Page 47 of Want to Know a Secret?

The dirt comes away easily. Somebody was digging here very recently. Maybe even today. I shovel out some of the dirt, wondering how deep I’ll have to go. Then I shovel another mound of dirt. And another. And another.

And then my shovel hits something.

My hands are shaking as I reach down into the small hole I’ve created. I brush away some dirt, and then my hand touches fabric. I wrap my fingers around the object and I pull it loose.

“Raffey!”

In my determination to dig out the object, I hadn’t realized Julie and Maria had come into my backyard. And now Maria is staring at the dirt-caked stuffed animal in my hand, her face pink.

“Maria,” I sputter. “I…”

“I knew Bobby must’ve taken him,” Julie says, almost triumphantly.

Maria marches over to me and yanks the dirty stuffed animal out of my hand. She looks down at the dirty giraffe, and her eyes fill with tears. “Look at it. How will I get this clean?”

“Actually,” I say, “the secret to cleaning stuffed animals is to get a mesh laundry bag and—”

“Oh, shut up, April,” Julie snaps at me.

I jerk my head back like she slapped me. I squeeze my fists together, not sure what to say or do. I wish I could tell them about the text messages, but I can’t take that risk. Not with that picture of me and Mark floating around. “I don’t know how this got in my backyard,” I finally say. “But I’m sure Bobby didn’t…”

“Oh, please!” Julie huffs. “The toy was buried in your backyard? How else could it have gotten there? Unless you have a dog we don’t know about.”

“I’ve got to get this clean,” Maria mumbles. She doesn’t lift her eyes to look at me. “I can’t stay.”

“We’ll reschedule.” Julie’s voice is so kind and gentle, I almost don’t recognize it. “Don’t even worry about it.”

I feel a lump in my throat. “I… I’m so sorry, Maria.”

She nods, but she still doesn’t look at me.

The two of them go out through the backyard without even passing through the house. I just spent two hours cleaning and they didn’t even come into my house. All because of that stupid toy in the backyard. How did it get here anyway? Could Bobby really have buried it there?

But no. I got that text message about it. Whoever is torturing me put that stuffed animal in my backyard, just to humiliate me in front of my friends.

Which means whoever is sending me these messages was in my backyard.

I stand in the middle of my backyard, my hands coated in dirt, and I shiver. I run back into the house and find my phone on the coffee table where I left it. My hands are almost too shaky to type in my reply:

Please tell me what you want.

As usual, there is no reply.

Chapter 23

To: Fall Carnival Committee

From: Alice Knowles

Subject: Re: Carnival

I am supposed to help out tomorrow at the fall carnival at the beanbag toss. But I noticed tonight that I have a bit of a scratchy throat, so I don’t think I’m going to be able to make it.

To: Fall Carnival Committee

From: Patty Westman

Subject: Re: Carnival