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

to
prison for what I’ve done. I killed a cop, November.”
    “ Griffin might have worn a uniform Anne,” I said, my hand still
open. “But he wasn’t a police officer in his heart. He didn’t want
to help people like we do. When you tell the court what you’ve told
me, they will understand that.”
    Very
slowly, I felt Anne’s fingers curl around mine as she took my
hand.
     
    Although
Kale was as surprised as me when he discovered that it was
Constable Griffin lying dead on the bed and not Constable Short, I
couldn’t help but notice a look of smugness crawl over his
face.
    “ What’s that look for?” I asked as we headed towards the car
park at the rear of the training school the following morning. He
limped over the ground which was covered in a carpet of bronze and
orange leaves that had fallen from the nearby trees.
    “ What look?” he glanced sideways at me, his rucksack over his
shoulder and packed full for his weekend stay with his
parents.
    “ That I-told-you-so-look ,” I said back, my
own rucksack dangling from the crook of my elbow. Perhaps I
should’ve listened to my father’s warnings.
    “ Well I did tell you so, didn’t I,” he smirked.
    “ You told me the killer jumped out of the freaking window!” I
said, heading towards my motorbike.
    “ And the killer did. She jumped out of your bedroom window,” he grinned,
stopping by his car. It gleamed beneath the weak winter sun. How
could he afford such a nice car on a recruits wage?
    “ That’s not what you said, and you know it,” I
scowled.
    Kale
opened the boot of his car and threw in his rucksack. “Okay,” he
shrugged, “so we both got some stuff wrong, but we’re still
learning. That’s the whole point of being at training school isn’t
it?”
    “ I guess,” I said thoughtfully.
    “ Hey, don’t be so disappointed,” he said, placing one hand on
my shoulder. “You did good and you caught the killer.”
    “ Yeah, and I’m not so sure I feel happy about that,” I sighed,
combing a length of hair behind my ear to stop it from snagging in
the wind.
    “ Sergeant Black is treating Anne with kid gloves, she’ll be
okay,” Kale tried to assure me. “Look on the bright
side.”
    “ Is there one?” I asked, looking up into his face. Gone was the
stubble from the night before.
    “ You must be the only recruit in the country whose first arrest
was for murder,” he said with a boyish grin. “Now that’s got to
count for something.”
    “ Mmm,” I said thoughtfully as I turned away towards my
motorbike. I wasn’t so sure it counted for much if it meant a
frightened woman was sent to prison.
    “ November,” he said.
    I looked
back. “Huh?”
    “ November – that’s a strange kind of name, don’t you think?” he
said.
    “ No stranger than, Kale,” I said right back. “Isn’t kale some
kind of vegetable?”
    “ I didn’t mean to offend you.”
    “ You said my name was strange,” I reminded him.
    “ In a pretty kind of way,” he half smiled.
    Without
saying anything more, I turned away. I was halfway across the
windblown car park, when I heard Kale call after me again. “Hey,
November.”
    Stopping, I glanced back.
    “ What you doing this weekend?” he asked.
    “ Cramming,” I said.
    “ My mum makes a wicked Bakewell Tart,” he smiled at me over the
roof of his car. “We could cram for the exam together. I could do
with some help and after seeing you in action last night, I
couldn’t think of anyone more than I would like to study
with.”
    “ Go stay at your parents with you?” I asked, feeling surprised
but secretly delighted by his proposal. Where else did I have to go
other than back to my poky room that I rented in
Bleakfield?
    “ Why not?” Kale smiled. “And besides, it’s a long drive between
here and the Peak District, who knows what mysteries we might come
across that need solving.”
    “ Like crimes and stuff,” I said, slowly heading back across the
car park, drawn by the