Like This, for Ever

time. Heprobably already knows who he’s going for next, he’s just waiting for the right moment.’
    Silence, and then Hatty gave a theatrical little shudder. ‘I’m so glad I’m a girl,’ she said.
    ‘Yeah, but in dim light, that’s not always obvious,’ retorted Jorge.
    There was a moment of scuffling, of good-natured complaint, as Hatty hit out at Jorge and he dodged out of her way, pushing Lloyd out into the rain.
    ‘So why has he done nothing for nearly three weeks?’ Barney asked.
    ‘People got too careful,’ Jorge replied. ‘No one was letting their kids out any more. Dads were coming home from work early to meet their kids at school. Cops were going to every school in the area, warning people, telling them to stay in groups, not to trust anyone they didn’t know very well. It got to the point where kids wouldn’t even answer their own front doors.’
    ‘So you think he’ll move on?’ asked Sam. ‘Go to another part of London, maybe another city?’
    ‘Nah! No need. People will have forgotten all about it in a couple more weeks.’
    ‘No, they won’t,’ said Barney, more quickly than he’d meant to.
    ‘Well, not forgotten exactly, they’ll just get more relaxed again. You can’t live in a state of red-alert for ever. Know what this guy’s biggest weapon is?’
    ‘Fangs,’ suggested Harvey.
    ‘Complacency,’ said Jorge.
    There was a short pause. Several of the group were wondering what, exactly, complacency meant.
    ‘Nobody ever thinks it’s going to happen to them,’ said Barney.
    ‘Exactly. Even here, in the midst of it all, everyone thinks it’s going to happen to someone else. Even us. We found one of the bodies, but I bet all of us, if we’re honest, think we’re going to make it home safely. Don’t we?’
    ‘Stop it,’ said Hatty, only half giggling.
    Barney stood up. ‘My dad is pretty serious about nine o’clock being the latest I’m allowed out and it’s gone that already. I’m going to have to skate like crazy.’
    ‘No you don’t, Barney Boy.’ Jorge got to his feet, too. ‘Come on, you lot, we all go together.’
    Jorge, Harvey and Hatty left Barney at the end of his road, just a hundred yards from his house. On blades, Barney was at his front door in seconds.
    As he searched for his key, he realized he hadn’t seen the green Audi for a while. Huck Joesbury’s dad must have got tired of stalking Lacey Flint. Just as well, really, given that she had a new stalker. Him!
    There was light shining behind the curtains of Lacey’s basement flat. She was at home and, for a second, Barney thought about running down the steps in his socks and knocking on the door. He hadn’t seen her since he’d asked her to look for his mum. She didn’t go out running at the usual time any more. When he’d seen her in the garden she’d kept her head down, as though determined not to look up to his bedroom window, not to make eye contact. He’d even knocked on her door a couple of times, but she never answered. She was avoiding him. Either she hadn’t looked for his mum yet, or she had looked and hadn’t found her. Either way, she didn’t want to let him down.
    Barney opened the front door. The hall light was on but the house beyond was in darkness. For the first time in nearly three weeks, his dad was out on a Thursday.
    Barney didn’t bother with the lights. In his socks, he padded lightly down the hall and into the kitchen. There was a note on the table.
    Had to work late, unexpectedly. Call me when you get in.
    Barney found his phone and walked to the window. He couldn’t see into Lacey’s garden, but the amount of light coming from it told him not only that the shed lights were on, but that the door was open. She never left the shed unlocked if she wasn’t in it. Barney put down the phone and opened the back door.

57
    IT WAS TEN past nine when Lacey left the shed. Her shoulders were sore and her head ached. She’d pounded the punchbag till she could barely stand.
    The rain hadn’t stopped all evening. It was cold, hard rain, the sort that seemed to seep through your skin, chilling your bones. How long would it take, she wondered, for blood to congeal in these temperatures? For the rain to wash away all traces?
    As she locked the shed door she saw that the house next door was in darkness and she wondered, not for the first time, if Stewart Roberts had told Barney yet about his mother. When she’d met him that day at the university, he’d been vague