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“But where are you going to be?” said Mrs Cooper

“I’ with a friend,” he said “I’ll phone up as often as I can I’ve got your nuht”

Hisat him, bewildered He bent over and kissed her clumsily

“Don’t worry,” he said “Mrs Cooper will look after you better than me, honest And I’ll phone up and talk to you tomorrow”

They hugged tightly, and then Will kissed her again and gently unfastened her ar to the front door Mrs Cooper could see he was upset, because his eyes were glistening, but he turned, re his manners, and held out his hand

“Good-bye,” he said, “and thank you very much”

“William,” she said, “I wish you’d tell me what the matter is—”

“It’s a bit complicated,” he said, “but she won’t be any trouble, honestly”

That wasn’t what she e of this business, whatever it was The old lady thought she’d never seen a child so implacable

He turned away, already thinking about the empty house

The close where Will and his mother lived was a loop of road in a modern estate with a dozen identical houses, of which theirs was by far the shabbiest The front garden was just a patch of weedy grass; his mother had planted some shrubs earlier in the year, but they’d shriveled and died for lack of watering As Will came around the corner, his cat, Moxie, rose up froea and stretched before greeting hi

He picked her up and whispered, “Have they come back, Moxie? Have you seen them?”

The house was silent In the last of the evening light thehis car, but he took no notice of Will, and Will didn’t look at him The less notice people took, the better

Holding Moxie against his chest, he unlocked the door and went in quickly Then he listened very carefully before putting her down There was nothing to hear; the house was empty

He opened a tin for Moxie and left her to eat in the kitchen How long before the , so he’d better an to search

He was looking for a battered green leather writing case There are a surprising nu that size even in any ordinary modern house; you don’t need secret panels and extensive cellars in order tohard to find Will searched his h the drahere she kept her underclothes, and then he worked systeh the rest of the roo and sat and cleaned herself nearby, for company

But he didn’t find it

By that tiry He made himself baked beans on toast and sat at the kitchen table wondering about the best order to look through the downstairs rooms

As he was finishing his

He sat absolutely still, his heart thus, and then it stopped He put his plate in the sink and started to search again

Four hours later he still hadn’t found the green leather case It was half past one, and he was exhausted He lay on his bed fully clothed and fell asleep at once, his dreahtened face always there just out of reach

And alh he’d been asleep for nearly three hours), he woke up knowing two things simultaneously

First, he knehere the case was And second, he knew that thethe kitchen door

He lifted Moxie out of the way and softly hushed her sleepy protest Then he swung his legs over the side of the bed and put on his shoes, straining every nerve to hear the sounds fro lifted and replaced, a short whisper, the creak of a floorboard

Moving more silently than the men were, he left his bedroom and tiptoed to the spare room at the top of the stairs It wasn’t quite pitch-dark, and in the ghostly gray predawn light he could see the old treadle sewing hly only hours before, but he’d forgotten the co machine, where all the patterns and bobbins were kept