by Tracey West
“Oh, hi,” she said.
“Cadence, how are you?” Aly asked.
“Fine. What brings you guys here?” Cadence asked.
“Just checking out the nightlife,” AJ answered. “It’s a shame about Hope and Faith’s video, isn’t it?”
“Hmm? Oh, yeah. It’s too bad.” Cadence appeared distracted. “I’m sorry, but you’ll have to excuse me. I need to go to the restroom.” She got up and walked off.
Aly groaned. “Another friendly chat with Cadence. What’s up with her?”
Before AJ could answer, Holly tapped her on the shoulder.
“Can we please talk in one of the private booths?” she asked.
“Sure,” AJ answered. They followed Holly to an empty booth. She held up the curtain for them as they slid in, then she sat next to them, closing the curtain.
Even though Holly wasn’t decked out in her Hollywood glam gown anymore, she still looked gorgeous. She wore a baby-doll, blue, v-neck tank top with lace trim and sequined straps along with a black short skirt, tights, and over-the-knee high-heeled boots. Her long hair was pulled back in a low ponytail.
“Thanks for coming,” she said. “I’m sorry I had to act all super-spy to drop the note in your bag, but I didn’t want my sisters to know we were meeting.”
“It’s okay,” Aly said. “So what’s up?”
Holly took a deep breath. “I really hope what I’m about to say stays between us. You see, the pin you found is mine. I was in the studio the night the footage was stolen. But I had nothing to do with it! I was looking for Maxine.”
“Faith and Hope’s manager?” AJ asked.
Holly nodded. “Yes. I want to start a solo career and I’m looking for a new manager. But I don’t want my sisters to know. Not yet, anyway.”
“Did Maxine see you there?” Aly asked.
“No. She wasn’t there. I had made up some excuse and told my sisters I’d meet them by the car. I hurried in, hoping I could find Maxine quickly and arrange a time for us to meet. But I couldn’t find her. Sabrina and Eve were waiting for me and I heard them calling my name. It made me panic and I left the studio in a hurry. I must have dropped the pin then,” Holly explained.
“How did you get in?” AJ asked.
“The front door was open,” Holly answered. She leaned forward. “I want you both to know that I did not steal the tape. I would never do something like that.”
“Did you see anyone else there?” AJ said.
Holly shook her head from side to side. “No. I was only there for a few minutes, so anyone could have been there before or after me. But I need to ask you guys a favor. Please keep this a secret. When I decide to go solo, my sisters need to hear it from me.”
Aly and AJ exchanged glances.
“Of course, we won’t tell anyone,” Aly promised her.
“Don’t worry, your secret is safe with us,” AJ said.
Holly let out a big sigh. “Thanks. I appreciate it. And thanks again for meeting me so late. I’ve got to get going. We’re still shooting the video and tomorrow is another early day.”
Aly and AJ said good-bye and watched as Holly slid out of the booth and walked out of the club.
“Do you believe her when she says she had nothing to do with the disappearance of the tape?” AJ asked Aly.
“You know, I really do. I think Holly told us the truth,” Aly said.
AJ nodded. “I do, too. But that doesn’t mean Sabrina or Eve or maybe even both of them didn’t take the tape! They still had the motive—and the opportunity.” She frowned. “Holly said the door was open. Did Lionel leave it open by mistake?”
“Or maybe Holly came in after the thief. The thief picked the lock to get in, and left the door open on the way out,” Aly suggested. She stood up. “Enough mysteries. Let’s dance!” Then she grabbed AJ’s hand and dragged her out of the booth.
They hit the floor just as a funky dance tune began to play. Swaying to the beat, Aly and AJ forgot about the troubles of the day and began to have fun. They had danced through the song and right into the next when Calista danced up next to them, smiling.
“Hey, guys,” she shouted over the music.
Aly and AJ began to dance with Calista. They were joking and laughing. But after a few more songs, they were thirsty. Aly and AJ left the dance floor and sat at a table. Calista followed them and sat down next to them.
After ordering some water from the waitress, AJ turned to Calista.
