Page 1 (1/2)

Chapter One

little birds

Even before she saw the house, Jazz knew that so She could s shadows of the trees lining the street, hear it in the expectant silence She could feel it in her bones

Dread gave her pause, and for a moment she stood and listened to the stillness She wanted to run, but she told her-self not to be hasty, that hersince hardwired her for paranoia and so her instincts should be trusted

She hurried along a narrow, overgrown alleyway that eed into a lane behind the row of terraced town houses Not ardens, and she was confident that she couldseen

But seen by whoh her head: Always assume there’s someone after you until you prove there isn’t Maybe everyone had that cautionary voice in the back of their mind; their conscience, their Jiminy Cricket For Jazz, it always sounded like herthe path, carefully and slowly, avoiding piles of dog shit and the glistening shards of used needles Every thirty seconds she paused and listened The dreadful si-lence had passed and the sounds of norain Mothers shouted at s barked, and TVs blared inanely into the spaces between She let out a breath she hadn’t been aware of holding Maybe the heat and griotten to her more than usual today

Trust your instincts, heruntil she reached her hoate, then paused to take stock once more The norate, the weighted silence remained The ere dark and the air felt thick, the way it did before a storm It was as if her house was surrounded by a bubble of stillness, and that in itself was disquieting Perhaps she’s just asleep, Jazz thought But, more unnerved than ever, she knew she should take no chances

She backed along the alley for a dozen steps and waited outside her neighbor’s gate She peered through a knothole in the wood, scoping the garden The house seemed to be silent and abandoned, but not in the saarden She knew that Mr Barker lived alone, that he went to work early and re-turned late every day So unless his cleaners were in, his house would be deserted

"Good," Jazz whispered "It’ll turn out to be nothing, but" But at least it’ll relieve the boredom To and from school, day in, day out, few real friends, and her h the Uncles made sure they never had any financial worries No worries at all, the Uncles always said___ Yeah, it’d turn out to be nothing, but better to be careful If she ever told her mother she’d had sohtest, and had ignored it, the woman would be furious Her h Jazz couldn’t help but follow her in those beliefs, still she sometimes hated it She wanted a life She wanted friends

She opened Mr Barker’s gate The wall between their gardens was too high to see over, and froarden she could see only two upstairs s in her house --her own bedroomand the bathroom next to it She looked up for a few seconds, then brashly walked the length of the garden to Barker’s back door

Nobody shouted, nobody cah-borhood noise continued But to her left, over the wall, that deathly silence persisted

Soht

Mr Barker’s back door was sensibly locked Jazz closed her eyes and turned the handle a couple of ti the pressure and resistance She nodded in satisfaction; she should be able to pick it

Taking a small pocketknife from her jeans, she opened the finest blade, slipped it into the lock, and felt around

A bird called close by, startling her She glanced up at the wall and saw a robin sitting on its top, barely ten feet away Its head jerked this way and that, and it sang again

Above the robin, past the wall, a shape was leaning from Jazz’s bedroom

She froze It was difficult to ainst the sky, but when it turned, she saw the outline of a ponytail, the sharp corner of a shirt collar

It was the Uncle who told her to call him Mort

She never bothered with their names To her they were just the Uncles, the na ever since Jazz could reularly, sometimes in pairs or threes, sos were, whether she needed anything or if she’d "had any thoughts" They never ac-cepted a drink or the offer of food, but they always left behind an envelope containing a sheaf of used ten- and twenty-pound notes

They told Jazz that she never had to worry about any-thing, which only worried her more When they left, her h it was dirty

But as this one doing in her bedroom? Whatever his purpose, Jazz didn’t like it They had never, ever come into her room when she was at home, and her mother as-sured her that they did not snoop around when she was out They were perfect gentlesters, Jazz had said once, and we’re their molls Her mother had smiled but did not respond

The Uncle turned his head, scanning the gardens and alleyway

He’ll see ain and he looks down to lo-cate it, he’ll see ainst Mr Barker’s back door

The bird hopped along the head of the wall, pausing to peck at an insect or two Jazz worked at the lock without looking, waiting for the feel of the tuo, and the last tere always the hardest

The Uncle o of her breath in a sigh of relief

The robin chirped, singing along with the chaotic London buzz of traffic and shouts

The Uncle leaned froe She turned the handle and pushed her way in behind the opening door, never looking away from the shadow of the man at her bedrooht She left the door open; he’d bethan to notice it was open

The robin fluttered away

Jazz did not wait to question as happening, or why She hurried through Mr Barker’s house, careful not to knock into any furniture, cautious as she opened or closed doors She didn’t want toroom, she moved to the frontThe wooden Venetian blinds were closed, but, pressing her face to the wall, she could see past their edge Out in the street, she saw just what she had feared

Two large black cars were parked outside her house Bea, her skin tingling So’s happened Rarely had more than three Uncles visited at once; and now there were two cars here, parked proines running, as if daring anyone to approach They’re a law unto themselves, her mother so outright against the Uncles, but she never needed to Her unease was there on her face for her daughter to see But Jazz could not just sit here and spy on her own house, wondering what had gone wrong

She and herthe house if trouble ever came to the door

They’d made plans, created a virtual map in their minds, and once or twice they’d pursued the escape route, just to make sure it could really work