Jimmy Coates: Killer

Table of Contents

Cover Page

Title Page

CHAPTER ONE – STRANGE TALENTS

CHAPTER TWO – GREEN STRIPE

CHAPTER THREE – BOY AND A BAG

CHAPTER FOUR – NEVER ALONE

CHAPTER FIVE – FACE OF A FOE

CHAPTER SIX – IN HIDING

CHAPTER SEVEN – RAID

CHAPTER EIGHT – NEVER SAFE

CHAPTER NINE – TIME TO FLY

CHAPTER TEN – DROWNING TWICE

CHAPTER ELEVEN – 38 PERCENT

CHAPTER TWELVE – A LESSON IN FOOTWEAR

CHAPTER THIRTEEN – MIND THE GRP

CHAPTER FOURTEEN – IZGARU

CHAPTER FIFTEEN – SAFFRON WALDEN

CHAPTER SIXTEEN – BASHED UP BENTLEY

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN – BAD CITIZENS

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN – INTO THE DARK

CHAPTER NINETEEN – WELCOME BACK

CHAPTER TWENTY – FINAL OFFER

CHAPTER TWENTY ONE – EXILE

Acknowledgments

About the Author

Also by Joe Craig

Copyright

About the Publisher

CHAPTER ONE – STRANGE TALENTS

JIMMY KNEW WHAT was coming, but he was too late to dodge out of the way. Georgie pounced on him and they both landed with a thump on the bed. She moved quickly, and easily locked her arm round Jimmy’s neck. Then she dug her knuckles into the top of his head, kneeling over him. Not again, Jimmy thought. All these years he had never been able to escape his sister’s hold.

“Looks like I’m still bigger than you!” Georgie jeered. It was true–Jimmy was waiting for a growth spurt. But he never gave in easily.

“I don’t care! Get out my room!” he roared.

“I need your computer.”

She released him and took a seat at Jimmy’s desk. Then she asked as casually as she could, “Is Westminster Bridge actually part of Westminster, or does it just go to Westminster?”

“Find a tramp at Westminster Bridge,” Jimmy suggested, a huge smile on his face. “He’d tell you. And he’d probably smell like you too; you could be really good friends.”

“That’s it–you’re done for.” She was at him again. This time she pinned him down even harder and pulled his hair. Even though he knew she was just messing around, it still hurt.

“Mum!” Jimmy cried.

“I’m not doing anything!” Georgie shouted in response.

Jimmy flapped his arms about and slapped his sister on the back a couple of times, but it didn’t do any good. Then they heard the familiar pounding on the wall from next door, followed by their father shouting up the stairs.

“Keep it down. You’re disturbing Mr Higgins.”

“I hate that old weirdo,” muttered Georgie. It was remarkable how a next-door neighbour who claimed to be nearly deaf could have such sensitive hearing.

Jimmy was still struggling. But then, without knowing why, he stopped moving for a split second. Suddenly, his arm scooped up underneath his sister’s body as fast as it would move. She lost her balance and had to release Jimmy’s head. But his arm kept going. Georgie flipped backwards into the air and landed on the bed with a splat, gawping straight up at the ceiling.

They were both stunned.

Jimmy stared at his hands. Then he laughed and straightened his hair.

Georgie was not impressed. “What was that?” she shouted, but before she could grab him, Jimmy had run out of the room and made it to the stairs. Halfway down, he started walking very sedately and caught his breath. In the living room, his parents were watching the news.

“What’s all the noise about?” his father shouted to no one in particular.

Jimmy bounced on to the sofa feeling very pleased with himself.

“Your sister needs peace and quiet to work on her history project,” his mother said sternly. Before Jimmy could think of the best way of answering, Georgie burst in.

“We were just messing around, but then he started fighting properly.”

“That’s a lie!” Jimmy was ready for action again, dying to have another go at what he’d managed upstairs, but a chocolate wrapper hit him on the side of his head. He spun round to see his father watching the television, grinning. Jimmy knew he’d never be able to return fire without his mother noticing, so he turned back to the television.

“Oh forget it. I’ll be in my room,” announced Georgie, flustered and red in the face.

