Covert Page 5

  My eyes widened. "This is a blood test?" I hated blood tests and needles.

  "Yes. Roll your sleeve up, please."

  I wanted to ask if it was voluntary, but I suspected not. I pulled my sleeve up and looked away, biting on my bottom lip. They were never as bad as I worked myself up to believe, but I still hated having it done. "What are you testing for?"

  "Drugs," she replied bluntly.

  Weren't they required to tell you what it was exactly if you asked? I didn't push it and question her further; I just wanted to hurry up and get out. I needed to see my parents and go home. What was supposed to be a chilled out, drunken weekend, messing around with my friends, had ended up with murder, blood and police stations. It was as if I were on a TV show.

  The needle stabbed at my skin and pierced its way through. I held my breath. I could feel a stinging pain as she extracted my blood. This is nothing compared to what Courtney went through. I swallowed the lump in my throat. Had she been in pain long? Did she pray for death?

  "Alright," she said, gently pulling the needle out and placing a cotton wool ball over the tiny hole. "All done. You can wait with your friends in the front. I believe your parents will be here soon." Thank God!

  "Okay, thanks," I replied and hurried out of the room.

  Wiping my tears, I stepped through the door and into the entrance area. Aaron, Kyle and Megan sat on the chairs by the front door. I sat beside a shaking Megan and rubbed my arms, suddenly feeling the cold.

  "Where's Blake?" I asked.

  Megan nodded to the door. "Speaking to his dad on the phone. He's in Hong Kong, apparently, and trying to get a flight back."

  "He doesn't even seem that upset," Aaron said, watching Blake through the glass. "What does that tell you?"

  "That he's just seen his brother's dead body and he's in shock. Same as us," I replied.

  How could Aaron judge him like that? There was no set way you had to react when you lost someone you loved. Everyone reacted to grief and loss differently. I surprised myself by being too calm. When it was Tilly and Gigi I was a mess. But I saw them die. I watched Tilly cry until she fell silent and I heard Gigi whisper something unintelligible before her eyes closed. This time was different. Better and worse in different ways. This time everything was up in the air and having me and my friends accused overshadowed everything else.

  Aaron shook his head. "Why do you have to try to see the good in everyone?" Why was that a bad thing? I frowned. "It's pathetic, Mackenzie."

  "That's enough!" Kyle said.

  Aaron sighed heavily and said, "Shit. I'm sorry, Kenz, I shouldn't have said that. I guess it's not a bad thing." I could tell by how tight and tense his eyes were that it almost hurt him to apologise. Aaron was stubborn and hated to admit he was wrong. Some of his ideas had screwed him over, but he still went steaming ahead, choosing to make the problem worse rather than admitting he was wrong and moving on.

  Wright walked up to us, owning the room. I felt as if he was trying to pull the truth from our minds. "You're all free to go," he said, "but don't go far." Turning on his heel, he walked out. I would have thought he would keep us in, questioning us for hours. His tactics were odd and unnerving.

  I stood and took a deep breath. What were my parents going to think? I knew they would believe me when I told them I didn't hurt Josh or Courtney, but would they believe none of us had? I needed them to be on my side and trust that I knew my friends.

  I followed Aaron and Kyle out; Megan trailed behind in a daze. My hands shook as Kyle pushed open the door. All of our parents stood outside talking to two officers. My dad looked like he was about to punch one of them and run in to find me. Mum's eyes were red and blotchy, standing out against her unusually pale skin. I gulped as her eyes fell on me.

  "Oh, Mackenzie," Mum said, her voice broken and full of emotion. I stumbled forwards; my legs barely carried me forwards and into her arms. "Shh, it's okay," she whispered softly and stroked my hair.

  Chapter Six

  I sat in my lounge with my parents, Megan, Aaron, Kyle, and their parents, Blake and his grandparents. His dad wasn't here. I didn't know why but I didn't want to ask. His mum was a mess.

  My dad who had taken charge, sat on the footstool, facing everyone. We looked like we were having a meeting about the five of us skipping school rather than how we were going to deal with Courtney and Josh's murder and the investigation.

