Page 43 of The Family Remains

‘What?’

‘He’s complicated. Remember when we first got to London last year? Remember how I wasn’t quite sure who Uncle Henry was? Because he looked so much like Phin?’

Marco nods.

‘Well, the thing is, Uncle Henry used to be slightly obsessed with Phin. When they were younger. He used to follow him about and stare at him all the time and then …’

Marco nods again, but his mother shakes her head. ‘Nothing,’ she says. ‘Nothing.’

‘No! Tell me. What was it you were going to say? What does that have to do with Uncle Henry blocking us? You have to tell me!’

‘It’s … urgh. Marco, listen. I know you’re very fond of Henry. And it’s important to me that you have that bond with him. I don’t want to damage your relationship with him. And what I’m about to tell you, I promise, it in no way means that Henry doesn’t adoreyou and that Henry is not an amazing person. Because he is. In so many ways. But when we were children, when all the bad things were happening to us in the house in Chelsea, Henry sometimes wasn’t very nice to Phin. He once pushed him into the river when Phin wouldn’t kiss him, and Phin could have drowned. And then, the night we escaped, Henry tied Phin to a radiator and … well, he could have died again. The way he was about Phin, it was a bit twisted. And Phin found out from Clemency that Henry was coming to Botswana and left the same day. And now, well, I think maybe Henry’s found out where he is and is on his way to …’

‘To what? You think he might hurt him?’

‘Well, not hurt him as such. But make him feel uncomfortable. You know, make him feel unsafe.’

Marco’s brain went mental, as though sparks were flying off it, as he tried to assimilate this information. Uncle Henry was kind of strange, but not in the way that his mum was describing. He was weird in a way that was cool and acerbic. He was funny. He made Marco laugh. He got things that other grown-ups didn’t quite get. But all this Phin stuff …

‘We need to find him,’ he says.

‘Yes. I know. That’s what I’ve been trying to do all weekend. I mean, I found all his old devices. But I have no idea how to get on to them.’

‘Give them to me.’

She sighs and gets to her feet, goes into her room and comes back a minute later with two old iPhones, an old Apple Mac, an old iPad and a handful of chargers.

‘I’ve tried everything,’ she says. ‘Every combination of dates and birthdays and house numbers. Can’t get into any of them.’

Marco taps the edge of the dining table with his knuckles, his head spinning with conflicting thoughts. ‘I could get Alf to try.’

‘Alf? What is he, like a hacker?’

‘Yeah. Kind of.’

‘Hm. Henry is pretty tech-savvy, remember. He’s virtually a hacker himself. I doubt very much he’d leave anything that wasn’t completely impenetrable.’

‘Yeah. But he’s old. Alf’s young. Young hackers trump old hackers.’

He glances at his mum and sees her smiling wryly at him. ‘You could try, I guess.’

Marco nods sagely, takes out his phone and messages Alf.