by Sophie Green
‘Nicky Vega. So this is your joint now?’ Abe met his gaze. ‘What happened to Quick Fingal?’
‘He wasn’t quick enough,’ Vega snarled and then laughed. ‘And it’s legit.’ The surrounding boxers drew closer in round them.
‘I’ll bet,’ said Abe, his jaw clenched in a steely way. Lil pressed her elbow into his. Abe unclenched his jaw. ‘I’m not looking for faces.’
‘What are you looking for?’
Abe rubbed his chin with his rubber hand and gave Lil a look, flicking his gaze away, which said, Go and find Nedly. He tried to break a smile at Vega. ‘I’m looking for somewhere … to work out.’ The room went silent and Abe hoisted his belt up over his belly and craned his neck out of his collar. ‘And this place looked … pretty good.’ He nodded approvingly at the bare concrete floor, the sweating walls, the punchbags shiny with knuckle grease, and the dirty towels.
Vega poked a finger at Abe’s damp shirt. ‘Last time you crossed my threshold it was with a squad of cops and a battering ram. Who’s this, your coach?’ He nodded at Lil and jabbed Sweets in the belly. Sweets didn’t blink but snorted out a laugh on cue.
‘I’m off duty; like I said, I just came in to check out the facilities.’ Abe pointed towards the ring, stepping in front of Lil who stepped backwards at the same time and slipped out of the crowd.
‘This isn’t a free floor show, Mandrel. If you want to see a fight, you’re going to have to pay for it just like everyone else.’
‘I’m not here for a fight,’ he explained to the three burly boxers who had stepped towards him menacingly.
Lil backed away from the circle that was gathering, and darted quickly past the climbing bars strung with plump leather boxing gloves and ducked into an empty locker room. ‘Nedly!’ she called out. ‘Nedly, where are you?’
‘I’m here,’ came a voice from behind a door.
Lil opened it. It was an equipment cupboard. The shelves were stacked with rolls of bandages, spare gloves and skipping ropes. A couple of medicine balls were on the floor.
‘Are you hiding?’
‘I was just working on some moves,’ Nedly said, delivering a couple of jabs to the air.
‘Pretty good.’
He left the cupboard and came to sit on the wooden bench in the centre of the room. Lil slid onto it beside him.
‘It smells like socks in here,’ she said.
‘I can’t smell anything.’
‘You’re lucky.’
Nedly bent forward and wrapped his arms round his knees. ‘So …?’
Lil paused. ‘So, we didn’t know where you were, and –’ She glanced nervously over her shoulder. ‘We can’t really stick around. I didn’t make the connection but Abe’s got history here. He’s in the middle of accounting for it now, so we should split soon as.’ She got to her feet and headed for the door.
Nedly hesitated. ‘Thanks for checking in on me but I’m fine.’ He didn’t look fine. ‘You can go.’
Lil gave him a disapproving frown and decided to come clean. ‘We just got a call, from Starkey. He said you’re in danger.’
‘So, now you trust Starkey?’
‘No, but … he sounded serious. We’ve got to stick together. You have to keep your head down now.’
‘My head is down. I was in the cupboard, remember? I’m not bothering anyone.’
‘What if someone gets the creeps and reports you? We have to keep moving.’
Nedly gave her a dark look. ‘Stop saying “we”; it’s just me that’s in danger.’
Lil fixed him with a Squint. ‘I think we’re all in danger now.’ She pushed open the door to the locker room and held it open. They looked out into the gym.
Abe was being muscled into the ring by Sweets Mayhem, who took hold of his mac and shook it off him, taking the rubber hand with it.
‘Hey,’ Abe cried. ‘That’s expensive.’ Sweets gave him a disbelieving snort. ‘The hand, I mean. I had to have it made.’ Abe was holding his multi-function pincer up in protest. ‘You see? My boxing days are over.’
‘I thought you were here looking for somewhere to train?’
‘He is.’ Lil ran forward, shouting out over the jeers. ‘For me.’ She bent under the ropes, strode into the ring and squared up to the boxer’s belly, holding her chin up.
‘Get out of the ring, Wing Nut. We’ve got a score to settle,’ Vega shouted to her from the sidelines.