  The other dads and Blake's granddad had gripped the situation by both hands and were ploughing off into what should happen and what we should do. Leave this to the men. They were determined to fix things for their families.

  Blake said nothing, not one word other than a grunted hi when he arrived twenty minutes ago. I felt sorry for him; he was the only one who didn't have both parents there for him, he didn't even have one parent.

  Megan huddled up under her dad's arm like a small child that was afraid of everything. Aaron and Kyle acted their usual we'll-fix-it-and-be-strong-for-the-girls selves. A hug wouldn't do it this time though. Kyle spent days at mine when Tilly and Gigi died, trying to help me and I loved having him there but this was different, we were being accused of killing Courtney and Josh. One of us could go down for something we hadn't done and nothing would make that okay.

  "We don't know if they have found the clothes the murderer was wearing or the knife used, so until something turns up to prove their innocence, they are looking at any one of them," Dad said. "We need you all to be straight with us, did you let anyone else in the cabin? I know we said not to but--"

  "No, Dad," I replied. Getting in trouble for having someone over was so far down on the list compared to being accused of murder. "We've told you it was just us. Aaron and Megan went for a walk and then Blake and I did. After that, we all stayed in. We drank, had some dinner and drank some more. When we woke up we found them."

  "I just don't understand how you didn't hear anything," Megan's mum, Judy, said.

  Aaron leant forwards. "We were all out of it on booze."

  I looked away as my dad's brow creased at Aaron's words. His little girl wasn't supposed to get off her face. "Hmm, was it only alcohol?" Dad questioned.

  "What?" I asked, blinking in shock. Was he really asking if we were druggies? "Dad, yes!"

  "It just seems very strange that anyone could be so out of it on alcohol that they heard nothing, let alone five people. We need to know now if you've taken drugs."

  "Dad!"

  "Mackenzie, you won't be in trouble if you have, we just need to know."

  "Honestly, Mr Keaton," Blake said, "we didn't touch any drugs." Hearing Blake call someone by their title and surname was weird, too polite.

  Dad nodded once. "Okay, I believe you."

  "They'll realise it wasn't us soon though, won't they?" Megan whispered from between her parents.

  "I hope so, Megan," Dad replied, "but until then we need to get a few things straight. Lawyers."

  "I don't think that's a good idea yet," Kyle said. "That makes us look guilty."

  Dad smiled. "I agree, Kyle. It's something we need to consider and research though, but for now I think it's best that we don't hire anyone. We need to show the police and the community that you have nothing to hide."

  "But shouldn't they have someone present when they're being questioned?" Aaron's mum asked.

  "I'm not sure that sends out the right message," Dad said. "We want to show the police especially that there's no need for anyone else to be present. They have nothing to hide and they won't trip up because they're innocent."

  The community, people that had watched me grow up and been there at my christening, birthdays, waved as I set off for prom, now thought I could be a killer. I couldn't go out of the house without people staring. No one ever said anything to my face, but I could feel their words creeping over me like a swarm of ants. I had never been so disappointed in people before.

  "We need to get the locals behind you more so you all need to continue going out and doing what you do. G
o to the funerals as you normally would. I know some of you expressed some concern over attending, but you have as much right as everyone else to say goodbye to your friends. Don't act guilty because you're afraid of what people think." Dad paused to look at us.

  "And that goes for me too?" Blake asked, frowning almost sarcastically.

  "Yes," Dad replied. "I know people don't know you but don't shut yourself off because you're the most likely one to have done it."

  My dad was a pretty good judge of character so the fact that he didn't think Blake was responsible, backed up what I already knew. I had been told from a very young age that your gut instinct was usually right and listening to it had saved me a few times. If I hadn't listened to it about Arsehole Ashley, I would have been the one to be cheated on, rather than the poor victim he asked out when I turned him down.

  "What about enemies of Joshua and Courtney?" Judy asked. "It doesn't make sense that it was random because only they were harmed, right?"

  "Yeah, I guess," I replied, forcing the thought from my head. It could have been random, and Josh and Courtney were just the only ones to have caught them sneaking in. We were out of it, so there was no point in killing us, too.

