Will was listening to Scout yelling abuse and threats at their captors, terrified. - three of us are searching the adults' faces, trying to read their intentions, but Scout.. Does he not get the concept of fear? - Will asked himself, and not in an admiring sense.
"-Don't you know who I am?" Scout was bellowing.
SLAM, went the door.
After the men had gone, the four picked over the tray of gelid food they'd delivered. Will was the first to speak. "You know, perhaps we should be exercising charm on them."
Scout looked contemptuous. "'Cause they have guns?" he said derisively.
Jake sighed. - full on macho pride. How inappropriate -
Will said "Well, uh. Yeah, that would be the reason."
"Don't you even get angry? Am I the only person here-" Scout searched for a word "-outraged by-"
"Don't be a dork Scout" Hamilton interrupted. "We're all angry."
"You're not showing it."
"Maybe it's because I've lived with limitations all my life" Will said. (Scout sighed and shifted impatiently.) "I've learnt fear. You haven't." The parent issues his rich classmates complained about seemed so incredibly insignificant to him. - So, Hamilton's dad doesn't spend enough time with him. If Brian Krudsky would avoid me, that would be fine by me. The Senator's idea of a penalty is to withdraw Scout's carkeys. None of the other guys get hit.-
What Will said made no sense to Scout. "And Jake? What's your explanation for him? Because, Jake's as much a rich kid as I am-"
"Hello? Still here.." Jake objected. Now, Will was looking at her far too closely, saying "They threatened Hamilton. That would freak Jake out.." He gave a snort of laughter. "Besides freaking Hamilton himself."
Jake drew breath but Hamilton got in first. "Thanks for the update." He sounded less than pleased. Being that scared was the last thing he wanted to remember.
"Fear isn't something you learn" Scout said.
Hamilton disagreed silently. - I learnt it this summer - For months he'd thought he was becoming someone he never intended to be.
"I learnt it when I got mugged" said Jake quietly.
Hamilton's head turned sharply and Scout looked startled and concerned.
"Oh, it was a couple of years ago. But ever since I've been more cautious. I don't feel invulnerable any more."
"I never felt invulnerable" said Will. "Not as long as I can remember."
:None of them slept that night. Each crouched huddled in some corner of the room until the birds cheeped a dawn chorus. They all felt tired and grubby and anticlimactic. Will wasn't even sure what fresh unpleasantness they had been staying alert for. He looked idly out the window; he had commandeered the wooden chest that served as window seat. Early commuters were setting out. "Hey!" he shouted. "Hey!"
Ham came over to him. "Try breaking the glass."
"I can't get my hand through the grille."
"Something metal and sticklike would be good."
"Like, oh yeah, a KEY!" Will wished Hamilton would be a bit more practical. Dork.
Hamilton gave him an unreadable look and handed him something from last night's greasy tray. Will stared at it blankly. "It's a fork."
Jake said "Wrap your hand in something against shards -and kind of shove it at the glass." The suggestion backfired when Scout dived for the top Jake had bought the previous day.
Over Jake's faint protest "I won't be able to give it to Bella -"
"Cool" said Scout, cheerfully, as he took Bella's tank top and handed it to Will to protect his knuckles. Will concentrated on a dilapidated corner of window frame where the wood was rotten. Pedestrian traffic eased up while he worked; it took almost an hour. The fork bent.
"Cheap cutlery" said Jake.
"This isn't the moment to come over all Julia Child on us. We've broken the glass." Scout was exultant.
But even with the four of them yelling at the outdoors, from four flights up they were drowned out by the rumbling of lorries and cars below. They shouted till they were hoarse.
"Alll right" Will said. "Let's try the written word." He tore a page from his notebook and scribbled busily. He was about to poke it through the window when Hamilton stopped him.
"What? It's a good idea" Scout said.
Hamilton retrieved the paper. "I don't want it mistaken for litter." He smoothed it out and folded it elaborately into a perfect crane.
"Your mom, the art teacher" said Jake, punching him gently. "Let's hope this works."
They watched tensely while the paper spiralled down to the pavement. A dog nosed it. People, however, kept going.
"So. We try again" said Will.
A dozen origami missiles later, and he was losing his temper. "Are they blind to how dirty and messy it is here? This is European squalour; it's not cute and it's not quaint."
"And it's not big, and it's not clever."
Will turned on her, furious. "Don't make jokes about this, Pratt."
Jake rubbed the heels of her hands into her eyes. "It helps me deal." She looked at Will, refusing to apologise. "They'll go through our stuff when they investigate, right?"
"So long as they get us out of here" Scout said "they can go through what they like."
Jake looked worried. "I kind of value my privacy" she said.
Hamilton was puzzled. Jake had vented to him a lot about her mother's indifference. "Your mom will have to get involved" he said.
Jake sighed. "Yeah." She didn't seem to be looking forward to it.
:
Karen Krudsky hovered anxiously in the living room watching the street. The senator was due any minute. The room was painfully tidy.
