Chapter 25

Marty was fed up. He was bored stiff sitting at home. It was four and a half months since he had been let out of the Youth Detention Centre. As he had been fighting and was insolent to prison officers they had refused him the two month remission for good behaviour. He could not help it if the other detainees kept on picking fights with him, could he? And he was not going to say 'Yes, sir, no, sir, three bags full, sir' to those stuck up, humourless screws. Rick and Reg would have nothing to do with him. In any case, they both now had jobs and were not about during the day.

No one else on the estate wanted to know him. Indeed some were openly hostile. He had to trail into Pitsbury twice a week to report to the police station and to have a session with his probation officer, the bloody wanker. He kept rabbiting on about finding work. Who was going to employ an ex-con anyway? They were just as bad at the bloody Job Centre but he had to keep going there to make sure he got his Jobseeker's Allowance. He was fed up with cutting out job advertisements from the local paper and forging refusals.

He was going to get even with that Jean Morris bitch too. He was not going to risk a confrontation but he was going to frighten the hell out of her and her prissy daughter. He had been going out over his back fence the last few evenings and, by a roundabout route, making his way to their back garden to scout things out. There were no lights and he had been unable to see anything of either of them. He had not been able to do that recently because the police were hanging about.

Someone must have tipped them off that he was breaking his curfew. Six o'clock every bloody evening. What did they think he was? A bloody eight year-old? It must be that Kylie bitch. Living next door she could see him doing a bunk over the garden fence. She was going to have to be taught a lesson. Was she watching for him now?

He thought. What excuse was there for him going down to the bottom of the garden? It was all overgrown and there were no rubbish bins or anything down there to visit. He smiled triumphantly: air rifle practice. He could put a target up on the fence and have a look next door as he came back up to the house. He would have to check the target too. He'd catch the little bitch spying on him and then let her have it when the opportunity arose. No one who saw the smile on his face would have liked it.

Kylie was no fool. She was watching as he set off down the garden. She immediately backed into the room so that he would not see her at the window. She watched as Marty looked up at her window as he came back up to the house. She was not clear why he had fixed a sheet of paper to the garden fence but the crack of the air rifle half a minute later told her what he was up to.

She rang Kathy and told her.

"OK. Keep watching. If he thinks he's not being watched he may make a go for it."

"OK."

Sure enough, as the light began to fade, Marty climbed over his back fence and headed towards the wood.

Kylie rang Kathy. Kathy rang Fred. Fred rang Roy and Court.

"Marty's on the prowl," said Court. "Let's get the windows closed, doors locked and curtains drawn."

Libby looked at him apprehensively but ran to lock the back door as Court started drawing the downstairs curtains.

"I need to watch the back of the house," he said.

"Please don't leave me," Libby pleaded.

Court squeezed her hand. "I won't. An upstairs window will be fine."

Libby blushed and then giggled. "Come up to my bedroom," she said.

Court grinned at her. "Very forward of you, young lady."

Libby led him upstairs by the hand. She put out her other hand to turn on the light.

"No," said Court sharply. "We won't be able to see out if you put the light on and he'll be able to see us."

"Oh, sorry," she whispered.

Court chuckled. "You don't have to whisper though."

They both stood in the middle of the room, far enough back from the window not to be seen. Court put an arm round her shoulder and pulled her against him.

"Mmm," she said. "Thank you, Marty."

Court squeezed her shoulder gently. "There are some advantages, aren't there?" he murmured.

They stood there talking softly for some twenty minutes when Court suddenly stiffened.

"I think our boy's arrived," he said.

"Where?"

"Left corner. Behind the hedge. No, he's moved. He's looking over it in the middle."

"Oh, yes. I can see him now."

Court pulled his mobile from his pocket and speed dialled Fred. "He's arrived and is looking over the back hedge," he said.

"OK."

Marty had now disappeared from view. Court and Libby waited tensely. Ten minutes later Marty reappeared at the centre of the hedge but this time his chest and shoulders were visible.

"He's built himself a platform," Court whispered.

Marty vanished again. He did not come back.

Court's phone rang.

"We're round the back now," said Fred. "There ain't no soign of 'im."

"We haven't seen him for ten minutes or so," said Court.

"Roight, probably buggered off again. We'll 'ang on fer a whoile."

"OK."

Forty minutes later, from a darkened room, Kylie watched Marty come back over his garden fence. The news was transmitted via Kathy to Fred who stood everyone down.

Much the same happened the following evening except, with Libby's permission, Fred and Roy used the side gate into the garden. The problem was that the hedge was too tall to be able to get to Marty. In addition, Marty let fly with a catapult and broke two kitchen windows. Court filmed him from Libby's bedroom window but the results were useless. It was too dark and Marty's baseball cap made him unrecognisable.

Kathy was scornful. "They're useless," she said. "Anybody but them would have realised that last night was preparation and that he'd be back after building that platform. Fred and Roy should have gone out there early and been on the other side of the hedge. We're going to have to ambush him."

The other three agreed. The question was how. They discussed this at length and decided that they had to do something before Marty got within range of Fred and Roy because they would try to run the show. "Couldn't run a piss up in a brewery," said Garry scornfully.

They were not getting very far when Kylie said shyly, "I've got an idea."

"What?" asked Kathy disbelievingly. She was fond of Kylie but didn't rate her that highly.

"Well, we know the start of his route. Over the fence and head for the wood."

"Yeah."

"Well, with all that air rifle practice and looking up at my window I think he thinks that I'm the one that grassed him up to the police."