Soul Storm by Kate Harrison Read Free Book Online Page B

had
best
friends. Meggie was always at the centre of the circle, with endless girl chums and hopeful boys and hangers-on. But she never let anyone get close.
There was no Cara for her to confide in, no Lewis to take the piss out of her. Was my sister never lonely?
    If she was, she hid it well. And she’d make you feel like you were the centre of her universe while she was with you. I think that’s why Meggie was such a hit on the reality show:
every viewer believed she was singing to them alone.
    ‘I know you argued before she died,’ I tell Sahara.
    ‘Not that again, Alice. I told you before. It was nothing.’
    I look straight at her. ‘I don’t believe you.’
    She can’t hold my gaze. She looks at her hands, which are clenched in tight fists.
    ‘I want you to tell me what you argued about, Sahara. To convince me that it’s not you that’s following – no,
stalking
– me.’
    ‘Don’t say that!’ she spits the words at me. ‘You knew, didn’t you?’
    ‘Knew what?’
    ‘Come on,’ she says, her voice icy. ‘You wouldn’t even suspect me if she hadn’t told you, but here you are, playing dumb . . .’
    ‘Told me what?’
    ‘That she accused me of exactly the same bloody thing right before she died.’
    ‘Accused you of what?’
    ‘Of stalking her, of course. Even though it’s the last thing I’d ever do.’

 
     
     
     
9
     
     
     
     
    The word echoes in my head.
    ‘My sister thought you were
stalking
her?’
    Sahara nods. ‘Don’t pretend you didn’t know that. How else would you have got this crazy idea in your head?’
    My carefully planned questions seem irrelevant now.
Meggie had a stalker.
    ‘Believe me, Sahara. I
didn’t
know. I knew you’d had a row.’
Because Meggie told me so on the Beach.
‘But not
why
; that’s the
reason I was desperate to ask you.’
    ‘Yeah, right. You must think I’m stupid.’
    Anything but stupid.
I want to leave; there’s something chilling about the way she’s looking at me. But I have to keep pushing. ‘OK, I can see why you think I might
have known, but there’s another explanation, isn’t there? Maybe I
am
being stalked – by the same person who stalked my sister.’
    It’s better to pretend we’re in this together, that I need her help.
    ‘I suppose that’s me, is it?’ Her eyes are locked on mine now.
    ‘No, I—’
    ‘And that means you think I killed her, too?’ she whispers.
    ‘I’m not saying that,’ I choose my words carefully, ‘but I need to know more about what Meggie told you she’d seen or heard or—’
    ‘Your sister had a vivid imagination, Alice, that’s all. She felt she was being watched, or followed. I told her it was probably just fans recognising her. It only started after the
show was aired. She got drinks bought for her, was stopped on the street for autographs. Fans used to send her presents: make-up, accessories. She loved the attention.’
    ‘Except it doesn’t sound like she loved this kind of attention.’
    She shrugs. ‘There was no proof it was even happening. The week before she died, I told her she should go to the police if she was that worried, and that’s when she came out and
accused
me.
I said the same as I just said to you, that there was no reason for me to stalk my best friend, and then she—’ Sahara stops mid-sentence.
    ‘She what?’
    Her face twists at the memory, as though it’s causing her physical pain. ‘She
laughed
at me. We . . . we were sitting on her bed, as close to each other as you and I are
now. I felt her breath on my face as she laughed. She told me I was kidding myself. That we had nothing in common, that we’d never see each other again once the first year was done, that I
got on her nerves, that . . .’ Sahara gulps.
    Even though I don’t want to believe my sister could be so cruel, it sounds too familiar. Just because no one talks about Meggie’s tantrums any more, that doesn’t mean they
didn’t happen. I can imagine her turning on