“How are you feeling?” she asked.
“What?” Calista looked confused for a moment. “Oh, a lot better, thanks for asking,” she said.
“Does this mean you’ll be able to reshoot Faith and Hope’s video?” Aly wondered.
Calista’s bright smile dimmed. “I don’t know about that. Cadence can be a little bossy. I’m lucky I got to come here tonight. But I was just dying to go out and have some fun, you know?”
AJ scanned the room for Cadence. She was nowhere in sight. It seemed like Calista was more willing to talk without her sister around.
Aly smiled at Calista. “I don’t want to start gushing again, but I really did love Fun House when I was growing up. My favorite part was the magic tricks, especially when you would make Boo Bunny appear out of the hat.” She laughed. “I really thought you guys were magic. I was wondering how you learned to do those tricks at such a young age. Was it hard to learn?”
“That was all Cadence,” Calista said. “She loved learning the magic tricks and she was a whiz at getting out of handcuffs. That’s how she could do all the escape tricks.”
“Did I hear my name?” Cadence asked. She stood over the table, clutching her phone in one hand and her purse in the other.
Calista looked startled. “Cadence! I was just telling Aly and AJ about the magic tricks you used to do on the show.”
Cadence smiled. “That was my favorite part. I used to spend hours practicing some of those tricks. But Calista, it is getting late. We really need to get home.”
Calista frowned. “Fine. Let’s go.”
“Good night,” Cadence said. Calista nodded as she got up and left with her sister.
AJ glanced at her watch. “Wow! It’s late. We probably should get going, too.”
The deejay began to play a new song. It was “Potential Breakup Song,” a song from Aly and AJ’s album Insomniatic.
Aly smiled. “You know we’ve got to dance to this one!”
They hit the floor, grooving out to their song. AJ felt a tap on her shoulder. It was a girl in a silver minidress, dancing with a boy with spiky brown hair.
“Is it really you?” the girl asked, still dancing. “I mean, your song is playing, and you’re here, like, dancing. That’s wild!”
Her dance partner nodded. “Great song.”
“Thanks!” Aly and AJ replied. It felt great to see people dancing to their music. After the song ended they kept on dancing until finally they were too beat to keep going.
“That was fun!” Aly exclaimed as they left the club.
“A blast!” AJ agreed. “But look, the sun is rising. These Nashville nights are getting to be exhausting!”
CHAPTER EIGHT:
A NIGHT AT THE OPRY
“All right, I’ve got to know,” their mom, Carrie, said. “Why are you two still wearing your sunglasses? We’re indoors.”
Aly and AJ had only gotten a few hours of sleep when their alarm clock rang. They’d promised to go sightseeing with their mom that morning, and didn’t want to disappoint her. They were in the art gallery in the Parthenon, a replica of a beautiful ancient Greek building right in the heart of Nashville.
“Promise not to lecture,” Aly said. She removed her sunglasses to reveal pretty green eyes—with dark circles under them.
Carrie shook her head. “Not you, too, Amanda?”
AJ took off her glasses, too, showing the same tired eyes.
“We went out dancing at Club Constellation, and we just got a little . . . carried away,” AJ said.
“The deejay was off the hook,” Aly added.
“You two are in the middle of a big tour!” Carrie scolded. “You need to rest, not dance the night away.”
“Mom, you promised not to lecture,” Aly said.
Carrie frowned. “Actually, I didn’t.”
“Oh, right,” Aly said. “Okay, how about we promise to go to sleep early tonight. Right after ...”
“Right after what?” Carrie asked suspiciously.
“Right after we go see Faith and Hope perform at the Grand Ole Opry tonight,” AJ jumped in. “They texted us last night with the invite. We had to say yes!”
“It’s the most famous country music show in the world,” Aly pointed out.
Carrie softened a little. “The Grand Ole Opry. I can see how you wouldn’t want to miss that. Did you know that its first live radio show aired in 1925?”
“I did some reading up on it,” AJ said. “Some of the greatest acts in country music history have performed live at the Grand Ole Opry. Elvis Presley performed there for the first time when he was around our age.”
