BooksBarbecue
Back Found
Chapters (62)
  1. Title
  2. Copyright
  3. Contents
  4. About the Author
  5. About the Book
  6. Dedication
  7. Your Worst Nightmare
  8. ONE
  9. TWO
  10. THREE
  11. FOUR
  12. FIVE
  13. SIX
  14. SEVEN
  15. EIGHT
  16. NINE
  17. The Answer to All Your Prayers
  18. TEN
  19. ELEVEN
  20. TWELVE
  21. THIRTEEN
  22. FOURTEEN
  23. FIFTEEN
  24. SIXTEEN
  25. SEVENTEEN
  26. EIGHTEEN
  27. NINETEEN
  28. TWENTY
  29. TWENTY-ONE
  30. TWENTY-TWO
  31. TWENTY-THREE
  32. TWENTY-FOUR
  33. TWENTY-FIVE
  34. TWENTY-SIX
  35. TWENTY-SEVEN
  36. TWENTY-EIGHT
  37. TWENTY-NINE
  38. THIRTY
  39. THIRTY-ONE
  40. Somebody Else’s Child
  41. THIRTY-TWO
  42. THIRTY-THREE
  43. THIRTY-FOUR
  44. THIRTY-FIVE
  45. THIRTY-SIX
  46. THIRTY-SEVEN
  47. THIRTY-EIGHT
  48. THIRTY-NINE
  49. FORTY
  50. FORTY-ONE
  51. FORTY-TWO
  52. FORTY-THREE
  53. FORTY-FOUR
  54. FORTY-FIVE
  55. FORTY-SIX
  56. FORTY-SEVEN
  57. FORTY-EIGHT
  58. FORTY-NINE
  59. Sunlight on Water
  60. July
  61. September
  62. Acknowledgements

Evan smiles, nods, and is going to jump up from the sofa to fetch the draught board. Jack touches his arm to stop him.

‘Not so fast, ace,’ he says. ‘That was your dad on the phone. I’m going to tell you something now which might upset you, but much as we might not like it, sometimes upsetting things come knocking at the door. Like losing your grandma. We’d have done anything to stop that but there wasn’t anything to be done. What’s happened, happened, and we have to do our best and get on. Like the business when you were gone from us.’

He feels Evan stiffen, his muscles tense, and knows he might be about to run from the room.

‘You must listen to me, son. There’s something we have to talk about and it can’t wait until we’re entirely ready to face it because the world doesn’t work like that. It’s here and it’s urgent, not for us – if it were down to me it would never be mentioned, ever, you know that – but because someone else is involved now and I think we should try and help them. But before we talk about what your dad said, you and I are going to set some ground rules, because the world might be coming looking for us but that doesn’t mean to say it has to come here. This place is a special place, wouldn’t you say, and I see no reason why we should let anyone in who we don’t love or like or want here. Only nice people are welcome. And I’m not saying the police aren’t nice people, but they deal with bad people, and we don’t want anyone here either who’s got any connection to anyone bad. So you and I can agree where our boundaries are. And I say, we make the stream at the bottom of the lane there our frontier. No one we don’t want here crosses that. Everywhere this side of that line – this house and the barn and our fields – is sanctuary. Do you know what I mean by sanctuary?’

Evan shakes his head.

‘It means a place where you can’t be touched, somewhere protected by an invisible shield. This is our land. One day I hope it’ll be your dad’s and yours to look after, the same as my dad – your great-grandad – looked after it before me. So picture it with a great, high imaginary wall down by the stream, and that’s how it’s going to be. OK?’

Evan nods uncertainly.

‘The thing is, son, those men who took you, they’ve taken someone else. A boy called Liam.’

Instantly, Evan curls into the smallest ball he can make. With both hands, he covers his face, then covers his ears instead and squeezes his eyes shut.