Will got in the cab with great reluctance. He was on a tight budget and only a half mile walk should take them to a bus or a train or something. He wouldn't get them lost. He had his map.
"Get in the cab" said Scout.
Will sat by the window, staring around him, trying to pick out what was foreign about the scene. When the car got bogged down in traffic he twisted across Scout to check what the fare display read. Scout was slumped beside him, eyes shut; beyond, Hamilton and Jake talked to each other in low voices.
Will was relieved when the streets got less congested. The fare clock had been ticking away even when the car was stuck and it made him nervous.
- divide by four .. what is that in real money? I'm the only one on a budget. The way they roll their eyes whenever I mention I'm poor is no help at all. It's not like I go without luxuries out of some twisted kinky pleasure. Are we nearly there? ..I'm not ashamed of being poor but when I'm open about not being able to afford things the Rawley kids accuse me of martyrdom or trolling for pity. It's called living within my means. Those spoilt brats should try it sometime. Scout's normally pretty cool but the minute he gets a blister it's all, "Screw your budget, get a cab." Rory said there'd be overtime going at Friendly's next month. I should never have splurged on that leather bound Vanity Fair -
-The click that machine makes every time the fare goes up a notch is driving me crazy. Oh, hey, is that the Greenwich naval place? That's the thing here. You turn a corner, just walking along, and you run into a world famous landmark. Wait a minute, I thought that was miles away -
Will dug the street atlas out again to trace their route. He frowned. The window between them and the driver was shut, but even so he spoke in an undertone. "Guys."
"Yeah?" Scout didn't surface but the other two turned.
"Never take the first hansom cab-" At their expressions, he protested "It's a Sherlock Holmes quote."
Hamilton said "I thought you read Hobbes and Faulkner."
"I went through a course of London themed fiction to prepare for this trip" Will explained simply.
Jake poked Scout in the ribs. "Please. Tell me he's kidding."
Scout didn't open his eyes. "He's not."
"Thing is" Will said. "I think he's taking us back by the long route." He tapped his atlas. He hoped he was wrong.
"Taxi drivers." Jake looked annoyed.
"No Jake, the really long route. We're almost out of London."
Jake looked at the road signs, at first casual, then alarmed.
Scout sat up. "What's going on?"
"I have no idea. Do any of you have a cell phone on you?" Jake asked, thinking - how ironic is it to suddenly want one of those things around? -
Apparently nobody had a phone. Their coverage didn't extend over here. They were out of central London now, swiftly moving south and east. Dusk was drawing in.
Hamilton surreptitiously tried the door though he wasn't sure he could jump out of a vehicle at this speed.
It was centrally locked.
The driver must have noticed how suspiciously they were acting. He swerved to the kerb halfway between street lights and reached into the glove compartment. Hamilton pulled openly at his door.
The driver had a handgun. Will's jaw dropped. Things like this didn't happen for real. How did this come about? His friends looked petrified. Tarrantino films had never conveyed the sense he had now, of being too hypnotised by the barrel of the gun to move or even think. - bullets. Out of that barrel. Dad always said, what would stop me thinking. Bullets. My god -
Scout found his voice. "What the hell is going on?" he screamed.
Scout was more or less tossed on his ass into the room, still ranting. The others went more quietly, cowed by the gun muzzle pressed lightly into Hamilton's temple. Scout was too angry to respond to the threat to Hamilton with anything but ..well, more anger. None of his demands for information had been met. "What the fuck is this" he was going as the door shut on them. A lock clicked.
Hamilton, shivering with reaction, began to check out the room. The walls were painted institution mint, the floor was bare boards. A large uncurtained sash window let in fuzzy orange light from the street, opposite the door they'd come in. There was another door, ajar, in a side wall. A bare mattress was thrown down in a corner. He pulled a wooden chest under the window to sit on, keeping his back to the others. The window he stared out of was barred with a metal grille. He rubbed the side of his head, hard, where the gun had rested. Jake was speaking to Scout.
"I think they wanted you." Jake was very pale.
"What do you mean?" It was Will who asked.
"Didn't you see, it was on the front seat of the cab when we got out. They had a folder file with a picture of Scout."
"This was planned?" The shock in Scout's face renewed.
"And the rest of us? Wrong place, wrong time?" Will was flushed. His anger showed in the intensity of his voice, in his narrowing eyes.
"I don't know. Maybe."
