior.’”
    Fiona had been twirling a strand of hair around her finger while we talked. Now she stopped and said, “Wait a second. Hunter heard about the sleepover the day before.”
    â€œYeah, so,” Darcy said.
    â€œBut Maya first heard the voice long before that,” Fiona said.
    Duh! I’d always underestimated Fiona’s smarts. “That’s true,” I said to Darcy. “She heard it on two Saturdays before Hunter knew about our sleepover. So maybe Hunter came out to scare us the night of the sleepover, but he has nothing to do with the voice.”
    Darcy frowned at this complication. “Next suspect.”
    â€œWhat about the Old Witch?” Fiona asked.
    â€œThat’s just a story,” I said. “She doesn’t abduct kids or any of that stuff.”
    â€œYeah, but the voice still could’ve been her, right?” Fiona said.
    Good point. I nodded and Darcy spoke as she wrote. “Evidence: lives across the street, is creepy. Motive: to eat children.”
    I rolled my eyes. “Oh, please.”
    Darcy snickered. “It’s in pencil. I can always change it.”
    â€œOkay, next suspect,” I said, wanting to move this thing along.
    Darcy tapped the pencil on the table. “Zane Munro.”
    I gasped. “What?”
    Darcy shrugged. “We have as much evidence on him as we do the others. He lives a couple houses down from Maya. And he was outside the night of the sleepover.”
    I stammered, “But — but he would never! What motive could he possibly have?”
    Darcy held her hands up. “I have ‘to eat children’ down as one motive here. Obviously, it’s too early in the case for motives. We can’t exclude any suspects from the list just because you have a huge crush on them.”
    My face turned a fiery red. If I were a volcano, hot steaming magma would have been shooting out of my head.
    â€œGirls, girls,” Fiona said. “Let’s focus on facts here. Right now, any neighbors of Maya’s are suspects.”
    â€œAnd really,” I said, “ suspect is too harsh a word. The person didn’t do anything wrong.”
    â€œCreeping Maya out is wrong,” Darcy said.
    â€œBut we still don’t know for sure that someone’s trying to scare Maya,” I protested. “Isn’t it more likely that something is really going on outside on Saturday nights, and whoever is involved has no idea that Maya can hear them on the baby monitor?”
    Fiona leaned back in her chair. “How could a baby monitor just pick up a conversation from outside the house? I think we need to know more about how those baby monitor thingies work.”
    Darcy reached into her backpack and whipped out a bunch of papers she had printed