A loose thread dangled from the middle seat in the back of Liam’s jeep, and I pulled on it to spite him. I imagined the whole car splitting down the middle, falling to pieces. But the Jeep lumbered onward to Pemberly Brown, the backs of Liam and Seth’s heads preventing me from indulging in a little backseat driving.
“Red, huh?” Liam asked, raising an eyebrow in the rearview mirror.
I twisted a strand around my finger, flipping it up at the end to check on the color. Yup. Still red.
“Uh, yeah. You know what they say,” I muttered absently, attacking a split end.
“No, actually, I don’t.” Liam’s voice was clipped. “What do they say?”
Ridiculous stereotypes poured through my brain—blonds have more fun, brunettes are smarter, redheads are bad tempered.
I settled on, “Just that redheads kick ass,” and hid my smile. Seth beamed as we all climbed out of the car and headed up the brick path back toward school.
“Subject has connection to Pemberly Brown, Sinclair, the societies, yearbook, the list goes on. It might take a while to locate the appropriate yearbook. Let’s not get discouraged.” Seth spoke softly and evenly, his head turned a bit to the side as we walked. “Subject should have wolf knowledge—food, habitat, a great love of the animal, and perhaps an unhealthy obsession with Mr. Sinclair.” Seth continued speaking, and I noticed he held a Dictaphone that looked like a prop from one of the old-school episodes of Law & Order my grandpa watched as reruns.
Liam patted Seth hard on the back, which caused him to stumble on his feet and press pause on the machine. I dropped a step behind, overwhelmed suddenly by how much I missed them. It caught me off guard and took my breath away a little, this hole that I didn’t even realize was there. Going to the archives with the two of them just felt right, and my fingers ran the length of the bronze plaque proclaiming, Scientia est potentia. Knowledge is power. Wasn’t that the truth? I smiled and forgot that Liam and I weren’t dating. I forgot that I wasn’t supposed to tell Seth anything about the Sisterhood. I forgot that this wasn’t supposed to be fun.
The yearbook archives were housed in the stacks in the basement of the Pemberly Brown Library. Despite the fact that books lined the walls and the area was well-lit and, for the most part, not creepy-basement-like, no one really ventured down there alone. Perhaps it was the blue emergency button on the wall or the bookshelves that nearly touched the ceiling and blocked any view between rows that kept girls on their toes, but either way, you told someone if you were going into the stacks and that if you didn’t reappear within a few minutes, they should be worried.
“That’s 1964, right?” Liam asked, running his fingers over the leather spines.
I referenced the card and nodded my head. “Bradley said it’s the year Sinclair graduated. There have to be more clues in there.”
Seth continued to mumble into his Dictaphone as Liam typed into the database. I had to work to focus on the screen instead of the way his hair hung over his eye, the way it needed to be cut, the way he shook his head slightly so he could see.
“Aisle 7, second shelf down,” Liam said. I rushed to the door, grateful for the distraction.
I turned down Aisle 7 and sent a quick prayer up to Grace. If I’d learned anything about investigating at Pemberly Brown, it was that nothing was easy. Let this be easy, I asked Grace. Let this go quickly.
My fingers ran over the leather-bound books, the gold lettering on the spine. 1961, 1962, 1963, and a space. There was a very obvious hole where Pemberly Brown’s 1964 yearbook had been. Despite the fact that Liam suggested we look in other rows for the misplaced book, I knew it had been taken. I knew we were too late.
“Let me just check…it might have been signed out.” Liam typed into the database again, referencing the system the staff used to maintain the archives.
And then I remembered the old yearbooks scattered throughout Mr. Sinclair’s office.
“Wait, I think I might know where they might be.” I made my way out of the maze of books and up the stairs to Sinclair’s office. The kid manning the desk protested as I pushed my way into the office. But it didn’t matter. When I opened the door, I knew something was very, very wrong.
It was clean. All the papers were stacked neatly on his desk. The stacks of books that had been scattered across the floor had disappeared. The old coffee cups and napkins had all been cleared away. It looked like a normal office. Not a yearbook in sight.
“Unbelievable.” My hand flew to my mouth. There was no doubt in my mind that someone had been here. Someone had been looking for something. Maybe the yearbook, maybe something else, but whatever it was, it was gone now.
“Don’t see any yearbooks lying around.” I hated the quiet note of satisfaction in Liam’s voice. Even when he was helping me, it felt like he was silently cheering for me to fail.
“Mrs. ConspiracyLuvR.” Seth spoke the name into his Dictaphone and pressed the stop button loudly for dramatic effect. He nodded silently to Liam and me from the doorway of the office. “She’s our only hope.”