Stolen Secrets Read Online Free PDF Page B

the real crash, and the dad in Mom’s story had time to give the kids instructions and tell them when to hold their breath, but the whole thing made me scared again. You don’t survive an event like that and not have it affect you big-time.
    The water was just about up to their chins when Mom put the pages down and said, “That’s as far as I’ve gotten.”
    The kids wailed that it wasn’t fair to leave them hanging, so Mom smiled and pulled a crumpled piece of paper from her pocket. “Well, this is one of the drafts I threw away, but if you’d like.”

Chapter 25

    By the time Mom finished, she had the twins on a rock in the middle of the river. Even the teachers and parents seemed to hang on every word. Mom stopped without saying if their father made it out of the car with their little brother, but I could tell if Mom ever had it published it would be a hit.
    Someone raised a hand. “Is that true?”
    Mom smiled. “That’s the fun of making up stories. It doesn’t have to be true. But if it feels like it could happen, and if it touches you somewhere down here—” she put a hand over her heart—“you know it’s a good story.”
    “How do you come up with your ideas?” another kid said.
    Mom looked at me and winked. “I let my imagination run.”
    A girl near Wally whispered, “I think it would be cool to have a writer for a mother, don’t you?”
    “That’s what I want to be when I grow up,” another said.
    Everybody clapped for Mom. She waved good-bye to me, and Bryce walked her to the front door.
    “Is everyone having a good time?” Mrs. Genloe shouted.
    The kids screamed and put fists in the air.
    “We almost didn’t have this get-together tonight. We almost had to cancel. Does anyone know why?”
    “The attack!” a boy yelled.
    “Those two girls,” a girl said.
    “The guy is still on the loose,” another said.
    Mrs. Genloe nodded. “Well, we thought this would be a good opportunity to learn some safety tips. So I’d like you to welcome three guests. Actually, four.”
    A police officer walked down the hall with a dog at his side. The boys went wild. The girls oo h ed and aa h ed at the dog.
    Mrs. Genloe held up a hand. “You’ve all heard different things about what happened that day, haven’t you? Let’s talk about what really happened.”
    The kids gasped as Cammy Michaels and Tracy Elliot walked onto the stage.

Chapter 26

    Cammy was thin with long blonde hair, and her skin was the color of the inside of pancakes. Tracy’s hair was almost black with red streaks around the sides of her face. She wore dark jeans and had several earrings. Both wore lots of makeup—red lips, dark eyelids, that kind of thing. Makeup is okay, I guess, but some people wind up looking less beautiful and more like Ding-Dong, if you know what I mean.
    The police officer let the girls sit on stools. The dog obeyed every command, and I figured the leash was to protect it from the kids rather than the other way around. I was glad Ding-Dong’s pigs were gone, because the dog looked hungry.
    Cammy took the microphone, looked at Tracy, and stifled a laugh. I figured she was nervous because a lot of people do that when they’re in front of a crowd. Tracy nudged her, and Cammy went limp-wristed with the microphone, letting it drift away from her mouth. The police officer stepped forward and pushed it closer.
    “Okay, so I’m supposed to tell you what happened to us the other day,” Cammy began. “I’m sure you’ve all heard about it. We had stayed a little later after school to get some help with homework.” She giggled. “We need all the help we can get. Anyway”—(snort)— “we were coming home from school, just passing the café, when this guy jumps out and grabs us around our necks. He dragged us behind the café to a little shed. We were both really scared.”
    Tracy took the microphone. “He had duct tape back there—you know, the big gray rolls you see at the hardware store. And before