Free The Magician's Bird by Emily Fairlie Page B

“We don’t know what this all means. It could mean LeFranco’s right and she’s a murderer. It could mean something else. But that’s not important now, right?”
    â€œHuh? Of course it is,” Laurie had always known it would happen someday. Bud had totally lost it. Notimportant. Laurie snorted.
    â€œI think it matters, Bud,” Misti said, looking up from her inspection of the Houdini signature. “Sheesh.”
    â€œBut not really!” Bud explained. “Whether it’s true or not, what we need to do now is decide what to do. Do we turn this stuff over to the police as evidence? Or do we hide it and protect her?”
    Laurie and Misti exchanged a glance. Bud was making a certain amount of sense.
    â€œI for one vote to hide it,” Bud went on. “LeFranco has whatever evidence he has. We don’t need to give him any more. I don’t want to be the one responsible for ruining Maria Tutweiler’s name and shutting down the school.”
    â€œYou just want to keep the secret room.” Laurie folded her arms. “It has nothing to do with LeFranco.”
    Bud got a shifty-eyed look on his face. “Well, yeah. But so what? It’s cool!”
    Misti stacked the ID cards back up. “I think he’s right. We don’t need to tell anyone about this.” She put the cards back into the wallet and then stroked the head of the Marchetti Bird. “And maybe if we’re lucky, we can convince his bird to tell us all his secrets.”
    Laurie rolled her eyes. “Right, you work on that. Okay,fine, who cares, we’ll keep it secret. And when Winkle busts us, you can be the one who does the explaining.” If he busted them. Now that they had evidence to hide, keeping the room secret didn’t seem like such a terrible idea. But she wasn’t about to let Bud know that, not since he’d been so quick to turn on Maria Tutweiler.
    â€œGreat!” Bud popped up like a cork. “So what I was thinking was—”
    â€œBud! Shh!” Misti grabbed his knee. She was aiming for his arm, but the jumping up took her by surprise.
    Misti sat stock-still for a second, listening. Then she gave a triumphant squeal. “I knew it was a ghost!”
    â€œWhat are you talking about?” Laurie wasn’t in the mood to be patient.
    â€œListen!” Misti pointed randomly into the air. It was hard to pinpoint the location of the ghost.
    Bud and Laurie both listened intently, cocking their heads like a pack of curious dogs. Finally Bud shook his head. “It’s not a ghost. It’s the voices again.”
    â€œMiss Lucille?” Laurie got up quietly.
    â€œI don’t think so. Come on.” Bud crept over to the passageway door and put his hand on the knob.
    â€œWait!” Laurie hissed. “Remember, someone was inhere. The lion bookend moved! What if they’re coming this way?”
    Bud turned the knob and opened the door. “Then we run for it. But I think they’re in the library.”
    The three of them crept slowly down the passageway, listening intently as the voices got louder.
    â€œDefinitely not Miss Lucille,” Laurie whispered.
    When they got to the screen in the library, they peered out into the darkened room, scanning the area.
    â€œThere’s nobody in there,” Bud said, disappointed. Ponch and Jon were even asleep. He had been sure the voices would be coming from the library. It didn’t make any sense.
    â€œIt’s because it’s a ghost,” Misti said.
    â€œIt’s not a ghost,” Laurie said. “It’s just farther down the passage.”
    She crept on into the darkness, more carefully since she didn’t know what was up ahead.
    After another turn in the passageway, Laurie saw soft light coming from another screen up ahead. The voices were much louder now.
    â€œThis is it,” Laurie said, creeping up to the screen and peeking through. And