My breath caught. What had Roxie just said?

“Graves House has an almost identical layout to Ivywood Hollow.” I mumbled the words out loud without meaning to.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

“Graves House has the same layout as Ivywood Hollow!”

Bang!Bang!Bang!Bang!

“You want me to look in the closet at Graves House!”

There were too many bangs to count after that.

Of course that’s what she wanted! Why hadn’t I seen it before?

But I hadn’t, and if Roxie hadn’t have come by . . .

Oh no.

I raced down the stairs and out the front door.

I sprinted for the sidewalk, as best I could in my slippers.

I hadn’t exactly been overjoyed to see my old dance instructor even though she had gone out of her way to bring me information to make up for what had been a fairly honest mistake. And while I already knew most of what she had come to tell me, by pure fluke, she had given me the very thing I needed to solve another piece of the puzzle!

And I hadn’t even thanked her.

Most people would be long gone by now, but I knew Roxie was a slow walker, always stopping to smell the roses.

“Roxie!”

She had made it pretty far up the street, but she still heard me. As she turned, I shouted, “I forgot to tell you something!”

“What is it?” she shouted back.

“Thank you! Thank you so much!”

I could just make out the confused looked on her face. “Wait. Did I make good?”

“Did you make good?” I shouted back. “Roxie,” I threw my hands wide in the air, “you’re a star!”

She laughed and threw a get out of here hand at me before wiggling her hips and turning in a sparkling pirouette.

I shot her a wave and ran back up the driveway.

There was so much I needed to do. I needed a plan. I couldn’t just walk over to Graves House and break in in broad daylight. I needed to wait until dark. And I needed to choose an appropriate breaking-and-entering outfit. Oh! And I would need a spell to open any locked doors. I’d have to talk to Gideon about that. I also needed to—

Uh-oh.

There was something I needed to do before I did any of those things.

I skidded back into the B&B to find a very annoyed-looking cat waiting for me.

“Sorry! Sorry.”

Faustus turned and walked toward the kitchen, his fluffy tail sticking straight up in the air.

I had so many things I needed to do, but feeding the cat breakfast definitely came first.

• • •

Even though I was wearing gloves, my hands felt icy as I, once again, rode through the dark streets of Evenfall on my bicycle. But while the night was cold, the sky was clear, and the pavement shone under the streetlamps.

Izzy and Nora still hadn’t returned home by the time I had left. I didn’t like at all what that might mean. I could only hope whatever I found tonight would put an end to this once and for all.