She wasn’t really upset, was she, Jimmy wondered? Had he hurt her? He hadn’t meant to. It was just satisfying to beat her for once. Jimmy told himself that maybe later he’d apologise. He wouldn’t mind doing that–it might even be fun, apologising because he’d won for the first time.

Jimmy’s parents ignored Georgie flouncing upstairs. They were concentrating on the news. On the screen were pictures of Ares Hollingdale, the Prime Minister, walking around Downing Street, and then another man who looked a bit scruffier, but a lot younger. Jimmy wasn’t paying attention because he was so excited about getting the better of Georgie for once. Slowly, though, he started watching his parents. When this younger, scruffier man appeared on screen, they both shifted uneasily in their seats. Then Jimmy’s father looked straight at Jimmy and spoke quietly, but seriously, back to being a grown-up.

“You should pay attention to this–instead of the rubbish you always watch. Someone might form an opposition to the government again.”

He glared for a second at Jimmy’s mother, who replied, frowning: “Nobody knows what’s going to happen in this country.”

Jimmy considered this for a second, and thought to himself that nobody knows what’s going to happen in any country. It was a stupid thing to say – nobody could predict the future.

Just then, the doorbell rang. Jimmy’s father pushed himself up with a sigh.

“You expecting someone?” asked his wife.

He stood for a long time scratching his ear, then just said, “No,” and strode out to the front door.

Jimmy’s father manufactured bottle tops for loads of different soft drinks and beers. He often saw clients at home, but it always took a long time and sometimes went on late into the night. Sometimes Jimmy heard shouting when he was in bed.

“You don’t think…” started Jimmy’s mother, but her husband had already left the room. She looked at Jimmy. “Go upstairs and get ready for bed,” she said tenderly.

“What?” said Jimmy. “It’s really early. And I’ve decided to watch the news.” His mother didn’t answer. She turned off the television and they both started listening to what was going on at the front door.

“Oh, it’s you,” Jimmy’s father said, “I didn’t expect…”

“Can we come in, Ian?” It was a man’s voice, deep and flat.

“Erm, of course. We weren’t expecting you.” His father sounded nervous, and the other man cut him off.

“Thanks,” he said. There was a creaking of footsteps and then the living-room door was pushed open. The man who walked in was tall and broad, taller even than Jimmy’s father and obviously in much better shape. He was tanned and good-looking, but only smiling with one half of his mouth, a small smile that scanned the room and found Jimmy.

“Hello, young man. You must be James.” Before Jimmy could answer, his mother jumped up between them.

“Please,” she said, with her hand out to distract the man’s attention. “Sit down. Please sit down.”

The man looked at Jimmy’s mother and straightened his tie. It was a long black tie, thinner than the ones Jimmy’s father wore for work, and his suit was the same black. “Helen, how lovely to see you again,” he said, and sat where Jimmy’s father had been sitting.

“Jimmy, go upstairs,” said his father, who walked in and sat down awkwardly.

“No, he can stay, Ian,” said the man in the suit.

“You haven’t—” started Jimmy’s mother, but the man cut her off.

“We’ve come for the boy.”

There was silence.

Jimmy replayed in his mind what the man had just said: “We’ve come for the boy.” What? Did that mean him, Jimmy Coates? Jimmy quickly went through the last few days in his head, or as much as he could manage on the spot, trying to remember if he had done anything wrong. But he was panicking and couldn’t even think of what he’d done that morning, let alone yesterday or the day before. Then Jimmy suddenly noticed another man who was standing in the doorway. He was dressed the same way as the first man, but was not quite as tall or as tanned.

Jimmy’s father turned from one man to the other.

“You’re early,” he said, “We thought—”

“I know,” the man interrupted again. “This is the new arrangement. We’ve come to get him.” The man looked straight ahead, not round at Jimmy and not at either of his parents. He was waiting for something. Finally Jimmy’s mother spoke–and it wasn’t what the man was expecting.

“Run, Jimmy,” she said, her voice almost a whisper. She clutched at her throat and then shouted, “JIMMY RUN!”

For a tiny moment Jimmy didn’t move. Everyone’s face was turned towards him. Jimmy looked at his father. He looked sad, but not scared like Jimmy’s mother. The terror in her voice made its way into Jimmy’s belly and connected with the confusion in his head. Then he was finally able to unfreeze his legs and throw himself towards the door.

