Page 84 of The Impossible Fortune

Jason’s mind flashes back to his own childhood. Lying on the sofa with an orange squash and the telly. My God, what times. He wishes Kendrick nothing but what he had. A house full of noise and love and orange squash and TV.

‘Then I say you can,’ says Jason.

‘Do you have any?’ Kendrick asks.

‘No,’ says Jason. ‘I’m an adult, I don’t drink orange squash.’

‘You should,’ says Kendrick. ‘It has calcium. And also it’s good.’

He’s right, thinks Jason, he should drink orange squash, it’s good. His Ring doorbell sounds, so he looks on his phone. Amazon delivery.

Is he expecting something? Did he order that book he saw on Graham Norton? Must have. Jason wouldn’t mind going on Graham Norton, but Graham Norton wasn’t around when Jason was at his most famous. Still, he wouldn’t mind going on. Chatting to Margot Robbie and Mo Farah. The doorbell rings again.

‘Can I get it?’ Kendrick asks, and Jason starts to say yes before something stops him. Just an instinct.

‘No, you get back to your homework,’ says Jason. Helooks at his phone again. The guy’s wearing an Amazon uniform and is carrying an Amazon package, but why not be safe? Jason presses the microphone on his screen.

‘Just leave it on the doorstep, mate,’ he says.

The delivery driver doesn’t miss a beat. ‘Needs signing for.’

Jason looks at the package on the screen. Looks pretty small. Must be that book. They had a Formula One driver on. He was sitting next to Cher. ‘Forget it, mate. Just got out of the bath.’

The man pauses for a moment. This is the point a real Amazon driver goes back to his car or van. But he doesn’t. Instead he reaches into a bag.

Jason runs into the living room, scoops up Kendrick and is out of the back window before the first bullet thuds through his front door.

Danny Lloyd has made the first move.

47

Kendrick is not stupid.

If they know where Uncle Jason lives, who’s to say they don’t know where Grandad lives too?

That’s why they have to go to Ibrahim’s. They are rushing over now. Uncle Jason and his grandad are each holding one of his hands. His grandad’s hand is shaking, but Kendrick has felt that before. Whenever it shakes too much, Kendrick squeezes it, because he never wants Grandad to worry that his hands shake.

He has never felt Uncle Jason’s hand shake before though. That’s new.

‘All good, Kenny?’ says Grandad, out of breath. ‘You all good?’

‘I am,’ confirms Kendrick, because that’s what you have to say sometimes.

Ever since he saw his mum with the gun and the bruises, life has been speeding up in a way that is making Kendrick feel uncomfortable. He keeps finding pieces of a jigsaw puzzle, but no one will show him the picture on the front of the box. Kendrick likes information, and at the moment he doesn’t have enough of it.

‘He was a diamond,’ says Uncle Jason. ‘A chip off the old block.’

Where is his mum? That’s the main thing he would liketo know. Uncle Jason tells him that she is okay, and he trusts Uncle Jason, but he would like to see her. He would like to cuddle up on the sofa with her. They watchFriendstogether. His favourite is Phoebe, but Chandler is good too. He would like to be watchingFriendsnow. Instead everyone is scared, and that makes Kendrick scared.

His grandad buzzes on the door of Ibrahim’s building. Uncle Jason is pretending not to look over his shoulder, but Kendrick notices most things.

The man who had rung on the doorbell, the man who Kendrick now suspects was not an Amazon delivery driver, had kept firing shots at them as Uncle Jason had carried him across the back garden, over a fence and into woodland. They had hidden for a while, and that bit was okay. It is fun to hide, and Kendrick is very good at it. He has hidden from his dad many times. All you have to do is be small and quiet.

There is a buzz and his grandad pushes open the door. Jason ushers Kendrick in behind his grandad. He will be safe here, Kendrick feels it. But what about Grandad and Uncle Jason? What if they go back out? Will they be safe?

‘Will we all be able to stay?’ he asks.

‘I’ll stay this evening,’ says his grandad. ‘Get you settled.’