“Miss Boyd,” the headmaster clipped, “I would advise you to keep your temper in check. For once.” His eyes were narrow and harsh. That wasn’t a good sign.
“Lola,” Madam Boyd said, “tell us exactly what happened when you left the Hall with the money box.”
Lola gritted her teeth. “I grabbed the box, went to the loo, and put the box in that drawer.” She pointed at a drawer in the cupboard on the wall, never taking her eyes off Brynn.
“You stopped at the lavatory?” the headmaster said.
“Yeah.”
“You couldn’t have done that after you had locked the money away?”
Lola glared. “I’d been working like mad all night. Do you have any idea how badly I had to pee?”
His jaw went tight, and Ms. Blakely put up her hands. “All right, all right. Miss Boyd, did anyone see you?”
“There were loads of people in the entrance hall,” she said. “So yeah, a ton of people saw me.”
“Did you stop to talk to anyone? Can anyone confirm how long you were in the bathroom or in the conference room?”
“I don’t know, I—”
“I can,” Oliver said quietly. Everyone turned to look at him. “I was talking to my dad, and I saw Lola come out of the Hall.” He swallowed. “It was just like she said. She went to the loo, went to the conference room, and that was it.”
“How long was she in the conference room?” Blakely asked.
“Not long,” he said. “Basically just in and out.”
“Did you happen to notice how long Miss Boyd was in the lavatory?” Haverham asked.
Oliver shrank back in his chair. “Um, I guess it was kind of a while.”
Lola’s cheeks went pink. “Well, I mean, some things can’t be rushed,” she sputtered.
“Of course.” The headmaster looked heavily at Madam Boyd, whose knuckles were going white. He straightened his tie and smoothed out his jacket. “I’m afraid we’ll need to have a word with Miss Boyd. Everyone else is free to go.”
The pink tinge in Lola’s cheeks turned to a deep red.
“Can Emmy and I stay behind?” Jack asked Madam Boyd.
She shook her head. “I’m sure we can sort this out.” She sounded a lot more confident than she looked.
“I guess this means you haven’t found the money?” Emmy asked.
Madam Boyd closed her eyes. “No, we found it.”
Emmy frowned and looked back at Lola. She was obviously trying to seem calm, but her shaking fingers were giving her away.
“Now,” Larraby said, speaking for the first time, “out you go. I’m sure the full story will hit all the gossip channels soon enough.”
Emmy reluctantly walked out into the entrance hall. She wasn’t interested in gossip. She was only interested in making sure her best friend was going to be okay.
She and Jack waited outside until the others were gone and then pressed their ears hard against the door.
“Can you hear anything?” Emmy whispered.
He grimaced. “Not really. I think I heard something about cameras.”
“Right, the security cameras!” Emmy breathed out. “They’ll show Lola didn’t take the money, right?”
“There are no cameras in the bathrooms or the conference room,” Jack said, “so they wouldn’t show anything if she took the money while she was in there.”
Emmy smacked his shoulder. “She didn’t take the money at all!”
“Ow!” Jack rubbed his shoulder and glared at her. “I know that! But the headmaster doesn’t.”
Emmy sighed. “What else can you hear?”
Jack pressed his ear to the door again. “I’m not sure. It sounds like Madam Boyd, but I can’t make out what she’s saying.”
They crouched by the door for another half an hour, making out a few words here and there, but never getting much sense of what was going on.
“Is that…?” Emmy’s heart sank. “Is somebody crying?”
Jack’s eyes were wide. “I think so.”
Emmy heard the sound of chairs scraping on the floor. “Quick!” She pulled Jack away from the door, and they launched themselves toward the opposite wall.
The door opened. Headmaster Haverham left first and walked straight into his office and closed the door. Master Larraby came out, shaking his head.
“Shocking business,” he muttered to himself.
Finally, out came Lola and her mother, who had wrapped her arms around Lola’s shoulders. Lola’s eyes were red and bright with tears. Emmy swallowed hard. She’d never seen Lola cry before.
Jack looked like he was ready to cry, too. “What happened?”
Lola took a shuddering breath. “They found the money in my dresser. I’m being expelled.”
Chapter 7
Scapegoat
Emmy was sure that her heart had stopped beating. It couldn’t be true. Not Lola.
“What are you talking about?” Jack choked out.
“They searched all the committee members’ rooms this morning and”—she gulped back a sob—“they found all the cash and checks in my dresser.”
“But that’s ridiculous!” Emmy said. “Why would you take the money?”
Lola shrugged. “Haverham doesn’t care.”
“He’s got to know you’d never do anything like this,” Jack said.
Lola wiped her eyes and Madam Boyd rubbed her shoulder. “He said my record is against me.”
Emmy winced. That was true. Lola had punched Brynn in her first year, and then hit a girl during a soccer match a year later.
“Rubbish,” Madam Boyd said. Her jaw was tight and her face bright red. “There’s a huge difference between losing your temper and creating a plan to steal from a charity.”
“But…but where will you go?” Emmy asked.
Lola looked at her mom. It didn’t seem like they’d come up with an answer for that yet.
“Come on,” Madam Boyd said. “We’d better call your father.”
Lola and her mom disappeared into the office, and the knots in Emmy’s stomach twisted even tighter. Lola’s dad lived in Scotland. Emmy didn’t know exactly how far away that was, but she knew it wasn’t close. “Lola wouldn’t actually have to move back to Glasgow, would she?”