Scout swallowed. "I'm sorry guys."
"It's not your fault, man." She added, not wholly convincingly "I'm glad you're not alone for this."
Will's mind was racing. "Is this political?"
"How should I know?" Scout stalked over to Hamilton at the window. "You okay?" he asked, trying not to sound brusque.
"I'm cool." Hamilton's expression was neutral. "There's bars on the window."
Scout looked out. It was full dark now. They were four flights above a narrow street. The bare bulb in the room they were in was weak enough that the street lights were an appreciable help. This must've been a nursery.
The room was cold.
"Edwardian society parents used to keep their kids out of the way of the rest of the house. They kind of led separate lives" Will remembered.
Scout gave him a wry look, thinking back over a childhood of nights alone in his room to the distant sound of his parents networking.
"But who'd keep a child here?" Will was pacing. "It's like a prison."
"Convenient for these guys" Hamilton said dryly.
Jake checked out the half open door. "Ensuite toilet" she announced.
Hamilton looked back at the mattress. "How long do they mean to keep us here?"
It was all very strange. Apart from a roaring in his ears, Steven felt less than he would have thought possible. He searched himself in vain for an urge to rail against the authorities, or for fear, or even for a conviction that this was truly happening. Everything felt unreal, and he was distantly puzzled that his thought processes went on regardless. He could observe himself from the outside, as if this were an out of body experience, and the man he saw was very calm, in control, making logical decisions.
- I'm keeping this show on the road - he told himself.
Arrangements were made for him and Kate to be on a plane to England first thing on Saturday. The school would have to do without him. - The faculty are being very supportive - he thought. He made a note to thank them later.
Kate wanted to get to London now. Steven put his phone on hold for a minute. "As soon as possible. I agree."
"Now" she said.
"We have to bring the other students back. Talk to lawyers. Reassure parents." He frowned. "Do you know, I still haven't been able to contact Ms Pratt? I've left five voice mail messages."
"Reassure me" said Kate.
"I'll call you back" he said into the phone.
"Steven?"
He shook his head. "I have an appointment in town."
"An appointment?" Her voice rose.
"I'm seeing the Krudsky parents. It's not something I can duck out of. They'll be as upset as we are."
"Maybe more so" Kate said bitterly.
"Can you come with me?" he asked her. "You're good with people."
Steven walked briskly, and alone, to his car. - Should I talk to Hamilton's girlfriend? Who is it this week, anyway? I lost track months ago. The last one I registered was that junior ..Getty, was it? I distinctly remember I spoke to him seriously about being tactful when he moved on since she has several younger siblings and cousins.. ("When I move on?" "Hamilton. I'm your father. It's my place to say these things. You have a terrible attention span." He looked so angry. Only respect kept him quiet.) ..his restlessness bothers me. Kate says it's normal for a teenage boy but I don't like to think of him hurting all those girls' feelings -
The meeting with the Krudskys went every bit as unpleasantly as Steven had feared. Brian Krudsky was openly hostile, and, what was more upsetting, Karen Krudsky was red eyed and distraught.
"It's no use blaming Mr Fleming, honey" she said, more ineffectually than Steven would have liked.
"His damn school had responsibility for the safety of those boys, right? They should've supervised the stupid brats."
"The young men were promised-" Steven momentarily forgot he was talking to a Rawley resident. Never, even in his thoughts, did he use the term townie.
"Young men?" Brian exploded. "Don't give me that. I live here."
"The idea is that if we call them gentlemen often enough, at some point they'll decide to live up to it" Steven said wryly. "That's not the point right now."
Karen passed a mug of instant coffee to him. "I heard your son is one of the missing boys" she said sympathetically.
"Hamilton. Yes. I do know how you feel."
"That's not the point right now either. The point is that your school failed in its responsibility to take care of four minors." Brian slammed the door on his way out.
Karen tracked her husband's progress down the street nervously. "But what can you possibly be expected to do? The police are doing everything they can" she said to Steven.
"Senator Calhoun is using a lot of influence."
Karen pursed her lips. The fact that Scout's disappearance was the high priority would be adding insult to injury. "I know Scout" she offered, as a safer thing to say.
"The four of them are friends" he said, turning the mug in his hands. "All of the faculty who teach Will speak highly of him. Not only as a scholar."
She nodded. It was no more than she expected. "You get scared of so much on your kid's behalf" she said wryly. "But I never expected this. Will was so enthusiastic when I called by the diner."
