Page 15 of The Dead Ex
But Shaggy-Fringe shook her head. ‘Let her stand if she wants.’
Then she crouched down beside her so they were almost the same height. Her eyes were on her. They were kind. ‘My name’s Camilla and I’m a social worker.I know this is a shock, love. And I know you want your mum. But – and you’ve got to trust me on this – you can’t see her right now. Not for a bit, until we’ve got a few things sorted.’
‘What kind of things?’ whimpered Scarlet.
‘Grown-up stuff.’
She knew what that meant. Go to bed. Leave Mum and the uncles to it. Don’t say anything when Mum slips a tin of supermarket beans into her bag withoutpaying.
‘Scarlet, love, listen to me.’ Her voice sang like a bird with a squeaky voice. ‘Do you have a dad or a nan or a gran or an auntie or someone who we can call?’
Scarlet hesitated, twisting one of the red beads in her hair. Should she mention the uncles? Maybe not. Mum always said she didn’t trust any of them. ‘It’s just Mum and me. We don’t need anyone else.’
‘Just what the mother said,’grunted the mean-faced cop.
‘But I can stay on my own! I’ve done it before when Mum has to go out.’
‘Really?’ Camilla with the shaggy fringe began to write on the big piece of paper in front of her. It didn’t have any lines, but her sentences were still very straight. ‘Well, I’m afraid that’s not allowed. You’re too young.’
Scarlet began to panic. ‘But I’m safe at home with my mum! She doesn’talways go out at night. Anyway, it’s not dark yet, and I’m late for school.’ Scarlet’s eyes began tofill with tears again. ‘It’s my best day. We get to choose our own books and do News Story Hour.’
‘What’s that?’ asked the cop.
‘It’s when children describe what they’ve been doing with their families,’ said Shaggy-Fringe slowly.
‘Interesting …’
‘Mum said I could go in to school later, afterthe game …’
‘What game?’ The cop’s voice was quick. Hard.
Scarlet bit her lip. ‘I can’t tell you. It’s a secret.’
‘You know what, Scarlet?’ said the cop. ‘It might help your mum if you told us. You want to do that, don’t you?’
She nodded.
‘If you don’t, Mum could be in even more trouble than she is already.’
‘I don’t think you should say that,’ butted in Shaggy-Fringe. The cop shrugged asif she didn’t agree and then poured her out some blackcurrant juice. Scarlet gulped it down along with the biscuits. Yummy.
‘Tell you what, Scarlet. We were talking about news stories just now, weren’t we? I like them too. So here’s a pencil. Why don’t you pull up your chair? That’s right. Now tell us about the game. It sounds really fun.’
Don’t tell anyone anything, she’d always been told.But if it helped her mother, that was different, wasn’t it?
‘Promise I’ll see Mum after that?’
‘Promise.’
It took a long time.
‘Just put what you can remember.’
By the time she had finished, her wrists were aching.
‘Good girl.’ Even the mean cop looked pleased with her.
‘Can Mum take me home now?’
