B
uttercup used to be a nursemaid,” Xander said, “who took care of two babies. One of them became the captain of the
Pinafore
, and the other became a sailor.”
“Right.” Xena opened the glass door of the reading room. It was getting stuffy in there, with no window and the two of them breathing the same air. “But earlier, Buttercup had mixed the babies up and for some reason never told anyone.”
“Maybe that's what Sherlock was getting at when he called Miss Mimsy âButtercup,'” Xander said. “Do you think the princess who was returned wasn't the same baby as the one who disappeared? You think someone switched them, the way you and Alice switched schoolbags?”
“I don't knowâbut I'm beginning to think
that Sherlock thought so. And it also looks like he had a suspect: the nanny. That would explain why Sherlock said âThings are seldom what they seem,'” Xena said. “Everyone just assumed that the baby who was returned was the same one who had disappeared. But she wasn't.”
“So that's why the nanny pretended to be drugged, and she didn't really send a telegram,” Xander said. “The longer nobody saw the baby, the better.”
“Right! Remember how Aunt Lou said she wouldn't have recognized you, when she saw those photos Mom sent her from the park? And it had only been a few months since the last time she saw us. When the baby came back after a month, people might have thought she looked different, but they'd think it was just because babies change a lot, even more than people our age.”
“So that's why Sherlock was interested in fingerprints,” Xander said. “He wasn't trying to find the
criminal
with fingerprintsâhe was trying to see if this baby was the same one who had been kidnapped!”
“What?”
“Think about it, Xena. Why else would he be interested in the
baby's
fingerprints? Remember the word ârattle' surrounded by the drawings of fingerprints? He must have found a toy rattle that Princess Stella had used before the kidnapping, and was trying to figure out if the baby that was returned had the same fingerprints. That could be why he examined her with a magnifying glass!”
“It makes sense,” Xena agreed.
“I wonder how Miss Mimsy snuck the baby out,” Xander said. “Remember, I saw contracts with security guards.”
“You could easily hide a little baby under one of those huge skirts they wore. She must have been really afraid the baby would cry.”
“Why did you ask the guy at the desk to go back into the archives after he found the birth certificate?” Xander asked.
“I wanted to see if there were any more records about Josephine Blunt.”
“And there weren't?”
“Nope.” Xena shook her head. “But he also said that a lot of records were lost during World War Two, when buildings were bombed. If Josephine lived out in the country, any record of
her marriage or death could have been destroyed. So we don't know for sure what happened to her.”
“Anyway, if Miss Mimsy did switch them,” Xander said, “she certainly didn't want anyone to know that she had her own babyâshe'd be sure not to leave a paper trail. She must have been relieved when the queen had a girl too. If it had been a boy, she wouldn't have been able to make the switch.”
“Do you remember when Princess Stella was born?” Xena asked.
Xander closed his eyes and called up the birth certificate in his memory. “November 1894.”
“Just the same age as Josephine,” Xena said. “It must have been really hard for Miss Mimsy to leave her newborn baby with someone else. Maybe she came up with this switch as a way to keep the baby near her.”
“What do you think Miss Mimsy did with the real princess?”
Xena thought a moment. “Remember that when she retired she brought her niece in from the country to be the next nanny?”
“You think that was the princess, and not
really the nanny's niece at all?” Xander asked eagerly.
“I bet she was! That would mean that the baby who got âreturned,' the one they all thought was the princess who had been kidnapped, was really Josephine Blunt, not the princess at all!”
Xander's eyes sparkled. “And Miss Mimsy's great-great-granddaughter, Miss Jenny, is the real heir to the throne.”
“Which means that Miss Mimsy's descendant is Alice! Remember, one of the newspaper articles said that the nanny wanted to be a singer!” Xander exclaimed. “Maybe that's where Alice's musical talent comes from, the way we inherited detecting skills from Sherlock.”
“And the blond streak in our hair from Mom.”