“The show starts at 7:30, and we’ll go to the hotel right after,” Aly promised. “No dancing.”
“I suppose that’s fine,” Carrie said. “But maybe you two should take a little nap this afternoon. Just to refresh yourselves.”
Now it was Aly’s turn to shake her head. “Mom, we are not little kids!”
“It’s just a suggestion,” Carrie said.
They continued to look at the paintings in the art museum. Then they moved to the main hall of the building, where a giant statue of the Greek goddess Athena stood.
“Wow,” Aly remarked. The statue stood forty feet tall and was covered in gold.
Aly took out her camera. “Mom, AJ, stand in front,” she directed. “That way we can see how big it really is.”
Aly snapped a few pictures.
“This is a really cool place,” AJ remarked. “It’s like being in ancient Greece, but we’re right here in Nashville.”
“You know, there’s a really good barbeque restaurant just next door,” Carrie said. “We can get some ribs and eat them here in the park.”
“Sounds great!” Aly and AJ agreed.
It was a bright sunny day, and Aly and AJ put on their sunglasses once again as they headed outside. They bought some ribs and ate them under the shadow of the Parthenon.
“So, Jim told me that the master tape of Faith and Hope’s video was stolen,” Carrie began as they ate. “That’s such a shame! Why would somebody do such a thing?”
“We think maybe someone wants to ruin Faith and Hope’s big moment at the music awards,” AJ said.
“At first we thought it was one of the sisters from HeavenSent,” Aly explained. “We found one of their logo pins in the studio. But Holly from HeavenSent says the pin is hers, and she swears she didn’t steal the tape.”
“My, you two sound just like detectives,” Carrie said. “Come to think of it, every stop on this tour has had some kind of mystery in store. How strange.”
“This might be the strangest stop of all,” AJ went on. “Cadence and Calista were in the video with us. But they won’t reshoot the video because they claim Calista is sick. But we saw Calista last night at the club. She looked fine.”
“And then we heard Cadence talking on the cell phone to Calista, only Calista wasn’t talking on her cell phone,” Aly added. “It doesn’t make sense at all.”
“Do you think they have something to do with the stolen tape?” Carrie asked.
AJ looked thoughtful. “I hadn’t thought of that. I can’t see why they would want to steal the tape, because they agreed to be in it. But they’re definitely acting suspicious. And they didn’t go out to dinner with the rest of us. So they would have had a chance to break into the studio room, if they wanted to.”
Aly yawned. “I am beat! You know, taking a nap doesn’t sound like such a bad idea after all.”
Carrie grinned. “I’ll get the car. Let’s head back to the hotel.”
Three hours later, Aly and AJ were rested, showered, and getting ready to go out.
“I’ve always wanted to go to the Grand Ole Opry House,” Aly said as she studied the clothes hanging on the rack in the hotel room. “Some really awesome musicians have played there.”
She took a silky black camisole from the rack, along with a ruffled black skirt. She held them out to AJ. “What do you think?” she asked.
AJ nodded. “I was thinking of doing black, too,” she said. She picked up a black-and-white patterned minidress with spaghetti straps.
“Cool,” Aly said. “I like it when we match.”
“Although we should probably avoid dressing exactly alike,” AJ pointed out. “That would just be creepy.”
“It was cute when Cadence and Calista used to do it,” Aly said.
AJ nodded. “True. But they’re obviously different people with different tastes now.”
Aly frowned. “I’m not sure ‘different’ is better. I thought they would be so nice!”
“Well, Faith and Hope are nice,” AJ reminded her. “We’d better hurry so we’re not late for their show.”
Jim had arranged for a car to take them to the Grand Ole Opry House. The girls stepped out into the warm summer night. Lights illuminated the two-story building, which looked almost like an old-fashioned theater. Huge chandeliers glowed through the large windows on the second floor. On top of the roof, large lit-up letters spelled out GRAND OLE OPRY HOUSE.
“How cool!” Aly remarked.
