Page 14 of Looking for Love in All the Haunted Places
“Well, at least you’re not a sickly Victorian child.” Lucky pointed to one of the armchairs. “Sit down.”
The little girl obliged. Head slightly bowed, she plopped down, sitting all the way back with her feet hovering above the ground.
“Don’t move.”
The room beyond the shelf door was small, rectangular, and exactly the length of the unaccounted-for slice of library. Empty with no direct source of light, it smelled like dust and grass, and didn’t seem to have any other way in besides where she stood. No trap doors in the ceiling. Nothing on or near the floor.
Lucky glanced at her unexpected guest. How in the hell did she get in? Her clothes were clean and pressed—someone had ironed pleats into her shorts. And those suckers werecrisp.
Kids, and their clothes, didn’t stay neat like that on their own. The millisecond they got dressed, stains and wrinkles mysteriously appeared out of nowhere. Once while working as a nanny, she had to stop one of her former kids from wearing tights full of runs to church because she “didn’t care” and another fromwearing a dirty dress fresh out of the hamper because it was her “favorite.” On the same morning.
Looks could be deceiving, but Lucky felt confident enough to bet that this little girl was well cared for. She wasn’t a missing kid living in the walls of a usually empty house because she had nowhere else to go.
She closed the door. “What’s your name?”
“Rebel.”
“You lying?”
“My dad said he thought I was going to be a boy and he wanted to name me after him, but I’m a girl so he decided to give me my own name that was like his but different.”
“Uh-huh. Are you here by yourself?”
“Umm, well, right now I’m here with you.”
“Don’t be cute. That doesn’t work on me, Shortcake,” she lied. Most regrettably, it did. Her one true nanny-weakness. “Answer my questions. Are you here by yourselfandhow did you get in there?”
Rebel grimaced, clearly weighing if she should divulge her secrets. “You know that small red square on the side of the house?”
She didn’t but said, “Go on.”
“Well,” Rebel said, dragging out the word and tilting her head. “It’s actually a door. There’s a crawl space thingy and if you go through there it takes you to that room. I saw it on the house pictures but nobody else seemed to, so I thought it’d be okay to check it out for my show.”
“Yourshow? Why doyouhave pictures of the house?”
“Well,Idon’t have them. I saw them during the meeting this morning. They were talking about ‘external shots.’ That means outside videos.”
Realization clicked into place at light speed—Maverick.Rebel. Now that Lucky connected the dots, she couldn’t unsee it. They had the same eyes and a similar smile. “You must be the young but very talented intern Maverick told me about.”
Rebel nodded enthusiastically. “I get to be the intern instead of going to summer camp in Massachusetts.”
“So, then you must know that part of being an intern means telling your team where you are and not wandering off. I’m pretty sure they’re looking for you right now.”
“I didn’twander. It sounds bad when you say it like that.” Rebel shrugged, beginning to resemble a flower in mid-wilt, drooping and gloomy. “I asked Georgia if we could go see the red door together and she said no, that I should wait in the gazebo, so I did that and then I got bored. I wasworking, not wandering.”
“Ah, Shortcake, you might be too much for me.” Lucky smiled gently. “Come on, let’s go put them out of their misery.”
In one of the front rooms, Lucky and Rebel peeked around the curtains to spy on the adults through the window. They all stood by the van, no doubt panicked out of their minds. “Okay, Shortcake. We’re gonna play it cool. They’re mad but you’re fine so we’re going to try distracting them, okay?”
“Oh, okay,” Rebel said, brightening.
“Be happy. Excited. Jubilant. Follow my lead.” Lucky put her sunglasses on before opening the front door and calling out, “Hey, you’llneverguess who I found safe and sound inside the house.”
Rebel helped by yelling “Hi, Dad!” and waving. “I met Lucky! You’re right, she’s really nice!”
“Did any of you know there was a secret room in the library? Because she did!”
“And there’s a ghost! Lucky said so!”
