Wanted Read Online Free PDF

Emily’s swim meets.
    A tiny movement at the DiLaurentises’ front window caught Emily’s eye, distracting her. It looked like someone had parted the curtain, and then dropped it again. For a moment, she wondered if it was Jason. But then she noticed him near the podium, tapping on his cell phone.
    She turned back to Maya, who was pulling a plastic Wawa bag from her army-green knapsack. “I wanted to give you this,” Maya said. “The workers cleaning up the fire found it and thought it was mine, but I remember it from your room.”
    Emily reached into the bag and extracted a pink patent-leather change purse. A swirly initial E was inscribed on the front, and the zipper was pale pink. “Oh my God,” she breathed. The pouch had been a gift from Ali in sixth grade. It had been one of the Ali artifacts Emily and her friends had buried in Spencer’s backyard before Ian’s trial. Their grief counselor claimed the ritual would help them heal from Ali’s death, but Emily had missed the purse ever since.
    “Thank you.” She clutched it to her chest.
    “No worries.” Maya snapped her bag shut and slung it across her chest. “Well, I should go be with my family.” She gestured through the crowd. Mr. and Mrs. St. Germain stood by the DiLaurentises’ mailbox, looking a little lost.
    “Bye.” Emily faced front again. Hanna had joined Spencer and Aria near the barricades. Emily hadn’t seen her old friends together since Jenna’s funeral. Swallowing hard, she elbowed through the crowd until she was right next to them. “Hey,” she said softly to Spencer.
    Spencer looked at Emily uneasily. “Hey.”
    Aria and Hanna shrugged hellos. “How are you guys?” Emily asked.
    Aria ran her fingers through the fringe of her long black scarf. Hanna stared at her iPhone, not answering. Spencer bit her bottom lip. None of them looked thrilled to be standing together. Emily turned the patent-leather change purse over in her hands, hoping one of her old friends would recognize it. She was dying to talk to them about Ali, but something had come between them ever since Jenna’s body was found. It had happened after Ali disappeared, too—it was simply easier to ignore one another than to rehash the terrible memories.
    “What do you think this is all about?” Emily tried again.
    Aria pulled out a tube of cherry ChapStick and smeared it across her lips. “You were the one Mrs. DiLaurentis called. She didn’t tell you?”
    Emily shook her head. “She got off the phone really fast. I didn’t have time to ask.”
    “Maybe it’s about how Billy is claiming he’s innocent.” Hanna leaned on the barricade, making it sway a little.
    Aria shivered. “I heard his lawyer wants the case thrown out because they can’t find a single boot print in Jenna’s backyard. They don’t have any physical evidence that links him to the scene.”
    “That’s ridiculous,” Spencer said. “He had all those photos of us, all those A notes….”
    “Isn’t it kind of weird, though, that it turned out to be Billy?” Aria said in a low voice. She picked at a patch of dry skin on her thumb. “He came from out of nowhere.”
    The wind shifted, smelling pungently of cow manure from a nearby farm. Emily agreed with Aria; she had been certain that Ali’s killer would end up being someone familiar, someone connected to her life. This Billy guy was a weird, random stranger who’d somehow dug up their deepest, darkest secrets. It could be done, Emily supposed—Mona Vanderwaal had unearthed tons of dirty secrets about Emily and the others just by reading Ali’s abandoned diary.
    “I guess.” Hanna shuddered. “But he definitely did it. I hope they lock him up forever.”
    The microphone at the podium screeched with feedback, and Emily jerked her head up. Mrs. DiLaurentis, dressed in a sleek black sheath, a brown mink shrug, and black heels, emerged from the house. She fiddled with a stack of index cards. Her husband, looking even more gaunt and