The Girl with Cat's Eyes

C H A P T E R 29

Fear

Fear that grips your bones

Eats you up inside

Don't try and hide

You think of all the things

That could have happened

Come to the worst possible conclusions

All these confusions

What do you do?

C H A P T E R   29

The weeks passed, and though people still asked questions and stared, they did it less, and were discreet about it. Life was getting better again. I was talking to the whole of the group, and Sarah, other people if I had to. But then Daniel went missing.

**Three weeks after The Day I First Talked to Someone Except Jess **

We were in period three, and it was a Thursday. Daniel hadn't been in for days, so we assumed he was ill. Jess, Lilly and I had a period together, but the others were space all over the school. There was an announcement over the speaker for us seven to come to the heads office. I was worried, because the others so frequently got into trouble, and I thought that this time they had somehow managed to get me caught up in it.

But we weren't in trouble.

We waited outside, and the head called us in. I was feeling a little sick from nerves, which only increased as I saw two policemen and another woman sitting with the head master. We sat down on the other side of the desk from the adults, and the head gave us a look of both pity and sadness. I wondered what had happened. I looked over at the woman. Her makeup was smeared slightly, and her eyes were red and puffy like she'd been crying.

'Children, I'm sorry to report that Daniel has in fact been reported missing, for a number of days now. Now the alarm was not raised because many young people run away from home for a few nights, or go into town and do things without letting parents and carers know, however, Daniel has been missing five days, and in his current foster situation-'

'Foster situation?' Lilly cut him off.

'Yes, this is Becca, Daniel's foster mum. He was found a while back, around the same time as Kat I believe, and wouldn't tell anyone anything except his name and age, not even his full name, so he was put into the system as a young adult I believe, Ms Price?'

'Yes, yes that's right.'

'Any way, Daniel is missing, and we would like to know if any of you know anything about his disappearance. You will have interviews with the police under supervision from a member of staff throughout the day. It will be one at a time, in the deputy's office. Now, I understand you must all be rather shocked at the news, so if any of you ever need someone to talk to, I am always here, or the school counselor, okay?'

We nodded, speechless, dazed. Even Lilly said nothing.

We went back to lessons, numb, and in fifth period, I was called out to talk to the policemen. They made me wait outside, and I watched Sam leave the room before me. He looked pale but gave me a weak smile. If we were all in this state I wondered how Josh was handling it.

I stepped inside the room. It wasn't dark as I'd expected it would be, you know, like you see in all those crime programs. Sunlight streamed through the window on to the policemen's paper work. I stood awkwardly at the door.

'Sit down,' said the first. 'Now, my name is PC Hail, and that's Detective Jones... You are... Kat, I believe?'

I nodded. 'Yes...' I whispered, trying to help as much as I could. I had to talk, I knew that.