Read Online Darkwater by Georgia Blain - Free Book Online Page B

listening to Tom and Dee’s conversation. I looked at my brother, and noticed, not for the first time that week, how tired he seemed. There were dark bruises under his eyes and a fine line of acne across his jawbone. I had heard him wake two nights ago, his voice cracked and broken as he called out in his sleep. It was Tom who went to him, sitting with him in his room for what had seemed like a while but probably wasn’t that long. The night always plays strange tricks when it comes to measuring time.
    â€˜Is he all right?’ I asked as Tom crept back past my room.
    I was sitting upright, worried.
    Tom stayed with me, running his hand through my hair until I lay down again, eventually able to sleep.
    The police arrived only moments after I had said I was going to do my homework. The knock on the door was sharp and brief, and I crept out onto the landing. There were two men; they were both tall and appeared to take up all the space in the hallway, their voices loud and booming.
    I knew I should go back to my room and not stay, listening to every word. But, holding Sammy close to my chest, I sat perfectly still, pressed against the banister, hidden by the darkness of the upstairs landing, able to hear the conversation in the kitchen clearly as their voices carried up through the night-time quiet of the rest of the house.
    They asked Joe how long he’d known Amanda and what his relationship with her had been. He stumbled slightly on that question, wanting to be honest but embarrassed to admit he had always had a crush on her. He didn’t confess in the end, and I was glad. It seemed to me that it wasn’t what they were angling at. They just wanted to know which of the two they had been – friends or boyfriend and girlfriend. The never-never land of hopeless love had no place in the notes they were no doubt taking.
    Joe told them about Stevie and how he and Amanda had been together for almost a year, and how she ended the relationship. ‘But I don’t think Amanda was that upset. Well, not about Stevie anyway. They hadn’t been arguing. He was kind of too young. Too nice for her.’
    â€˜What do you mean?’ The policeman’s voice was softer now, coaxing. He was probably leaning forward, trying to appear kind, although the reason for his visit was always going to stand in the way of any attempt to be human.
    â€˜I don’t know. Amanda was just more edgy than him. Older. Not in years. Just in the way she was. She was into trying stuff.’
    Joe told them the little he knew, even describing how she’d been on the afternoon she’d come back here, a couple of days before she died.
    â€˜What about her girlfriends?’ It was the other policeman talking now. ‘Had she had any arguments with them?’
    In the silence that followed, I could only presume Joe was shaking his head or thinking. Eventually he explained that Kate was her best friend, and they never seemed to argue. ‘Then there’s Cherry, I guess,’ he added.
    â€˜Tell us about Cherry.’
    â€˜Cherry just hangs with us.’ There was the sound of a chair shifting, the wooden legs clattering against the slate floor. ‘But she’s no one’s friend. I mean we go to her house and she comes to our places, but it’s not like she’s really close to any of us. Although in the last few weeks, Amanda had been hanging with her a bit more.’
    â€˜Do you know why?’
    â€˜I guess she was at more of a loose end when she broke up with Stevie. Maybe she felt sorry for Cherry. It was kind of weird. I guess we just all felt she was filling time and that she’d soon get sick of her.’
    One of the policemen wanted to know why.
    â€˜Because Cherry tries so hard. And the more you try, the less people are interested.’
    From across the hall, I heard the lounge-room door open. Dee was coming out. I moved back, closer to the wall.
    She went into the kitchen to ask