The man standing there wasn’t expecting such a burst of speed, and when Jimmy’s full weight hit him he was winded. Jimmy pulled open the front door. But what if there were other men in suits waiting for him outside? Leaving the front door open, Jimmy bolted to the stairs instead, sprinting up two at a time. He reached the top out of breath, and dashed into his bedroom.

“Come to gloat?” Georgie grumbled from the computer, but Jimmy didn’t answer. “Who was at the door?” Jimmy could hardly hear her for all the blood rushing through his head. Then the regular beat of a big man pounding up the stairs hit him in the heart.

“Call the police!” Jimmy panted, diving under the bed.

“What?” gasped Georgie. Jimmy heard the door open and saw two sets of shiny black shoes pointing straight at him, like four vultures.

“Hey, who are you?” Georgie yelled. “Get out!”

“Take her downstairs,” ordered one of the men.

“Police! Help!” Georgie’s screams faded as she was carried away.

Then a face appeared next to Jimmy’s, leering down under the bed. It was the taller of the two men. His huge hand grabbed Jimmy’s shoulder and dragged him out. Jimmy stood rubbing his neck as the shorter man returned. There was no noise from downstairs. Why was everyone so quiet?

“Why do you want me?” he asked.

“Why are you running?” countered the taller man immediately.

“I don’t know who you are,” said Jimmy.

“You don’t know who you are.”

At first, Jimmy thought it was a slip of the tongue. Then he wasn’t so sure.

“I’m Jimmy Coates. My name is Jimmy Coates and I’m just a kid.”

“OK, Jimmy, I need you to come with us. You can trust me.”

There is something very untrustworthy about a man who says “Trust me”. This man’s eyes were the colour of steel, and from the way his shirt pulled across his chest, it looked like he was built of the stuff too. Jimmy stared back as hard as he could and tried to look tough, but this wasn’t a game. Jimmy’s throat tightened and something behind his stomach stopped him breathing properly. It looked like he had no choice but to go with these men.

Maybe Jimmy hesitated just a little too long. The taller man dipped his hand into his jacket and Jimmy caught a glimpse of a pale leather holster. When the man’s hand emerged, it was holding a gun.

“I just need you to come with us,” he stated coldly, but Jimmy couldn’t take his eyes off the gun. It was the first he had ever seen and it was pointed straight at him.

All of a sudden, utter fear behind his stomach turned into something else. Jimmy felt a surge of energy, as if some powerful piece of machinery had been turned on. It quickly spread through his whole body. It was something he had never felt before and he didn’t know whether he liked it. In another moment, it bolted up the right side of Jimmy’s neck and wrapped itself around his head. At that moment he stopped thinking. His mind cleared and the feeling inside started acting for him. He dipped his body to one side and sprang forward. He was out of the line of fire now, and before the man could adjust, Jimmy put one hand on the gun and the other on the man’s wrist. With a firm twist, he pushed the barrel up towards the ceiling and leant down on the man’s hand. There was a loud crack. The gun dropped to the floor and the man clasped his trigger finger in pain.

Jimmy had moved so fast that the shorter man hadn’t had time to react, but now he leapt forward. Jimmy darted away from his desperate grasp, then kicked the gun under the bed. He looked towards the door, but both men stood in his way; even though one was hurt, he was still ready to act. His half-smile had turned into a grimace.

Jimmy was acting automatically–by instinct, not by thought. It was like watching someone in a movie. He saw the men move and could predict exactly where they were going to go by the way their weight shifted across the floorboards. As they lumbered towards him, Jimmy took a light step to the side and leapt backwards.

He coiled his body into a ball and shut his eyes tight. The two men were stunned as Jimmy smashed through the window. Glass shattered everywhere and Jimmy felt it falling with him. The air was suddenly cold. He screwed his eyes shut harder and waited to hit the ground.

As he fell like a lump of stone, Jimmy’s brain crept back on. He had enough time for one thought to go through his head–why had he jumped out of the window? There was a paved drive below, and now he was probably going to die, or at least break every bone in his body.