“Right!” Xander was excited. “If Miss Jenny is the real heir to the throne, then Aunt Penelope won't be a relative of the queen. You can tell she wouldn't like that. She likes being the boss of everybody. I bet the letters say something about the babies being switched, or at least the queen's suspicions that something like that happened, and Alice's aunt took the letters from Alice to
destroy them. She must know about the switch, and she's trying to prevent the truth from coming out.”
“Maybe,” Xena agreed. “But Sherlock would never jump to conclusions like that. We still don't have any proof that it was Aunt Penelope who took the lettersâor Alice. What if the prime minister knew about the switch too, and he's holding Alice for the same reason? Or what if Miss Jenny is holding Alice until she can proclaim herself queen? Maybe she's showing the letters to the prime minister. He could
also
be the kidnapper. Or Jasper, or even the cook or the maid!”
Just then, a loud
bang
came from outside. “What was
that
?” Xander asked as they ran into the corridor. They joined the crowd that was gathering at a window.
Security guards ran outside and poked around the courtyard. One of them held something up. “Kids!” said the archivist who had helped them. “Just a firecracker.”
There was nothing more to see, so Xena and Xander returned to their study room. Xena picked up some loose papers and looked under them, and then crawled under the table.
“What are you doing?” Xander asked. “We don't have much time. Mr. Brown will be back any minute.”
“The birth certificate!” Xena sounded desperate. “Josephine Blunt'sâit's gone!”
X
ena and Xander were waiting anxiously, fingers crossed that there was another copy of Josephine Blunt's birth certificate. “Sorry,” the man at the desk said when he returned from his search in the archives. “It's expensive converting all those documents to electronic files. I'm afraid that the documents you were interested in just weren't important enough.”
“Thanks for looking,” Xena said, and Xander added, “Yeah, thanks.” He sounded so disappointed that Xena didn't have the heart to nudge him to remind him to be more polite.
“Will you let us know if it turns up?” she asked.
The man nodded. “I have your names and phone numbers here.” He tapped the form they had filled out to get the documents.
Xander glanced at his phone to check the
time. “Mr. Brown is probably waiting for us outside,” he said. “Thanks again.”
Outside the archives building, Andrew waved to them from the window of Mr. Brown's car. Xena and Xander filled him in on the case, and then told both Andrew and Mr. Brown what they had found out and about the disappearance of Josephine Blunt's birth certificate.
“If we don't have it, then nobody will ever believe us about the baby,” Xena concluded.
“Someone must have thrown that firecracker as a diversion and then taken the document.” Mr. Brown's voice was grim. “I want you kids to be more careful. It looks like someone knew you were there. I think you're being followed.”
Xena swallowed around a sudden hard lump in her throat. “Okay, we will.” She was struck by the chilling thought of the danger they might be in. If they interfered with the kidnapper's plansâwhatever they might beâAlice's kidnapper might get angry and come after them. Xena tried to put it out of her mind, but she resolved to keep a close eye on her brother, who tended to dash into risks without thinking.
She forced herself to speak lightly. “Do you
remember what the birth certificate said, Xander?”
“Yes, I doânames and dates and everything. Good thing the person who took the birth certificate doesn't know about my photographic memory! Still, it's all just a theory. We can't prove anything now.”
“What can't you prove? That Alice isn't really the princess?” Andrew snorted from the front seat. “That's easy.”
“Easy? How would
you
do it?” Xander asked. Andrew always rubbed it in when he knew something they didn't, but this time Xander didn't care if Andrew acted all superior, just as long as he could help them prove their theory.
“Didn't you ever hear of DNA analysis?”
“Yes,” Xena said cautiously. “I've heard of it, but I'm not sure what it means.”
“It means that if you have a part of somebody's body, like hair or a fingernail or even some spit or something, a scientist can compare it to a part of somebody else's body and tell if they're related.”
“But we don't have a part of Princess Stella's body,” Xander objected, “or any part of Alice's body.”
“We have that pin!” Xena exclaimed. “The mourning pin with Stella's grandmother's hair! Could we use that, Andrew?”
