The Secret of the Lonely Isles Read Online Free Page A

police officer by the sink. ‘Not the safest place for a young bloke to be at night,’ he added. ‘And not the safest place for you kids to be either. I know the gang that hangs around the park there. They’re a nasty mob – you could’ve been hurt. What you should have done, was to wake up your parents, and tell them Zac was missing, not go outlooking for him yourselves.’ He stood up, and nodded to his partner. ‘We’ll be off now. No harm done. But just remember what I said. All of you were very lucky tonight, not to get into a lot more trouble.’
    Karen showed the officers out, and Carol stood up.
    â€˜Thanks for trying to find Zac,’ she said, as she ushered Zac and Celie out the door. ‘He went out lookin’ for his dad, he says. He was cranky ’cause he didn’t take him to the footy tonight.’ She paused, and then said, ‘You should’ve woken Mum and Dad like the policeman said, not gone out yourselves. But I know you were just lookin’ out for your mate. Thanks kids.’ And she took Zac and Celie by the hand and said goodnight to Steve as Karen came back into the kitchen. Maddy, Jem and Tyler sat down at the table.
    Steve rocked his wheelchair back and forth, looking from one to the other. ‘Why the heck didn’t you wake us up? What were you thinking, going out in the middle of the night like that? You know it’s not safe!’
    â€˜You would’ve just yelled at everybody, and Zac would’ve got into even more trouble, and everyone would’ve been more miserable than they are now!’ said Maddy passionately, and burst into tears. The tension of being out at night on their own, and how near they’d come to being bashed by the gang in the park, flooded over her and she dropped her head onto her arms andsobbed. Jem and Tyler sat awkwardly either side of her, not knowing what to do or say.
    Steve opened his mouth to speak but Karen shook her head at him, gathered Maddy up in her arms and hustled her off to bed. ‘You too, fellas, c’mon. It’s been a big night. We’ll talk about it in the morning, okay?’
    Jem lay on top of his sheets, thinking about the little dog. He was only trying to help it, and it bit him. It made him think of his father. What was it, when people got hurt, that made them turn on the people helping them? He could, just faintly, hear his parents arguing in their bedroom. He felt a rush of misery wash over him, and wanted to cry, just like Maddy.
    Suddenly, Tyler gave a yelp, and sat up. ‘Ahh! I’ve still got green ants biting me …’ He squirmed around finding the culprits, and then lay back again. ‘That was sweet, seeing those guys run for it!’ And he closed his eyes with a happy grin, and was snoring in no time.

Jem and Tyler were in the kitchen, leaning on the kitchen table, chins in their hands, looking and feeling gloomy. Karen and Steve had talked to the three of them earlier that morning, and extracted promises from them that they’d never go out at night on their own again. Maddy looked uncomfortable for a moment, but had brightened up soon after, and gone off to meet her friends at the Plaza shopping centre. Karen looked at the two boys and put down her coffee mug.
    â€˜Well, how about the movies today? And yes Tyler,go and see if Zac can come too.’ Twenty minutes later they piled into the car and headed off to the cinema at the Plaza.
    â€˜If I’d thought of this in time we could’ve given Maddy a lift out here,’ Karen said.
    Jem enjoyed the movie, a new action picture. He never got tired of them. As they were coming out of the cinema, Karen suddenly stopped beside him.
    â€˜That’s Maddy!’ she said. ‘I thought the girls were shopping, not going to the movies.’
    Jem looked across the lobby and saw Maddy coming out of a different cinema, except she wasn’t with her girlfriends – she