  "Well, does anyone know of any?" she asked. "Nothing little and silly, it has to have been something big to kill for. I know Joshua made a few enemies after Giana and Tilly died, but I don't think those were anything too serious. There can't be many people with a strong grudge."

  "I can't think of any that would go that far," Aaron replied.

  "Me neither," I said. Kyle shrugged, and Megan shook her head. "No one at school or uni hated either of them that much."

  Dad rubbed his forehead - something he did when he was deep in thought and trying hard to figure something out. It was his tax return and helping me with my university applications face. "Okay, let's go through this one more time, so we're all on the same page. When you got to the cabin you unpacked, Aaron and Megan, and then Blake and Mackenzie were the only ones to leave, right?"

  Aaron nodded and replied, "Yeah, we went for a walk in the forest."

  "How long were you away for?"

  "I dunno, about half an hour."

  "It was more like forty-five minutes," Megan said, correcting Aaron.

  Dad rubbed his head again. "Okay. And you didn't see anyone or anything?"

  "Just trees, a shed, the other lodge in the distance and the lake."

  They must have walked quite far then; there were only five lodges at the park, and they were spaced really far apart. If Blake's parents sold theirs now, they would be rollin' in it.

  "Right, the rest of you were doing what while they were out?"

  I bit my lip. "Drinking."

  His eyes tightened. He knew I drank; they both did, but not so irresponsibly. "I see. So you unpacked and drank?"

  "Yes," I whispered. "Megan and Aaron came back, we continued drinking, Blake and I went out for about an hour, then we all made dinner, ate, and drank again."

  "And no one left the lodge at any point in the evening? Not even to take some rubbish out?"

  "No."

  "And no one came by?"

  "No."

  Dad sighed. "Did you see or meet anyone on the way there? Tell anyone you don't know where you were going?"

  I shook my head. "No."

  "Who knew where you were? Just family?"

  Kyle scoffed. "Everyone, literally. We had posts and pictures all over Facebook. I think Courtney even checked-in."

  "Checked-in?" Dad asked.

  I rolled my eyes. "It's a Facebook thing, Dad. You can check in using your location."

  "And everyone can see where you are?" he asked, raising his voice and his eyebrows. Uh oh. "Mackenzie, I--"

  Holding my hands up, I felt my face heat at being nineteen and getting told off in front of my friends. "Okay, I got it. I won't do it." I had no desire to tell the whole world my every movement anyway. "Can we move on?"

  He shook his head as if to say the youth of today, and raised his hands. My dad was a hand gesturer. "So you're at a cabin in the woods that we now know anyone could have found you at. You saw no one else and let no one in. Now we need to ask ourselves who would have wanted to follow you there."

  Megan's mum shook her head and dabbed under her eyes. No one had properly cried yet, besides Megan. I thought being here and going over everything someone would. We were all still in shock, but for how long? Soon enough we would have to face what was happening properly, and DI Wright had only just started. What if one of us went down for something we hadn't done? I gulped and looked up at my dad, praying the man who fixed all of my problems growing up would be able to solve this one, too.

  Chapter Seven

  I could feel all eyes on us. It had been that way for the last four days. Wherever I went people watched me, whispering things like 'there she is', 'it can't be her' or 'it's usually the nice ones'. Women who spent their days drinking tea with my mum while they planned yet another village fete crossed the street when they saw me.

  Josh's mum, Eloise, had welcomed us into her house for the wake, knowing we weren't the ones who hurt them, but his other relatives seemed quick to judge and assume. Megan gripped my hand; she hadn't looked up since we walked through the door.

  I thought the police would want their bodies longer but apparently not. I was always surprised by how quickly people were buried, but I suppose you wouldn't want to leave them too long. The healing process could start once you had said goodbye - something my mum swore by. I disagreed. The funeral was the goodbye, but after you had to piece your life back together and find a way of dealing with the absence of that person. The after the goodbye was the hardest bit.

  "We shouldn't have come here," Kyle whispered, darting his hazel eyes around the room. He was nervous and on edge.

