The Dead Place Read Online Free PDF

slipped their first semester, that she had time to make things right.
    Time had crept up on her along with ten extra pounds. It wasn’t “freshman fifteen” no matter what her brothers said. As if it hadn’t been bad enough going back home with crappy grades, she’d had to put up with them making fun of her. “Some guys like a girl with a little extra meat,” Brad said, poking her in the side, and Jim laughed right along with him.
    She tugged self-consciously at the waistband of her jeans, which was digging uncomfortably into her stomach. It was why she was walking through town. Part of her new plan to cram in exercise where she could, which, coupled with ridding her diet of fat, sugar, and anything yummy, would have her shedding pounds so fast that Brad and Jim would just have to eat their words.
    They were just jealous because she’d gotten as far as college, and when she had a degree and a good job they’d still be squeezing cow teats and kicking manure off the soles of their boots.
    She sighed as she passed Corner Bakery. The smell of freshly made muffins and doughnuts didn’t help her resolve. There was already a queue of people in the shop and she hurried past, determined not to indulge. She wouldn’t yield to temptation, not this year.
    A smiling face looked out at her from a faded poster taped to a lamppost. Rain had washed out the word MISSING printed in caps under the picture. Red ink streaked through the plea for information below.
    There were dozens of these posters when Lily Slocum first went missing, but now they had faded or simply vanished, torn from telephone poles or covered up by new signs.
    Still, it wasn’t as if Lily had been forgotten. There were new security warnings on campus about leaving dorm doors unlocked or walking unescorted late at night, even though everybody knew that Lily disappeared in broad daylight.
    It was warm outside, but Barbara shivered anyway just thinking about it. It wasn’t as if she’d known Lily well, not really, but they’d taken Geo Sci 146 together. Sitting in the same row of the lecture hall for an entire semester counted as some sort of bond even if they never said more than hello outside of class.
    Lily had been friendly during Geo Sci, but she was a junior so naturally she didn’t want to hang out with a newbie freshman. That was what Barbara tried to think, but a part of her always suspected that the real reason Lily never suggested getting together outside of class was because she didn’t want to hang out with someone below her standards.
    Lily was one of the beautiful people, those lucky few who beat the genetic crapshoot. She could sit there mainlining M&Ms in class yet never gain a pound, and even when she showed up for class without makeup and with her long blond hair pulled back in a messy knot, guys would still turn to look at her.
    The truth was that Barbara had been sort of jealous of her. She’d felt bad about that after Lily disappeared. It was weird, thinking of someone just vanishing like that, but maybe she’d just taken off with some guy. That’s what a lot of people said.
    Wickfield’s business district wasn’t much, just a lot of stores that appealed mainly to old people—they didn’t even have a Gap—but there was a decent college bookstore and two pizzerias and even one cheap sit-down restaurant that catered to students. Not that she was going to eat out this semester. This semester she was definitely eating in and saving her money.
    Barbara felt a little pang, thinking of all the pizza she’d enjoyed last year, but then she pushed it out of her mind and picked up her pace. Her focus had to be on class work or she was never going to have the grades to get into grad school. Not that she knew what she wanted to do yet, but she knew she wasn’t going back to the dairy farm.
    She walked briskly past Evers Hardware and its display of old-fashioned bamboo rakes, and past First National Bank where a teller about her age was grabbing