Mind Blind by Lari Don Page A

could call me Boss.”
    “No way! Burglar Bill perhaps, or some other codename.”
    He jerked back from me suddenly. Then he laughed. “Ok. Whatever. Call me whatever. I’ll be gone as soon as we’ve found the urn anyway, so you can call me whatever you like.”
    I shrugged and led him safely towards the town centre from the east side, heading for the car park beside the shopping centre.
    I knew I should be leading him straight to the police station. He had killed Viv, or helped someone else kill her. Why wasn’t I turning him in?
    Did I really believe in the big scary man who would attack us all if this boy didn’t take his little secret away? Did I even believe this boy had killed Viv?
    I wasn’t sure what I believed.
    He seemed to have far too much information about our family, and he had skills they don’t teach at school: criminal sneaking about, kicking knives out of people’s hands, second-guessing what everyone was doing.
    He was weird. He was scary. But was he a killer? Despite his confidence and his bossiness, compared to most boys at my school he was polite and reserved. He never even cameclose to me − except when he was attacking me, obviously − like he didn’t want to invade my space. And he claimed he was protecting my family by taking away this secret.
    Was he dangerous? I didn’t know. So I should stay with him until I had more answers.
    He coughed, to get my attention. “Where does your grampa live?”
    “I’m not telling you until we get there.”
    “I need to know
before
we get there, so I can look out for another surveillance team.”
    I sighed. “We’re a couple of minutes away. He’s in the flats just up from the library.” I marched on, across the empty car park.
    “Stop!” he hissed.
    I stopped. I didn’t want him to grab me again. “What?”
    “Is your grampa’s flat in that red block on the corner?”
    I nodded reluctantly. We could see the top two floors over the low shopping-centre roof.
    He took the lead. I was following again. I’d given away all my power when I told him where we were going.
    Instead of crossing the open car park, he walked briskly to the shopping centre, then moved slowly under the shadowy cover of the jutting roof. When we reached the corner he peered round to get a view of the street and of Grampa’s door diagonally across the T-junction.
    He nodded and eased back. “Someone’s watching his flat too.”
    “How do you know?”
    He gestured. “Look.”
    I peered round and saw a car, with someone sitting in the driver’s seat, parked on the other side of the road opposite Grampa’s front door.
    I stepped back. “You’re right. But how did you know, before you looked?”
    He stared at me and flexed his fingers in his stupid gloves. “It’s obvious. If they’re watching your house, they’ll be watching his too.” He glanced round again. “This guy’s onhis own. Even so, it’s not going to be easy to get in that front door. Is there another door?”
    “There’s a back door. But there might be someone watching the back too.”
    “There isn’t. Em. I don’t think there is. This guy is here alone, waiting for the police who followed your parents to come back. At least, that’s what makes sense.”
    I thought it was a hugely dangerous assumption. But if he wanted to take the risk, that was fine by me.
    “How do we get to the back door?” he asked.
    “There’s a lane further up the street.” I pointed to an entrance before the next block of red-brick flats.
    “That won’t work. The bloke in the car has a clear view of the lane. Are there any other access points to the back?”
    “
Access points
? Do you mean ‘ways in’? Access points! You’re not training to be a health and safety consultant are you?”
    But he was already turning away from me.
    “Hold on.” He looked round the corner. “He’s on the move.”
    “How did you…?” I was starting to wonder about all the things he knew before he looked, but I didn’t ask