November Lake: Teenage Detective (The November Lake Mysteries) Book 1 (3 page)

“
Give it up,” Kale yelled into the dark. “We know it was you
who killed Anne.”

The
shuffling noise came again and it was disorientating as we spun
around, both of us desperate to follow the sound. The noise
suddenly stopped and all I could hear was my own racing heart in my
ears.

“
Where do you think he is?” I whispered, my eyes fixed on the
ceiling.

Kale
didn’t answer, he stood rigid and I couldn’t even hear him
breathing as he waited for the sound to come again. Then, covering
his lips with one forefinger, he looked at me from out of the gloom
and tiptoed towards Griffin’s bedroom door. I crept across the
landing and joined him. There was a sudden rumbling sound like
thunder from above as Griffin raced across the loft space. Without
further hesitation, Kale launched himself against the door. The
wooden frame splintered as the door flew suddenly inwards. Shoulder
to shoulder we stood in the open doorway and peered into the room.
It was empty and the hatch in the ceiling was closed. A crashing
noise came from behind us, and we spun around, hearts racing
fast.

“
That came from my room,” I cried, racing across the landing,
cuffs in hand. Yanking the door handle with my free hand, I threw
the door open. Glancing up I could see the hatch in the ceiling had
been pulled aside. A blast of cold air hit me and I looked across
the room to see that my bedroom window had been opened.

“
He’s gone out of the window!” Kale snapped, barging past me
and across the room in pursuit of Griffin.

Kale
sprang up onto the window ledge. Before I’d had a chance to shout
out any kind of warning, Kale had disappeared into the darkness
too. Over the roar of the growing wind, I heard someone cry out in
pain. With the handcuffs still in my fist, I raced across the room
to the window. I peered down into the darkness and could see Kale
lying in the grass below clutching his ankle. Icy drops of rain had
started to fall and they splashed down into Kale’s upturned face as
he looked at me peering out of the window.

“
Get after him!” Kale yelled over the boom of the wind. He
pointed towards a grassy bank that led away from the training
block.

I looked
in the direction he was pointing to see Griffin’s form outlined
against a slither of moonlight as he struggled up the steep slope.
Turning on the balls of my feet, I dashed from the room, across the
short landing and down the stairs. I pushed hard against the
training block door and raced out into the darkness. At once my
bare feet sploshed into the puddles that were now forming on the
pathway. Placing one hand before my eyes so as to see through the
driving rain, I could just make out Griffin disappearing over the
brow of the slope and into the darkness. There was no time for me
to go back and get my trainers or throw on a coat. What sort of cop
would I be if I let a killer get away from me? Wasn’t this one of
the many reasons I joined the police force – to catch those who
hurt others.

“
Don’t let him get away!” I heard Kale shout.

I shot a
glance to my left, to see Kale dragging himself to his feet in the
mud. He slipped and dropped onto his knees again.

Looking
back at the steep, rain drenched slope, I charged towards it. The
wind buffeted into me, and I lurched forward, taking hold of a
clump of grass with my free hand. In the other, I gripped the set
of handcuffs. I kept my balance. With my heart thumping and my hair
in my eyes, I clawed my way upwards. My feet slipped in the mud
over and over again. I dropped to my knees, sending up sheets of
ice cold rainwater. It spattered my pyjamas, face and hair. I
wouldn’t give up.

Wispy
plumes of breath escaped from my mouth. I gasped in freezing cold
lungful’s of night air. I reached the top of the grassy slope.
Arming lengths of my own wet hair from my eyes, I peered down the
other side and into the darkness. There was a small wooded area. I
looked backwards to see Kale still trying to claw his way towards
me. His injured leg dragged out behind him in the mud. I looked
back at those thick slices of darkness set between the trees and
knew Griffin was hiding someplace in there. Half of me wanted to
turn back or wait for Kale at least. But I was a police officer now
and they didn’t get to run away from danger. They were expected to
run towards it. I thought of Anne lying face down on the bed with
that black sticky looking wound on the back of her head. Drawing a
deep breath and clutching the handcuffs to my chest, I headed down
the grassy slope. I had only taken a few steps when I slipped and
landed on my butt.

