The School Trip: A completely gripping psychological thriller with a killer twist by Miranda Smith

Author:Miranda Smith [Smith, Miranda]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781837900558
Publisher: Bookouture
Published: 2023-04-12T16:00:00+00:00

THIRTY-SIX

The cluster of vehicles gets smaller, until I can only barely see their lights. Alone in the car with an unnamed police officer, I’m comforted by the sight of the world at night, even if there are a slew of unanswered questions left in the darkness.

On one hand, I feel so stupid, like I should have known Sarah was behind this all along. She was the person who was supposed to be watching Claire when she disappeared. She deliberately left her and lied to me about it. And now her boyfriend has been arrested for trying to demand a ransom. Any outsider looking in—Sanchez and the other investigators—would pin her as the culprit in a second.

But then I think about the person I know and not just the circumstances laid out in front of me. Sarah and I have been friends for years. She has known Claire since she was an infant. Sarah loves Claire. She works with small children every day. I can’t imagine she would harm any child, let alone mine. Even if Darren is behind the ransom, my gut tells me Sarah isn’t involved.

I don’t know the officer driving the vehicle, can hardly tell if he’s been at the house, or arrived at the cornfields with all the others, but he’s the sounding board at my disposal.

“When will we hear back from Sanchez?” I ask. “I want to know what Sarah and Darren are saying.”

He moves uncomfortably in his seat. Before this, we hadn’t said a word to each other. I think he was happy to keep pretending I wasn’t here.

“I don’t know the details,” he said. “Sanchez told me to take you home, and she’ll send information as soon as she can.”

Waiting. More and more waiting. Part of me wants to grab the wheel and race to the police station myself. Let me in front of Sarah and Darren. I’d get to the truth of what’s happened, if I only had the chance.

“I know this didn’t pan out how we hoped,” the officer says, his voice growing braver, “but we aren’t done.”

“We’ve wasted almost two hours—”

“There are other leads we can follow. They’re pulling up other security videos, following other tips that have come in online—”

“But there’s nothing concrete! No one can tell me what happened to Claire.”

“Nothing is concrete until it is,” he says. “Someone out there knows something.”

The sounds outside the car change. We’re back on the highway. Away from the accident site and the failed ransom attempt. I lean my head against the window, the glass cool against my forehead. I close my eyes, think back to this morning.

I wish I could say that I cherished every moment. That I took the time to memorize Claire’s smile, committed to memory everything she said. That we laughed over waffles and made a mess of the kitchen. That before we got into the car, I gave her a big hug, told my daughter how much I loved her.

But that’s not what happened. Our mornings are never ideal.

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