Thomas stood washing himself at the sink in the bathroom at the top of the stairs. He was flushed with a confusion of feelings, self-disgust and sexual excitement contending with each other for dominance. Looking down at his body, he felt almost frightened. It was as if he had no control over its workings.
His inner clock had been set to the unchanging rhythms of Flyte. Year after year, nothing changed there except the weather — until Barton died, of course, which was why his mother had brought him to London, where everything was different. The girls in the street, the music after dark, the sound of the sirens. Anything could happen here, and Thomas suddenly felt imprisoned by his father’s house, with its anonymous rooms and high staircases. He needed to get out and walk, breathe the air, if only for five minutes.
He dressed hurriedly and went down the stairs almost on tiptoe so as not to wake his mother. In the hall the grandfather clock gave the time as half past twelve and Thomas realized that he couldn’t have been asleep for more than an hour before the sirens had woken him up.
He opened the front door and looked out. The main road to his left seemed as deserted now as the little side street on which his father’s house stood. The music had been turned off and almost all of the windows that he could see were in darkness. Only one or two passing cars broke the stillness of the night.
Thomas took a deep breath of the cool air and then walked down the steps, shutting the door behind him. The house was only three away from the main road, and Thomas turned immediately into it, heading toward the bridge over the River Thames. He had driven across it with his mother earlier in the evening when they were coming back from the restaurant. It had been covered with tiny white lights, and they’d stopped on the other side to look at it properly because it was so pretty. The Albert Bridge it was called. Named for the husband of Queen Victoria, the Prince Consort. The one who’d died young and broken the Queen’s heart.
However, Thomas didn’t get as far as the river. Two young men with baseball caps turned back to front appeared suddenly, coming toward him up the street. One was walking half in the gutter, and the other was running a beer can along the black railings of the houses so that Thomas realized he would have to pass between them. He could not turn back, as he was too close to them, and there was no one else in sight. He accelerated to get the moment over with, but just before he drew level they both moved into the center of the sidewalk, knocking his shoulders so that he almost lost balance.
Nothing else happened, however. Behind him, Thomas could hear them laughing as they carried on down the street.
“Stupid little cunt,” one of them said. “Did you see the look on his face?”
Thomas didn’t hear the other reply. He carried on, walking slowly down the street, cursing himself for his stupidity in going out so late. His mother had told him to be careful, that London was a dangerous place, and she hadn’t even been talking about walking deserted streets after midnight. He hoped that the noise of the beer can on the railings wouldn’t wake her up, send her into his room to find him gone, but soon it had faded into the distance and he felt safe to turn around and head for home.
He’d gotten almost as far as the little side street when he saw them at the top of the road. They were coming back toward him. They were still walking but quicker, more purposefully than before, and Thomas felt desperately in his pockets for the house key. His mother had given it to him when they first arrived, and he was sure that he had brought it with him when he came out.
They were closer now, and Thomas could see their faces. They were laughing, and one of them was punching the fist of one hand into the open palm of the other. They could see him too, feel his fear.
“Got lost, have you, cunt?” said one. “Why don’t you come here and I’ll give you some fucking directions.”
The other one laughed.
“Got any money?” he asked. “Got a phone?”
Panic had momentarily paralyzed Thomas as they approached, but when the second youth spoke he felt his strength return. He dashed suddenly to his right down the little side street, and in two seconds he was trembling by the streetlight outside his house.
There was clearly no time to lose. He could hear them coming toward the corner. It was obviously worse than pointless running up the front steps if he had no key, and the thugs would catch him if he ran on down the side street. They were three or four years older than him and a lot quicker. He took his only chance and ran down the stone steps into the basement area by the front door of Greta’s apartment.
He’d noticed the house trash cans down there earlier, but when he got to the bottom of the steps they were nowhere in sight. Someone must have moved them since the afternoon. A second later he saw where they’d gone. They were just inside the open entrance to a vault under the sidewalk. Thomas dashed in, taking care not to make any noise. In normal circumstances nothing would have frightened Thomas more than going into a pitch-black vault, but now he went right inside without hesitation, grateful for the enshrouding darkness.
He was not a moment too soon. The two youths had stopped on the sidewalk just above his head.
“He’s gone down in one of these fucking basements. That’s where he’s gone,” said the one who’d offered to give Thomas directions.
“No, he hasn’t,” said the other. “We’d have seen him if he’d done that. I’m not fucking blind, even if you are. Come on, we’ll catch him if we’re quick.”
Thomas heard the sound of them setting off at a run down the side street. He wiped the sweat from his face with the sleeve of his shirt and pressed his hand hard against the left side of his chest, covering the pain of his racing heart.
Breathing deeply, he stepped out of the vault into the basement area so that he was standing outside the front window of Greta’s flat. It was less than five feet away. The bottom half of the window was open, raised no more than six inches from the sill. It had been shut earlier in the day and the curtains had been half open, whereas now they were closed. Thomas noticed the difference because he’d been down in the vault after lunch — part of exploring the house with no risks attached because his mother had said that his father and Greta would be away until the following evening. He’d looked in through the window and seen the gas fire and the two armchairs and behind them a table and chair and a bookcase. Everything neat and tidy. He couldn’t see into the room now, but he could hear voices. One was too soft to make out, but the other was close and Thomas recognized it almost immediately as Greta’s.
“You’ll just have to be patient. It’s not that difficult.”
Thomas couldn’t hear if the other voice replied, but a moment later Greta was speaking again. She seemed to be just on the other side of the curtains.
“No, you listen to me. You can wait a little longer. That’s what we agreed.”
Another pause and then her voice came again. It was farther away this time.
“Can’t you see I haven’t got it yet?”
Or was it “him yet”? Thomas couldn’t be sure. The words were indistinct, and he couldn’t make any sense of them. What was she talking about? And to whom? Why was she home when she was supposed to be in the Midlands with his father until the following evening?
Thomas stood motionless and preoccupied in front of the window, revolving the unanswered questions around in his head, and he would have been entirely visible to the two youths coming back up the street if they hadn’t chosen to advertise their approach. They were talking even more loudly than before, as if to assert their defiance of the rich neighborhood around them. Thomas had just enough time to retreat back into the vault before they stopped outside the house.
“It’s a fucking waste of time,” said the one who’d voted for going on down the street. “He didn’t look like he had anything on him anyway.” But his friend didn’t agree.