Doctor Who_ The Hollow Men - Keith Topping [30]
Ace had loathed history at school. She picked up an exercise book, glancing at the beautifully looped handwriting.
„What‟re they like, your kids?‟ she asked.
„Oh, they‟re little horrors. The girls are the worst actually, really bitchy and obsessed with sex. Just like I was!‟
Ace smiled.
„The lads are more difficult to teach because their minds are always on other things,‟ continued Rebecca. „Usually football. But they‟re bright enough. Which one have you got there?‟
„Gail Burridge.‟
Rebecca made a pained face. „One of the great trials of my life. Really clever girl, her potential is enormous, but she wastes it by acting the fool. Her family environment probably doesn‟t help. Her father, Phil, is the local thug. Always seems to have loads of money, though nobody‟s ever seen him do an honest day‟s work in his life, unless you count brown-nosing around Matt Hatch. And he‟s always down the Jack... er, sorry, the Green Man. And he gets violent when he‟s drunk.‟
„To his family?‟ asked Ace.
„To everybody, ‟ replied Rebecca. „But yes, his wife‟s been seen around the village with a few black eyes in her time. I‟m pretty certain he gives Gail a slap every now and then, too.‟
„Why doesn‟t anybody do anything about it?‟ asked Ace, plaintively.
„Why?‟ Rebecca paused. „Because he‟s our cousin,‟ she said, as if that answered everything. „Who‟s next?‟
Ace picked up the next book. „Zoe Luston,‟ said Ace.
„Zoe‟s a little tease,‟ said Rebecca with a smile. „But a bright lass.‟
But Ace wasn‟t listening, she was looking at the handwriting. She glanced back at the book belonging to Gail.
It was the same. She picked up another, this time one of the boys‟. Again, the familiar effortlessly beautiful handwriting.
She remembered her own at their age, which Miss Birkett in computer studies had once compared to „a spider on drugs trying to get home from the disco‟. The next exercise book was the same.
„Have you seen this?‟ she asked Rebecca. „The handwriting.‟
„Shocking, isn‟t it?‟
„No, it‟s all the same.‟ She passed the books over to Rebecca, who glanced at them dismissively.
„Yes, I suppose they are a bit similar. Never really noticed it before. From an early age they‟re taught to write in a certain way, that‟s all. I don‟t think they‟ve been cheating, if that‟s what you mean.‟
Ace wasn‟t sure exactly what she did mean, but when she opened the next book something caught her eye. At the bottom of a previous essay was a small note in red, again in an almost identical hand to that of the student to whom the book belonged: „Paul, this is an excellent piece of work, a
huge improvement. Congratulations.‟ Ace looked up at Rebecca, who moved away from the bed to pull down a reference book. As she did so a cloud passed across the sun, cutting the stream of light through the bay window.
CHAPTER 4
I BETRAY MY FRIENDS
Matthew Hatch walked towards his old school with a spring in his step. The bright sun made his back prickle, reminding him of Rebecca Baber‟s fingernails as they clawed at his shoulders. However, there were conflicting emotions to consider and control. A return to Hexen Bridge should be a source of triumph for its most famous son, but, more than most, Hatch was aware of the suffocating pressure of heritage.
It had been that way since his youth, when, day by day, the Hexen culture had been drummed into him. His fierce intelligence, which even his critics now conceded, had been recognised by his parents, who had indulged his precocious eccentricities, turning a blind eye to the succession of loud, common friends. Others might have been upset by the thought of their son mixing with the likes of Kenneth Shanks and Philip Burridge, but the Hatch family had a long history of using those from the lower classes to do their dirty work.
At university, freed from the ominous expectations of everyone in Hexen Bridge, Matthew was magnificent. It was inevitable that he would go into politics - with his ruthless intellect and ability to manipulate even the largest