Pretty Wanted Read Free

up and dragged us away. My heartbeat raged through every artery and vein. My eyes darted around, looking for an escape hatch. On our right was a big granite building fronted with marble-relief panels, the bulk of the thing taking up most of a block. On our left was just a park. No cover at all.
    Think, Willa.
    If I didn’t find something quick, I’d never find out who my mother was. If I couldn’t figure this out, it was all over, before it had even begun.

UNCORRECTED E-PROOF—NOT FOR SALE
    HarperCollins Publishers
    ..................................................................
    TWO
    IT REGISTERED THEN , somewhere in the back of my fear-addled brain. What that big hulking building was. The Central Library. The door was within our reach. There were probably labyrinths of shelves inside to get lost in. Best of all it was the most uncontroversial place two teenagers could go.
    “In here,” I said, making a quick decision.
    Beyond the main entrance was an oval-shaped pavilion with a soaring, coffered, gold ceiling and marble floor. Aidan trashed our still-full coffees but stuffed our food into his bag before we stepped past the front desk, cursing under his breath.
    The library was relatively empty for a weekday afternoon, but we went downstairs, headed for the farthest corner from the front door. Cautionary tactic.
    We watched. We waited, breathing hard. Aidan mourned the loss of his newly found beverage. I wondered how much luck I could reliably expect to have at this point, after so many close calls. The truth was, I’d been rolling sevens for a while now. Karma was probably sneaking up to nip me in the butt.
    A good fifteen minutes elapsed and we looked at each other quizzically. There was no sign of cops inside. Maybe we’d lost them. Or maybe they weren’t really after us to begin with. Could I have imagined it?
    “What do you think?” he asked.
    “I think we need to give it more time,” I said. I felt safe here, safer than I’d felt in a long time. Maybe it was the stillness, or the kind-looking people reshelving books, or just the old-fashioned idea that everyone should have access to free reading. In a library, you didn’t even think of stealing, because everyone was equal.
    “Well, while we’re in this temple of knowledge, we may as well make use of it,” Aidan said, angling across the room to a bank of computers.
    He was right. We had some research to do if we wanted to learn more about my mom.
    I figured it would be easy enough to look up news reports about her murder. It had taken place in 1997, I knew that much. And I knew her name: Brianna Siebert.
    I typed it into the computer and hit search. But nothing came up. Nothing useful, anyway.
    “It’s been a long time. That info is probably not cached on Google. I think we need to try a news database,” Aidan suggested.
    I went back to the home screen and scrolled through the library’s options, then clicked on NewsBank. But the service required a user name and password.
    “We don’t have a library card,” I said, sighing. I should have thought of that.
    “Did you forget that I’m here, Colorado?” He nudged me aside and got to work, typing quickly. “You don’t need a stinking library card when you have a hacker on your side.”
    He recovered cookies from a previous user and within a few minutes, we were in. He made room for me again. I reentered my search terms and immediately articles from the St. Louis Post-Dispatch came up.
    BRUTAL MURDER OF YOUNG MOTHER SHOCKS UNIVERSITY CITY
    A thirty-two-year-old woman, identified as Brianna Siebert, was found dead last night, the victim of an apparent gunshot wound to the chest. The woman was discovered by a neighbor, and police were called to the Delmar Loop apartment building at about 11:35 p.m.
    Police confirmed the death as a homicide and are looking into leads.
    Siebert had recently moved to the apartment on Westgate Avenue. She was working as a waitress at Blueberry Hill.
    Police have