Free Shift by Jeff Povey

says. It’s just gone six in the morning and everyone is up, fed and dressed.
    ‘We can rule out any of the addresses that aren’t in the school catchment area.’ Johnson looks over GG’s shoulder as he flicks through the pages of the telephone
directory. GG senses Johnson’s breath on his ear and giggles.
    Johnson, unlit cigarette in his mouth, scans the page with the surname Lopez on it. ‘There’s only three possible Lopezes it could be.’
    ‘Mr Sherlock, meet Mr Holmes,’ says GG, impressed.
    Billie peers at the telephone directory but I can’t get a look in with them all crowded around, so I stand to one side with Carrie who makes a big point of stepping away from me.
    ‘
So
not going to be your friend, not even with all of this going on,’ she whispers.
    The Ape walks into the lounge to the accompanying flush of the toilet next door. ‘That’s better. Got to lighten the load.’ No one can bring themselves to comment.
    ‘We’re going to have to split up,’ Johnson announces. ‘Three addresses, three couples.’
    ‘What about the Moth?’ I ask. ‘Where does he live?’
    ‘Does anyone know his surname?’ Johnson asks.
    ‘I did know it, but I can’t remember,’ says Carrie.
    ‘I barely knew him,’ admits Billie.
    ‘I just sort of said “hi” now and then,’ I offer weakly.
    ‘Scratch one Moth,’ says the Ape bluntly.
    We all feel pretty bad about this, but I try to make excuses. ‘He never came out much, never really made himself known.’
    ‘Yeah, it’s all his fault,’ says the Ape even more bluntly.
    ‘Let’s find Lucas first – he’ll definitely know where the Moth lives.’ Johnson knows we need to keep focused. ‘Who wants to pair up with me?’
    ‘I will,’ Billie says before I can even take a breath.
    Johnson glances at me, and I wonder for a moment if he’d hoped I’d step forward, but when I stay rooted to the spot he turns to Billie. ‘Cool. We’ll take the one on
Turing Avenue.’
    ‘Me and Rev’ll team up. We’ve been pretty good so far,’ the Ape says.
    ‘We have?’ I respond.
    ‘Yeah, we took down the burned man.’
    ‘He was already down.’
    ‘But we made sure he stayed down.’
    ‘What burned man?’ asks GG. ‘No one mentioned a burned man.’
    ‘It was just this man we, uh, we
met
, at Tesco,’ I say.
    ‘That’s pretty big news to keep to yourselves,’ says Carrie, glaring at me. ‘Are you saying there’s someone else?’
    ‘Not any more,’ replies the Ape.
    ‘He died,’ I explain.
    ‘So where did he come from? What happened to him?’ Carrie is all over this, getting in my face.
    ‘We don’t know.’
    ‘But someone else survived?’ GG says, getting involved in the interrogation.
    ‘No. No he didn’t. He died. In front of us,’ I tell them.
    ‘He was all burned up,’ says the Ape.
    ‘Really badly,’ adds Billie.
    ‘And I sort of got burned as well,’ I tell them.
    ‘They’re burns?’ asks Carrie. ‘I thought you had some disgusting skin disease.’
    My burns are beginning to sting again and I’m wondering if Johnson will take note and rub more of his magic ointment into them. Maybe if I start grimacing more he might get the
message.
    ‘He’s gone, so forget it.’ The Ape looms over Carrie and GG as if he wants them to back away from me.
    ‘But you don’t know who he is or where he came from?’
    Johnson has had enough. ‘The burned man isn’t the issue. We don’t know anything about him right now. So let’s concentrate on Lucas.’
    Carrie keeps staring at me. ‘Anything else we should know?’
    Before I can reply the Ape takes my arm and steers me away. ‘We’ve got Jenner Avenue.’
    ‘We’ve all swapped phone numbers, right?’ asks GG who is fast becoming Johnson’s second-in-command and rather enjoying it. He made us Bluetooth all our phone numbers to
each other last night. ‘We’re all logged into one another, yes? Is that a yes for GG? I can’t hear you.’
    ‘Yes,’ we all