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and Evan was missing in action at the time.”
    I agreed with her, but didn’t say anything more. We could speculate all we wanted, but without proof, we had nothing.
    George cycled in her usual masterful form, and by eleven-thirty she and Thad were neck and neck. They jockeyed back and forth for the lead position, but she pulled ahead in the last few minutes. When all the teams stopped for lunch at noon, my team was about fifty yards ahead.
    Ned, Bess, and I tumbled out of the truck and raced over to congratulate George. She was lying on her back on a little grassy slope near a wooded area.
    Her bike lay next to her, its spokes still turning slowly.
    “You did it!” Bess yelled gleefully, parking herself next to George. “We’re Number One!”
    George nodded and leaned up on her elbows. She looked energized, but ready for a break. While she checked over her bike, Ned stretched, and I helped Bess unload the picnic lunch.
    Bess had put together the perfect spread for bike racing. Over a lunch of pasta salad, veggie sandwiches, and granola bars, we plotted our race strategy.
    Deirdre’s truck was parked about half a football field back down the road from us. We could see the four team members sitting under a large tree in their black-and-blue outfits as they ate. They sprawled on a large blue blanket.
    “So Thad gave you a workout,” Ned said, “but you took the lead when it counted.”
    “He’s better than he looks,” George said. “You’ll probably have Deirdre for the next leg. But you can handle her. Just don’t give her too much draft. She might know cycling etiquette, but you can be sure she won’t use it. Which means she won’t be courteous enough to switch off and let you draft her for a while. You know she’s a taker, so watch out for her.”
    “Thanks,” Ned said, handing George a sandwich.“I’ll try to hold on to the awesome start you gave us.” He finished eating quickly, then he took his bike out onto the road for a couple of warm-up sprints.
    “I wish I had a clue about Evan The Ghost Biker,” I told Bess and George. I took a bite of my sandwich and suddenly saw Deirdre and her cohorts strolling toward us.
    The sun was in my eyes, so I couldn’t see their faces all that well at first. Deirdre led the parade of course—and Thad was right behind her.
    “Hi, Deirdre,” I said, swallowing a wad of unchewed sprout strings. “Hey, Thad, you gave George a good workout!”
    “I’m not Thad,” the young man said.
    “This is Evan,” Deirdre said, “Thad’s twin.”
    “Twins, huh? So are you as good as your brother?” I asked. I was just making small talk while my mind was working on something else. I visualized the small medallion I had found under the seat of Ned’s car. I didn’t even hear Evan’s answer, because I was thinking up my next query.
    “I have a friend who’s really into astrology,” I said, when Evan stopped talking. “She says more twins are born under the sign of Gemini than under any other sign. How about you guys?”
    “Yeah, that fits us,” Thad said, walking up to join the rest of his team. “We’re Geminis.”
    “I’ve collected a ton of pledges,” Deirdre said, butting in to bring the conversation back to her favorite subject: herself. “My team and I are going to break all the records for this event. We’re not only going to win in record time, but we’re going to set a new high for pledges and money earned.”
    “Mr. Holman says all the pledges are higher than ever,” Bess said.
    George stood up so she was eye to eye with Deirdre. “Bess alone has brought in—”
    “Yes, yes, yes, I’m sure you’ve all done very nicely,” Deirdre interrupted. “But no one else has a supporter as generous as my father. He’s agreed to give an extra thousand dollars to the total if we win.”
    “And we will,” Malcolm said, strolling up. “By tomorrow I’ll have to rev up the truck just to stay tight with Deirdre. She’ll bring us over the finish