Page 67 of Silent Scream

I said, ‘I have one too.’

I asked her to meet me once the others were asleep. I told her it was our secret and that I had a surprise for her. Bunnies at the lake. The technique never failed.

At one thirty a.m. I watched as the back door opened. A shaft of light lit the gangly body from behind making her silhouette look like a cartoon character.

She tiptoed towards me. I smiled to myself.

This girl was no challenge. Her desperation for attention was sickening.

‘I've got something to tell you,’ she whispered.

‘Go on,’ I said eagerly, entering into her game.

‘I don't think Tracy ran away.’

‘Really?’ I asked, feigning surprise. This was not news. The girl had been telling anyone who couldn't escape her quickly enough that she didn't think Tracy had run away.

Her stupid, awkward face was a mask of studiousness.

‘See, she ay that kind of person and she left behind her iPod. I found it at the bottom of her bed.’

This was not what I expected her to say but damn it. How had I missed that? The stupid cow had always had it hanging from her ear. Undoubtedly stolen, it had been her prized possession.

‘What did you do with it?’ I asked.

‘It's in my cupboard so nobody nicks it.’

‘Have you mentioned this to anyone else?’

She shook her head. ‘No one cares. It's like she never existed.’

Of course it was – and that was just how I wanted it.

But now there was the damn iPod.

I smiled widely at her. ‘You're a very clever girl.’

The darkness surrounding us did not hide the redness that infused her cheeks.

She smiled, eager to please, to be of some use; to matter.

‘And there's something else. She wouldna run off ‘cos she was …’

‘Sshh,’ I said, placing my finger to my lips. I leaned in closer to her, a co-conspirator, a friend. ‘You're right. Tracy didn't run away and I know where she is.’ I held out my hand. ‘Do you want to go and see her?’

She took my hand and nodded.

I walked her along the patch of grass towards the far corner; the dark part furthest from the building and sheltered by trees. She walked on my right.

She stumbled into the hole and fell backwards. I let her hand go.

Confusion pulled at her face for a moment then she held up her hand in defence as I stepped into the hole.

I searched at the edge for my shovel but the stumble had moved it away.

The delay gave her time to stand up but I needed her lying on the ground. I pulled her head back by a handful of hair. Her face was inches away from mine.

Her breathing was laboured and frantic. I raised the shovel in the air and threw it down on top of her foot. She screamed only once before falling to the ground to clutch at her foot. The agony caused her eyes to roll back in her head as she briefly lost consciousness. I grabbed the sock from the other foot and stuffed it deep into her mouth.