Night School: Legacy

At that, he turned and ran after Harry. For a little while she could hear them talking and laughing in the distance. When the sound faded, she climbed down off the slide and picked up all the empty cider cans, depositing them in a rubbish bin. Then she flipped her dark hood up over her head and walked back towards home, her feet moving slower than her thoughts.

She was almost there when she saw them – four men standing outside her house. Their suits were perfectly tailored; haircuts short and neat. One wore sunglasses in the darkness; as she stared at him her heart began to pound. His athletic stance and intense focus reminded her of Gabe.

She stopped in her tracks. That was her first mistake – she should have just walked into Mrs Burson’s garden and sneaked out the back.

But she didn’t.

When her footsteps stopped the one closest to her swung around. She was half in shadow but he seemed to recognise her. He gestured in her direction.

‘Hey,’ he said quietly, snapping his fingers twice.

They all turned towards her.

Allie took a cautious step backwards.

‘Allie Sheridan?’ the first one asked.

Another backwards step.

‘We just want to talk to you,’ another one said.

Allie whirled around and took off. Leaping over Mrs Burson’s low fence, she ran to the back gate she knew was always unlocked and tore through it. Behind her she could hear the men swearing and struggling to get through the gate in the dark as she pounded back to the park, across the slippery grass and through the fence on the far side.

Twisting and turning her way through the neighbourhood, she ran until she couldn’t hear them behind her. Then she jumped a garden wall and crawled beneath a hedge.

When she hadn’t heard footsteps for what seemed like an hour, she pulled her phone out of her pocket with shaking hands.


Now she sat on the smooth leather passenger seat in the black Audi, watching as Rachel’s dad manoeuvred through traffic on the South Circular at speeds well over the allowed limits. It wasn’t that she didn’t trust him exactly, but she kept her distance, leaning against the door, one hand resting on the handle.

Rachel kind of looks like him, Allie thought. But his skin was darker and his hair was coarse, whereas Rachel’s was all glossy curls.

He didn’t speak until the rows of houses around them thinned, then faded away, replaced by dark pastures.

‘You OK?’ he asked then. His question was abrupt but she could hear a touch of fatherly concern underlying the words.

‘I’m fine,’ she said, sitting straighter. ‘Just a bit … freaked out.’

‘Thank you for trusting me,’ he said. ‘I wasn’t sure you would at first.’

‘You look like her,’ Allie said. ‘Like Rachel, I mean. So … I believe you.’

For the first time he smiled, his eyes on the road. ‘Don’t tell her that. Her mum’s the pretty one in the family.’

He looked nicer when he smiled, and Allie felt herself relax a little.

‘What happened?’ he said. ‘We left your house two hours ago and everything was fine.’

‘You were at my house?’ Allie tensed again.

‘Not inside.’ He seemed to sense her anxiety and his voice was calming. ‘Just nearby. Isabelle asked me to keep an eye on you. One of us has been there – one of my guys – every day.’

Rachel had told her he ran a security firm – one so respected it was used by presidents and business executives. Other than that she didn’t really know anything about him, except that he went to Cimmeria when he was a kid.

As hard as she tried to remember seeing him or anyone like him on her street, Allie came up with nothing. The idea that she’d been watched all the time gave her the creeps.

‘Everything was fine,’ she said. ‘There was nobody outside when I went to the park. When I came back, though, those guys were just standing around my street. They recognised me.’

‘Did they try to grab you?’ He glanced at her.

She shook her head. ‘They said they wanted to talk to me. But I didn’t believe them,’ she said. ‘I ran. They never touched me.’

‘Good girl.’

Hearing approval in his voice, Allie felt a flush of unexpected pride.

‘I’m surprised you got away from them, though,’ he said. ‘They’re very good at what they do.’

Her shrug was modest. ‘I’m kind of fast. I ran where I thought they might have trouble following me.’

‘And you wore black,’ he said.

‘Isabelle told me to wear it at night, just in case.’

He pulled on to the M25, glancing into the side mirror to make sure the way was clear.

‘I’m sorry she was right,’ he said.

‘Me too,’ Allie replied, slipping further down into her seat, and watching the cars slip behind them as he sped up. Now that she was warm and safe, all the adrenaline drained from her body. Her eyelids drooped.

‘What about my parents?’ she asked, weariness making her voice thick.

‘Isabelle will phone them and explain,’ he said. ‘They’ll know you’re safe.’

Allie rested her head against the seatback.

‘Good,’ she murmured. ‘I don’t want them to be scared.’

In a few minutes she was asleep.


A cool breeze woke her some time later. She sat up with a start.