‘You can’t be in here!’ the nurse shouted, bursting in as Charlie pocketed the evidence of what she’d done.

‘Charlie?’ Ed roared, sitting up in bed, clutching a pillow to his chest.

Clyde had used a key to let himself back inside. He furiously slammed Charlie against the wall. Ed didn’t like seeing his sister manhandled and jumped out of bed, locking his chunky hands round Clyde’s neck and giving Charlie a chance to break free.

‘It’s OK, Ed, but I have to go,’ Charlie said, feeling horribly guilty as she abandoned her panicked brother to a pair of angry nurses and sprinted back the way she’d come.

Outside, Charlie quickly inspected her car to make sure it was drivable before jumping in. One of the rear light clusters was cracked, but everything else seemed fine.

I smashed up a car and violated quarantine at a hospital. Harry says the FBI are on to me. I’d probably be in an interrogation room already if the world wasn’t focused on Killer-T. But I did what I came here to do. I need to get home and vaccinate Navid, Jan and the boys.

With good behaviour, I might be out by the time I’m thirty …

50 HAVING WORDS

‘It’s Charlie, returning your call.’

Her voice made the past erupt. From the desperate sweaty hug in the tire shop, to the morning Harry woke in hospital, with three loose teeth, crazy sexual jealousy and a vow never to speak to Charlie again. They were just kids. They’d never even kissed, but her voice still felt big. Like she’d grown roots in his brain.

‘You sound upset,’ Harry said as he stepped on to his balcony and looked at dead streets four hundred and fifty feet below.

‘Just had my first ever row with my foster parents,’ Charlie said in a dazed sing-song voice. ‘And other crazy stuff happened. And I’m on my way back to jail …’

‘Only if it’s true,’ Harry pointed out.

Charlie sounded wary. ‘Am I talking to Harry my old friend, or Harry from Vegas Local?’

‘Friend,’ Harry said. ‘There’s no point running a story now anyway. Elvis Presley could land mid-strip in a UFO, take a crap and start singing “Viva Las Vegas”, and Killer-T would still be all anyone talked about.’

‘Focuses the mind when something could kill you,’ Charlie observed.

‘Helen Back’s FBI statement is probably under some sort of legal protection,’ Harry said. ‘I could get into trouble if I sent it to you. But the gist is simple.’

‘I’ve been running Mango’s lab,’ Charlie confessed.

‘This call isn’t encrypted,’ Harry warned.

Charlie laughed. ‘If the FBI have been on my case for two weeks, they’ll have all they need to bust me. Mango’s so cautious about everything. I can’t believe she gossiped to a celeb like some star-struck teen.’