‘Bullet, you needn’t worry about “people like us” polluting your breathing air any longer. See you around.’ Ricky walked off without a backward glance.
Theo scowled, wanting to tell Bullet exactly what he thought of him but he was so angry he knew if he opened his mouth, his words would fall out in an inarticulate, furious jumble. He took a deep breath, and another and another.
‘You’ve had a dad for exactly ten days and money for less than a week and look at how it’s changed you,’ Theo said slowly and quietly. ‘If you ask me, you were better off without either of them.’
‘But no one did ask you. So you can push off along with Ricky.’
‘I don’t mind if I do,’ Theo told him. ‘Oh, and as for my birthday party two weeks on Saturday, don’t bother coming. I’m sure you don’t want us riffraff inflicting our lower-class germs and bacteria on you.’
Theo turned to walk away. Bullet called out after him, ‘I wasn’t going to come anyway. My dad’s taking me out.’
Theo refused to turn back to dignify Bullet’s boast with a response. As far as Theo was concerned, the Solve-It Detective Agency was now back down to three people. Jade, who was meant to be part of the agency, had moved with her mum up to Manchester to be closer to the rest of their family. Theo and the others had been really sorry to see her go, but as for Bullet … His was definitely a case of good riddance to bad rubbish. Theo couldn’t believe the change that had come over Bullet. Bullet didn’t seem to know what he wanted. He talked about Theo and Ricky and Angela being his friends and yet in the next breath he insulted them with a nastiness that took Theo’s breath away.
Was that really what money did for you? If it was, then Theo wasn’t sure that he wanted to be rich. No, he took that back! He did want to be rich, but he’d handle it a lot better than Bullet. He wouldn’t be moronic enough to think that he was better than all his friends just because he had more money than them. He wouldn’t dream of insulting his friends in the way that Bullet had just done. It was as if Bullet reckoned they didn’t have any feelings.
Theo couldn’t help sighing as he sat down next to Ricky. There was no doubt about it. Sudden money seemed to do strange things to a lot of people’s minds. And so many rich people seemed to be so miserable. Mind you, Theo would rather be miserable with money than without! It was better to be miserable in comfort. Theo turned his head. Bullet was watching him and Ricky, with a strange, almost forlorn, expression on his face. An expression which disappeared almost as soon as Theo looked at him, to be replaced by something that Theo had no trouble interpreting. Theo gritted his teeth. If Bullet didn’t stop looking at him like Theo was something nasty he’d just trodden in, Theo was going to march across the room and tell Bullet one or two things about himself. Just who did he think he was? It’d be a long time before Theo forgot what Bullet had just said. He wasn’t going to forgive him that easily either. Giving him the filthiest look he could, Theo turned his head away, utter contempt in his every gesture. He risked a quick glance at Bullet to see if he had made his feelings for his former friend clear. Bullet purposely avoided Theo’s eyes. Theo gave a slight smile of bitter satisfaction. So much for his ex-good-friend Bullet Barker. If Theo never spoke to him again, it would be too soon.
Chapter Nine
Reckoning
‘WHY DID YOU drag me down here to the car park?’ The man looked around anxiously. ‘We shouldn’t be seen together like this.’
‘You’re the one who told me not to talk to you in the office. You said Darius probably had the place bugged,’ the woman reminded him.
‘I wouldn’t put it past him.’ The man looked around the empty car park again. ‘So what’s so important that it couldn’t wait until tonight?’
The woman sighed and shook her head. ‘I think we should call a halt. We should quit while we’re behind.’
‘No way. No one suspects us. We’re OK.’
‘But he’s changed his will,’ the woman replied, anguished. She began to pace up and down, rubbing her hands together in an agitated mime of washing them clean.
‘Yes, I know.’
‘Don’t you understand? He’s changed his will. That changes everything.’
‘No, it doesn’t. It just means we have to get rid of the boy before we deal with Darius.’
The woman froze in her tracks. ‘You can’t be serious. Getting Darius out of the way is one thing. But getting rid of his son is something else again.’
