IT WAS FRIDAY EVENING.

Two days before Theo’s birthday, when, according to his fortune, life as he knew it would end.

Though Theo’s dilemma was more pressing, Annabella Lu didn’t lose sight of the fact that her cousin Jenny’s disappearance was also very much a part of the story. Rather than returning to her home after leaving the Library, Lu paid another visit to her aunt Tina’s house.

“Is it okay if I spend the night in Jenny’s room?” Lu asked her aunt.

“Of course, child, but why?”

Lu shrugged and said, “I don’t know. I’m just trying to do all I can to figure out what happened to her. You never know—maybe I’ll get inspired.”

Aunt Tina gave her a loving and grateful hug, though she had no real hope that having her favorite niece sleep in her missing daughter’s room would solve any mysteries. Still, she gave Lu a kiss and wished her a good night.

Lu shut herself in Jenny’s room. Though she was exhausted, she couldn’t sleep. After tossing in bed for over an hour, she gave up trying, got out of bed, and sat at Jenny’s desk. For the one hundredth time, she read the fortune card Jenny had been given by the machine that held the fortune-telling crystal ball of the Oracle Baz.

SEIZE THE MOMENT. YOU MAY NOT GET ANOTHER OPPORTUNITY.

FOLLOW YOUR HEART.

What could it mean?

What had the crystal ball seen in Jenny’s future? Did it have anything to do with her disappearance?

With only the narrow shaft of light from the lamp shining on Jenny’s desk, Lu slowly scanned the collection of odds and ends that helped define her cousin’s life and history. There was a Hello Kitty notepad; a Tower of Terror mug filled with pens and pencils; multiple hair clips in every color; framed photos of Jenny with her parents; a jewelry box; half a dozen stuffed animals with oversized eyes; a stack of well-read books; a princess brush that Jenny had used since she was a toddler; the box from her iPhone; an array of makeup tubes and jars that were neatly arranged like a line of soldiers; a…

Wait.

The box from her iPhone.

Lu sat bolt upright, even more awake than before.

She grabbed the box and pulled it open to find…nothing. No phone. Only a receipt. Lu pulled it out, checked the date, and smiled.

She dropped the box and the receipt and started going through the desk drawers, quickly digging in each one. She was on a mission for she knew exactly what to look for. In the third drawer she found it.

Jenny’s old iPhone. Not the new one that had come in the box.

Lu plugged the phone into the power cord that ran up from the wall outlet and waited for it to power up.

“Come on…come on,” Lu implored impatiently.

Finally, Jenny’s home screen appeared. There was no lock screen and request for a passcode. Jenny didn’t bother with security. The home screen was a picture of her two cats, Abbie and Winston. The picture made Lu smile for a second, but no more than that. Her mind was racing too far ahead.

She went right to the phone icon and opened up the recent calls Jenny had made and received. Though “recent” was only as recent as the moment when Jenny activated her new phone and deactivated the old one. The date on the receipt confirmed Lu’s memory: Jenny had gotten the new phone shortly before she went missing. Until then she had been using the phone that Lu now held in her hands.

A list of numbers appeared, both from incoming and outgoing calls. Lu recognized only a few numbers that belonged to their family. Her own number was there a few times too. Those didn’t interest her. But there was another number that did. It had a Connecticut area code, which wasn’t unusual. The odd thing was that it showed up dozens of times. Multiple dozens. Whoever belonged to that number, Jenny had spoken to them again and again right before she disappeared. The name associated with the number was simply “Jo.”

It took only a few seconds for Lu to skim through Jenny’s contact list to find “Jo.” The contact picture showed a pretty girl with Asian features who flashed a two-fingered peace sign.

Lu was focused and on fire. She turned on Jenny’s old-school tower computer. It took what felt like an eternity to boot up as Lu sat there, nervously drumming her fingers on the desk. The whole while she kept staring at the smiling face of Jo on Jenny’s phone. Lu didn’t know Jo and didn’t remember Jenny ever talking about her. But from the number of times they had talked with one another recently, it sure seemed as though her cousin knew Jo pretty well.

Once the computer had booted up, Lu started Firefox and went straight to Facebook. In seconds she was on Jenny’s page and searching through her friends list. Jenny had more than a few friends. A few hundred was more like it. Lu had to force herself to slow down and focus on each tiny profile picture. She didn’t want to miss any.

When she was getting near the end of the list and beginning to fear she had struck out, she found it.

Jo Wong.

It was the exact same picture that Jenny had on her phone.

Lu’s heart raced and her hand trembled as she clicked on Jo’s name. Now that she was so close, she feared that her efforts might lead to nothing. Her ten minutes of excitement and hope could come to an abrupt and disappointing dead end. After what felt like half a lifetime, Jo Wong’s page appeared.

Lu scrolled down, examining Jo’s posts…

…and let out a yelp.

“Gotcha!” she yelled.

Lu jumped up, ran out of Jenny’s room, and sprinted along the upstairs hallway.

It was past midnight. Her aunt and uncle would surely be asleep.

Lu didn’t care. She burst into their room and leapt onto the bed.

“Wha—?” Uncle Nathan shouted, dazed.

Aunt Tina let out a yelp of surprise.

“It’s okay, it’s me,” Lu announced.

“Annabella?” Aunt Tina said, still half-asleep and more than a little confused.

“What are you doing?” Uncle Nathan asked.

“Wrong question,” Lu said, barely containing her excitement. “It’s not what I’m doing—it’s what I did.”

“What did you do?” Aunt Tina asked.

“I found Jenny.”