Lil put her hands on her hips. ‘We’ve got nothing to prove to you. We just came in to check the place out, we’ve checked it and now we’re going.’ She took hold of Abe’s sleeve. Sweets smirked at her and then with one huge arm picked her up by the scruff of her rain mac and lifted her over the ropes, dropping her unceremoniously on the other side.
He raised his bulbous glove at her and said. ‘It’s an insult to the boss that Mandrel came back here and he knows it. He owes him an apology.’
‘I’m sorry,’ said Abe through gritted teeth.
Sweets pulled Abe’s new hat down round his ears and then flattened the crown until it looked more like a boater. ‘Better put this on nice and tight – don’t want it falling off.’
The owner of the craggy eyes turned out to be a wiry old man in a cloth cap and caretaker dungarees. He clanked the bell ringside and everyone drew in to watch. Abe appealed to him. ‘Where’s your sense of fair play? I’m out of shape and more than twice his age.’
Vega clapped his hands together as though he was about to sit down to a banquet.
Sweets Mayhem started circling round and then he sprang up and down on his toes a couple of times, circled back and put up his fists.
‘Come on, old man, show me what you’ve got.’
Abe nodded towards Lil. ‘At least let the kid go; she doesn’t need to see this.’
‘She’s free to go any time she pleases.’
‘I’m staying.’ Lil folded her arms but her eyes darted around until they found Nedly’s and they exchanged nervous glances.
Abe shrugged as whatever fight was there left him. ‘All right, let me have it.’
Sweets poked Abe in the shoulder. ‘You first.’
Abe half-heartedly hit Sweets in his belly, Sweets pushed Abe’s chin back up with one hand and drove a piledriver in with the other. Abe reeled, shaking his head to clear it. He felt his jaw gingerly and then swung wide with his left. Sweets bobbed easily to avoid it. He was coming up again with a jab while Abe’s fist was still in motion. Sweets delivered the jab to Abe’s right side and then his second fist followed up on the left straight after.
Abe doubled over, coughing. ‘I give up,’ he wheezed.
‘Not yet you don’t.’
Abe held his right elbow up to shield himself and hefted with his left, trying to get some kind of rhythm together.
Sweets shook his head like it was embarrassing to watch.
‘You shouldn’t have come!’ cried Nedly. ‘He’s going to get minced.’
‘Abe!’ Lil yelled, darting towards the ropes, but a boxer standing nearby put a hand that felt more like an anvil on her shoulder and left it there. Lil tried to shrink out from under it but he had her pinned. ‘Help him!’ Lil said.
‘Ain’t no one can help him now,’ the boxer replied matter-of-factly, adding a couple of pounds to the anvil.
Nedly gave Lil a firm nod and then pushed up the sleeves of his thin grey sweater and stepped into the ring behind Abe.
Abe took another swipe. Sweets stepped aside to avoid it. He threw a look at Vega.
Vega shrugged back. ‘Get it over with.’
Abe ducked the next punch and then got one in the belly. He crumpled against the ropes.
‘Come on, is that the best you’ve got? You’re embarrassing your little girl.’
Abe glanced sideways and caught Lil out of the corner of his eye. She didn’t look embarrassed. She looked determined. ‘Show him what you’re made of!’ she yelled. Abe started to shake his head in defeat, but the look in Lil’s eye was pure steel. Abe gulpe
d then nodded.
As Sweets drew back a fist, a shadow seemed to move across the ring, and he whipped his head round to catch it. At the same time Abe pulled back his left, and loosed it as Nedly swept in behind, adding his glowing hand to Abe’s swing. The punch drove Sweets off his enormous feet, and he pirouetted on the diagonal as he went down. By the time he hit the deck he was out cold.
The crowd fell silent in shock. The lights flickered on and off, the punching bags began swaying on their own and the air chilled by several degrees as a wave of unfathomable dread spread through the room. The caretaker stood dumbfounded for a moment and then rang the bell. He hopped through the ropes to administer some slaps and a squirt of water to revive Sweets Mayhem. Nedly stood anxiously by until the boxer opened his eyes.
