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"Who was she?"

"I don’t know," I said "Jesse and I saw the house unoccupied, and I believe it was sold frouess I could look at our original closing papers"

Jesse had always been in charge of storing all the old file boxes, and I had no idea where to begin looking Searching through all thosea can of worarden "But isn’t that information a e hall"

Jackie raised an eyebrow She could tell I was practicing avoidance Glynnis was too young and inexperienced "I’ll go with you," she said eagerly, forgetting for a ht next door "If you don’tWe’ll sneak out at lunch sometime this week"

"Petra wouldn’t approve," Jackie said, her words dripping with sarcas for the brass ring and all that"

"I hate the brass ring," Glynnis said "But I do like a good ht, I wiped the dirt from the box and carried it up to my bedrooht next tobut my underwear, and tried the dress on It fit, but it probably would have fit sohter--it was one of those dresses I tied the scarf around my waist to th s up toto, and ould so so pretty?

I could always ask Mr Eckhardt, but then he’d probably call the police for real and have

They did, in all likelihood, belong to the woman who lived here before us Who was she? Did she mean for someone, someday, to unearth her secrets?

Because I was sure the story attached to this box was juicy Scandalous, even The thought appealed tothe dress, ht on the hem and snapped one of the fine threads Was it sy I couldn’t contain?

CHAPTER 12

Excerpt froement, Part 2

Now that you’ve enriched your idea’s soul, you must cultivate it Let it breathe Socialize Work its muscles Turn its face to the sun But be patient Ideas are like houses--they need to settle, but then they need to expand and grow

When your idea is at peace with itself, then its soul is ready for the next world Will it go viral? Will it become part of our cultural lexicon? Your ownership of it will cease to matter It will become known, and, in the process, so will you

"This is such a stinking pile of horseshit," Byron announced when he was certain Lukas was out of earshot

We had decided the patch of land was siiven up and decided to walk around the stalls, hitting all the sample stations We huddled around the cheese roup had been by twice already, and he kindly pretended not to notice Lukas had drifted away from everyone almost as soon as we entered the market I spotted hih a tub of zucchini He’d pick up a vegetable, hold it up to the sun, and reject it, one after another I hoped Mykia’s patience wasn’t being tested The look on her face said that it was Lukas said so to her, and Mykia bared her teeth in a smile that looked almost feral

Byron continued to co, which was throwing all of his energy into whining It e "creatives" did ere stuck And ere all stuck Cranky, distracted, and i around on our exercise balls like a bunch of toddlers, rudely buood idea out of ourselves We’d even settle for a halfway decent idea Lukas kneas going on and wisely left us alone If he breathed down our necks at all, we’d all probably have si," Rhiannon announced, bending over to throw out the biodegradable saood look at her cleavage, she slowly rolled up and winked at him

"A vile display," Byron seethed "But" Byron’s eyes glazed over, and he got the look, the one that said that an idea had finally burst into the right side of his brain He grabbed Rhiannon’s hand "Let’s go back to the office"

"What?" She yanked her hand back "Don’t touch ht of soed "You did?" With a final wink at the confused cheese man, she pushed Byron in the direction of Guh "Run Now Get it down on paper"