by Jacky Gray
She couldn’t have been more wrong. It was as though the fates were conspiring against Archer in every possible way. Brenda, the one witness who could have made a difference, had finished her shift half an hour after the incident. She left with her boyfriend for a week’s holiday in France and her family had no idea where she was staying. Peter’s statement backed Archer’s up in every detail, but he was only sixteen and they were friends, so it didn’t carry much weight in the scheme of things.
Although the head at his current school had given him a good report, a particularly zealous young detective spotted that Archer had previously been at another school. Mr Barston viewed this as a chance for revenge on the boy who had been so cheeky and then disappeared out of reach of his circle of power.
The manager of the shoe shop was extremely annoyed by the number of thefts from his store in recent months. Calling in the male assistant who had brought Archer to him, he gave him two choices. He made it quite clear that a message needed to be sent out to “the thieving scum” that there was a penalty for stealing from his store. And that if the right message was not sent out, the assistant’s job would be in jeopardy. If the message was clear, there may be a bonus involved.
So when the detective inspector in charge of the case read the assistant’s statement and put the rest of the evidence together, he decided there was sufficient cause for a more detailed investigation. A letter was sent, informing Penny that Don Archer would need to present himself at the juvenile court on the following Thursday for an initial hearing.
32 Search for the Hero Inside
‘You can not be serious. That’s not fair.’
‘How can they possibly get away with that?’
‘I’m sorry boys. I think it’s completely unjustified.’ Julie tried to calm Jack and Kyle down as they reacted to the news. ‘You’ve both been doing so well at school and so helpful round the house. I think it’s terrible this should come through now.’
‘But it’s not fair. Why blame you guys and try to take your licence away, because we were bad six months ago?’ Jack looked ready to punch something.
‘That’s the trouble with bureaucracy, it always takes so long.’ Julie was startled by the sound from the hallway of the ’phone slamming down hard enough to split the casing.
Peter stormed in. ‘It didn’t take them long to decide Archer was guilty, they’re sending him to court next week.’
‘What? You are joking. Pete, tell me you are joking.’
‘No Jack, it’s such a pile of …’
‘Peter. There must be a mistake, Archer wouldn’t do anything illegal, he’s not like that.’ Julie’s tone tried to calm the situation.
‘He didn’t. He found some trainers that some toe-rags,’ Peter looked hard at the other two who were staring open-mouthed, ‘had stolen. He tried to return them to the shop.’
‘But surely the assistant …’
‘Gone on holiday.’
‘Well there must be something I can do. A character reference or something.’
‘From someone whose foster licence is under question? That’s not going to help much.’ Jack was brutally honest.
‘But they can’t send him down. Someone else must have seen him try to return them.’ Kyle was desperate.
‘The other assistant and manager are lying. And guess which headmaster got do some character assassination.’
‘Not Bar-stard? This can’t be happening. Poor Archer. This is all our fault.’ Kyle was pacing round angrily, directing his anger at Jack. ‘We’ve got to do something.’
Julie was surprised and touched by their loyalty. ‘Look Kyle, it’s not your fault if the head’s got it in for him – for all of us. Try to calm down. I’ll ring Penny and find out what’s going on and if there’s anything we can do.’
When she left the room, Peter turned on the others. ‘I hope you two are pleased with yourselves. After everything he tried to do for you, Archer is prepared to carry the can.’
‘I know, you don’t need to tell me. Mandy’s been giving me earache, saying we should own up, or at least drop Stiff in it. It was all his idea in the first place.’
‘I dunno why you’re so afraid of him. He’s just a boy.’
‘That’s because you’ve never been in a children’s home, Pete. It’s a real jungle and only the strongest survive.’
‘I suppose this Stiff character was king of that jungle.’
‘He was so much more than that. Nobody could do anything without his say so. Everybody was afraid of him, including most of the adults in charge. He was pure evil.’
‘But you tried to stand up to him, Jack. I thought you were the bravest person I ever met.’ Memories of that hateful time made Kyle shudder. ‘Tell him about that thing with the kitten.’
‘I’m sure Pete can imagine the cruelty an idiot like that was capable of. Except he’s not an idiot, he’s quite bright.’
‘He’s a vicious bully. He can make anybody do anything.’ Kyle shuddered. ‘I thought we were free of him when we moved here and I felt kind of safe with Archer around.’
‘Yeah, but then we ran into him in town. He’d already got Mandy and Kellie back in his power and they needed more people to pull off this big heist.’
‘I really wish we’d stayed with you at the cinema. I wanted to, I quite like James Bond, but Jack …’
‘No point crying over spilt milk, what’s done is done. But we can’t let Archer go down because of that ars...’ Jack’s expletive was interrupted by Peter’s flat statement.
‘There’s only one thing you can do, give yourselves up.’ It was clear to Peter. ‘You’d get lighter sentences.’
‘Yeah but if we confessed and told the police about him, he’d make our lives a misery in the young offenders place. He’d rule the roost there on the first day.’ One or two of Archer’s sayings had infiltrated their speech, just as theirs had influenced his.
‘So maybe you need some way of trapping him so you all get caught.’ Pete shrugged. ‘When they see he’s running it all, you won’t be in so much trouble.’