Abe shivered, stretching out the fingers of his trembling left hand to check he hadn’t broken them. He wiped the sweat out of his eyebrows with the back of his shirt sleeve, took his hat off, pushed the crown out and redented it and then replaced it on his head. As he walked from the ring Lil handed him his coat and rubber hand. He re-attached it and then he dusted off his palms.
With a nod to Vega and the gang they walked through the silent gym. The wrinkly-eyed caretaker opened the door for them. As they passed he stopped Lil and said, ‘You really interested in training?’
Lil shrugged. ‘Maybe one day.’
‘Tell you what. If you want to fight, look me up. If you can punch like your old man, then you might have a future here.’
Abe was still shaking when they emerged into the cold, wet air of the empty car park. The pale sun had drained out of the sky and dark clouds had moved in.
Margaret looked relieved to see them in one piece.
‘Sorry I didn’t listen to the warning, little pal,’ Abe told her.
He trained his eyes on an empty spot by Lil. ‘And thanks for the help with the punch, kid. You’ve given me a whole new kind of history there.’ He straightened his collar and tie and shrugged his mac so it was a little squarer on his shoulders. ‘Now, how about we get a hot chocolate? On me. I could do with something.’ He shivered.
Lil looked up at the sky; it was thick with the incoming storm. ‘Maybe we should get off the streets, at least until we can figure out what Starkey meant. What do you think, Nedly?’
Nedly opened his mouth to reply and then Margaret started barking as bright magnesium headlights scorched over the weedy concrete like white-hot laser beams. A silver van careered round the corner.
‘Nedly …’ Lil’s eyes were wide. ‘RUN!’
Nedly turned so fast that he stumbled. Lil lurched forward to help him up but her hand just grabbed thin air. As Nedly scrambled to his feet Lil whipped round to face the lights. Nedly hurdled the low wall of the car park and Lil ran into the path of the van, forcing it to skid on the wet ground as it tried to avoid her. Abe caught up, yanking Lil back by her mac and then turning shoulder-on to block the oncoming vehicle.
It skidded to a halt only feet away from them.
Virgil leapt from the van, almost speechless with fury and slammed the door. She marched over to Abe. ‘What do you think you’re doing!’ Then she did a double take. ‘You again!’
Abe shrugged. He tried to look casual but his face was pale and clammy-looking.
Lil spoke up. ‘There’s something going on – at the boxing club.’ She pointed to it. ‘The punch bags are moving on their own and it’s freezing and really creepy in there.’ Marek hurtled out of the cab, yanked open the sliding door and Yossarian climbed out of the back. He handed the other two their helmets and they swiftly attached harnesses.
Virgil kept a warning eye on Lil and Abe, up until her helmet went on. As she passed them she paused and they saw their own faces reflected in the orange visor, smaller and further away than they really were.
Marek followed her but Yossarian hung back a little and gave Lil a shrug that suggested, Sorry about the other two. He hesitated as if he was going to add something else, but changed his mind, put on his helmet too and jogged after them.
As soon as they were clear Lil checked that Nedly was out of sight and then whispered ‘That was too close.’
‘Much too close.’ Abe glared at her and shook his head despairingly.
There were raised voices at the door to the boxing club; the scientists were trying to talk their way in without much luck.
Lil tried to gulp away the feeling of dread that was tightening around her windpipe like a vice. ‘They’re going to get him, you know, if we’re not careful.’
She searched Abe for an answer. He raised his hands as though he had hold of something they could use and then let whatever it was fall. He sighed. ‘We’ll think of something.’ But they both knew that it was going to be their toughest case yet.
Chapter 9
We Need to Talk about Roland Selznick
Lil sat on the arm of the saggy chair by the window in the front room. The rain appeared on the glass as clear, round dots that broke their shape and trickled downwards, the patterns changing every second. Dusk had come to Angel Lane and the alleyways opposite were murky with shadows.
‘Are you OK?’ Naomi switched on the light, illuminating the room and plunging the world outside into darkness. ‘You’ve been staring out of that window for hours. Are you waiting for someone? I thought you were out with Quake tonight.’
‘I didn’t feel up to it.’
Naomi felt Lil’s forehead. She stood next to her at the window. ‘Anything you want to talk about?’
Lil shrugged.