"He seemed nice over the phone" she suggested to her husband.
"I'm sure he's a genius at schmoozing the little people. If he has a problem with us he'll close his eyes and think of the electorate."
"He's in the same boat as we are right now." She looked and sounded worn out.
"It's his kid that got taken. My boy was a passenger."
Karen didn't see it made a difference. She hugged her arms in front of her.
"Will shouldn't have been there" he said, low.
Karen melted. "Oh, honey. I know you're upset about our baby. We have to hold on. When Will gets back things are going to be different-"
"He shouldn't have been in Europe" he growled.
Karen fell silent. Anger made Brian unpredictable lately.
"If he'd gone to Edmund High.. But no, that wasn't good enough for little Lord Fauntleroy."
"It was an opportunity." There was a studio portrait of Will on top of the television set. She straightened it and checked the surface for dust.
"I blame Rawley."
"The school?" She was surprised.
"They took these kids overseas, right? And failed to supervise them. I've been talking to this no win, no fee lawyer. He says-"
The door rang. It was Senator Calhoun, accompanied by an aide.
The senator was urbane. He wanted to tell them all about the strings he'd been pulling to get everything moving. Karen thanked him - he seemed to expect it -but felt bitter that family connections had to be used to force the extra effort. - four teenage kids, the Calhoun name shouldn't be the issue -
It was no use denying that angle though. Politicians were making speeches, editorials were being printed, journalists were calling the state of Anglo American relations into question if the boys weren't found soon. The media loved it. The Dean had told her that it was even bigger news in England. American investigators were working with the British police. Everything possible was being done, said the Dean.
Her husband loomed alarmingly in the background. Hopefully the Senator was too thick skinned to notice the looks Brian was giving him. The aide was visibly aware, though, and he and Karen tried to move the interview along. They were putting aside the barely touched coffee when a voice called "Mrs Krudsky-"
Bella ran in. "Hey. I thought I'd come by and see how you were holding- oh." Seeing the strangers, she looked ready to turn and go.
"Thanks for knocking" Brian said savagely.
Bella tore her stare away from the Senator to see Mr Krudsky. She fell back a step.
"Now, Brian. You know Bella has free run of this house." Karen threw an arm round the girl and explained "Bella's like a daughter to me." She felt Bella flinch. She thought Will and Bella would make a great couple. Her only problem was, they didn't see it. "This is-"
"Senator Calhoun" Bella said. "Yeah." She swallowed.
Scout's father looked at her, all pink and gold, and extended his hand. "I'm sure I'd remember meeting you."
"I'm Donna Banks' daughter" she said significantly.
He was uncertain what she meant by that, but then Karen cried out "A postcard from London."
"Uh, yeah." Bella returned her attention to Karen.
"Is it from Will?"
"No, Scout sent it. Oh, do you want-" She passed it to Scout's father.
HEY BELLA. I PROMISED TO WRITE YOU FROM HERE, SO THIS IS IT. FINN IS SUCH A PAIN. IF I SEE ANOTHER ART GALLERY MY HEAD WILL EXPLODE. WILL LOVES IT. IF YOU WERE HERE WE COULD TEASE HIM. THE BORING STUFF WOULD BE MORE FUN. I MISS YOU. LOVE, SCOUT.
Calhoun took a minute longer than necessary to read the card. Memories were coming back to him, of a lakeside conversation at the regatta.
- "So there's some crazy girl running round town claiming to be my daughter" I said - He held the postcard but looked at Bella. "Donna Banks' daughter."
"Yeah."
"I never knew Donna Banks."
She bit her lip.
Karen was looking at both him and the girl, bewildered. Whoever had heard the rumour, the Krudskys hadn't, he realised, and resolved to keep it that way.
"My son said you were beautiful and smart."
She blushed.
"You were dating each other."
Karen looked enlightened.
"Briefly" said Bella.
She didn't look crazy. He decided to get to the bottom of this. "I'll give you a lift back to-"
"I live at the gas station." She felt like saying "I filled up your tank at the regatta weekend and you never saw me."
When they left the Krudskys he said "Who told you this, this story?"
"My dad."
His face wore a look of Scoutlike confusion.
Kate was demanding Finn told her everything known about the day the boys were snatched.
"All we have is the stuff from their room."
Steven moved ahead of them, going for the most noticeable document there. It was Will's travel diary.
"That's the great thing about them being minors" Steven said. "They don't have rights to privacy and self determination." He cast a scaly eye over the diary. It was a formidably long text, with topographical poems and a cliff-notes list of dates in red ink, and postcards taped in to illustrate where he'd been. Steven flipped through and looked up at Finn pleadingly. "Please tell me it won't be full of adolescent philosophising."
"Don't make jokes about this" Finn snapped.