‘That’s easy for you to say.’ Jack’s tone was sharp. ‘You’ve never been to these places, they’re a nightmare.’
‘You mean you’ve been there before? I thought this was your first offence.’
‘It is. I only know from the other boys at the home, the stories they tell of beatings and strip searches...’
‘The wardens beat you?’
‘No, the other kids. And worse.’
‘I can’t go there Pete, I’m not strong enough to take that.’ Kyle was almost in tears at the thought of it.
‘There must be something we can do.’ Peter had learnt a lot from Archer’s resourcefulness. ‘Surely if they knew about all the hard work at school…’
‘Yeah but Bar-stard tore up the blue slips. He’s the root of all this, we should burn down the school or something.’
Peter was horrified at this suggestion. ‘That would only make things worse, you’d definitely go to prison then. Look, I’ve had an idea, leave it with me.’
33 Change for the Better
‘You are joking, right? You want me to help get them off after the way they acted?’ Archer had reached his limit, he couldn’t believe Peter would ask such a thing.
‘But Stiff was manipulating them, they are all terrified of him and what he’ll do if they cross him.’ Peter could see it from Jack and Kyle’s point of view.
‘I’m supposed to forgive them for holding me down while he – what did he say? Smashed my face in?’
‘You forgave them before, and me … I must have hurt you far more than Stiff. He didn’t even slap you.’
‘Maybe I’m all out of mercy. I can’t keep turning the other cheek to people who are kissing me one minute and calling me a turd the next.’
‘Oh right. Jack told me Mandy called you that.’
‘I had no idea what it was so I asked Tomy. She was basically calling me a little shit.’
‘
But that was just for Stiff. Jack said she stood in front of him when he was taking a swing at you. That took a lot of guts; he would have hit her you know.’
‘Really? He would hit a girl? That’s appalling.’ Stiff seemed to have power over weaker kids, similar to the way Edlyn had. But no matter how bad Edlyn was, he would never hurt a girl, it was the ultimate sin.
‘Jack said he was really sorry he held your arm, but he would have let go if Stiff had started punching you. He said Mandy’s courage made him ashamed and she told him that he was a coward for not standing up for you.’ Peter sighed. ‘I know it sounds like I’m trying to make excuses for their bad behaviour, but only because I believe they should have a second chance.’
‘Because I haven’t already given them several second chances.’ Archer’s grim smile reflected the irony.
‘A third chance. That’s who you are Archer; someone who inspires us to think we could be good too. If only someone would believe in us. Someone like you.’
He shook his head. This was a huge weight to carry on top of everything else that had gone on, but maybe this was one of the trials Kalen had foreseen. The boy before him had changed for the better. He was right; it was too big a part of Archer’s nature to see the good in people for him to turn his back now. ‘All right, I give in, but it must be within the law. What can I do?’
Peter hesitated, part of the plan was firmly outside the law, but maybe Archer would see the sense in it.
‘No way Pete. I can’t do that. I’m not even listening any more. You’ll have to find another plan.’
‘Come on Kyle, no-one else could do it. Jack can’t, obviously, nor Archer. And he doesn’t know me.’
‘But when he gets caught, he’s going to know he was set up and then he’ll come gunning for me. I’ll be dead.’
‘Oh for God’s sake, Kyle, show a bit of spine.’
‘Why don’t you do it then, Mandy? You don’t seem to be afraid of him.’
‘Because I’m supposed to persuade him it’s a good idea. I can’t suggest it as well, it’s too obvious.’
Archer was concerned that Peter’s idea was too risky and had too many potential pitfalls, but he’d agreed to discuss it at what Kyle proudly called a war council.
Jack was determined to introduce an attack on the school and more specifically the head’s office into the mix. ‘I’m sure there is something in Barston’s office that will prove he’s got a vendetta against us. If we can get hold of some evidence, it would get Archer off the hook and your mum and dad won’t lose their licence, Pete.’
‘What kind of evidence are you thinking of?’ Archer had the start of an idea.
‘I don’t know, something in our files. A report, or that list he made the teachers sign for the blue slips.’
‘They must keep records of blue slips because someone wins a prize every half term for getting the most.’ Kyle obviously took notice of things like that.
‘Did you say that Stiff used to go to that school, too?’ The elements of a plan were coming together in Archer’s mind.
‘Yeah, until he got expelled for threatening a teacher.’ Jack rolled his eyes.
‘If Stiff found out someone was breaking into the head’s office, he would want to go along and do some damage.’
‘What are you thinking?’ Jack’s expression suggested he was following Archer’s thought processes.
‘He said he was going to deal with me later. That means beat me up. What if he found out I was going to break in to get this report? Wouldn’t he want to hurt me and wreck the room at the same time?’
‘Yeah, but that’s much too risky. What if he did beat you up or you were caught by the caretaker?’ Admiration was fighting with apprehension on Jack’s face.
Archer’s tone was a mix of confidence and something very dark. ‘That would never happen. Not if we did it properly.’
