Free What We Saw by Ryan Casey Page B

come along?’ he asked.
    ‘Sure, we’ll help,’ I said, smiling as Adam muttered something inaudible and booted the ball against the wall repeatedly. Going out to look for her at the time that she was used to eating her food was probably the most logical choice. If she was starving, she’d find her way back, my Gran said. I wasn’t sure whether she said this to try and keep us all smiling or whether she genuinely believed it. Although she did say once that she didn’t like rumours. Probably something to do with God.
    I wasn’t sure I shared her optimism, and I’m not sure Granddad did either. But he kept on walking, every morning and every night, hoping to find her chewing a rabbit or running towards him with yet another golf ball in her mouth.
    When Granddad headed back inside, Adam stopped booting the ball and turned back to face me. ‘We don’t mention things to anyone yet, cuz,’ he said. ‘Not Emily, not anyone.’
    ‘But—’
    Adam interrupted. ‘No, bringing Emily in is unfair to her. It makes things more complicated.’
    I shrugged my shoulders. ‘I guess you’re right,’ I said. I wasn’t sure whether Adam’s idea of ‘fair’ was the same as mine, though. I was more worried about how Emily would react to hearing what we’d seen than about things getting complicated or not. I decided not to ask Adam what he meant.
    ‘Course I’m right,’ Adam said. ‘It’s our mystery.’ He booted the ball into the hedge and flicked a smile in my direction.
    After football we played some Nintendo for a while. It was a shooting game. I was the cop. While we played, I wondered how I could be so cool about the whole thing, so detached. If things got really bad, we could always tell the police. That was always an option. But right now it was our mystery.
    ‘Righto, lads, I’m heading off. If you’re not ready, tough,’ Granddad called from the living room.
    ‘Keep your voice down, Dean, unless you want everyone to hear you,’ Gran said.
    Adam and I emerged from the bedroom. The familiar tang of Gran’s spicy microwave lasagne was thick in the air. I put my scruffy trainers on while Adam slipped on his Nikes—one of the last things his parents had ever bought for him. How could he wear them all the time, knowing that fact? I never said anything to him about it though. The last time Granddad mentioned something about his shoes to him, Adam flipped.
    ‘I don’t care—just let me wear what I want. They’re my feet, not yours.’
    The bickering was a regular thing, but it was to be expected. Adam was young and had just lost his parents. The way they’d gone wasn’t nice. It was strange hearing about the incident on the news, and it must have been especially strange for Adam after being thrust into living with two grandparents he’d previously had no real chance to bond with. It was new territory for him, and as hard as my situation was, I couldn’t even begin to imagine what it must be like for Adam. I still had the choice of seeing both my parents, for now. He’d never get that choice again.
    We left Gran in the kitchen. As we walked across the grey stones of our driveway, I wondered how Gran kept herself entertained. Adam and I might have had to deal with witnessing a girl being buried, but at least we didn’t have to wash up all the time or do a crossword with loads of big words that didn’t really make much sense. It wasn’t like there was even a big prize or anything, not that Gran had ever won. She always sent off her finished crossword with the hope that she’d get a reward tumbling through the letterbox one day, but that never seemed to happen.
    Adam stormed ahead down the road past Mrs. Stevens’ caravan. I jogged forward and caught up with him. ‘Slow down, Ad. We don’t want Granddad suspecting we’re up to anything.’
    ‘I’m just a fast walker.’
    ‘I know, but we need Granddad to think we’re just here to look for Carla with him. He can’t suspect anything. Not