Hollow Pike (16 page)

‘Kitty!’ she yelled, ignoring sideways glances from the students all around her. ‘Kitty!’

Her screams were lost in the hungry thunder and she started to run as fast as she could across the concrete. Pushing through a group of Year Seven pupils struggling to come in from the rain, Lis
just spotted Kitty charging up the stairs to the top corridor.

‘Kitty!’ she yelled, desperate not to lose her, but judging from the dark, determined look on Kitty’s face, her friend was also on a mission. Had she heard the news too? Or had
she been the first to know? Either way, Kitty failed to stop.

‘Move!’ Lis demanded of the little girls in her way. She squeezed past them and reached the stairs. Kitty was nowhere to be seen.

Feedback shrieked through the halls as the ancient PA system hissed into life. Lis’s hands flew to cover her ears.

‘Attention, all pupils. This is Mr Raynor.’ It was the deputy head. ‘There will be a whole school assembly in the new gymnasium in ten minutes. On the first bell, Years Seven,
Eight and Nine will make their way to the gym. On the second bell, Years Ten, Eleven and Sixth Form will follow.’

He started to repeat the simple instructions, but Lis was already on her way to the gym. Her friends had to be there.

11.17 a.m. Unfortunately, nobody seemed to have followed the bell system. The gymnasium was chaos. Teachers desperately attempted to shepherd their classes into some sort of
order, with younger pupils at the front and the Sixth Form at the very back of the hall.

This was the first time Lis had been in the gymnasium. It was brand new and still had that pristine polish smell, although, as it filled with soaked students, the scent of rain and sweat was
taking over.

Amidst the madness, Lis could clearly see Jack and Delilah already sitting cross-legged on the floor at the other side of the hall. She waved frantically at them, but through the hordes of
milling pupils, they failed to see her. Scanning the hall, Lis couldn’t see Kitty anywhere. The six-foot, mixed race girl with a purple Mohican stood out at the best of times. She plainly
wasn’t in the hall.

‘Lis,’ called Mr Gray, who looked more stressed than she’d ever seen him, ‘can you sit down next to Millie, please?’

She opened her mouth to protest, she
had
to get to Delilah and Jack.

‘Lis. Just sit down. Now!’

It was no use. Fighting the urge to scream in frustration, Lis flopped down next to Millie Carpenter.

Laura Rigg was
dead.
She had thought of that girl almost every hour since she’d met her in G2 on her first day. Now she would never see her again. Laura Rigg. Lis screwed her eyes
shut and pressed her hands to her face. The darkness behind her eyelids flickered, interspersed with the gruesome images she herself had conjured during the murderous meeting in Kitty’s
attic. Kitty, rock in hand, standing over Laura’s body, laughing manically. Jack holding her head under the black waters of the creek. Delilah giggling as Laura choked on a poisoned
alcopop.

‘That’s enough!’ boomed Ms Dandehunt, who was standing on a gymnastics table at the front of the hall, directly below a basketball hoop. The police officers stood just to one
side of her, along with Mr Raynor. She raised a microphone to her lips. ‘Quiet. You know I don’t enjoy shouting, Fulton High.’

The hall quickly fell silent. By now, everyone was desperate to hear the news.

‘I am afraid I have gathered you here to deliver some devastating news. A teacher should never have to say this; I don’t even know where to start. It is with great sorrow that I must
tell you that last night a Year Eleven pupil died in the most tragic circumstances.’

A gasp ran around the auditorium. Some turned to friends, a question on their lips. The texts hadn’t reached everyone, then.

‘To prevent gossip and further distress, I will tell you now that that pupil was Laura Rigg.’

The hall roared to life. Lis sat still and silent as everyone around her exploded with every kind of shock and emotion. Lis put her hands over her ears. Between the noise in her head and the
noise in the room, she couldn’t bear it.

‘Quiet, everybody, please! This is a very serious matter.’ Ms Dandehunt’s face was iron, entirely different to the cuddly creature Lis had experienced in assemblies so far.
‘I will not have speculation or rumour spreading. I understand many of you are distressed at the loss of your fellow pupil. Laura was a dear friend to many of you.’

Lis looked over to Delilah and Jack. They were statues, eyes fixed on Ms Dandehunt, neither moving nor speaking.

‘We have never had such a tragedy at Fulton High School before. I’m afraid I have no reassuring speech, no soothing words. All of us will need support at this dark time.’ Her
voice softened. ‘We have experienced a great loss today. Some of us may have lost people before, others maybe not. But now, more than ever, we need each other, for strength, comfort and love.
This is a very, very sad day. Spare a thought for Laura’s friends and think about her family. Out of respect for them, this will be a day of quiet reflection and school will be
closed.’

No one in the audience, not even the most obnoxious Year Nine boys made a sound at this news. Even the wildest teenagers knew where to draw the line.

‘Spend the day with your families and friends. Reflect on how lucky you are. Or think about Laura and how special she was. Fulton High School won’t be the same without
her.’

School would be a better place without her.
That was what Lis had said in Kitty’s attic, and now her words haunted her.

‘But before you go back to your form rooms, some very important people from the North Yorkshire Police need a few minutes of your time.’

Ms Dandehunt passed the microphone to the female officer who climbed onto the gym table next to her.

‘Hello, Fulton High School, my name is PC Jacqui Briggs. I’m your school liaison officer. Most of you have met me before at some point in lessons.’

