Sod didn’t wait around wondering what to do. He grabbed his guitar case, charged past the shocked crowd and went after her.
Graveyard Girl was bolting towards the edge of the park. She came to the low fence that separated the park from the rest of the world, jumped it and fled down a side street. Sod arrived at the fence a few seconds later. He lifted Julius Manflake to the other side carefully, jumped over himself, and took off again.
Graveyard Girl had witnessed him standing over two corpses. First Thomas O’Dalley’s and now Walter Bones’s. He needed to explain to her that it was all a misunderstanding. He was starting to gain on her when she glanced over her shoulder and yelled at him.
‘I’m not afraid of you!’
‘Then why are you running?’ he cried. ‘If you just slow down I can explain!’
But she just kept going. Sod didn’t blame her. If a maybe-murderer was chasing him, he wouldn’t stop either.
She turned down a side street, then another one and suddenly Sod found himself chasing her down Main Street. Luckily, there was no-one around and she bolted down the middle of the road, past the two manors. A warm yellow glow came from the windows of Williamsburg Manor, while Danforth Manor looked completely dark inside. Sod wondered if his no-show dad was in there. But there wasn’t time to stop and check because Graveyard Girl was getting close to the end of the street where a T-intersection was waiting. Cars were rushing back and forth. Graveyard Girl could only turn left or right. She couldn’t keep running straight because there was nothing there but a big, green hedge ahead. Sod was pretty sure he could nab her when she slowed down to turn the corner.
Nab her?
He couldn’t believe he’d just thought that. Only bad guys nabbed people. And he wasn’t a bad guy. Was he?
Graveyard Girl arrived at the intersection, but she didn’t slow down. She just ran straight across the road, weaving through traffic, narrowly avoiding moving cars, before vanishing headfirst into the hedge. Sod was about to follow her when a big truck steamed past, blaring its horn. He waited for it to pass before running across the road and climbing into the hedge, awkwardly pulling Julius Manflake in with him. It was dark and spiky inside the hedge but he could make out Graveyard Girl, bent over with her hands on her knees as she huffed and puffed and caught her breath.
‘Listen,’ he said. ‘I know you think you saw something, but it’s not what you think because I’m actually a … um …’
In his panic to catch her, he hadn’t thought about what he’d say. He couldn’t tell her he was a reaper. He needed to make up a different story. Did he look old enough to be an undercover cop?
Graveyard Girl opened her mouth and let out a scream so deafening it sounded like high-pitched feedback from a guitar amp.
Sod put his finger up to his mouth to shoosh her. ‘I thought you said you weren’t scared?’ he said.
But she wasn’t listening. She’d found a long stick on the ground and she drove it hard into Sod’s chest. It knocked the air from his lungs and he fell over into the side of the hedge. She dropped the stick, scrambled up the branches and hauled herself through a hole in the top of the hedge.
As Sod sat crumpled on the ground, he decided that he hated what he was doing. Trying to nab her like that.
He hated that she was terrified.
He hated that he’d grim-reaped two people already.
He hated that he’d lost Walter Bones’s spirit.
He hated that his dad hadn’t shown up to help.
Most of all, he hated grim-reaping. Working in death was the last thing he wanted to do. He wanted to return to a time when ‘Whatever! ROCK!’ was a workable life motto.
‘I quit!’ he shouted to no-one except himself. ‘I quit as of right now!’
His family couldn’t force him to reap. They would just have to deal.
Above him, twigs snapped as Graveyard Girl moved about. Sod felt relieved at his decision to quit. But that girl still thought he was involved in two murders. He had to be quick if he wanted to catch her. He looked sadly over at his guitar case. Abandoning Julius Manflake went against every instinct he had. But it was slowing him down too much. So he left it there and hoisted himself up.
After pulling himself up through the top of the hedge, he shielded his eyes from the sun, which was low on the horizon. Over one side of the hedge was the footpath and the T-intersection. Over the other was someone’s grassy backyard. And a few metres away Graveyard Girl was scrambling along the top of the hedge.
‘Wait!’ he yelled. He took a step in her direction and his foot went straight through a gap in the foliage. He fell towards the road, but his leg got caught in a branch, so he just swung upside-down from the hedge, the footpath below him.
Graveyard Girl climbed down from the hedge, cautiously watching him the whole time. Sod’s blue school blazer flapped around in the wind as he hung there.
‘Can you help me?’ he said.
‘Do I look like I want my life to be over?’
‘You’ve got this all wrong,’ he said. ‘I’m actually an apprentice cop.’
‘And I’m Tinkerbell.’ She jumped down to the road and took off down a side street.
‘Damnit!’ Sod hit out, trying to punch the hedge. He missed, but the movement loosened the branch around his leg and he fell the rest of the way to the footpath.
He wished he’d recognised Graveyard Girl at the window of her house yesterday. Maybe he could have talked to her at school and stopped any of this from happening.
Her house! Sod clicked his fingers. Then he took out his scythe and looked at the map. Maybe there was a different way to get to her.
Sod retraced his steps to where he’d been yesterday. He made his way towards the house, then jumped the fence and landed in a backyard full of gnomes.
He crept past some potted plants and pushed gently on the back door. It opened silently and he slipped inside. There was a light on in the kitchen, but he took the unlit staircase upstairs. He opened the door to the room he thought was the right one. Then he went over to the window to check. There, in the light of the setting sun, was the spot where Thomas O’Dalley had died.
I’m definitely in the right place, he thought. And he hid behind the bedroom door.
A minute later the door opened and Graveyard Girl walked in. She turned on the light and kicked the door shut behind her.
‘Hi,’ said Sod, stepping forward.
Graveyard Girl jumped like she’d unexpectedly stepped on hot coals.
‘Sorry to intrude,’ he said, ‘but we need to talk.’