‘Darling, we have to. We haven’t got any choice.’ The man took the woman by the arms and hugged her tight. ‘We can’t stop now. We just can’t.’
The woman pulled out of his grasp. Bitterly, she said. ‘Your plan to use the Lazarus suit to get rid of Darius failed. He survived and we were moronic enough not to let things be. We should’ve quit then but no, you had to hire someone to try again – and they got caught.’
‘It wasn’t Jake’s fault. He said those kids came in just as he …’
‘I don’t want to hear it.’ The woman turned her head away.
‘Darling, listen to me. We can’t stop now. We’re both up to our necks in this – and we both have too much to lose.’
‘So what do we do now?’
‘I don’t know. Jake’s panicking and he’s bleating to get paid. He wasn’t supposed to get any more until … until Darius was no longer a problem. But now that the police have his description, he wants to disappear as soon as possible – and of course that takes money.’
‘We haven’t got it. You tell him that.’
‘I already have,’ the man said with impatience. ‘But he doesn’t want to hear it. I’m afraid he might try something … foolish.’
‘Where did you find this guy?’
‘That hardly matters now. The point is, we’re stuck with him.’
‘Look! I just want to forget about the whole thing,’ the woman said firmly. ‘We should just keep our heads down.’
‘What about Jake? He wants money.’
‘Well, he can’t have it.’
‘He could make a great deal of trouble for us.’
The woman shook her head. ‘Not without making a great deal for himself too. He’s hardly likely to complain to the police, is he?’
‘He might do. And he knows who I am,’ said the man.
‘He doesn’t know me.’ The woman managed her first slight smile since the meeting had begun. ‘And I can provide you with an alibi for the time when he tried to pull that little stunt at the hospital.’
‘I don’t think that would work. I was in a bar around the corner from the hospital waiting for him. I’m sure someone there could recognize me,’ the man argued.
‘How could you be so stupid?’
‘I didn’t expect him to tell me he’d failed,’ the man snapped.
It was a long time before either of them spoke. The woman said at last, ‘It’s only a matter of time before Darius finds out about you and me and then he’ll put two and two together and he’ll come up with the right answer.’
‘That’s why we need to act quickly.’
Long moments passed as the allies regarded each other. ‘OK then. I’ll carry on with this – because I love you,’ the woman said sadly. She drew herself up to her full height. ‘If we’re going to get rid of the boy, it should be soon.’
‘Good!’ The man drew a sigh of relief. ‘I knew you wouldn’t let me down. Don’t worry. I’ll tell Jake that he still has some work to do.’
Chapter Ten
Look Out!
‘D’YOU TWO THINK this is all my fault?’
‘Huh?’ Ricky looked at Angela, surprised. ‘What on earth are you talking about?’
Angela shrugged. ‘The way Bullet turned on the three of us. I know you two think I’m really tactless and nosy as well, but I didn’t mean to …’
‘Angela, stop talking rubbish,’ Ricky dismissed. ‘Bullet’s behaviour had nothing to do with you being tactless. Besides, he should be used to that by now!’
Sch
ool was over for another day and the three friends were walking home. It was a wet and windy Thursday afternoon and as far as Theo was concerned, the weather suited his mood. For four whole days, none of them had exchanged a single word with Bullet. Deep down, Theo had to admit that he actually missed his former friend. He hated the icy silence that had descended between them. And what was worse, neither Angela nor Ricky had mentioned Bullet since the big bust-up. But since Monday, whenever the three of them were together, they’d all lapse into strange silences where it was obvious that they were all thinking about the same thing.
With a sigh, Theo looked up at the sky. It was peculiar weather for the end of May. Until that morning the last week had been unseasonably hot and breezeless. Theo remembered reading somewhere that hot, breezeless weather made people a lot more irritable and short-tempered. If that was the case, then it would explain a lot as far as Bullet was concerned. Maybe now that it was raining and the air was cooler, things would get back to normal.
‘It’s just that, I can’t help thinking that I somehow made things worse between all of us, not better.’ It was plain to see that Angela was brooding about the events of the last few days.
