The Night She Disappeared by April Henry

Author:April Henry [Henry, April]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Tags: Social Issues, Juvenile Fiction, Adolescence, Friendship, Mysteries & Detective Stories
ISBN: 9780805092622
Google: AbAvLwEACAAJ
Amazon: 0805092625
Publisher: Square Fish
Published: 2011-12-31T16:00:00+00:00

The Seventh Day

“John Robertson”

“HI!” GABIE SMILES up at me from under the brim of her baseball cap. “Let me guess. One plain slice and one Roma special?” Her pen is poised over the order pad.

Last time I was in Pete’s, I waited until Gabie turned her back. Then I took her pen off the counter and slid it into my shirt pocket, next to my X-Acto knife. Later, I sat in my car in the darkened parking lot and slid the pen along my lips. Between them. Thinking of Gabie. And of Gabie’s fingers and lips.

“You know what I like,” I say. Gabie doesn’t know the half of it.

Her eyes have dark circles, as if she hasn’t been sleeping well. With any other girl—Kayla, for instance—it would make her look less pretty. But with Gabie, the shadows make her blue-green eyes look more mysterious. I could lose myself in them.

“Well, I know you’re a vegetarian,” she says. “And that you’ll probably want a root beer.”

“Right again.” Everyone knows I don’t eat meat. It’s one reason “John Robertson” ordered three large Meat Monsters. The authorities are probably looking for guys who like lots of meat. They aren’t looking for one quiet vegetarian guy with glasses who builds architectural models for a living.

“And to eat here, right?” she says, enjoying our game. Thinking that she’s winning it. Not knowing there’s a real game we’re about to play.

Behind her, the cooler door opens. One of the kids who works at Pete’s emerges, carrying a stainless-steel container full of pale grated cheese. When she hears him kick the door closed, Gabie turns and smiles.

But the sight of that smile—bigger and somehow more real than the smile she gave me—is annoying. I’m the customer. She should be giving me her full attention. But instead she is nearly flirting with this boy, right in front of me.

It makes me want to hurt her. Just a little.

“I’m sorry about your friend. About Kayla Cutler.” I resist the urge to touch the side of my neck. The fading marks from her scratches are hidden under a very light layer of makeup. I had to buy five different kinds at Target before I found one that blended with my skin. At a client meeting, I told them a story about cutting down blackberries. Beforehand, I had thrust my arms into some brambles along a road, to make it more believable. “It’s been what—a week? Have they found Kayla’s body yet?”

Gabie’s face goes pale and she bites her lip. She looks even more pretty, if that’s possible.

“No.” She gives her head a shake, her bangs falling in her eyes. “No.”

A grin wells up inside me, but I don’t let it out. Gabie has no idea. She has no idea Kayla is alive, at least as long as I allow her to be.

She has no idea Kayla will have to die to make room for her.

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