Read Roadkill (LiveWire) for Free Online Page A

ponytail, thinking hard.
    She decided on Rose-Farlan because she said she’d seen it in a film. Farlan was, she told me, a cool name.
    Wanting to please her I chirped up “Then when you win it’ll sound really…um..cool . ” My sister looked slightly condescending, but a smile hovered over her full lips. Purely for show (mum and dad were reading on the sofa), she said “I might not win.”
    She didn’t believe it anymore than I did, and I hastened to fill my usual cheerleading role, assuring her she always won. It was true, she always did, except maybe that one time. When it really mattered.

 
     
     
     
     
    Chapter Six
     
    She called herself Rose-Farlan all summer, then got bored with it and went back to ordinary old Rose. Except my sister was never ordinary. I slide a hand into my purse and touch her photo, smoothing a shaky thumb over it.
    “Caz? Come back,” Leo is waving a hand in front of my face.
    “Sorry. Yeah that has to be her.”              
    The competition is still going full throttle in front of us, but there has been a mass exodus in pursuit of the pro team, who are signing autographs next to a Red Bull tent. The remaining spectators are families, or hard core knowledgeable fans who talk knowingly about half pikes. And us, looking for my sister’s murderer.
    Something niggles me about the whole thing and I hunch back on the hard wooden seat, stretching cramped legs, watching the flickering laptop screen without seeing it. Then it hits me, just a little thing, but it jars.
    “Leo don’t you think it’s weird it was so easy to find out all this LiveWire stuff?”
    He has put on his geeky huge prescription sunglasses, so I can see only myself reflected where his eyes should be. I look pale, and tired.
    “What do you mean?” he stops tapping at the computer.
    “Well …um….. It was so easy to find this stuff in her diary, and follow the link…..like we were meant to do this. Like its fate or something?” I don’t really know what I mean actually so I trail off and he stares at me, black glasses dwarfing his pointed face.
    “Forget it! Can we go in the shade Leo? My head is killing me,” I scrunch my coffee cup and aim half heartedly for the bin.
    He looks surprised, pushing the glasses awkwardly to the top of his head, “Of course. What you were saying though. Maybe it is meant to be. Seeing this whole LiveWire thing might be just what you need to give you closure on Rose’s death. We don’t have to do this now you know.”
    I stare at him, “You still don’t believe Rose was murdered do you?”
    Leo sighs, fidgeting with his bag, slipping the laptop into its leather carry case. “Honestly no. I think she was coming home and just misjudged the traffic. Sure whoever hit her should have stopped but I don’t think there is any great mystery. Sorry.”
    Aware I sound tearful, I quickly stand, take a breath, “Maybe the police missed something on the forum. They might not even have seen the blogs. We need to find out what the hell she was doing at 2am on a bloody motorway.” Even to myself I sound like a broken record, but the more people tell me to leave it alone, that there is nothing more to know….It just makes me surer that there is something. Call it instinct or just plain stroppiness, but I will find out who drove that car and why.
    “Well yeah….Look whatever you want to do I’ll help okay?” My best friend wipes a bead of sweat from his forehead, pushing back the lank straw coloured hair. “LiveWire is probably our best link so we can go back to checking out the forum and stuff?”
    I smile gratefully at him as we clank down the stands, quickly bypassing Ratz , which is packed. Stopping to grab a hotdog each from a mobile stand, (food poisoning here I come I think, then tell myself to get a life, I sound just like my mum), we dodge the crowds and take up residence underneath a huge gnarled oak tree.
    I kick off my flip flops, and remember with a pang the