Dark Turns Read Online Free PDF Page A

rubbed their arches and ankles without breaking conversation. When Nia neared, their voices dropped to whispers. But their words still pierced the air: Dead. Drowned. Devastated.
    Nia sat a few feet from them, massaging her own ankle as she eavesdropped.
    “My little sister, Darya, hung with her,” Tati said. “Lauren’s dad just shows up outside Dar’s room last night, fucking furious. Ready to kill someone, you know? Totally freaked her out. He wanted to know if Lauren had problems with anyone.”
    “She seemed so sweet . . . I just can’t believe it.” June’s tiny face fell into a cartoonish sad expression. Eyebrows slanted. Mouth turned down. She hugged her arms to her chest and rubbed her forearms.
    “Did you guys know the girl that died?” The question slipped out before Nia had thought it through. The police had cautioned against talking about the murder. But she couldn’t stop thinking about what had happened. These kids had information, and knowing why the girl died might erase the horrific images in her head.
    Alexei’s eyebrows raised at the interruption.
    June reddened. “Um, yeah. I kind of knew her. We took Mandarin together. Did you know her?”
    Eyes turned on her like spotlights. She had to say something. “Director Battle and I found the body.” She offered June a penitent smile. “I’m sorry for your loss.”
    “Oh, you don’t have to be.” June waved off the condolences. “I mean, I didn’t really know her.” She turned back to Alexei. Her hands fell into her lap. “Poor Theo. He must be beside himself.”
    “Maybe,” Tati mumbled at the floor.
    “So you found the body?” Alexei’s wide-eyed expression lacked real concern. “Did it look like she’d been murdered or like she’d jumped into the lake?”
    The necklace of red welts flooded Nia’s vision. Whatever had happened to that girl, she hadn’t just drowned.
    Alexei continued to stare at Nia, willing a juicy detail to fall from her parted lips. Nia closed her mouth. The dean wouldn’t want her “speculating.”
    “I wouldn’t know.” She shrugged. “I didn’t get a good look.”
    Alexei frowned. His brown eyes continued to beg for more information.
    Nia shifted her view to Lydia. The little prima stood in the center of the room, folded like a pocketknife. Her hands lay flat on the floor, elbows bent. Her head rested by her shins. Lydia was certainly limber. A few feet away, just in front of Ms. V’s door, Aubrey sat in a Russian split. She pointed and flexed her toes as Joseph talked to her—or tried to. It was impossible to tell from Aubrey’s expression whether she was listening.
    “You must have seen something,” Alexei said.
    Nia returned her attention to the boy. “Why do you think it wasn’t an accident?”
    “The girl you found, Lauren, had problems with an ex.” Alexei glanced sideways at June. “Everyone knows about it.”
    “No, she didn’t.” June shook her head. “They always seemed so happy.”
    Alexei chuckled. “Come on.”
    “They were totally into each other, always kissing and holding hands, giggling.” June turned to the T twins for support. “Totally in love, right? Romeo and Juliet style.”
    Tati and Talia each fidgeted with their feet, stroking their arches without really working them.
    “You’re kidding, right?” Alexei said. “You didn’t see it? I thought everyone did.”
    “See what?”
    Alexei laughed. Talia glanced over her shoulder toward Ms. V’s shut door.
    “What?” June asked again. She wasn’t even pretending to stretch anymore. “I was in China for the summer, sans Facebook.”
    Talia spoke like she wanted the whole room to hear. “China, really? What were you doing?”
    “Um, oh, improving my Mandarin. My parents think I have an American accent.”
    Alexei touched June’s arm in mock flirtation. “Oh my God. You have to see it.”
    The gossipy tone of the conversation made Nia uncomfortable. She cleared her throat, and Alexei’s voice