‘Forget it, Angela. Bullet just thinks he’s too good to walk on the same planet as us, that’s all,’ Theo sniffed.
Ricky shook his head. ‘I don’t know. I don’t think so. I think it’s more than that.’
‘What d’you mean?’ asked Angela.
‘It’s just that I’ve now had a couple of days to cool off and think about it. And d’you know something? When Bullet was saying all those things to us, it was as if it wasn’t him saying them at all. It was as if someone else – maybe that Darius Marriott bloke – was talking through him,’ said Ricky thoughtfully.
Theo raised his eyebrows. ‘That’s a bit fanciful, isn’t it? I reckon it was just Bullet the wazzock talking!’
Ricky shrugged, but said nothing.
‘I don’t know what’s going on,’ Angela said, bemused. ‘Bullet and I used to be such good friends. At one time I actually fanc … I mean, I liked him a lot!’ Angela amended, her cheeks flaming red. ‘But now, it’s like every time I open my mouth I annoy him.’
‘Maybe we’re not giving him a chance,’ suggested Ricky. ‘Bullet’s got a lot to deal with right now. Maybe we should all just …’
‘Ricky! Theo! Just a minute, Angela!’
They all turned to see Bullet come puffing up behind them. He had to cross a broad road to get to them and he gave the briefest of glances to his left and right before charging across. Without warning, a dark car seemed to rev from a standstill to an instant eighty kilometres an hour and it came racing towards Bullet, who had now reached the middle of the road. Theo was the first to see it.
‘NO!’ Theo yelled a warning.
‘Bullet, look out!’
Bullet turned his head and saw the car racing towards him. Shock froze him to the tarmac. Ricky leaped forward – but Angela beat him to it. She dashed into the middle of the road, just as the car was almost upon Bullet and shoved him out of the way. Angela tried to dive after him, but she wasn’t so lucky. The side of the car hit her and Angela was knocked into the air. And in that moment, Theo’s heart stopped beating. As Angela hit the ground, Theo could hear the THWACK-CRACK from where he was standing. And when Angela hit the ground, she stayed perfectly still, her eyes closed. The car roared up to the next corner, its brakes shrieking as it raced around it. And now Theo’s heart was racing. In a shocked daze, Theo looked up the road but it was too late. The car had gone. Ricky was already squatting down at Angela’s side. Icy cold, Theo walked slowly to the middle of the road. Already a crowd was beginning to gather and the cry was going up for an ambulance and the police.
‘Is she …? Is she …?’ Bullet whispered.
Angela lay crumpled up on her side, her leg bent at a very peculiar angle beneath her. And the road beneath her head glistened red with a thin trail of blood running from her forehead.
‘She’s still breathing – but she’s in a bad way,’ Ricky said grimly.
A short, broad man with a crop of dark hair squatted down next to Ricky. ‘Let’s try and make her more comfortable …’
‘NO!’ Ricky shouted. ‘No. You mustn’t move her. We have to wait for the paramedics to arrive. If you move her you could make things worse, not better.’
‘He’s right. You shouldn’t move accident victims,’ a woman from the ever-growing crowd joined in.
‘Did anyone see the car that did this?’ asked the short, broad man.
‘It raced off around the corner,’ another man from the crowd volunteered.
‘Did anyone get the licence plate number?’ someone else asked.
Stricken, Theo looked up the road in the direction the car had driven off. He’d been so shocked, so stunned by what had happened he couldn’t even remember his own name when it was all going on, much less the licence plate of the car. He tried to think back. What colour was the car? Dark blue. Navy blue. What make was it? He didn’t know. He wasn’t sure. If only he’d been more together. Then he could’ve noted all the details for the police. He was useless. Some detective he was. Angela had been knocked over in front of him and he couldn’t say whether it was a man or woman driving and all he could remember was that it was a medium-sized, navy blue car. Even Ricky had been quicker off the mark than he had been.
‘She … she pushed me out of the way …’ Bullet’s tremulous voice was just one of many. If Theo hadn’t been looking at him at the time, he would never have caught what Bullet said. ‘She pushed me out of the way. She saved my life.’
