“Grace and Jacob aren’t our friends,” I said. “And also, I don’t think they were acting alone.”

Officer Patty frowned at me. “Why would you say that?”

“There’s a picture of me in one of the DeSantos photographs too,” I said. “I’m sure it was put there as a warning because I was trying to solve this case. But Grace and Jacob have been hiding in the museum the entire time I’ve been in town. So how would they know I was investigating at all?”

Officer Patty shrugged. “They could’ve figured it out,” he said. “They could have… overheard something at the museum.”

“True,” I said, even though I didn’t think that sounded very likely. “But you also said that they keep changing their story. I bet it’s because someone else has been telling them what to do up until this point. Now that that person isn’t around, they aren’t sure how to act.”

“Or they’re just trying to figure out the best thing to say in order to get in the least amount of trouble,” said Officer Patty. He leaned forward and placed his hands on his knees as he stood up.

“But—” I began. Officer Patty didn’t give me the chance to say anything else, though.

“I don’t know why you girls thought it was okay to try and solve this case yourselves,” he said. “But the real detectives are taking over now, and we’ve already caught the people behind it. So I’m going to ask you three to go home and not interfere again.”

Officer Patty gave us a stern look before walking away, farther into the police station. I looked toward Bess and George, and they seemed just as bothered by this interaction as I was. Hadn’t we been the ones to catch Grace and Jacob? Really, though, there was nothing else for us to do. We eventually gathered up our things and headed outside.

I hadn’t been paying attention to the time. So when we walked outside and saw that the sun was rising, I was caught by surprise.

“It’s morning?” I said to Bess and George. “We stayed up all night?”

My two friends, it seemed, were very aware of how long we had been awake. Bess tried to give me a disbelieving look, but it was interrupted when she let out a large yawn. George rolled her eyes at me and said, “Yeah, Nancy. Aren’t you tired?”

I was a little tired, but I also felt right on the verge of solving this mystery. I supposed the adrenaline was keeping me awake.

“So,” said George. “We solved it, right? It was Grace and Jacob?”

I shook my head. “We have to be missing something,” I said. “What was their motive? How did they get their own pictures into the photographs in the exhibit? And how did they know I was investigating them? I meant what I said to Officer Patty. I think there’s someone else working with them, someone who was telling Grace and Jacob what to do. We just have to figure out who they are.”