Tick Tock: The gripping new crime thriller from the million copy bestseller. Mel Sherratt

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       TWELVE

      Teagan Cole was in the kitchen having a standoff with her mum, Natalie.

      ‘But everyone will be there except me,’ she whined, pulling a face.

      ‘I don’t care about that. I just want you home with me tonight.’

      Natalie walked across to her daughter and held out her arms, but Teagan rebuffed her, wriggling from her mother’s embrace.

      ‘I want to hang out with my friends. I’ll be fine inside the youth club. Cait and Court’s mum will collect and drop me off. I won’t be alone any time and I—’

      ‘No means no, Teagan, and that’s my final word.’ Natalie shook her head. ‘It’s not much to ask that you stay where I know you’re safe.’

      ‘You’d humiliate me by not letting me go?’

      ‘Oh, don’t be so dramatic.’

      ‘Pot. Kettle!’

      Natalie threw her a warning look.

      ‘The twins need me,’ she tried once more.

      ‘I need you here.’

      Teagan stormed out of the kitchen. Upstairs in her room, she flung herself lengthways onto her bed and located her iPad. Earlier, she’d sent a text message to Caitlin. Though she wasn’t allowed out, she had to speak to the twins. Caitlin had replied to say she’d call her in a few minutes.

      Teagan was upset that she couldn’t go to the youth club with them. Everyone who mattered would be there and she’d really been looking forward to seeing Lewis because she wanted a hug from him. And it was the first major thing to happen like this in her life, so she wanted to be with her friends again, talk about what had happened.

      Lauren had died and on top of that she’d had to be civil to Grace. As a person she was fine, but as someone who her dad was going out with, Teagan didn’t like that at all. Maybe if she hadn’t come sniffing around him, her parents might have got together again.

      She rolled over onto her back and sighed. She was wise enough to know that her parents hadn’t been happy for a while, even staying together for her sake until she was older. She knew they were destined to stay apart and she didn’t blame Grace for it really. But it was hard to switch allegiances and she didn’t want to upset her mum, despite her seeing Adrian now.

      She quite liked Adrian, although she would never admit it. Still, she’d be annoyed if he wanted to move in with them, and she suspected that would be the next move. She was only the daughter, after all. She had no say in who lived where, and it was only fair her mum and dad were happy, too. But she liked making their lives hell by comparing one against the other.

      All of a sudden, guilt crept in and her eyes filled with tears. How could she be thinking of herself after what had happened to Lauren? Her friend was dead – murdered. What a selfish brat she must seem.

      Her iPad alerted her to a FaceTime connection. She tapped the button to connect.

      ‘Hey,’ a Piggott twin said. ‘Courtney’s in the shower. She won’t be a minute. Your eyes look red. How are you, babes?’

      ‘I’m okay,’ Teagan acknowledged. ‘I can’t believe she’s dead. Earlier I was watching stuff about Lauren on the news …’

      ‘Me too.’

      ‘It seems weird to see our school on the TV. There are tons of flowers outside the railings.’

      ‘Yeah, we have some to bring with us this evening.’

      ‘I’ve got some here, but I can’t put them down until tomorrow afternoon. Mum wants to come with me.’

      ‘Well, I’ll take a photo of where we put ours and you can put yours next to them then.’

      ‘I can’t believe you can go to the youth club and I can’t,’ Teagan said, forgetting her earlier thoughts of remorse.

      ‘Don’t worry. I’ll call you when we’re there. You can hear all about it.’ Caitlin flicked her hair back. ‘Did you see the male detective this morning? Perry something.’

      ‘Yes. Sophie did, too. He said it was because we were all close friends with Lauren.’

      ‘We had a quick chat as soon as we got back to school after, you know. Then we waited for our olds to come before he spoke to us again. He was really nice, put us at ease.’

      ‘Well he would – you didn’t do anything!’ Teagan rolled her eyes.

      ‘But,’ Caitlin leaned forward and whispered, ‘apart from her killer, we were the last people to see Lauren alive, weren’t we, Court?’

      ‘Yes, we were.’ Courtney sat down on the bed next to her sister. She was wearing a pink fluffy dressing gown with a purple towel wrapped around her hair.

      Teagan watched as Caitlin shuffled across the bed to make way for her sister.

      ‘Hey, babes.’ Courtney waved at Teagan.

      ‘Hey yourself.’ Teagan waved back. ‘I wish I could come out with you two tonight.’

      ‘I know.’ Courtney sighed. ‘I wish you could, too. It’s going to be weird enough without Lauren.’ She held in a sob as her sister gave her a hug.

      Teagan heard a voice yelling in the background. ‘Who’s that?’

      ‘Gotta go, Tee,’ Caitlin said. ‘Mum’s shouting us. We’ll speak to you laters, yeah?’

      ‘Suppose so.’ Teagan tried not to feel dejected. ‘Do you both want to come around here tomorrow – Sophie, too? Now school’s closed …’

      ‘Yeah, we could do.’ Courtney nodded.

      ‘Laters, babe.’ Caitlin blew her a kiss and the screen went blank.

      Teagan huffed. It wasn’t fair that she couldn’t go to the youth club with her friends. Of course it would be safe after what had happened this morning.

      But when she realised that one of their group would be missing, she burst into tears again. What were they going to do without Lauren?