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tell me why?”
    â€œI forget.”
    â€œWe’re going to be late,” Sophy cut in anxiously. “Don’t you want your clothes, Ms. Mulvaney?”
    Summer began shoving the clothes on the bed into a sports bag. “What size shoes does your mother wear?”
    â€œEight,” Audra said nastily. “Her dance costume is a size six.”
    Impossible,
Summer thought. She finished putting away the clothes and frowned. “This ballet outfit has sleeves, doesn’t it?”
    Sophy nodded quickly.
    â€œFine. Are you two ready?”
    There was a flushed look of excitement on the younger girl’s face. “I’ve been ready for hours. Liberace’s already downstairs in his cage.”
    Summer remembered that they had to take the girls’ pet ferret. “Be sure he doesn’t get out of the cage, because I won’t be stopping in traffic.”
    â€œI’ll be careful.” Sophy pulled out a pair of pink gloves and smoothed them on over her hands. “Can we go now?”
    â€œHead ’em up, move ’em out,” Summer muttered.
    Audra glanced at her sister. “Race you to the car, Sophy. First one there gets to choose the music.”
    The two charged off in a chorus of taunts and laughter, and Summer shook her head. For a moment Audra had seemed almost human. Then again, maybe that had been sheer imagination. No matter what, the two girls were going to have to face the music tonight when their mother got home.
    Â 
    Dropping off Audra at the Monterey Bay Aquarium was Summer’s first task. A burly guard let the teenager in through the staff entrance, then walked over to the car.
    â€œYou must be the new nanny. Ms. O’Connor told me you’d be starting today.” He watched Audra stride inside. “Don’t worry, we’ll keep an eye out for her. Ms. O’Connor told me about the security arrangements.”
    Sophy stared at the guard. “What does that mean?”
    â€œThat your mom is an important lady,” Summer said quietly. “Because she’s so important, we all need to be very careful. No taking rides with anyone but close family, no wandering off. Things like that.”
    The guard walked back inside, but Sophy continued to frown. “I don’t understand. Why do we have to be more careful now?”
    Cara O’Connor’s decision to keep the girls out of the loop about the threats was a bad idea, from what Summer had seen in family threat situations. Children were entitled to know about things that affected their lives, as long as they were told in simple, nonthreatening language. But Cara had been adamant: no mention of danger or details. Nothing that would frighten the girls.
    Sophy stared out the open window, picking at her nail. “Tiffany Hammersmith gets to ride her bike to school. She even gets to ride to town alone on Saturdays. Mom says I’m too young to do that.”
    â€œShe’s right.” Summer had ridden alone everywhere when she was Sophy’s age, but the world had been a different place then, and her mother hadn’t been trying high-profile criminal cases in a major urban center.
    Sophy sank lower in her seat. “Sometimes the other girls call me a baby,” she said quietly.
    Summer swung around, shocked. “That’s not true. They’re just being nasty, honey.”
    Sophy picked at her pink knapsack. “It doesn’t bother me anymore. At least—only a little. Besides, Tiffany Hammersmith is stupid. She wears thong underwear. I’ve seen them when we change for gym class.”
    Summer shook her head. “Thongs are highly overrated.” Summer had tried them once—and only once—since intimate discomfort was not one of her life goals. “By the way, is something wrong with your hands?”
    â€œNo.” Sophy avoided Summer’s eyes as she smoothed her soft pink gloves and flexed her fingers carefully. “I just