Lis again looked over at Delilah and Jack, who were this time subtly trying to get her attention.

Jack seemed to mouth ‘O.M.G.’

Delilah parted her hands and mouthed, ‘Where’s Kitty?’

Lis shrugged.

‘I am so very sorry, guys,’ PC Briggs continued. ‘This must be a huge shock. It’s the worst possible thing when someone dies, but it is especially dreadful when
it’s someone so young. I know a lot of you knew Laura and will want to talk to your parents and friends, but there are a couple of messages from us before you can go.’

Lis noted that Delilah now seemed to be highly agitated and Jack was trying to calm her. She longed to be with them and know what they were saying. Did they look guilty? She couldn’t be
sure.

‘We need you to be extra sensitive and careful right now, guys. There will be a police investigation, and we will need your help with that. We’ll be talking to some of you in the
next few days as we gather information. I’m sure you’ll do everything you can to be as cooperative as possible. You can also help us by staying well away from Pike Copse. Thank you,
Fulton, that’s everything for now.’

The room once again erupted into chaos as pupils clambered over each other to reach their friends. Teachers tried their best to establish calm, but with little effect. Lis witnessed some Year
Eleven girls collapse into each other’s arms. A number of classmates looked around dazedly, unsure of what to say or do. Lis just stood there, numb to it all. Suddenly it felt as if there
were too many colours in the room.

She saw Delilah rush from the gymnasium, closely followed by Jack. Her head told her to chase after them, but her feet would not move. And that’s when she realised that tears were flowing
freely down her face.

Q & A

Lis went home and slept for the rest of the day. Darkness came. She heard her sister and Max talking quietly outside her room, but she remained in hibernation under her duvet.
Later still, Sarah tapped on the door and entered bearing a cup of tea and a cheese toastie, but Lis still hid under the duvet. Under the duvet Laura’s murder wasn’t real.

She slept all night and when the vanilla light of dawn flowed through her curtains, she rolled to the wall and kept her eyes shut.

She dozed, dreaming that Laura was alive and well and her death had been only a nightmare. Sweet relief. Each time she woke, Lis experienced the gut-wrenching prospect that one of her closest
friends might be a cold-blooded murderer. It was agony.

Her mind ran over and over the conversation she and Laura had had at the edge of the copse. She remembered Laura’s haunted eyes, so full of secrets. What had she known? What was she caught
up in? Whatever it was had led to her death. Worse still, did Lis’s own friends have the answers? So many questions; it felt as if they were tearing her brain to shreds.

Lis herself had wished Laura dead.
Be careful what you wish for.

It was nearly noon when Lis woke up hungry. Heavy rain battered the patio doors and the growl of thunder echoed sporadically.

Was there any possible way she could opt out of today? Lis groaned and kicked back the duvet. No, today she had to find her friends. Difficult questions badly needed asking.

Slipping on a plush white dressing gown, she crossed the hallway. At the top of the stairs she heard voices floating up from the kitchen. Sarah was chatting to Logan and he babbled back to her.
It was so normal, so real, so comforting.

Shocked to see Lis enter the kitchen, Sarah looked up from the newspaper she was reading. ‘Hello, stranger!’ She smiled warmly. ‘How are you?’

Logan was playing happily on the floor with a set of plastic cups. His little hands and tufts of soft, fair hair somehow cracked Lis’s shell. Crossing the kitchen, she swept her nephew
into her arms and held him close.

‘Lis?’ Sarah said gently.

‘I’m fine. Really. I just needed to sleep.’

‘I’m the same when I’m down. Everything always seems better in the morning, though.’

Lis felt tears pricking her eyes and she kissed Logan’s head, breathing in the scent of talc and baby lotion.

‘Do you want something to eat?’ Sarah asked.

‘Yes, please,’ Lis said. ‘I’m starving! Do we have any fruit? I have a craving for fruit, ice-cream and pancakes.’

‘Done, done and done.’ Sarah rose from her chair. ‘You stick the kettle on.’

Lis replaced Logan, who was beginning to wriggle, and quickly filled the kettle. Leaning against the counter, her gaze fell on Sarah’s newspaper. It took her a second to realise the face
on the front cover was that of her former best friend/worst enemy.

Sarah turned back from the fridge-freezer, her arms full of eggs and ice cream. She paused, realising why Lis had frozen.

‘Oh, God! Lis, I’m sorry! Don’t look at that!’

Lis shook her head. ‘No, it’s OK. This all really happened. I’ll have to get used to the news, won’t I?’ She slipped into a chair at the big family table and took a
deep breath before starting to read.

‘It’s sad how people always think it’s the parents,’ Lis commented, reading the subtext. ‘How sick is that?’

Sarah sat beside her and rubbed her hand. ‘I know, but that’s the world we live in. You should have heard the conversations in the post office yesterday. So much gossip.’

Lis remembered the public spat Laura and her dad had shared in town. Surely it wasn’t significant, though? Surely it had just been a teenage diva moment.

‘What do you think they mean by “ritual-style killing”?’ Lis murmured.

‘I’ve no idea, hon. I dread to think.’

The story continued on page three. No further information was given on how Laura had died and, although Lis didn’t want the gory details, the words ‘ritual-style killing’ had
tapped into her own fears. Rituals might involve hooded capes and ceremonial daggers – the things she and her friends had had that night, inspired by what Lis had seen in Mrs
Gillespie’s book.