Seeking Cassandra by Lutricia Clifton

Seeking Cassandra by Lutricia Clifton

Author:Lutricia Clifton
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Holiday House
Published: 2016-01-15T00:00:00+00:00


After Bobby Ray and Héctor and I return from hiking, I try out my detective skills, searching for tracks leading to something metal that would make a tinny sound. Studying the ground behind our camper, I find remnants of different kinds of tracks. Coyote. Raccoon. Birds. But they’re not what I’m looking for. In front of my eyes, a breeze moves the sand around, scouring the ground clean.

It’s hopeless, I think. There’s no way a track would survive in the wind here. It’s a lunar landscape, scraped clean, just like X said.

Discouraged, I trudge back around the camper. Suddenly, the breeze uncovers an indentation on the ground. Part of a heel print, one with deep ridges.

Heart racing, I make a footprint next to it. The heel print is similar to mine.

A hiking boot?

“It’s prob’ly Dad’s. He would’ve left tracks when he was looking around,” I whisper to myself.

Hearing Dad’s truck, I hurry around front.

“Hey, Peaches—” He stops short, looking at me. “Sorry. I meant to say Cassie.”

“It’s okay, Dad. Peaches is okay when it’s just us.”

“Really?” he says, smiling. “That’s great. So, how was your day?”

“It was all right. How was yours? Anything . . . new?”

“Nope,” he says. “Nothing interesting, anyway.”

I glance at his feet, looking for a track like the one I found out back. His leather work boots are worn down at the heel, leaving a smooth print different from the one I found. And a lot larger.

So that other track means there was someone else here that night, who deliberately left that envelope for Dad to find. And that means . . .

The word accomplice echoes through my head, again and again.

“What is it, Peaches?” Dad looks at me, frowning. “Blisters hurting?”

“Uh, no. They’re, uh, they’re better.”

“Good. Pearl stopped me on the way in. Said for you to come over and she’d teach you a recipe.”

“I’ll go now.”

“No need to rush off. Day’s young, and I’d like to hear about your hike. . . .”

I hurry away, not knowing what to say to my dad. One word has changed everything.

Accomplice.



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