Prologue
This midnight rain did not whisper. It struck the big house hard. Rain clattered at windows. Drops hit the patio table in a salvo of violent bangs. Heaven’s bullets. A sound like war. As if the earth had been invaded from above. Take no prisoners. Batter the house into the ground . . . Balls of water exploded against a sign on the wall until the force of it dislodged the board announcing Badsworth Lodge. The board’s fall revealed the old sign beneath: Badsworth Orphanage.
The vicious crack of rain against glass had roused the children in the dormitory. Ten boys, aged between eight and eleven, tore along the corridor, laughing, shouting, pushing one another, and hell-bent on making the weird kid’s life a misery. Normally, they’d know better than to torment Jay, only this wild weather got into their blood. These were categorized as ‘problem children’. Their file notes bore headings such as Learning Disorder, Conduct Disorder, OCD, and a whole clutch of other phobias and compulsions. They’d get themselves into a storm of temper at the best of times. Now this ear-busting cacophony of rain bashing against the building cranked up their aggression levels so much they forgot all about words like consequences, recklessness, danger, and that all-important rule they learned from day one in Badsworth Lodge: don’t mess with Jay.
Jay had his own bedroom. He’d only been in the boys’ dormitory three days when the rest took to sleeping in the corridor. Although he’d got his private sleep zone it was only a partial fix. The other kids rarely spoke to him. Today he’d spent the day in bed with a comic in his hands. The care staff recorded notes in his file. Since 10 a.m. emotionally withdrawn. Marked lack of physical movement. Unresponsive. Skin clammy. Jay: eleven years old, slightly built, with large brown eyes that made strangers look at him in surprise, as if there was something amiss that they just couldn’t place. Jay had skin the colour of lightly toasted bread: a pale gold. Jay was dangerous.
‘Little witch!’ A rubber mat pinched from the bathroom struck Jay in the face. He didn’t react. Nor did he appear to notice when ten boys, howling like demons, shot through his door. Some bounced on his bed. The tallest grabbed Jay’s jet-black hair and yanked his head sideways. ‘Little witch! Hey, piss face, get out of bed.’
Raindrops snapped against the glass. Like the rattle of claws as if some night creature tried to rip its way through.
‘Comic . . . shitty comic,’ sang another boy. A second later pieces of it fluttered in the air. ‘Hey, it’s snowing!’
One kid lost his balance as he jumped on the bed and landed on Jay’s lap.
The boys sang, ‘Ricky loves Jay! Ricky loves Jay!’
The storm outside caused the patio table to topple with a crash.
‘Open the window. Stick his head out!’ Ricky scrambled away from Jay. ‘Get the little witch outside.’
‘I’m looking for chocolate . . . I bet he’s got chocolate!’ A tiny boy, with a face old beyond his years, ransacked a bedside cabinet. ‘If I find it, it’s mine.’
‘Yeah, Archer, you eat it. You’ll catch what he’s got.’
All through this Jay never seemed to even notice the boys running riot in his room. The biggest there pushed open the window. Rain sprayed on to Jay’s head. The water roaring in the storm drain could have been a monster’s bellow.
The kids shouted, ‘Grab his head.’
‘Get him by the arms, push him out. Mess the little shit up!’
‘Out by the ankles.’
Screams of laughter made the air electric, as if the force of emotion charged everything it touched. Lights flickered. And with the outburst of mischief came a dangerous blaze of hysteria. One child who warned the others they might drop Jay to his death was loudly ridiculed as a ‘crybaby’. By the time they’d got Jay into a standing position by the window, the rain had soaked his face. His expression altered. When he all of a sudden spoke it was in soft tones, almost too soft to be heard, but it stopped the kids as suddenly as if a bomb had exploded.
A silent pause then: ‘He said something.’ Alarm flashed across Ricky’s face. ‘What did he say?’
Nobody else could bring themselves to speak. They stepped back from Jay. His elfin face unnerved them. Their eyes flashed with uncertainty; not sure whether to cover their faces, so they wouldn’t see what awful thing Jay would do next. Meanwhile, the rain fell faster. A frantic drumming sound. Ten boys stared in horror at Jay as they waited for the inevitable. Then he began to murmur slowly. It was the same word over and over.
Ricky hissed, ‘He’s doing it again. I know it’s a name.’
‘Which one?’
They all started to speak, the words bursting from their lips like sobs.
‘Is it my name?’
‘It better not be me!’
‘Nor me!’
‘I said it first.’
‘Make him stop.’
‘Can you hear what name it is?’
An adult voice cut across theirs. ‘What’s all this then? You know you should be in bed.’
Ricky turned to a woman of around forty in the doorway. She had the pleasant figure of an earth mother.
Despite the scolding tone, she smiled warmly. ‘What’s the problem, sweetheart?’
‘Maureen, it’s Jay. He’s doing it again.’
‘Doing what again?’
‘Saying a name.’
The smile froze. ‘You’re not telling me fibs?’
‘No . . . listen to him.’
The way Maureen tensed a panther might have just crept into the room to bare its wicked fangs at them. She took a deep breath. ‘It’s OK, boys. You run along back to bed.’ Her eyes fixed on Jay as he murmured the name. ‘It’s all right, sweetheart,’ she soothed. ‘I’ll dry you, then you pop back under the covers.’
Ricky tried to sound tough, but it came out scared. ‘What name is he saying?’
‘Boys. Get back to bed. Now.’
They clamoured anxiously.
‘We want to know what name it is.’
‘Tell us, Maureen.’
‘Please.’
One sobbed, ‘You know what happened to Tod . . . you’ve got to say.’
They began to shout, ‘Please, tell us,’ until the words fused into a howl of noise.
‘Boys! Enough!’ The second adult voice had enough authority to stifle the clamour instantly. Nurse Laura Parris added, ‘Thank you,’ in a gentler tone. ‘Back to bed. I’ll be along in a minute.’ Obediently, they returned to their dormitory. Laura shot Maureen a weary smile. ‘One day they’ll realize I’m all bark and no bite, then I won’t be able to do a thing with them.’ She noticed Maureen’s troubled expression. ‘What’s wrong?’
Maureen swallowed, then nodded at Jay who stood by his bed, murmuring. ‘It’s Jay . . . he’s doing it again. Saying a name.’
‘Which name?’
‘I can’t make it out.’
Laura shut the window, then plucked a towel from a shelf and put it round the boy’s narrow shoulders. ‘Everything’s all right, Jay. We’ll get you dry and settled back into bed. What’s that you’re saying?’ She leaned closer.
Maureen’s composure was evaporating. ‘It’s a name, isn’t it?’
Laura tried not to let her expression betray what she’d just heard from his lips.
Maureen flinched. ‘Oh, God . . . it’s my name, isn’t it?’
‘I don’t—’
‘It’s my name!’ In sheer panic Maureen fled the room. Laura heard her repeating, ‘My name, my name, my name . . .’ as she raced down the corridor.
But Laura knew, just as Maureen knew, and all the kids knew – running away wouldn’t save her.