Spirit Seeker Read Online Free PDF

toward the backyard.
    I started to follow them, but just then one of the neighbors across the street shouted, “There he is! There’s Cody!”
    He had parked down the street, as close as he could get to his house with the swarm of trucks and cars in the way, and he stood without moving, staring at his house as though what he saw weren’t real but part of a bad dream. As he took in the police tape, he stumbled forward, his eyes frantically searching the crowd. “What’s going on?” he cried out. “Where’s my mom? Where’s Dad?”
    Giddy with relief, I shouted Cody’s name and ran toward him, grabbing his shoulders. For a moment he didn’t seem to see me or know me, but finally he focused in on my face long enough to question me. “Holly, where are my parents? What’s happening here?”
    Dad stepped up and took charge of the situation. “Please come with me, Cody,” he said, and led Cody around to the side of the house, through the back gate, and into the kitchen. I wasn’t about to get left out, so I followed.
    “Sit down, please,” Dad said gently.
    Without question, Cody did, staring down at the tabletop as if he were mesmerized. I sat beside him and reached for his hand, holding it tightly. Dad pulled out a chair across from Cody and straddled it.
    Briefly, without details, he quietly told Cody that his parents had been murdered.
    “Cody,” I whispered, “I’m sorry, I’m terribly sorry.”
    Cody wrenched his hand away from mine, dropped his head onto his arms, and sobbed loudly, the way a little kid would cry.
    Dad squinted with embarrassment and got up from the table, standing at the sink where he could stare out the window into the backyard, but I put an arm around Cody’s shoulders and held him tightly.
    Finally Cody’s sobs became shudders. He shoved back his chair, grabbed a wad of tissues from a box on the counter, and mopped at his face. His face was swollen, red, and blotchy. I wanted to comfort him, but I realized that no one could possibly know how horrible he must feel.
    “How did it happen?” Cody asked.
    “They were stabbed with a knife.” Dad fixed his gaze on a wall rack that held a graduated set of knives with polished black-and-white bone handles.Cody and I followed Dad’s glance. The third slot from the left was empty, leaving a gap like a lost tooth. “Incidentally,” Dad said, “we haven’t been able to find the missing knife.”
    Cody groaned and swayed. I hung on to him, trying to steady him. “When … when did it happen?” Cody asked. “And why? Do you know who did it?”
    Dad sat down again and countered with a question of his own. “Are you up to supplying us with some information?”
    Cody’s voice grew stronger, even a little belligerent, as he snapped, “You didn’t answer
my
questions.” He still hadn’t looked at me. He didn’t even look at Dad but kept his gaze firmly on the tabletop.
    I told myself that Cody was probably still in shock, yet there was something about the way he was behaving that made me uncomfortable. I believed in his innocence because he was my friend, and after what Mr. Arlington told us, I was positive Cody was innocent. But I had the creepy feeling that Cody was hiding something.
    It wasn’t Cody Dad spoke to, it was me. “You may leave now, Holly.”
    Cody surprised me by grasping my hand and inching his chair toward mine. “Please let her stay, Mr. Campbell,” he said, and for an instant his voice wavered. “Right now I need a friend.”
    His hand was clammy, and fear trembled like an electric shock from his body into mine. “Don’t be afraid,” I told him. I willed him to look at meso he could read the message in my eyes, but again he glanced down at the table.
    “Let me stay, at least for a little while,” I begged Dad.
    Dad didn’t give me a yes or a no. As though I’d become invisible, he went on to tell Cody everything he’d told Mom and me about the loud music and the complaining neighbor who’d