The Grasshopper's Child (30 page)

Clancy ignored the box and picked up one of his guide books.
Night Falls Fast
, by a US psychologist.
How to understand why people kill themselves
. He flipped the pages. For some reason, very stupidly, he'd never imagined having to explain this to Heidi.

He didn't know what to say.

‘When were you going to tell me?'

Clancy laughed: defiance choosing itself. ‘What's there to tell?' He dropped the book, shoved back the sleeves of his hoodie and held up his arms so she could see the scars.

‘Twice. Once when I was nine. Once last year. Failed both times.'

‘Obviously. Third time lucky, eh?'

‘No. I'm cured.'

‘DON'T LIE TO ME! WHAT'S THIS?'

She flung the box at him, her eyes blazing with white-hot rage.

Clancy dodged, and picked up the Coutance pistol.

‘I wanted to kill myself because I had no idea why I was still alive. After the second time, I realised I
did
have a reason for living. And I was cured. That's why I'm in Mehilhoc. He pushed back his hood. He was very thin, much thinner than Heidi had thought. His hair was dark, his eyes were light brown, enormous and hollow, his face gaunt and pale as bone.

‘I'm here to kill George's dad. He's the man who betrayed my parents in the Occupation.'

Heidi stared at him, and he stared back.

Heidi had been a happy little girl, hardly more than a toddler, when the Occupation began. She'd been scared. There were words you couldn't say, places you couldn't go. Mum didn't like walking down the street, and people they actually knew ‘disappeared'. But nothing had hurt Heidi. Mum and Dad took her to the seaside—

‘How do you know?' she said. ‘You must have been about four years old.'

‘Five. I was five. My little sister was three. I know because I know. You're just going to have to believe me because I won't explain.'

‘He'd be locked up. The Chinese Army invaded. They liberated us, and rounded up the Criminal Junta and executed them. Anyone who worked for them is dead, or locked up. I don't like our government.
I'm a slave
, and they think it's okay. But I'm sure that's true.'

‘Then you're a fool. Why isn't George Carron locked up for food profiteering? For blackmail? For trading in human flesh? It's the sickening way things are. There are fat cats like George and Portia, and nobody can touch them. They have friends. They know things, filthy things about powerful people. That it wouldn't be
expedient
to dig up.'

They went on staring at each other, like cats preparing to fight.

‘I've got a different idea,' said Heidi at last. ‘But I need your help. I want to get inside Knowells Farm, and steal a DNA sample.'

She'd been trying to figure out how to convince him. She hadn't thought she'd be doing the convincing with Clancy standing on a ledge at top of a tall building, hungry for the drop.

‘
You?
What the hell for?'

‘I told you, remember. I told you I thought George's dad was involved in my dad's murder, and you laughed at me. But since then
I've had proof and I know I'm right
.'

She told him about the Rock Mouse, and the wedding rings. How she could put Gorgeous George in the frame. He had been in her room, he had opened her case, he must have handled that envelope: the envelope last seen in Heidi's house, at the crime scene. And if young George was in the frame for a murder, then so was his dad—

‘You're crazy,' said Clancy, when she'd laid it all out.

‘I'm not. The Inspector has kept talking to me, when he didn't have to. Why? Because I was in Mehilhoc, and he hoped I knew something. I didn't, but now I do.'

‘This sounds pathetic to me. George Carron,
possibly implicated
in a single foodcrime murder? Big deal. And if George Junior was even stupid enough, your DNA still wouldn't be evidence. Other than evidence that he'd been in your room, and he could explain that; couldn't he? It's illegal to take scans or physical samples without informing the person.'

‘My sample wouldn't be evidence,' said Heidi, ignoring the jibe. ‘But the police could go back with a warrant. You don't get it. My Inspector is on the case. He's serious. He's after George Carron, and this is the way it works. One chink in their armour, one tiny opening, and it all starts spilling out. If you have it your way Clancy, he'll just be dead. And you'll be a poor sad kid with mental health issues who went on the rampage. I don't want him dead, I can't believe you're satisfied with that. I want him blamed. I want him brought to justice.'

‘I like the idea of getting in to Knowells—' said Clancy, slowly.

‘Good. So my plan suits us both.' Heidi picked up the Coutance pistol. ‘It isn't loaded. What were you going to do, hit him on the head with it?'

‘I got hold of it on the beach,' said Clancy. ‘It went swimming with me. The ammo couldn't be trusted in anger after that. I used it for firing practice.'

‘You came to kill him without a weapon?'

‘It was safer not to travel with a firearm. There were bound to be guns around George Carron. That's where I've been just now: I was trying to buy ammo from Cyril's dad. He runs the Carron-Knowells vodka still for them, in his caravan park. Which is where your Old Wreck's hooch comes from, by the way.'

Heidi shrugged. She wasn't interested in a booze factory.

‘So what happened?'

‘He wouldn't sell. Nothing doing, I'll have to think again. I just wish Jo Florence hadn't destroyed the rest of the stash she found.'

‘If you believe her.'

