He moved to a spot a few feet away from the hinge and turned on a laser in his acoustic levitator, then aimed at the point it was making. “Now stand back,” he said. “I don’t want any unforeseen effects to hurt you.”
Amanda and Simon moved to what seemed like a safe distance.
“Okay, now,” said Clive. “One, two, three.” On three he let go. At first nothing happened, but then they heard the grinding sound of metal on metal and could see the pin rise.
“It’s working!” cried Amanda.
“Awesome, man,” said Simon.
“Steady as she goes,” said Clive. “It’s not out yet.”
He held the acoustic levitator in place for a full minute, but the pin wouldn’t go any higher. Finally he turned it off, laid it down, and whipped out the WD-40 again. After coating the pin with enough of the stuff to disassemble the Eiffel Tower, he returned to his device and aimed again.
This time the pin lifted easily, but as soon as Clive turned the machine off it fell right back down again.
“Okay, it’s time to bring in the big guns,” he said. He withdrew a large magnet from his pack, stuck it to the wall with blue tack, and repeated the entire procedure. This time when the pin rose it stayed up.
“Wow,” said Amanda. “You’ve thought of everything.”
“Nice work,” said Simon. “We should do some projects together.”
“Absolutely,” said Clive, preparing the next hinge.
Within a couple of minutes, he had lifted all three pins on the left side of the first gate and the three kids had pulled the metal toward them and moved onto the second gate—the one the teachers had repaired. As he had predicted, it was a snap to get through that one and they went on to the third.
When they got there, they could see out into the cove and beyond. Just as Clive was about to aim the levitator at the first hinge, Amanda cried out. “Stop!” Clive jumped. “Wait,” she said. “There’s a dog out there.”
Sure enough, a shaggy tan-colored mutt was trotting by. It looked to be alone. Whether it was lost or had just been let out to play they couldn’t tell.
The dog stopped at the water’s edge to drink. Then, seeing an egret about to land, it got all excited and started jumping around and barking trying to catch the bird, which flew away. Then the dog decided it needed a rest and sat facing the water.
“We can’t turn the levitator on with the dog around,” said Clive.
“Maybe we can distract it,” said Simon. “Hey, dog!”
The dog turned around and looked at the mouth of the tunnel, then went back to whatever it was doing, which was probably attempting to locate the egret.
“Dog!” yelled Clive.
“Hey!” yelled Amanda.
The dog turned around again.
“Go away,” yelled Simon.
The dog stood up, stretched, ran to the mouth of the tunnel, and stood there wagging its tail.
“Oh dear,” said Amanda. “That wasn’t quite what we had in mind.” She reached out to pet it through the gate.
“No!” said Simon. “If you do that it will never leave.”
“Scram,” said Amanda. Nothing.
“Hey, dog,” said Clive. “Chase this.” He reached in his pack and pulled out a small piece of wood.
“What’s that?” said Amanda.
“I use it for digging,” said Clive. He reached out through an opening in the gate and attempted to throw the wood. It went about two feet. The dog picked it up and brought it back, laying it on the ground right outside the gate.
“Oh, brother,” said Simon. “This is going to take a while. Can you throw it farther?”
“I don’t think that will do any good,” said Clive. “It will just keep bringing the stick back.”
“I have some gingersnaps,” said Amanda.
“The last thing you want to do is feed it,” said Simon.
“Now what?” said Amanda.
“I guess we wait,” said Clive.
At this point, the dog sat down facing them, then scrunched down and laid its head on its paws.
“You’d think three detectives could come up with a solution,” said Simon.
“I have an idea,” said Amanda.
She took out her phone and called Ivy. After the two had spoken for a few seconds, Amanda held the phone as close to the dog as she could. Suddenly a loud noise came out of the speaker. The dog stood up, yelped, and ran away.
“What was that?” said Clive.
“The devil’s interval,” said Amanda. “I found out about it when I had to open that electronic key lock at the sugar factory last term. It’s a really awful chord that makes people sick. Apparently it works on dogs too.”
