not mine:
Steven ploughed through Sopwith's office. The policeman was slumped at his desk looking drained. Wordlessly, he waved to a junior to pour Steven a coffee.
"It seems to me," Steven told him, "that we're all thinking about the aftermath, and how to deal with the Pratts, and now this thing that's come up about the Krudskys-"
"Sorry?"
Steven gestured it away. "I've taken a phone call from the States. Not your problem."
Sopwith nodded. He had enough problems.
"But for us to be considering an aftermath assumes that they'll get out. We don't know they can be found. Be straight with me."
Sopwith felt sorry for him. He had come to like the Dean. "They can be found, and they will. The ransom demand came via a free internet account, and the address attached was non-existent. The We used computer cookies to connect the ransom demand email address with a number of crossreferences, with a number of physical addresses."
"Real physical addresses?" Steven asked doubtfully. "Or fantasy locations?"
Sopwith picked a raisin out of his danish pastry. "Not all of them real" he admitted. "But one looked promising, a taxi driver based in Stoke Newington. We had enough for a search warrant."
Coffee slopped over Steven's hand. "When are you going in?"
"Last night." Moodily, Sopwith piled all the raisins he'd dug out onto an ashtray.
"It was no good then."
"Circumstantial stuff. It convinced me, but it wouldn't stand up in court. The suspect's helping us with our enquiries. Apparently, he used to work as a groundsman in St Martin, near where the Calhouns have a house."
"Helpying you with your enquiries? Does that mean being beaten up in a basement?" Shocked at himself, the Dean wasn't sure he would protest, so long as it got the children back.
"Please. He's being shouted at by a grumpy colleague. Me, I have more faith in the address book and SIM card picked up while we trashed the place. I'm going back to them after this coffee."
Hamilton looked up sharply when Will's stomach rumbled. None of the kidnappers had come near them since yesterday and they had long ago finished the food they had on them when they were taken.
Will folded his arms tightly against his abdomen. None of them said anything. There was nothing to be said. Even Scout had given up banging on the door and shouting. Hamilton let his head fall back on Jake's shoulder.
Scout stared at them. He still thought Jake's explanation was inadequate and short on interesting details.
"What are you thinking?" Will asked idly. He hoped Scout wasn't going to start up again about the kidnappers' plans ("What are they doing? Where have they gone? Why have they gone? What's happening? What happens next?" "I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. Shut UP Scout.")
Actually, Scout had segued from Jake and Hamilton cuddling to thoughts of Bella, but he really didn't need to share that with the Voice of Reason. "I was thinking about 3rd Eye Blind" he said. "If we could play them on stereo up here it would drive those guys berserk."
"Yeah. That's what we need" Will muttered. "Berserk guys with guns."
"Hey I have an idea" said Hamilton.
They looked at him questioningly. He took his shirt off, got up and started doing star jumps. The floor was shaking. It was noisy.
"Why are you doing this?" Will asked, ultra reasonable.
"It annoys my mom when I do this upstairs" he explained.
Scout laughed.
"It hasn't got a reaction from the guys though." Jake had been watching Hamilton with her mouth half open. He looked so flushed and lickable.
"Maybe they're not in the building" Will said doubtfully.
She couldn't lay a finger on him here. All she could do was run her eyes over the defined muscles like a caress. He was golden from the summer sun.
"We should do something about that" said Scout. "If we don't have to worry about noise-"
Jake was summoning up the warmth and exact texture of Hamilton's skin. There were places where it ran thinly over bone and other places, fleshier, that called out to be-
"We should do something about that" Hamilton repeated. "But what? I thought we'd tried everything."
"Shallow Grave" said Jake. Seeing the floor shake had given her an idea. If noise wasn't an issue-
"Huh?" went Will.
"Film ref?" Scout asked after a minute.
"We're directly under the loft." Jake tilted her head back. "Let's look at the restroom ceiling."
"There's nothing to stand on in there" Will pointed out as they trooped over. "That hand basin won't take any weight."
"Boost one of us up" suggested Hamilton.
"Jake's lightest," said Scout. "Try that lumpy patch of ceiling. It looks like it's damaged already."
Hamilton was hoisting Jake up. Chunks and sand of plaster came down as she tore at the roof. She held her head twisted to one side, not to get the plaster dust in her eyes.
Hamilton started to cough.
"Let me down."
"Why?" Will burst out. "You've made a good hole there."
"I'm too heavy for Hamilton."
"I'm good" Hamilton protested. He looked up. "You're through to the beam in that spot. We can't give up."
"I'm not giving up. I'm giving you a break."
"I'll take over." Will stepped up. "I'm taller anyway."
Jake nodded to Will. "Yeah, okay." Her fingertips hurt.
