Dad had brought Barney back for a while. I sat tugging at the dog’s ears, the way he likes, breathing in his smell and taking comfort from his warm body. ‘What would you do, if you knew you had power, eh, Barney? What would someone really powerful do, right now? Because I don’t know.’
Barney shook my hands away, turned his big head and licked my face. I wiped it with the edge of my sleeve. ‘That’s no help, you daft dog. What I need to do is find Kerry. And somehow… I don’t know…get rid of those shadows around Zoe. Something horrible’s hanging around her. And me. You know it, don’t you, because you won’t go in my room. You see them, whatever they are. It’s the same thing.’ I sighed and pulled him closer, my heartbeat in time with his slow panting.
And then I stood up. Barney jumped up with me. ‘Yep. We are going for a walk. Come on, boy.’
With Barney on the lead, making me feel safe, I walked the long way around to the high rises, avoiding The Cut. It was dark already and damp, with that smell November has, of everything dying. I stared up at the block of flats, looming over Scrogg’s Field. ‘I hate this place,’ I whispered to Barney. ‘I wish I’d never seen it.’
I’d tried to put Dave and Jodie out of my mind. I didn’t want to put my and Zoe’s troubles on to them. Plus, they were out, weren’t they, on Halloween night, so probably, they had nothing to do with whatever happened to Kerry. But I reckoned someone with a strong heart and mind would ask the question, just to make sure. Barney padded up the steps with me to the ninth floor and sat on my foot as I knocked at Jodie’s door.
It took a few minutes for her to answer. I’d been about to turn away when I heard her footsteps and the lock click.
‘Oh. It’s you,’ she said and sniffed, turning away, but leaving the door open. I followed her inside.
‘You okay?’ I asked. She was wearing her dressing gown and slippers. There was a row of used mugs on the table and a pile of empty cigarette boxes. ‘Are you poorly?’
Jodie shrugged and flopped onto a chair. She had no make-up on and looked even more grey-faced than usual. ‘What d’you want?’
‘You’ve heard about Kerry?’
Jodie flashed a glare at me. ‘It’s not my fault. Stupid kid.’
‘I didn’t say –’ I paused and stared back at her. I got the clear sense she knew something, unless we were talking about two different things. ‘You know her parents are frantic? The police are looking for her.’
‘I don’t know where they are,’ Jodie snapped, reaching for a fresh packet of cigarettes and a lighter.
‘I just wondered if you’d seen… hang on, what do you mean, they?’ I waited as Jodie flicked and clicked at her lighter, waiting for a spark. My heartbeat started to speed up.
Jodie sucked for a long moment on the cigarette and took even longer to blow out a stream of grey smoke. ‘It’s not the first time he’s done it. Run off with someone else. He’ll be back.’
I pulled a fidgeting Barney closer to me and pushed him into a sitting position. I swallowed hard to get some moisture back into my mouth. ‘Dave? Are you saying that Kerry… and Dave…?’
Jodie picked up a piece of notepaper from amid the half-drunk coffee cups and the ashtrays. She threw it across the table at me. I unfolded it to see Kerry’s babyish, untidy handwriting.
Dear Jodie, Kerry wrote. Dave said not to say anything but I feel bad because you have always been kind to me. We are going away together. I am sorry if you are hurt. But I love him and I want to get away from here because I’m scared and he says he will look after me. Love from Kerry.
‘Stupid kid,’ Jodie muttered again, staring past me.
My words wouldn’t come out and I found myself opening and closing my mouth like a puppet. ‘When did you get this? How long have you known?’
She shrugged with one shoulder, like a sulky toddler. For a second, I wanted to slap her. ‘A few days,’ she said, after a silence. ‘I was nice to that kid. Felt sorry for her. And look what she did in return.’
‘The police…’ I said, still struggling to find the right thing to say. ‘Her mum…’
‘I can’t help the police. I don’t actually know where they are. Dave’s a builder. He works all over the country. What am I supposed to do, anyway? Tell the police that my boyfriend’s run off with a schoolkid? How do you think that makes me feel?’
I stood up and Barney loyally leapt up with me. ‘Well,’ I said. ‘That’s what I’m going to do.’ I started for the door, stopped and turned back. ‘You know what? You were always telling Zoe and me to grow up and look after Kerry. And you’re prepared to let her family go out of their minds and the police run around like idiots, while you sit on this –’ I waved Kerry’s note at her – ‘just because you’re feeling sorry for yourself.’
Jodie glared back at me. Then her pale face went pink and crumpled into a sob.
For a second, I wanted to put my arms around her. But it would have to wait. ‘I’m sorry,’ I said, stuffing the note in my pocket. ‘It’s horrible. Dave’s evil and yeah, Kerry’s been stupid. But you should’ve said something.’
‘Anna!’ Jodie wailed after me. ‘Don’t! It’s too late! The police might arrest me!’
I kept walking.
‘It was that Zoe she was really scared of. That’s why she’s done it,’ Jodie shouted. ‘So you’re to blame too, Saint Anna! Remember that!’
I pushed
