Sure Fire. Justin Richards

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СКАЧАТЬ keep blaming him for what happened to Mum.”

      “Just because he suddenly goes all slushy and says he cares doesn’t mean it’s true.”

      “He said we’d talk,” Rich pointed out.

      “Yeah, after he’s packed us off to school. Then what? A live-in nanny for the holidays so he can get on with this important job of his? So he can build his career without being distracted. Well, Mary Poppins we don’t need.”

      “I’m going to tell him you took his mobile and his ciggies,” Rich decided. “And the lighter.”

      “Creep!” Jade made to grab Rich, but he was already on his way to the study.

      They heard the phone ring and both stopped, close to the study door.

      The door was open a fraction and they could hear Chance’s voice from inside.

      “No, not at the flat,” he was saying. “Too many… distractions right now.”

      “He means us,” Jade mouthed at Rich.

      “I know,” he mouthed back. “We shouldn’t be listening,” he whispered. But neither of them moved away from the door.

      “I have it safe,” Chance was saying. “I’ll bring it with me. Be happy to get it to someone who knows what to do with the stuff. I can’t risk them finding it.”

      “Does he mean us again?” Rich murmured.

      Jade shrugged.

      “Half an hour then,” Chance was saying. “Somewhere safe where we can talk and I can hand it over to you. Don’t come here, though, whatever you do… Because I’m telling you.” He sounded angry now. “Put them in danger, and it’ll be the last time I work for you. Ever.” There was a pause. “That old scrapyard? Yes, I know it. Totters Lane, isn’t it? Yes. Half an hour.”

      Jade grabbed Rich’s arm and pulled him into the bedroom.

      “What?” Rich said.

      “What do you mean, ‘what?’? If this job of his is so important and if it’s on the level, and if he really does work in the oil industry…”

      “If?” Rich countered.

      “Yes, if. If that’s all true, then why is he going to a meeting to hand over something he shouldn’t have, in a scrapyard?”

      Rich sighed. “All right. Look, he said there were things he couldn’t tell us right now. But maybe we should find out.”

      “Yeah? Like how?”

      “By following him and seeing who he meets.”

      “We can’t do that,” Jade said. “Can we?”

      Rich shrugged. “You can nick his mobile – I don’t see why we can’t follow him to a meeting.”

      The bedroom door opened and Chance was standing there. “Look, sorry,” he said. “I have to go out. We’ll talk again when I get back, all right?”

      “All right,” Jade said.

      They watched him cross the living room. He paused to pick up his cigarettes from on top of the television. He seemed about to open the packet, but he caught sight of Jade and Rich still watching him, and instead stuffed the cigarettes into his jacket pocket.

      “See you in an hour or so then,” Chance said. He didn’t wait for a reply.

      They heard the hall door slam shut behind him.

      “We’ll see you a lot sooner than that,” Rich said.

       5

      The evening had drawn in and it was getting dark. There was a light drizzle, enough to permeate through Jade’s coat and make the air feel colder than it was.

      “There he is, look,” Rich said, pointing to the dark silhouette of a figure passing under a streetlight further down the road. They hurried after Chance, keeping to the shadows in case he looked back.

      He did not look back, and Jade could not believe he knew they were following him. But even so, Chance suddenly darted into an alleyway. If she had blinked, Jade would have missed it – it would have seemed like he had simply disappeared into thin air.

      They approached the end of the alley hesitantly, in case Chance was standing waiting for them. Jade wasn’t frightened of him, but she didn’t fancy another argument. For all her bravado she didn’t like falling out with anyone – even when they were wrong. Like he was.

      Rich looked at her, and Jade nodded. “Let’s do it,” she said quietly.

      Together, they stepped into the end of the alley and looked along it.

      Nothing.

      The alley was empty.

      Chance was gone.

      They sprinted along the alley and found it turned a sharp corner and then came out in a busy street. A bus sprayed water up at them as it went through a shallow puddle. People walked past quickly, huddled into their coats as the rain got heavier. Cars and taxis splashed after the bus.

      There was no sign of John Chance.

      “It’s like he knew we were following him,” Rich complained.

      “How could he, though?” Jade said.

      “Maybe he just thought someone might follow him,” Rich said. “Not us, but someone else. I don’t know. We need to find a bookshop.”

      Jade stared at him. “We need to find Dad.”

      “So he’s ‘Dad’ now, is he?” Rich seemed amused.

      “What else should I call him? And what good will a bookshop be? Or do you just want to get something to read?”

      As they walked along the street, a woman stepped out of the shadows. She was careful to keep well back, though neither of the children had noticed she had been following them since they left the flat.

      There was a bookshop further down the same road. It was a small branch of a big chain, and it had what Rich wanted – an A to Z of London.

      “Gonna look him up in the index?” Jade suggested. “John Chance is here with a big arrow, maybe?”

      For reply, Rich pointed to part of one of the maps. “That’s where we are now, right? Just there.”

      “So?”

      Rich moved his finger across to the facing page. “This is Totters Lane.”

      “Of course. Where the scrapyard is. How much is the book?”

      Rich СКАЧАТЬ