“That’s right. I was wondering if this place had something to do with it.”

“What made you wonder that?”

“The dead astronaut.”

Connor tightened his grip on the gun. For a second Kane thought he’d taken the wrong step. A new look of terror froze the boy’s face. It wouldn’t take much for him to squeeze the trigger.

“What do you know about that?” Connor said, finally.

“Nothing. That’s why I thought you could help me.”

“Where did you hear about it?”

“I found an exercise book with drawings and writing in it. Your drawings. A guy called Rory Bannatyne had it. Remember him?”

“He killed himself.”

“So it seems. The night he died, I think he came up here.”

“Yes.”

“What happened?”

The boy screwed his eyes shut then opened them again. He glanced around for something—help, or other threats. The gun shook violently now.

“Listen to me,” Kane said. “I don’t think you’re responsible for what’s going on. I think Petra and Lauren were really close to you, and I want to find out what’s happened. But I need your help.”

Now the boy slid down to the ground and without releasing the gun placed his head in his hands. Kane gave it a moment, then sat beside him, which put him close to the gun without being in front of it.

“Do you know what happened to Rory?” Kane asked.

“He was looking for the astronaut.”

“I need to understand this. Talk me through it, Connor.”

The teenager straightened, breathed, staring ahead.

“We used to hang out here.”

“Okay. Who was that?”

“Me, Petra, Lauren. You know, as kids. We’d bike up here and it was, like, our place. One time we thought we heard someone inside. That’s how the dead astronaut started. We were sitting right here, and we thought we heard someone in the building.”

“Someone in the building?”

“Yes.”

“Doing what?

“I don’t know. Just bangs at first, then maybe a voice.”

“Was the building in use then?”

“No. It’s never been in use. Not while I’ve been here.”

“So what did you do?”

“Nothing. We went home, and later we started making up stories about it. Our parents were always going on about how we shouldn’t come here, using rumors: Kids had gone up here and never been seen again. That kind of thing. So we added to that.”

“They said that?”

“They didn’t want us getting hurt, because of the drop. It wasn’t true. But it made it exciting. And we freaked each other out with the stories. That was what Rory was interested in.”

“Tell me the stories he was interested in.”

Connor turned to look at the building behind them, then rolled his neck and groaned softly. “Can we get out of here?”

“I think this might be the best place for us right now.”

“Really?”

“Yeah.”