‘Come on,’ said Naomi. ‘Waldo’s place could do with a spruce up. I’ll give you a hand.’
Standing side by side in the utility room Lil and her mum tore the Herald into strips, obliterating any sign of the stories it held. As an employee of City Hall, Naomi was sent a compulsory copy of the paper every morning; they took the money for it out of her wages.
Waldo was sitting on the drainer in a shoebox with a few holes punched in the lid. Lil could hear him scratching inside, testing the integrity of the cardboard walls with his tiny pale claws.
Naomi turned on the tap full blast and squirted a bowl with washing-up liquid while Lil tipped the old bedding into the compost bin and squashed it down.
‘This is getting pretty full,’ she said at the exact same time her mum said: ‘Lil, we need to talk about Roland Selznick.’
An awkward silence followed.
Lil broke it first. ‘What did you say?’
‘Oh, nothing,’ Naomi said, thrashing the washing-up brush around in the soapy water for a moment. ‘No, it’s not nothing. It’s just …’ She braced her rubber-gloved hands against the edge of the sink. ‘I was thinking, perhaps …’ She took a deep breath. ‘We need to talk about Roland Selznick.’ Lil stared into the bin. Naomi picked up the brush again and began scrubbing and dunking the plastic floor of Waldo’s cage. ‘That reporter I used to know. Back when I –’
‘The one who died.’
‘He was killed, yes, that one.’
Lil kept her eyes on the contents of the bin. ‘Was he my father?’ she asked suddenly and then immediately felt sick.
Naomi stopped scrubbing. She dropped the brush and left it to sink beneath the water, while she turned to face Lil.
Lil cautiously returned the bin lid and looked across at her mother.
They stood staring at each other for what felt like hours. Naomi looked almost as afraid as Lil felt now that the question had been asked and must be answered.
‘He was,’ she said.
Lil’s throat felt she had swallowed a bowling ball but she managed to whisper, ‘Thought so.’
She picked up the old tea towel and Naomi reached into the sink and pulled out the floor of the cage and passed it to Lil, who began drying it.
When Lil felt she could talk normally again she said, ‘What was he like then?’
Naomi leant back against the sink, peeled off her rubber gloves and hung them on the drainer.
‘He was a great investigative reporter.’
‘I mean as a person.’
Naomi searched the ceiling for the answer and then shrugged. ‘He was funny and … I suppose you would say … confident? I don’t think he cared what other people thought of him.’
‘He must have cared what you thought,’ Lil said.
Naomi laughed. ‘Yes, I suppose he must have done.’
‘Am I like him?’
Naomi puffed out a sigh. ‘In some ways you are.’ Her bespectacled eyes had an uncertain look about them. She tucked Lil’s hair behind her ears. ‘If I’m honest, I don’t think I ever got beyond the surface, not before he … and now I’ll never know. So to me, you’re unquestionably just like you, and not like anyone else I know.’
‘Abe says I’m like you.’
‘It’s the ears.’
‘Not just the ears,’ Lil corrected her. ‘And coming from Abe it’s a pretty big compliment.’
Naomi blushed and worked on shaking up the soapy water in Waldo’s water bottle.
‘I mean it,’ said Lil, warming to the subject. ‘It’s probably the biggest compliment he could give anyone.’ They elbowed each other playfully, both grinning and then Lil went back to her drying.
After a moment she said, ‘Why didn’t you tell me before?’
‘About Roland? I didn’t know how to tell you about him and still protect you from all that history with McNair and the Chronicle and the Klaxon; it was all so tangled up together.’ She sighed and closed her eyes. ‘And a part of me thought maybe you didn’t need to know?’
The tea towel was damper than the floor of the cage now but Lil kept on rubbing it. ‘I just wondered about it, that’s all.’ She took the water bottle and started polishing up the spout. ‘Anyway, mystery solved.’
Naomi ruffled her hair. ‘It wasn’t much of a mystery.’
‘It was to me,’ Lil said.
Naomi’s look sharpened as she took a sudden breath and then pulled Lil in for a vice-like bear hug, crushing the air out of her lungs. ‘You’re right. That was a stupid thing to say. If there’s anything else you want to know, then just ask.’