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There are a couple of people standing in front of the building, Jared reported uneasily. They’re looking at us suspiciously.
Kami closed the cabinet drawer with a slam. She instantly regretted the noise and bit her lip hard.
Retreat was impossible. Kami sprang to her feet and pulled out the top drawer. Here were the deeds of property ownership! She rifled through them, recognizing houses and farms, fields and woods.
You maybe want to get out of there, Jared advised. These people aren’t going away. If one of them spots you through the window—
Well, do something! Kami commanded.
Like what? Jared demanded.
Like anything! Do I have to think of everything? Kami asked, hands flying through the files. This was jointly owned by Robin, Lillian, and Rosalind Lynburn, and this, and this … Have a big dramatic breakup!
Well, Jared said after a minute, all right.
Kami didn’t have time to dread discovery or worry about the violent explosion of glee from Jared. He liked getting into trouble.
Kami liked getting results. She hadn’t realized how much of Sorry-in-the-Vale the Lynburns owned. It must be half the town. Lords of the manor, indeed.
She was not surprised to find they owned the land where she’d calculated the hut stood. It didn’t impress her as significant. The Lynburns owned almost the entire wood. Her fingers moved automatically, pulling out the next file. It was the deeds to the Glass house.
The Lynburns owned that too.
Kami stood transfixed.
Kami’s grandmother had said years ago that she and Kami’s father stayed in the Glass house because it was all they owned free and clear. Kami’s parents might lie to her for her own good, the way parents did, but Sobo had never lied. She’d been a believer in the stark truth.
So was Kami. But this made no sense. This couldn’t possibly be true.
Kami made her mind up fast. She drew the deed out of the drawer, folded it, and slipped it in her jeans pocket. Then she ducked down and ran, half-crouched, to the bathroom. She scrambled onto the toilet, launching herself onto the sill. In her haste, she overshot and landed on her hands and knees on the strip of grass between the building and the wall.
Kami took a moment to catch her breath. Then she stood, still dizzy, and looked into the faces of Holly and Angela. They were peering around the side of the building from the back, Holly’s bright curls mingling with Angela’s black waterfall of hair. They were both helpless with laughter.
Oh my God, what have you done? Kami demanded. She led the charge to the front of the building, where Jared stood at the top of the steps, looking pleased with himself.
At the bottom of the steps was a ring of amazed onlookers, and Ash with a split lip.
“Hi, Mrs. Thompson. Hi, Mr. Stearn. My gracious, Jared, is that the time?” Kami asked loudly. “We have to go!”
“Is what the time?” Jared asked, giving her a brilliant smile. The smile and the feeling that followed it flashed through her like sunlight.
Kami raised her eyebrows. I think it’s probably beat-down-for-Jared o’clock, she said. Once I find out what you did.
They made it halfway up the street, to the statue of Matthew Cooper, who had died heroically sometime in 1480, and then everybody collapsed. Holly and Angela fell in a heap at the base of the statue, Ash leaned against it, and Jared leaned back against the railings that ran along the front of the inn and smiled like a devil.
“He is totally insane,” Ash said, at the same time as Holly said, with equal conviction, “That was hilarious.”
“What happened?” Kami demanded.
“Some people stopped in front of the office,” Angela said. “I don’t think they suspected anything, though; they were just looking at the Lynburn boys acting crazy.”
“Who left them together at the front of the house?” Kami asked, giving Holly an accusing glare.
“You didn’t say who was meant to go where,” Angela said calmly. “I don’t like Jared and I am indifferent to Ash, so I made Holly come with me. It’s not my fault there’s no such thing as the perfect crime. Anyway, I’m glad I did it, because I—and he—” Angela’s face was usually sternly beautiful. It was weird to see her sentence swallowed by a laugh.
Angela laid her head down on Holly’s shoulder while Kami looked around for answers.
“He punched me in the face,” said Ash, who understandably did not seem to find the situation humorous at all. “And then he yelled at me for sleeping with our personal trainer!”
