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against Dad yet? Just tell me if Paper Clip is in on it. And to think of all the catnip I’ve given that traitor.”
    â€œPaper Clip is on our side,” I said as the cat rubbed against my legs and whined for her dinner.
    â€œThat’s what she wants you to think.” He turned to Savannah. “See, it’s not enough for conspiracy theorists that there’s a they . There also has to be an evil plot, and it usually involves taking over the world.”
    â€œI don’t think Fiona is trying to take over the world.”
    â€œNo,” said Eric, with his mouth full. “Just Dad.”
    That was it. I’d had enough of the doubters. I pushed back from the table and stood. “Okay. I’ll get proof.”
    â€œThis ought to be good,” Eric said. I ignored him and stalked into Dad’s office. His inner sanctum.
    After the flood and the scandal, Dad became much more careful about his records. He even invented a filingsystem—of sorts. As he’d pointed out to me, if the system was too straightforward, it would be easy for them to get in. So, for instance, Eric’s and my medical and school records aren’t filed under our names. They are filed under K for “kids.” You have to be one of us to figure out the secret codes and find anything.
    On top of that, the whole cabinet is housed in a fireproof safe, every file is enclosed in a waterproof plastic bag, and—because it’s Dad we’re talking about here—he’s even made sure to include some tamper-proof elements, just in case they come around. Every single plastic bag is sealed with a minuscule hair trapped precisely one inch from the left side of the bag. That way, if someone came and opened it without Dad’s knowledge, the hair would fall out of place and he’d know.
    It’s truly brilliant, and not paranoid or whatever Mom called it on her last visit.
    â€œIf Fiona really was into the whole conspiracy theory thing,” I said loudly, storming over to the safe, “then she would have had at least basic password protection on her laptop files. I wouldn’t have been able to copy them.” I dialed in the combination to the safe, then yanked open the cabinet marked P–Z. “And if Fiona really was into my dad, and had gone out of her way to get copies of the Underberg diary for him, then she would have given them to him.”S-section for scientist, A-folder for Aloysius. I flipped to the appropriate waterproof bag. “And he would have put them away . . . right here.”
    I looked down at the seal.
    No hair.

4
LOST AND LAST
    I LOOKED UP AT ERIC, MY MOUTH OPEN IN SHOCK. “ERIC, THERE’S NO hair.”
    â€œWhat?” Savannah asked, her eyebrows knitting.
    â€œMy dad always seals these files with a hair. That way he knows if someone comes along and tampers with it. There’s no hair on the seal of this file.”
    Savannah blinked at me several times, then turned to my brother. “Okay, Eric, I’m officially on your side. This is ridiculous.”
    But the color had drained from my brother’s face. “No, Gillian is right. Dad’s nuts about his system. I mean, he might forget to turn off the iron, but he never, ever forgetsthe hair seal on his files.” I was sure he was already envisioning Dad breaking out the tent and mapping a secret campsite. Eric would go into video game withdrawal. “If he’d shown this to Fiona, the hair would still be there.”
    â€œEww, really?” Savannah asked. “Whose hair does he use?”
    â€œHis,” Eric said, pushing past Savannah to join me at the cabinet. “He almost went bald after the flood when he first set this up.” Eric turned to me. “Is there any way to tell if something’s missing?”
    I glanced at the file, the pages and CDs of info contained within. “I don’t know. But I do think I know Fiona’s plan. Savannah said