CHERUB: The Sleepwalker - Robert Muchamore Page 0,69
maintenance logs. But none of this alters the fact that after all the information we’ve gathered and a week of surveillance, the only thing we have linking Hassam Bin Hassam with the air crash is Fahim’s claim that he heard his parents mention it during an argument.’
‘So you think it’s all in Fahim’s head?’ Lauren asked, as she pulled off her school shoes and wriggled her toes.
‘Fahim does have a history of nightmares and erratic behaviour,’ Mac said. ‘You know him better than me, what do you think?’
‘He seems perfectly normal,’ Lauren said. ‘I mean, he’s depressed, but under the circumstances who wouldn’t be? And when I’ve had conversations with him about random stuff, he’s obviously intelligent – and more mature than Jake, truth told.’
‘I was thinking,’ Mac said as he shook his head. ‘The reason I first took Fahim’s call to the crash investigation hotline seriously was the obvious fear in his voice. But what if he was traumatised by a nightmare and he woke up scared and confused?’
‘You mean he didn’t know what was real and what wasn’t? He was suffering from a concussion. His parents got in a big fight, his mum disappeared and his brain jumped to all kinds of crazy conclusions.’
‘Exactly,’ Mac nodded. ‘It’s possible that his fear after his mother disappeared got jumbled up in his head with the stories he was watching on the news. The psychological report from Warrender Prep School described Fahim as a fantasist.’
Lauren shook her head. ‘He just doesn’t seem like he’s lying to me.’
‘In Fahim’s head, it might all seem real.’
‘So what do we do?’ Lauren asked. ‘How can we be sure one way or the other?’
‘I think it’s time to scale the operation back,’ Mac said. ‘You and Jake can head back to campus. We can leave the surveillance equipment in place for another week or two, but I’ll ask MI5 to call off the live monitoring. We’ll just get one operative to skim through the recordings until the batteries inside the listening devices die off.’
‘Poor Fahim,’ Lauren said sadly. ‘Whatever the truth behind the link to the air crash, he’s still lost his mum.’
‘I know,’ Mac sighed. ‘I haven’t worked out exactly how, but I’ll find a discreet way of informing the police that she’s missing. Hopefully they’ll have more luck getting to the bottom of this than we’ve had.’
‘We’ll have to tell Fahim that we’re abandoning him too,’ Lauren said. ‘After all he’s been through, it’s gonna tear him apart.’
28. TALK
James and Kerry were nearing the end of their two weeks at Deluxe Chicken and they’d gradually got used to the routine and the boredom. They remained on the morning shift, but after they’d seen Gemma the previous Friday she’d worked different hours from Monday onwards and they only saw her briefly in the afternoons before heading back to campus.
Gabriel had also juggled the shifts so he didn’t face the embarrassment of dealing with Kerry. Instead they were supervised by an assistant manager called Wendy. She’d joined Deluxe Chicken as part of a graduate recruitment programme, which meant she could expect rapid promotion to manager of a newly opened restaurant. Despite her exalted status, Wendy was in her early twenties and had done enough crummy jobs when she was at university not to hassle her staff unless they were outrageously lazy.
James and Kerry basically turned up, put on their uniforms and did as little work as they could get away with until it was time to go home. Kerry seemed cheerful and James was pleased that relations between them had finally thawed out. It reminded him of the days between training and their first kiss when they’d just been good friends.
Kerry was pleased to see Gemma when she came in at noon on the Friday, but the feelings didn’t seem mutual.
‘Shift swap,’ Gemma explained grudgingly, without turning to look Kerry in the eye.
‘How was the club on Wednesday night?’ Kerry asked, as Gemma straightened her baseball cap.
‘I didn’t go,’ Gemma said. ‘Mel’s boyfriend’s on leave from the army and Danny’s mum goes to pilates, so I had to stay home with the kids.’
‘I was wondering, actually,’ Kerry said. ‘You know it’s James’ birthday next week? I spoke to Dana and she said it would be really cool if we could all go to the Outrage again, but we obviously can’t if Danny’s still mad at James.’
‘Don’t even think about going there,’ Gemma said, as she finally turned to face Kerry. ‘He’s still in a mood.’