The Innocents Read Online Free

was supposed to make her look strong and tall and straight. But it felt a bit more like she was holding herself up. Or together. As if bits of her were going to start to fall away. ‘I didn’t do anything! I didn’t. I was in here all the time!’
    â€˜All the time? Where’d you get that water then?’
    There was no point going on about it.
    â€˜She never showed me,’ Max said and slowly rolled himself along the edge of the mattress so, at last, he was facing her. ‘She must have decided to run back and put him on the bed because that’s where he is now. She knows nobody’s allowed to touch Buster.’
    â€˜No, she didn’t.’
    Max straightened up. He smiled a lovely Max smile and looked up at her from under his eyebrows. His fringe drifted down across his forehead, curling in white-gold waves making his eyes even darker and more piercing and his teeth seem smaller and white and perfect.
    â€˜You know nobody ever touches Buster. Maybe you got scared and tried to take him off her and pushed her and down she went.’ He looked at the cardie. ‘Maybe that’s how you got stuck with this. Maybe it came off when you grabbed at her.’
    Missie struck him, punched him with a fist that she didn’t even realise she’d closed so tight and ready. She pummelled him so he was flung back onto the bed.
    He pushed her back and held both her hands tightly.
    â€˜It’s your fault anyway,’ he said. His voice was blustery and puffed and he held her more tightly while she lunged again. ‘You gave her Buster. Even if you didn’t push her she wouldn’t have had to go back along the hall to return him. It’s your fault, Missie.’
    He gave her a good hard push so he could get to the door without her tackling him again. ‘It’s your fault! You shouldn’t have given her Buster.’
    â€˜I didn’t mean to.’ Anger snapped up her spine, making her head ring. ‘She’s your cousin. All she wanted was to play with you and you wouldn’t. You shouldn’t have left her.’ But he had stormed off and she’d been alone with Judith ... And now Judith Mae was dead. ‘She was holding her breath,’ she said. ‘So I gave her Buster. Just for minute.’
    Voices drifted up from downstairs. A man’s voice and her mother saying that she’d only allow it if she stayed in the room with her. Whatever that meant.
    Max had already walked to the door. Now he turned around. ‘I won’t tell them,’ he said. ‘That way they’ll never know.’
    He walked back into the room. ‘She must have fallen after she put him back ... when she came back along here to try and find you...’
    â€˜But she went after you,’ Missie said before she could stop herself. ‘And you must have seen her.’ A sudden flash. A torch beam finding the cat’s eyes in the dark. ‘How’d you know she had Buster, then?’
    Max leaned closer. His face was almost against hers then he drew back and jabbed his finger at her.
    â€˜You just told me, dummy! And I told you I didn’t see her. She never even found me.’ He took his finger away and put his hands into his pockets. ‘I reckon she got a bit worried about Buster and put him back and then she couldn’t find you. She was probably getting scared and holding her breath as well.’ He turned again, opening the door right up this time, bringing in a breath of cooler air. ‘Or else you found her and knew you’d cop it because she had Buster and when you took him back she tripped and fell all the way down the stairs. So ... it really was your fault whichever way it goes.’
    Missie leapt forward to stop him. To make him stay so she could convince him that Judith Mae wasn’t looking for her ... was she?
    And she’d never touched Buster. Not once. Only that time to hand him across to Judith Mae so