“Sweet,” said Clive.
Now that the dog had run away, Clive was able to lift the last three pins and Simon and Amanda were on their way.
“I’m going to install the camera now,” Clive said.
“Awesome,” said Simon. “We’ll catch up with you later. Thanks, buddy.”
“Yes, thank you, Clive,” said Amanda. “We couldn’t have done this without you.”
Clive blushed and turned to put his equipment away.
When they had got through the gates, they waved goodbye to Clive, picked up their boards, and carried them to the dock where the two boats they’d seen before, Bacon and Eggs, were moored. It had always been their plan to take one of them to get to Windermere, but now they weren’t sure which to “borrow.”
“I think I like the idea of Eggs better,” said Amanda.
“I dunno,” said Simon. “I think Bacon is in better condition.”
“How much better is better?” she said.
Simon got into Eggs and examined it carefully. Amanda wondered how he knew about boats. Perhaps because the UK was an island everyone there did. “Not as bad as I thought,” he said. “It needs paint but it looks workable.” Then he got into Bacon. “Uh oh,” he said. “This isn’t good.”
“What?” said Amanda.
“There’s a leak.” He knelt down and poked at something.
“You’re kidding. Then how come it’s still floating?” She peered over the edge but didn’t see anything, so she got in. She still couldn’t see anything.
Simon was pointing to a wet spot on the bottom of the boat. “There. It’s just damp now but it’s going to sink eventually.”
“Oh dear,” said Amanda. “We certainly don’t want that one. It will have to be Eggs.”
“I like Bacon better,” said Simon.
“If you like it you can take it, but I’m not getting in,” she said, climbing back onto the dock.
“Yeah, maybe not. You get into Eggs, and I’ll untie it and follow you.”
Amanda started to climb into the unleaky boat, tripped, and found herself clinging to Simon to keep from falling into the water. He in turn was so startled that he lost his footing and fell smack onto the dock, elbow first. Both skateboards went skittering down the wooden walkway toward the water. Simon yelled, “No!” and after righting himself, ran after them, only to see his fall into the lake while Amanda’s veered off to do the same from another angle. Without stopping he chased the board that was still rolling and dove for it, grabbing it just as it was about to careen off the dock. Unfortunately in the process he impaled himself on about a dozen splinters and screamed at the top of his lungs. Meanwhile Amanda sprinted to the site of the first disaster, threw off her backpack, and dove into the water after Simon’s board.
To say that the water was cold would be the type of understatement people roll their eyes at, but it was. Somehow Amanda knew this, but being from Los Angeles she expected bodies of water to be a reasonable temperature, not this, which wasn’t. The good news, however, was that the water was so shallow that she was able to see pretty well. The only problem was that even though she spotted the board in two seconds, it was entangled in a bunch of weeds, and to get it free she’d either have to hold her breath for longer than was comfortable or grab it with h
er feet.
She didn’t have time to debate the matter. She was too far from the dock to hold onto it while she worked her feet, so she took a huge breath and plunged her head into the water, then kicked herself down to the board. As she’d expected, her first attempt to pull it out of the weeds was unsuccessful, so she yanked even harder but it still wouldn’t come loose. She was starting to feel like she was going to run out of air so she propelled herself to the surface for a big gulp, but at the same time she was feeling so cold she thought she was going to freeze to death. Suddenly she saw Simon, blood all over his T-shirt, with a long pole, which he was dangling toward her.
“Grab it,” he said. She did and he pulled her to the dock, then held out a hand. She took hold of it and he boosted her up. “You’ve got to get warm,” he said, running toward Bacon and bringing back a blanket. “I won’t look, but take off your clothes and wrap yourself in this.”
Amanda didn’t argue. While Simon turned his back she pulled off her sweater, jeans, shoes, socks, and even her underwear and pulled the blanket tight.
