Signed Sealed Dead by Cynthia Murphy

Author:Cynthia Murphy
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Scholastic
Published: 2024-04-15T00:00:00+00:00

18

“Car. Now.” I shoved my hands under Madison’s arms and hauled her up. She followed blindly as I desperately searched for their car in between the traffic, which had doubled in seconds. Huge vans spewed out people with cameras and microphones – the press had already found out what was going on. The whole place had become a media circus in less than five minutes. News anchors fixed their hair and scoured the crowd for someone to interview. A woman in a bright suit fixed her gaze on Madison and I tugged on her arm once more.

Not on my watch.

“This way.” I manoeuvred her in front of me and fumbled for my phone.

“Hey.” Carter picked up on the first ring. “I can’t get back in. What’s going on?”

“There’s been another one,” I mumbled, trying to keep my voice low enough so Madison wouldn’t hear.

“Shit. Where are you?”

“Looking for you. The press have turned up and the whole parking lot is turning into a newsroom.”

“I’ll pull up at the 7-Eleven around the corner. Mads knows where it is.”

“OK.” I ended the call. “Madison? Hey, you with me?”

“Yeah,” she croaked. Her face was completely slack, like all the energy had been sucked out of her. “Was that Carter?”

“Yeah. He’s at the 7-Eleven. Can you show me where that is?”

Her eyes cleared a little and she nodded. “Of course.” She held out a hand and I grabbed it gratefully. We walked against the tide of people arriving at the scene – obviously school hadn’t got the message out about closing in time to stop people coming in – either that or they had completely ignored it. Cars were being abandoned outside the parking lot as curious students made their way over to the stadium and I could see Officer Tatum starting to lose his patience.

Eventually the crowd thinned, and we turned a corner on to the main road. The 7-Eleven was a couple of blocks down and my shoulders relaxed as I spotted the twins’ car.

“He’s over there,” I said, pointing. Madison nodded but didn’t let go of my hand. I squeezed it tight as we picked up the pace.

“Hey,” Carter said as we climbed into the car – Madison next to him and me in the back. I let my body relax against my seat and sighed.

“Hey,” I echoed. Madison pressed a button and the doors locked with a click. Seconds ticked past in silence.

“Mama called,” Carter said, turning to look at Madison. Her face was soaked with tears, but she didn’t make a sound and her eyes were vacant, glassy. She must be in shock or something. “She’s stuck in Boston, she has a damaged tyre, said she must have driven over a nail or something. And Mom is at work, she’s in a meeting until eleven so she won’t know what’s happened, but Mama has left a message for her to come home. It probably won’t be until lunchtime, though.”

“Come to my house,” I blurted, suddenly realizing I had no desire to be alone, but Madison shook her head.

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