Jasper Jones Read Online Free PDF Page A

at Jasper, horrified.
    “It’s the only way, Charlie.”
    “It’s not the only way! That’s
you
being afraid!”
    “Yair, I
know
. But I got somethink real to be afraid of. This is the only way I can keep myself out of trouble for now. Don’t you see?”
    I shake my head. Incredulous. I try desperately to conceive of alternatives, ways of escape.
    “Well, no. We can’t. We can’t bury her here and now. Okay? I don’t know. We don’t have any shovels. Or anything. Either way, it’ll take hours. The sun will be up before we’re finished. And it is going to look real bloody suspicious if I arrive home after sneaking out, dirty as shit from digging a
grave
, and then suddenly everyone knows that Laura Wishart is missing.”
    “Not in the ground, Charlie. In there.”
    And Jasper Jones motions toward the dam, its surface still as a sheet. My stomach knots.
    We are going to drown the dead.
    “The dam?”
    “Yeah.”
    I’m caught in a rip, being dragged out further and deeper against my will.
    “But what about her family? Don’t they have the right to bury their own daughter? To say goodbye? What about Eliza? What about last rites and sacrament and all that? What about their beliefs?”
    “Do
you
believe in that?”
    “It doesn’t matter what
I
believe! That’s not the point.”
    “Listen. I know for a fact that her old man is no good. He’s worthless, and he drinks worse than mine. And her mum is near enough to the walking dead. Strangest woman I ever seen. For certain. And I know that doesn’t come into it. But, end of the day, I reckon they’ll be more concerned with the real truth than how she’s bin buried. And that’s all we’re doing, Charlie. We’re making time so we can find out who done this. And I don’t know, after this is all over, when Mad Jack is put away, we might still be able to do things right. We’ll know where she’ll be, right?”
    I can’t believe any of this. I’m being pulled further down. I glance across at Laura Wishart’s hanging frame and feel a fresh sluice of sickness and fear. She’s a gossamer ghost. She’s not real. Neither is this place.
    “I don’t know, Jasper. What if we
don’t
find out? Ever? What if the Wisharts never find out
any
part of the truth? What if you’re wrong, what if we’re wrong about Corrigan? About Mad Jack? About everything?”
    Jasper suddenly leaps to his feet, shaking his head and looming large. He swats the air, like he’s trying to catch a passing insect.
    “What would you rather, mate? You want me to go to prison for nothing just so the Wisharts can say goodbye properly? I didn’t
plan
this, did I? I’m just tryin to do the right thing without seeing myself strung up like that.” And he points at Laura, his eyes bearing in at me wildly. “Because that
is
what will bloody happen. And you
know
that. And I
swear
to you, again, on my mother, that I knew nuthin about this. That I come here tonight and found her here, and I don’t know what to do except to save my own arse and then maybe try to work it all out. And that’s why I need your help. Because you’re smart, and you’re different to the others, and I thought you’d understand for sure. I mean,
shit
, I took a big risk when I come to you, Charlie.”
    I cast my eyes down and keep quiet.
    “It’s a big thing for me to trust you, Charlie. It’s dangerous. AndI’m askin you to do the same. I can’t force you to do nuthin. But I hoped you might see things from my end. That’s what you do, right? When you’re readin. You’re seeing what it’s like for other people.”
    I nod.
    “Well, Charlie, you think about this space here, and you think about what this means for me. And think about what I’ve got to do. What the right thing is.”
    I feel grimly resigned. How could things be so messy and complex outside this quiet bubble of land? Laura Wishart, her hanging body—this shouldn’t be our responsibility. It shouldn’t be our hideous problem to solve. We