“That’s not enough,” said Simon. He ran back to Bacon and came back with two more blankets. “Try these.”
That was better. She wasn’t exactly toasty but she could feel the edge come off the chill. When she was no longer shivering, she peeled off the outer layer and dried her hair as best she could.
“You’re all bloody,” she said.
“It’s nothing,” said Simon. “I’ll get a T-shirt at the station. The bigger problem is, what are we going to do about your clothes? It will take them forever to dry.”
“I hate to say it but we have two choices,” she said. “Turn back, or you could get me some dry clothes.”
“I don’t like the idea of turning back,” he said. “On the other hand, if I take the boat into town and back to buy you something, it will take forever.”
“There’s a better way,” she said. “Ivy.”
“Oh yeah,” said Simon. “I’ll text her. She can bring down some fresh clothes and another board and I’ll meet her.”
“You’re probably still worrying about your board,” said Amanda.
“You know, now that I think of it, we should have just let the boards go and gone back for some more.”
“Never mind,” she said. “Let’s do that. It will only take a few minutes. I can even come with you to meet Ivy.”
“And run into Wiffle?” he said. “I don’t think so.”
“Good point,” she said. “I’ll wait here.”
She pulled the blanket tighter and watched to make sure Simon wasn’t snapping a picture.
26
Couple of Clowns
Amanda wasn’t used to standing around English docks wrapped in nothing but blankets. She was still wondering if Simon had peeked while she was taking off her clothes. He seemed to have his back to her the whole time, but she’d been preoccupied and who knew if he’d tried? She wasn’t thrilled with the idea, but it was better than if Wiffle had been there. Now that would have been a disaster.
The whole incident had been ridiculous though. If she hadn’t slipped in the first place, they wouldn’t have lost Simon’s board, he wouldn’t have pieces of wood sticking out all over his body, and she’d be dry and comfortably on her way to town.
Keeping an eye out for potential splinters, she walked back down the dock, climbed into Eggs, and waited for Simon to return. It was a warm day for the UK, although not so much for L.A., and she was thawing and drying nicely. She looked out over the sparkling water of Enchanto. Whoever had chosen this setting for Legatum had had good taste. When things settled down she would spend a lot more time appreciating its beauty.
After a while she realized that Simon had been gone a long time. She checked her phone, which was still intact in her backpack, and saw that it had been forty minutes since he’d left. That wasn’t good. If he didn’t get back soon, it would be too late to return at a reasonable hour and they’d have to scuttle the trip. She sent him a text: “Where R U?” He replied within about three seconds: “Ivy brought wrong board.”
Oh boy. Ivy was pretty good at finding her way around and dealing with objects, but she wasn’t experienced in the matter of skateboards and even with Amphora’s help had picked up the wrong one. Simon had tried to describe what he wanted via text, but neither of the girls could interpret his instructions correctly, so he’d had to climb all the way up to the third floor and dig the skateboard out himself. He was on his way back to the dock as fast as he could go and expected to be there within ten minutes.
Amanda was getting antsy. She didn’t mind the itchy blankets, but she remembered what had happened the last time she’d tried to get to London and was worried that they might be delayed again. If that were to happen they wouldn’t return until midnight, and despite the fact that the teachers were distracted she didn’t want to chance their wrath, which might even lead to a suspension.
She texted Simon again. No answer. He must be on his way. Why did she do that? Answering would just slow him down. What a dummy.
Finally he emerged from the tunnel with his new skateboard and a large black plastic bag, presumably holding dry clothes. He was wearing a clean T-shirt, so he must also have gone back to his room. Actually that was a good idea, even if it did cost them another few minutes, but they’d have to rush now.
He ran to the boat, tossed the bag at her, and turned his back.
“What happened?” she said, throwing off the blankets and putting on the fresh clothes. Uh oh. He’d brought that blue sweater that was way too big for her. Oh well. She’d have to live with it.