I cried
out as the air was squeezed from my lungs. The wind was blowing so
hard now; I doubted anyone would have heard my cry. I rolled onto
my front at the bottom of the slope. My feet were almost numb with
the cold mud that caked them. My pyjamas clung wetly to me and my
hair covered my face in thick black streaks. I looked more like one
of the living dead than a cop. Spitting mud and grit from between
my teeth, I pulled myself up and staggered towards the wooded area.
I reached the treeline and stepped into the wood. The rain made a
thrumming sound as it drummed against the leaves overhead. The wind
sounded like waves crashing against rocks as it whipped the
branches of the trees back and forth in the growing
storm.

I
stepped over broken twigs and winced in pain as they dug like
slithers of glass into the soles of my feet. I thought again of
Anne lying face down on the bed and pushed on. Staring ahead into
the darkness I looked for any sign of Constable Griffin.

It
seemed insane that I was hunting down another police officer for
murder. Coppers weren’t meant to be killers – they were meant to
catch them. I could only imagine how scared Anne had been when
glancing up to see Griffin staring out of the dark at her. I didn’t
have to imagine for very long, as a white ghost-like face suddenly
loomed out of the darkness at me. I screamed and stumbled
backwards. My stomach clenched like a fist. But it wasn’t the face
of Constable Griffin that now floated towards me out of the dark –
it was Constable Anne Short’s that I could see.

Was I
seeing some hideous apparition? Some ghoul? Was it the ghost of
Anne Short come back to hunt down the man who had killed her? It
couldn’t be. That would’ve been just too weird.

“
November,” she whispered. “You could let me go – tell Creed
that you couldn’t find me.”

“
Anne?” I whispered, taking another step backwards.

“
I didn’t mean to kill him,” she said, closing the gap between
us. “But he just wouldn’t leave me alone. And when I looked up
tonight to discover Griffin leering down at me through the
hatch…”

My brain
scrambled and tried to make sense of what Anne was saying. “That
wasn’t you lying dead on the bed? That was Griffin? You killed
him?”

“
It was an accident,” she said, closing the gap further
still.

My legs
felt heavy and unmoveable, like they had been screwed to the
ground. I looked at her opened mouthed, the handcuffs dangling from
my fist.

“
You were right,” Anne continued. “I was getting undressed when
I looked up and discovered Griffin. His lecherous face loomed out
of the darkness at me. He looked grotesque and terrifying. I
screamed out in horror and turned away. He dropped through the
hatch and grabbed for me. I could feel his bare flesh against me.
He was wearing only a pair of pyjama bottoms and his hair was a
mess like he had just crawled out of bed. I pushed him off me. I
knew I was in trouble. I knew he would hurt me. So I reached down
and grabbed for my belt. I fumbled for my handcuffs, but plucked up
my torch instead. He came at me and I managed to duck under his
arm. With his back to me, I struck him about the head with the base
of my torch. He collapsed face first onto my bed. I panicked. I
didn’t know what to do. He wasn’t breathing – he was dead. I was a
police officer and I had killed a man. I couldn’t bear to look at
him, so I covered his body with my duvet.

“
My scream had obviously drawn attention as I heard Constable
Creed’s door open across the landing. I knew that I couldn’t escape
via the door for fear of being seen by him. Throwing on some
clothes and my boots, I tried to open my bedroom window and escape,
but in my fear and confusion, I was unable to release the lock. The
window appeared to be jammed. With the torch still in my hand, I
smashed the window with it. But the glass was jagged and as I heard
you point out yourself, I would have cut myself to ribbons if I’d
tried to escape out of the window.

