Jimmy Coates: Killer

“He stuck my meat knife in his arm.”

Mr Muzbeke sighed. He looked up at the clock and thought about going to work. “We can let him stay for a couple of days. Until we know what’s going on. But don’t tell anybody he’s here, and don’t call the police. Not yet.”

“That’s so silly. It’s all so ridiculous, Neil…”

“Just in case. The state this country’s in, I wouldn’t be surprised if the police decided to abduct an innocent family. Would you?”

“OK. A couple of days.”

Jimmy slept a long time, but still didn’t feel rested when he woke up. It had been happening quite a lot recently. He would wake up with the impression that he’d had a nightmare, but couldn’t remember what it was. And he hardly ever felt properly rested. He opened his eyes and wondered what the time was. There was no clock in the room. All he could think about when he looked at the light coming through the curtains was that he’d jumped out of a similar window the night before. Suddenly he was filled with anxiety. What if the Muzbekes had told someone he was there? What if Felix had blabbed at school? He was a good friend and he’d never put Jimmy in danger deliberately, but he was always giving secrets away by accident.

An image jumped into Jimmy’s mind that was too real for comfort. It was the picture of the Muzbekes’ house surrounded by men in black suits, with their thin black ties oozing down their fronts. Then he pictured them in the kitchen, being served tea by Olivia Muzbeke, just waiting for Jimmy to come downstairs.

He shut his eyes and tried to go back to sleep, but all the tension from the night before had rushed back into his body. He slipped down below the duvet, wishing he could stay there for ever, but quickly got too hot.

Downstairs, Felix was guzzling toast in front of the TV. There was toast waiting for Jimmy too. Felix’s mother must have heard him getting up.

“Hiya, Jimmy, how’s your arm?” Felix almost shouted this, and bounded over to punch Jimmy on the shoulder.

“Yeah, it’s fine.”

“Lemme see.” Jimmy showed Felix his wrist and kept it held out while he sat down and started eating his toast. He let the images from the TV go into his brain without paying attention and felt Felix prodding around his cut.

“That’s so cool.”

“All right, get off it now.” Jimmy pulled his arm back.

“Can I cut off your hand?” said Felix.

“What?” Jimmy glared at Felix, before he realised he was joking. Felix laughed, and after a second Jimmy did too. “How was school?”

“OK, I suppose.” Felix shrugged, “Miss Bennett nearly didn’t even notice you were missing when she took the register.”

The more they chatted, the more ridiculous the events of the night before seemed. The danger started fading in Jimmy’s mind; he didn’t know why anybody was after him, so there didn’t appear to be much point being afraid. But as the fear dwindled, in its place came a long, slow ache. The memory of his parents being driven away tore at his mind. Suddenly he knew what it meant to miss somebody.

“We should go and find them,” Felix said brightly, with toast crumbs all over his face. “Your parents, I mean.”

“What?”

“Well, you said we can’t call the police, and they’ve disappeared, right? Taken by these strange men in suits.” He said it like it was the name of an alien race, and waved his hands in front of him, trying to look spooky.