“How do we do that?” asked Bess. She was rubbing one of her eyes, and I could see how tired she was. I couldn’t help but feel a rush of gratitude that both of my friends were still trying to solve this mystery with me, even as they were half-asleep.

I shook my head. “I don’t know,” I admitted.

“Maybe if you slept on it,” said Bess.

“Yeah,” said George. “Let’s go back to the hotel. We’ll get some sleep and pick this back up again in a few hours.”

I looked at George quickly. “Wait!” I said. The mention of the Elder Root Inn had given me an idea, had reminded me of someone else who must have been involved in all this. “We should go back to the hotel. But not to sleep.”

I took off down the sidewalk, and after a moment I could hear Bess and George behind me, jogging to catch up. George let out a groan.

“Nancy?” asked Bess. She didn’t sound any happier about suddenly having to run. “What are you talking about?”

“We have one more person to question,” I said. “Jacob’s girlfriend, Emily.”

Bess, George, and I made it back to the hotel as quickly as we could, considering it was a fairly long walk and we were all running on such small amounts of sleep. Eventually we made it up to the second floor, and I remembered which room had been Emily’s: room 212.

The three of us stood outside Emily’s door and I knocked on it. Emily had said I could stop by if I ever had any more questions for her. But I was fairly certain she hadn’t meant I could stop by this early in the morning. It wasn’t even eight o’clock yet, and I wasn’t sure if she would be awake.

To my surprise, the door opened and revealed that Emily was fully dressed. She looked nervous as she peeked out the door. But when she saw us, she breathed what appeared to be a sigh of relief.

“Nancy!” she said, her shoulders slumping. “Sorry, I was expecting… Never mind.” She shook her head. “Come in, come in. Quickly.”

Emily gestured us all inside. In a direct contrast to how sleepy Bess and George were, Emily seemed to be full of energy. As soon as we were all in the room, she began rushing around the small space. It took me a moment to realize that the room wasn’t just messy like it had been last time. This time, Emily was quickly packing.

“Are you leaving?” I asked her.

I stood in the middle of the room as Emily bustled around me. Bess and George found the only chair not covered in clothing, a cushioned one just underneath the window, and they both slumped down into it. They were practically sitting on top of each other, and they appeared to be half-asleep within seconds.

“Well,” said Emily. “Yes. I’m leaving. Honestly, Nancy, I thought you were the police a few seconds ago, and I really can’t talk to them.”