Trash Read Online Free PDF Page B

suspicious. How many times have we been on a train, Raphael?’
    ‘I don’t know, not often—’
    ‘They’re police, yes? They’re gonna be looking out tosee what we’re doing. What if they know there was a locker key – they just don’t know the number?’
    ‘No, listen,’ I said. ‘That’s crazy. If they know the bag had a locker key, they’d have broken into every locker in the station. They cannot know what’s in the bag.’
    ‘Maybe they’re at the station now, opening every locker. Waiting for us.’
    ‘If they are, we just walk away. We’re just three boys out roaming.’
    Rat said nothing. He just looked from me to Gardo and back again, and when I caught his eye, he smiled and we both laughed.
    Gardo told us to shut up. ‘Twenty thousand now,’ he said. ‘That’s the prize money they’re offering, I heard – they just doubled it.’
    ‘You know they won’t pay it.’
    ‘What I’m saying is, whatever they’re looking for is getting more important. If this José Angelico killed someone – what if he killed an important man – a politician, maybe: someone rich – and we’ve got the clues to catch the guy? What are we going to do then? We end up stopping the police catching a killer—’
    I said, ‘Gardo, why don’t we just see what’s in the locker?’ And I smiled right at him and lay back on the bench. ‘We decide what to do then, OK?’ I told him to rest his brain.
    ‘I do the locker,’ said Rat.
    We both looked at him, and Gardo asked him what he meant.
    ‘I best do the locker,’ he said. ‘OK? I best square it with the station boys too – say we’re just doing an errand for someone, give them something. Also, in case anyone’s looking … I know where it is. I’ll go in fast, grab what’s there – meet you back by the tracks. Anyone sees me, I just run. Three of us run, they’ll get one of us. If it’s me, I’ll lose them. OK?’
    ‘How much to the station boys?’ I said. ‘They going to want how much?’
    ‘I don’t know. I’ll try twenty and make it look like a small thing. Give me a hundred, though.’
    I gave Rat the notes, and he was twitching a little, getting scared. Gardo was shaking his head, thinking deep. He said: ‘It’s a good idea, Rat. I can see where you’re coming from. But I say stick together. We ought to stay together in this.’ He looked at me and said, ‘You better stay close to me!’
    Minutes later, the train was slowing for the station, and we stood out on the sides. I could see the platform coming up, so I jumped and ended up rolling on the grass. Gardo nearly fell on me, but Rat stayed on his feet. I hadn’t seen before just how quick Rat could be, and he was so thin it was like he was just straws and paper, like he could blow off in the wind like a little kite. He didn’t even look round, he just skipped along, and we hurried after him.We ran up onto the platforms, and a couple of kids looked at us with a kind of mean-eyed suspicion, like this was their territory – which it was.
    They followed us up, at a distance.
    We jumped early because you don’t ever want to be seen getting off the train. If guards or even porters see you, you can get a real thrashing. The station boys are different. As long as they don’t steal or get in the way, nobody cares too much. They keep the station clean, and go through a train in about two minutes. If they beg or sell, they know to do it off at the sides – that’s why people let them alone.
    So now we were all making our way up the platform, just a straggling bunch of three barefoot boys; we might have been invisible. I knew the dangerous bit was going to be the locker, because that was something you did not usually see. Boys like us opening luggage lockers? It wouldn’t have to be police. It would be anyone who noticed. They’d assume right away that we were thieving, and thieving boys get no mercy from anyone.
    Just off the platform we were met by more station boys and these