Chapter 9 #3
The boy licked his lips nervously, his hands still in the air. “I’m Jared,” he said, making no move to give up the barrier of pallets that half hid him. “Jared Williams.”
Oh shit. She didn’t know how she hadn’t seen it right away, the deep-set eyes and high cheekbones. He was younger, obviously, and not as broad as his uncle across the shoulders, but the resemblance between Ajay and Jared was undeniable.
“Well, this is a sticky wicket,” Margo commented.
“You can put your hands down, Jared, this isn’t a cop show, and we stock replenishers don’t carry guns, although I’m pretty fast with a tag gun; I could label your clothes in under ten seconds.”
Jared’s eyes grew wider.
“Okay,” she said. “Not the time for humor. I have no weapons on me, look.” She waved her own hands in the air. “I am unarmed.”
Haltingly Jared lowered his arms, and unbeknownst to him, Margo did the same with her fists. “If you haven’t got a gun, how did you shoot that brick out?” he asked.
“Huh?” She remembered Margo shattering the brick holding open the door. “Oh, that, um.” Bloody hell!
Margo leaned in close to Casey’s ear and whispered, “Slingshot.”
“It was a slingshot,” Casey parroted. “I carry one with me for protection.” She waited for Jared to call her bluff, but he didn’t, so she carried on.
“You’ve put me in a really awkward position, Jared.
What I ought to do is call the police. But I happen to know your uncle and I know that reporting you will cause him as much trouble as it will you. ”
Jared looked like he was going to cry. “I didn’t break in,” he said, voice wobbling.
“Then how did you get in here?” She gave him a hard stare, and he looked at the ground and then she got it. “Oh, Jared,” she sighed frustratedly. “Did you nick Nigel’s keys?” Jared’s inability to meet her eyes was all the confirmation she needed. What an idiot. Nigel would be furious.
His lip trembled. “It was a dare. I was just supposed to write the messages and then bed down in the lorry and sneak out in the morning when no one was looking. I was going to put the keys back, I promise.”
Casey closed her eyes and took a deep breath in through her nose. She was angry. Angry that he’d betrayed Nigel’s trust and angry that she’d been made to feel frightened by some stupid kids in a place she’d always felt safe.
“Is it just you here?” she asked. “None of your mates hiding, waiting to ambush me?”
“No,” he said. “I swear down. It’s just me. I’m sorry. I didn’t want to do it.”
“Then why did you?” she snapped.
Jared winced, then he shrugged and began to mumble.
“Come over here, I can hardly hear you,” she scolded.
“Ooh, you tell him!” Margo said.
Jared did as he was told. She watched as he slowly and deliberately, while always keeping his hands in view, relinquished his pallet fort, and some of her anger dissolved as she registered that for a boy with brown skin these were safety precautions that had probably been drummed into him from a young age by those who loved him.
She thought of Conner and Ellory, still young enough to be mostly shielded from the everyday prejudices of the world.
Jared stood in front of her now, fleetingly meeting her eyes and then looking back at the ground. He cleared his throat. “It was an initiation. I had to do it to prove that I was one of them.”
Casey blew out a sigh as she looked up to the ceiling. “Do you want to be one of them?”
“S’not about want, is it,” he said, sulkily. “It’s about survival.”
“Ah, peer pressure,” said Margo. “The root of fuckuppery the world over.”
Casey made a decision. “All right. Here’s what’s going to happen.
I am not going to call the police.” Jared looked up at her hopefully.
“But I am going to call your uncle.” He looked down again.
“And you are going to clean up the mess you’ve made before morning.
” Now that her initial fear and anger had subsided, she mostly felt sorry for him.
“Well, that’s all settled, then,” said Margo. “I’m going to take a nap in the furniture department; I am on holiday after all.”
“Okay,” Casey replied. Jared looked up at her, waiting for more, and she remembered that he couldn’t see Margo. “Okay, then, Jared,” she covered. “Let’s go up to the staff office and get the kettle on and then we’ll call your uncle.”
—
Ajay was fuming. Since Casey didn’t have his mobile number, she’d called him on Jared’s phone. He’d answered on the third ring.
“Jared, mate, I told you to only call me if it’s an emergency when I’m working. Is everything all right?” he’d said when he answered the call.
“Not Jared, and everything is not all right, but Jared is safe,” said Casey before going on to briefly explain what had happened.
Now Ajay and Jared were in her office, drinking tea, and glaring at each other. Casey cradled her own mug, feeling very much like a third wheel.