34 Rat Trap
The bait was carefully laid. Kyle and Kellie “happened” to meet in town in a café where several of Stiff’s informants were known to gather. They discussed either side of a conversation they had overheard between Archer and Peter. It seemed Archer was plotting to search the head’s office for a special file at the weekend.
An hour later, Jack’s football game on the park was interrupted by a summons he “didn’t want to ignore.” Mandy was “invited” as she walked to a friend’s house. Stiff asked lots of questions and Jack suffered a couple of slaps rather than admit he knew anything.
‘Look, I’m not asking you to do anything to him, I know you think he’s a mate.’
‘You can hit me all you like. He’s up on a charge for your crimes and he stood by us. Never said a word about any of it. I can’t believe I held him while you were gonna mash him. So do your worst, you won’t get anything out of me.’
‘Jack, I appreciate your loyalty, I always did. Which is why I don’t wanna hurt you. I know you want out, and I’m prepared to do a deal.’
Jack pretended to consider it. ‘What sort of deal?’
‘Your freedom in return for details.’
‘Such as?’
‘What’s in this file he needs so badly?’
‘Information.’
‘Don’t prat me around. What sort of information?’
Jack hesitated and Mandy jumped in with, ‘For God’s sake, what harm could it do? Just tell him. Or I will.’
‘You weren’t thinking of trying to buy your way out, were you, Mand? You know the price of your freedom.’
‘No. I just want to get round to Nina’s, she’ll be wondering where I am. Look, it’s about the court cases.’
‘What court cases?’
‘Archer’s and the foster home Jack’s at.’
‘Why Jack, have you been a naughty boy?’
‘No, I’ve been trying to go straight, but Bar-stard’s trying to make it look bad for us. Pete had a go at his maths teacher and she told him about a report in our file.’
‘What report?’
‘She felt bad about getting Archer in trouble, especially when she saw what he was really like, so she printed off a copy of all our blue slips and wrote a letter about the cow shit incident.’
One of the other boys giggled and Stiff glared at him, then returned his gaze to Jack, full of suspicion. ‘So why didn’t Barstard just tear it up? I would have done.’
Jack kept his cool, impressed with the way Archer had anticipated how his adversary’s mind worked. He had an answer to everything. ‘She knows one of the governors, so she made sure it all went in the file.’
‘So this file’s got stuff that would get you and Saint Archer off the hook. It would be such a pity if it accidentally got destroyed in, let’s say a fire or something, wouldn’t it?’
‘You wouldn’t.’
‘Wouldn’t I? That’d teach you not to try and mess with me.’
Jack flashed an angry look at Mandy who shrugged and looked bored as Stiff reached his decision.
‘Look, I’m prepared to give you one more chance. If you can find out when this is gonna happen, I might just manage to rescue your bits of the report.’
Jack turned to go and Mandy followed, but Stiff caught her arm. ‘Where do you think you’re going?’
‘I told you. Round to Nina’s.’
He pulled her to him and kissed her roughly, then let her go. ‘You might as well go, it’s not the same when you’re all dolled up like a Disney princess. When are you going to go back to your sexy style?’
‘I told you, I’ve got to dress like this until the heat is off, the other gear was too distinctive.’
‘Maybe I’ll get you something decent you can change into just for me.’ The look he exchanged with the other lads was full of filth and they leered at her. It was all just a power play with him.
She shuddered as she walked out with Jack and he held back his anger until they were round the corner. ‘Why do you let him treat you like that?’
‘He threatened to have a go at Kellie if I don’t do wh
at he wants.’ She paused, studying the red marks on his face. ‘I take back what I said, you’re not a coward.’
He smiled and she grinned back, if the plan worked, it would be a new life for both of them.
Obviously, they didn’t tell any of the adults about their scheme, Penny and Julie would have been worried. Todd and Dave would have banned it and probably grounded them for the weekend. It was harder keeping it secret from Tom and Rory, so Mandy and Archer kept up the pretence of going out so they could discuss things in private. But she ended up telling stories about when she and Kellie were in the children’s home with Jack. She wanted to hear Archer’s opinion of him because Kyle had mentioned how evil he’d been and she wanted all the details.
‘Come on Archer, he did more than call you names and tease you about the way you talk, that’s not evil.’ Mandy was painting her nails a pale lilac colour.
‘It was just the sort of stuff boys do to each other. I’ve had worse.’
‘So he didn’t threaten to shoot you with your own bow then? That’s what Kyle said.’
‘No. He was going to shoot an apple off my head. He would have shot me, he hadn’t got a clue how to aim.’
‘Oh my God.’ She stopped, mid-nail. ‘What happened? Did you beat him up?’
‘No. Why would you think that? Pete talked him out of it and I showed them how to use a bow properly.’ Archer’s nose wrinkled at the strong varnish and he opened a window.
‘So, was Jack worse than the others?’ She finished the last nail and blew on them to dry the varnish. ‘He was pretty mean when I knew him, but that was just to impress Stiff.’
‘Like Pete was only nasty to impress Jack. But Pete came through and stood up to him when it mattered.’
‘So Jack was worse, then.’
‘Not really, Pete had to go a step further every time.’
‘Jack stood up to Stiff like we planned, even when he was slapping him around and threatening worse.’
