Unholy Rites by Kay Stewart, Chris Bullock Page B

kill me if anything happens to him!”
    Eric got that look on his face that meant Stephen was buggered. He lifted the cage over his head, too high for Stephen to see inside, and swung it back and forth. “So what’s it worth to you?”
    Stephen glanced towards the bank on his desk, a metal postbox that Nana had given him when he was five. He’d stopped putting money in when he realized that Eric was taking it. After Eric was nicked, he’d gathered the coins he’d stashed in various hiding places and dropped them one by one through the slot marked LETTERS . “I’ve got almost a pound.”
    Eric’s lips curled into a sneer. “Is that all the little rat’s worth? Let’s have a look.” Warning Stephen to stay back, he set the cage on the floor, kneeled in front, and stuck one hand inside. “Where are you, then, little rat face?”
    â€œYou can have my penknife,” Stephen said as Eric’s fingers dug through the wood shavings where Happy liked to hide.
    â€œWhy thank you!” Eric’s hand closed around the trembling gerbil and he drew it from the cage. “Nothing like a penknife to jingle in your pocket along with a bit of change. It’s not enough, though, is it, little rat face?” He looked up at Stephen.
    â€œWhat else do you want?” Stephen cried. “You took my Walkman when yours broke, and that was all I had.”
    â€œWhat you have that I don’t,” said Eric, “is freedom. I can’t move without Clough’s bloody sheepdog following me, and I can’t even talk to my friends. Now does that seem fair? You wouldn’t like it if you couldn’t talk to your mates, would you?”
    â€œThat would be awful,” Stephen said, though truth to tell the only bloke he was mates with lived up in Tideswell. Their mums were friends, that’s how they got to know each other. He didn’t see much of his schoolmates; his mum didn’t have time for that. “What do you want me to do?”
    Eric took a folded piece of paper from his pocket. “See this? We’re going to go out and leave it near the river for the Grand Master, the man I told you about. I’ve got a bit of food for him too, and a few of Dad’s cigs.”
    â€œYou can’t do that! Dad will beat you black and blue!”
    â€œHow many years do you think I’ve been helping meself to his fags, and he’s never noticed?”
    â€œMr. Clough said you’re not to go out without Mum or Dad.”
    â€œI figure I can get by with it this once,” Eric said. “If I get caught a second time, I’d be back in the clink. That’s why I have to show you the hiding place, so next time you can do it by yourself. Every time I come I’ll bring a note for you to leave where I show you. It will be in code, so don’t even think of trying to read it. Take supplies if you can, but the important thing is to take the note.”
    â€œWhy, what’s so important about it? I don’t want to get into trouble.”
    â€œYou won’t get into trouble. It’s just a little game, that’s all.”
    â€œI can’t,” Stephen said. Eric’s hand tightened around Happy. Stephen hadn’t dared go out by himself at night since he’d seen the shadowy figure on the footbridge. If that was the Grand Master, he was scared to death of him. But he couldn’t tell Eric about that, Eric would call him a scaredy-cat, or worse. “Wait, it isn’t that I don’t want to, Mum won’t even let me stay home by myself at night when she’s working. I have to sit in the pub kitchen doing my homework.”
    Eric shrugged. “Who says you have to go at night? I’m to come to Sunday dinner and be picked up at three. You can go as soon as I leave. There’ll be lots of daylight left, and Mum won’t mind if you slope off for a bit. The fresh air will do you good, put