Cooky said with a guarded look. “Oh, I’ve heard of him all right. Most people have, though you don’t hear many admit to it. Why do you want to know?” For once Gordon managed to deflect a question with a lie. “I’m just curious,” he said. “I keep hearing about him. My family used to talk about him before they…” “Before they what?” Gordon looked down at his feet, hiding his lying face from Cooky and knowing that the gesture would be interpreted as shame and reluctance to speak. He left long spaces between his words, hoping this would draw Cooky further into his untruths. “Things weren’t… good… at home. I had to leave. When they weren’t… hurting me… Mum and Dad were always talking about this Crowman. It seemed like he was something to do with why everything’s changing now. It was like he made everything worse. I keep thinking if I could find out the truth about him I might be able to understand why they changed so much.
