Luke was still sitting on the ground, his thumbs tucked under his chin and his fingers steepled across his mouth. I sat down next to him, and wrapped my arm around his shoulders.
“Mase,” I said, quietly. Just like a warning, you know? And I tipped my head slightly in Luke’s direction.
But Mason either didn’t hear, or he wasn’t in the mood to listen.
“I told you,” he said. “I fucking told you. And you lot all wanted to go back! You were dying to go back.”
“Mason!” I said again, practically shouting this time. “Shut up, will you! Just stop! Just for a minute!”
Luke had started muttering to himself, saying something I couldn’t make out.
Mason was shaking his head, ignoring me the way he had before. “Now we have to stay out here,” he said. “Nobody’s going home now.”
“Mase . . .” said Fash. “Let’s just . . . let’s think about this for a second. Let’s try to work out what it means.”
Mason spun. “It means Sadie was out here. That’s what it means. It means she’s probably still out here.”
“But why would Sadie have a second phone?” I said, as much to myself as anyone. “It doesn’t make any sense.”
Mason opened his mouth to answer, but it was obvious he didn’t know what to say. “I don’t know,” he said eventually. “I don’t fucking know, OK? But that’s not the point. You know as well as I do, that’s not the point.”
Luke got to his feet. “I need to go home,” he said, and I realized that’s what he’d been muttering before. “I need to get back.”
“What?” said Mason, as Luke swung his rucksack over his shoulder. “No, Luke, wait. We can’t go back. Not now. You see that, don’t you?”
Luke shook his head. “Dylan,” he said. “Dylan needs me. I need to get back. I’m sorry, Mase, but I do.”
Mason took hold of his arm. “Luke, wait. Listen. Maybe Dylan needs you, but what if your sister needs you more? What if she’s out here and she’s hurt? Just like we said before?”
Luke opened his mouth again, but this time nothing came out.
“Guys?” said Fash. “Don’t you think . . . I mean, if it is Sadie’s phone, shouldn’t we . . . I don’t know. Tell the police or something? Especially if that’s . . .” He gestured to the phone in Mason’s hand. “If what’s on it isn’t mud.”
“The police?” said Mason, incredulous. “What are the police going to do?”
“They’ll run, like, tests or something,” said Abi. “Won’t they? They’ll be able to find out for sure.”
“Find what out?” Mason scoffed. “It’s Sadie’s phone. We know that. All that forensic shit takes days, and anyway, the cops have already made up their minds. They think Sadie’s dead, and they think I killed her. If we turn up with this,” he said, waggling the phone, “and they discover I was there when we found it, it would be like handing them a written confession. And I know none of you lot gives two shits about what happens to me, and it’s not like I give much of a fuck anymore either. But personally, I’m not ready to give up on Sadie. Not yet.”
“Come on, Mase,” I said. “You know that’s not true. You know we care. And you know none of us are giving up on Sadie either.”
“So prove it,” said Mason.
I glanced around at the others, and it was obvious no one knew what to say. Abi was looking like she was about to be sick. Fash was staring into space. And Luke . . . Luke looked about as lost as I’d ever seen him. I mean, I could only imagine what he was going through. What he was imagining the phone might mean.
And not just the phone.
The blood.
“So what are you suggesting we should do?” I asked Mason. “I mean, if we did stay out here.”
“We search the area, obviously,” he answered. “And we follow the stream deeper inland.”
“Inland?” said Fash. “But we just came from that way.”
“We did,” said Mason. “But was anyone actually looking? Or thinking about anything other than a drink of water since we left the clearing? You and Cora walked past that phone without even batting an eyelid.”
I felt myself flush. Fash looked the way he would have had his mum just caught him searching for porn on his computer.
“And anyway,” Mason went on, “there’s no point carrying on the way we were going. The police already came this far, before they decided to concentrate on the river.” He shook his head. “I knew they were looking in the wrong place.”
“And the water situation?” I said, when no one else spoke. “If we stay out here—if we do as you say—what exactly are we supposed to drink?” I looked at the sky, which at some point had turned from white to gray. “I mean, sun or no sun, it’s got to be the hottest day of the year. And the air’s so thick I can barely breathe.”
Abi nodded vigorously. “Right,” she said, and she held her throat. “I’m not kidding, guys. I’m seriously about to die here.”
But I swear, it was as though Mason had an answer prepared for that, too. Or someone did, anyway. Because right then, right on cue, that’s when it started to rain.
THIS TIME FLEET didn’t bother with the satnav. The longer he spent in this place, the more the lie of the land came back to him. And not just that: other memories had come bubbling back, too. Memories of growing up here, of school—of a prevailing boredom, and the stupidity he and his friends had resorted to in order to keep themselves entertained. Drink, drugs, fucking, fighting. He looked back on the person he had been and shuddered at the thought of who he might have become. If he hadn’t left. If his sister hadn’t died.
Jeannie.
His beautiful, broken little