All around, the crowd were asking each other what had happened, what they should do, where was the driver of the car that had hit the girl. The questions buzzed round and around Theo’s head like hungry bluebottles.
In the distance an ambulance siren could be heard, getting closer and closer.
‘Theo, take Bullet to your house. And don’t leave until I get there.’ Ricky’s sudden command was harshly said.
‘I … What about the police and the ambulance people and …?’
‘Never mind all that. I’ll tell them what happened. Just take Bullet and go,’ Ricky ordered.
Theo took another look at Ricky’s stony expression and grabbed Bullet by the arm. ‘Come on, let’s go.’ Theo pulled him away from the crowd.
‘I want to stay here.’ Bullet tried to pull his arm out of Theo’s grasp.
‘No, you can’t. Come on. You’re coming home with me.’
‘No way. I want to stay with Angela. I want to make sure …’
‘Bullet, don’t be so stupid. You’ve got to come to my house where it’s safe,’ Theo hissed at him. Part of the fury in his voice was directed at himself although Bullet had no way of knowing that. ‘The driver of that car was after you. He was trying to kill you and if it hadn’t been for Angela he would’ve succeeded. We’ve got to get you somewhere safe. Now come on.’
Chapter Eleven
More Questions Than Answers
‘WHO WOULD WANT to kill me?’
Theo kept silent. Bullet was sitting at Theo’s work table in his bedroom, his expression still glazed and dazed. Theo glowered at Bullet, but Bullet didn’t seem to notice. Theo told himself that he was being unfair. What had happened wasn’t Bullet’s fault any more than it was Angela’s, but after everything that had happened over the last few days, Theo found himself resenting the fact that it was Angela being whisked off to hospital in Bullet’s place. It wasn’t that he wanted to see Bullet injured or hurt in any way, but it wasn’t fair.
Theo’s scowl deepened as he felt guilty for the direction in which his thoughts were taking him. Theo decided he’d better keep his mouth shut. Rage bubbled in him like lava in a volcano. He knew he was just waiting for any excuse to lash out and the closest person to hand at the moment was Bullet.
‘I don’t understand. Who would want to kill me?’ Bullet whispered again.
Theo forced his
lips together tight, tight, tight. He turned away from Bullet. If he heard that one more time …
‘I mean, who would want to …?’
‘Oh, for goodness’ sake!’ Theo exploded. ‘Don’t be so stupid. You spent Monday morning boasting about your dad leaving you everything in his will. Well, you may be ecstatic about it but it’s obvious you and your dad have cheesed someone else off!’
The horrified expression on Bullet’s face as he turned to face Theo had him feeling even more rotten.
‘I’m sorry,’ Theo said grudgingly. ‘I shouldn’t have blurted it out like that but Bullet, start working those brain cells. You may know a lot about circuits and computers and microchips and that, but you don’t know much about people – especially adults.’
‘You really think my life is in danger? That it was deliberate?’ Theo could barely hear Bullet’s voice now.
‘I’ve been thinking about that.’ Theo forced his voice to be calm and collected. ‘The car came straight at you. It started up when you began to cross the road. So yes, I do think it was deliberate.’
Bullet stared at Theo but didn’t answer.
‘I didn’t get it at first either. When Ricky told me to take you straight to my house it took a couple of seconds for the reason why to click into place,’ Theo admitted.
‘You’re faster on the uptake than me.’ Bullet’s lips were a thin slash across his face as he spoke. ‘Seems I’ve been getting a lot of things wrong recently.’
‘What d’you mean?’
‘Never mind.’
Theo didn’t push it. He didn’t envy Bullet one little bit. What was the point of having millions coming your way when you couldn’t even cross the street – literally. Theo’s thoughts slid back to Angela. He sat down on his bed and sighed.
‘I wish Ricky would hurry up and get here. I wish I knew how Angela is doing.’
‘Why did Angela do it?’ At Theo’s questioning look, Bullet said, ‘Why did Angela save my life after all the vicious things I said to her?’