Penflower

Chapter 9

Oliver takes a deep breath in and releases it heavily, his shoulders drooping. "We're too late." He collapses in a chair in the opposite corner, laces his fingers behind his head, and rests his elbows on his knees. I cautiously step into the cell and look around. The mattress in the corner of the dark cell is indented in the center, as though someone spent a fair bit of time sitting on it in the past few days. 

I sit in the indent on the mattress. Almost instantly, however, I jerk myself onto my feet with a squeak of pain. Looking back at the mattress, the lump just to the side of the indent is almost invisible. I reach my hand under the mattress pad and pull out a lumpy key with sharp teeth. 

Attached to the key is a jump ring, and attached to the jump ring is a masking tape label that reads, mayor's safe. I gingerly close my hand around the key and smile. At least he was kind enough to tell us that much. 

I make my way over to the chair in the opposite corner of the room. "Oliver." His eyes jump from the floor to my closed fist. 

"What? What did you get?" he rasps wearily. 

"The key to the mayor's safe. And I didn't get it first. Trilli did." 

Oliver doesn't say anything. He just stares, frozen with disbelief, into my eyes. "No way." He narrows his eyes suspiciously. "No way could Trilli steal that from Mayor Burke and no way could that actually be the key to the mayor's safe." 

I let out a low, sarcastic whistle. "You have that much faith in Trilli?" 

His eyes quickly drop to his shoes. "I didn't mean that." 

"Sorry." I wince inwardly, chastising myself. Idiot. Don't make this any harder on him. 

"Never mind that." He stands up stiffly, his jaw tight. "Let's get out of here." 

Click. Oliver's head snaps toward the door and mine is quick to follow. The doorknob twists in slow motion and creaks open horror movie-style. I take a defensive step backward. Oliver takes a brave-but-stupid step forward, his hand hovering over the can of Mace strapped to his belt. 

It's not Mayor Burke's balding head that appears around the door, however, nor is it Valek's greasy-haired one. A pale, dirt-speckled face and long brown hair tied into a disheveled bun appear instead. When Trilli's warm brown eyes meet Oliver's blue ones, a silent conversation begins and ends in a flash. I stand off to the side, feeling awkward and excluded, until Trilli calls my name and opens her arms. The next thing I know, I'm encased in her arms and I've never felt more loved. Then she hugs Oliver, who looks like he's about to pass out. 

When they release each other, I complain jokingly, "Not that standing in a dark room with a prison cell isn't loads of fun, but can we please go home now?" 

I clam up as soon as the last words escape me. Home? I'm not even sure where that is anymore. 

Trilli seems to notice it too and gives me one of her (sorely missed) knowing looks. I keep my big mouth shut tight. Her lips turn up slightly at the corners before her gaze shifts to Oliver. He gives one firm nod, but she holds up a finger. "Wait. There's something I have to do first." 

She walks over the open cell, bends over the mattress, and freezes. "It's gone. I put it right here." She pulls the mattress pad away and shakes it out. "I stole the key to the mayor's safe but he must have taken it back." 

I shoot a firm I-told-you-so look at Oliver and say, "Trilli, I think I found it when I sat on the mattress a little while ago." I place the key in her outstretched hand. 

"Thank you, Shiloh." She closes her hand around the key and sighs. "Now follow me. It's really important that we do this. For your parents." 

I stop short, trip over my own shoes, and stumble forward, coughing. "My what?"