Foul Play
Page 11
Roberts stayed standing. ‘Your dad has been looking after us. He told me you and him go to all the home matches.’
‘We do. And a few away. When we can.’
‘And he was telling me you do commentaries for him.’
‘I do. But he knows what’s going on really. He just needs the names. And the odd action replay.’
Danny’s dad laughed. ‘You reckon?’
‘Have you ever been to see England play?’ Roberts said.
‘No,’ Danny said. ‘We tried phoning to get tickets when they played in the group stages. But we couldn’t even get through.’
‘Would you like to come and see England?’
Danny paused and looked at his dad, who was nodding.
‘Sure,’ Danny said. ‘But wasn’t the last friendly yesterday?’
‘Nil–nil. I know. I saw the highlights, once they’d stopped asking me loads of questions. But I was thinking about the finals.’
‘I’d love to, but …’
‘I’ve asked your dad, Danny. He can come too. What I’d like …’ Sam Roberts stopped speaking for a moment. He looked tired suddenly. His voice was quavering. ‘What I’d like to do, Danny, is thank you. I know those two other guys got all the glory. And I know your dad has told me why he thinks you shouldn’t be involved in any of that. But also I know it was you. That I owe everything to you. So I’d like to offer you tickets for all England’s games. For you and your dad. And I’ve sorted a room in the team hotel too. For the whole tournament. If you want it. It’s the very least I can do. And it would be a real pleasure to have you there, Danny.’
‘Including the final?’ Danny said, his jaw dropping.
‘Definitely. You can see us win it.’
Two miles away – in a long-forgotten World War II bomb shelter underneath his house – Sir Richard Gawthorpe was waiting.
He’d heard the police searching his house, taking away computers and paperwork. It had infuriated him that they could just rifle through his belongings: but he knew it didn’t matter. He had his main computer down here anyway. With access to all his secret offshore accounts.
He’d miss his house. And his car. But he had enough money to buy a dozen houses and a dozen cars.
The most important thing of all was that he had enough money to sit tight and wait for the moment that he could take his revenge on a boy called Danny. He didn’t know his second name yet. Or his address. But it wouldn’t take long.
Acknowledgements
I need to thank a lot of people for encouraging and helping me to write this book. But first – and foremost – I want to thank my wife, Rebecca, and my daughter, Iris, who have given me the self-belief and time to do it. If Macmillan Cancer Support hadn’t brought us together, this book would not exist.
Thank you also to Alison Barrow for telling me about a literary agent who supported Leeds United; David Luxton, of the Luxton Harris Literary Agency, for having faith in the book and for calling me one day to say that my fantasy publisher, Puffin, liked it; Ian Daley of Route Publishing for saying that I should write crime fiction; Sophie Hannah, Ray French and James Nash, the Leeds-based writing group who helped develop this novel; Martyn Bedford for being a great mentor; Comma and Route, independent publishers who gave me the support to develop as a writer; Arts Council England, the Society of Authors, CIDA and the Year of the Artist, all funders who gave me impetus, self-belief and money to write; Alison Shakspeare and her daughter VJ, Jackie Rowan, Mark Hodkinson, Ralph Newbrook and Nikki Woodman for reading the book in its early stages; Jim Sells (the Bobby Moore of literacy) at National Literacy Trust and Ralph Newbrook, who, as well as reading the manuscript, involved me in their tireless and inspired work to encourage children to read though their love of football; and – as always – to Leeds Libraries, who since I turned seventeen, have intervened, directly and indirectly, several times to make me both an enthusiastic writer and a reader.
I want to thank everyone at Puffin for the diverse and enthusiastic work they do to publish and promote books. Especially Sarah Hughes, Alison Dougal and Adele Minchin. Thanks also to Anna Billson and Sara Flavell who designed the book’s wonderful cover. It is a great honour to have my name and the Puffin logo on the same book cover.
Finally, to my mum for encouraging a very reluctant reader, age seventeen, to begin to love reading through football.
Bright and shiny and sizzling with fun stuff …
puffin.co.uk
WEB FUN
UNIQUE and exclusive digital content!
Podcasts, photos, Q&A, Day in the Life of, interviews and much more, from Eoin Colfer, Cathy Cassidy, Allan Ahlberg and Meg Rosoff to Lynley Dodd!
WEB NEWS
The Puffin Blog is packed with posts and photos from Puffin HQ and special guest bloggers. You can also sign up to our monthly newsletter Puffin Beak Speak.
WEB CHAT
Discover something new EVERY month – books, competitions and treats galore.
WEBBED FEET
(Puffins have funny little feet and brightly coloured beaks.)
Point your mouse our way today!
It all started with a Scarecrow.
Puffin is over seventy years old. Sounds ancient, doesn’t it? But Puffin has never been so lively. We’re always on the lookout for the next big idea, which is how it began all those years ago.
Penguin Books was a big idea from the mind of a man called Allen Lane, who in 1935 invented the quality paperback and changed the world. And from great Penguins, great Puffins grew, changing the face of children’s books forever.
The first four Puffin Picture Books were hatched in 1940 and the first Puffin story book featured a man with broomstick arms called Worzel Gummidge. In 1967 Kaye Webb, Puffin Editor, started the Puffin Club, promising to ‘make children into readers’. She kept that promise and over 200,000 children became devoted Puffineers through their quarterly instalments of Puffin Post.
Many years from now, we hope you’ll look back and remember Puffin with a smile. No matter what your age or what you’re into, there’s a Puffin for everyone. The possibilities are endless, but one thing is for sure: whether it’s a picture book or a paperback, a sticker book or a hardback, if it’s got that little Puffin on it – it’s bound to be good.
www.puffin.co.uk
PUFFIN BOOKS
Published by the Penguin Group
Penguin Books Ltd, 80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL, England
Penguin Group (USA) Inc., 375 Hudson Street, New York, New York 10014, USA
Penguin Group (Canada), 90 Eglinton Avenue East, Suite 700, Toronto, Ontario, Canada M4P 2Y3 (a division of Pearson Penguin Canada Inc.)
Penguin Ireland, 25 St Stephen’s Green, Dublin 2, Ireland (a division of Penguin Books Ltd)
Penguin Group (Australia), 707 Collins Street, Melbourne, Victoria 3008, Australia (a division of Pearson Australia Group Pty Ltd)
Penguin Books India Pvt Ltd, 11 Community Centre, Panchsheel Park, New Delhi – 110 017, India
Penguin Group (NZ), 67 Apollo Drive, Rosedale, Auckland 0632, New Zealand (a division of Pearson New Zealand Ltd)
Penguin Books (South Africa) (Pty) Ltd, Block D, Rosebank Office Park, 181 Jan Smuts Avenue, Parktown North, Gauteng 2193, South Africa
Penguin Books Ltd, Registered Offices: 80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL, England
puffinbooks.com
First published 2008
Text copyright © Tom Palmer, 2008
The moral right of the author has been asserted
All rights reserved
ISBN: 978-0-141-92099-3
grayscale(100%); " class="sharethis-inline-share-buttons">share