Paul turns back to me, staring at me for a few bewildered moments. “I have to hand it to you, Hayley. You solved this when no one else could.”

“Please,” I say. “Aubrey and Cody were huge helps. Amelia too.” Amelia looks pleased. “And also, this is what’s going to happen in the episode too, right? It isn’t only Mr. Grimes who’s guilty. Sure, he stole the book, but he’s just a worker at the sub shop. But Mr. Archer, Mrs. Archer’s husband, owns the sandwich shop franchise. He’s the one who really put Mr. Grimes up to it.”

Will widens his eyes. “Actually, we hadn’t quite settled on the end scene yet. But Hayley, that’s perfect!”

Paul grins at me. “Art imitating life!” He nudges my side. “We might just need you in the writers’ room, Hayley!”

“Oh, I’m happy just playing Sadie,” I tell him.

And maybe, just maybe, solving mysteries too.

Chapter Twenty

“So I’ll take one cookies and cream, a mint chip, a birthday cake, and…” I turn to Amelia, who’s standing behind me with an anxious look on her face. “…what flavor did you want again?”

“A coconut gelato, but only if it’s organic coconut, and only if it has absolutely no artificial colors,” Amelia states knowingly. “I’m highly sensitive to artificial coloring. I’m sure it’s an Aquarius thing.”

The woman working the Betsy’s Homemade Ice Cream truck says in a bored voice that the coconut gelato has no artificial colors. Then she gets to work scooping our cones. I turn around just as a burly moving man clomps down the U-Haul ramp with another giant box in his arms. Like many of the others, this one is labeled “Record Albums.”

“Wow,” I mutter to Cody, who’s also standing on the curb with me, Aubrey, and Amelia. “How many boxes of records does your mom have?”

“Probably a million more.” Cody sighs. “I think that’s the real reason she didn’t want to make the move. She didn’t want to pack all her things.”

But despite Cody’s fake-weary attitude, his cheeks are pink with glee. Today is moving day for Cody’s family—for real. It all happened really fast—once we found out that Sadie Solves It was no longer in danger of being canceled, Cody’s mom went hunting for a place big enough to fit two adults and two kids. We thought the process would take forever, but she got lucky and found a great apartment really fast.

Extra bonus: Apparently the ice cream truck parks here every day. Extra extra bonus: It’s not far from my house, meaning Cody can bike to the tree house and we can have secret meetings whenever we want. Yes!