Kate sobbed herself to sleep on Friday night. Later, Steven realized that he hadn't handled that well. While she cried, every reassuring speech he thought of: "Hamilton's a big, self reliant boy.." "I'm sure he's not afraid and unhappy.." "Why should a bunch of unknown law breaking people hurt him?" was choked off. He asked himself how truthful any reassurances would be. Hamilton was young, and not at all self reliant.. - and I know he's afraid and unhappy -
Steven lay in bed stroking Kate's hair in silence. He told himself it would be patronising her to tell her comforting lies. Later he wished he'd gone ahead and insulted her intelligence. They both needed any comfort they could get.
Finn met them at Heathrow airport looking even more dishevelled than usual. He and Kate cried together. Steven watched them, wooden faced. - He cares about his students. Of course, I believe kindness should take the form of practical help, not pointless emotion -
"Before anything else" said Kate "I want to see Hamilton's room."
Finn took them up directly they reached the hotel. He kept glancing at Kate, afraid she'd break down.
"We're here for all the boys" Steven reminded her once they were in private. "Not just our own."
"Okay" said Scout briskly. "Pool our resources."
"What" said Will.
"Or to quote Tolkein" said Jake with her usual dryness, "what have we got in our pocketses."
Four wallets plopped onto the bare mattress. Scout's fell open to reveal a snap of Bella. Will gave him a glare for that. Jake had a comb and a tiny pot of hair gel. Will was carrying his Rawley student ID card. Hamilton still had his house keys, attached to a key ring heavy with miniature folding gadgets. The A-Z of London. A packet of trail mix from Jake's bag. (Hamilton's hand went out to it reflexively. Will swatted him away. "Best save it for when we're hungry." "I'm hungry now.")
Will had a notebook with an elastic band holding the pages together, and a pen. Jake had a handful of cds. (Hamilton rolled his eyes. "What?", defensively. "How bad is it?" "It's Travis." "Never heard of them. But you like Abba, and Dido, and Sarah McLachlan-" "Shut up Fleming.")
A half written postcard addressed to Hamilton's mom. From Scout a bar of swiss chocolate, and bottled water. Will gave Hamilton a stern look. A pocket size hardback of Bleak House from Will. His list of museums was acting as a bookmark. A packet of aspirin. A box of matches. ("Whose is that? None of us smoke.")
Scout's address book. Hamilton's camera. A pocket calculator with sterling/dollar exchange rates taped to the back. Paper hankies. A royal blue tank top with a narrow union jack motif recurring along the neckline and hem. It was from Jake's backpack. It was patently a girl's. The other three stared at it.
"I thought Bella might like it" Jake said uncomfortably after a minute.
"I didn't know you were friends." Scout sounded personally offended.
"A bit." Jake wondered where all this tension came from. She half grinned. "I'm trying to get her to teach me to fix my bike."
"Thus doing herself out of work" Will observed mildly.
"Teaching me would be a job in itself."
"How hard is it to change a flat or put the chain back on? You're just looking to spend time with her." Scout looked jealous.
- hmm, possessive. Why doesn't he just ask her out? - Jake thought.
"Jake has a motorbike" said Hamilton.
"Oh" said Scout flatly. "That's ..very cool. Is Bella impressed?"
Jake's brows drew together. "Not particularly."
"Excuse us a minute." Will pulled Scout as far away as possible and muttered urgently in his ear. Hamilton caught the end of it. "..of your business, and anyway I'm pretty sure Jake's gay."
Hamilton felt it was time to say something unarguable. He picked up Will's Rawley ID card. "This won't be much help."
"Oh, I don't know." Will took it from him and went to the door.
Jake was leaning against the jamb. "I think the hall's empty" she said.
Will nodded, and started to fiddle with the lock. He looked disgruntled when he failed.
"Maybe criminals have higher security sense than Rawley does" said Jake, depressed. "I shouldn't be surprised if they have decent fire walls on their computer, too."
Hamilton tilted his head to one side. "Let me try." He used the attachment on his key ring.
Scout had a whine in his voice when he spoke. "Has, like, everyone in the room got special illicit skills?"
"Not me" Jake made a disclaiming gesture. "We've fallen in with the bad crowd."
Hamilton continued to work on the lock. He almost thought he had it when footsteps sounded from outside.