I, Spy? (Sophie Green Mysteries, No. 1) (Sophie Green Mystery)

“Anyway, then I’d have to explain who you are, and why we’re there… I’ll give him a call later.”
    We got back into the car and I pointed it homewards, counting the seconds of silence. “So, you and Tom,” Luke began, and I burst out laughing.
    “Eleven,” I said, and he looked at me like I was deranged. “Eleven seconds until you said something… Never mind.”
    Luke was shaking his head. “You’re a lunatic.”
    “There’s that possibility.”
    “Is Tom a good friend of yours?”
    I shrugged, enjoying the moment. Truth was, Tom and I had hardly spoken at school, but we got along okay where the band was concerned. Our relationship wasn’t even brother-sister, it was sort of more like distant cousins.
    “Yeah,” I said, glancing at Luke, “we’re really close.”
    He glared at the road, and I bit my tongue in self-flagellation. I shouldn’t be encouraging Luke. Hadn’t I already decided that it would be an extremely bad idea to fall for him? As a working partner, as maybe a friend, he was okay. I didn’t need a complicated relationship with him. I especially didn’t need him to fuck me over and tell me his work was more important than our relationship. I could get there before him. The work was more important.
    Hell, I was doing important work! That’d never happened before.
    “I had a thought,” I said as we pulled up at my flat, and ignored Luke’s snort of surprise. “About Harvey. I know we tried Googling him but maybe we could try one of those alumni websites. Like a Friends Reunited thing. If James Harvard and Harvey are the same person, it might be on there.”
    Luke blinked. “That’s a very good idea,” he said, and there was wonder in his voice.
    “Yes, well, I do have them occasionally,” I sniffed.
    He grinned. “I checked all the people search engines. We have a couple of accounts online…”
    “Do I get access to them?” I asked, wondering if an American search engine was really the height of sophistication in the modern spy world.
    “Sure. I’ll come in with you and log you on, then the cookies will be on your PC.”
    He then proceeded to complain about everything to do with my computer, from how clicky the keyboard was to how slow the dial-up connection was. “Don’t you have Broadband?”
    “I can’t afford it. Not with all the spending I seem to be doing recently.”
    “No one made you stay in a nice hotel in Rome.”
    “No, but they did make me go out and buy something to sneak around in.” I scrolled through the results the American engine had brought up for James Harvard. There was an alumni website that had a picture of him on graduation day. If you looked really hard and used a lot of imagination, then it could just about have been Harvey.
    But then it could have been Tammy, too.
    I rolled my eyes at Luke and searched for a database of old school friends. I found one that was free, logged on and searched for James Harvard. There were dozens, and I started reading through them.
    Hi everybody at Jefferson High! I’m at UCLA studying Marine Biology and surfing loads…
    Greetings and salutations. Since leaving Martin Van Buren High three years ago…
    I’ve been working for the Third Bank of Kyoto for ten years and have not left Japan in that time…
    “This is insane,” Luke muttered over my shoulder.
    “I know. Is there a single high school in America that’s not named after a former president?”
    “There was a president called Martin Van Buren?”
    Hah! I found something he didn’t know!
    Oh, wait. Was Van Buren a president or just a congressman? Couldn’t remember my A levels.
    “Sure,” I said. “Really famous president.” I clicked on the next James Harvard.
    “In the twenty years since I left George Washington Prep…”
    “How old do you think Harvey is?” I asked Luke.
    “Not old enough.”
    “No. Well, I didn’t think he’d have been to a prep school.”
    “And what’s wrong with prep school?”
    I turned to look at him. “ You went to prep school?”
    Luke looked defensive. “Didn’t you?”
    “No! I went to the same school as everyone else around here. Which you should know as you’ve been checking up on my personal record.”
    “I thought it was a grammar school.”
    “Not for about thirty years. They just keep that in the title to fool people.” I clicked on the next James Harvard. “So what, were you a public school boy?”
    Luke mumbled something that I didn’t quite catch.
    “Did you say