Double Cross by Malorie Blackman Read Free Book Online Page B

mood for
conversation. She had known me long enough to figure
that out for herself.
    McAuley knew my name.
    Worse than that, I was now a blip on McAuley's radar.
It was hard to say which was spinning harder, my mind or
my stomach.
    'Tobey, you can't work for that man. You just can't.'
Callie finally broke the silence between us. 'The Dowds
run things around here. If they hear you're working for
McAuley you won't be able to walk from your house to
school without slipping.'
    Slipping. The technical term for entering enemy
territory. If I ever agreed to work for McAuley, it was
only a matter of time before the Dowds got to hear about
it, and then my house and my school and all the routes
in between would mean I'd be slipping daily. That's
what it was all about in Meadowview. The streets didn't
belong to the government or the local authority; they'd
been fought over between the Dowds and McAuley's
mob. The Dowds ran practically every crooked operation
on the east side of Meadowview. McAuley had carved out
the west side for himself. He'd established his turf by
speaking softly and ensuring that no one but himself
and the few good men in his car knew where the bodies
were buried. People who opposed him had the habit of
'disappearing' – including two of the Dowd family before
an uneasy truce was brokered between them.
    Now McAuley wanted me to work for him, even
though he knew I lived on the Dowds' patch. And I didn't
like what he said about asking my friend Dan for a reference.
Surely Dan wasn't stupid enough to talk to McAuley
about me? If McAuley didn't have any problem telling me
that Dan worked for him, who else had he told? Dan only
lived two streets away from me – in Dowd territory.
    Damn!
    How on earth was I going to extricate myself from this
one? Dan might be one of my best mates, but he was
stupid as a bag of rocks to get involved with McAuley.
Now that I'd seen the man up close and personal, I'd have
to try and persuade Dan to get out and stay out of
McAuley's clutches. But most important of all, I had to
make sure that McAuley kept his eyes off Callie.
    Nothing bad was going to happen to Callie Rose.
    Not on my watch.

eight. Callie

    Tobey remained taciturn all day. It wasn't like him at all.
He laughed everything off, never took anything seriously.
But not today. After break, we sat together for our double
science lesson, but try as I might I couldn't get him to
open up to me. After the umpteenth mumbled monosyllabic
response, I conceded defeat. Tobey stood over me as
I put my stuff in my locker before lunch. We walked into
the food hall together, but we peeled off in different directions
once we'd got our lunch. I sat with Sammi and some
of my other friends. Tobey sat by himself, but not for long.
Some of his mates joined him, but from what I could see
he still wasn't saying much. Tobey was a strange one. He
didn't have many close friends, but that seemed to be by
choice rather than design. He chose his friends carefully,
but once he was your friend, he was your friend for life.
And the mates he had were fiercely loyal in return. And
I'm one of them. Every time I looked up, I caught Tobey
watching me. I smiled a couple of times, but he immediately
looked away.
    For heaven's sake! I wanted to invite Tobey out for a
meal or something the following night, but it was hard
when he would barely speak to me. I mean, I didn't need
three guesses to figure it out why. He was worried about
McAuley. And I couldn't say I blamed him. But why take
it out on me?
    McAuley was a lowlife, just like the Dowds. They
climbed high up life's ladder by stockpiling the misery of
others beneath them. Even the Liberation Militia were
aware of their activities in Meadowview. At least, they
were when I was a member. The Liberation Militia didn't
bother with them over much. The L.M. considered themselves
above that kind of petty wheeling and dealing.
Drugs, prostitution, loan sharking, extortion – those kinds
of criminal activities were left