Page 125 of Serenity Falls

‘And I’m Freya.’ The woman holds out a delicate, smooth hand. ‘It’s nice to meet you, Sadie. Your friends are just over in the geography section.’ The lopsided smile widens. ‘We don’t get many young people in here now. They’re all online. Who needs books, right?’

Sadie looks at her. ‘I still like books.’

Freya cocks her head slightly to one side. Like a bird. ‘Well, that’s so nice to hear. If you want to join, we’re always happy to welcome new members.’

‘Right.’ Sadie nods. ‘Well, I’ll think about it.’

‘You do that.’

‘Bye.’

Sadie turns and heads towards the back of the library, past rows of alphabetically ordered books. The dim lighting and slight papery smell are always relaxing. She turns the corner to the geography section and spots Ellis, Ramona and Dax sitting at a round table tucked in a corner. No sign of anyone else. Ellis spots her and raises a hand. ‘Hey!’

‘Hey!’ Sadie pulls out a chair and sits down.

‘You managed to fight your way through all the anniversary shit outside?’ Ellis says.

‘Yeah, looks like they’re going all out.’

Ramona rolls her eyes. ‘My dad is frigging wetting himself over it.’

‘Celebrating fifty years of being seriously fucked up,’ Dax drawls.

‘Talking of which,’ Sadie says, ‘is she coming?’

Ellis makes a ‘so-so’ gesture with her hand. ‘We don’t know. Ro texted her last night but she didn’t reply.’

‘I can see she read it, though,’ Ramona says. ‘Could go either way. She didn’t say no.’

‘But she didn’t say yes either,’ Dax points out.

‘You really are a glass-half-empty person,’ Ellis says.

He shrugs. ‘Pessimists are never disappointed.’

‘Yeah, but optimists have a better time of it,’ Ellis retorts.

Ramona suddenly makes a yelping noise. ‘She’s here.’

Sadie turns. A familiar figure with bubble-gum-pink hair walks across the library. Lou. She’s not wearing her uniform, dressed down in shorts and a grey T-shirt, a backpack over her shoulders. She looks nervous, checking around her. Then she spots them and walks quickly over.

‘Thanks for coming,’ Dax says.

‘Don’t thank me. I’m not here for you. I’m here for Frankie.’ She yanks out a chair and sits in it stiffly.

‘Well, thanks anyway,’ Ramona says.

Lou glances at Sadie. ‘I see they dragged you into it, too.’

‘Actually,’ Sadie says, ‘I kind of dragged myself in. Frankie drowned in our pool. I’d like to know what happened.’

Lou stares at her for a moment, face softening. ‘Me too. Only it’s not that simple around here.’

‘Lou,’ Dax says. ‘Before he died, we think Frankie found something. Something about this town. Did he tell you what?’

Lou’s eyes flick around. ‘Frankie would often talk shit when he’d had too much weed.’

‘So, he never told you about anything – documents, perhaps?’ Ellis asks.