CHERUB: The Sleepwalker - Robert Muchamore Page 0,72

raised his hands. Two cops shoved him against the brick wall at the side of Deluxe Chicken.

‘You’re nicked,’ the cop said enthusiastically, as his colleague grabbed James’ wrists and snapped on a set of handcuffs.

*

‘It was work experience, for god’s sake,’ Zara Asker shouted. She stood up and rested her knuckles against her glass desk. ‘Kids getting in trouble on missions I can handle, but you’re telling me that James Adams can’t even sell fried chicken for two weeks without getting himself arrested?’

‘Well you see,’ Kerry said weakly, ‘the thing is …’

She’d grabbed a taxi and got back to campus as fast as she could, but hadn’t been able to think up a good explanation before reaching the chairwoman’s office.

‘Spit it out,’ Zara yelled. The chairwoman didn’t lose her temper often, but you knew all about it when she did. ‘I’ve got enough on my plate without this kind of nonsense.’

‘James is innocent,’ Kerry blurted. ‘I beat the guy up but the cops arrested James. He took the baseball bat off me and tried getting me to calm down, but when the cops arrived they saw him standing there with the bat.’

‘Didn’t you try explaining?’

‘I told them I wanted to give a statement, but there were loads of people in the restaurant who all claimed to have seen something different. I even told them that they needed to arrest me instead of James, but they were totally patronising and told me to go away. I’m quite little, so I guess they took one look and decided that James was the only person with the muscle to beat up Danny.’

‘Conflicting witness statements are good,’ Zara said. ‘What about this Danny? Are there likely to be serious complications?’

Kerry shook her head. ‘I didn’t target his head or anywhere too vulnerable with the bat.’

Zara leaned back in her chair, then looked up at the ceiling like she was stressed out and couldn’t believe what she was hearing.

‘This is so unlike you, Kerry. What made you attack him?’

‘Danny was trying to get a rise out of James and start a fight. But James wasn’t biting, so Danny grabbed his girlfriend Gemma and gave her a slap. He’d already smacked her around the night before and I just completely lost my rag.’

Zara seemed a touch more sympathetic when she heard that. ‘And why did this guy want to start a fight with James in the first place?’

Kerry realised she’d talked herself into a corner. ‘The other night James popped Danny one when he was pushing Gemma around.’

‘Ah-haa,’ Zara smiled. ‘Is this when you, James and Dana said you’d been invited to a party at one of your co-workers’ houses, promised to be back on campus by one and rolled up at the gates at a quarter past three? I believe the report from the security team described all three of you as smelling like the inside of a vodka bottle.’

‘We lost track of time,’ Kerry said weakly.

‘I wasn’t impressed, but I let it slide because it was a one-off and you all got up and went to work and lessons the following day. However, I didn’t realise James had also been in a fight.’

‘Look,’ Kerry pleaded. ‘I’ll take whatever punishment is coming my way because I overreacted. But all James did was try to defend a young mum who was getting battered by her boyfriend.’

‘Fortunately I know Inspector Marsdell very well. His phone call telling me that James was in one of his cells actually reached campus before you did.’

‘Oh,’ Kerry said, startled. ‘So you knew already? Do you think they’ll charge him or what?’

Zara shook her head. ‘I thought I’d let James stew in his cell for a few hours. Meryl said she’ll collect him when she’s finished red-shirt athletics training at five.’

‘There’s something else,’ Kerry said. ‘Can I get some advice?’

‘On what?’

‘Gemma,’ Kerry explained. ‘She lives with this guy Danny and he owns their flat. She’s got two kids about the same age as yours and he’s knocking her about all the time.’

‘I see,’ Zara said. ‘Doesn’t she have parents or friends who can help her out?’

Kerry shook her head. ‘Gemma refuses to talk to her parents and says she doesn’t want help. She spat on Danny after the fight, but then she ended up riding in the ambulance with him.’

‘It sounds like she really cares about him,’ Zara sighed.

‘But he’s beating the crap out of her,’ Kerry choked. ‘Maybe I shouldn’t have interfered, but I did and I can’t have it on