The Dead Tracks Read Online Free PDF

Park.'
        'No.
I mean, originally.'
        She
was still frowning. 'South Africa.'
        'I
thought so. Nice part of the world. I used to live in South Africa.'
        For
the first rime something shifted in her expression: the hardness, the
stillness, replaced by a slight softening of the muscles. 'What part?' she
asked.
        'Johannesburg'
        She
nodded, but her face hardly moved this time, as if she wasn't actually
listening to me. I studied her for a moment, the look in her face, her hand
moving against her leg, and for the first time wondered if it was shyness
preventing her from opening up or something else.
        'Kaitlin?'
        She
turned and faced me.
        'Can
you go over what happened?'
        'I
spent lunchtime with Meg,' she said quietly. 'Then, first period, I had
History, and she had Physics. Between periods, we were meant to meet at the lockers
in the Science block, but I waited there and she didn't turn up.'
        'Why
meet at the lockers?'
        She
frowned, looked at Lindsey. We always did that.'
        'Before
Biology?'
        'Yes.
Unless we had a free period together before. If we had a free period, Linds,
Meg and me would probably go to the library or the Sixth Form block.'
        'Did
Megan seem all right that day?'
        'Fine.'
        'She
didn't seem off colour or worried about anything?'
        'No.'
        'Just
like her normal self?'
        'Pretty
much.'
        I
paused. 'Pretty much?'
        Kaitlin
shrugged. 'Like I told the police, she said she'd had a headache for a couple
of days. Nothing major. Just kind of a fuzzy head.'
        I
wrote that down, and then we started talking about Megan generally — what she
was like, her personality, how she'd scored straight As in her GCSEs. Lindsey
did all of the talking. It didn't amount to much. Most of it dovetailed with
what the Carvers had already told me: serious about school, serious about
making a career for herself, serious about not letting anything get in the way.
Basically the most unlikely runaway you could get.
        'Did
Megan get on all right with the teachers here?'
        'Who
gets on with teachers ?' Lindsey said.
        'She
wasn't close to one of them in particular?'
        Lindsey
frowned.
        'I'm
looking for reasons why she might have disappeared.'
        Her
mouth formed an O, as if she suddenly got the line of questioning, then she
shook her head. 'I don't think so. In science, a lot of the teachers are women
anyway.'
        I
nodded. 'Her dad said she used to work in a video store…'
        'Yeah,'
Lindsey replied. 'She did two weekends a month. But I think that place closed
down about three months ago.'
        'Okay.
But did she ever meet anyone while she was there?'
        'I
don't think so.' She paused, looked at Kaitlin, got no help and turned to me
again. 'No one apart from Charlie - but she already knew him.'
        'Who's
Charlie?'
        'Charlie
Bryant.'
         'Charles Bryant?'
        Lindsey
nodded again.
        'The kid
whose mum died?'
        'Yeah.'
        'Were
the two of them friendly?'
        'They
went out for a while.'
        'For
how long?'
        'I
don't know… couple of months.'
        'When
was this?'
        'After
his mum died.'
        'A
year ago?'
        Yeah.
He was hard work, though.' She paused, as if she might have just realized why.
'I mean, he'd just lost his mum. You can understand that.' 'Is that why they
split up?'
        'Megan
said she felt sorry for him, but she didn't really fancy him. After a couple of
months, she called it off.'
        'How
did he take it?'
        'He
was upset. He really, really liked her. But he seemed to be okay.'
        'Was
he still working in the video store when Megan disappeared?'
        'I
think so.'
        'So
they still spoke?'
        'Yeah.'
        'And
got on pretty well?'
        'Yeah,
I'd say so…' Lindsey glanced at