'I ain't fuck ... I ain't helping no police, man.'
'Even if it helps find your sister?'
Gary paused. His eyes went back to the screen. He scrolled down to the movies and brought up the options.
Foster left him to it and went into the kitchen, rustled around in a drawer, pulled out a pile of takeaway leaflets and went back to the room. Gary had settled on an action mov
The kid was beyond being corrupted anyway.
'Pizza, Chinese or Indian?' he said, brandishing the menus. 'There's even one that delivers all sorts: burgers, pizza, chicken, pasta, you name it.'
'Burger,' Gary said without hesitation. 'Don't want nothing that stinks. Can I have it with cheese? No onions, though.'
'One cheeseburger,' Foster said. He took the phone from its cradle in the hall and wandered through to the kitchen. He dialled the number and while he waited for an answer he took the cork from a bottle of Bordeaux and found a glass. He was about to fill it to the brim, remembered he was in effect responsible for a child, and poured himself what he considered a half measure. A heavily accented young man took his order for two cheeseburgers and two small bottles of Coke and said it would be with him in forty-five minutes. Foster took his wine and went back to the sitting room.
Until the doorbell rang with their food, they didn't speak a word. Gary stared at the screen as if in a daze, a stray finger occasionally wandering distractedly up his nostril en route to his mouth. Foster resisted the temptation to say that he should save his hunger for his meal and instead sipped at his wine and tried to work out what the hell he was going to do next. Gary was here. Safer, he felt sure, than at the care home. But he could not stay here indefinitely. Tomorrow was Saturday and Foster wasn't supposed to be working. He could have Gary for the weekend but he'd need a plan for the week. If it came to the worst -- if Naomi hadn't been found and there weren't any new leads -- he could drop him at the care home during the day and then pick him up after work.
There was also the small matter of how he was going to tell him about the murders of his aunt, uncle and cousin.
That could wait.
They ate their burgers in silence. For such a small, skinny boy he knew how to put away his food. Must have hollow legs, Foster thought, immediately hearing his mother's voice, which used to level the accusation at him.
Gary hoovered up his burger, all his chips and didn't refuse when Foster offered him a few of his. He also guzzled the Coke and belched loudly and without apology when it was finished. Foster cleared away the detritus.
When he returned, the film was over. Gary was already flicking through the various screens to see what was up next. He looked up at Foster.
You live here on your own?'
'I do, yes.'
You got no wife or kids?'
'No, I don't.'
'Why not?'
Foster heard his mother's voice again. Disconcerting when it was conjured up by the voice of an elevenyear old boy.
'Let's just say that I'm not the marrying kind.'
You're a cockmuncher?' A look of horror spread across his face. 'Man, I knew you was a nonce.'
'Listen, I'm not gay. Not being married doesn't mean you fancy men. I've had lots of girlfriends. I just haven't settled down with any of them. And don't use words like cockmuncher. It's disrespectful.' Have you heard yourself?
Foster thought. Allowing yourself to become affronted by a child. Great. Now I've managed to sound like both my parents in the space of two minutes. 'I've got a daughter, actually.'
Where is she?'
What is this, twenty questions?' He saw Gary's face darken. He felt a twinge of guilt. The kid was at least beginning to communicate with him. He softened his tone. 'Sorry, sorry. She lives in Scotland with her mother.
I've not seen her since she was a baby'
'How old is she now?'
'Fourteen. Fifteen in December.'
Gary's eyes widened. You haven't seen her in all that time? Man,' he added, shaking his head. 'If I ever have a kid then I'll never let it go anywhere. I'd keep an eye on it all the time.' He looked down at his hands. 'I know why you brought me here.'
You do?'
Yeah. You think I'm in danger.'
Foster paused. There was no point lying to the kid.
He was hardly naive. 'How close were you to your Uncle Martin?'
He wrinkled his nose. T met him a few times. And my cousins. But I haven't seen them in ages. Mum took us round there once before she died. Why?'
'They've been found dead. All of them apart from Rachel.'
'Oh.' He didn't seem to know how to take the news.
We think your uncle got mixed up with some bad people.
We don't think you're in danger, too. But we want to keep you safe for a few days, just to make sure.'
Were they murdered?'
Yes, they were.'
And you're going to catch the people who killed them?'
'I'm going to help catch them. Another police force is working on it.'
Gary looked away at the far wall, absorbing what he'd been told, the hard carapace falling away to reveal the child once more. Foster felt an inkling of sympathy. This kid has faced nothing but woe and misery. Who could blame him for kicking against the pricks the way he did?
He halted that line of thought. Is that what looking after a kid does? he wondered. He'd only had one under his roof for a couple of hours and already he'd turned into a politically correct hand-wringer; the sort who excuses vile behaviour by bleating about the troubled backgrounds of those who commit it.
He was on the verge of delivering a lecture, something sanctimonious about how the tough hand life had dealt him didn't mitigate all his crimes and it was time to take responsibility, when he saw the kid was about to say something.
He saved the sermon.
'Leonie knew this would happen.'
'She knew what would happen?'
'That something would happen to Uncle Martin.'
'She did?' He edged forward on the armchair. 'What did she say, Gary?'
The boy sat in silence, eyes downcast now. Foster restrained himself, trying not to bully the kid, force him to clam up.
Eventually Gary spoke once more. 'She said it was a secret. That I couldn't tell anyone.'
'Something has happened to your Uncle Martin, though.
And your aunt and cousin, too. Something bad. I need you to tell me so we can help find who it was and stop them before they do it again, and so we can keep Rachel safe.'
Gary continued his silence. It was clear to Foster he was weighing up breaking his sister's confidence. Foster tried not to appear too desperate, though he felt like shaking him to get at the truth. Gary knew more than he had let on, he was certain. By yielding this once, Foster hoped it might break the seal and the rest of what the boy knew would seep out.
'Leonie said that we'd strayed from a path. Because we'd strayed we was to be punished unless we got back on it. She said I would be all right because she was back on it soon and I would be, too. But Mum, Uncle Martin,
