Free August by Gabrielle Lord Page B

going to react.
    Confused, I removed the rubber band around them and unfolded them. A memory stick fell out from in between some of the papers.
    ‘The drawings?’ asked Boges, taking the words right out of my mouth. ‘The memory stick! And the transparency!’
    ‘And the letters!’ said Winter, excitedly, before turning to me very seriously again. ‘Remember you said you wouldn’t get angry at me.’
    ‘You’d better start talking and explain this, fast,’ I told her.
    ‘I can do that,’ she agreed, nodding to both of us. ‘OK. So on the night that we went with you to Temperance Lane, and we were waiting outsidebefore you went in … I was thinking about how dangerous the situation was and how I didn’t want you to risk losing everything. I knew you had to take the Jewel and the Riddle, but no-one ever said anything about the drawings or the transparency or the letters that you’d collected and worked on for months.’
    Boges started scratching his head and opened his big mouth to interrupt, but Winter quickly shut him up again with one look.
    ‘As I was saying, you needed the Jewel and the Riddle, and that was it. I had an opportunity to reach into your bag and remove the other stuff from it, so I did.’
    I couldn’t believe it–I hadn’t lost everything after all!
    ‘Why didn’t you just tell me you wanted to do that?’ I asked her.
    ‘What, and completely freak you out? I didn’t want you to feel like you were in danger! I wasn’t even sure if I needed to do what I did, I just did it. In case.’
    ‘And why haven’t you told me this already? I’ve been stressing out thinking I’d lost everything , and all along you’ve had all this here!’
    ‘Well, I wanted to, but see there was a slight hitch with my plan … so I needed to sort that out first. Before I could tell you.’
    ‘Don’t stop talking now,’ said Boges. He was enthralled!
    ‘The hitch,’ she repeated. ‘Somewhere in the craziness at the cemetery, I lost them. I thought you were going to die , Cal. I wasn’t thinking straight.’
    ‘I thought you were dead, too,’ added Boges. ‘It was one crazy scene. Winter was on her hands and knees trying to find you and dig you out.’
    Winter smiled at him, happy to have him defending her.
    ‘When you showed up here I couldn’t bring myself to tell you. I’d retraced our steps twice already, trying to track the documents down, without any luck. But then I went back there again this morning … and voila !’
    She sat down, quietly. Her eyes were wide with anticipation. I could see she was nervous and really unsure. ‘I’m so sorry, Cal, I was just trying to–’
    ‘Thanks, Winter,’ I said, cutting her off with a hug. I held her tight. ‘This is the best present,’ I whispered in her ear.
    ‘Enough already, guys, you’re going to make me cry,’ joked Boges.
    ‘I can’t believe it,’ I said. ‘I thought I’d lost everything.’ Gabbi’s freedom was in reach. ‘Now I have bargaining power.’
    Boges grinned widely. ‘I’m going to concentrate on checking out Oriana de la Force,’ he said. ‘Follow her. See what I can find out.’
    ‘Her place was empty this afternoon,’ I said.
    ‘Winter,’ continued Boges. ‘I suggest you keep concentrating on Sligo.’
    ‘I’m already onto it,’ said Winter. ‘But I might sniff out the books–see if there have been any strange arrangements made, like the purchase of any medical equipment.’
    ‘Good idea,’ said Boges.
    ‘Why haven’t they made contact?’ I asked. ‘Isn’t that what kidnappers do? What’s the idea of this waiting game?’
    ‘They probably want you to sweat a while,’ said Winter. ‘Make you panic a bit, in the hope that you’ll give up more than you would normally . Maybe they weren’t counting on you being caught by the cops either … it depends on who has her.’
    ‘Boges,’ I said, suddenly thinking about my online page, ‘have you been monitoring my blog?’
    ‘There hasn’t