Mountain Secrets by Elizabeth Goddard (good books to read for teens txt) 📕

they sat facing each other, knees touching. They seemed to be in some sort of laundry chute.

Footsteps seemed to be pounding all around them. Had Mr. Knife figured out they were in the house or was his frantic search for something else? The footsteps grew closer. Maybe Mr. Gun was in the house by now.

Isabel could hear the sound of her own breathing in the tiny space.

The footsteps stopped.

Jason whispered only one word. “Down.”

She angled her body and slid down the aluminum slide, landing on a pile of linens.

Jason’s silhouette blotted out some of the bright light that shone from the top of the chute from the thieves’ flashlight. Jason slid down beside her on the pile of dirty laundry.

She was grateful the cleaning crew hadn’t tossed the sheets in the washing machine like they were supposed to.

Jason squeezed her elbow. “Come on. He’s going to find this room soon enough.”

She glanced back up the chute, which had gone dark. Apparently, Mr. Knife, or maybe it was Mr. Gun, had opted not to follow them down it, which meant he was using the stairs.

She leaped to her feet, falling in behind him and squinting to see in the dark room.

“There has to be a good place to hide,” said Jason.

Though she had been through the ten-thousand-square-foot home many times, she hadn’t been thinking about hiding places. Even as Jason started moving toward the door, she racked her brain.

They hurried down a hallway.

She tugged on his arm. “He’ll be coming down the stairs. We can’t go that way.”

“I know, but he’ll be looking for us on this floor.”

She turned and ran in the other direction. There had to be another way up to the main floor. They ran past the laundry room. Footsteps sounded above them. She sprinted toward a door and swung it open, finding a narrow back stairway similar to servants’ stairs in older houses. These stairs led into the kitchen. Probably so cooks had quick, discreet access to any food and wine stored in the basement.

The stairs were not carpeted, which made the potential for noise that much greater. Stepping as softly as possible, they hurried up and into the kitchen. There was no place to hide in the kitchen that wouldn’t be obvious. Isabel grabbed keys off a hook where they were hanging. She filed through them, holding them close to her face to see better.

She’d never been in the greenhouse but had noticed the labeled key for it. Maybe they could lock it from the inside. Jason leaned close to her, trying to see what she was doing. She could feel his warm breath on her neck.

A pang of guilt shot through her. She wasn’t supposed to go into the greenhouse. That wasn’t part of her job. She vowed that if she got a chance, she’d explain and apologize to the Wilsons. If she got the chance...

Isabel felt along the wall for the door that led to the greenhouse where it connected with the kitchen. She leaned close to the keyhole in an effort to insert the key. Humid air floated around her when she opened the door.

They slipped inside. The room was filled with plants though she could not discern what kind in the dim light. The Wilsons must hire a gardener to care for the plants in their absence.

The door did not lock from the inside.

Through the clear glass, a shadow stalked past them.

Jason pulled Isabel to the floor. Her heart revved into high gear as they scurried around to the far side of a bench and slipped into a tight space between the tall potting benches. At least they were out of view. Once again, their knees were touching as they faced each other in a small space.

After a moment, Jason spoke in a hushed tone. “Can you remember what you straightened up and what you threw away?”

Isabel waited for her heart to slow down before responding. Of course he was thinking about the bookmark. She closed her eyes, trying to remember. “There were some things left in the kitchen by the cleaning crew, just packaging from cleaning products.”

“No boxes or anything that something might be hidden in.”

Her memory fogged. The whole thing felt like it had happened a lifetime ago. “I’m not sure. I just automatically straighten up as I do my first walk through the house.”

“It’s okay.” He reached over and touched her knee. “I know this violence is probably not what you’re used to.”

He had no idea. She’d pulled off her impression of respectability enough that he probably would never guess that running from the law, sneaking around and hiding were what she was proficient in at one time in her life.

“Can you visualize the rooms you went into and what you did in each one?”

She understood what he was doing. They couldn’t just randomly go banging through the house. They had to be stealthy about where they searched.

She closed her eyes and tried to remember. Her usual routine was to go to the kitchen first and throw out food in the cupboards that looked like it was past its expiration date and then walk through the main rooms in the house, but was that what she had done this time? “Mostly I just closed doors and straightened things.”

She lifted her head in time to see a bright light flashing. “He’s coming this way.”

Both of them rolled underneath benches that held heavy foliage.

The door creaked open. Footsteps tapped on the concrete floor as the flashlight illuminated different sections of the room.

Isabel held her breath. Her stomach pressed against the cold concrete floor. The thief leaned over and shone the light beneath the benches, coming within a few inches of where she hid.

Oh God, don’t let him find us.

The thief dropped the flashlight. It rolled across the floor, lighting up the area just in front of Jason’s face.

The flashlight blinked on and off. The batteries must’ve been failing. The thief picked it up and tapped it on his palm. The light