field for the fireworks. That’s when Samuels and that skinny one, Robin or Roberts, whatever, came in for their two-dozen doughnut snack. That sheriff, man, two bites and poof, no more doughnut, now you see it,’ Rudy waved his hands like a party magician, ‘now you don’t.’
‘So what?’ I said. ‘Samuels is a lard-ass, that isn’t a secret.’
‘Shut up. Point is the place was empty and they didn’t see me at the next booth, just minding my own with my chocolate shake. They were talking hush hush but I could hear them.’
‘What did they say?’ Jenny asked, rapt.
Rudy leant forward, like we’d be overheard out here. Ears in the trees, eyes in the leaves.
‘They were talking about when they found the girl,’ his eyes flicked to me. ‘Robin said the doctor who examined the body said she was maybe sixteen or seventeen.’
Four years, if that, older than us. I felt a lump grow in my throat. Gloria nodded along to the story.
‘Shit,’ I said, ‘that it?’
‘Messed up, huh?’
‘Do they know who she is yet?’ Jenny asked.
‘If they did, it’d be all round town,’ Gloria said.
Jenny shuffled closer to me, awkward with her leg. She scratched at a smear of dried blood on my t-shirt. ‘I can’t believe they don’t know her name.’
‘It’s awful, just awful,’ Gloria said.
‘She’s just … nothing,’ I said. ‘Without a name they can’t do anything. They can’t tell her mom or dad, or have a funeral without anything to put on the headstone. But it’s just a couple of made-up words, they could give her a new name if nobody claims her.’
‘Names are everything, Johnny,’ Rudy said with a scowl. ‘Those made-up words are all some idiot needs to brand you a no good thief or a pussy. Sure you can sign a piece of paper and change it, but that’s just like putting on a pair of pants. You still got an arsehole underneath. Bet some folk in town think all sorts about the Royals, especially now you’ve been sleeping with dead bodies.’
Rudy, all flashing smiles and eyes, threw a twig at me. I threw one back.
‘Shut it, Buchanan.’
Gloria snapped her fingers like old Mr Frome did when we were horsing about in biology class. ‘Shut up both of you. Rudy, keep going.’
He stuck out his tongue at her then carried on. ‘The sheriff said the doctor reckons she’d only been in the water two or three days but dead for four or five. At the most.’
‘How did she get in our lake? Who knows it’s even there?’ Jenny said.
‘She must have been dumped elsewhere and, like … dislodged her upstream.’ Gloria raised her hands. ‘Samuels hasn’t got a clue.’
‘Get this,’ Rudy said. ‘Samuels said something about paint. He said they couldn’t find a match to the green paint they found on her back. Did you guys notice any paint?’
We shook our heads. We hadn’t seen her back. We’d dragged her and laid her out face up. Maybe she’d been lying in spilled paint that mostly got washed away.
‘It gets worse,’ Gloria said.
Rudy leaned in, pointing and stabbing at the air with a twig for emphasis. ‘That lardo’s too lazy to even go looking for her. It’d take too much time away from stuffing his face. Samuels said, word for fucking word, “Let’s check the missing person notices, if there ain’t nothing there, fuck it.” Fuck it, he said.’
Disgust transformed Jenny’s face. ‘He’s going to give up? That was a bullet hole, right? Someone killed her, didn’t they?’
Gloria punched the ground. ‘Exactly.’
‘How can nobody care?’ Jenny rested her head on the wall, puffed out a sigh.
None of us had an answer to that. It deflated us. Maybe some cop in Mora’s town was fretting, wringing his hands and sticking her picture on a pin board while our cops were scratching their balls.
Gloria stood up, brushed off her skirt. ‘That’s why I asked you here. We are going to solve the murder.’
‘What?’ I asked. This was the big idea? The plan she couldn’t talk about in the Backhoe?
Gloria nodded. ‘We have to find out who she is and who hurt her. Someone has to.’
‘Stellar!’ Rudy jumped up.
Jenny’s eyes widened. ‘I’m in.’
‘If Samuels can’t find out who she is, what makes you think four kids can?’ I said. I didn’t want to go digging, I didn’t want to see pictures of Mora, I didn’t want more rumours circulating. I didn’t want to see what that would do to Jenny.
‘Samuels isn’t looking,’ Gloria said. ‘He’s just ticking boxes. If he really wanted to find out what happened, he could. Everyone in this town knows everyone’s business.’
‘She’s right.’ Rudy stuck his hands on his hips. ‘Someone will know something. People don’t talk to cops.’
‘People don’t talk to kids either,’ I shot back.
Then Jenny pushed herself up. ‘We have to, Johnny. She can’t be nothing. She can’t be nobody.’
‘This is stupid.’
Jenny folded her arms, just like Momma did when she was about to shout. ‘It’s not stupid. You’re stupid. What kind of people are we if we do nothing?’
Bad people. Just like Samuels. Just like whoever did it. I clenched my teeth. Three pairs of eyes on me. Waiting.
‘Fine. Fine.’
Rudy let out a whoop. ‘Let’s do this! What’s first?’
The question was directed at me.
‘Oh right, you want me to solve the murder?’ I glared at them, at Jenny.
‘You’re the practical one, Johnny,’ Gloria said, nudged my shoulder with a smile.
The others had the ideas, I worked out how to make them happen. It was me who drew up plans, with a stick in the dirt, for constructing the Fort, me who worked out how to dam the river and make Big Lake. Now it was me they looked to again. Identify a dead body, solve a murder, catch a killer. Easy as that. Jesus.
I rubbed the back of my neck, slick with summer sweat. ‘In the books the detectives always go back to the beginning.’
‘Where’s that?’ Jenny asked.
‘Where all this started,’ I said. ‘Big Lake, of course. We should follow the river upstream and see if we can find the place she was dumped. Maybe we’ll find something
