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canteen? Are you extremely satisfied, somewhat satisfied, neither satisfied nor dissatisfied, somewhat dissatisfied, or –?’
    â€˜Somewhat dissatisfied,’ he said. ‘No, wait. What was the middle one?’
    I tried to remind myself that losing it at this kid would be a bad idea. At least until he’d answered all the questions.
    By Tuesday afternoon, we’d decided that the best way to fast-track our next meeting with Pryor was by finishing all her stupid surveys. My vote had been for faking the results. As if she was even gonna look at them anyway. But Luke didn’t want to risk it. He didn’t want to do anything to rock the boat until after we got our hands on that phone.
    So, for the last two days, we’d spent every spare moment chasing people around the playground, trying to ambush them into doing the surveys. At first, it had been easy enough – there are always a few losers who go nuts over this kind of stuff – but after that, I might as well have been offering people free kicks in the face.
    Finally, though, we were getting close to the end of them.
    Things in the BEHINDTHEWINDMILL department had been just as frustrating. All Mrs Lewis had been able to come up with when I’d gone to the library was The Wind in the Willows and a couple of books on Holland.
    Dead ends.
    What was Crazy Bill trying to tell me? And why me , anyway?
    I finished up with Ghost and found Luke thanking some Year 8 kid for her help.
    â€˜Done!’ he said, flipping through the pages as I came up to him. ‘You?’
    â€˜Just about.’ I clicked my pen and started scribbling down the boxes of one of my blank surveys.
    â€˜Hey, you said –’
    â€˜Mate, I’ve got three left, and we’ve already asked everyone. I’ll mix ’em in with the others and Pryor won’t know the difference.’
    â€˜Fine, whatever,’ said Luke irritably. ‘So did you ever figure out what was up with Cat the other day?’
    â€˜Nah,’ I said, flipping over the page and filling out the other side. ‘Couldn’t get anything out of Mike or Tank. They definitely both know, though, from the looks on their faces when I asked.’
    â€˜What about Cat?’
    â€˜What do you reckon?’ I said, bitterness jumping at me out of nowhere. ‘Good luck getting two words from her about anything anymore.’
    â€˜Weird,’ said Luke. ‘She freaks out when we catch her, but then we get to geography and she’s right back to pretending we don’t exist.’
    â€˜Pretending I don’t exist, you mean. Only problem she has with you guys is that you’re hanging out with me.’
    Luke shrugged.
    I finished the survey, shoved it into the middle of my pile, and got started on the next one.
    â€˜Hang on,’ said Luke slowly. ‘You and Cathryn weren’t ever …?’
    My pen slipped out of my hand.
    â€˜What?’ I said, catching it before it hit the ground, mind suddenly flashing with images of Cat, of how it’d been back in the beginning, of how things had almost –
    â€˜Nah, mate,’ I said, grabbing hold of my brain again, ‘you know I’m a one-woman man.’
    â€˜Actually, right now I think you’re technically a zero -woman man,’ said Luke.
    â€˜Whatever,’ I said. ‘In case you haven’t noticed, I’m making some serious headway in that department.’
    â€˜Uh-huh,’ said Luke, scanning the quad. ‘Well, we should probably go see if she’s –’
    He stopped short, staring out past the admin building. ‘Peter –’
    â€˜Yeah, I see ’em.’
    Pryor was coming into the school from across the street, talking to a guy in a suit with two black eyes and a bandaged head.
    â€˜Who’s that?’ asked Luke, moving in for a closer look.
    â€˜Ben More,’ I said. ‘Works in my dad’s building.’
    â€˜Ben? The