Cold Desert by Ava Dunn

Author:Ava Dunn
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: young adult mystery, young adult amateur sleuth, amateur sleuth mystery, australian fiction, coming of age
Publisher: Olive Reads
Published: 2023-12-04T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Nine

Something was wrong. Hollie didn’t call to tell me about what she did on the camping trip. Monday morning weigh-in was delayed. I stood outside the door of the weight room with the other patients and we yawned and shifted our weight from one foot to the other. Staff was having a meeting.

‘Someone’s died,’ Steph said.

‘Who?’ Melanie cried.

‘Everyone is here,’ Evie said with an eyeroll. She had just as much patience with Steph’s crap as I did.

‘Maybe it’s someone that already left,’ Steph said.

My mind went to Avery. She was still ill when she’d been discharged. The time allowed by health insurance companies to recover was no match for eating disorders. Health insurance lasted weeks, or months if the patient was wealthy. Anorexia had a stamina that lasted years. It stole years. It stole lives.

My hand went to my mouth, having convinced myself Avery was now dead. Oh God.

Staff came out of the office and with their heads down, then commenced the weigh-ins with closed lips. Nobody was brave enough to ask what had happened even though we all wanted to ask: Why were they having an emergency meeting? Who had died?

In the hallway while I was still lining up, Nurse Louise put her hand on my upper arm and I flinched. ‘Daisy, could we have a private word with you, please?’ Her voice was so quiet I needed to tilt my head towards her mouth to hear her properly. My heart lurched. Oh no. It must have been Avery!

I nodded and followed Louise into the office where I was met by the chief doctor that I rarely met, my therapist, and to my surprise, my mum. My pulse hammered in my throat and my toes crunched inside my slippers.

‘Mum, what are you doing here?’

She avoided looking at me, confirming that something was wrong.

‘Daisy, we have some concerning news that you may not want to hear,’ the doctor said.

‘Is it Avery? Is she okay?’

Louise pulled out a chair for me. ‘You should really sit down, Daisy.’ I obeyed and waited for them to tell me the news that my ex-roommate had died. She was too sick when she had left. I was ready to be angry that they had let her go in that condition. It was on them! This was all their fault.

‘We are concerned this will impact your recovery, and we want you to know that we are here to support you in any way you need,’ the doctor said in a slow, soothing voice.

‘What is it?’

‘Your dad called last night,’ Mum said. ‘Honey...your friend Hollie is missing.’

‘Wait – what?’ It was as though I’d been splashed in the face with boiling water because it burned. I thought that Avery passing away would have been bad, but now they were saying Hollie’s name, and that was worse.

‘This isn’t about Avery?’ I croaked.

‘No, this is about Hollie.’

‘Hollie?’

‘Hollie,’ my mum repeated.

‘Hollie is...’ It made no sense. I couldn’t comprehend what she was telling me.

‘Missing,’ she finished.

The material on my cardigan had a loose thread.

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