Free The Criminal Escapades of Geoffrey Larkin Page A

absence.
    Derek Bolton thought he was the only one in the class on the playing field who saw the shadowy figures of his brother and Geoff behind the bushes at the far end of the school grounds. He also thought it would be all over before the scheme had even got off the ground as he watched Mr. Shelly looking in their direction as his two mates climbed up the far embankment; he was helpless to intervene. He was as surprised as Mr. Shelly when Harry Sutton’s voice popped up out of nowhere, to attract the teacher’s attention, Derek watched relieved as the boys disappeared onto the road, just as Shelly turned around again.
    It was the second lesson that could cause problems. Derek would have to shout out, ‘Here sir!’ as the names of his brother and Geoff were called out. He could get away with Geoff’s name, as there was a large gap between Bolton and Larkin, but his brother’s name was straight after his own and the teacher might well recognise the similarity in the reply.
    Even though Shelly had not missed the two boys from his class, both Dave Higgins and Wilf Norton had twigged that something was going on, especially as Geoff Larkin and John Bolton were both missing from class. They were looking intently at Derek as it came closer and closer to both his and his brother’s name being called by the teacher.
    What was in Derek’s favour was that the teacher taking the history lesson that particular week was a young, temporary, student replacement and, as yet, he was not familiar with all the boys in the different classes. The student teacher’s name was Mr. Lonsdale and he had, for some unknown reason, been nicknamed Hikky Lonsdale by the pupils. Perhaps this was from his habit of cracking several wooden rulers hard on the desk in order to get the boys’ attention.
    â€˜Bolton D,’ shouted out Hikky.
    â€˜Here, sir,’ replied Derek Bolton.
    â€˜Bolton J,’ shouted out Hikky.
    â€˜Here!’ replied a gruffer sounding Derek Bolton.
    â€˜Here, sir, if you please Bolton J,’ Hikky shouted back.
    â€˜Here, sir,’ replied Derek Bolton, breathing a sigh of relief as he shouted, ‘Here sir!’ when Larkin was called.
    There was no reaction from the teacher who continued calling out the rest of the names that made up the class. The boring history lesson with Hikky Lonsdale took the class up to lunchtime without any further mishap. If any of the other pupils had heard Derek Bolton cover up for the absence of Geoff Larkin and his older brother, they kept it to themselves, with the exception of Dave Higgins and Wilfred Norton.
    At the lunch break Derek Bolton was coming out of the urinals that were situated in a brick building in the corner of the school playground. There was only one exit and blocking this exit were Dave Higgins, Wilf Norton and two of his gang. They roughly pushed Derek back into the corner of the large, slate urinal. ‘Where’s Larkin and your brother?’ said Higgins quietly, pushing his face close up to Derek’s.
    Several weeks earlier, Dave Higgins had seen a film about the American Mafia and one of the gangsters had been called Whispering Joe Bianci. This deadly character spoke very, very softly to people. Apparently, he could not speak any louder as his throat and voice box had been permanently damaged in a previous knife fight. After watching this film Dave Higgins had started to imitate this gangster by speaking very low, so low in fact it was difficult to hear what he was saying.
    â€˜Hey! What do you say?’ said Derek, standing his ground.
    For his bravery he took a knee in the groin from Dave Higgins and a punch thrown over his cousin’s shoulder by Wilf Norton landed on the side of his head.
    Derek, still doubled up from the knee in the groin, raised his arms and elbows to protect his head. One of his arms was pulled away and he took another blow on his forehead from Higgins plus a kick on the shin from