‘Hm. That's a point.'

‘If we're doing this,' said Heidi. ‘You ought to know the police are looking for you.'

‘I'm not worried. They interviewed you?'

‘The same as they did everybody. I didn't tell them anything. I'm after George Carron for murdering my dad: I don't want to land anyone else in trouble. I only slipped on the Russian language question. I said I knew just, like
hello goodbye
and then I realised, duh, learning records, he could have known I was lying and been suspicious. But he didn't say anything.'

Clancy nodded. ‘You were going to tell me what you heard them say, but you never did.'

‘I only caught a few words; only once. When they got us on board, one of the officer-types, the one who was on the beach, said
We've caught some pretty fish
. The other officer-type said.
Now we'll have some fun with him
. They were laughing, but they were angry.'

‘Do you think running into the reef was a random accident?'

‘Not exactly. Sorrel knew it wasn't on their chart, remember. Mr Carron had given them an out of date chart, so they wouldn't dare come too close to him. But they did.'

Clancy put up his hands, his scarred wrists, pulled his hood down and withdrew into the depths. George and Sorrel knew, thought Heidi. The others may have suspected; George and Sorrel knew what was going on. It was like a weight she couldn't pick up.

‘So,' she said. ‘Is it a deal? Will you help me get in?'

‘It's a deal. Give me a couple of days, I'll work something out.'

25: An Intervention

Heidi woke from a nightmare so horrible she didn't dare open her eyes in case it was true. The cold dark, the struggling bodies. She could feel them, she could smell them. She lay without moving, terrified of what she might touch:
promising
herself it wasn't real. You're in bed, in the Garden House. You
are not
in the hold of that ship.

It didn't happen to you. It happened to those other kids.

Her teeshirt was clammy with sweat: and footsteps creaked on the attic stairs. She sat up, locking her arms around her knees. Someone was stealthily opening her door. She must not look, or she'd see that devil face, but she couldn't stop her head from turning—

The door was shut: the stairs always creaked a bit. The Bad Dream Cat made a grumbling noise, and stretched to take up half the bed.

She still hadn't told Clancy about seeing George's dad look round her door. She hadn't thought of it; or if she had, she'd decided he wouldn't believe her. She hadn't told him about Dr Gunn either. She didn't know what to make of Dr Gunn . . . She and Clancy needed to talk again, properly, but Clancy had disappeared. She'd been back to the Chinese Temple, twice, and he wasn't just not at home. All his stuff was gone.

Of course he'd moved out: she'd told him the police were looking for him, and that George was snooping around. He'd had to hide. But she was scared. What if the next thing she heard was that somebody had found his body? What if he just never came back? She was horrified when she thought of how she'd yelled at him. Thrown the Coutance pistol at him.
You don't act like that
with someone who's suicidal!

She checked the WiMax incessantly, but all she got was bland nothing. Bland nothing messages from Chall and Brook, to which she sent bland nothing replies. Mehilhoc Exempt Teens had pulled up the drawbridge, and Heidi was out in the cold. She'd been closer to them when she was walking on water, alone on the artificial reef. Seeing their faces in the dark.

Finally, the WiMax saved her life. There was a message was from Tanya. The Learning Centre was open again and there was an Exempt Teens session; usual day, usual time. She ran down to the village after her lunch chores on Wednesday, and took her place in the subdued group. She was late. Clancy was even later but he arrived; to Heidi's incredible relief. He muttered an apology and slunk into the back row, hood well down.

Tanya didn't mention the recent grim events: not once. She went over the CTS skill tests arrangements (Craft Technology and Science); and the schedule for those who'd opted for academic exams. She reviewed Sharing the Care, and failed to get a discussion going on the topic,
Sixteen Plus: Exciting New Responsibilities For Young Adults
. Then she let them go, after a short, vague speech about
standing up to evil
, and
having a positive young social rebel
attitude
. As everyone trooped out, in silence, the Hooded Boy brushed by Heidi and tucked something into her hand. He didn't look at her, just quickly walked away.

Mehilhoc's Exempt Teens stood in a tight bunch, as if they were stuck together.

‘Got to go,' said Heidi. ‘Got chores to do.'

She didn't check Clancy's message until she was well away, on the steep path through Spooky Wood. He'd used the barbecue napkin she'd left in the Chinese Temple. She read her own pencil-stub scribble.
Watch Out, George is about
. Clancy had circled Watch Out in red ink. What was that supposed to mean? It seemed like no message at all. Or a message saying:
go away and leave me alone
. But there was more red ink showing through the white. She opened the napkin. He'd drawn something on the inside. A vivid cartoon of a fat-cat dragon in a bathtub: steam snorting from its long snout and rising in coils from the bubbling water. A roof sketched over its head in two sure flicks of the artist's pen—

A dragon in a house, he must mean the Chinese Temple, thought Heidi. Then she thought again, and walked slowly the rest of the way to the Door in the Wall, studying a wavy line of symbols that looped around the monster in the bathtub. When she looked closely, they were more than just decoration—