Page 72 of The Executioners Three
No. It wasn’t. And as much as Freddie appreciated Theo helping her on this… She grabbed his arm and tugged him to a stop. “Why do you care?”
He paused mid stride. Then he turned to face her, beat-up and gorgeous. “Why doyoucare?”
“I told you—”
“A paper on unsolved murders? Yeah right.” He sniffed. “You’re investigating the weird stuff happening at the park exactly like my aunt told you not to.”
Freddie gnawed her lip. She couldn’t argue with him on that. And she wasn’t entirely sure she wanted to. In fact, she was starting to suspect maybe she wasn’t the only one with answer-sniffing instincts in her veins.
“I thinkyouthink something is going on,” Theo continued. “Something that connects a suicide to a water bottle… and something that got my grandmother put in the hospital.”
Freddie’s lips parted, her lungs readying to fire out:Fine. I’ll tell you what I know.But before she could utter a word, a car alarm blasted in the distance. A blaringwah-wah-wah.
Freddie’s lips clamped shut. This was not good timing, and two whole seconds passed before understanding washed over Theo’s face. “Oh my god.” He laughed, a bitter sound, and swung his attention to the nearest window. “That’s my car, isn’t it?”
There was nothing Freddie could do but nod. And cringe.
“Dammit,Gellar. What happened to ‘the library is for something else’?”
“Itis.” She pointed to the filing cabinets. “YouknowI’m here for these articles.”
“And why should I believe you?” Theo tugged at his hair. “Maybe this is just another prank. Did Davis put you up to this?”
“Who?” Freddie shook her head. “Who’s Davis?”
“Did you come in here earlier and steal all the papers from 1975? Just to distract me while your freaking cronies broke into my car?”
“That,” Freddie declared, “soundsridiculous.Listen to yourself. How could I have removed those newspapers? I didn’t even know you would come down here with me.”
Theo blinked. Then deflated, as if realizing this was, in fact, true: Freddie couldn’t have possibly known he would insist on joining her.
“And look.” Freddie marched toward her duffle bag, hands waving. “Do you see that? Do you wanna know what’s inside? It’s a crate filled with crickets. I was supposed to release them while I was in the building, but I chose not to, Theo.Surelythat counts for something.”
“Crickets?” Theo stared at the duffle bag. “You and your friends came here to release crickets?”
“Yes.”
He ran his tongue over his teeth. “But you’re also here to break into my car.”
“They aren’tbreakinginto your car. Cat’s cousin is a perfectly legitimate locksmith.”
“That was your idea, though, wasn’t it?” He took a step toward Freddie. “No waytheycame up with that.”
“No,” Freddie admitted. “It was my idea.”
“So what if I told you the prank book isn’t in there? Your plan completely falls apart.”
“Except I wouldn’t believe you.” Freddie puffed out her chest, refusing to be intimidated by his approach. Theo was only three steps away from her now. “You see, if I were you, Mr. Porter, I would have moved the prank book as soon as I realized the other school knew where it was. The most obvious hiding place would be your car. Because it’s locked, of course.”
“Waslocked.” He eased another step toward her.
“Fair enough.” She shrugged. “Itwaslocked.”
Another step. “And what’s to keep me from running out there and stopping them?”
“Go for it,” Freddie dared.
“You mean you wouldn’t interfere?”
