Free Out of the Depths by Cathy MacPhail Page A

a pause on the line. ‘Not exactly a ouija board. I use a tumbler, and bits of paper with the alphabet written on them.’ I heard myself giggle. Jazz sounded offended. ‘But it works exactly the same way. And it’ll be a laugh.’
    Maybe that’s what made me finally agree. The idea of the tumbler and Jazz’s insistence that it was a channel to the other side. It made me laugh, brought the whole thing down to earth. It wouldn’t do any harm. And who knows, it might even help.
    Jazz was good for me, I decided.
    And that night, when I did dare to go back to my room, and slip into bed, the fear somehow left me. BenKincaid was getting what he wanted. We were going to have a seance. I wasn’t forgetting him.
    I slept peacefully all night.
    At school, Mac still seemed angry at me. Though, in fact, I was the one who should have been angry at him. What had he been saying about me at my old school? What had he been asking about me, and why?
    Aisha was really annoyed when Jazz told her about our night with the tumbler.
    â€˜You do this all the time, Jazz! You’re not supposed to be encouraging her. You’ll just get her into more trouble.’
    â€˜It’s my decision,’ I tried to assure her.
    I’d wondered why Jazz had told her at all, if she knew she was going to be so annoyed about it. But Jazz insisted she had to tell her. ‘Me and Aisha don’t have secrets from each other. I just wish she’d stop moaning about it. She’s worse than my old granny.’
    â€˜Well, I’m not coming,’ Aisha said snappily. Her parents would never allow it, she said. ‘My mum would go spare if I took part in anything like that.’
    â€˜And what do you think my mother would do, Aisha?’ Jazz stood with her hands on her hips, overacting thecompletely shocked bit. ‘My mum’s a good Catholic woman. She’d kill me. That’s why I’m waiting till her line-dancing night before we do it.’
    Callum decided against it too. Unfortunately, Mac was up for it. I couldn’t understand why. Not when he seemed to hate me so much.
    â€˜I didn’t think the boys would be coming, Jazz.’ The thought of Mac being there scared me. Jazz tutted. ‘We’d never get the spirits to come through for just two of us, Tyler.’
    Adam burst out laughing. I almost laughed too, she said it so seriously. And he was coming too, it seemed. That made me feel better. I liked Adam. Although it seemed the main reason the boys were agreeing to come was because Jazz’s mum made a mean cheesecake and always had one in the fridge for Jazz’s friends.
    So it was settled for Thursday, the night Jazz’s mum went to her line dancing. I even began to look forward to it.
    But something almost stopped me getting there.
    When I told my mum and dad I was going out, Dad was all against it.
    â€˜There’s a police warning. Young girls shouldn’t beallowed out after dark. They’re beginning to think that Debbie lassie was abducted from somewhere here in this town. Somebody reported seeing her with a man in the town after she was meant to have left.’
    â€˜Och, there’s been all sorts of reports, Dad,’ Mum said. ‘That Debbie Lawson’s like Elvis. She’s been spotted everywhere.’
    â€˜Doesn’t matter, they’ve got to follow up every lead, no matter how tenuous.’
    â€˜But I’m only going to Jazz’s house. To stay in. I won’t go out.’ Now that it was planned I didn’t want to miss it.
    â€˜Oh, let her go,’ Mum insisted. ‘She’s made a nice friend there. And I can run her there and pick her up. She’ll be in no danger.’ I breathed a sigh of relief and Mum winked at me. I felt a sudden pang of guilt, because Mum wouldn’t be so happy if she knew what we were planning. Getting in touch with the dead. Mum hated anything like that. I was deceiving her. I