Free Dark Ride by Caroline Green Page A

know that wasting our time stops us from helping people who really need us.’
    ‘I’m sorry!’ I wailed. ‘But my friend really was here!’
    Her face softened. ‘Look, I’m sure if he was able to run away then he’s just a bit shaken up. I’ll put a call in just in case he turns up at A&E, but I’m sure he’s fine.’
    She carried on speaking but I wasn’t listening any more. None of it made sense. We came back through the gates and I mumbled that I was sorry again and walked quickly away.
    I felt like I could hear the crackling radio all the way home.
     

C HAPTER 15
     

Lockett’s Rise
     
    It was 22 December, but there was no Christmas cheer in our house. Every time Mum tried to have that ‘proper talk’ with me, I walked off. So we passed each other like strangers, mouths set into lines.
    But I wasn’t even thinking about the row any more. I couldn’t stop going over and over the pictures in my head of what had happened with Luka. Maybe I’d misjudged how far he fell? Then I remembered the awkward way he was lying. He must have been really badly hurt, he must have been. How could he have got up and walked away? I kept imagining him lying injured somewhere and I couldn’t bear it. Mum was at work, so I decided to look in the fairground again, just in case he’d come back.
    I grabbed my jacket from the cupboard and put it on. My fingers closed around some paper in one of the pockets. It was an old envelope, folded into squares and then folded again. I opened it out, the creases like veins across the scrunched paper. The address read:
    Ms Eva Novak
    53 Lockett’s Rise
    Seaforth Road
    Slumpton
    LM26 6RY
    Eva? It hit me. Luka’s mum. He must have put this in my pocket after the fall. It was obviously a message. He wanted me to find him.
    I wasn’t taking any chances this time and rooted about in a drawer for the map of the town Mum had bought when we moved in. I stuffed it into my pocket before heading out.
    It was so cold the air hurt my lungs, but the sky was blue as a summer’s day as I trudged up the steep hill behind our houses.
    It didn’t take long to find the beginning of Lockett’s Rise.
    I don’t know why, but my heart started to bang against my chest like a trapped bird and the back of my neck prickled as I got further up the road.
    47, 49, 51...
    Number 53 had a neglected air. There were hanging baskets with dried brown stuff hanging out and the windows were dirty. I peered inside and could see a small kitchen with just a table and a few chairs. It felt like no one had lived here for a long time. Could this be the wrong house? I fumbled for the envelope, but no, it definitely said number 53.
    I heard a noise and noticed a round, pink face at the window next door, two bright eyes looking at me. Before I could turn away, an old lady was out the front, her arms crossed over her chest and her chin raised.
    ‘Can I help you, dear?’ she said.
    ‘Urgh.’ Better try again. I cleared my throat and tried to speak like a normal person. ‘Have you seen the boy who lived here?’
    The old lady stared at me for ages and a horrible feeling began to curdle in my stomach.
    ‘Oh dear,’ she said at last, her hand fluttering to her chest. ‘Hasn’t anyone told you?’
    ‘Told me what?’ I whispered. I had a horrible premonition that I didn’t want to know the answer.
    ‘I think you’d better come inside.’
    ‘No!’ I didn’t mean to say it like that and the lady flinched. ‘Sorry, but can you just tell me? Have you seen him?’
    ‘Oh dear,’ she said again. ‘Oh dear ... Well, the thing is, lovey, I’m afraid he, he passed away.’
    I had a rushing feeling in my ears and a big hot wave of sick in my throat.
    Tears splintered everything at the thought of Luka crawling away from his fall and dying alone.
    The old lady was speaking again but my brain wasn’t able to untangle what she was saying.
    ‘What?’ I squeaked.
    ‘It was a dreadful thing,’ she said. ‘As it’s the