CHERUB: The Recruit (5 page)

‘Looking for stuff,’ James said, convinced he sounded suspicious.

‘Come and help me pack, James. I don’t know what you want.’

‘I’ll be out in a minute,’ James said. ‘I’m just looking for photo albums.’

‘Do you want me to help you look for them?’

‘No,’ James said, practically squealing.

‘We’ve got fifteen minutes,’ Kevin said. ‘I’ve got to do a school run in an hour.’

Kevin finally went back to the other room. James dialled in the fifth number. The safe made a satisfying click. He read the third instruction before he pulled on the handle and couldn’t help smiling:

(3)
 
For security purposes, this sticker should be removed once you are familiar with the unit.

James swung the heavy door open. The inside of the safe was surprisingly small because the metal lining was so thick. There were four tall piles of cash inside and a tiny envelope. James took a bin-liner and shoved the money in. He tucked the envelope into his pocket.

James imagined Ron’s face when he walked in and saw the safe open. Then he thought of something even better. He peeled the instruction sticker from the safe door and put it and the Danielle Steele novel inside. As a final touch, to make Ron extra mad, James took a framed picture of himself from his mum’s bedside cabinet and stood it inside the safe so it would be the first thing Ron saw when he eventually broke it open. James shut the door, gave the dial a spin and replaced the tools exactly how Ron had left them.

*

James was in a slightly better mood when he walked back to his bedroom holding the cash. The room looked bare. Kevin had bagged up all the clothes and bedding that was usually strewn over the floor.

‘I found the photo albums,’ James said.

‘Good. But I’m afraid you’re gonna have to make some sacrifices, James. All you’ve got in Nebraska House is one wardrobe, a chest of drawers and a locker.’

James started hunting through the toys and junk on the floor. He was surprised how little he cared about most of his stuff. He wanted his Playstation 2, mobile phone and portable CD player, but that was about it. Everything else was toys and stuff that he’d grown out of. The annoying thing was, Ron had taken his TV so he had nothing to use the Playstation on.

Kevin crouched down looking at a Sega Dreamcast and a Nintendo Gamecube.

‘Don’t you want these?’ Kevin asked.

‘I only use the Playstation 2,’ James said. ‘Take them if you want them.’

‘I can’t take gifts from residents.’

James kicked the consoles into the middle of the floor.

‘I don’t want my stepdad to get the money from selling them. I’m not taking them with me. If you don’t take them, I’ll trash ’em.’

Kevin didn’t know what to say. James slammed the heel of his trainer into the Sega. Surprisingly little happened, so he picked it up and threw it at the wall. The case smashed. It slid down the wall and dropped behind the bed. Kevin quickly bent down and rescued the Gamecube.

‘OK, James, I tell you what. I’ll take your Gamecube and the games and in return I’ll buy your padlock for you on the drive back. Is that a deal?’

‘Fair enough,’ James said.

*

When they’d packed up the last few things and carried the bin-liners out to the minibus, James had a quick last look into every room of the flat he’d lived in since he was born. By the time he reached the front door he had tears on his face.

Kevin tapped the horn of the minibus. He’d already started the engine. James ignored him and went back one last time. He couldn’t leave the flat without a memento of his mum. He rushed upstairs to her room and looked around.

James remembered that when he was a toddler he used to sit at his mum’s dressing table after they’d shared a bath. She’d pull a pyjama top over his head then stand over him and brush his hair. It was before Lauren was born. Just the two of them, feeling tired and smelling of shampoo. James felt warm and sad. He found the battered wooden hairbrush and tucked it into the waistband of his tracksuit bottoms. Once he had the brush it felt easier to leave.

James realised he was stupid. He should have left a bit of cash in the safe. That way Ron would never know he’d been in there. Leaving the photo was a nice gag, but Ron would realise James had taken the money when he saw it. He might try and steal the money back. And if Ron was angry he’d make it ten times harder for James to visit Lauren.

*

Kevin found James a room and showed him the ropes. Like where the washing machines were and where he could get toiletries and stuff, then left him to unpack. The room had a bed, a chest of drawers, a wardrobe with a locker on each side and two writing desks under the window. The kid who lived on the other side had decorated his wall with Korn and Slipknot posters. There was a skateboard on the floor and boarder clothes hung neatly in the wardrobe: baggy cargos, a hooded top and T-shirts with Pornstar and Gravis logos on them. Whoever James’ roommate was, he looked pretty cool. The other good thing was that the kid had a portable TV on his desk, meaning they could use the Playstation.

James looked at his watch. He reckoned there was about an hour until his room-mate got out of school. James got the cash out of the bin-liner. It was all £50 and £20 notes, separated into bundles by elastic bands. He counted a couple and realised each bundle was £1,000. There were forty-three bundles.

James thought of a way to hide the money in case Ron came after it. He had a portable cassette radio from the flat. It was wrecked; half the buttons had broken and the tape player didn’t rewind. James had only taken it because Ron had stolen the good one with a CD player on it.

James rummaged through his bags of stuff until he found his Swiss army knife. He picked out the screwdriver and undid the back of his cassette player. The inside was all circuit boards and wires. James worked fast, taking the guts out of the player, unscrewing and snapping plastic, leaving only the bits you could see from the front, like the speaker and the slot where the tape went in. He stuffed all but £4,000 of the cash inside the hole, packing the money tight so it didn’t rattle. He screwed the back on again and slid the radio cassette into his locker.

James took the four odd £1,000 bundles and hid them in obvious places: the back pocket of a pair of jeans, inside a shoe, inside a book. He peeled a hundred off the last bundle to use as walking-around money and taped the rest to the inside of his locker.

