Olivia and the Movie Stars by Lyn Gardner Page B

don’t want to get caught too, Tom. She won’t thank you if you give away the fact she went into the building on the wire,” said Aeysha.
    “Do you think they’ll call the police and have Livy arrested?” asked Georgia tearfully.
    “It’ll be Miss Swan who’ll have Livy under lock and key, particularly if she discovers how she got into the building. She’ll be furious,” said Aeysha.
    Georgia tried to sound hopeful. “Maybe they’ll just let her go? Why don’t we go downstairs and wait for her just in case? At least we’ll be there to see if the police do turn up to arrest her,” said Georgia. Ayesha nodded.
    “I’m going to stay here,” said Tom. “In case she comes back this way.”
    The others left. He got out his mobile and stared at it. He knew that Liv had her phone with her. He wondered whether he should try calling her. He was desperate to find out what was happening but what if they were wrong and Katie hadn’t betrayed her and she hadn’t been discovered? He didn’t want to do anything that might put her in danger.

    * * *
    Olivia and Katie stared at each other in the gloom. They had both gone so pale that they looked like ghosts. There was somebody else in the building. They could hear whoever it was moving about downstairs.
    “It was a trap,” said Olivia in a dazed whisper. “I believed you, Katie. I trusted you and you betrayed me. You’re just the same Katie you’ve always been.”
    “No, Livy!” whispered back Katie. “I promise. It’s not like that. I have changed. I’d never do anything to hurt you. Please believe me. It’ll be my dad, come to check the equipment. I didn’t know he was coming, honest. I thought he was safely tied up in a meeting tonight.”
    She turned off her torch and pulled Olivia towards two huge filing cabinets standing side by side by the wall. Olivia switched her torch off too. She was shivering with fear. She didn’t know whether to believe Katie or not.
    They crouched behind the filing cabinets in the dark, hardly daring to breathe. They heard footsteps coming up the stairs, then Mr Wilkes-Cox walked into the room. He swung his torcharound the room and then went over to his equipment.
    “Looks good,” he muttered to himself. “Another nice peaceful day ahead for the Swan.” He turned to walk up the stairs to the next floor when Olivia’s mobile went off. Katie’s dad swung round and shouted, “Who’s there?”
    Olivia felt Katie squeeze her hand as she stepped out from behind the filing cabinet and said, “It’s all right, Dad, it’s only me. My mobile just rang.”
    Her father was shining the torch right in her eyes.
    “Kitten! What on earth are you doing here?” He looked around suspiciously. “Are you on your own?”
    “Quite alone, Dad.”
    “How did you get in?”
    “Oh,” said Katie, gazing up at him adoringly and putting her arm through his. “I came over this way to see my old friend Kylie Morris. You remember her; we took her on safari with us.”
    Mr Wilkes-Cox was frowning. “I didn’t think you kept in touch with anyone from the Swan.”
    “Oh, I haven’t seen Kylie for ages. She’s leaving too. She says lots of people are going. The Swan’s losing its reputation.” She looked at her dad wide-eyed. “I don’t know what you’re up to, Dad, but it’s definitely working. You are clever.”
    Momentarily Mr Wilkes-Cox looked pleased, but then wariness clouded his face. “But why on earth would you want to come in here, and how did you get inside a locked building?”
    “Well, that’s the thing,” said Katie. “I was just saying goodbye to Kylie when I noticed that the front door was swinging open. I thought maybe you had accidentally forgotten to lock it. I was going to call you but I thought I’d better check everything was OK. Of course, I did think that maybe I ought to just ring the police, but I wasn’t sure if that would be the right thing to do.”
    Katie sounded as innocent as the first snowdrop