Read Summer for Free Online Page B

of tone from harsh to almost gentle. ‘Tell Darina everything you remember about the DAY.’ He said ‘day’ in upper-case letters so everyone knew what he meant. ‘And Darina, please give it your full attention.’
    Meaning, tear your mind away from Phoenix, forget about yourself and your own grief for a change. ‘Why do you always think the worst of me? What did I do?’ I wanted to protest, but a glance from Phoenix warned me off.
    ‘Let’s walk,’ Summer suggested.
     
    We had regular sleepovers when Summer was alive. Usually I would take my guitar to her house. We would hole up in her room, maybe play a song she’d just written, she would change a few notes or words, while I designed an album cover on Photoshop or wrote sleeve notes. We’d dreamed of her making the big time since we were ten years old.
    So we were used to looking up at the night sky together, star-spotting and working out which was Orion, getting it all wrong and saying, ‘Hey, there are a million stars up there. Who needs a name?’
    Tonight as we walked we saw two shooting stars.
    ‘So I’ll find your gunman,’ I promised. We were up by Angel Rock, out of sight of the barn and house. ‘If that’s what you want me to do.’
    It was a long time before she reacted. ‘Sometimes I wonder what difference it’ll make to find out who did the shooting. Why not leave it at “Some crazy guy who ran away and who they never caught. End of story”?’
    But we both knew we couldn’t leave it hanging in the air like this. ‘And other times?’
    ‘Then I think it through and I know it makes all the difference in the world to the people I left behind.’
    ‘Your mom and dad?
    ‘My mom especially. She needs closure.’
    We walked on a while before I asked Summer something that was bothering me. ‘And you? Do you have any anger towards this guy?’ The guy who sprang out of nowhere and started spraying bullets around the mall. Scrawny Psycho Man with the peak of his white cap and a pair of shades hiding his face, not even aiming before he fired.
    ‘Anger?’ she echoed with surprise.
    ‘Why not? He stole your life. Don’t you picture all the stuff you could’ve done – the music especially. All just gone – wiped out. Don’t you hate him for that?’
    ‘No. I think of Mom and Dad and how their lives areon hold. That’s it. That’s why I’m here – to get the truth so they can move on.’
    ‘So I guess that’s me,’ I confessed with a sense of shame. ‘I’m angry for you.’
    Summer stopped on the ridge to look at me, the wind in her hair, an infinity of stars above her head. ‘All my life I wanted to be more like you, Darina.’
    I stepped away and shook my head.
    ‘Yes. The way you always know what’s right and what’s wrong, no grey areas. Me – I look from all angles and end up without a point of view.’
    ‘We’re different,’ I agreed. ‘But you’re the one with the talent. We all envy you. Actually no,’ I said straight away. ‘No way do we feel jealous. We all want you to be this big, big star, for the whole world to know you.’
    ‘We’re talking as if it might still happen,’ she pointed out, staring up at the sky.
    I took her hand and stood with her for a while. Then we walked arm in arm back to the house.
     
    The whole of the state police were still looking for Summer’s killer. It was a high-profile shooting, part of the cluster of deaths that launched Ellerton into national prominence and kept it there for months on end.
    ‘You need to dig deep,’ Hunter instructed beforeI left Foxton that night. ‘And this time you really don’t come back until you have something new to tell us – understand?’
    ‘Got it.’ My short answer came through gritted teeth. I held Phoenix’s hand more tightly.
    ‘Wait for us to come to you,’ the overlord insisted. ‘And be careful not to attract attention.’
    ‘Got it,’ I said again.
    ‘So go.’ Hunter turned his back and it was Phoenix who led me out of