8.38 p.m.
IN THE HALL, ON THE coat pegs, among their jackets as well as Ava’s new maroon duffle was her old coat she’d worn on the night she’d found Mickey. She’d stopped wearing it when the warm weather came and then she grew out of it but it still hung there. As the boys tried to comprehend what they’d seen and argued about what to do next, she rummaged in the old coat’s pockets to find Nathaniel’s mittens that she’d repaired then forgotten to return, and an old blue pencil, blunt at both ends. She took the silver sharpener she’d begun to carry with her for this very purpose, and tapered the old pencil’s tips to lethal points. She then tucked it and the gloves deep into her new coat pockets.
She needed the men out of the way. She went into the Front and said, in a loud voice that was as close to Miss Misty as she’d allow, ‘I’ll stay here and keep the door locked. Paul will take John home and he’ll give Luke a lift to the Marlowes’ house to tell the police what we’ve seen – and where it’s going.’
They stared at her, aghast. ‘Where’s it going?’ asked Paul, not really wanting but having to know.
‘Dowry House – the last block on the Lane,’ she said. ‘To the roof.’