“I think so. I'll call the expert and see.” He pulled out his phone. “Hello, Aunt Mary?” Mary Watson was another member of the SPFD. “Can you connect me with Dr. Crichton?” After a few minutes, he was explaining the situation. “Okay. Right, got it. How long? Any way to speed that up? All right, I'll tell them. Cheerio.” He turned to Xena and Xander. “Dr. Crichton says that she can use a small piece of the hair in the pin and compare it with something of Alice's.”
“I hope they can do it pretty quickly.” Xander was anxious. “Alice's birthday is in four days.”
“I can ask them to put a rush on it,” Andrew said, “but I don't know if they can hurry it along at all.”
“How can we get something of Alice's?” Xena asked. “I suppose her hairbrush and things are in the house, but how can we get them?”
“Gemma would give them to us,” Xander said. “But the phones there are bugged, remember? If we tell her what we're doing, then Alice's aunt and her bodyguard and who knows who else will hear about it.”
“Who's Gemma?” Mr. Brown asked. They explained. “Leave it to me. I'm sure I can get in touch with her mother through the embassy.”
He pulled over to make a phone call, but before he could take the phone out of his pocket, Xena said, “Wait!” Mr. Brown paused. “How do we know Gemma's mother isn't involved?”
“Miss Jenny?” Xander was surprised. “It couldn't be her! Remember how nice she was?”
“We've seen nice people do bad things on our other cases,” Xena reminded him. “If we're right about the baby switch, then she's the one who would be the queen of Borogovia. That's a really powerful motive. She could say she won't do it for some reason, or she could give us someone else's hair or baby tooth or whatever.”
“What do you want me to do?” Mr. Brown asked.
“Let me think.” Xander buried his face in his hands. After a moment he looked up again. “Okay. How about thisâask her for a few things of Alice's, like a shirt she's worn and a hairbrush. We can tell Gemma that we're getting a dog to track down Alice.”
“That would never work,” Xena broke in. “We can't just turn a dog loose in the middle of
London and tell it to find Alice! If we knew she was someplace specific, we could go there and use one of those dogs, but it would be hopeless without that information.”
“Exactly! Miss Jenny has got to know that too. If she has nothing to do with the kidnapping, she'll give us the things even if she doesn't think they would help. But if she
is
the kidnapper, she'll be glad to give them to us and let us waste our time instead of doing anything really useful.”
“Okay, Xena?” Mr. Brown asked.
“You could try,” Xena said. They waited.
Mr. Brown got on his phone. “Get me the Borogovian embassy, please, Mary.” A pause. Then Mr. Brown explained that he urgently needed to speak with someone named Jenny in the Borogovian mansion. Another pause, and then he passed the phone to Xena. “It's your friend's mother on her cell.”
By the time they had reached central London, Miss Jenny had agreed to send Gemma to the SPFD with some of Alice's things. “My husband can drive her there. Anything to help get Alice back.”
Â
Â
Gemma was waiting for them outside the pub that concealed the entrance to the SPFD. She was thrilled at the secret door that let them in. “That was the most fun way to get into a building I ever saw!” she said. “I wish there were a secret entry to the mansion! I hate knowing that I'm being watched on those silly cameras every time I go in or out.”
She handed Andrew a plastic bag with a school uniform and a hairbrush in it. Xena and Xander saw with satisfaction that some long blond hairs were embedded in the bristles.
“My mom doesn't think this will work,” Gemma said. “She's really upset. I found her looking at an old video of me and Alice when we were little, and she was crying. She said she'll never forgive herself, and that she should have been keeping a closer watch on her. I tried to tell my mom that she couldn't sleep in the same room with Alice, but I don't think that made her feel any better.”
“We'll keep working on it,” Xander promised. “We already have some clues. Has there been anything else at the houseâa ransom note or a threatening phone call or something?”
Gemma shook her head. “Nothing. I'll call
you if anything happens.” She got up to leave.
“Wait a second,” Xena said. “There's a bug in your hair.”
“Ew!” Gemma reached up a hand but Xena grabbed her wrist.
“Let me get it.” She pulled at something on Gemma's scalp and the girl jumped. “Sorry! I didn't mean to pull out that hair too.”
