Free Asylum by Madeleine Roux Page B

mean, not that I believe it, but shouldn’t you just let sleeping dogs lie? What are you even hoping to find?”
    Dan shrugged. From the break in Jordan’s voice, Dan could tell that they’d won. Against his better judgment, Jordan would be joining them downstairs.
    “I have a feeling I’ll know it when I see it.”

UNCORRECTED E-PROOF—NOT FOR SALE
HarperCollins Publishers
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    CHAPTER
N o  11 
    I t didn’t take Jordan long to pick the lock this time.
    “Once more into the breach?” said Dan, trying to make a joke. No one responded. Idiot .
    It was as dusty and dark as Dan remembered. He shivered, with cold or excitement he wasn’t sure. Probably a bit of both.
    Despite having seen it only once before, they moved quickly through the reception area, retracing their previous path to the warden’s office.
    Dan held the door open until everyone had stepped through.
    “So where do we start?” Jordan asked in a nervous whisper.
    “I feel like there has to be more to the old wing,” Dan said. “Which would mean there’s another door around here somewhere.”
    He sincerely hoped there was more, anyway. It seemed a bit extreme that people in town would want to tear down the whole building over a dusty reception room and a messy office. But there was something else, too, a feeling that the asylum went deeper.
    “Look for hidden doors, latches, anything,” he said, squeezing between his friends. The beam from the flashlight he’d brought this time bounced along the floor and up the walls as he studied the filing cabinets and bookshelves. Abby drifted to the wall beside the desk and immediately found the picture of the little girl again. Jordan stood frozen as if he’d already seen enough. Dan ignored them and pressed ahead.
    He moved from one bookcase to the next, shining his light over the cracks between each one. Dust covered everything, shimmering up into the air at even the lightest disturbance. Going clockwise, Dan eventually ended up at a cluster of filing cabinets that lined the wall behind the warden’s desk. The third cabinet in the bunch looked strangely cocked, as if it had been pulled out from the wall and pushed back again, but not all the way. This was it, he knew it. As if to confirm his suspicion, a pair of rusted, broken spectacles hung from a hook on the other side of the cabinet. He reached out to touch them, then stopped. There were fingerprint streaks on the wall behind the glasses, like someone had hung them up with a bloody hand.
    “Guys, I think I found something,” he said, reaching around to the back of the cabinet and gripping the edge. He pulled, and the cabinet lurched half an inch forward, its metal feet screeching across the floor.
    “What are you doing?” Jordan hissed. “Don’t break anything.”
    “Let me help.” Abby was at his side, gripping the front right edge of the cabinet and counting, “One, two, three.”
    They heaved, and the cabinet eased forward a foot, giving them a glimpse of an opening behind.
    “No way,” Abby breathed. “A secret passage? Is this for real? How did you know to look here?”
    “The spectacles,” Dan said, pointing to the hook and the glasses.
    Abby looked at the streak marks, shuddered, and then seemed to collect herself.

    “Just a little farther and I think we can squeeze through,” she said matter-of-factly.
    “Nope. No, thank you. I am not going in there.” Jordan shuffled a few steps backward, holding his hands up as if in surrender.
    “Suit yourself. I want to see where this leads.” She motioned for Dan to help her out, and after one last moment of hesitation, Dan reached for the back of the cabinet and pulled. In two quick tugs, their way was clear.
    “Use your flashlight, Dan. I can’t see anything.”
    He went through first, his heart pounding in his ears.
    “This must have been a real doorway once, but it looks like someone tried to brick it off,”