Norah McClintock presents...

The Mike & Riel series

Dead and Gone

A shallow grave... human remains... an unsolved murder from years ago... It looks like the past is coming back to spin Mike's new life out of control. What's making the usually cool Riel so rattled, and what does a beautiful but manipulative girl have to do with it all?

Scholastic Canada Ltd.
ISBN 0-439-96759-7 PBK
224 pages
Ages 12 to 14
3/16" x 6 ¾"

Excerpt

"You heard about that body they found up in Caledon?" Detective Jones said.

"In the woods? Yeah, I saw it in the paper. They get an ID on it yet?"

Detective Jones shook his head. "We're still working on it."

"We?" Riel said. "Doesn't Peel have it?" He meant the Peel Regional Police. Detective Jones was with the Toronto Police Service. "Or is it OPP?"

"Technically, the body was in the village of Snelgrove, so, technically, it's Peel," Detective Jones said. "So we're cooperating."

"You mean, you want in and they're trying to decide whether they'll let you," Riel said. Detective Jones shrugged. "How come? What's it to you?"

"The guy was shot," Detective Jones said.

"I heard."

"We don't know who he is yet, but one thing we do know. The bullet that killed him? It came out of the same gun that killed Tracie Howard."

The colour drained from Riel's face, boom, like his head was a paint can and someone had just shot a hole in the bottom of it. Detective Jones reached for him.

"You okay, John?"

Riel didn't say anything.

Detective Jones grabbed a chair from the kitchen table and swung it over so that it was right behind Riel.

"You better sit down," he said. He looked at me. "You got homework, Mike?"

"I haven't finished the dishes yet," I said.

"They can wait," Detective Jones said. "Maybe you can find something else to do right now."

I hesitated. I wanted to know what was going on. Then Riel found his voice.

"Now, Mike," he said.

I left the rest of the dishes in the sink and cleared out of the kitchen. Detective Jones closed the door behind me. I knew he would be listening for me to go upstairs. They both would. I had no choice. I climbed the stairs to wait until Detective Jones left or it was time to go to the community centre — whichever came first.

Detective Jones didn't stay long — maybe ten minutes more. When I heard the kitchen door open again, I crept away from the top of the stairs into the darkness of the upstairs hall.