“It's okay,” Gemma said, rubbing her head. “Just as long as you got that bug! Give us a ring if you find out anything, will you?”
“Of course.” Xena felt guilty about tricking Gemma, but she had no choice. “And there was something I wanted to ask you. I heard Alice's aunt say that the servants had been given the night off, the night of the kidnapping?”
Gemma looked surprised. “They usually get Friday evenings, but Miss Banders had them switch to Saturday. I don't think she said why.” Xena and Xander exchanged glances. It sounded like Alice's aunt had wanted as few witnesses as possible to what she was going to do that night.
Gemma's phone chirped, and she glanced at it. “My dad's outside,” she said. “Please call me right away if you find something out, okay?”
“We will,” Xander promised.
“Thanks for your help!” Xena called after her as Mr. Brown walked Gemma out to the sidewalk.
“What was that all about, with the bug in her hair?” Xander asked his sister when Gemma was out of earshot. “I didn't see any bug!”
Xena handed Andrew the hair she had pulled from Gemma's head. “I think we need to get Gemma tested too.” Andrew left to pack it separately from Alice's blond ones and get them delivered to the DNA lab. “It just seemed awfully convenient that all the servants were out that night,” she said. “We can always confirm with the security tape that they actually did go out, if we need to, but it looks like they were sent away on purpose.” She took a deep breath. “Let's try to narrow down the suspects. First, if the cook and Frieda really were out, and Gemma's dad was out of town, who else can we eliminate?”
“Let's look at motive,” Xander suggested.
“I keep coming back to the letters,” Xena said. “Alice found them, she talked about them in front of all the people who are now suspects, and then
poof
! The letters are gone. And then that night,
she's
gone.”
“Let's assume that something in them triggered Alice's kidnapping,” Xander said. “But what?”
“The only thing we know about them is that they're about Princess Stella's disappearance and Sherlock's investigation,” Xena said.
Xander drummed his fingers on the table. “Could the timing of the kidnapping have something to do with the fact that she's going to be crowned soon?”
“I'm not sure.” Xena, as always, was a little more cautious than Xander at drawing conclusions. “Anybody who cares about Borogovia knew that Alice's birthday was coming up, and she'd be the queen right after that. They could have taken her at any time, but they chose to wait until just two weeks before the coronation. Why that particular day?”
“We're back to the letters. There could be something in themâsomething about Princess Stellaâthat made someone decide to kidnap Alice.”
“Then I guess someone could be trying to stop the coronation,” Xena said. “Miss Jenny and her husband have a reason for
not
wanting Alice to be crowned. If we're right about the switched babies, it's Miss Jenny, and not Alice, who should be the next queen!”
“So if the letters say something about the
queen or Sherlock thinking that the baby who was returned wasn't really the princess, Miss Jenny and her family wouldn't have any motive for stealing the letters. Just the oppositeâthey'd want to tell everybody what's in them.”
“That's a big
if,
” Xena said.
“I know,” Xander conceded. “But do you have another theory?”
Xena screwed up her face in thought. “No,” she admitted. “Let's explore it a bit more.” They sat in silence for what seemed like a long time.
“Okay,” Xena finally said slowly. “What if we have it backward? What if someone isn't trying to
stop
the coronationâwhat if they're trying to hurry it up?”
“Why would they want to do that?”
“Maybe someone wants the coronation to happen
before
Alice gets a chance to find out she's not the real princess. That way she'd be crowned before she could change her mind about the Rathonian thing. Remember, she said she was for it but she didn't sound too sure.”
“But what ifâ” Xander stopped. “Xena, can they have a secret coronation?”
“A secret coronation?”
“You know, like when that friend of Mom's
got marriedâthey had a small wedding, just the two of them, because her husband was going into the army, and then when he came back, they had a big wedding with a cake and everything. But they were still married, even before the fancy wedding. Can they do that with a coronation?”
“I hope not.” Suddenly, Xena felt sick to her stomach. “I just remembered something.”
“What?”