Miserable under the weight of everything that had happened in the last few hours, I started to cry. ‘I’m sorry, Sal y. I didn’t mean what I said—about the crap parent thing.’
‘I know, darling. But we are crap parents. I bet you’ve not had a square meal this week—I know I haven’t.’
‘You’re not. I’m a rubbish daughter. You took me in and put up with me and I …’
She gave me a little shake. ‘And you have given us a hundred times more than we ever gave you.
And we’ve never forgotten for one moment that we have you even when we are at our most unbearable.
Give Simon a chance to cool down and I expect he’l even say sorry to you.’
‘I was scared, Sal y. They were shooting at us.’
‘I know, darling.’
‘Zed was real y great. Knew what to do and everything.’
‘He’s a nice boy.’
‘I like him.’
‘I think you more than like him.’
I sniffed, fumbling for a handkerchief. I had no idea what I felt about him—confused about the savant connection, doubtful that anyone could want me as much as he claimed, just learning to trust him a little.
‘Be careful, Sky. You are such a sensitive soul. A boy like that can crush you if you get too hung up on him.’
‘A boy like what?’ Why did everyone think they could put a label on Zed?
She sighed and steered me back to the car. ‘He’s good-looking, a little wild from what I hear. Few people stay long with their high school sweethearts
—it’s part of the training for life.’
‘We’ve only had one date.’
‘Exactly. So don’t let your imagination go running off with you. Play it cool and you’l keep him interested.’
Him being interested wasn’t the problem—I was the one keeping it light. But this was so like my mum
—to worry about the heart when bul ets had been flying. ‘And this is, what, relationship advice according to Dr Sal y Bright?’
‘Do we need to have that conversation again? I thought we discussed it when you were twelve,’ she teased.
‘No, no, thanks, I’ve got the facts.’
‘Then I trust you to apply them in practice.’
‘You trust me, but Simon doesn’t.’
She sighed. ‘No, he’s always felt real y protective about you, maybe even more so because you were so hurt when we took you on. If he could lock you in a tower, dig ditches, plant a minefield and ring it al with razor wire, he’d do it.’
‘I suppose I’m lucky I’m only grounded.’
‘Yes, you are. I can probably beat him down to two weeks for you, but I think we can safely say you’re grounded.’
The third eldest Bened ict brother, Victor, came cal ing after we’d gone to bed. I could hear Simon swearing as he fumbled for his dressing gown to throw over his T-shirt and shorts. Sal y came to fetch me.
‘Not asleep yet?’
‘No. Wha’s up?’
‘The FBI are in the kitchen. They want a word with us.’
Victor was with a female col eague. He had straight, long dark hair tied back in a ponytail and wore a sharp black suit with a silver tie. Like his father, he had a calm aura, as if he could be surprised by few things. The col eague struck me as more nervous. She was tapping her stylus on her electronic memo, her hawkish face shadowed, her short brown hair sleeked back behind her ears.
‘Sky.’ Victor held out a hand to me and led me to the seat opposite him. It was strange how he acted as if he was in control in our kitchen. Sal y and Simon had given way to him without a murmur, hovering on the margins while he ran the show. ‘Do you mind if we record this?’ He gestured to the BlackBerry lying on the table.
I glanced at Simon. He shook his head.
‘That’s OK. I don’t mind.’
He pressed a button. ‘Record on. Incident seven, seven, eight, slash ten. Interview four. Present in the room are agents Victor Benedict and Anya Kowalski and witness, Sky Bright, a minor. Also in attendance are the witness’s parents, Simon and Sal y Bright.’
Cripes, this sounded like a trial.
‘Have I done something wrong?’ I asked, rubbing at the tea stain on the table top.
Victor’s expression softened and he shook his head. ‘Other than go out with my idiot brother, I’d say not. Sky, you’re sixteen, is that right? What’s your date of birth?’
‘Um …’
Sal y jumped in. ‘No one is sure of her exact date as she lost her birth parents when she was six. We chose the day we adopted her—first of March—as her birthday.’
The hawkish agent made a note.
‘OK,’ said Victor, giving me a speculative look.
‘Now, Sky, I want you to tel us in your own words, remembering as much detail as possible, what happened this evening out in the woods.’
Pushing a few stray grains of sugar to and fro on the table, I relived the experience for the record, running it in my head like one of my plots frame by frame, leaving out only the fact that for some of the time Zed and I had been using telepathy. Oh, and the kiss. I didn’t think they needed to know about that.
‘Zed said you were the one to realize that there was more than one shooter. How did you know?’ Ms Kowalski butted in when I had reached that part in the story.
I wondered if I should make up something about hearing a noise or seeing another person, but decided I’d better stick to the truth.
‘It was a gut feeling—you know, like an instinct.’
‘Sky’s always had good instincts,’ added Sal y, embarrassingly over-eager to assist the authorities with their enquiries. ‘Remember how she never liked that tutor we employed for her that time, Simon?
Turned out he’d been involved in a hit and run incident.’
I’d forgotten that—it had happened years ago. Mr Bagshot had made me feel panicky—guilty—when I was with him as if his emotions were spil ing out and swamping me.
‘Interesting.’ Victor laced his fingers together. ‘So you saw nothing, just felt it?’
‘Yes.’ I rubbed my temples, the headache back.
Victor dug in his pocket and pul ed out a packet of aspirin. ‘Zed sent these. He said you’d forget to take one.’
He’d seen this and not that we’d get shot at if we went for a walk? Second sight was annoyingly patchy. I took a tablet with a gulp of water and finished the story.
‘Have you caught the men who did this?’ Simon asked. Both he and Sal y were pale: they hadn’t heard the details of what happened, nor how close the bul ets had come.
‘No, sir.’
‘Any idea who they were?’
‘Not at this time.’
‘Is Sky in danger?’
‘We have no reason to think so.’ Victor paused. ‘I want to tel you something in confidence; you need to understand so you can make sure Sky is safe, but I have to ask you to keep it to yourselves.’
I wondered for a horrid moment if he was about to tel my parents about the savant stuff. They’d never believe him.
‘You can trust us,’ Simon confirmed.
‘My family are here as part of a witness protection programme run by the FBI. We’re afraid that news of their location must have leaked to associates of the people they helped send to jail. The attack was aimed at them, not your daughter, so we think she is under no further threat as long as she keeps her distance from us.’
‘Oh.’ Sal y sat down, sagging like a col apsing inflatable. ‘You poor things—to be living under that pressure.’
Simon had guessed the next step. ‘Wil you be moving now your location is no longer a secret?’
‘We hope not. We al try and keep a low profile—’
‘I’m stopping as Colorado junior champion andretiring undefeated’, Xavier had said. He didn’t want to become too wel known across state boundaries.
Zed had avoided making more than a good impression on the basebal diamond, ducking attention.