Leave Her Hanging: A Noir Thriller

Chapter Twenty-Seven

An hour later, I spotted Jo Kim coming out of his first period class with a group of his friends around him. He smiled and laughed along with the rest of them, but I could see the strain behind his eyes. And the bruises I’d given him across his face didn’t help either.

I hung back in the space between the science and maths blocks until he’d passed, then I fell in behind the group, using the crowd of students pouring out of class to hide myself.

About halfway to his next class, Jo said something to his friends and split off from them, heading for the low concrete structure of the toilet block. I gave him a few seconds, got my mean face on. Then I followed him inside.

He was facing away from me at the urinal, pissing against the long, aluminium wall. We were alone. I waited for him to finish—I didn’t feel like getting pissed on. He shook himself a couple of times and zipped up. I made my move.

“Hi, Jo,” I said. I grabbed him by the strap of his backpack and jerked him backwards. He squealed and flailed, trying to get me off. I wasn’t having any of that. I shoved him into a cubicle. He fell awkwardly against the toilet, one arm wedged around the toilet paper dispenser. I had to get almost nose-to-nose with him to kick the door closed behind us.

“You don’t look so flash,” I said.

“I haven’t told anyone about you, I swear.” His eyes were wide, one knee up as if to kick me away.

I grabbed his jaw and squeezed. “Good. It’d be bad for you if you did.”

“Please, I’m sorry,” he whimpered. “I won’t do it again. I’ll never go near another kid.”

“Then you won’t be much use to me.”

“What?”

I shook his face back and forth. “Listen up. I want you to get in contact with those friends of yours. Act like everything’s normal. Tell them you’ve got a kid for them. Tell them it’s a fourteen-year-old boy, and tell them that they need to do a scene soon. This week. Can you do that?”

Jo stared at me like I was talking German. I slapped him across the face to get his attention.

“Hey!” I said. “Can you do that?”

“Y…yes.” He nodded jerkily. “Who? What kid?”

I grinned. “Me.”

~~~

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