12:01 am, Artemis' Study, Fowl Manor

As the grandfather clock in the hallway signaled it was midnight, Artemis made his way to his study adjacent his bedroom. Once inside, he found that Holly and an on-screen Foaly were chatting with Butler but stopped abruptly when he entered the room.

"Good morning, everyone."

Butler just nodded.

"Hey, Mud Boy."

"Did you even sleep?"

Sleep. That was a word Artemis had trouble using or doing. Ever since they had departed, he locked himself in his bedroom, scanning and memorizing everything there was about Cassandra Hemlock. Artemis had found out something about her that he found interesting...

However, Artemis ignored Holly's question and began the meeting, "Just recently, I had stumbled upon a piece of... intriguing information about Cassandra."

Foaly snorted, "Oh, really? And what might that be?"

Artemis walked over to his laptop and pulled up the most recent picture of Cassandra and her family. It has everything you needed for an average family: a mother, a father, and herself with the exception of Nigel Rivers.

"Foaly, what do you see here?"

"Cassandra and her family?"

He nodded enlarged the photo so that only the mother and father could be seen. "Holly, what do you see?"

"Cassandra's parents?"

"Correct, but that's where I found the startling information about her. You see... Cassandra's parents are deceased."

Like every piece of news that surprises people, they jaws hung wide open.

Holly then regained her composure, "What do you mean she has no parents?!"

The boy genius shrugged, "It's just that in a news clipping from three years ago while Holly and I were in limbo states that a couple was murdered in their hotel suite in Crete, Greece. Approximately four days later when her parents never came back, Cassandra Hemlock was notified that her parents were dead."

"But I don't remember downloading any newspaper articles about her."

"Because I found it in a stack of newspapers laying in my study. Twp things struck me as odd in the photo. One of them was that--" He adjusted it again so that it had cut out Nigel out of it, "--you see the tone of parents' skin?"

Foaly raised an eyebrow, "Other than a very bad tan, what are we supposed to be seeing?"

"Actually, that is what you are supposed to be seeing. Their skin color looks like it had been painted--or if you want to get technical sprayed on."



"And the other thing?"

"The other thing, Holly, was the captioning of the photo." He read it aloud, "Farrell and Gina Hemlock are shown with their daughter, Cassandra and her bodyguard, Nigel Rivers."

"So what's so bad about that?"

"Foaly, tell me the names of the mother and father of Cassandra that you have stored on your database."

"It's... Gannon and Fiona Hemlock?"

"Exactly."

"But then... who are the people in the photo?"

"I don't know yet. But I will find out at noon today."

Foaly grinned, "Why? Gotta a date with her?"

Artemis lied, "No, Foaly. I'm tutoring her."

"Whatever. So should we be on the look out for anything?"

"Anything that seems suspicious."

Holly shrugged, " Okay. See you later."

Foaly had shut himself off and Holly was about to fly out the window but then whispered in Butler ear, "I think he's lying."

Butler couldn't suppress a grin.