Checkmate (14 page)

Tobey was in a funny mood today. And I don't mean funny-haha either. Mum and me visited Nana Jasmine's and as Tobey was round our house yet again, Mum invited him along.

'We're off to see my mum, Tobey,' said Mum. 'Wanna come?'

'Yes, please,' he said straight away. But the moment he said it, he got this very strange look on his face, like his mouth had run away from his brain and now his brain was regretting it. He'd never been to Nana Jasmine's house before, but I'd certainly told him enough about it. Maybe that's why he wanted to see it, but then got nervous thinking about what it must be like and meeting my nana. After we got permission from his mum, we set off. He was really quiet whilst Mum drove us to Nana Jasmine's. I tried to talk to him loads of times, but he just shrugged or said yes or no, so after a while I gave up and chatted to Mum instead.

'Are you OK, Tobey?' Mum asked more than once.

'Yes, thanks, Miss Hadley,' said Tobey. But that was all he said.

'Rose, stay in the house for at least ten minutes before disappearing off with Tobey,' warned Mum as we got out of the car.

'Yes, Mum,' I sighed. We had this conversation about me running off to the garden or down by the beach, every time we visited Nana Jasmine. Mum reckoned it looked bad to greet Nana Jasmine with, 'Hi, Nana. Can I go away and play now?'

We sat down in Nana Jasmine's huge living room. Nana Jasmine called it her drawing room, which made it sound like it should've been more fun than it was. Drawing room sounded like a room you should be able to paint in and draw and make a mess. Just goes to show, doesn't it? Nana Jasmine's two sofas cost more than Mum's car (so Mum said) and I had to be very careful not to touch any of Nana's ornaments or walk on her rug with my shoes. Mum won't let me drink anything more colourful than water in Nana's drawing room even though Nana Jasmine says she really doesn't mind what I eat or drink in there.

'That's not what you used to tell me,' Mum said once. 'You wouldn't let me drink tea or orange juice or anything else in this room.'

'That was a long time ago,' Nana told her. 'Times change. People change.'

'Not that much,' Mum scoffed.

'Sephy, you should have more faith in people,' Nana told her.

'How do I do that?' asked Mum.

'You start by having more faith in yourself,' said Nana.

Then Nana looked down at me as if she'd just remembered I was there.

'Young ears are flapping,' said Nana Jasmine. Like I wouldn't know what that was supposed to mean!

So there I was, perched on the sofa, trying to look like all the little crystal figures Nana Jasmine had in her cabinet were actually interesting. I counted to one hundred before I thought my head would turn inside out if I stayed there one more moment. I turned to nudge Tobey, who was sitting next to me. But he wasn't paying any attention to me. His eyes were here, there and everywhere, taking in everything in Nana's room. What was so fascinating? I looked around, trying to see the room through Tobey's eyes as if I was seeing it for the very first time. The room was big, as big as our kitchen, living room and conservatory at home all rolled into one. But it was still too neat and tidy.

'Nana, can Tobey and me go down to the beach?' I asked, ignoring the frown Mum was sending in my direction.

'Tobey and I,' Nana corrected.

Nana was so fussy. She understood me, didn't she? But I knew from past experience that she wouldn't answer until I used the proper lingo.

'Can Tobey and I go down to the beach?' I asked.

'You could,' said Nana Jasmine. 'But that doesn't mean I'm going to let you!'

Tobey was getting all embarrassed next to me, but for the wrong reason. I sighed and tried again.

'May
Tobey and I go down to the beach?'

'Yes, but be back in time for lunch.'

'Yes, Nana.' I sprang up, grabbing Tobey's arm before Mum could have a go.

I pulled him out of the room and into the kitchen.

'Fancy a game of beach tennis?' I asked.

'What's that?' said Tobey.

'Tennis on the beach.' Duh!!

'OK.'

I led the way into the conservatory. A medium-sized cupboard held all the garden and beach games like croquet and boules and plastic tennis rackets. I grabbed two and a couple of tennis balls and ran out into the garden.

'This way,' I told Tobey.

We ran all the way across Nana's garden. I stopped for a moment when we got to the rose garden. Nana Jasmine had told me that the whole rose garden used to be under glass, like in a huge greenhouse – but after her divorce she'd had it removed. When I had asked her why, she said, 'I wanted the flowers to enjoy the wind and the rain. Flowers should know winter and summer, it makes them stronger. It doesn't do to keep plants too cosseted. Or people for that matter.' And although I'd asked her the question, Nana Jasmine had looked at my mum as she answered.

It was strange to think that my dad used to work in the same spot before I was even born. And his ashes had been scattered here too. I knew they'd be long gone, but it was still kinda lovely to think that Dad could be swirling around me at that very moment
–
in the fresh air I breathed, in the flowers I saw and could smell, even in the birdsong I could hear. After all, birds ate worms and maybe a worm ate some of Dad's ashes years and years ago and then a bird ate the worm and now it wasn't really a bird singing, but Dad! (How long did birds live anyway?) Every time we visited Nana Jasmine, I'd go out to the rose garden. I know it sounds silly but I really felt closer to Dad there.