“I read that the Opry show has been held here since 1974,” AJ said. “The show started out in a radio studio, and it got so popular they had to keep moving to bigger and bigger auditoriums.”
Aly looked up at the lights. “It’s like walking into a piece of history.”
“We should head to the box office,” AJ said. “Faith said our tickets would be waiting for us there.”
They walked toward the entrance of the concert hall. There was a sudden commotion at the front door.
“You can’t keep me out! I paid for my ticket!” a man was screaming. Two security guards held his arms, and were dragging him outside.
“As we’ve told you, sir, the Walker Sisters have a restraining order against you,” one of the guards said. “You can leave quietly, or we can call the police and have you arrested.”
AJ gasped. “That’s Parker Mackenzie!”
“Boy, he likes to make a scene wherever he goes, doesn’t he?” Aly remarked.
They watched as Parker broke away from the guards and walked away in a huff. He climbed into a small red sports car and sped away.
“Hey, we’ve seen that car before,” Aly realized. “It’s the same one Jim liked the night he brought us to the studio.”
“The same night the tape was stolen,” AJ said. She shook her head. “We totally forgot about Parker as a suspect! He’s so angry with Faith and Hope for firing him. He might have stolen the tape for revenge. We need to interview him.”
“Right now, we need to see Faith and Hope sing,” Aly reminded her. “We can deal with Parker later.”
Faith and Hope had given them front-row tickets for the show. Aly and AJ smiled when the sisters came onstage, looking happy and relaxed. They were backed by a drummer, a guitarist, a fiddle player, and a banjo player. The sisters launched into their set of country songs, singing together in perfect harmony. When they sang “Nothing Like a Sister,” Aly and AJ stood up and cheered.
When their set was over, Aly and AJ headed backstage to thank Faith and Hope for the tickets. They found Faith and Hope in their dressing room, looking tired but happy.
“That was a fantastic show!” Aly said.
“Thanks so much for inviting us,” AJ added.
“You’re welcome,” Faith said. “You know, when we’re up there singing, it’s like everything else melts away. I’m so happy onstage.”
“It shows,” Aly said.
Hope stood up
and stretched. “Singing also makes me soooo hungry! Do y’all want to go out for a bite to eat?”
Aly and AJ looked at each other. They had promised their mom they wouldn’t stay out late.
“But it’s just for a bite to eat,” Aly said, reading AJ’s mind.
“And we did have a nap today,” AJ added. “I don’t feel tired at all.”
“Then you have to go out with us!” Faith prodded.
Aly and AJ grinned. “Well, when you put it that way, let’s go!”
CHAPTER NINE:
A CLOSE CALL
Aly and AJ didn’t totally dismiss their mom’s advice. They made sure they were back at the hotel by midnight.
“This is an early night for us in Nashville,” AJ joked.
They slept late the next day and ate brunch at the hotel. AJ’s cell phone rang. It was Hope. AJ put her on speakerphone.
“Good news—sort of,” she told AJ. “The record company is going to give us the money to reshoot the video. We’re still not sure if the music awards will air it without Cadence and Calista in it. But Maxine’s working on them. That gal could sell sand to a man living in the desert, so we think we have a good chance.”
“That’s great!” Aly said.
“We were wondering if you two could meet with us this afternoon at the studio,” Hope continued. “We have some new ideas, and we’d love to get your input.”
“We’re there,” Aly said. “What time?”
“Two o’clock,” Hope answered. “Thanks so much! You two are the best.”
Aly hung up the phone.
“I’m glad things are working out.”
Aly and AJ looked up to see Jim standing by their table. He had heard the phone conversation with Hope.
“Me too,” Aly said. “Although I still wish we knew who had stolen that tape.”
“Hey, we forgot all about interviewing Parker Mackenzie,” AJ said. “We should try to do that today.”
“Listen, you guys only have a few more days in Nashville, so take some time to relax and have fun,” Jim advised. “Once we’re back on the Hello Kitty bus, it’ll be nothing but days of interviews and publicity. There are a lot of cool things to see in Nashville. Did you know that Gibson makes its electric guitars here?”
