“Now you listen to me, child. I am in charge of you, and—”
“I can’t talk anymore,” Emmy said. “I have somewhere to be.” She hung up the phone.
“Who was that?” Jack asked.
“Lucy,” Emmy said, “going on about her precious Thackery Club.”
“I think my parents are members there,” Jack said.
Emmy stuffed her phone into her pocket. So, there were Order members there. She couldn’t worry about it now, though. She had bigger problems than Lucy’s reputation.
Jack pressed the button next to Madam Boyd’s name and the door buzzed open.
“What took you so long?” Lola asked. “I’ve been waiting all morning.”
Jack looked at his watch. “It’s not even ten.”
Lola mumbled something and threw herself down on her blanket and pillow, which were still laid out on the couch. The coffee table was littered with chip bags and soccer magazines.
“How are you holding up?” Emmy asked, eyeing the mess.
Lola glared at her and shoved a handful of chips into her mouth.
“Did your dad find a flat?” Jack asked.
Lola swallowed and wiped her mouth with her sleeve. “Yup. He’s moving down next weekend so I can start at Erindale on Monday.”
“Erindale?” Emmy asked.
“Erindale Academy,” Lola grumbled. “My new school.”
“Oh.” Emmy cleared her throat. “Do you know anything about it?”
“I know their uniforms are dull and their football team’s rubbish.”
Emmy cringed. She remembered playing Erindale in a couple matches the year before. Lola was right; they weren’t very good.
“I guess you’ll have no trouble making the team, then,” Jack said with an awkward laugh.
“There’s no way I’m going to that school,” Lola said. “We’ve got to prove Brynn’s guilty by the end of the week, or I’ll be stuck playing with a bunch of first years who don’t know the difference between their left and right wingers.”
Emmy bit her lip. “We might have bigger problems than Brynn.”
“What do you mean?” Jack asked.
“I got a message last night. From Jonas.”
Jack sprang off the arm of the couch and almost knocked over a lamp. “Jonas?”
“What the bloody hell did he want?” Lola asked.
“He wants my dad.” Emmy sank into a tatty armchair and told them about the video.
“He’s off his rocker,” Lola said. “Does he really think you’d hand your own dad over to a bunch of murderers just so I can go back to school?”
Emmy pressed her lips together. She hadn’t told them that Jonas had said worse things were coming, but if they could get Lola back into Wellsworth, she and Jack could make sure Lola was safe while Emmy figured out what to do about Jonas.
“We should probably tell your mum that it’s the Order that’s framing you,” Jack said to Lola.
She gaped at him. “Are you out of your mind? She’d go barmy if she knew they were involved. She’d watch all of us like a hawk to make sure we weren’t snooping around, and then we’d never get me out of this mess.” She narrowed her eyes at Jack. “You’re not going to chicken out and blab, are you?”
“No!” Jack looked a little uncertain, though. His dad and older brothers were all part of the Order, and he knew firsthand what they were capable of.
“Even if the Order’s involved,” Lola said, “it must have been Brynn who actually took the money. I still think we need to focus on him.”
“What if somebody else from the Order took it?” Emmy asked.
“Can’t be,” Lola said. “Only committee members had the access code.”
“And teachers,” Jack added. “It could have been Larraby. Or Brynn could have given the code to somebody else. But how do we get proof?”
Lola’s shoulders slumped and Emmy looked away. That was the question they’d been talking about all week, and they weren’t any closer to finding an answer.
* * *
When Emmy and Jack got back to the common room, they found Sam typing on his computer.
“What are you working on?” Jack asked half-heartedly.
“I’m putting up an ad in the student web forums,” Sam said, “asking if anybody needs help with tech stuff.”
“That’s cool,” Jack said. “I bet loads of people could use some extra help.”
“Yeah, hopefully it’ll bring in some extra cash.” He closed his laptop. “How’s Lola?”
A warm feeling spread through Emmy. Sam seemed genuinely concerned about Lola, which made her like him even more.
“She’s getting pretty fed up,” Emmy said.
“You’re sure it wasn’t her, right?” Sam asked.
“Positive,” Jack said. “This whole thing’s completely nuts.”
Sam put his book down and leaned forward. “Any idea who did it?”
Emmy looked at Jack. Telling Sam about the Order probably wasn’t a good idea. Then again, they didn’t have to mention the Order to talk about who framed Lola.
“Come on.” Emmy stood up and nodded toward the door. “Let’s go for a walk.”
The sun was already getting lower in the sky, giving the forest a faint glow.
“Wow, you guys really don’t want to be overheard,” Sam said as he followed them deeper into the forest.
“Just a precaution.” Emmy tried to sound casual, like keeping away from listening ears was something every twelve-year-old did.
Once Audrey House was out of sight, Emmy and Jack turned around and faced Sam.
“So?” he asked as he glanced around the dark forest nervously.
“It was Brynn Stratton,” Emmy said.
Sam raised his eyebrows. “You’re sure?”
“Positive,” Jack said.
“Isn’t he, like, completely minted?”
Emmy blinked. “Huh?”
“He means rich,” Jack said.
“Oh, yeah,” Emmy said, “definitely minted.”
Sam and Jack looked at each other and smiled.