Broken. Daniel Clay

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СКАЧАТЬ you say your husband's in there with him?’

      ‘… please … he's my son …’

      Snippets. Maddening snippets. The three children were so engrossed in the conversation they didn't notice Cerys's presence until she took hold of Skunk's and Jed's ears. The two of them were dragged back to their side of the square. In an impressive show of allegiance that made Skunk instantly love him, Dillon crossed the road to be with them. Here, they joined a swelling gaggle of neighbours and passers-by who had come out to witness the Buckleys' shame. Mrs Buckley was crying openly now. It wasn't the first time Skunk had seen an adult cry – Archie had cried after Euro 2004 and the World Cup in 2006, and Cerys cried each time another man dumped her – but it was the first time she had seen one cry the way a child cries. Mrs Buckley's face screwed up and she lost the breath that she needed to speak with. The policemen seemed scared of her emotion. They sneaked off into the house. Mrs Weston from number 12 went to Mrs Buckley and put her arms around her. Mrs Buckley sobbed in Mrs Weston's arms. The house, in contrast, stood silent.

      Skunk said, ‘What's going on?’

      Jed said, ‘Their son's gone mental.’

      Cerys said, ‘You shut your mouth. I'll give you mental,’ and clipped Jed around the ear.

      Behind them, people Cerys could not beat into silence spoke on …

      ‘… Poor Veronica and Dave …’

      ‘… it's the kid I feel sorry for …’

      ‘… shouldn't be out anyway …’

      ‘… a danger to himself…’

      ‘… a danger to us all…’

      ‘… that Bob Oswald's a bastard …’

      … in hushed, excited voices that reminded Skunk of Christmas. These voices only quietened when an ambulance and two more police cars pulled up outside the Buckley house. As they tried to find spaces to park in, three of the four policemen came out with a man Skunk hadn't seen for what seemed like forever. She didn't get much of a look at him now. He was huddled with his head down and he had his hands behind his back. To Skunk, he didn't act like he'd gone mental. Sunrise Oswald at school was mental; she smoked roll-ups in the playground and called lezzer after female teachers. This man did nothing like that. He simply got in the back of one of the police cars and a policeman got in beside him. The car pulled away with its lights off and siren silent.

      Really, it was quite dull.

      Then Mr Buckley came out.

      They didn't carry him out, but a medic stood either side of him and Mr Buckley had one arm in a sling. It looked like he had been bleeding – there was blood on his shirt and his trousers. Mrs Buckley ran to him and said, Oh David, David, but he snapped, Get off me, Veronica, and got in the ambulance without her. Again, it drove away without sounding its sirens. Mrs Buckley stood all alone on the pavement while the remaining policemen talked among themselves. Across the street, the crowd gossiped on.

      ‘… that's the last we'll see of him then …’

      ‘… I didn't even know he still lived there …’

      ‘… I'd almost forgotten they had a son …’

      Skunk had forgotten as well. Somehow, in the past fourteen months, Broken Buckley had slipped from her mind. Sure, she and Jed had been fascinated for a short time, but then Jed got an Xbox for his birthday and Star Wars took over their worlds. She turned and looked up at Cerys. ‘What's he been doing in there?’

      Cerys shrugged. ‘How the bloody hell would I know?’ ‘He's probably been murdering people,’ Jed said speculatively. ‘Like Fred West or the Yorkshire Ripper.’ The only books Jed ever read were about serial killers. He was an expert on the subject, and Skunk bowed to his superior knowledge. ‘Mr Buckley probably found a head in his fridge and asked Broken what it was doing there and that's why Broken attacked Mr Buckley. Mr and Mrs Buckley are lucky to be alive.’

      ‘Right,’ Cerys said. ‘That's it. Inside.’ She took hold of Skunk and Jed and ushered them up the drive. Dillon followed behind. ‘And where do you think you're going?’

      ‘To play Xbox.’

      ‘Uh-o. I don't think so.’

      ‘I am so,’ Dillon insisted. ‘They asked me up to play.’

      ‘Did they indeed.’ Cerys's tone was even frostier than normal, but remembering the way Dillon had crossed the road to stay with them earlier, Skunk stepped forward in his defence.

      ‘Cerys,’ she said, ‘this is Dillon. He's coming upstairs to play Xbox.’

      ‘No he's not,’ Cerys said firmly. ‘Bye-bye, Dillon. Off you go now, back to your mum and dad's lay-by.’

      Dillon looked at Jed and Skunk for assistance, but they knew better than to mess with Cerys. He hid his face by pulling his hood up and made his way out of the square. Cerys didn't wait till he was out of earshot:

      ‘I don't want you playing with pikeys. They'll rob the shirt off your backs.’ She pushed Skunk and Jed into the house and slammed the door behind them. Skunk was going to tell her how Dillon had already robbed some bloke's bike, but Jed stopped her by raising his eyebrows. The two of them went up to Skunk's bedroom. Outside, the square was empty again. Jed pointed towards the Buckley house.

      ‘I reckon he's been killing babies.’

      ‘Who? Dillon?’

      ‘Nah. Broken Buckley. I reckon that's what the police wanted him for. They'll come back in a minute and put up a tent in the garden. Then they'll start digging up bodies.’

      Skunk stared over the road. ‘There'll be TV cameras,’ she said.

      ‘And helicopters,’ Jed told her.

      She put her hand to her bedroom window. ‘Wonder if it was anyone we knew?’

      Jed shrugged. ‘The Oswalds are missing.’

      ‘They're at the seaside.’

      ‘So we think.’ Jed put his hands on Skunk's shoulders. ‘Wouldn't it be brilliant if Broken Buckley's murdered the Oswalds?’ He paused a moment, then relented. ‘Maybe not Susan Oswald. But all the others. Wouldn't that be cool?’

      Skunk had to admit the idea had its attractions. Sunrise Oswald was in her form class at Drummond Primary. Skunk, like the rest of the class, had been paying her two pounds fifty protection money each week. In return for this protection money, Sunrise made half-hearted attempts to keep her sisters at bay: two of them – Saskia and Saraya – were too old for school now, but that didn't stop them hanging around the school gates and robbing pupils as they made their way home. Even worse than Saskia and Saraya, Susan Oswald often broke into the playground from the secondary-school playground next door. Protection money or not, if Susan Oswald decided to rob you, fighting back was stupid, and complaining was suicidal.

      They discovered this at the start of the spring term in 2002, when Fiona Torby complained.

      Fiona Torby, who had just started at Drummond СКАЧАТЬ