Then he hit the concrete.

CHAPTER TWO – GREEN STRIPE

JIMMY DIDN’T MOVE. He had landed on his shoulder and his eyes were still shut. Glass rained around and on top of him. He could hear it falling on the roof of the car that was asleep next to him, and he felt some hitting the side of his face. He lay there, waiting for the pain. Why hadn’t he blacked out? Then he thought maybe he had blacked out. Maybe he was in hospital and the whole misunderstanding about the men coming to get him had been cleared up.

But Jimmy knew that wasn’t true. He brushed fragments of glass away from his eyes and opened them. He could see the light of a street lamp winking at him. He didn’t understand why there was no pain at all. He wiggled different parts of his body. Everything moved just as he wanted.

He rolled his neck as one last test to make sure he wasn’t actually dead. He looked up to the sky, then saw his house and the broken window. Dad’s going to kill me, he thought. For a second, he thought he saw Mr Higgins’ bony nose peeking through next door’s curtains, but Jimmy’s eyes were still bleary.

Then he picked out two faces looking down at him out of the glass-lined hole. Those two really will kill me, he thought. But he didn’t get a chance to panic. That strange feeling crept up on him again, like a tropical wave filling his insides. It moved faster this time as it swooped up the side of his head. Jimmy tried to keep his mind switched on; he didn’t like surrendering control of his body to whatever this was. It may have saved his life, but next time it tried anything as stupid as throwing him out of a window, the result might not be the same.

He couldn’t stop it, though. Now that he knew he hadn’t been hurt by the fall, Jimmy wanted to spring up and run as fast as he could. But he didn’t move. His body stayed exactly where it was until the two heads moved from the window. They were coming down for him. Run now, please, he thought, but still he didn’t get up from the drive. Instead, he tucked his elbows into his chest and rolled over twice until he was under the car. The ground was cold, and bits of glass stuck into him as he spun over them. He felt around the undercarriage of the car and found a place for his fingers to grip. Then, with just the strength of his forearms, he pulled his whole body off the concrete. He hooked his toes under a fold of metal and waited.

There was dust and grime all over him. He could feel grease crawling down his arms and dripping on to his face. Slowly, he paid attention to his thoughts again: if he had run, the men would have jumped into a car and chased him down. But what instinct had told him to stay put and to roll under the car when the men weren’t looking? Then he noticed the ridiculous position he was in, clutching the underside of the car. Where had this strength come from?

Now the two men came running out of the open front door. Again, Jimmy could only see their shoes.

“No visual,” shouted the shorter man, looking up and down the road.

“You were meant to stop him getting out of the living room.”

“He used his strength against me.”

“That’s rubbish. He doesn’t know yet.”

“Then how did he break your finger and jump out of the window?”

“Put it in the report.”

Jimmy was getting more confused by the second. What didn’t he know yet? Then he heard the crackle of a walkie-talkie.

“The boy’s out. Establish a perimeter. We have no visual,” one of the men said. Jimmy saw one pair of feet run over to the back of a van that was parked in the street outside the house.

“What are you doing?”

“You don’t expect me to sniff him out do you?”

“The dogs won’t do any good, you fool,” was the response, but the van was already open. Jimmy heard barking and saw two sets of paws padding around the driveway. Then the dogs dipped their noses to the ground and Jimmy saw their faces, their mouths drooling in the lamplight.

“I brought down a sock,” said one of the men. Then he pulled both the dogs towards him on the long leashes. “There you go, boy. Good boy. Go fetch.”

The animals circled the car, creeping like thieves, every now and again lifting their faces for a second, then snorting back to the ground. Jimmy watched one of them getting closer, walking right along the side of the car. It stopped at the level of Jimmy’s face and sniffed around. He had read that dogs could pick up a scent better when it was wet, and the ground was definitely damp. Jimmy held his breath.

“Get those dogs back in the van. They’ll only cut their paws on the glass.”

Both dogs were pulled quickly away. Jimmy was relieved for the moment, but even more confused. Why hadn’t they picked up his scent? Jimmy sniffed, trying to recognise his own smell, then realised that was silly.

Then came more footsteps and a voice Jimmy knew. “Are the handcuffs really necessary?” It was Jimmy’s father coming out of the house.

