Secret Lives

by Gabriella Poole

  Framed in the doorway, elegant with rage, Katerina looked like smouldering ice. If anything she was even taller, thought Cassie, and she didn’t take a shred of notice of Isabella. Her blue eyes held Cassie’s.

  ‘Where have you been?’ she hissed.

  ‘That’s right, you don’t know where I’ve been.’ Cassie smiled inanely at her. ‘Best not to touch me without a bargepole.’

  ‘Don’t try to be clever, Miss Scholarship. What were you doing tonight? Where were you?’

  Isabella folded her arms and glared at Katerina. ‘Cassie has been most unwell. An upset stomach.’ She cocked her head at the sound of the flushed cistern filling.

  Cassie pulled a face. ‘God, yes. I don’t know who made the crêpes at dinner but—’

  ‘Don’t insult my intelligence.’ Katerina’s chest was heaving.

  Why ever not? Cassie managed not to say it out loud. ‘Of course I wouldn’t.’ She grabbed her stomach, grimacing. ‘Here it comes again.’

  ‘Cassie, darling.’ With an expression of sympathy, Isabella put an arm round her shoulders. ‘Shall I fetch the nurse?’

  ‘No, I’ll be fine, I—’ She gasped. ‘Ohhhhh!’

  Katerina’s teeth were gritted, but she looked from one to the other, hesitant. Human frailty obviously repelled her. ‘If I find,’ she hissed, ‘if I ever find you saw something tonight you should not have seen, Cassie? Then it will be very bad for you. Do you understand?’

  ‘Uh-huh? Why would there be anything I shouldn’t see?’ Cassie remembered to wince at another imaginary stomach cramp.

  ‘I think you know, little prowler.’ Katerina’s lip twisted. ‘You are like that pathetic, simpering fool Jake Johnson, always snooping where you shouldn’t. Be careful what you look for, scholarship girl. One day you might find it.’ She gave Cassie an unpleasant smirk. ‘And then you will be sorry. So terribly sorry, and too late.’

  ‘And I’m terribly sorry now, but you’re going to have to excuse me.’ Cassie put one hand on the bathroom door handle, the other over her mouth.

  ‘Don’t make the mistake of thinking me a fool,’ breathed Katerina. She backed slowly away from Cassie. ‘If you had anything to do with what happened to Keiko tonight, I promise you will pay. Do you understand me?’

  ‘No.’ Cassie pushed the bathroom door an inch open, holding the icy gaze unflinchingly. ‘What’s happened to Keiko?’

  Disgusted, Katerina stalked out and slammed the door.

  Cassie rested her forehead against the bathroom door frame. They should be having a giggle now. They should be feeling triumphant at getting shot of Katerina. Remembering Keiko’s fate, Cassie didn’t feel like laughing any more, and obviously neither did Isabella. Miserable, Cassie watched her friend start to cry.

  ‘Isabella.’ Cassie clasped her cold fingers. ‘I’m so sorry. I swear to God it was an accident. I’m so sorry it happened, but she was attacking me, and if Jake hadn’t—’

  ‘I don’t feel sorry for Keiko.’ Through her shocked tears, Isabella’s tone was outraged. ‘She tried to kill you! Oh, Cassie, what if she had?’

  ‘She didn’t.’ Jake had emerged from the darkness of the bathroom. He propped himself against the door, still trembling, staring at the place where Katerina had stood.

  ‘Thanks to you,’ pointed out Cassie.

  ‘Sure. Maybe not a completely simpering fool, huh?’ He folded his arms.

  ‘Oh, Jake.’ Isabella hugged herself, digging her fingers into her arms as if to avoid hugging him instead. ‘I’m sorry. Truly I am. I’m so sorry you heard that.’

  And she really was, thought Cassie, amused and touched. The sensitive southern flower was worried about his feelings. Isabella was well smitten.

  ‘’S OK.’ Jake shrugged. ‘I guess I’ve been kind of starry-eyed, haven’t I?’

  ‘That is because you are kind,’ insisted Isabella fiercely. ‘You are not like her! You would not dream a person could be cruel and unpleasant and … scheming. It is not how your mind works!’

  ‘Nice of you to say so, Isabella.’ He gave her a weak smile and shrugged. ‘But I think maybe I’m just dumb. Y’know? My brains being down in my—’

  ‘No!’ exclaimed Isabella, mortified. ‘Do not say such a thing about yourself!’

  Whoa! That was rich!

  ‘Um,’ said Cassie dryly. ‘If you two could break it up for a minute?’