"Sit on my shoulders ..can you reach?" Will caught the tail end of a glower from Hamilton. - for godsake get over yourself - he thought - I'm hardly making a move on Jake -
"This is much easier" Jake said "enlarging a hole that's already there." She coughed.
"Keep your mouth shut" advised Scout.
"Yeah."
Jake had a plausible looking escape route going, but Will was flagging. His face got redder and redder, until he buckled. He and Jake managed a controlled fall. Scout and Hamilton helped them up.
"We're fine." Will stared up. "Guys, how are we going to get out?"
"Through the -" Scout stopped and thought about it.
"How do we get ourselves up there?" Will put it more directly for the benefit of the Scout-of-thinking.
"If even one of us gets out, he can get help" Scout pointed out.
"I'd prefer we all went" Hamilton said. - Imagine how those creeps would take it out on whoever was left if -
They needed something to climb on. Triumphantly, Hamilton dragged the chest from the window under the hole.
"A rope would be good" said Will.
"The edges are all crumbly" said Jake. "A rope would just fray into the ceiling like a scone. Where's Ham?" He'd gone again.
He came back, stuffing his camera into Jake's backpack. "Getting our stuff. I left Bella's top."
"It's full of glass shards. You can't possibly give it to Bella now" Scout said smoothly. He was cool with that. As far as he was concerned, Scout was the guy who got to give Bella nice things. Yeah. Even if Jake wasn't a guy.
Jake wasn't listening to him. Will was boosting her through to the attic. A clump of plaster dropped loudly among the boys as she scrambled through. "Damn," she said. "The places between the beams won't take my weight." Scrabbling noises. "It's pitch black up here." Her face loomed over them. "The echo's creepy. This attic's bigger than I expected."
"You think it connects with the other houses in the terrace?" Scout looked hopeful.
"I wish. Ham ..your keys?"
"Oh ..sure." Hamilton pulled out a bunch of keys. As Will remembered, they were heavy with attachments.
"Miniature torch" Hamilton explained to Scout. To Jake, he said warningly "It doesn't give much light." The torch was mostly a toy.
"Whatever." Jake prepared to catch.
"And then stand back" Will told her. "I'm going to help Scout and Hamilton through."
"What about you?"
He measured the distance. "If I stand the window box on end, I think I can make it."
They moved, crouched, through the unlit loft with frustrating slowness, Will leading with the toy torch. The others raided the box of matches they'd arrived with, and each held a lit match cupped in their wavering hands, like the world's quietest rock concert. Will worried about their footsteps being heard below. They shuffled, keeping their weight on the wood beams. It was as black as Jake's nightmares and the enclosed air smelt of old dust.
"We must be above a different house by now" Scout said, not for the first time.
Will took a deep breath. "Okay." With his heel, he started booting through the plaster of someone's ceiling.
The room they dropped into was empty. Scout looked round, surprised. "People live like this?"
"Yes Scout. It's a bedsit. People live like this." Sometimes Scout's sheltered status infuriated Will.
Ham was envying the microwave. "If you had one of these in your dorm Jake-"
"You'd never come out" Will finished off for him. Will was being kind of snippy, Hamilton thought.
Scout was still looking around him. "How can anyone fit all their stuff in a room this size?"
"By not having much stuff" said Hamilton. "C'mon, the door's self locking so we can go out without getting whoever lives here robbed."
"Is this your zen/feng shui thing?" Scout asked Hamilton, unconvinced.
"No Scout. It's simpler than that" said Jake. "Poor person few nice possessions, and also, living somewhere crap. Which is why we're studying and hoping to get decent jobs."
"Those of us who don't have a trust fund." Will headed to the door, still irritated. - we're out - he thought. - why aren't I feeling mellow? I feel like my skin's been peeled off and I'm walking around in my bare nerves -
"Are you channelling Sean or something?" Scout stopped to scribble a contact address and leave it on the chest of drawers. "Well.." off Will's look "we wrecked his ceiling."
They went down narrow stairs bordered by numbered doors, and out onto the street. All round them it was a perfectly ordinary afternoon. They looked round, wholly disorientated for a minute. Unable to relax, Will was watching for the men who'd held them. People walked past, oblivious. Will felt irrationally that strangers ought to be rushing up to hug and congratulate them all, ought to be amazed and delighted to see them, but they went completely unnoticed.
Hamilton was staring upward. "That's our window."
"Have you still got that pen man? Make a note of this address" Scout waved at the door they'd emerged from "and that one."
Will raised his eyebrows at the way his roomie was taking command, but Scout was right, the police would need to know.
Hamilton got coins from Jake. He went to make a phone call. He'd never dialled 911 before.
He got a dial tone.
When he came out of the booth, Will was heading into a corner shop. "He's asking where the police station is" Scout said.
"Yeah, we've got to turn ourselves in." Jake looked tense.
Scout took in her expression curiously. "I can put in a word for you via my Dad" he offered.