“I’m afraid they are, Ian,” said one of the men. Jimmy held on tight to the car, his knuckles going white. He watched the feet of his family marching out to the street. First he watched his father’s, then saw that his mother had been allowed to put on some shoes instead of the slippers she had been wearing. Then came Georgie. She had also changed out of slippers and into trainers. But then there was one more pair of shoes. There must have been another suit that he hadn’t seen, who came in after Jimmy ran upstairs.

These shoes were an anonymous black, and shiny just like the shoes of the other two men, but something about them made Jimmy look twice. There was a pattern on the toe that he recognised from somewhere; he just couldn’t work out where. He watched them walk slowly away from the house. He was sure he had seen those shoes before. Then again, maybe the fall had given him strange ideas instead of bruises and broken bones.

Jimmy watched everyone stepping through the puddles. One of the pieces of glass on the ground offered him a strange, distorted reflection of the people walking about. Everything was upside down and he couldn’t make out their faces, but he could see their outlines. He wondered if any minute somebody could catch a glimpse of him reflected in the same glass, or even see his whole face if there was a puddle that caught the light.

Then Georgie unknowingly provided the perfect distraction. She picked up her foot and kicked out at one of the men, nearly hitting him. “You’re not taking me,” she shouted. Jimmy felt a jolt of excitement. “Help! Police!”

If anybody can fight, Georgie can, he thought, remembering all the times he’d been pinned on the bed with his head under her arm. He willed her to keep screaming; surely someone would hear and get help.

But then his father’s voice cut in. “It’s OK Georgie, we don’t want to cause trouble. Quiet now.”

“No, I’m not letting them take me!” She was shouting louder, and then she kicked out again, this time landing a sharp blow in the middle of the man’s shin.

“Hey,” said the man, grabbing his leg and rubbing.

“I’m not going with you!” And she ran. Jimmy watched her feet disappear from view and thought he could hear her shouting something. It sounded like, “I’m going to help Jimmy”.

They had a chance now. Maybe someone had heard Georgie shouting and would call the police. Maybe even Mr Higgins would decide not to be so deaf just when it was important, and get them some help.

“Let her go. We don’t need her,” said the man who had been kicked.

“Your leg OK?”

“Stupid kid. You take these two in the van, I’ll follow in the car.”

“And how’s your finger?”

“Shut up and put them in the van. The boy won’t get far.”

Jimmy wondered why the men didn’t seem to want Georgie. And why were they taking his parents? This was clearly no ordinary kidnapping. One suspicion had taken hold and wouldn’t let go: that something about Jimmy made him the target of men in suits with guns, and that this something was connected to his sudden ability to jump out of windows without getting hurt.

Two engines started up. He had to get a look at the van. It was his only way of finding out who was taking his parents away.

He eased himself on to the ground and rolled out, just in time to see the back of a car pulling away. There was no number plate. It was a long black car with blacked out windows. A large black van was in front of it. They prowled like cats, agonisingly slow.

As they turned at the bottom of the street, he saw the driver of the van in silhouette, with one front-seat passenger. That must be the third man, he thought. The one I didn’t meet.

The light of the street lamps glinted off the windows and something caught Jimmy’s eye. It was the only thing about the vehicles that wasn’t completely black. On the side of the van, towards the back, was a fine, vertical, green stripe. It was just thick enough for Jimmy to make out and no more than ten centimetres long. In the same place on the car was an identical green stripe. He saw it for just a snatch of time, so short that as soon as he had seen it he doubted himself. The van and the car turned the corner, disappearing as if they had never been there.

Jimmy walked back to his house and for the first time noticed that he wasn’t wearing any shoes. He picked his way through the broken glass, which wasn’t easy in the dark. The front door was locked. Of course it was. They all thought Jimmy was on the run somewhere, loose in the suburbs of London.

Everything seemed very quiet. There was no traffic, just the low hum of the city and the sound of lonely cars somewhere in the distance. One of them had Jimmy’s parents in it. Then he thought about Georgie. Where had she run off to? Did she think she was going to be able to find him? Jimmy shivered and wondered whether his sister was as cold as he was. At least she had shoes on.