Read Online The Girl by the Thames by Peter Boland - Free Book Online Page B

could, putting as much pavement between her and the corner shop. The street was fairly empty, but just in case she darted down several side streets until her lungs wouldn’t let her run anymore.
    Lena lent against a wall, panting hard while she took out her phone. She had a text message from Duff:
    Park. Now.
    Lena obeyed and headed straight to the park. With every step she could feel all the money bulging in her pockets like she was a walking bank. The notes crunched and the coins clunked and dug into her skin. Suddenly Lena felt very conspicuous. Did everyone she passed know how much money she had on her? This thought made her walk a bit faster. She really wanted to take the main roads where it was safer, but she had to keep to the back streets just in case the shop keepers came looking for her.
    At the park everyone was sitting on a roundabout apart from Liz and Si, who were on a bench with their faces clamped together in a relentless kiss. They stopped when they heard everyone shout Lena’s name. Gem jumped up first and marched towards her. It wasn’t to congratulate her, judging by the sneer on his face and his knotted eyebrows.
    “What took you so long?” he said, blocking her path.
    “I had a problem.”
    “A problem? Don’t tell me that’s all you got,” Gem looked at the bottle Lena held tightly to her chest. “We got plenty of booze, we need cash.”
    “Get out of my way,” Lena said. She didn’t wait for an answer and pushed past him. Duff and the others got up off the roundabout, looking equally cross when they saw the whiskey bottle in Lena’s hand.
    “Where’s the box?” said Vicks.
    “Back in the shop,” Lena replied. Now it was her turn to be cross: “Why didn’t you tell me it was chained down?”
    Everyone looked at each other, then they turned to look at Gem.
    “Gem, you scoped that place out,” said Duff. “Why didn’t you see it had a chain?”
    “There weren’t no chain on it; she’s lying.”
    “I’m not lying,” said Lena.
    Just then, Seb and Mack came running up. Their faces were puffy and Seb had a few scratches on his face.
    “You okay?” asked Lena.
    “Yeah,” said Mack, “but you took a long time, girl.”
    “Yeah, you got to be in and out quick with something like this,” Seb added.
    “This don’t look good, Lena,” said Gem. “You took too long and you didn’t get the box.”
    “What?” said Mack and Seb together.
    “It was chained down,” said Lena.
    “It was not chained down,” said Gem. “No box, you didn’t pass the initiation, so no joining this gang.”
    “Oi!” said Duff. He towered in front of Gem, glaring down at him. “It’s up to me if she joins, got it.” Gem shrank back and didn’t say anything else. “Okay, Lena,” Duff said, turning to her, “So you didn’t get the box. The whiskey’s good but we’re sorted for booze.”
    “I got something else,” said Lena. She handed the bottle to Mack and then pushed her hands deep into her pockets. “Hold out your hands,” she said to Duff. A second later she dropped great big fistfuls of cash into them. There was so much money that it spilled over his hands and fell onto the grass. Vicks was quick to snatch it up. The smile that broke over Duff’s face was big enough to light up the whole park.
    “Oh, that is cool,” said Duff.
    “That is very cool,” said Vicks.
    “Wait, there’s more,” Lena carried on pulling notes and coins from every pocket she had. This time she handed them to Vicks, as Duff couldn’t hold any more.
    “Girl, you are so in this gang,” said Duff.
    “Where’d you get it from?” asked Gem.
    “The till,” Lena tried to say matter-of-factly, but a grin hung on every word she said. “They left the key when they went to sort out Seb and Mack.”
    Everyone slapped Lena on the back and shouted whoops of joy, everyone except Gem. He stood there looking confused, this quickly turned to anger.
    “Hold on, she was supposed to get the charity box,”