"You don't have to-" Jake began, only to be cut off by Hamilton's
"The more support, the better." To Jake, he said fiercely "I want you to stay."
"Stay?" Will, emerging from the shop, was puzzled. "We're going down that road, left at the halal butchers, just beyond the roundabout."
Scout took charge as if by birthright when they got to the police reception desk. "Hi, I'm Scout Calhoun, and these are my friends Will Krudsky, Jake Pratt and Hamilton Fleming. We've been, uh-" The next phrase was so surreal he had to force himself to say it, like a kid feeling self conscious about speaking French aloud - "uh, held against our will. We're Americans."
The constable on the desk looked from them to his newspaper and back again. After a dumbfounded minute he said "Well, ah, this is great. Uhm, I have to phone people. This is wonderful. Are you all right?"
Will caught Scout's eye. It was wonderful to finally feel secure enough to be uncomplicatedly happy. It was only as the tension drained out of him that he realised how all pervading his fear had been.
Other officers, passing through the office, sneaked looks at them. Scout's head turned sideways to read the newspaper report.
"Is there anything you need?" someone asked.
"A hot meal" said Hamilton.
"A hot shower" said Jake.
"A telephone" said Scout.
Will shook his head over them. - rich kids. So grabby - Mind you, food and soap sounded good to him.
"Do you know how long it's been since I brushed my teeth?" Scout said exultantly.
"Man, I don't think he wants to know" Jake said.
"And we already know ..and we don't want to know either" Hamilton added.
"The inside of my mouth feels all furry" Scout continued, still in sharetoomuch mode.
Sopwith was with Steven when the call came through. Sopwith's side of the conversation consisted of things like "What? That's brilliant.. good, good. Where? ..yes of course I'll be there. Anything else you can tell me?"
He sounded delighted. Social call, Steven supposed, trying not to listen.
Sopwith put the receiver down, and said to him "They're out. The children-" he'd picked up Steven's term- "are out."
"What? You said you'd put me in the picture if there was another house search."
"Ahh. Um, yeah, apparently they escaped and walked to the nearest copshop."
"Good solid police work" Steven quoted without malice. Happiness welled up in him. His face hurt, he couldn't work out why, then realised he was smiling too hard.
"I don't give a hoot, as long as they're all right." Sopwith's tiredness had ebbed away.
"Are they all right? Are they not hurt?"
"Hungry. They haven't had anyone come by with food since, er, last night's raid in Stoke Newington."
- I always thought depriving Munchie of food would either galvanise or kill him - Steven mused. Relief was making him frivolous. "I'm coming with you. You are going-" He realised he didn't know where they were. Never mind, they were safe. Steven shook himself. "Phone parents. I get to phone parents." He tried to steady himself.
Scout had a private word with Will when they went for a shower. The others had gone elsewhere to be interviewed. Hamilton had scored much kudos with the cops for having sneakily photographed their captors using a time release.
"Will, man, you all right? You were freaking out earlier.."
Will flushed awkwardly. He thought maybe he'd been unfair. "I'm sorry. I was - this is weird, all right?" He'd just been offered a nap in a police cell, and he was on the wrong side of the planet, and - "Life is weird, you know?"
Scout nodded, distracted. While he was in no mood to be critical, the towel he was holding was the most threadbare he'd ever seen. "Looking forward to getting home?" he asked, carefully casual. He had a theory about Will's family, but he wasn't sure.
"Do you think Rawley will send us home to be with our folks for a bit?" It was something one of the Englishmen, meaning to be kind, had suggested to Will.
"Not if you don't want to." It was crystal clear to Scout that Will would sooner spend a week being pummelled by the World Wrestling Foundation.
Will nodded, said nothing.
Scout tried for a little more openness. "Your mom's got to be frantic to see you." He liked Will's mom.
Will's shoulders eased a little.
Scout took pity on him. "We've missed some school over this, and we'll miss more, giving evidence, and court appearances. With your scholarship-"
"I can't afford to miss classes" Will agreed, too fast. "I need to go back to Rawley."
"Not your parents" Scout prodded. - I'm not pushing him - he thought. - I'm giving him an opening to confide in me -
Jake rejoined the guys, looking cheerful, and flopped onto the seat next to Hamilton.
"You were flirting with that cop" he said blankly.
"It's nice being a girl again."
"You're supposed to be my girlfriend."
Will and Scout hastily made for the door.
Jake's expression shuttered. "I thought that was just-"
"Just what exactly?"
"While we were in there. You don't do long term. I know that."
"I want long term. I want exclusive. I want forever."
Jake froze, her eyes devouring him. "Ham, you - We're fifteen Ham, listen to yourself."
"And our parents are going to split us up. But the minute I can, I'll come for you."
Jake searched his face. He really meant it. She couldn't believe it, but she also couldn't read anything but sincerity in him. She kissed him.