The Whisper Man(51)

The anger had faded through the day, though, and that was confusing in itself. But then, sometimes arguments disappeared like mist did first thing in the morning. In the classroom, though, he’d felt lonely and had wanted to hug Daddy a lot more and tell him he was sorry, and to hear Daddy tell him that, actually, he was too.

It had felt like things might be better then.

And then Owen had done what he’d done, and so had Jake, and there had been Miss Wallace’s office to face as a result. That actually hadn’t been so bad in itself, except for two big reasons. One was that the Packet of Special Things was back in the classroom, which meant it may very well be at the mercy of the evil Owen, which was an unbearable thought. Can you look at me, please? Miss Wallace had needed to say it twice, because Jake couldn’t take his eyes off the closed office door. And reason number two: he knew Daddy was going to be disappointed and angry with him for getting in trouble again, which meant that things weren’t going to get better for a long time. Or maybe ever, at this rate.

Perhaps Daddy might even write horrible words down about him too.

Jake suspected that he wanted to.

But then, when he got back to the classroom, the Packet appeared to have been left untouched, and the possibility had occurred to him that maybe he should hit people more often. And at pickup time, Daddy hadn’t seemed angry with him at all. He’d actually argued with Mrs. Shelley! Which was certainly brave, Jake thought. But! More importantly, Daddy had been on his side. Even if he hadn’t said it outright, Jake could tell that he was. Even though he hadn’t gotten a hug, that actually made things seem as good as if he had.

And now they were in a police station.

That had been fine at first because it was really quite interesting, especially as everybody had been very nice to him, but he quite wanted to leave now. And then the next thing had happened—the new policeman coming in—and everything was even more confusing now, because of how Daddy was behaving. He’d been fine with the other police people, but he looked pale and scared now, as though this were a classroom for him and the new policeman was someone like Mrs. Shelley.

Come to think of it, the new policeman looked uncomfortable too. When the woman police officer left, carrying the statement Daddy had signed, the door closed, and then the air in the room had felt very strange indeed. It was like there was some kind of glue that was holding everybody in place.

Then the new policeman walked slowly over and looked down at him.

“You must be Jake?” he said.

“Yes.” This was true. “I am Jake.”

The man smiled, but it was an odd one. He had a face that looked like it could be very kind indeed, but the smile right now was troubled. A moment later, he reached out his hand, and so Jake shook it, which was the polite thing to do. The hand was big and warm, and the grip was very gentle.

“I’m pleased to meet you, Jake. You can call me Pete.”

“Hello, Pete,” Jake said. “It’s nice to meet you too. Why can’t we go home? One of the other policemen told my daddy that we couldn’t.”

Pete frowned and knelt down in front of him, then peered into his face as though there might be some kind of secret there. Jake stared back at him to let him know he wasn’t hiding anything. No secrets here, mister.

“It’s very complicated,” Pete said. “We have to do some investigation work at your house.”

“Because of the boy in the floor?”

“Yes.”

But then Pete looked across at Daddy, and Jake remembered that he wasn’t supposed to have mentioned that. But honestly, the atmosphere in the room was so funny that it was easy to forget things like that.

“I told him what I found,” Daddy said.

“How did you know that it’s a boy, though?”

Daddy was just standing there, but he looked caught somehow, as though he wanted to move forward or backward but had forgotten how his body worked. Jake had the uncomfortable feeling that if Daddy did remember how to move properly, it would be forward—and quite aggressively too.

“I didn’t,” Daddy said. “I said body. He must have misheard me.”

“That’s true,” Jake added quickly. He didn’t want Daddy to hit anybody, especially a policeman, because right now it really looked like he might.

Pete stood up slowly.

“Okay. Well, let’s deal with some practicalities. Is it just the two of you?”

“Yes,” Daddy said.

“Jake’s mother…?”

Daddy still looked angry. “My wife died last year.”

“I’m sorry. That must have been very hard for you.”

“We’re fine.”

“I can see that.”

So confusing! Jake wanted to shake his head. Now Pete didn’t seem able to look at Daddy. But Pete was a policeman, and that meant he was in charge, didn’t it?

“We can arrange accommodation for you, but you might not want that. Do you have any family you’d prefer to stay with?”

“No,” Daddy said. “Both of my parents are dead.”

Pete hesitated.

“Right. I’m very sorry to hear that as well.”

“It’s okay.”

And then Daddy took a step forward. Jake held his breath, but now it only seemed like Daddy wanted to hit someone, rather than that he actually would.