“Of course. You must tell me…” She stopped herself. “I’m so sorry
… about Scott.”
But Jamie had already walked past her. Somehow he dragged himself up the steps and went into the trailer. It was cool and clean with a little kitchen and a sofa and a table. He sat down. The mother and her son remained on their own, outside.
NATIVE SON
They did nothing at all the next day. Jamie needed to rest and Alicia and Daniel were glad to have time alone with each other. They felt safe in the trailer park. People came and went and nobody asked too many questions. Jamie hadn’t been seen. They could have been a family trying to sort themselves out or they could have been on the run from the law – to the other inhabitants, it made no difference.
Alicia was worried about Jamie. She had brought him lunch and changed the dressing on his wound. They had spoken a little, but most of the time he wanted to be by himself. He had been gone only a week, but now that he had come back he was completely changed. Of course, he had been shot. He had nearly died. And she could sense his disappointment at not finding Scott. But it was something more even more than all that. He had aged. He was looking at the world with different eyes.
The next day was a Saturday and Jamie woke late. The trailer only had one bedroom, which Alicia was sharing with Daniel, and Jamie had a sofa bed in the main room. They all knew that they couldn’t stay here much longer. They were wasting their time in Reno. There were still things they had to do.
When Alicia came through, Jamie was sitting up. She was glad to see that a lot of his colour had returned and he seemed to be moving more easily.
“Coffee?” she asked.
“Thanks.” He looked around him. “Where’s Danny?”
“Still asleep.”
Alicia went into the kitchen area and boiled the kettle. “How are you feeling?” she asked.
“I’m tired, Alicia. But I’m going to be all right. I just need to start looking for Scott.” Jamie hesitated but there was something he had to know. “When are you and Danny going back to Washington?” he asked. “You’ve got your work to go back to. There must be a lot of stuff you have to do.”
Alicia brought the coffee over to the bed. “You can get one thing out of your head,” she said. “I’m not going to leave until we’ve found Scott. I told you that from the start. We’re in this together… and Danny agrees. We’re going to stick with you.”
Jamie nodded his thanks. “I don’t have any idea where to start,” he said.
“But I do.” Alicia sat down next to him on the edge of the bed. “A lot has happened in the last few days,” she explained. “Starting with the fact that the Feds took over Silent Creek while you and Danny were hiding out in the mountains.”
“They went in…?”
“It was John Trelawny. He’s been desperately worried about you. He called the authorities.”
“I thought he couldn’t do that.”
“Something changed. He wants to speak to you urgently. I’d have called him yesterday only he was travelling from the East Coast – and anyway you were out of it.”
“So what happened to Silent Creek? Did they find the Block?”
Alicia nodded. “All the prisoners – the ones they called the Specials – have been released and the other kids are going to be transferred to state facilities. I spoke to Patrick. Do you remember him?”
Jamie thought back to the silver-haired man they had met at the hotel in Los Angeles. He had been the senator’s California campaign chairman.
“He told me as much as he could, which actually wasn’t very much. For the moment, nobody’s talking. Of course, Nightrise is denying any knowledge of the kidnappings or anything to do with them. They’re trying to claim that it was all down to Colton Banes, that he was running some sort of independent operation – and since he’s dead, he’s not going to argue.”
“Has there been anything in the newspapers?”
“Not yet. The story is so huge and nobody quite understands what’s been going on. For the time being, they’re keeping it quiet.”
Jamie understood. He knew there would be a cover-up. There were too many questions that were not only unanswered but unanswerable. He didn’t care. He was just glad that Daniel’s friend – Billy – and the other kids would be returned to their families. And it was good news for Baltimore, Green Eyes and the other prisoners too. They’d be better off with the Nevada authorities looking after them. Maybe they’d even earn an early release.
“It’s all good news,” Alicia said, and Jamie could tell that she wasn’t just trying to cheer him up. “The Feds are in control. They arrested a man called Max Koring and they seized all the paperwork in the administration block. They’re going through it now. There must be some record of what happened to Scott. Someone must know where he is. They’ll find something. I’m sure of it.”
Jamie wanted to share her optimism. But he wasn’t so sure. It seemed to him that Nightrise was bigger and more powerful than any of them suspected. But then he had seen the Old Ones. The shape-changers. The fire riders. The mutilated humans. So much death, delivered without a second thought. Sitting here in this trailer on the edge of Reno airport, Alicia thought the world was safe. Jamie knew how wrong she might be.
“Why does Senator Trelawny want to see me?” he asked.
“He didn’t say. He just said that he had new information and there was someone you had to meet. He thought they’d find you at the prison. The people who went in… their first job was to get you out and bring you to him. We’ll see him tomorrow.”
“Where is he now?”
“Not all that far from here. He’s just over the state line in California… in the High Sierra. Have you heard of a place called Auburn?”
Jamie shook his head.
“It’s an old mining town. It got big in the gold rush days. John was born there and today it’s his fiftieth birthday, so they’re giving him a parade.” There was a television in the room, on the kitchen counter, and a remote control next to the bed. Alicia reached out and picked it up. “There should be something on the news,” she said.
She switched on the TV.
It was already tuned to a twenty-four-hour news channel. The anchor man was talking about the result of a trial following some big financial scandal. Then there were advertisements. Then a story about a basketball player charged with murder.
“We’ll meet the senator in Los Angeles,” Alicia said.
“Are the police still looking for me?” Jamie asked. It suddenly dawned on him how ridiculous his situation had become. He had committed no crime but he was still wanted for the murders of Don White and Marcie Kelsey. And as Jeremy Rabb, he was presumably wanted for various drug offences and for escaping from Silent Creek. How had he got himself into this mess?
But Alicia never got a chance to answer the question.
“… and in Auburn, California, last-minute preparations for a very special birthday party. John Trelawny, the man most people believe will win the November election, is returning to his home town, where he was born fifty years ago. These are the streets where, in just a few hours’ time, five thousand people are expected to gather to welcome the senator…”
The story they had been waiting for came onto the screen. Glancing at the picture, Jamie froze. It was as if a chasm had opened up underneath him and he had been sucked into it. He found himself grabbing hold of the bed as if to steady himself. His eyes were fixed on the TV.
He had seen a face he recognized. Not John Trelawny. It was the last face he had expected to see. It wasn’t anyone he had met in the real world. It wasn’t a real person at all.
It was a statue.
