Free Bang Bang You're Dead by Narinder Dhami Page A

park. Jamie was so full of adrenalin he was half running. I could barely keep up with him. 'What if Doctor Zeelander tells—?'
    'Shut up, Mia,' Jamie snarled at me. Anger was still flooding out of him, so blazing and white-hot it was almost tangible. I had never seen him like that before. He had never shown that side of him to anyone, even me. 'She won't tell, and anyway, what does it matter if she does? There weren't any witnesses except you. That snotty bitch deserved it, and more.'
    The following day I was in the Spar minimarket at the end of our street, and there a sentence on the front of the local newspaper leaped out at me with sickening clarity. Doctor's car vandalized – police appeal for witnesses. See page 4.
    It wasn't the main story, it wasn't even a big headline, but somehow it was almost like I'd been waiting for it. Like I'd been expecting it.
    As if in a dream, I saw my trembling hands reach for the newspaper and turn to page 4.
    DOCTOR'S CAR TARGETED BY VANDALS
    Police today appealed for witnesses after a local doctor's car was wrecked by vandals. Dr Caroline Zeelander, a locum at the Waterford Surgery in Kenwright Road, found her car – a new silver BMW 5 series with the distinctive numberplate ZEE 1 – had been targeted yesterday when she left after evening surgery to drive home. Not only were the car's headlights smashed and the tyres slashed, but a tin of red paint had also been poured over the entire vehicle.
    'This was a vicious attack,' commented community PC Rehana Patel, who was first on the scene. 'It's possible that this is a random act of vandalism, or it could be someone who has a particular grudge against Doctor Zeelander, we just don't know yet.'
    PC Patel went on to request that if anyone saw anything of the attack, believed to have taken place between 6 and 8 p.m. on Monday evening, then they should contact the police immediately. When asked about the incident, Dr Zeelander refused to confirm reports that she had taken out a restraining order against her estranged husband only the previous week.
    I stood there staring at the newspaper for so long that the manager of the minimarket came to ask me if I was all right. I could barely answer him because I felt that if I opened my mouth, I might actually blurt out the terrible thing I was thinking.
    Had Jamie had anything to do with the attack on Dr Zeelander's car? He'd disappeared without a word yesterday around a quarter to six. He'd come home just after eight.
    It seemed so impossible, and I did try very hard to convince myself that it could not be. After all, Caroline Zeelander hadn't come across as the most sympathetic of doctors. Even though she was only working at the surgery temporarily, any of the other patients there might have had a grudge against her. Alternatively, as the newspaper seemed to be implying, it might have happened because of problems in her personal life.
    But all those little incidents – Michael Riley and the others – had lodged themselves deep in my subconscious over the years and very gradually, almost without me acknowledging or even realizing it, I had come to accept that Jamie was – well – volatile. Dangerous.
    And the memory of the venomous rage, driven by frustration, that he had directed at Dr Zeelander still made me gasp. The helplessness he felt in dealing with Mum and – be honest, Mia – with me was pushing him to breaking point.
    And I could not stop asking myself this question.
    How far would Jamie dare to go?

Ten
    Monday 10 March, 9.35 a.m.
     
    ' No! '
    I stand in front of the locked doors that bar me from entering the annexe, my whole body a pantomime of complete disbelief. My eyes are wide, my mouth falls open, my fists are clenched.
    I push at the doors again more violently, shoulder-charging them, but it's useless. They are definitely locked.
    It never occurred to me that this would happen: during school hours the doors at both ends of the L-shaped glass corridor always remain open.