Brigands M. C. by Robert Muchamore Read Free Book Online Page B

as the Führer, was arrested in the early hours of this morning. He is expected to be questioned in connection with the murder of four members of the Scott family on a farm near Salcombe on Wednesday .’
    Dante hadn’t seen the Führer’s face since the murders three nights earlier and it chilled him.
    Ross hurriedly put the phone down and stepped towards Dante. ‘You OK?’ he asked.
    ‘Fine,’ Dante lied, as Ross put a reassuring hand on his shoulder. ‘How long will all this take?’
    ‘Six months,’ Ross said. ‘But it could drag on much longer.’
    ‘That’s ages,’ Dante tutted.
    ‘The wheels of justice turn slowly I’m afraid.’
    ‘You left my sleeping pills lying around yesterday,’ Dante said after a minute. ‘I thought about swallowing them all so that I could be dead like Jordan and Lizzie. But if I died now, the Führer would get away with everything .’
    ‘He would,’ Ross said, then changed the subject because Dante’s emotions were so fragile. ‘We’d better get to the pool now if we want to be back before breakfast turns up.’

6. GUILDFORD
     
    Two and a half months later

    Dante and Holly now lived with foster parents in suburban Guildford, two hundred miles from the South Devon Brigands. Donald and Linda Graves were full-time foster parents. More than a hundred children had passed through their care over three decades, most recently in a large detached house that was licensed to house eight foster kids at a time. Some only stayed a few nights, others for months or years.
    Dante’s room was on the first floor and his day always started with an invasion from Holly. He laughed to himself as her tiny hands battled with the doorknob outside, then buried himself under his duvet and pretended to be asleep as she charged into the room and dragged the covers away.
    ‘I want to sleep,’ Dante giggled, as his little sister clambered on his mattress and whacked her sticky hand against his tummy. She couldn’t manage to say Dante so she called him Ant.
    ‘Ant, Ant!’
    Dante hid his face under his pillow. Holly shrieked with delight, burrowing alongside and finding herself nose to nose with her brother.
    ‘Up,’ Holly giggled, as she thrust her finger towards Dante’s face.
    Holly had no sense of danger and Dante sat up quickly, an instant before she would have jammed her finger in his eye.
    ‘Crazy baby!’ Dante laughed, giving her a quick kiss before surveying a room lit through thin curtains.
    There was an unused bunk above and his school clothes and backpack were scattered across the floor. Normally Dante rumbled with Holly for longer, but an electric wheelchair stood in the doorway.
    Its occupant Carl was thirteen. He’d lived with Donald and Linda since he was a toddler and had severe cerebral palsy. Violent spastic movements contorted his hands and face as he nudged a control stick and whirred into the room.
    ‘Happy birthday,’ Carl said, holding out a gift as Linda walked in behind him.
    Linda was short and chunky, with big glasses. Her permed hair was turning grey and her faded clothes seemed to have been through far more washes than was good for them.
    Dante sat on the edge of his bed and smiled as he studied the tissue paper wrapped around Carl’s gift. It was all scrunched and the Sellotape was at weird angles, but Dante appreciated it because simple manual tasks like wrapping a present could take Carl a significant amount of time.
    ‘Cool, thanks,’ Dante said, as he tore the paper to reveal a travel chess set. The pieces were stored in foam slots under the board, which then folded in half to make a box.
    ‘It’s got pegs,’ Carl explained. ‘So I don’t knock the pieces over when we play.’
    Dante had never played chess before Carl taught him. ‘We’ll have a game after school,’ Dante said. ‘I’m gonna beat you one day.’
    Carl cracked a big smile. ‘You wish!’
    Linda put a Woolworths carrier bag on the edge of the bed. ‘Just some Haribos and a