'Hi, Dad,' I whispered. I didn't want Tobey to hear me or he might think I was cracking up.

Then we carried on running. Once we hit the beach, we got straight into the game.

'Where's the net?' asked Tobey.

'In our heads.'

So we started playing. But Tobey was in a very funny-strange mood. We played tennis on the beach, but the ball kept bouncing off in all directions. I mean, that was the whole point. But every time the ball flew off, Tobey would huff and puff and scowl as he went to get it. He obviously wasn't enjoying himself, so after about ten minutes I gave up on the tennis idea.

'What's wrong, Tobey?'

'Your grandma's house is huge.'

'So?'

'And she lives there just by herself?'

'Yeah, but she has a full-time secretary called Sarah and a cook.'

'And that's it?'

'Yeah. Why?'

'That's not right
–
one woman living in a huge big house like that all alone.'

'Well, she and my grandad divorced years ago.'

'That's not what I meant. Her home is big enough to be a hotel and the whole thing is just hers. A quarter of Meadowview could fit in that place. It's not right.'

I'd never thought of it that way before. Tobey had a point. It was a big house for just one person. When I thought of all the homeless people in Meadowview who lived under cardboard boxes . . . But at the same time, if Nana and Grandad had worked for their money and then decided to buy a big house and have people working for them, what was wrong with that?

'Mum says if you get a good education, then anything is possible. That's why she wants me to go to Heathcroft. She says with a good education behind me I could sweep the streets or be Prime Minister one day. But the choice would be mine. She says a good education gives you lots of choices.'

'Except that the choice of a "good education" isn't available to everyone,' said Tobey.

I had to think about that as well. Heathcroft School wasn't free. Nana Jasmine was going to pay my school fees.

'What're you going to do about secondary school?'

'Work my arse off to get a full scholarship,' said Tobey.

He swore! He's not supposed to swear.

'If your mum heard that, you'd get what for,' I told him.

'Mum's the one who told me that I need to work my arse off to get anywhere,' said Tobey.

'And she used those words?'

'Those exact words,' said Tobey.

Maybe one day I would work out grown-ups and their 'do as I say, don't do as I do' escape route. But not today.

I still can't believe it. Jasmine Mad-Bitch Hadley is in my hotel room.
My
hotel room. How did she know where to find me? I'd fallen down on Jude's law, number fourteen:
Stay organized, stay one step ahead, stay alive.
It served me right. I'd been celebrating my final act of revenge on Persephone Hadley and her offspring. A couple of beers from the mini-bar and then I'd thought, Sod it, this calls for more than just beer. This calls for
champagne.
So I'd rung room service and ordered a bottle of the best vintage the hotel had.

'None of your fizzy muck pulled down from the top of a cupboard,' I warned the man at the other end. And then I'd sat back on the bed, watching TV and waiting for my champagne to be brought up. I was too busy revelling in the brilliance of my final move to be on my guard the way I should've been. A knock on the door and the assumption that the room service in this hotel was, for once, actually on the ball were all it took for me to lower my guard.

And now thanks to that one lapse in concentration, this crazy bitch is sitting on my bed, smiling at me. Not that I blame her. In her position I'd smile too. Even now I can't believe I'd been quite so stupid. Jasmine Hadley had me where years of countless police undercover operations and the odd traitor or two had failed. How had she found out where I was? Callie couldn't've told her. And the green windcheater Jasmine wore on her scrawny, meagre body
–
that was Callie's. It was unmistakable. The inside of the windcheater was lined with the pockets I'd instructed Callie to sew into it, and each pocket was filled with explosives. Enough to send this room and the roof above it into orbit. Wearing the windcheater, Jasmine looked like a stick wrapped in a double duvet. She must've had liposuction and nips and tucks up to yazoo to look the way she did. There wasn't a spare bit of fat anywhere on her. Her hair was black with the odd wisp of silver around her temples and her face was very carefully made up, with just the right shade of burgundy lipstick, just the right amount of black mascara on her eyelashes, eyebrows professionally shaped, eyelids coloured with silver and the merest smudge of purple. All very immaculately done. Here was a woman who definitely meant business. I'd have to figure out very carefully what my next move should be because I had no doubt, one false move on my part and Jasmine Hadley would blow us both to kingdom come. I thought about trying to distract her and then charging. But we were a good two metres apart, more than enough time for her to flick the switch. I thought about the knife I had strapped to the inside of one leg and the backup gun I had strapped to the other, both hidden by my trouser legs. There had to be a way to get to my gun and blow her away before she could return the favour. I just had to bide my time and wait for my moment. And life had taught me that opportunities always came, you just had to wait for them and recognize them when they arrived.

'So what happens now?' I asked softly.

Jasmine shrugged. 'We wait.'

'For what?'

Jasmine glanced down at her watch, before looking back at me.

'We wait,' she repeated.

And she didn't take her finger off that switch.

Not once.