All My Secrets (26 page)

‘Right.’

‘What will they do?’ Samuel asks, his voice small.

‘They’re going to get rid of us,’ Kit says tersely.

‘Yeah, Bunnock wasn’t messing with that gun,’ Josh adds. ‘That was real.’

‘It wasn’t an AK-47 though,’ Samuel says. ‘And AK-47s are the most popular guns in the world.’

‘Thanks for that, Samuel,’ Pepper says, her voice hollow. ‘But a gun doesn’t need to be popular to shoot straight.’

Josh crosses the room to join Kit at the door. ‘D’you think we can break it down?’

Kit nods. ‘We can give it a go.’

‘What’s that sound?’ Pepper asks.

I listen hard as a crackling noise drifts towards us. A whiff of pungent smoke fills the air.

‘What is it?’ Anna asks, sounding desperate.

‘Fire.’ I turn to her. ‘They’ve set the house on fire.’

There’s a moment of total silence as the sound of the flames outside builds. Then Pepper points to the first wisps of smoke curling under the door and Anna lets out a
high-pitched scream and panic fills the room.

Samuel shrinks back against the wall. Kit hammers on the door.

‘Let us out! Let us out!’

Josh turns to me and Pepper. ‘We have to break the door down.’

I nod, the smell of the smoke filling my nostrils. Pepper calls to Anna.

‘Stop shrieking and get over here.’

Anna does as she’s told. I run over to Samuel, grab his arm and drag him to the door. Kit squares up to it. He points to the area level with the handle.

‘That’s where it’s weakest. Kick there.’

We line up. The smoke coming under the door is thicker now, dark grey in the dawn light. My head reels. Uncle Gavin has left me and the others here to die. It’s unthinkable. Horrific.

‘Bunnock gave him Samuel’s lighter,’ I say numbly. ‘He’ll leave it downstairs. Everyone will think we took it and filled it with fuel and set the fire by
accident.’

‘Or they’ll think Josh did it on purpose,’ Kit says. ‘Weren’t you excluded from one of your schools for lighting a fire?’

‘Let’s just break this door down,’ Josh says with a frown. ‘One, two, three, go!’

I put all my force into the kick. So does everyone else. A series of hammer blows rain against the wood. The door shakes, but stays locked.

‘Again,’ Kit urges. ‘Together this time. One, two, three . . .’

This time we all kick together. Even Samuel is in synch. The door cracks.

‘Once more,’ Pepper cries. ‘Hit it!’

I lunge out, imagining it’s my uncle I’m aiming at. The door splinters. Flies open. A gust of acrid smoke whooshes into the room. Kit plunges past it, Pepper at his heels. I take
Samuel’s hand.

‘Come on.’

Ahead of us, Josh propels Anna onto the landing. The smoke is so thick here I can barely see them. I’m coughing, choking. I let go of Samuel’s hand to cover my mouth.

Someone grasps my arm and pulls me sideways. It’s Josh.

‘This way,’ he yells, directing me towards the stairs.

Flames writhe up from the hall. The bottom of the staircase is hidden in dense smoke. We rush down to the ground floor. A wall of fire blocks our way to the front door.

‘Over here,’ Pepper shouts.

My eyes sting with the smoke, my lungs burn as we follow her into what was clearly once a living room. The base of a lamp on a wooden sideboard and a couple of tatty old sofas are the only
pieces of furniture remaining. Across the room, Kit is pulling a long rotten board from across the two small windows. We race over as it hits the floor.

The glass in both windows is broken, with jagged pieces sticking out. Kit and Pepper smash the shards sticking out in the first window. I snatch up the lamp base and swing it at the second. A
large piece of glass crashes down outside. Josh shoves at the remaining slivers that stick out from the frame, knocking them away.

‘Gavin!’ It’s Miss Bunnock.

‘Francine! Where are you?’ Gavin cries.

They sound close. Are they in the house?

“Hurry!” I urge as Josh helps Samuel over the sill. Next to us Pepper is hauling Anna outside. Smoke swirls around them as they pelt across the garden.

“Come on, Evie!” Kit follows Pepper through the window.

‘
Evie!
’ It’s Gavin, he sounds closer than before. I glance over my shoulder. The door and the far walls are hidden by smoke. Is he inside the room?

‘You next.’ Josh reaches for my hand. He helps me scramble out of the window, my pumps crunching on the glass as I land next to Kit. Smoke is pouring out of the house, swirling into
the sky. Pepper, Anna and Samuel are at the other end of the garden, almost at the low wall. There’s a field on the other side and a road beyond that. Its rough tarmac glistens in the dim
dawn light.

