Free The Hangman's Lair by Simon Cheshire

be to simply return the diary to Amy. But she’s made it absolutely clear what she thinks of him. If I return it, thinks Paul, I’ll have to admit what I’ve done. Amy can’t stand me. She’ll make sure I get into a whole heap of trouble for this.’
    ‘So, Paul simply hangs on to the diary for a couple of days. It’s locked, and he doesn’t want to open it, but he knows he’s got to get rid of it somehow. Why not just throw it away? That’s one obvious solution, but it doesn’t solve his other problem: getting money together for the FrogWar sale.
    ‘And now Paul gets another idea. A very sneaky and unpleasant one. But, he reasons, Amy’s been mean to him, so perhaps she deserves to be taught a lesson after all. Paul goes to see Harry Lovecraft. Everyone in this school knows that if there’s anything sneaky and unpleasant to be done, Harry Lovecraft likes to have a hand in it.’
    Harry took a step closer to me. ‘Watch what you’re saying, Smart,’ he growled.
    ‘So Paul goes to see Harry Lovecraft,’ I said, keeping my eyes firmly on Harry. ‘And he says to Harry, “I’ve got someone’s personal diary for sale. Are you interested?” “I might be,” says Harry. “What’s in it?” “Don’t know,” says Paul. “It’s locked, but the lock can be easily broken.”
    ‘Harry has a think. A locked diary, eh? That might contain all sorts of embarrassing stuff. Stuff he can blackmail the diary’s owner with. Is it worth risking a few pounds? Yes, why not? Naturally, Harry doesn’t want to spend his own money on the diary, so he decides to have a sale of his own. He puts up a notice on the board offering some books he knows I’ll be interested in.
    ‘Not knowing what’s going on, I fall for it and I buy the books. Now Harry’s got some money for the diary. At the end of lunchtime today, he meets with Paul in that classroom up the corridor there and gives him the cash. Paul offers to hand over the diary.
    ‘“Don’t be an idiot,” says Harry. “Drop it off where I told you. And make sure you do it before the end of school.” I overheard that conversation. So, I think to myself, Paul’s supposed to drop the diary off somewhere at school, because Harry’s expecting to pick it up before going home. Where could this somewhere be? It must be somewhere accessible to both Paul and Harry, but also somewhere that it probably wouldn’t be spotted. Somewhere Harry could retrieve it without looking at all suspicious.’
    I turned around and tapped on the door of Harry’s locker. ‘The only place I could think of,’ I said, ‘was these lockers.’
    I looked at the five of them, standing there, and the five of them looked back at me.
    ‘If I’m right about all this,’ I said, ‘then inside this locker is Amy’s stolen diary.’
    ‘You’re wrong,’ scoffed Harry. ‘Whatever you think you overheard, you totally misunderstood. Paul was selling me those old CDs you mentioned. Nothing more than that.’
    ‘Really?’ I said. ‘What were their titles?’
    Harry glared at me. ‘None of your business, Smart. We’re all getting fed up of you poking your nose in where it’s not wanted.’
    ‘If it’s just CDs,’ said Amy, ‘you won’t mind if Saxby takes a look.’
    ‘If I’m wrong,’ I said with a shrug, ‘you get to see me make a fool of myself. I can’t believe you’d miss the chance of that.’
    Harry made a kind of half-tut noise. I spun around and opened the locker door. Sitting on top of a pile of books and papers was a lock-up diary with the words My Diary by Amy Parsons written in felt tip across the cover. Amy bounded forward, hand outstretched, but Harry blocked her way.
    ‘Give it back!’ cried Amy.
    ‘If you lost it, then it’s mine now,’ sneered Harry. ‘Finders keepers, as they say. Losers weepers. I paid good money for it. If you’ve got any complaints, talk to Paul.’
    Amy, Nicola, Paul and Kelly all started talking at once. I raised a hand for