Page 51 of The Dead Ex
‘Yes.’
‘Then don’t speak. Just listen. When you come out of school tomorrow, there’s going to be a man at the gate. You might recognize him.’
‘Is he one of the uncles?’
‘I said not to talk,didn’t I? He’s going to give you something. Keep it safe. When you come and see me, hide it in your sleeve, wrapped up in a tissue. They don’t alwayssearch kids. Then, when we give each other a hug at visits, I’m going to sneeze. You’ll pass me your tissue. Got it?’
‘But what’s in –’
‘SHUT UP. It’s a new game. OK?’
Scarlet glanced across at Mr W. He was still busy with his phone. ‘I can’twait to see you, Mum.’
‘Me too. Be a good girl and do exactly what I’ve said. Now blow me a kiss so I can catch it.’
This had been another of their games for as long as she could remember. But it wasn’t the same doing it down the phone instead of face to face.
‘I love you, Scarlet.’ Mum’s voice was thick with tears. ‘Always remember that.’
It was Mum’s friend with black cornrows, a bit likehers, who was outside school. Scarlet liked him because he was always smiley and didn’t shout.
‘For your mother,’ he said quickly, and then pressed a tiny envelope into her hand. ‘Doing all right, are you?’
He ruffled the top of her head and then walked away before she had a chance to answer.
‘Who’s that?’ asked Dawn.
‘No one.’
‘What did he give you?’
‘Mind your own business.’
Quickly shestuffed the envelope into the grey backpack that Camilla had got her.
‘You can keep a secret, I’ll give you that.’ Dawn said it in a way that suggested this was good.
But inside, Scarlet’s heart was all wobbly.
‘Excited?’ asked Camilla on Saturday as they walked towards the visitor centre.
Scarlet nodded. The envelope felt heavy inside her sleeve, even though it was only light. She’d wantedto open it, but it had lots of brown tape stuff round it.
‘Put anything you’re carrying in the lockers,’ barked the dragon lady.
Camilla squeezed in her large black briefcase with the shiny silver lock. ‘You haven’t got anything, dear, have you?’
Scarlet shook her head. Her chest began to thud as though footsteps were walking up and down her heart.
Another uniformed woman was running her handsover Camilla.
Then she nodded at Scarlet. ‘Off you go.’
Phew!
This time, Mum was already waiting for them. ‘Thought you weren’t coming,’ she said accusingly to Camilla. ‘Felt like a right prat, I did. The other girls thought I’d been stood up.’
‘The traffic was bad, and we had a long queue to get in here,’ said Camilla. ‘Didn’t we, Scarlet?’
