Like This, for Ever

31




‘SHE’S GOING,’ SAID Barney, from his position by the window. ‘Careful now,’ he warned as the other children pressed closer. ‘If she looks up she’ll see us.’

In the dark sitting-room of Barney’s house, six children watched Lacey pull the collar of her jacket up and set off down the street. Her car was parked about forty feet away on the opposite side of the road. As she beeped open the door, she looked up and down the street and, for a second, seemed to stare directly at them.

‘Nobody move,’ Jorge whispered. ‘She won’t see us if we stay still.’

If Lacey had seen them, she gave no sign. She got into her car, reversed a few inches then drove away. The children left the window and went back to the circle on the carpet they’d instinctively formed ten minutes earlier.

After seeing the thing that had leaped out of the river at them, they’d fled the yard, jumping on their bikes and speeding off, dangerously reckless on the main road, only stopping when they got to Barney’s. They’d piled inside and Barney, with support from Jorge, had persuaded the others not to dial 999. Jorge had made hot chocolate, Barney had found a packet of KitKats, and the gang had huddled low and close, and talked about what they were going to do.

Jorge was looking round now. ‘Everyone OK?’ he asked.

None of them looked OK. Sam and Hatty had both been crying. Sam looked like he still was, although he was making some effort to hide it.

‘I’m OK,’ said Barney. He wasn’t, but he knew from experience that sometimes, if you pretended for long enough that you felt a certain way, sooner or later you did.

‘I’m OK,’ said Harvey, who looked close to tears but was holding it together.

‘Me too,’ agreed Lloyd. ‘But what the hell was that thing?’

‘Not what,’ said Jorge. ‘Who. I think it must have been Tyler King. You know, the first boy to go missing. I think we found him.’

‘Jorge, it jumped out of the bloody water,’ said Sam, unable to keep his voice from trembling. ‘It wasn’t dead.’

‘It was dead,’ said Hatty. ‘It didn’t have any eyes.’

‘And I saw it swimming,’ said Harvey. ‘I did, Jorge. It was swimming and then it jumped out of the water. What if it followed us?’

Hatty shuffled along the carpet, a little closer to Barney.

‘It didn’t.’ Jorge put his hands on his brother’s shoulders. ‘You need to get a grip. We all do. I know it was a massive shock but it was a dead body, not some sort of zombie. You didn’t see it swimming and it didn’t hurl itself out of the water.’

‘What happened, then?’

‘A wave,’ said Jorge. ‘It’s a river, isn’t it?’

‘Yes, and it’s tidal,’ said Barney. ‘The tide’s on its way back in.’

‘There you are then. A freak wave picked it up and dropped it on the bank.’

‘So who did I see swimming?’ insisted Harvey.

‘I still think we should call the police,’ said Sam. ‘We should have called them before we left Deptford.’

Barney sighed. Sam wasn’t going to let it go. But Barney could not let his dad know he’d been down at the boat this evening. ‘Lacey is the police,’ said Barney. ‘She’ll check it out herself, then she’ll call the others. If we own up to being there, we’re all in big trouble. Everyone thinks we’re at Lloyd’s house, remember?’

‘They might think we killed him,’ said Harvey.

‘They won’t think that,’ said Lloyd. ‘He’d obviously been dead a long time.’

‘What if they find out we sent the text?’

‘You can’t trace text messages from a pay-as-you-go phone,’ said Jorge. ‘I’ll just throw the SIM card away and that’s that.’

‘Why’ve you got one of those, anyway?’ asked Harvey.

The brothers looked at each other. ‘It’s not mine, it’s one of Mum’s old ones,’ said Jorge. ‘I borrowed it. Mine’s out of battery. She won’t notice. You know what she’s like.’

‘It’ll be on the news tomorrow,’ said Lloyd. ‘Everyone will be talking about it and no one will know we found him.’

‘They can’t know,’ said Barney. ‘We’ll never be trusted again. We’ll be grounded for months, if not years.’

Jorge, Hatty and Lloyd were nodding. Harvey would do what his brother told him. It was Sam he was worried about.

‘Is your dad out all night?’ asked Jorge.

‘No,’ said Barney, who had no idea at all. ‘He’ll be back before midnight.’

‘It’s not far off that now,’ said Jorge. ‘We should all go.’

‘Go where?’ asked Harvey.

‘Ours,’ said Jorge. ‘Mum won’t be back till morning and Gran will be away with the fairies by now. We just have to make sure we’re all up before Mum gets back. Barney, you coming?’

Barney shook his head. ‘I’ll just go to bed,’ he said. ‘Dad never checks on me.’

Barney watched his mates cycle to the end of the street and turn the corner, before closing the door. Back in the sitting-room, huddled close to the fire, he took out his own phone. No messages from his dad. Quickly he tapped out a text.

Bit hectic here. Not sure when we’ll get to sleep. You OK on your own?

Then he sat, waiting, bothered by the dirty mugs and discarded chocolate wrappers but not having the heart to do anything about them.

Beep. His dad had replied.

House is quiet without you. About to go to bed. Have fun.