All The Lonely People - David Owen Page 0,61

need that to know his true thoughts better than he did.

‘You might know already, but I think you can . . . go inside people while you’re fading. Temporarily.’ He spoke as if the idea both thrilled and appalled him. ‘Maybe if you can possess one of them or whatever when they attack Tinker, make them crash the car or let her get away. I don’t really know how it works.’

‘No, you really don’t,’ said Kat. Still, she wondered. Admitting he could be right meant admitting she needed him, and that made her sick. If it meant saving Tinker, she would have to swallow her pride.

Could it really save her? She looked around at the destruction of her room and knew she wanted to try.

‘I won’t do this for you,’ she said to Wesley. ‘I’ll do it for Tinker. I’ll do it so I can make it all up to Dad. I’ll do it for myself.’

‘Follow me to school tomorrow,’ said Wesley, oblivious. ‘I’ll confront Luke and Justin, convince them I want to help, and find out exactly what they’re planning. You’ll hear it all and they’ll never know. I’ll be like a double agent. This is the only way I can give you inside information.’

‘You’re not giving me anything!’ she shouted. ‘If you really cared you would call the police and put a stop to this right now. I do need you, but not as much as you need me. I’m the only way you can stay friendly with your MRA mates without having to do the dirty work. You’re not being brave. You’re a coward.’

The look of determination, of triumph on Wesley’s face as he scribbled his address on a scrap piece of paper made her want to reverse the fade just so she could smack him. How could he be so deluded and lost to convince himself he was doing the right thing? She lifted a hand towards him. One step, a moment of surrender to that seductive pull, and she could see for herself.

No. She stepped away at the same moment that Wesley got to his feet.

‘There’s somebody else we want to find to ask about Aaron. A girl,’ he said. ‘But we don’t know who she is. It must have been somebody he was close to – a friend or a girlfriend . . .’

Kat remembered what Safa had told her a couple of nights ago. She didn’t want to help him, but it was clear now that the fade was accelerating. If he could find out more about what happened to Aaron, it might help her cling to herself for a little longer. She crossed the room to her laptop and began to type.

The light from the MacBook screen changed as Wesley moved to the door. Before it had simply been on the desktop, but when he returned to the desk an Instagram profile was waiting for him. A familiar young woman represented by a grid of selfies and modelling shots. The name at the top almost made him choke.

The girl who had come looking for Aaron, who he must have visited before the end.

‘Selena Jensen.’

As soon as he was gone, Kat took out her phone and began writing a message to Safa.

You won’t believe what just . . .

She stopped typing, staring at the blinking cursor. They had only just left each other, and already Kat missed her. She couldn’t remember the last time she simply had to tell somebody something. She couldn’t remember the last time she had somebody to tell.

And she had already lost her.

*

Wesley messaged Aoife on the walk home.

It’s Selena. The girl who was looking for Aaron. He included the link to her Instagram profile.

Seriously?! came the reply. There’s no way she’ll agree to meet us.

She might if you mention Aaron’s name.

Okay, I’ll try! She signed off with a fingers-crossed emoji.

Wesley got home to find Dave playing with Evie in their room, shouts and giggles filling the flat, while Mum reclined on the short sofa with a damp cloth draped across her forehead. He felt like an actor walking onstage during the wrong scene.

‘Rough day?’ he asked, sitting across from her in the armchair.

Mum groaned as she levered herself upright. ‘I took Evie to see that new Disney movie. They’re so bright they always give me a headache. You could have come but I didn’t know where you were. Evie was going nuts being cooped up here.’

‘It’s all right.’ A thousand repeat viewings of Frozen had put him off