“Minor glitch,” he said. “Ivy brought the wrong board, so I had to go back upstairs, but I got waylaid by you-know-who and had to get rid of him, and then Thrillkill stopped me and wanted to know how I was getting along in Crime Lab, and then I had to wait for Ivy to get you some clothes, so I thought I may as well get a clean T-shirt, and then I ran into you-know-who again, so it took me longer than I thought it would.”
“What did David want?” she said, tying her shoelaces.
“Usual stuff,” said Simon. “Not worth mentioning. Don’t know why I said anything.”
“He really is pathetic, isn’t he?” she said.
“I don’t know what he’s so paranoid about,” said Simon. “He’s not that dumb. He gets in his own way.”
“Yeah,” she said. “If he weren’t so annoying I might actually feel sorry for him.”
“I wouldn’t go that far,” said Simon.
With Amanda now dry and dressed, the pair got into Eggs extra-carefully and set off. Fortunately the motor worked perfectly and the boat did not leak. After a short time they arrived at a dock close to town and disembarked, then without further incident got onto their boards and skated to the railway station.
“You’re good at this,” Simon yelled back to Amanda as they barreled along.
“Thanks,” she said. As she balanced on her board the wind blew the remaining moisture out of her hair, and when they arrived at the station the only telltale sign of their mishap was the red spots on Simon’s arms.
They hopped on a quick train to Oxenholme, then changed to one that would take them to Euston Station in London. As they threaded their way through the London-bound train, Amanda took great care to make sure there weren’t any monkeys riding with them. Last time she’d done this she had the misfortune of running into a particularly nasty specimen who’d peed all over her. That was another thing she would not let happen again. But one eventuality she hadn’t planned for was another call from her relatives. As soon as she and Simon had sat down, her cousin Despina phoned. Flustered, she made a mistake and picked up.
“Amanda, darling!” said Despina. “How’s our little ray of sunshine?” Amanda took the phone away from her ear, pointed to it, and made a gagging gesture. Simon laughed.
“Oh, hello, Despina,” she said. “I’m afraid I can’t—”
“Darling, we’re ready to show you around th
e Lake District. Are you free at 11:00 this morning?”
Amanda rolled her eyes. “Despina, I—”
“How about if we pick you up then? We’ll take a boat ride around the lake and you’ll see all the sights. There’s a cute little folly—”
“I’m sorry, Despina. I can’t go.”
“Well, then, darling, how about at noon?”
More eye rolling. “I’m afraid I’m busy then.”
“One o’clock? We can still catch a tour boat then.” Her voice grew muffled. “What’s that, Hill? Tell her what? Oh, right.” Her voice cleared again. “Hill says to tell you about the tearoom with the Prince William and Princess Kate plates.”
“I can’t go today, Despina.” Amanda looked at Simon. She hesitated. “I’m going on . . . an elephant ride.” Simon gave her a look and she shrugged.
“Oh, that sounds lovely, dear. Where is it? We’ll come with you.”
It was impossible to get rid of this woman. “I’m sorry. It’s for a birthday party. It’s private.”
“Oh, that’s a shame. Is it an African or an Indian elephant?”
What did she care what kind of elephant it was? Pink, polka-dotted, paisley, whatever. “I don’t know. I think it’s from Tibet.” She didn’t think there were elephants in Tibet but she didn’t care.
“Tibet, darling? Oh, that’s lovely. We haven’t been there. Would you like to go?”
“Not really. I—”
“How about tomorrow, then?” Surely she didn’t mean to Tibet.
“How about next Saturday?” Amanda blurted out. “Not Tibet. I mean Windermere.” Making a firm date was the only way to get this woman to stop badgering her. Not that she intended to keep it.
“Splendid! Hill, do you hear that? We’re going to see Amanda next Saturday. How about ten, dear?”
“Fine,” said Amanda. “Ten. In the morning.”
“We’ll be at the guard gate then,” said Despina. “Be sure to bring your camera.”
Amanda Lester, Detective Box Set Page 60
