The Lives of Desperate Girls by MacKenzie Common

Author:MacKenzie Common
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: PRH Canada Young Readers
Published: 2017-09-19T04:00:00+00:00

Chapter Twenty–Two

March 20, 2006

It took me a week to get my nerve up to pursue the Jerry and Roy lead. I couldn’t forget how unsafe I had felt in that parking lot. The realities of investigating a murder had become all too clear, and part of me wished that I could abandon the case. But walking away simply didn’t feel like an option. If I gave up now I would have no answers, and I would feel worse than before. I had failed Chloe. I didn’t want to fail Helen too.

But I wasn’t stupid enough to face Jerry and Roy alone. I needed Tom, which meant that I had to tell him about the parking lot incident. He wasn’t going to be happy.

“So, let me get this straight. You went back to the bar we both agreed was the sketchiest place we had ever been in, but this time you went alone?” The volume of his voice through the phone made me wince. I was in my bedroom, pacing the small space as we talked.

“Yeah…I’m sorry, Tom. I really don’t know what I was thinking,” I said meekly, feeling like a total idiot.

“Jenny, you could have been killed! Even if they aren’t killers, those guys sound really dangerous!”

“I know, I know,” I said, trying to sound suitably contrite. I knew it had been a stupid thing to do, but being lectured by Tom was getting old quickly. “But do you think there’s something here?”

Tom was quiet for so long that I thought the call had dropped. I stooped down to pick a loose sock off my floor and was in the process of looking for the match when he finally spoke.

“Yeah, it’s possible. I mean, there’s a lot of sketchy people at that bar, but those two do sound like suspects,” he said grudgingly.

“So we need to find out more,” I said, trying to keep my voice calm as my heartbeat sped up with nerves. “We need to know if these guys had anything to do with Helen’s death.”

“And how exactly do we do that?” Tom asked sarcastically. “Should we just walk up to them in the bar and say, ‘Excuse me, but did you kill any teenage girls this year?’ ”

“No, we follow them,” I said. “We follow them and hope we get lucky.”

So far, this hadn’t exactly been my year. Maybe I was due a bit of luck.

—

“I can’t believe we’re doing this,” Tom said, starting his truck. “Seriously, this is the stupidest thing I’ve ever done.”

“Me too,” I said, watching two familiar figures cross the Trapper parking lot and climb into a dusty old van. We had been sitting here for hours, waiting for our favorite murder suspects to leave. I was better prepared for this stakeout than my last one, bringing a plethora of magazines and snacks. We had also managed to steal a few kisses, our eyes remaining firmly fixed on the bar so as not to miss our chance.

The van turned out of the parking lot, and we waited a beat before following.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.