by Kevin Brooks
We were walking along North Walk now, approaching the door to the office building. Gloria had been constantly on the alert as she was talking to me – looking around, checking behind us, keeping her eyes open for anything out of place – and as Courtney took out her keys to open the door, I could sense the rising tension in Gloria. She was concentrating intensely – looking, listening, thinking – every sense in her body on the highest alert.
Courtney opened the door. The hallway was dark, a faint light showing through the glass panel of the office door at the end of the corridor. As Courtney went to go through the doorway, Gloria put a hand on her arm.
‘Let me go first,’ she said.
She stepped past Courtney into the hallway and then stopped. For a moment or two she just stood there, staring at the office door, listening hard. The building was silent. All I could hear was the quiet hum of water pipes from somewhere upstairs, and the distant sound of traffic on the streets outside.
‘Stay behind me,’ Gloria said quietly, moving off down the hallway.
We followed her to the office door, where she stopped and listened again, staring through the glass of the door. The main office was dark, and it was quite obvious now that the light was coming from Grandad’s office. It wasn’t strong enough to be the ceiling light, and so it could only be from the lamp on his desk.
Gloria slowly reached for the door handle. The door was unlocked. She opened it cautiously, pushing it gently with her hand, staying exactly where she was. The door to Grandad’s office was open, but his desk wasn’t visible from here.
‘Joe?’ Gloria called out quietly. ‘Are you in there, Joe?’
There was no reply.
‘Stay there,’ Gloria said to us, stepping softly through the doorway.
‘Joseph?’ she said. ‘Is everything OK?’
Still no reply.
I saw Gloria take a deep breath, and then she walked slowly but confidently across the room to Grandad’s office. She paused again outside it and called out to him again.
‘Joseph?’
She waited a second, then took another breath and went in.
I heard a low voice then, a man’s voice. It wasn’t Grandad’s. I couldn’t hear what the man was saying, but I recognised his voice. The sound of it made my heart sink.
The voice said something else, and a moment later Gloria appeared in the doorway and beckoned us over. There was a look of calm, but profound, resignation on her face.
I went over to the doorway, and Courtney followed me. I already knew who I was going to see when I went into the office, but when I walked in and saw him sitting on a chair in the corner of the room, his steel-grey eyes watching me from the shadows, the sight of him still made my blood run cold.
It was Winston.
Sitting in a chair in the opposite corner was Lance Borstlap. Both men had pistols in their hands.
Grandad was sitting dejectedly at his desk. In the light of his lamp, I could see a nasty gash just above his right eye. It looked like he’d been hit with the barrel of a pistol.
‘Sorry, Trav,’ he said sadly, looking up at me. ‘They took me by surprise.’
I stared hatefully at Winston.
‘Hello, Travis,’ he said casually. ‘It’s good to see you again.’ He turned to Courtney. ‘You too, Ms Lane. I hear you’ve had a spot of trouble recently. How are you feeling now?’
‘I was feeling fine until I saw you,’ she said.
Winston gave her a tight-lipped smile. ‘Right, well, now that we’re done with the pleasantries, why don’t you all come in and take a seat. I think it’s time we had a little chat.’
There was no doubt in my mind now that this was the man who was responsible for the death of my parents, and as I stood there that night, staring into his cold grey eyes, I promised myself that whatever it took, however long it took, I was going to make him pay for what he’d done.
About the Author
Kevin Brooks is the critically acclaimed, prize-winning author of eleven books for young adults, including the 2014 CILIP Carnegie Medal-winning The Bunker Diary. These have been translated into many different languages and published with great success around the world. He has also written thrillers for adults. The Travis Delaney series is Kevin’s first foray into fiction for younger readers. Having worked in places as diverse as a zoo and a crematorium, Kevin now writes full-time. He lives in Richmond, Yorkshire, with his wife.
Books by Kevin Brooks
The Travis Delaney Investigates series
The Ultimate Truth
The Danger Game
First published 2014 by Macmillan Children’s Books
This electronic edition published 2014 by Macmillan Children’s Books
a division of Macmillan Publishers Limited
20 New Wharf Road, London N1 9RR
Basingstoke and Oxford
Associated companies throughout the world
www.panmacmillan.com
ISBN 978-1-4472-4151-5
Copyright © Kevin Brooks 2014
Cover design by Black Sheep
The right of Kevin Brooks to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
You may not copy, store, distribute, transmit, reproduce or otherwise make available this publication (or any part of it) in any form, or by any means (electronic, digital, optical, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise), without the prior written permission of the publisher. Any person who does any unauthorized act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages.
A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
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