What They Do in the Dark - By Amanda Coe Page 0,81

some kind of church, another category of building closed to her. Inside, Pauline breathed in the respectable stink and closed her eyes while Gemma scanned the shelves. She prayed for her mam. She was actually praying for her to come back, something she’d never allowed herself to do while Joanne was still alive. The trick of the prayer was pretending that Joanne was still just in Leeds, and that prayer magic was being called on only to summon her quicker. That night, Pauline would get home, and there she’d be, drinks and food laid on, a trip to the launderette, calling her gyppo like Gemma did, charging the place with her danger.

You couldn’t spend much time with your eyes closed, which was why Pauline hadn’t been sleeping at night since it happened. The worst was when she saw a picture, more real than a dream, more like a film come to life there in her bedroom, but you knew if you touched it it would be solid: it was Joanne, but Joanne melded with the bag in the picture the police had shown them, flayed, boneless and terrible with blood. The blood was dark, like the stain she’d seen on the bag, but liquid and pouring. Even there in the library, her nodding at a table, it lurked. She snapped her head back. Gemma loomed, holding a couple of books, their dull covers loosely wrapped in protective plastic.

‘Come on then.’

She was so wholesomely like herself, Gemma, socks pulled up, books one on top of the other, fringe exact. Pauline had started to think that if you put your finger out you might poke a hole in people or tear them, but not Gemma, standing there with her cardigan folded over her forearm, her hair bobbles aligned. There was always a smell about her, clean, from her clothes. Suddenly, Pauline wanted to hit her with a hammer. She followed her out of the library.

They walked on to the Town Fields. Gemma was asking her about meeting Lallie when they’d done the filming at the school, and Pauline was telling her all sorts, because the thing she remembered most was the drama of her own hair and what they’d done to it. Lallie or whatever she was called had come in near the end, after they’d already been in a class with an empty desk, where they had to look serious because she’d been killed in the story. After that they were having to be noisy and stuff with Lallie at the desk, nicking a pencil from the nig-nog’s table. She looked older than them, even in the same uniform (Pauline had been given a newish one for the day and had managed to walk off in it at the end without anyone stopping her). Lallie hadn’t bothered talking to them really, but Pauline invented a conversation which expanded to fit the many questions Gemma was then driven to ask about it, starting with what Lallie had been wearing (‘School uniform’ – ‘Did you see what she was wearing before?’ ‘Erm, yeah, sort of jeans and that’ – ‘Not dungarees?’ – ‘What’s them?’ – ‘You know, with a bib and braces’ – ‘Oh aye, them, with like flowers on’ – ‘What colour?’ – ‘Purple’) and progressing to her invitation to Pauline to go on holiday with her to America (‘She never!’ – ‘She did and all, they’ve got a swimming pool and she was supposed to be taking a friend but she got really poorly so she couldn’t come so she said I could come instead.’).

That was when Gemma noticed the cameras and the people down in the bowl of the field and got all excited. She asked a lady who was stood at the top ridge if Lallie was around, and she seemed to know what she was talking about, although Pauline caught her out on saying she had lessons during the holidays.

There was no stopping Gemma then. She started to go on about how Pauline might be able to get Lallie to invite her on holiday as well, if they managed to find her. Or Gemma could talk to her mum and dad and they’d arrange to be on holiday at the same place, even though they’d just got back from Spain, because Ian was an accountant and was rich. It was a relief to Pauline when they saw Lallie smoking and Gemma went mental about it, even though she barrelled down to the middle of the field to see