“It doesn’t look good professionally to leave in the middle of a shift. I trusted you to stay out of trouble,” Ajay said. His voice was calm, but he spoke through gritted teeth.
“I said I was sorry,” Jared retorted, mirroring his uncle’s clenched jaw.
Boy oh boy the tension in her office was stretched so thin, Casey could almost hear it squeaking under the strain.
“What were you thinking?” This was the third time Ajay had asked this question.
The first time Jared had only shrugged, and Ajay had quickly gone on to lecture him about responsibilities and respect.
The second, Jared had countered with, “What does it matter?” This time Ajay left a gap that made it clear to Jared that this wasn’t a rhetorical question.
“You don’t care what I’m thinking, so don’t act like you do!” Jared snapped.
Ajay’s crestfallen expression said that this was not the response he’d been expecting. “Of course I care. Why do you think I’ve got you living with me?”
“Because Mum made you” came the sulky retort.
“Because I care about you and I want you to be safe,” Ajay countered.
“By taking me away from my mates? From my home? You’ve made me a prisoner!” Jared’s words fell out in an angry tumble.
Ajay rubbed a hand across his forehead. He looked weary.
“I’m sorry if you feel like that, buddy.
But you know you couldn’t stay in London.
Those guys are dangerous. You feel like a prisoner now, but I’ve seen how this movie ends.
They’ll push you and push you until you snap, and then you’ll be the one who ends up in prison because, trust me, it won’t be them. ”
“This is all your fault anyway. You should’ve left it well alone. Going in there throwing your weight around like some big man. I could’ve handled it.” Jared jutted his chin out defiantly. “All you did was make it worse.”
“I was wrong, okay, I know that.” Ajay’s voice was placatory. “I shouldn’t have lost my temper.”
“Why can’t you just be honest?” Jared’s tone was accusing. “You tell me to turn the other cheek when you know that doesn’t work, and I know that you know because I was there when you lost your shit.”
Casey didn’t know what had happened between them, but Ajay looked distraught.
“You’re right,” he said, trying to meet Jared’s eyes. “I was wrong to tell you to ignore it. And I was wrong to give in to my anger. I don’t know what the answer is, okay? But I know that violence won’t help solve it.”
Jared studied the interior of his mug. Ajay stared up at the ceiling. When the silence was so thick with recriminations, spoken and unspoken, that Casey thought she might choke on it, Ajay said, “Tell me what happened tonight?”
Jared shrugged. “I met these guys in the park. They’ve been letting me hang with them; said I could join their group, but they had to test me first.”
“And they told you what to do?” Casey asked. She’d kept respectfully quiet while they discussed family stuff, but events at the store were her concern.
Jared couldn’t meet her eye. “We sort of all came up with it. Everyone had a different idea, mostly stupid stuff like shoplifting…”
Casey noticed Ajay’s jaw tense, and Jared hurried on with his story.
“But I didn’t wanna do anything that would get me into trouble.
And then somebody said something about breaking into a café or somewhere and writing creepy messages to freak the staff out.
I just had to take photos to prove I’d done it.
And then I thought about here. I figured if I borrowed Nigel’s keys since he’s not using them, then I wouldn’t be breaking in.
I could just get it done and then lay low till morning. ”
Ajay was fighting to keep his cool. “And what about Casey? Did you think about her? Did you think about how frightening it must have been for her to be alone in this big building with an intruder running around?”
Jared had the grace to look shamefaced. “I didn’t know anyone else worked here at night, I thought it was only Nigel.” He looked at Casey. “I never would’ve done it if I’d known you were here. I’m sorry if I scared you.”
Casey chewed the inside of her cheek. She’d known the second she saw him that he was far more afraid of her than she was of him.
And he hadn’t really done any damage, nothing that a cloth and a bucket of soapy water couldn’t remedy at any rate.
Equally, she didn’t want to start a precedent for kids breaking in for dares. Or worse.
Ajay was looking at her. “I know you didn’t call me in an official capacity, but you are still within your rights to press charges…” He left the sentence hanging. Jared looked close to tears again. Never was there a kid less cut out for a life of crime than this one, she thought.
The ball was in her court. When she spoke, she made sure to address them both.
“Listen, if I was going to press charges, I’d have gone straight to the station.
” Jared gulped. “Lucky for you, I believe in second chances. But if you pull anything like this again, it won’t be your uncle I’ll be calling.
” She left a beat and then asked, “Did you get your photos?”