In the final scenes, Sadie returns to all the clues: the footprints leading out of the library, which definitely seem like the types of clogs that a chef might wear. How a ripped page of the book was found at Giovanni’s pizzeria, but Giovanni and his entire staff had an alibi for the evening the book went missing—and so did everyone from Sal’s, as Sadie thought that maybe the rival pizzeria might have planted the page at Giovanni’s to throw the detectives off the trail. Sadie thinks again about Madame Curio’s wisdom about thinking beyond the pizza box. And then she considers Mrs. Archer, the cranky librarian who wouldn’t answer her questions about the damaged security footage. Could she be hiding something? Could she have damaged the footage…to protect someone?

And that’s how she solves it.

Sadie remembers when she and her friends went to Candlelight, the fancy restaurant where they questioned Maggie Hornsby. Mrs. Archer had been there too, having dinner with Mr. Grimes, who owns a struggling sandwich shop near Giovanni’s. And then it hit Sadie: She’d also seen Mr. Grimes riding his bike across the square the other day, and he’d been wearing chef’s clogs, just like the footprints in the library!

Suddenly, it all made sense. Maybe Mr. Grimes stole the book of spells simply so that neither Sal nor Giovanni could get their hands on it—because if they would, they’d become even more popular, taking away even more business from the sandwich shop. It wasn’t that he was going to make delicious pizza with the magic recipes. He just didn’t want anyone else to!

I tear through my script, excited to see that Sadie, Pepper, and her friends tear across town to question Mr. Grimes. But he gives them the slip at the last minute. They go on a wild-goose chase to track him down, certain he’s guilty.

But I won’t get to see the final scene, where everything wraps up, until tomorrow. It’s so frustrating! Sometimes there’s a twist in the final scene. Sometimes, Sadie thinks she’s solved it, but there’s just one more curveball. Which she solves, of course, but always in the final moments.

There’s a knock on my trailer door. Austin pokes his head in. “Paul was tied up. He asked me to get you for your scene, Hayley.”

“Oh.” With a final pat on Salmon’s head, I hop off the couch. “Great.”

Austin leads me into Stage Five. Halfway up the ramp, he stops and stares at a huge wire lying across the doorway. “That wasn’t here when I left,” he says, kicking it out of the way. Then he looks around. “How did that even get here? That could have really tripped someone up.”

The back of my neck prickles. Is this more work of the “ghost”? Moving wires around to cause an injury?