  ‘OK.’ Jake grinned.

  Cassie took a breath. ‘What are you up to, Jake Johnson?’

  Swearing, he rubbed his temples with finger and thumb.

  ‘I mean,’ Cassie went on, ‘everybody round here seems to be up to something. But you’re not – well, even if you do have a bad sleepwalking problem, I don’t think you’re up to anything really bad. Right?’ She sank her teeth in her lip.

  Jake sat down on the floor and clasped his hands behind his neck. After a pause he said, ‘Something’s wrong at this school.’

  Cassie snorted. ‘That much I’d gathered.’

  ‘Jake.’ Isabella slumped down on her bed and leaned towards him full of concern. ‘It’s Jessica, right?’

  Unhappily he nodded.

  ‘What? Jake.’

  ‘I need to find out who killed her. What killed her.’ He went quiet for a minute. ‘OK? I need to know.’

  The silence was so thick that Cassie wanted to fling open the window and let in the night air.

  ‘Jake,’ said Isabella gently. ‘I know how upset you were – are – but it wasn’t …’ She took a deep breath and whispered, ‘It could have been an accident.’

  ‘It wasn’t an accident. Somebody killed her.’ He gave Cassie a sober look. ‘Something killed her.’

  ‘But you cannot take it upon yourself to—’

  ‘So who else is going to? Darke? The police? The Cambodian police weren’t interested. Nobody is. She was only a scholarship, wasn’t she?’

  Cassie shuddered.

  ‘Jess wasn’t the first, either,’ said Jake.

  ‘It’s the school’s bad luck,’ put in Isabella. ‘A jinx. That’s what they say.’

  ‘Some jinx.’

  ‘And Sir Alric – listen, you can’t blame him. He was terribly upset when it happened. And he gave you the scholarship, Jake, in her memory.’

  ‘To keep my family quiet, you mean. To repair the PR damage. Mom might have fallen for his charity stunt, but I sure didn’t. I took the scholarship so I could find out what happened to Jess.’

  ‘So what have you found out?’ said Cassie.

  ‘Not a lot.’ Jake’s voice was bitter. ‘It’s to do with the Few, that’s all I know. One of them killed her, and I reckon I know which one. I need to prove it, that’s all.’

  ‘If you prove a murder,’ said Isabella, ‘if it gets out that a student was killed here, that it was covered up, it’ll be the end of the Academy.’

  ‘Uh-huh.’ Jake shrugged. ‘I want to close this place down, Isabella, that’s the truth. That’s why I don’t expect you to like what I’m doing. Just, please, don’t tell anyone.’

  Isabella sprang to her feet. ‘You think I’m such a spoilt heiress, hey? Tell, indeed! I should slap you, Jake Johnson.’

  ‘Well, I—’

  ‘You think I’d throw a hammer in the works?’

  ‘Spanner,’ said Cassie absently.

  ‘Yes, yes. You think I’d ruin it for you because I like my school? I liked Jessica a lot more. If somebody killed her I want him – her – them – caught. If you think something is sinister here, Jake, if you think somebody at the Academy was responsible for what happened to Jess, then I’m not staying out of it.’

  Bemused, he said, ‘Hang on a minute—’

  ‘Shut up,’ she told him crisply. ‘Stupid American. Don’t be so proud. Don’t be such an isolationist. We are going to help you. Yes, Cassie?’

  ‘Oh, yeah.’ Cassie grinned at Jake. ‘She’s right, know that?’

  ‘I am always right.’ Isabella sniffed.

  Cassie d
ug her in the ribs. ‘Three of us can get where one can’t. That’s obvious, uh-huh? We can do three times more. And after what I saw tonight?’ She shivered. ‘I think you need all the help you can get, Jake.’

  ‘And I am a little princess with a rich papa and good contacts.’

  Jake chewed manically on a knuckle. ‘Could be dangerous.’

  ‘Danger,’ Isabella tossed her hair, ‘is my middle name.’

  ‘OK. OK!’ Jake gave a bark of laughter. ‘Know what? I’m glad I ran into you tonight, Cassie.’

  ‘Not half as glad as I am,’ she said dryly. ‘Jake, who do you think killed Jess?’

  ‘I don’t know. I can’t prove it, not for certain. But Ranjit knew where she was that night.’

  Cassie’s stomach contracted. ‘He did? Are you sure?’

  ‘Yes. And Ranjit and Jess were … Well, they had a thing together. Maybe they had a fight, maybe there was someone else and he got jealous, I dunno. It’s the likeliest explanation, isn’t it? I’ve tried to ask him to explain, but he won’t talk about it. Won’t even discuss the Few. He’s hiding something. Maybe he’s just sick.’

