Gifted: Now You See Me

dots.’

Clare interrupted. ‘But they don’t know about you. They have no idea you’re involved.’

‘I’m not so sure about that,’ Jackson muttered. ‘The Beeson girl — she’s working in my office. She could be snooping around.’

Serena frowned. ‘Which one is she?’

‘The body snatcher,’ Clare told her.

Serena’s face cleared. ‘Oh, right. She came to one of my seances with Ken.’

Clare’s eyebrows went up. ‘You didn’t tell us that.’

Serena shrugged. ‘It was only the one time — she never showed up again.’

But Clare still looked disturbed. She turned to Carter, who hadn’t said a word. ‘Did Amanda say anything about the seance in class?’

In Tracey’s view, Carter looked exactly the way he would look if someone at school asked him a direct question. He just stared into space, not even acknowledging that he’d been addressed.

Clare appeared irritated. ‘Haven’t you brought him out yet?’ she asked Serena.

‘You haven’t given me a chance, have you?’ Serena snapped. She pulled her chair around so she could face Carter directly. She stared at him, so hard that Tracey could actually see her pupils enlarge. She didn’t blink at all. Then she began murmuring softly. Tracey couldn’t make out the words.

She spoke directly into the boy’s ear, her voice soft and rhythmic. Tracey moved closer, but even when she was practically on top of them, she couldn’t understand what Serena was saying. It was like gibberish, the same nonsense words over and over in a monotonous tone.

It was a good thing nobody here could hear her, because her gasp would have been audible. The change in Carter’s expression was dramatic. It was like a curtain had been lifted from his eyes. She hadn’t been able to see this when she watched through the window last night, so she was completely startled.

‘We want to ask you about Amanda,’ Serena said to him. ‘She came to one of the seances. Did she say anything about it in class?’

For the first time, Tracey heard Carter’s voice. It was slightly high-pitched, which made him sound very young. But other than that, it was normal.

‘Not just one seance,’ he said. ‘She went to all of them. Amanda was Margaret.’

Serena drew in her breath sharply. ‘Amanda took over Margaret’s body?’

‘Yes,’ Carter replied. ‘She felt sorry for her. She didn’t want to be Margaret, but it happened.’

‘Margaret. .’ Jackson repeated, and frowned. Serena turned to him.

‘My friend, who was helping me out. She pretended to have just lost her mother. She came to a meeting — you met her. She was freaked out, she couldn’t handle that stay in jail. She was a nervous wreck, remember?’

‘Whatever happened to her?’ Stuart asked.

‘She had some sort of breakdown and she’s living with her parents in Florida.’ Suddenly, Serena gasped. ‘Ohmigod, it’s all starting to make sense! Her behaviour at the seance. .’

It dawned on Tracey that she should be recording this conversation. Hurriedly, she fumbled with her mobile phone, looking for the little icon that would turn the phone into a recorder. .

And it slipped out of her hand.

‘What’s that?’ Clare asked.

They were all staring at a mobile phone, which had suddenly appeared on the floor. Serena reached down and picked it up.

‘It’s not mine,’ she said.

Tracey tried not to panic. OK, they had her phone. They’d see the pictures she’d taken. They might even be able to figure out that the phone belonged to her. But it wasn’t like they could do anything to her — they couldn’t even see her. .

Then her stomach turned over. Because they weren’t looking at the phone any more. They were looking right at her. And they could see her.

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

JENNA’S MOTHER WAS TRYING very hard to grasp the situation. ‘But why would the principal want to get rid of you, Jenna? You haven’t been in any trouble since you started at Meadowbrook.’

‘He’s afraid of me, Mom,’ Jenna explained. ‘Because I can read minds. I don’t know what he’s thinking about that’s so bad, but he doesn’t want me to find out.’

‘Why don’t you just tell him you won’t read his mind?’ Mrs Kelley suggested.

‘I don’t think he’d believe me,’ Jenna said.

‘Oh, dear,’ her mother sighed. ‘Jenna, couldn’t you just stop reading minds? It’s not really a very nice habit, is it?’

Jenna smiled. Her mother meant well, but she was no Dr Paley. She’d never be able to understand.

The doorbell rang. ‘That must be Emily,’ Mrs Kelley said. ‘She called earlier and I told her you were coming home.’

But it was a different classmate who stood in the doorway.

‘Ken!’

‘Emily called and told me you were home,’ he said. ‘I have to talk to you about something.’

‘Come on in. Mom, this is Ken Preston, from my class at Meadowbrook.’

‘Hello, Ken,’ her mother said brightly. ‘Would you kids like something to eat? There are cookies. .’

‘No, thank you, Mrs Kelley,’ Ken said politely. ‘I just need to talk to Jenna about something. I won’t stay long.’

‘I’ll give you two some privacy,’ Mrs Kelley said, and disappeared into the kitchen.

‘She’s nice,’ Ken said.

Jenna nodded. She could remember a time when she would never have willingly allowed a classmate to meet her mother. She could also remember a time when the mere notion of Ken Preston showing up on her doorstep would have boggled her mind.

Now she wasn’t boggled, but she was puzzled. ‘What’s up?’

‘Tracey’s been invisible for a while,’ he began.

Jenna nodded. ‘I know. She came to see me at Harmony House.’

‘Well, she came to see me this morning. And she says. .’ He frowned. ‘This is going to sound crazy. She claims she spied on a meeting. That Clare woman, Serena, the guy who said he was your father. . and Mr Jackson!’

Slowly, Jenna nodded. ‘That doesn’t sound so crazy to me.’

‘But you haven’t heard the rest of it. She says Carter’s the spy, not Amanda. She says she actually saw him talking at this meeting.’

‘Wow!’ Jenna breathed. ‘I wouldn’t have guessed that.’

‘You believe her?’ Ken asked.

‘Tracey doesn’t lie, Ken.’

Ken frowned. ‘She said I should talk to Amanda. And to ask Amanda to tell me what she told her. Does that make sense to you?’

‘Yeah.’

Ken pulled out his mobile and just looked at it for a moment. ‘She’s gotta hate me. I mean, I haven’t exactly been very nice to her.’ Then, with a less-than-enthusiastic expression, he hit a number.

Jenna grinned. ‘You got her on speed-dial, huh?’

‘Forgot to take her off,’ he mumbled. ‘Hello, Amanda? This is Ken. Yeah. Um. . are you busy? I mean, like, could I come by and talk to you about something? OK.’

He put the phone back in his pocket. ‘I’m going over there now.’