The Affliction by Beth Gutcheon

Author:Beth Gutcheon
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: HarperCollins
Published: 2018-03-13T04:00:00+00:00

When Ellie was installed in the chair that more usually served as a clotheshorse, Maggie asked, “Were you in the house at four in the afternoon last Friday? The twenty-fourth.”

“I have no idea,” said Ellie.

“Think, please. The day Mrs. Meagher’s body was found.”

“Oh,” said Ellie. “I remember. Yes. We were dismissed after lunch.”

“I know who did this,” Kate said. Maggie held a hand up to ask her to be still.

“What time did you get home?”

“Umm . . . three?”

“And was anyone with you?”

Ellie looked at her mother. Her mother looked back, deeply angry.

“Alison Casey,” said Ellie.

Maggie went to the computer, opened a browser, and typed TickTalk. The site came up at once. Maggie typed Miss305 into the username log-in box.

“Ellie, do you know Alison’s password?”

“No,” she said, as if she’d like to add Duh.

“How about for Snapchat or Instagram?” In Maggie’s experience besties were constantly popping onto each other’s feeds. She wondered they didn’t fall down the stairs on their way to the gym or to lunch, they were so busy passing phones around to share whatever had come through during class while their phones were off, instead of watching where they were going.

There was a silence. On the one hand, Ellie was bound by teenage omertà; you never narc out a friend to a teacher or any other grown-up. On the other hand, she was a little pissed that Alison had been in her mother’s room and using her computer. Just because Alison hated her own parents didn’t mean Ellie hated hers.

“Ellie,” said her mother, in a tone they both understood.

“Try Trixie2012,” said Ellie. Trixie was Alison’s dog until her brother ran over it. A picture of Trixie was Alison’s screen saver. A Jack Russell terrier.

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