  Cassie felt sick herself. ‘But what d’you mean, “He knew where she was”?’

  Jake’s face set cold. ‘Because he was the one who found her. Ranjit found Jess’s body.’

  CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

  ‘I feel so guilty. If I hadn’t been ill, who knows? I might have noticed something was wrong. I might have been able to help her.’

  The tearful English accent was familiar. Cassie came to a halt and turned quickly on her heel in front of the noticeboard. The voices were just round the corner, approaching through the entrance hall.

  ‘You mustn’t blame yourself, Alice.’ The other girl had a lilting accent. Ayeesha?

  ‘I can’t help it. Such a terrible thing to do. She must have been desperate, I should have noticed something. Somebody at breakfast said that she looked awful, not herself at all. Oh, I should have noticed—’

  ‘Now, now.’ Yes, it was definitely Ayeesha. ‘People can be very skilled at hiding these things, and Keiko must have been very determined. To jump from the upper floor! Please, Alice. There was nothing you could have done.’

  Cassie peered closely at a Christmas Ball notice as the two girls came round the corner, but Ayeesha stopped and put a hand on her arm.

  ‘Cassie, hello!’ Ayeesha smiled.

  ‘Oh. Hi, Ayeesha! I was miles away.’ Oh dear, thought Cassie: not very convincing. ‘Hello, Alice.’ She swallowed awkwardly. ‘Are you OK?’

  ‘Yes, I suppose.’ Alice was almost in tears. Her face was stunned and a little panicked. ‘No. Terrible. I just want to go to classes.’

  ‘But this morning – you sure that’s a good idea?’

  ‘I need to be busy. I’ve missed so much, it’ll keep me occupied.’

  Ayeesha shook her head. ‘I think classes are going to be cancelled, Alice. But we’d better be on time anyway. Come on, Cassie.’

  Cassie walked alongside Alice. ‘I’m so sorry about Keiko.’

  ‘Me too.’ Tears spilled down Alice’s cheeks.

  Hell, thought Cassie, bewildered. It was obvious Alice had no memory of what Keiko had been trying to do to her, just last night. ‘You’re feeling better, though? Are you sure? I mean, you’ve got over your …?’

  ‘Glandular fever.’ Alice blew her nose. ‘Couldn’t have happened at a worse time, could it? And all I hear is how worried Mummy is about me. How Daddy’s employed a tutor to help me catch up in the holidays. They’ve been on the phone since half past five this morning but they don’t seem to care about Keiko. It’s all about me. Am I OK. When poor Keiko …’ Alice put her hand over her mouth.

  Cassie scrutinised Ayeesha, but she was all sympathy for Alice. ‘Well. It can’t have sunk in yet. And they’ll be so worried about you.’

  ‘God, yes. Mummy’s had to book herself into a spa for a week. To help her nerves, you know?’

  Ayeesha glanced dryly at Cassie as she shepherded Alice into Herr Stolz’s classroom. ‘You need a week in one yourself. Come and sit down, Alice.’

  She wasn’t kidding, thought Cassie as she sat down by Isabella. Alice still looked terrible – gaunt, pale and tired – though not nearly as fragile as the day before; Keiko’s death must have begun to restore her straight away. Cassie could understand why she needed to get back to normality, why she needed to get out of her room. She probably understood Alice’s motives better than Alice did. Glandular fever and the supposed suicide of a roommate weren’t all she needed to escape.

  Herr Stolz coughed, silencing the subdued murmur of the students, and got straight to the point. ‘You are all aware by now of the terrible tragedy that occurred last night.’ He was pale too, quite drained and shocked. ‘You won’t be surprised to learn that classes are cancelled for today and tomorrow.’

  They all listened in silence, even the Few. Cassie had already noticed Ranjit was missing. Again? This time, Katerina was too. She stared out of the window, Herr Stolz’s voice fading to a murmur. She couldn’t concentrate; there were too many questions, too many half-remembered conversations starting to fit together.

  Why, for example, was Ranjit such a special case? He seemed to treat the school as his personal fiefdom, even more than the rest of the Few, to act as if classes were for lesser mortals. Somehow it didn’t fit that Jessica had been his girlfriend. If Jess was anything like Jake, Cassie couldn’t imagine her and Ranjit together. It would be as weird as picturing herself and Ranjit …

  Her spine chilled. She looked like Jess: everyone said so.

  The way you make me feel … I can’t accept it, Cassandra.

