Lost in London Read Online Free PDF Page B

What’s ‘Rub-a-dub-dub’?”
    “You know the poem ‘Rub-a-dub-dub, three men in a tub’?”
    There was an odd pause. “None of us knew what that clue meant.”
    “What floor are you on?” I asked. “I’ll come find you.”
    “No floor,” Sam said. “I’m across the street. The store closed. As in the doors are locked.”
    My mouth went dry. “What are you saying?”
    “I’m trying to say that you’re locked in.”
    If this was a horror movie, really spooky music would’ve played right at that moment. A lump formed in my throat as I finally grasped the very dire situation.
    “I’m all alone.”
    “Not exactly,” Sam said. “There’s Ham.”
    “There’s a ham?” A sandwich sounded really good right about now.
    “A bloke named Hamlet. He’s the night security guard,” Sam said.
    “I’ll find him, and he can let me out.”
    “No!”
    “Why not?”
    “DO NOT let Hamlet see you,” he said. “He caught Caroline last time we played Slip Away. She got in a heap of trouble. He called her dad, who sent Hamlet a sack of money to let us out of the store’s security office. He said he wouldn’t do it again; next time he’d ban her from the store.”
    “Do I really have to stay in here all night?” I asked, panicked.
    “That’s an option, but we have a plan. We’re arranging to rescue you.”
    “What? How?” Then I heard footsteps coming from Linens. “Someone’s coming,” I whispered to Sam.
    “I know.”
    “Is it Hamlet? Is he going to take me to security and handcuff me to a chair?”
    An arm shoved the shower curtain aside. It was Caroline. She looked royally mad. “There you are.”
    “Thank God it’s you,” I said, sitting up. A few plastic bubbles fell out of the tub and rolled across the floor, disappearing underneath a nearby bed.
    “You’ve gotten us into quite a jam.”
    “I didn’t do it on purpose. I fell asleep. You know, jet lag and all.”
    “What I know is that my friends left the store before it closed, and I stayed in here looking for you, and now we’re snookered.”
    “You got locked in on purpose to look for me?” I guess she had started to like me. She was worried about me.
    She continued, “There’s no way I could go home to my stepmum without you. If I lost our abroad student, she would make my life miserable. After all, that is her purpose in life.”
    Or maybe she wasn’t concerned about me at all.
    I followed Caroline to the escalators, which were turned off. We walked down in a crouched position, below the handrail so that we couldn’t be seen by anyone (well, Hamlet) who might be on one of the landings.
    “Where are you going?” I whispered.
    “To the door.”
    “If the store is closed, don’t you think the doors will be locked?”
    “Yes, Madam Obvious, I think the doors will be locked.” She clucked her tongue like I was a total idiot. She quickly sent a text message. A minute later we were on the ground floor at one of the many sets of big glass doors. We hid behind a tower of boxes wrapped like pretty presents for a party at Buckingham Palace.
    Sam appeared on the other side of the glass doors, on the sidewalk in the rain, and started knocking. He looked pretty wet, but it seemed like it had eased up since I’d looked out the window in Linens. When Hamlet didn’t come, Sam knocked louder.
    I heard a set of feet wearing wet shoes squeak through Purses to the door. Hamlet removed a clunky set of keys from a clip on his belt and turned several locks on the door.
    “What is it?” he asked Sam. “Store’s closed.”
    “Thank goodness you’re here, sir,” Sam said urgently. “I got home from shopping and realized I didn’t have my wallet.” He made a desperate face. “My mum is gonna kill me. I’m serious. She’s loony. If I come home without her credit card, she’ll bloody flip.” His eyes were surroundedby raindrops that could easily be mistaken for tears.
    Hamlet said, “Calm down. She’ll understand.”
    “You