Free The Criminal Escapades of Geoffrey Larkin

through the small gap in the fence and grabbed one of his ankles. A quick downward kick with his free foot on the man’s fingers brought a curse from the other side of the fence, and forced the grip to slacken slightly, but it still remained holding tightly onto Mr. Shelly’s shoe.
    Geoff could feel the panic rising; his heart was beating faster and faster as he was pulled back towards the gap in the fence.
    â€˜You won’t get away from me that easy you little sod!’ This was followed by a triumphant laugh from the other side of the fence. Geoff was twisting his foot this way and that in a vain attempt to release himself from the clamp like grip. Suddenly he was free; his foot had slipped out of the oversized shoe leaving the man just holding on to Mr. Shelly’s by now, scratched and very battered footwear.
    â€˜We’ll get you one of these days you little bastards!’ the workman shouted in frustration, placing his face against the gap in the fence.
    He was met with a torrent of filthy abuse from the two lads ending with, ‘Fuck off! Fuck off! Fuck off!’ from Geoff, shouted between their bouts of hysterical laughter, as they ran off alongside the fence towards the road. While Geoff was being forced to run with a lop-sided motion through wearing only one shoe.
    â€˜Thanks for not leaving me back there, John,’ said Geoff when he was sure they weren’t being chased, and they had stopped to regain their breath.
    â€˜Think nothing of it, that’s what mates are for,’ replied John, feeling very relieved and quite pleased with his achievement and the fact they had not been caught
    They set off for the playing field with Geoff still walking with a funny up and down gait caused by the lack of one of Mr. Shelly’s shoes.
    â€˜What will we do about the missing shoe Geoff?’ John queried, sounding quite concerned. Geoff had been pondering on that very same problem himself.
    â€˜We’ll put everything back in the locker as it was, they won’t be able to pin anything on us if we’re carful,’ replied Geoff with a confidence he did not feel.
    It was only when he came to change into his own clothes in the bushes near the playing field that he discovered all the buttons on the front of Mr. Shelly’s sports coat were also missing. They’d been torn off in the process of being dragged through the narrow gap in the fence and the knees of the long grey trousers were also covered in mud from his scramble through the fence.
    Mr. Shelly took great pride in his footwear, it was a habit carried on through his long time service in the Royal Air Force. The pair of highly polished and once shiny shoes was now down to just one, and this was so scratched and badly scuffed it did not have the faintest resemblance to the shoe that had started the journey earlier that day.
    Well there’s nothing I can do about that now,
Geoff thought to himself. He didn’t bother to mention his discoveries to his companion, he couldn’t see the point at this moment in time, his friend was of a nervous disposition and it was to no avail bothering him with this minor hiccup, and things had gone roughly to plan anyway.
    It was now just before three o’clock. If they hurried they had sufficient time to replace the clothes and shoe in Shelly’s locker then mix with the rest of the pupils in the playground during their afternoon break. They would be in time to make the last lesson.
    Little did they realise the drama in the school that had, and was still being, played in the classrooms in their absence.

Chapter Five

    Derek Bolton had signed in both Geoff and his brother for the P.E. lesson. Shelly was the only teacher who allowed the boys to sign themselves into the class; it was his method of trying to give them responsibility. So if any boy wanted to skip a lesson, it was usually during P.E., getting a mate to forge their signature and cover for their