"Who's laughing?" Steven returned to the exercise book. - hmm. The boy's intelligent. I recognise a lot of Finnish quotes. I take it he's mentoring the boy. He has a talent for one to one relationships with children. -
He found a scribbled draft schedule for that last day and raised his eyebrows. - I see Mr Krudsky planned to knock off the British Museum in 40 purposeful minutes. One has to be impressed by his ramraid approach to western culture - "Have the police noted this?" he asked, pointing to the page.
"Yes, but they found no witnesses on the route so far."
"Did Hamilton leave a diary?"
"Ah, no." Finn frowned slightly. He thought Steven should know Hamilton better than that. "There was a lot of unprocessed film in his room."
"Processed now." It was not a question.
Finn handed the photos over.
Pictures of Tower Bridge and the Tower of London from a boat. Calhoun, stymied by a collapsing umbrella. The Pratt and Johnson boys poring over a map. Nelson's Column, taken from halfway down Whitehall. Marcus Brent, perched on one of Landseer's lions, laughing down at the camera. Calhoun slipping a postcard into a red pillarbox. Big Ben. Pratt emerging from a hotel room, bleary of expression and with scruffy bed hair - and another shot taken a moment later, the hair still dreadful and Pratt lunging furiously snarling at the camera. Finn and Krudsky picking over trestle tables of used books in the open air.
One of the snaps included Hamilton. He was involved in some kind of horseplay with the Pratt boy next to some fountains. Steven wasted a good minute trying to identify the place. He thought it was near Speaker's Corner. - I'm putting a lot of effort into distracting myself - he reflected. He looked at the picture again. There was a rainbow caught in the water spray and in the foreground the boys were mock fighting over a scarlet backpack, both laughing. He had considered Pratt to be a solemn introverted child. But he mostly looked at Hamilton. "He's a good boy" he said.
"Yes" Finn said gently.
Bored. Bored. Bored. Four ugly green walls, dusty wooden floor, bad plaster rosette on the ceiling. None of it's worth looking at.
"A room without pictures" said Hamilton. Then he remembered the snap in Scout's wallet. "Oh, wait, you have a photo of that girl from the gas station."
"Bella. Yeah." Scout looked up. Will was out of earshot. - if Krudsky had his way I'd forget she existed. I can't do that. Just to talk about her; how is that wrong? -
"She's pretty" Hamilton offered.
"She's beautiful" Scout corrected. He sounded overly fervent.
Hamilton was puzzled. Scout was obviously into this girl, so.. "Why don't you ask her out? She's a girl, she likes you.."
"How do you know she likes me?"
"Jake said" Hamilton stated simply.
Scout indulged in a moment's brooding over how well Jake knew Bella. "I can't be with Bella." He couldn't explain. - as Bella would say, the whole thing is so Jerry Springer -
It was clear to Hamilton that he was eaten up by this. "You should go for it" he said.
"Easy for you to say. You've dated every girl in Rawley." - Hamilton, of the famously short attention span. If he makes a move on Bella, I'll .. She'd see through him. Right? -
"Hardly all of them." Hamilton seemed to be thinking about something else.
- no. He hasn't dated Bella. Thank God. She deserves better - "You don't understand what it's like to want someone and have to stop yourself" Scout accused.
Hamilton's face turned back to him, from where he had been watching Will and Jake, and he said "When you say you can't be with Bella. Is that, like, a reputation thing?"
"Bella?" Will echoed, and he turned his all-too-familiar shocked&disappointed expression on Scout.
"It would be wrong" Scout mumbled, obviously uncomfortable.
Jake tried to change the subject. "I was just congratulating Will that neither of us have chicks worrying about us." She gave Hamilton a sharp look. "Your chicks can form a support group." She assumed a ridiculously squeaky girl voice "Hi. My name is Sindy and I dated Munchie for three days in July."
"Munchie?" Will and Scout hooted.
Hamilton was annoyed. "Why don't you have a girl waiting for you?"
"Uh, I think Will is concentrating on his work-"
"You, Jake. Why don't you?"
Will's shoulders hunched and his brow furrowed. His instinct was to leave. Scout, on the other hand, looked fascinated.
"Unlucky in love or something" Jake said flatly.
"Or something. What's that supposed to mean?"
"Is this the argument about my dating life? Because we've had this fight a month ago."
"What dating life? You don't have a dating life."
"Yeah, and that fact is none of your freaking business. Try sticking with someone for more than twelve hours Ham. Maybe you can set up as an advice columnist then."
"Oh. My dating life is up for discussion."
"Oh for godsake" Jake muttered to herself.
"That fight a month ago" Hamilton said. He had forgotten their audience totally. "I was asking for a reason-"
"Stop." Jake flicked her eyes to Will and Scout who were turning from Ham to Jake and back again to Ham as if they were at a tennis match. "I don't need to discuss this in public" she said, and stomped off to the toilet.
Ham scowled at the other two.
"What. Happened." Scout was agog.
"You don't need to know."
"You are so wrong about that."
Will chipped in. "You think we're prurient."
The scowl didn't abate.
"We're just interested in people."
The toilet door opened briefly. "So is the National Enquirer" yelled Jake and slammed it again.