8 Leo

8 Leo We've arrived, madam. ' Thanks, Hammond. Would you like to pop in for a quick cup of tea?' 'That's very kind of you, madam, but I have to head back to the office to take Mr Stone home.' His deep voice was warm and soothing. 'He'll probably finish work at some point in the next four hours and I have to be ready and waiting or, ahem, y'know...' Hammond made the slitting-throat gesture with his hand. ' Yes. Of course. Well, thanks for the lift. 'I'm at your service, madam. And very nice to meet you, young miss. 'You too.' Peanut smiled at him.

The Jones family had lived at 80 Melody Road for the past fifteen years. It was an unremarkable medium-sized Victorian terraced house, its only distinguishing feature a bright yellow front door and window frames painted to match. Mum and Peanut walked up the black-and-white tiled path and went inside. 'We're home!' shouted Mum as they entered the hallway. 'Everything OK?' A low, flat voice from somewhere at the back of the house replied. 'Everything's fine.' It was Leo, Peanut's older brother. Leo was sixteen and, like his mother, maths was his thing. Specifically, something called pure maths which, Peanut imagined, was like normal maths but somehow even more mathsy. Maths squared. His dream was to become a theoretical mathematician when he was older. When Peanut had asked him what a theoretical mathematician was, he'd got very excited and said: 'Well, it's somebody who tries to figure out the answers to maths questions that nobody else has been able to figure out the answers to before.' Why would anybody ever want to waste time doing that?' Peanut had said. 'I'd just ask a teacher!' 'Ha! Believe it or not, Topknot—' Peanut liked it when he called her that—'there are some questions that even teachers

don't know the answers to. In fact, sometimes, a theoretical mathematician will have to spend more time working out what the question is in the first place, than they will finding the answer. 'OK, you're scaring me now. 'Ha. No, it's actually really interesting. And it can be applied in loads of different ways to help in real-life situations. Maybe a doctor needs to calculate the rate at which a particular disease is going to spread, or an engineer needs to know how to make a certain type of boat float. I might be able to work it out for them with a brand-new maths equation that I invent. 'So you're saying that by telling them what seven times six is, you'll be able to make a ship sail to Timbuktu? Whatever you say, Pythagoras.' This banter would often go on for hours, sometimes accompanied by wrestling, always accompanied by laughter. But Leo didn't laugh very often these days. Not since Dad left. In fact, he had changed beyond all recognition over the course of the last year, and was no longer the wise-cracking, fun-loving brother that Peanut was so fond of. He wore a permanently anxious expression and had separated himself almost entirely from the rest of the family. He spent most of the time either alone in his bedroom, or out with friends. Peanut couldn't remember the last time he had called her Topknot.