The Bloodwater Mysteries: Doppelganger by Mary Logue, Pete Hautman Page A

stolen, and who it belongs to, and stuff like that. It’s easy.”
    “Show me.”
    “First I have to pull somebody over.”
    “Can’t you just make up a number? You know, so I get it right in my article.”
    “I don’t know…”
    “Let’s pretend. This little green car goes screaming past you, a hundred miles an hour. You hit the siren and go after them—”
    “Hot pursuit. We call it hot pursuit.”
    “Hot pursuit. Got it.” Roni wrote it down in her notebook. “So you’re catching up to them—”
    “I’m calling it in on the radio, just in case it’s, you know, like a bank robbery.”
    “Right.” The last bank robbery in Bloodwater had takenplace before Roni was born. “Anyway, you pull them over, and—”
    “I type in their license number.”
    As his hand moved toward the keyboard, Roni rattled off the license number of the Asian woman’s car. Garth typed it in and waited. A few seconds later, he said, “Green Hyundai Sonata. Registered to Kyung-Soon Kim. St. Paul address.” He turned the screen so Roni could see.
    “Wow,” she said. “That’s amazing.” She wrote down the name and address in her notebook.
    “No criminal record,” Garth said.
    Roni smiled. “I wonder why she was in such a hurry.”
    “I didn’t even know those Hyundais could go that fast,” Garth Spall said.

22
    an old friend
    Brian’s dad was waiting at the curb when class let out. Brian said good-bye in Korean to Molly, then ran down the steps to the car.
    “How was your class today, son?” asked Mr. Bain.
    “It was
choun
. That means ‘good’ in Korean—I think. How was your Mensa meeting?”
    Mr. Bain laughed. “Like always—a room full of extremely intelligent, socially inept adults attempting to interact with one another. It’s rather like being in a room full of extraterrestrials.” He put the car in gear and pulled onto the street.
    “What do you talk about?” Brian asked.
    “Today we talked about intelligence in annelids.”
    Brian knew what annelids were—his dad had written several books about them. “You talked about
worms
?”
    “Yes. It was my turn to deliver the weekly presentation.” He frowned. “It was not as well received as I had hoped.”
    “Speaking of worms, I had squid for lunch,” Brian said.
    “Squid are not worms. Squid are mollusks, as are octopuses and oysters.”
    “Oh. Hey, Dad, is it possible that I have a twin?”
    “Twin? Oh. I see. You are wondering about your doppelganger, the boy who was abducted.”
    “This girl from class says that she knows a kid who looks exactly like me.”
    “I suppose it’s
possible
that you have a twin, but I think it’s highly unlikely. As you know, you were a foundling. You were not more than a week or two old, and you were alone. I can’t imagine why, if a woman had given birth to a set of twins, she would abandon one child and not the other.”
    “Do you trust the records they gave you?”
    “The Korean adoption services are very precise and rigorous about such things, son. They would have no reason to deceive us.”
    “But if I
did
have a twin…”
    “It would be quite a coincidence—especially if you were adopted separately—for you to both end up in the same part of America, don’t you think?”
    “I suppose.…Hey, you know that Korean coin I have?”
    “The ten won piece. Yes.”
    “Where did I get it?”
    “I don’t know,” said Mr. Bain. “You’ve had it as long as I can remember. I assume you got it from the Samuelses.”
    “Is it valuable?” Brian asked.
    His father smiled. “In Seoul you might be able to buy asmall piece of candy with it.” He turned off the highway onto a bumpy dirt road.
    “Where are we going?”
    “To see some old friends, Jack and Theresa Hanke. You’ve never met them.”
    “Is this the surprise?”
    “I suppose it is.” They followed the road for about a mile, cornfields on either side, then turned into a driveway that led to a small farm. Chickens scattered as they