My skin tingles as I hurry out of the props room. This is…exciting. Like I’m actually Sadie, solving a crime.

But I’m only a few steps beyond the craft services table when someone grabs my arm. It’s Paul. Standing next to him is Morton York. They’re both looking at me suspiciously.

“There you are, Hayley!” Paul says. “Where are you off to so fast?”

“Uh…” My mind is blank. I can’t think of a single answer. I need to get out of here. Have Aubrey and Cody caught Amelia? What if she got away? Why was she in the props room? “What’s up?”

“Schedule change,” Paul explains. “Your scene is now, and we’re running late.” He frowns, glancing at the walkie-talkie in my hand. “What’s that for?”

Oops. “N-Nothing.” I turn the walkie-talkie off. Then I paste on a smile. This is the show’s creator, and the last thing I want is to let him down. “Sorry I’m late. I’m ready. No problem.”

Austin, the same PA who drove us around on the golf cart, escorts me toward my bedroom set, where I’ll be filming a scene where I’m putting together clues. But I feel impatient. I want to be solving the other mystery, not my TV one.

Focus, Hayley, I tell myself. Cody and Aubrey surely have this covered. As I pass Video Village, I notice that Mr. York has settled back down in the seat next to Amelia’s mother. I give them both a tight smile. Mrs. Hart smirks at me like she’s enjoying the fact that I’m messing up again.

Vee intercepts me in the hall to give my makeup a touch-up. “Your buddy sure is acting odd today,” she murmurs as she quickly roots through her makeup bag. “Jumped out of my chair like he was a jack-in-the-box!”

“Did you see Amelia on your way in here?” I ask her.

“Hmm…nope. Sorry.” She brushes blush on my cheeks and stands back. “There. You look good. Now go, go, go!”

Just because Vee didn’t see Amelia doesn’t mean anything, I tell myself. But I can’t help but wonder what’s going on outside. I have a view of the main door, and neither Cody nor Aubrey have come back in. Neither has Amelia, for that matter.

“Come on, Hayley, they’re waiting,” Austin says, hurrying me down the hall toward my on-set bedroom.

It’s the first time I’ll be shooting a bedroom scene at Silver Screen Studios, and as I poke my head inside, I’m happy to see that it looks exactly like Sadie’s bedroom from the old set. The same gray-and-yellow bedspread. The same posters on the wall. The same cat-shaped piggy bank that Sadie adds to when appreciative citizens pay her a little for solving their cases.