Darling - K. Ancrum Page 0,17

and forth. The platform between the two cars was only a half-moon of space, about a foot across. There were no handles to help Wendy keep her balance, just chains that connected the two cars, draped slack. Peter charged forward unflinchingly and yanked open the back of the next train car. He slipped across the space gracefully and made it into the next car without a hitch. Then he stuck his foot in the door to hold it open.

Tinkerbelle went next, but instead of hopping into the next car, she stretched her feet across both small platforms and held her arms out across them. Then she leaned against the chains and stared back at Wendy expectantly, using her own body as a railing between the cars.

“You can do this,” she said firmly. The wind whipped her words clean out of her mouth and flung them far beyond Wendy’s ears.

Wendy took a breath and stepped out of the train car. She grabbed Tinkerbelle’s arm for balance and saw Tinkerbelle clench her teeth. The platforms between cars felt a lot sturdier than she’d imagined, and the swaying that seemed so chaotic on the inside of the train was absorbed by her body now that she was outside. She transferred smoothly between the cars, stumbling into the following car just in time for them to make it to the next stop. Tinkerbelle pushed Wendy forward as she stepped in behind her and closed the train door.

“Why couldn’t we have just changed train cars when we got to the next stop?” Wendy asked breathlessly.

“He would have seen us running. There’s just enough time between stops where you can get on the train,” Peter explained. “The distance between one car door and another is farther than you think. If you don’t hurry, they’ll close before you make it.”

“He wasn’t looking at us yet,” Wendy said, collapsing against the door to catch her breath. There was a small, closed-off seat in the back of the train car by the doors, and Tinkerbelle tossed herself into it, annoyed.

Peter blocked off the archway to the rest of the car with his lanky body and gave Wendy a dry glance. “I don’t know how much you know about city cops, but they’re nothing like whatever you experienced back in Hinsdale.”

“What do you mean?” Wendy settled down next to Tinkerbelle, who shifted away toward the window in response.

Peter thought for a bit before he continued. “You went to school, so this comparison might work for you: You know how individual ships in the British Navy would defect to piracy when they realized that they could? They would have their own pirate flag, but also the union jack. Then, depending on whether the circumstances required, they would raise one flag and lower another?”

Wendy had no idea what he was talking about, but she nodded anyway.

“They had the ability to reap the benefits of piracy and also had the power to prosecute pirates and enforce British maritime law. So, of course they just went everywhere drunk with power, fucking shit up, and no one could tell them to stop, or had the ability to stop them … because they were who you would go to when you needed to stop pirates.”

Wendy nodded.

“It’s like that. But cops.”

“Uh.”

“Yeah, it’s not great,” Peter snapped.

Wendy wasn’t sure what her face was doing, but whatever it was made Tinkerbelle smile.

“You regret coming out with us yet?” she asked in a suspiciously sweet voice.

“No,” Wendy said bullishly.

“Good.” Tinkerbelle’s smile grew wider. “Do you want to hear a story?”

“A story about what? Cops?” Wendy grimaced. She did not.

“A story about our Peter and why we have to run when we see police.”

Wendy looked up at Peter, who shrugged and nodded as if to say, Indulge her.

“Uh. Okay.” Wendy felt her back pocket to make sure her phone was still there.

Tinkerbelle scooted closer to Wendy and began, “A while back, closer to when Peter and I first met, we had been hanging out by the train graveyard—the place where the train cars go to sit when the station closes down for the night. We were having a small party. Pried open one of the train’s doors so it was like one big room. Some of the kids from down south had come up to be there. It was a really great night. I don’t know exactly what happened, but somehow the cops knew we were there and decided to come out full force to shut the party down.”

Tinkerbelle leaned back