November Lake: Teenage Detective (The November Lake Mysteries) Book 1 by Jamie Drew Read Free Book Online Page A

to know he couldn’t
threaten me – hold me to ransom anymore. He reminded me that he
still had evidence that it was me who had committed that crime with
him all those years ago. But it was never really the fear of going
to prison that had made me hand over the money to him each month,
it was the fear of what my kid sister would think of me and the
fear of who would look after her if her brother was in prison. But
even as Morris skulked away, I knew that he would always have some
kind of hold over my life as long as he had that evidence against
me. My sister saw this unease in me too. But she had her own life
to lead. A few months ago she set off traveling across Europe with
a friend – or so I thought.”
    “ Where had she really gone?” I asked, sitting now on the
hay-covered ground, torch casting an eerie beam of light up into
the barn roof. Kale was still standing, arms crossed over his chest
as he looked down at the man.
    “ Sarah had tracked down Morris and befriended him,” Clive said,
looking down at his blood-covered hand, then back at me.
    “ She had become your tormentor’s friend?” I gasped.
    “ I received a letter from my sister a week ago,” Clive
continued to explain. “In the letter she explained how she had
tricked Morris into believing she liked him. He had never met my
sister, so he was unaware of her true identity. Sarah had wanted to
get close to him, hoping he might brag about his past, and in doing
so, give away where he kept hidden this evidence against me. She
told me in her letter that she finally knew where this evidence was
kept. Sarah said she was going to try and take it without raising
Morris’s suspicions. That was the last I heard from her. There was
no address in the letter she sent me. After two days of pacing back
and forth, fearing that Morris had discovered who she really was, I
received another letter, and my fears were proved right. This
letter was from Morris. In it, he explained how he had discovered
my sister’s true identity, and unless I signed the deeds of my
house over to him, as that is all I have left of any value, then I
would never see Sarah again. In his letter, he gave me the address
of Blackwater Farm, which is just on the other side of this field.
I went to my solicitor at once and had the deeds to my house made
over to Morris Cook.” Making a hitching sound in the back of his
throat, Clive reached into his coat with one blood-stained hand and
pulled out a plain brown envelope. “So I brought the deeds out
here, but I was running out of time and petrol. So I stopped at the
garage to fill up, as I was running on empty and I didn’t want to
get stranded out here on these remote roads and unable to get to
the farm and save my sister.” Pausing, Clive looked at me. “It was
then that I saw you. It was like looking at my sister. You look so
much alike, you could be her reflection. At first my heart leapt as
I thought my sister had managed to escape Morris, but as I stared
at you, I realised that in fact you were not my sister, and she was
still being held against her will by Morris. So not wanting to
waste one more second, I paid at the pump and raced
away.”
    I looked
up at Kale, who gave me a knowing smile.
    “ But I got lost on these narrow country roads. I am unfamiliar
with the area and the roads all look the same. Somewhere I must
have taken a wrong turn, as I found myself heading away from my
sister and not toward her. It was then, as I tried to navigate the
winding roads, I came across you in the fog. You just suddenly
appeared ahead of me.”
    “ So you decided to ram us into the nearest ditch,” Kale
said.
    “ No,” he shook his head. “I didn’t mean to. All I wanted to do
was to get past you. It was never my intention to force you off the
road. I looked back to make sure you were okay, and that’s when I
hit the tree. I made my way blindly through the fog, the urgency to
save my sister forcing me on. It was then I came across your