November Lake: Teenage Detective (The November Lake Mysteries) Book 1 Read Online Free PDF Page A

mention of future mysteries to be
solved.
    “ Exactly,” he beamed.
    I threw
my case onto the back seat of Kale’s car then climbed in beside
him. With both of us grinning with a feverish excitement, Kale
drove the car out of the police training school car park and I
couldn’t help but wonder what our next adventure might
be.

The Kidnapping at Blackwater Farm

 
    The man
wouldn’t stop staring at me. He stood in the bright neon light that
lit the petrol station. It was like he was peeking at me over the
top of his 4X4 as he filled it with petrol. He couldn’t have been
any older than thirty, and had collar-length blonde hair that blew
back off his brow in the growing wind. But it was his eyes, so dark
in colour they appeared pupil-less. They seemed to bore right into
me as if breaking through my skin to see what lay beneath. I broke
his stare and looked back at Kale, who had now finished filling his
car and was heading across the garage forecourt to the kiosk. I
wasn’t one to be easily spooked, but the stranger’s stare had made
the hairs stand up on the nape of my neck. Pulling my coat tight
about me, I hunched forward against the cold night wind and headed
after Kale, my long hair flapping about my shoulders and down the
length of my back.
    Reaching
the door of the kiosk, Kale pulled it open, and glancing back over
his shoulder, he looked at me. “Why not wait in the car? It’s cold
out here.”
    “ I’m hungry,” I lied. “I’m going to get some
chocolate.”
    I
stepped inside the kiosk and out of the cold.
    “ Are you okay, November?” Kale asked, a frown creasing his good
looks. “You look kinda freaked out.”
    “ Don’t look now,” I said, my back to the window that faced the
forecourt, “but there’s a guy filling up a 4x4 and he won’t stop
staring at me. Kinda just creeped me out I guess.”
    “ What guy?” Kale said, glancing over my shoulder and out across
the garage.
    “ Don’t look!” I sighed. “He’ll know we’re talking about
him.”
    “ There isn’t any 4x4,” Kale said, that frown growing ever
deeper. “There isn’t any guy, either.”
    I turned
around on the heels of my boots and gasped. The guy had gone. How
could that be possible? He wouldn’t have had time to get in his car
and drive away. “But he was right there,” I said, pointing at the
pump.
    “ Not anymore.” Kale shrugged.
    “ But he hasn’t paid for his petrol,” I said, turning to face
Kale again.
    Kale
looked at me, the frown fading. “He probably paid at the pump with
his credit card. I would’ve done the same if it wasn’t for the fact
I’m way overdrawn. How I’m gonna make it through to payday, I do
not know.”
    “ He was staring at me,” I said, following Kale as he made his
way to the counter, fishing out his wallet.
    “ So,” Kale shrugged again. “You’re a pretty girl.”
    “ He wasn’t looking at me like that…” I started.
    “ How then?”
    Like he had seen a ghost, I wanted to
say, but didn’t for fear of Kale laughing at me. “I’m not sure,” I
whispered instead, looking back at where the man had been
standing.
    “ Chocolate?”
    “ Huh?” I said, turning to face Kale.
    “ You said you wanted to get some chocolate,” he said, now at
the counter.
    “ No,” I said with a shake of my head. “I’ve lost my
appetite.”
    “ Just the petrol and a pack of these,” Kale said, picking up a
packet of mints. He handed money to the pimply-faced guy at the
cash register.
    “ Do you have CCTV?” I suddenly asked him.
    “ CCTV?” the guy asked, shooting me a sideways glance. “What do
you want to view the CCTV for? Is there a problem?”
    “ No, problem,” Kale said, taking me by the arm and guiding me
back toward the kiosk door. “I know what you’re up to,
November.”
    “ And what’s that?” I said, shaking my arm free.
    “ You want to see what happened to that guy,” Kale said, pulling
open the door and stepping back out into the cold. “You want