Bad Company(31)

But I had created a horrible world of my own, and I couldn’t blame anyone else for that.

I hugged him closer. ‘Don’t worry, Dad. It’s all over now.’

He shook his head. ‘With Magnus Pierce it will never be over.’





Chapter Eighteen


But he was wrong.

Oh yes, Magnus Pierce got out on bail, and we were all afraid.

But he was the one who ‘disappeared’. It was suspected at first that he’d fled the country, but that turned out to be wrong too. Because a few days later a body was found, wrapped in a tarpaulin and buried in a shallow grave. Magnus Pierce had made many enemies and he could never be relied upon to keep his mouth shut the way my dad had.

Yes, my dad. Easy to say it now. He cried the night we heard, not for Magnus Pierce, but because of the dark and sinister world he’d drawn us into. A world, he said, we should have known nothing about so young.

‘It’s all my fault,’ he said, over and over. ‘How could I have been so stupid?’

But I understand now, how you can get caught up with people, led astray, believing you’re not doing anything that’s so bad.

Diane Connell was my Magnus Pierce. And the day after all that excitement I had to go into school and tell the whole truth. I had to stand there, in front of Murdo and Mr Knowles and admit I had lied. Knowing that my lie could have ruined his life. I expected Murdo to bawl at me, rant and rave at me in his anger. But he surprised me again. He only shook his head and pursed his lips and when he finally did speak it wasn’t what I expected at all.

‘It took a lot of courage for you to come here and say this, Lissa. Thank you.’

And that was when I cried. I bubbled like a baby. Murdo didn’t come near me to comfort me and the headmaster only looked embarrassed.

‘Yes. Yes. Go on, have a good greet,’ Murdo said. ‘Let it all out.’

Diane never came back to school. She’s not going to Adler Academy either. After what happened it seemed they rescinded – is that the right word? They withdrew their offer anyway.

I did try to phone her. To explain to her what I’d done and my reasons. But it was her mother who answered. ‘Diane isn’t here,’ she told me in clipped angry tones. ‘And we don’t want you phoning here again.’

I was suspended for a week though I know Murdo didn’t even want that. I didn’t mind. Too many things were happening at home anyway.

It was the longest week of my life. I had no idea how the rest of my class would take what I had done to their favourite teacher. I was dreading going back that day.

June 12th

Murdo was waiting for me at the school gates when I arrived this morning. I deliberately came late, terrified of having to run yet another gauntlet. I waited round the corner till I heard the bell and only made my way to school when my class had safely filed inside.

And there was Murdo.

His hair has grown since I last saw him and it stood erect around his head like a burning bush. ‘Ah Lissa, good,’ he said as if he was surprised to see me. As if I didn’t know he had been waiting. ‘You can help me carry some books into class.’

After what I had put him through he was protecting me. Making sure I walked into his class with him by my side. I thought it was such a thoughtful thing to do I almost cried again. ‘You’ve come through a lot over the past few weeks, Lissa,’ he said as we carried copies of To Kill A Mockingbird to the classroom. ‘You’ve learned a lot too.’

He knows about Magnus Pierce, of course. It’s been in all the papers, although our involvement in his arrest has been suppressed by the police.

‘Yes,’ I said. ‘With what I’ve learned I could write a book.’

Suddenly, he bellowed a laugh that echoed through the high long corridors. ‘That’s it! You’ll be a writer.’ Then he added with a mischievious twinkle, ‘You certainly know how to tell a tall tale.’ And he sprayed me all over with those ‘T’s.

A book, I thought. My ‘potential’ at last? Well, I’ve practically written one already with this diary, haven’t I?

So I actually had a smile on my face as I walked behind him into the classroom. The ordeal to come almost forgotten for a moment.

Almost, but not entirely.

I stayed as close to Murdo as I dared and put my pile of books down on his desk.

It took every ounce of courage I had to turn round and face that class. Each of them was looking straight at me and I could read nothing in their stony faces except hate.

They were never going to talk to me again. Or, did they have a worse punishment in mind? I bit my lip and began walking toward my desk.

What happened next absolutely stunned me. In a million years I couldn’t have guessed it.