Page 19 - SAMPLE Looking for Emily

the stairs, but stopped when she reached the door. She traced the letters of the sign with her fingertips. Emily had planted herself firmly in Lily’s mind, like an itch. With a sigh, Lily returned to the desk.
“Hello-o?” she shouted one more time, just to be sure.
Then, confident that there was no one coming, she slipped around the back of the desk and started snooping. Being behind the desk felt illicit and thrilling. The top two drawers were annoyingly empty, the bottom two intriguingly locked. She yanked on them but the locks were sturdy and didn’t give.
Remembering a book she had read where someone could pick any lock with a hairgrip, she fished around in her unruly curls. Result! She tugged the clip from her hair, blowing the falling strands out of her eyes. She crouched in front of the lock and inserted the hairpin into it. She wiggled it around, ear pressed to the drawer, listening for a click. Nothing. Shaking her head, she tried to pull the pin back out again. It was stuck. Of course it was. She pulled harder and the metal snapped, pinging into the lock. She cursed as
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