I sat back in the seat, crossing my arms. ‘What’re you doing here?’
‘Get your bag and get off the bus right now,’ he ordered as he strode down the aisle.
‘You can’t make me.’
The driver manoeuvred his way out of his seat. ‘Now just wait a minute here, mate,’ he said.
Kevin yanked my backpack from the overhead locker. ‘Come on, Sunny. Get off.’
‘I’m leaving. You can’t stop me.’
‘You’re not leaving. You have nowhere to go. You’re sixteen, for God’s sake.’
‘I do have somewhere to go. My dad’s place in Brisbane.’
The backpack he held to his chest swung limply down by his side. ‘What?’
‘My dad. I’m going to see him in the city. He’s going to look after me.’
‘Sunny, what are you talking about?’
I stood up and tried to yank my backpack out of his hand, but he held it tightly. ‘I’m talking about my dad, my real dad. I’m getting out of this hole and I’m going to live with him and you can’t stop me!’
‘Sunny,’ said Matt.
‘What?’ I turned toward him.
‘Come on,’ he said softly, ‘it’s over.’
I frowned, trying to work out the expression on his face. Why would he side with Kevin? He knew what I needed to do. I had explained absolutely everything to him. I snatched the backpack from Kevin’s hands and stormed down the aisle of the bus. Had it been a couple of minutes later, Kevin would have missed me. The hole in the cheese would’ve lined up and I’d have been on the highway, putting kilometres of blacktop between me and that life. Just one little adjustment to those arbitrary markers of time and things would have been different and I wouldn’t have had to face the fallout of my master plan.
Through the windscreen I saw people gathering outside Leanne’s shop. They were staring at the bus and, as I came down the steps, I learned why. Karen Koslovski was trying to get onto it, but was being held back by the driver. She yelled through the doorway, holding something in her hand. A shockwave pulsed over me. It was Dylan’s shirt. She had Dylan’s shirt. That had not been part of the plan. She wasn’t supposed to find it yet.
With Kevin and Matt right behind me, I came down the steps and tried to get past her. I felt sick. I wanted to throw down my bag and run away, but my legs had shut down. She waved the shirt in my face, and I could smell the dirt and the blood.
‘What the hell is this?’ Her face was red and her eyes hard and shiny with tears. ‘What were you doing with Dylan’s shirt?’
Kevin and Matt stepped down from the bus and Karen rushed at Kevin, waving the bloodied garment in the air. I looked around. A crowd, including Zara and her friends, had gathered in a bewildered semicircle a few feet away.
‘She left this in our mailbox.’ She turned to me. ‘You did, didn’t you? There was a note.’ She pulled a piece of paper from her pocket. ‘You said you found this at your house? When? How did it get there?’
My mouth hung open uselessly. ‘I …’
Kevin frowned, trying to make out the crumpled article of clothing in her hand. Then suddenly his eyes flickered with recognition. My stomach sank as I watched his face change colour. ‘What is …’ He glanced at me, anger flushing his cheeks. ‘Sunny, what have you done?’
‘This is Dylan’s shirt!’ Karen said, clutching it to her chest. I stepped back and nearly fell into the gutter. ‘It’s his shirt! I’d know it anywhere.’ She turned to face the crowd as if to summon their support.
Leanne ran up behind the group. ‘Sunny?’ she said, trying to peer over the heads of the onlookers.
‘It’s covered in blood!’ Karen pressed the shirt to her mouth and sobbed. ‘His blood. Oh, my boy. Oh, God.’
My eyes burned with tears.
Leanne finally pushed through the crowd and rushed over to me. ‘What’s going on? Sunny?’
‘Um …’ I looked at Matt for help, but he was staring at Karen, hands clasped over the top of his head.
‘Kevin, I want an explanation for this,’ Karen said. She glared at him and then back at me, but I was too terrified to speak. ‘Tell me!’ she screamed, lurching toward us. Leanne grabbed Karen’s shoulder and put an arm around her.
‘Sunny, what the hell is this?’ Kevin said.
I shook my head. ‘I’m sorry, I …’
‘Sunny!’ Anger gripped his face.
‘I found it,’ I said. ‘It’s Dylan’s. I thought …’
‘Will someone tell me what’s going on?’ Leanne said, shaking her head.
Shelley Hanigan had appeared from behind the bus, looking unlike a policewoman in her jeans and reindeer T-shirt. ‘Someone could tell me too,’ she said.
Karen wiped her nose with the back of her hand and her trembling voice became low and soft. ‘Kevin, you need to tell me and Shelley and everyone here why you had a shirt of Dylan’s in your house and why it’s covered with blood.’
Shelley looked startled for a second, and indicated for Karen to give her the shirt. Karen reluctantly passed it over. We all stood in silence, watching Kevin. He shook his head and rubbed his jaw. Slowly, he turned to Karen.
‘Alright, I’ll tell you how it got there,’ he whispered. ‘I’ll tell you exactly. Your son came to my house, a few months ago, for help. He was crying. His nose was bleeding. There was blood all down the front of his shirt. He wouldn’t tell me what happened, but maybe you should ask Gary.’
Karen shook her head. ‘What are you talking about?’ She looked at Shelley. ‘Are you going to ask this man some questions or just stand there doing bloody nothing?’
Shelley turned to Karen. ‘Where is Gary?’
‘I don’t know,’ she said. ‘He went up to the waterhole, I think. He’s looking for Dylan. He’s still looking for our boy! Every day, every day since he … And
