November Lake: Teenage Detective (The November Lake Mysteries) Book 1 Read Online Free

set
of handcuffs. I kept my balance. With my heart thumping and my hair
in my eyes, I clawed my way upwards. My feet slipped in the mud
over and over again. I dropped to my knees, sending up sheets of
ice cold rainwater. It spattered my pyjamas, face and hair. I
wouldn’t give up.
    Wispy
plumes of breath escaped from my mouth. I gasped in freezing cold
lungful’s of night air. I reached the top of the grassy slope.
Arming lengths of my own wet hair from my eyes, I peered down the
other side and into the darkness. There was a small wooded area. I
looked backwards to see Kale still trying to claw his way towards
me. His injured leg dragged out behind him in the mud. I looked
back at those thick slices of darkness set between the trees and
knew Griffin was hiding someplace in there. Half of me wanted to
turn back or wait for Kale at least. But I was a police officer now
and they didn’t get to run away from danger. They were expected to
run towards it. I thought of Anne lying face down on the bed with
that black sticky looking wound on the back of her head. Drawing a
deep breath and clutching the handcuffs to my chest, I headed down
the grassy slope. I had only taken a few steps when I slipped and
landed on my butt.
    I cried
out as the air was squeezed from my lungs. The wind was blowing so
hard now; I doubted anyone would have heard my cry. I rolled onto
my front at the bottom of the slope. My feet were almost numb with
the cold mud that caked them. My pyjamas clung wetly to me and my
hair covered my face in thick black streaks. I looked more like one
of the living dead than a cop. Spitting mud and grit from between
my teeth, I pulled myself up and staggered towards the wooded area.
I reached the treeline and stepped into the wood. The rain made a
thrumming sound as it drummed against the leaves overhead. The wind
sounded like waves crashing against rocks as it whipped the
branches of the trees back and forth in the growing
storm.
    I
stepped over broken twigs and winced in pain as they dug like
slithers of glass into the soles of my feet. I thought again of
Anne lying face down on the bed and pushed on. Staring ahead into
the darkness I looked for any sign of Constable Griffin.
    It
seemed insane that I was hunting down another police officer for
murder. Coppers weren’t meant to be killers – they were meant to
catch them. I could only imagine how scared Anne had been when
glancing up to see Griffin staring out of the dark at her. I didn’t
have to imagine for very long, as a white ghost-like face suddenly
loomed out of the darkness at me. I screamed and stumbled
backwards. My stomach clenched like a fist. But it wasn’t the face
of Constable Griffin that now floated towards me out of the dark –
it was Constable Anne Short’s that I could see.
    Was I
seeing some hideous apparition? Some ghoul? Was it the ghost of
Anne Short come back to hunt down the man who had killed her? It
couldn’t be. That would’ve been just too weird.
    “ November,” she whispered. “You could let me go – tell Creed
that you couldn’t find me.”
    “ Anne?” I whispered, taking another step backwards.
    “ I didn’t mean to kill him,” she said, closing the gap between
us. “But he just wouldn’t leave me alone. And when I looked up
tonight to discover Griffin leering down at me through the
hatch…”
    My brain
scrambled and tried to make sense of what Anne was saying. “That
wasn’t you lying dead on the bed? That was Griffin? You killed
him?”
    “ It was an accident,” she said, closing the gap further
still.
    My legs
felt heavy and unmoveable, like they had been screwed to the
ground. I looked at her opened mouthed, the handcuffs dangling from
my fist.
    “ You were right,” Anne continued. “I was getting undressed when
I looked up and discovered Griffin. His lecherous face loomed out
of the darkness at me. He looked grotesque and terrifying. I
screamed out in horror and turned away. He dropped through the
hatch and