‘Run, Evie!’ Kit yells, haring across the grass. I set off after him, As he leaps over the low wall into the field, I’m suddenly aware Josh isn’t with us. I turn round
and face the house. The windows we just climbed out of are shrouded in smoke. Where is Josh? Is he still stuck inside? Panic swirls inside me. I race back to the house.

‘Stop!’ Gavin’s voice rings out across the garden.

I spin round. Gavin emerges across the grass through a haze of smoke. He has Josh in a tight grip, a gun at his throat.

Josh’s eyes glitter with fury. And fear.

Gavin cocks the gun.

‘Don’t.’ My voice cracks. ‘Please.’

‘Get back inside the house, Evie,’ Gavin orders. ‘Or I shoot him.’

‘You wouldn’t,’ I gasp.

‘Don’t test me, Evie,’ Gavin snaps. ‘I make my living taking things from people. You’ve got no idea who I am.’

I stare at him. ‘You’re a gangster, just like my dad said.’

Gavin meets my gaze, his eyes cold and narrow. ‘Inside, darling,’ he snarls.

He’s ordering me into a blazing house. To die. Fear seizes me like a fist.

‘It’s going to be OK,’ Josh says softly.

‘Shut your mouth.’ Gavin prods the barrel of his gun against Josh’s throat.

I gulp. ‘How about if I agree to give you all the money I’m going to get from Irina?’ I plead. ‘I’ll sign anything you want if you just let us go.’

Gavin shakes his head. ‘What? So you’re free to go straight to the police? I don’t think so.’

I keep my gaze on Josh. His eyes flicker sideways, to the gun at his neck. He’s going to try and wrench it away. My stomach lurches. No, he mustn’t, it’s too dangerous.

‘Just . . . just please put the gun down,’ I plead.

‘Get inside.’ Gavin indicates the door behind him. Smoke pours out of it, flames licking around the edges.

I walk over, my legs shaking. Josh stiffens, readying himself. I keep my eyes on the gun. I’m trembling all over. I don’t have what it takes to get a gun off a fully-grown man. That
needs strength and timing and guts. I look around. Smoke is billowing all over the garden. I can’t see further than a few metres in front of me in any direction. I have no idea where the
others are. Far away I hope.

‘You can do it.’ Josh’s whisper is soft and steady. ‘Just tell me when.’

I glance up.

‘Stop mumbling.’ Gavin pokes the gun against Josh’s neck. ‘What are you saying?’

Josh wants me to help him wrestle the gun away from Gavin, but I can’t. I shake my head. Josh stares at me.
You can
, he mouths.

I grit my teeth, hope unfurling inside me. If Josh has faith in me, maybe I should have some in myself.

‘Tell me—’ Gavin starts.

‘Now,’ I whisper.

In a single move, Josh rams his head back and up, knocking against Gavin’s chin. Gavin staggers back, his fingers loosening their grip on the gun. I grab his wrist, racing round to his
side, forcing the weapon away from Josh.

With a roar, Josh breaks free. He turns and throws a punch into Gavin’s ribs.

Gavin chokes. I twist his wrist. The gun falls to the ground. I snatch it up and back away. Josh shoves Gavin to the grass, just as Kit and Pepper race over.

Before Gavin can yell out, Kit hurls himself down, his arm at Gavin’s throat. Josh drops to his knees and pins one of Gavin’s legs, then the other. Pepper grapples with his arms. I
fling the gun into the bushes and race over to help.

‘Get the wire.’ Pepper indicates the length of electrical cord trailing from the lamp base I threw through the window earlier.

I grab the wire, yank it from the base and wind the ends around Gavin’s wrists.

‘Get off me!’ he splutters.

Kit presses harder against his throat as a ray of sunlight breaks through the dawn sky. It glints off the buttons on Gavin’s jacket, then his belt buckle.

‘Use that,’ I urge.

Josh tugs the belt out and together we bind Gavin’s ankles, while Pepper fastens the thick wire more tightly around his wrists, pulling his arms so he can’t move.

‘Stop! Stop!’ Gavin yells.

‘Oh, make him shut up for goodness’ sake,’ Pepper snarls.

Kit tugs off his T-shirt, rips it into strips and binds it tightly around Gavin’s mouth.

Panting, the four of us step back. Gavin writhes on the damp grass, his shouts muffled by the T-shirt.

‘That’s better,’ Pepper says, dusting her hands.

‘Where are Anna and Samuel?’ I ask.

‘In the field beyond the garden,’ Kit says.

