Animal Kingdom by Stephen Sewell Page B

anything, but he thought she understood.
    He hadn’t meant to go to sleep, but he did, and the next thing was Nicky’s mum was knocking on the door, saying, ‘J, are you in there?’
    Rousing, he saw that it was already morning, and Nicky was asleep in her jammies beside him.
    â€˜Yep,’ he said sheepishly, rubbing his eyes.
    â€˜Your uncle’s at the door.’
    Shit, which one? What did he want? J had no idea how they’d found him. It wasn’t that he’d kept her address secret, just that he’d never told them it.
    â€˜Coming,’ he said, standing quickly. ‘What did you let me fall asleep for, Nick?’ he hissed at her. It was Romeo and Juliet all over again, though maybe they didn’t know it. It was every young couple there’s ever been since Adam and Eve.
    â€˜ I fell asleep,’ she said, stretching and yawning.
    Darren was standing at the front door, with Alicia instinctively blocking the way inside, protecting her home from someone she knew in her bones she didn’t want to let in.
    Stepping into view, J glanced at the floor as he passed her.
    Darren said, ‘Hey, we gotta go.’
    â€˜All right,’ J said, guiltily glancing at Alicia.
    Putting his hand out to shake Alicia’s, Darren tried to be civil, saying, ‘It was nice to meet you. See ya.’
    It was such a dumb thing to do. J couldn’t believe it even as he was doing it. Here he was, one of the murderers, one of the killers who had shot those coppers pretending to be just another friendly Joe who’s pleased to meet you.
    Was he still wearing the same shoes? J looked, and saw he was. All bright and shiny, from where he’d washed all the blood off.
    J was amazed at the nerve. Was it nerve or indifference? Indifference to what people thought? Or just plain stupidity? Was that what had happened to them? They’d gotten so hardened to their own crimes, they didn’t care what people thought any more, didn’t even notice, because everyone in the world was a fool except them. Yeah, these are the shoes I killed those dumb pricks in. It actually washes off pretty easily. Have a nice day.
    But underneath, Darren was shitting himself. And it wasn’t just that they’d get caught. He knew they would, of course they would. It was the memory of what they’d done, killing those two men, the blood, the horror in their eyes, the diabolical—Darren didn’t even know the word, but he knew that was the word—the diabolical look on Pope’s face as he took aim at their cowering figures. Darren had never even imagined anything as ghastly as what he’d done. It wasn’t easy to kill a man: you had to turn yourself into something else, and they had. The three of them. They’d turned themselves into something else. Only Darren didn’t know what, exactly.
    â€˜I do a lot for you, Nick,’ Alicia said as she closed the door on them. She was looking at her, her own daughter, still wondering how to talk to her. ‘You’re still at school and you’re allowed to have your boyfriend sleep over. That’s a big thing for me.’
    And it was, and you’d have to have been a total moron not to see it, and, for the moment, Nicky dropped the attitude and hugged her mother. She knew it was a big thing, and somehow the talk she’d had the previous night had mellowed her. Putting her arms around her mother, she hugged her. ‘I love you, Mum,’ she said.
    And Alicia knew it was true.

ELEVEN
    Following Darren out through the oleander bushes and across the front yard, J’s pace slowed as he saw Pope. There he was, sitting with his arm resting on the window in the parked car out on the street. Seeing him was like being punched in the solar plexus. It was Pope, as large as life, sitting on the passenger side of Darren’s car. He was the one behind the murders—he had to be, because the others were too stupid