‘He does! It is incredible.’ Nicole sounded admiring. ‘I don’t know how he does it. He just’ – she waved a graceful hand – ‘appears. He is very talented in that way. Very graceful.’
‘Yeah.’ Clearly nonplussed by Nicole’s enthusiasm for her father, Rachel glanced at her askance. ‘Anyway. We need to be careful what we talk about. We don’t want him to overhear anything.’
‘Totally. It would be bad to be talking about penises when he walked up,’ Zoe said.
‘Zoe!’ Allie and Nicole said at once.
The younger girl blinked at them. ‘Well, it would, wouldn’t it?’
‘Yes,’ Allie said primly. ‘And you’re too young to talk about penises to anyone.’
‘Why?’ Zoe seemed puzzled. ‘How old do I need to be to talk about penises?’
‘Sixteen,’ Allie said. At the same moment, Nicole said, ‘Fourteen,’ and Rachel said, ‘Fifteen.’
Exchanging a look the three of them burst into giggles.
‘Older.’ Allie felt breathless and hysterical. ‘Just… older than now.’
Zoe glared at them. ‘I can talk about penises if I want to.’
‘No one can stop you,’ Rachel said. ‘But it will be kind of weird in your German lessons if you just sit there talking about penises.’
That set them off again. This time it took them a while to recover.
‘I think you are all losing it.’ Sylvain had noticed the hilarity at last and looked around in bafflement.
‘Sorry,’ Nicole said, wiping her eyes. ‘It’s the lack of sleep.’
‘And threat of death,’ Rachel added.
‘It gets to you,’ Allie said, trying to calm down. ‘At least we’re being careful what we’re talking about so your dad doesn’t hear anything.’
‘Why?’ Raj’s voice seemed to come from nowhere. They spun round to find him standing behind Rachel. ‘What do you not want me to hear?’
TWENTY-FIVE
‘D
ad!’ Rachel threw herself at her father. Caught off guard, he wrapped her in a reflexive hug as he tried to keep his balance. ‘Where have you been? I’ve been looking for you everywhere.’
In the face of her relief, his expression softened. ‘I’m sorry, honey. There’s a lot going on.’
Allie’s chest felt hollow; she looked away. There’d been a time when she’d been that close to her father. When he’d been glad to see her. She was surprised by how much it hurt to think about that now, when it had been weeks since she’d last spoken to him.
But Rachel’s voice brought her back to what mattered right now.
‘We know there’s a lot going on. That’s why we need to talk to you.’ Extricating herself from her father’s hug, Rachel moved back to stand among the others. ‘Can we go somewhere?’
He looked around the group doubtfully. ‘I don’t have much time…’ he began.
‘Please, Dad,’ Rachel pleaded. ‘It’s important.’
Seeing the determination on their faces, he gave in.
‘Very well,’ he said with a resigned sigh. ‘Come with me.’
He led them out of the common room to the empty classroom wing at a brisk pace. Flipping on the light in one of the science classrooms, Raj waited as they all filed in.
The faint tang of formaldehyde in the air was unpleasant – Allie breathed through her mouth.
The heat was turned down in the classroom wing out of hours – it was so chilly the hairs on her arm stood on end as she tried to avoid looking at the model of a human skeleton in the corner. She didn’t like the way it grinned at them, as if being dead were just the best thing ever.
At the front of the room, Raj leaned against the teacher’s desk, crossing his arms over his chest. The harsh fluorescent lighting cast his pallor in sharp relief. Allie couldn’t remember ever seeing him look so tired. The circles under his eyes were deep and dark, and new lines had carved themselves on to his forehead at some point in the last few days.
‘Now,’ he said. ‘What’s this all about?’
For a second, no one spoke. Allie got the feeling they were all waiting for Rachel to do the talking because it was her dad but Rachel clearly didn’t want to be the spokesman – catching Allie’s eye, she motioned impatiently for her to talk.
‘It’s about… Eloise,’ Allie said.
Before she’d even finished saying the librarian’s name, Raj was shaking his head. ‘You know I can’t talk about —’
‘We don’t want you to talk about it.’ Carter interrupted him. ‘We want to tell you what we know. We think that… maybe it could change your mind.’
Raj looked surprised at that but after a brief hesitation he motioned for him to continue.
Gradually, they filled him in on the basics of what had happened. When they reached the end, Carter turned to Rachel. ‘Show him what we found in Zelazny’s room.’
Rachel raised her hand; the key dangled from her fingertips, glittering like jewellery.
Raj’s gaze was incredulous but Carter kept his voice even. ‘It fits the lock on Isabelle’s office door.’