‘What about Bunnock?’ I ask.

‘As far as we can see, the evil bitch didn’t make it out of the fire,’ Pepper snarls.

‘Oh.’ I look at the stone house, engulfed in flames. The sky beyond is pale grey with pink swirls – too beautiful for the ugliness that has gone on beneath. Whatever Miss
Bunnock has done, and been prepared to do, I wouldn’t wish such a death on anyone.

‘She’s gone,’ Kit says flatly.

I glance at Josh. His face is pale and drawn; he’s bent over Gavin, searching his pockets. ‘Are you OK?’ I ask.

He gives me a curt nod, then draws Gavin’s mobile out of his jacket pocket.

‘We should call the police,’ he says.

‘And I need to call my dad,’ I say.

There’s a pause, then Pepper raises an eyebrow.

‘Oh good,’ she says sardonically. ‘Because another one of your relatives, Evie, is just what we need right now.’

I grin. ‘Don’t worry, my dad’s solid.’ I imagine his kindly face. ‘Actually, my dad’s the best dad in the world.’

Three hours pass and the sun rises high in the sky, burning away all the remaining clouds. We have left the cottage – now cordoned off and swarming with police officers
– and been taken to the nearest hospital. After being examined by doctors and given a change of clothes, the six of us are interviewed individually by police officers, a social worker sitting
beside us. The two women who listen to me are lovely, sympathetic as I cry, describing everything that happened yesterday and today. At last, the commotion dies down and Pepper, Kit, Josh and I sit
in a small, private room, waiting for our families to come and pick us up. I’ve spoken briefly to Dad. He was devastated when I told him how we nearly died – and deeply shocked about
Gavin. He and Mum are on their way here now.

Mr Lomax arrived at the hospital earlier this morning, ashenfaced with horror at the danger we’ve all been in – and at Miss Bunnock’s betrayal. He told us he returned to
Lightsea in the middle of last night and, before he even found out we were missing, Bunnock had tricked her way onto the boat that brought him and persuaded its captain to take her back to the
mainland.

‘She said something about a personal emergency so I let her go, though it seemed strange. Once I got up to the house and found out not only that you were missing but that she hadn’t
said anything . . . that’s when I became really suspicious, but by then she was well away.’

Mr Lomax asks each of us in turn to give an account of the past twenty-four hours. Shame-faced, he confirms what Gavin told me about Irina being a mental patient at Lightsea about eighteen years
ago, when his father was in charge. However, he refuses to explain more, insisting I talk to Dad.

‘I apologise for lying to you about your birth mother, but your father was adamant about that and it’s for him to tell you why.’

Mr Lomax leaves in the late morning to accompany a weeping Anna to the police station where she’s going to be reunited with her mother and formally interviewed. Samuel goes too –
collected by his mother, a harassed-looking woman who doesn’t speak to anyone else. I hug him goodbye. Well, I try to hug him, but he feels so stiff and awkward that in the end I let him
go.

‘Thanks for trying to help me,’ I say. Samuel opens his mouth as if he’s about to tell me another weird fact. Then he just shuts it, nods and leaves.

Parting from Anna is completely different. She’s in floods of tears, still apologizing for her part in nearly getting us killed. The others each tell her that they forgive her, that they
understand she was tricked and manipulated.

Everyone is kind and generous. Even Pepper. Everyone except me.

It’s just too hard. I still feel furious when I think of how Anna lied about her mum being dead, then dressed up in that coat and hat to trick me into thinking I was haunted by
my
mother’s ghost.

Still, as Josh points out, at least Anna tried to help me. There’s no such excuse for Uncle Gavin and Miss Bunnock. I can’t bring myself to think about them. All I know is that the
police officers who interviewed us are certain Gavin will go to prison for a long time. They confirm that Miss Bunnock’s body was found in the ruins of the house, that she must have got
trapped in the fire, unable to follow Gavin out.

‘Wow, so everything that happened was about your inheritance?’ says Pepper, sitting forward in her chair. ‘Does that mean that you’re, like, totally rich now?’

‘I guess I will be at the end of the month,’ I say, though right now the prospect of inheriting millions in a few weeks doesn’t feel real.

‘Cool!’ Pepper grins. ‘Just don’t let it turn you into a total arse like it did my dad.’

I grin back. ‘I promise I won’t be any more of an arse than you are.’

Another hour goes by. Kit, Pepper and I swap phone numbers. Pepper gives hers to Josh and he says he will call her. He doesn’t bother to ask for Kit’s. Or mine. And I’m too
self-conscious to ask for his.