The idea was, if Ron tried to break into James’ room he’d find £4,000 easily and never realise there was £39,000 more stuffed inside a cassette radio so crummy looking even Ron wouldn’t steal it.

James filled the locker with the rest of his valuables. He banged it shut and put the padlock key on a cord around his neck. He couldn’t be bothered unpacking anything else. He threw as many bags as he could in the wardrobe and kicked what was left under his bed.

Then he slumped on his bare mattress, staring at the wall. There were hundreds of pin holes and blobs of blu-tack where previous kids had decorated the walls. He wondered what Lauren was doing.

*

Just after four, James’ room-mate, Kyle, came running in. He was a skinny kid, a bit taller than James, wearing school uniform. Kyle slammed the door and tried to get his key in the hole to lock it. James wondered what the hell was going on.

Kyle couldn’t lock the door before another kid rammed it. This kid looked older. Same height as Kyle but twice the width. Kyle jumped on to his bed. The big kid bundled Kyle over and pulled him to the floor. He sat astride him and punched him a couple of times in the arm.

‘You think you’re so smart,’ the thug said.

‘Take it,’ Kyle said.

Kyle took a couple of slaps in the face. The thug slid a diary out of Kyle’s blazer and cracked him on top of the head with it.

‘Touch my stuff again, doughnut, I’ll smash your face in.’

He got off Kyle, kicked him in the thigh and walked out.

James sat up on his bed. Kyle tried to act like it was nothing but couldn’t hide the pain as he raised himself on to his bed.

‘I’m Kyle,’ Kyle said.

‘I’m James. How’d you upset him?’

‘His diary fell out of his pocket this morning. I found it. Most of it’s bogus, but he’d written this poem about a girl.’

James laughed. ‘That big moose writes poetry?’

‘Yep,’ Kyle said. ‘I read a couple of lines out in front of his mates. He took it badly.’ Kyle was holding his face.

‘You OK?’ James asked. ‘You took some serious beats.’

‘I thought he’d grab the diary back, not try and kill me … One bit of the poem was great.
You give me a buzz that’s like a bee. Even when I feel melancholy
. Isn’t that cute … Man, is that what it looks like?’

‘What?’ James asked.

‘That skateboard under your bed must have cost over a hundred quid.’

‘You reckon?’ James asked. ‘I only used it about twice.’

Kyle started laughing. ‘That board is a legend, James. Kids die to get their hands on them and you’ve used it twice. Can I see it?’

James shrugged. ‘Whatever.’

Kyle seemed to forget his pain as he reached under James’ bed and wheeled out the board. He sat back on his bed twisting it in his hands.

‘Nice. Hard wheels, must be fast. Can I try it?’ Kyle asked.

‘Sure. I never use it. As long as I can use my Playstation 2 on your telly.’

‘Playstation 2! We have Playstation 2 in this room? James, you’re a little beauty. What games have you got?’

‘I don’t know. About sixty different ones,’ James said.

Kyle rocked back on his bed and started kicking his feet in the air.

‘Sixty games! I don’t believe you, James. You must be the most spoiled kid in the world and you don’t even realise.’

‘What?’ James asked. ‘Don’t kids in here have games consoles?’

‘We get three pounds a week for pocket money. You see that Gravis shirt on the floor? Twenty-five quid. I had to save up two pounds for twelve weeks to get that. I had to steal my Stussy shorts from a shop at Camden Lock. Would have ended up with a security guard standing on my head if I didn’t know a few moves.’

‘You want to try the Playstation now?’ James asked.

‘After my homework,’ Kyle said. ‘I always do homework first.’

James laid back on his bed, wondering if Kyle was a swot. Someone knocked.

‘Yeah?’ James said.

It was one of the house parents, a bearded hippie type. He looked at James.

‘I’ve sorted you a place at West Road School. You can start there in the morning. You’ll have to come back at lunchtime. The counsellor wants to see you.’

James was miffed. He thought that his mum dying, and getting expelled, would get him off school for at least a couple of weeks.

‘OK,’ James said. ‘Where’s West Road?’

‘Kyle,’ the care worker said, ‘can you find James a school uniform and show him to school tomorrow?’

‘No worries,’ Kyle said.

*

Kyle and James spent the whole evening together. After his homework Kyle took James down to dinner. The food wasn’t the best but it was better than James got at home. Afterwards they set up the Playstation. While they played they told stories about stuff, like fights at school and how they ended up here. James was surprised that Kyle was thirteen and already in Year Nine. Kyle said he was good at everything except sports. He had a hard time because the rest of his class were bigger than him. James said the only things he was any good at were sport and maths.

Before they went to bed, Kyle took James to the laundry and found a box of school uniforms. James already had school shirts and trousers, but he needed a blazer with the West Road badge and a school tie. There wasn’t much choice and everything was trashed. They found a blazer that fitted James OK and a school tie that was in threads.

*

Kyle fell asleep. James’ head was too busy. Tomorrow was going to be the first day of a new routine: eating meals with all the other kids, going to a new school, coming home and spending time with Kyle. It wasn’t the end of the world, but he wished Lauren was here.

James remembered the little brown envelope in the safe.

He’d forgotten until now. He scrambled out of bed and slipped his tracksuit bottoms on. He rummaged in the pockets. His heart skipped when he didn’t find it straight away. He had to go somewhere light where he could look without anyone seeing. The toilet was the obvious place.

James locked himself in a cubicle and opened the envelope gently so he’d be able to reseal it. There was a key and a business card:

REX DEPOSITARY
Deposit Your Valuables with Total Discretion and Security Individual Boxes in Eight Different Sizes

James flicked the card over. The address was on the back. It looked like his mum had another hidden stash. He put the key on the cord around his neck.