  What did that mean? He couldn’t accept it, because he’d been in love with Jess? Or because he’d killed her?

  Ranjit had warned Cassie off. Ranjit didn’t want her in the Few, when even the bitchy Katerina was willing to accept her. What made him dislike her so much? Guilty conscience?

  Jess had gone in the night to Angkor Wat, and she’d never been seen alive again. What must it have been like for her, alone and scared in the jungle darkness? Hearing the soft approach, a killer drawing closer in the night …

  He found Jess’s body.

  ‘… and we will all miss her.’

  Cassie jumped. It took her a moment to realise Herr Stolz was talking about Keiko.

  ‘The Christmas Ball will not be cancelled, but a minute’s silence will be observed at the beginning. Sir Alric has asked me to let you know that arrangements will be made for a memorial service at a date early next term. In the meantime, any students who feel the need to talk to a senior member of staff should feel free to do so. Alice.’ He smiled kindly at the English girl. ‘This is a particular shock for you. I know you are keen to catch up on your studies, and work can be a good distraction. Please stay behind for a few minutes. The rest of you are free to spend today and tomorrow as you wish. Naturally there will be no boisterous behaviour.’ He surveyed them all severely. ‘Perhaps a study visit to a chapel or a cathedral would be more appropriate than the avenue Montaigne?’

  Jake leaned across to Cassie and Isabella as they gathered their books and the murmur of gossip and speculation rose around them. ‘Nôtre Dame, then, you guys? Eleven o’clock?’

  Cassie made a doubtful face. ‘Half the school might be there after that speech.’

  Jake grimaced. ‘Half the school will be in the avenue Montaigne flexing their gold cards, whatever Stolz says.’

  ‘How about the Bois de Boulogne?’ put in Isabella. ‘A serene place for thought and reflection, no? Plenty of space. Plenty of privacy.’

  ‘Good thinking. I’ll meet you both at the Lac Inférieur.’ Jake gave Isabella a wink. ‘By the boats.’

  *

  ‘I’m freezing,’ moaned Isabella. ‘I shall freeze to death.’

  ‘Cheer up, my southern flower.’ Jake hauled on the oars. ‘This was your brilliant idea. Anyway, you can die spectacularly of pneumonia, and someone wil
l write a great tragic opera about you.’

  Isabella gave him a teeth-chattering grimace, but her expression turned dreamy and distant as if she was already imagining her last heart-rending aria. Cassie cleared her throat in exasperation. ‘Can we not talk about spectacular deaths?’

  Jake’s smile faded as he rested the oars in the rowlocks. ‘I think we have to, huh?’

  ‘How can anyone believe Keiko killed herself?’ complained Isabella, wrapping her vicuña scarf once more round her neck and tucking her fingers under her arms. ‘I thought you said she had a knife in her throat?’

  ‘Not by that time.’ As the little boat drifted under the frosted chestnut trees, Jake fumbled inside his jacket and drew out Keiko’s knife. Its blade was wrapped up in strips torn off an old T-shirt, and it took him a minute to unwind them. Tentatively he held the knife out in two hands. The girls stared at it, riveted.

  ‘Marat covered her body before anyone came,’ Cassie told Isabella. ‘We saw him do it. After everyone was sent back to bed, he must have moved it, fast.’

  ‘They must have moved it,’ corrected Jake. ‘Marat can’t be the only one involved. Somebody else must have seen that body.’

  ‘And who exactly are they?’ murmured Cassie.

  The lake was still, and the boat shifted only a little on the water as they fidgeted in the cold. Feathers of ice were forming on the surface, and Isabella trembled. Cassie wasn’t that cold, but she shivered too as she examined the knife blade. It was some six inches long, slightly curved, the edge smooth and gleaming in the wintry December light.

  December. It was the first of December. Cassie could hardly believe it. She’d been at the Darke Academy nearly a whole term. Boy, she’d learned a lot …

  ‘Look at the handle,’ said Jake. ‘It’s weird. I’ve never seen anything like it.’

  ‘Nor me, said Isabella. ‘And Papa collects antique swords, daggers, things like that. I’m sure he could tell us something about it, but I have seen nothing like this one in his collection.’

  Cassie reached out to touch the handle. It felt ancient. The elaborate carvings seemed smoothed by centuries, sheened with age. She stroked the pad of her forefinger along them. You had to inspect the handle closely to see the details, because all the figures and beasts and ornamentation were intertwined: snakes, mermaids, caryatids, demons – snarling, twisted things that might have been cats or wolves.