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But this time Sadie wasn’t looking for the sake of admiration. This time she had a purpose.
    Breanna sat on the bed while Sadie began running her fingers along the wall.
    “What are you doing?” Breanna asked.
    “Just looking around,” Sadie said innocently. She encountered a seam in the wallpaper and ran her fingers down it all the way to the baseboard, then felt up as high as she could go. “Does it seem weird to you that they have a wallpaper seam this close to the door? Usually wallpaper is begun around doors and windows so the longer portions are closer to the focal points in the room.”
    “It’s not the edge of a secret passageway,” Breanna said dryly.
    “You don’t know that for sure,” Sadie said. Unfortunately, after closer inspection she surmised it really was just the wallpaper seam. Bummer. “Where there is one mystery, there is often another, and these old estates are full of secret passageways and things.”
    “Please don’t do this, Mom.”
    Sadie stopped and turned to look at her daughter. She softened her expression in hopes of looking innocent. “Do what?”
    “Go all Scooby-Doo on me,” Breanna said, sounding annoyed. “I can see it in your face, Mom, it’s like you’re infected.”
    Sadie put her hands on her hips. “Infected?” she repeated.
    “Yes, it’s like you have some disease—Detectivitis.”
    “You act like it’s a bad thing,” Sadie replied, frowning.
    “It is a bad thing,” Breanna countered. “Remember Sister Ferret’s root beer at the church Christmas party? You thought it was poisoned.”
    Sadie cringed just a little bit. That incident had been rather unfortunate, but Sadie still stood beside her investigative skills that drove her to the conclusion. “No one brings root beer to a party in December,” Sadie said. “And it smelled weird.”
    “So you accidentally knocked it on the floor,” Breanna summed up.
    “It was never tested,” Sadie added. “You don’t know that I’m not responsible for saving a hundred lives that night.”
    “And what about that Christmas card you opened with latex gloves?”
    “There was definitely something white and powdery on the outside of the envelope,” Sadie said. “And your father’s aunt Beulah has never liked me very much. I’ve always found it strange that she keeps sending me Christmas cards.”
    “And so you thought she’d got a hold of some anthrax and sent it to you in a Christmas card?”
    Okay, it did sound a little silly when Breanna said it like that. But at the time, it made a lot of sense. “Better safe than sorry,” Sadie said.
    “Then we should stay in our room and keep our noses out of all of this because that would be much safer.” She paused and her expression softened with exhaustion. “Please, Mom, I can’t take it right now. Promise me you won’t put your nose anywhere it doesn’t belong.”
    Sadie thought back to Breanna’s reaction at finding John Henry, and to the reserved mood she’d had all day—did Sadie really want to add to her daughter’s stress? No. But neither did she want to sit here and do nothing. Still, she noted that the phrase “won’t put your nose anywhere it doesn’t belong” was pretty open-ended. Who determined where Sadie’s nose did or did not belong?
    “Promise me you won’t play detective,” Breanna insisted.
    “Okay,” Sadie said, feeling and sounding very dejected. “I promise I won’t play detective,” she repeated, though it wasn’t playing if she were doing something that was truly effective. She sat down on the bed next to Breanna, symbolizing that they were together in their approach—for now. “So, we just wait for Liam to call us?” she asked.
    Breanna nodded, so they sat there for a few seconds. Then she furrowed her brow. “Why wouldn’t he have his phone on?” Breanna asked.
    Excellent question, however Sadie was under orders. “Don’t think about it.”
    “But it doesn’t make sense,” Breanna said. “He always