Linksshifter II

A Path Between The Waves - ~~~~

"Hold on," the cop said, pushing her back, as the paramedics struggled their burden up the cliff. "Who are you? Why are you here? Do you know him?"

"I – no, I'm not sure that I know him," Sonali said; 'don't talk to the feds' was all well and good in the abstract, but in real life the police had a way of getting up on you and making you think you should talk even when you probably shouldn't, "I was just riding my bike and happened to see it – it's still up top by the ambulance. Is he alive?"

The cop's small, close-set eyes narrowed. "Aye, for now he is. What's it to you? Do you know anything about this?"

Sonali shook her head. "No, sir, just what I seen on the posters. Isn't that Liam Conroy it was in the stretcher – that kid what's been missing up by us, by Aberdeen, the month and more?" This registered with the cop; he took a step back, looking down at his phone or whatever device out of his batbelt, and fairly flinched in shock. He turned to yell for the other one, still bending over a whorl in the sand where Liam must have been washed in by the waves, and Sonali took the chance to duck away, creeping up the cliff as well as her muscles could go before she got taken into custody and had to give the cops her real name – or figure out what on earth she could tell them about what she thought she knew about this thing that wouldn't make them think she was a culprit, part of a backwards version of one of those horrid Midlands grooming gangs. The ambulance was gone by the time she made it to the top, the cops still on the beach below, not even yelling at her or stomping up the stairs; Sonali picked up her bike and started off north, homeward, while the getting was good. Forget the cops; she wasn't even quite sure, even with this discovery today, how she was going to explain any of this to herself.

"Cor! Lookit, Sona – just look at the chebs on this one! I know you don't go for that anaw, but look, don't they just look like you could snuggle up in them and be warm forever? Phwoo-aaarrr!"

Sonali rolled her eyes and tried to ignore the Page 3 girl Jordyn was shoving at her, tried to push the paper down without meeting her father's glare from behind the register. "No. Remember 'Gotcha', remember the Swan Bake, remember the 96, don't buy the Sun." She breathed out hard, taking a copy of the Evening Express off the stack on the bottom rack, and turned to go grab a can coffee or something out of the cooler case.

"Aw, you're no fun." Jordyn had put the rumpled Sun back on the shelf in front of a couple magazines about gardening that nobody ever bought, and was looking over the rest of the tabloids. "Look, the Fail has that Katie Price on the cover, and for the once she's no got her nipples out – can I get that one?"

"Look, you said it yourself, it's just the Daily Fail, and it's just Katie Price, who you can see with her fanny out anywhere you like." Sonali slapped her paper down on the counter next to her can of coffee, and slammed down a stack of coins on top of it to cover, not even looking at her father. "You are aware that the internet is A Thing, so if you've nowt to do but phwoaarr at sidebars, you don't need to do that in the shop." She scooped up the paper and the coffee as Jordyn swanned her way up to the counter with a copy of the Express and a halal cheese sandwich.

"Your daughter is very spirited, Mr. Patel, but I like her lots just the same." She fluttered her eyelashes, and in the glance that Sonali shot over, it was like baba was a volcano about to detonate. Good for him. He handed Jordyn back the change from her fiver, and Sonali cracked her coffee open, already halfway to the door. Just Jordyn being Jordyn would have been all right, but on top of that row the night before about how she never barely showed up for meals even, baba might go off about Jordyn being a bad influence, and how cycling up and down the coast was also something proper young ladies didn't do, and threaten to break his promise and put her in purdah – it wouldn't happen, but she didn't want to have that fight, and she especially didn't want to have that fight on top of everything else she was dealing with the now.