  I frowned. "We have as much right as everyone else. We've done nothing wrong, and we're allowed to say goodbye, too."

  "But his family clearly doesn't want us here," Aaron added, speaking through his teeth.

  "We won't stay long. Just long enough to show Eloise and Blake we're here for them."

  Aaron scoffed. "We should be looking a little closer at Blake."

  Rolling my eyes, I replied, "Why's that?"

  "Who is the most likely killer, Mackenzie?"

  I shrugged. "I don't know. Some crazy guy out in the woods that somehow got in and--"

  Kyle sighed sharply. "No one got in though. Aaron's right, it has to be Blake."

  "It's not him, Kyle."

  "Why not? What's going on with you two?"

  "What? Nothing's going on. Josh is his brother. I'm sorry if I don't believe the guy we spent a day with is capable of killing his own brother!" I shook my head. Every time anyone mentioned it was one of us I became defensive. How could they think that? I worried they thought it could be me. Would that ever cross one of their minds? I hoped they knew me better.

  "They're not close, and he clearly didn't like Josh," Megan said.

  "Well, neither did we! Look, let's not do this here. After Courtney's funeral tomorrow, we should do something else. A formal wake isn't what she would want," I said to change the subject. They didn't know that I'd slept with Blake and right now I didn't want them to. It was sort of a forgotten subject with Blake too. There was just too much going on to have that talk.

  Courtney's funeral was going to be hard. I didn't want to go and be forced to acknowledge that I wouldn't see her again, but I had to. At Tilly and Gigi's funerals, me, Megan and Courtney clung to each other, supporting each other. Now it was just me and Megan, and as hard as Megan tried she wasn't good at supporting, she was too emotionally selfish.

  She nodded, her hair moving today as she toned down on the hairspray, probably because she couldn't be bothered. "Okay. Can we just go soon? Please."

  "In a bit," I replied. "For Josh we should stay a little while, unless Eloise asks us to leave."

  Josh and Blake's dad wasn't here. He hadn't been able to get back i
n time and Eloise refused to wait. He was due to arrive in the UK later tonight. I felt so sorry for him missing his own son's funeral. Eloise should have waited. It was wrong and selfish of her not to. She should have put Josh before her hatred for her ex-husband. I could tell Blake wanted his dad here, he was surrounded by family, but he barely knew any of them.

  Out of the corner of my eye I saw Blake get up and leave the room. "I'll be back in a minute," I said. He had barely said a word the whole morning, just one-word answers or grunts.

  He was in the hallway when I found him, looking up at a large collage of pictures in a huge glass frame. Without looking at me, he said, "I'm only in three of these." There had to be over sixty pictures, and he was right, they were all of Josh with the exception of three, which included Blake, too.

  "I'm sorry."

  "Don't be sorry, Mackenzie, it's not your fault. He was her favourite, always had been. Even when we were all together, she preferred him. It was always her little 'Joshie'. He was the last child she was going to have, so she put everything into him, and I was left with next to fuck all."

  I gulped at the tone in his voice. He sounded bitter. I found that understandable though. He felt like his mum didn't love him and favoured his brother, but Josh was dead now. Stuff in the past shouldn't matter when someone had died, or perhaps I just didn't know how it felt and how deep this feeling of inadequacy ran for Blake.

  I looked around, trying to casually see if anyone had heard us, but we were alone. I knew his words would make my friends think it was him even more. He may have resented his mum and brother, but that didn't make him a killer.

  "She loves you. Blake, Josh is gone now; you and your mum have to support each other."

  "Why?" He arched his eyebrow and looked into my eyes. I gulped at the fierceness of his smouldering blue eyes. "She was never there for me. She was never there."

  "You've both lost so much. You should use this as a chance to bring you both closer together. Don't let Josh's death be for nothing."

  "But it was for nothing. I feel like I'm at a stranger's funeral in a stranger's house." His eyes narrowed. "I don't want a relationship with her." He turned and walked back into the lounge, leaving me speechless. How could he say that? I didn't believe it for a second. He wouldn't look so beat up if he didn't care.