“
Creed was now hollering and thumping on my bedroom door so
violently that I dropped the torch with fright. I felt like a
trapped animal, and none of it was my fault. It was then, I
remembered the hatch. I jumped up, but I couldn’t reach it. With
Kale now beating down my bedroom door, I placed the armchair
beneath the hole and climbed up into the loft. I slid the hatch
into place, just as Kale came bursting into my room. But I was
still trapped. I couldn’t move an inch for fear of you both
discovering me. As I hid in the darkness, I listened to you slowly
figure out what had happened. You came close to discovering the
truth, November Lake,” Anne said.

I now
realised and regretted the mistake I had made. Why hadn’t I made a
closer inspection of the body? I had seen Griffin’s collar length
blonde hair and the outline of his slender frame beneath the duvet
and had surmised that it was Constable Short who was lying dead,
face down on the bed, for she too had short blonde hair and a slim
figure. Had I been too eager to prove my theories right to Kale or
had I just been blind?

“
I wasn’t close enough,” I said, looking through the rain at
Anne.

The rain
ran like tears down the length of both our ashen and cold faces.
Anne took another step closer. “Please let me get away from here,”
she pleaded over the howl of the wind.

My heart
ached for her. There was a part of me that wanted to let her run –
to get away. After all Griffin would still be alive now if he
hadn’t crept from his room and into hers. But I wasn’t a judge or a
jury. It wasn’t my place to decide who was right, who was wrong and
whoever should be punished. I was a police officer. I investigated
crime and put the facts before the courts. It was for them to
decide, not me.

With my
heart feeling as if it were breaking in my chest, I looked at her
and said, “I can’t let you go, Anne.”

“
Why not?” she said.

“
Because you killed Constable Griffin,” I said back, tightening
my fingers again around the handcuffs.

“
But he was a bad man,” she tried to reason with me. “He was
going to hurt me.”

“
You need to tell everything you’ve told me to Sergeant Black,”
I tried to reason with her. “Running isn’t the answer. He will help
you.” Then dropping the handcuffs, I held out my hand towards Anne.
“I will help you,” I said.

She
looked down at my open hand, then back at me. Her whole body began
to shake as she started to sob. “But I have so much to lose.” she
cried. “I was to be married at Christmas, just a few months from
now.”

“
And you still might,” I desperately tried to reassure
her.

“
Do you think so?” Anne asked, with a wry look. “I’ll go to
prison for what I’ve done. I killed a cop, November.”

“
Griffin might have worn a uniform Anne,” I said, my hand still
open. “But he wasn’t a police officer in his heart. He didn’t want
to help people like we do. When you tell the court what you’ve told
me, they will understand that.”

Very
slowly, I felt Anne’s fingers curl around mine as she took my
hand.

Although
Kale was as surprised as me when he discovered that it was
Constable Griffin lying dead on the bed and not Constable Short, I
couldn’t help but notice a look of smugness crawl over his
face.

“
What’s that look for?” I asked as we headed towards the car
park at the rear of the training school the following morning. He
limped over the ground which was covered in a carpet of bronze and
orange leaves that had fallen from the nearby trees.

“
What look?” he glanced sideways at me, his rucksack over his
shoulder and packed full for his weekend stay with his
parents.

“
That
I-told-you-so-look
,” I said back, my
own rucksack dangling from the crook of my elbow. Perhaps I
should’ve listened to my father’s warnings.

“
Well I did tell you so, didn’t I,” he smirked.

“
You told me the killer jumped out of the freaking window!” I
said, heading towards my motorbike.

“
And the killer did. She jumped out of
your
bedroom window,” he grinned,
stopping by his car. It gleamed beneath the weak winter sun. How
could he afford such a nice car on a recruits wage?

“
That’s not what you said, and you know it,” I
scowled.

Kale
opened the boot of his car and threw in his rucksack. “Okay,” he
shrugged, “so we both got some stuff wrong, but we’re still
learning. That’s the whole point of being at training school isn’t
it?”

“
I guess,” I said thoughtfully.