I was caught like a deer in headlights.
The driver jumped out and ran to the back of the vehicle, flinging open the doors.
I had no time to waste on figuring out what to do. I’d have to run past him and hope my pursuers would lose me, for a few seconds at least, behind the ambulance’s bulk.
As I ran past its wide-open double doors, a strong hand lunged out and grabbed me, and before I knew what was happening, I was slammed against the ambulance. Winded, I gasped for breath.
‘Quick, Cal!’ The paramedic who’d grabbed me spoke in a low, urgent voice. ‘Get onto the stretcher! Let’s get you out of here!’
‘What? Who are you?’ I gasped.
‘Do you want to get out of here or not? Just do what I say!’
The stranger let go of me and pulled a stretcher out of the back of the ambulance, and lifted up the white sheet that was spread across it.
I hesitated. Was this another plot? I had Kelvin, the cops, two German shepherds, and hospital security chasing me, and now a stranger was offering me eleventh hour help. Before I could make a decision, the stranger grabbed me, threw me onto the narrow bed, and covered me with the sheet. I struggled, but he pushed me down again.
The shouting and barking of my hunters was almost upon us.
‘I’m Nelson Sharkey. I’m here to get you out of this place! Shut up and be still if you want to stay alive!’
‘Release the dogs!’ shouted a voice.
The stretcher started moving and I was shoved into the back of the ambulance. The doors slammed shut.
Within seconds the ambulance, with me inside it, rocketed away.
The yells and cries of those searching for me faded. The thumping of my heart eased. I grasped the edge of the stretcher with both hands as we hurtled away, siren blaring.
I couldn’t believe what had just happened! I lay under the sheet, weak with relief.
I’d been saved! By the ex-detective who’d offered me help ages ago on my blog! I’d pretty much ignored him, unable to trust anyone, and then just when everything seemed hopeless, Nelson Sharkey had come through for me!
Nelson Sharkey’s voice called out from the front of the ambulance.
‘You OK back there?’
‘Think so,’ I said, finally pulling the sheet off me, and sitting up.
‘Where to?’
I could only think of one place–somewhere I hoped I’d be safe, somewhere the police wouldn’t think of looking.
I directed him to a spot about fifteen minutes away from where we were.
Eventually the ambulance came to a stop and I crouched beside the stretcher, waiting for the back doors to open. I pulled at the pale-green top I was wearing and fanned myself. I was drenched in sweat.
As Sharkey opened the back doors, I got my first proper look at him. He was a broad-shouldered guy, maybe in his fifties, with short black hair and watchful eyes. There was a half-smile on his face as he said, ‘OK, we’re here. It looks safe to get out.’
I jumped out and looked around. The street was deserted, aside from a couple of cats hissing at each other from opposite sides of the road.
‘Mr Sharkey,’ I said, offering him my hand, the dirty nylon cuff still dangling from my wrist, ‘that was an awesome escape. I didn’t think I was going to make it. You couldn’t have had better timing.’
‘Like I said when I tried to contact you on your blog, I’ve always believed in your innocence. Still do. A good detective has a sixth sense about that sort of thing.’
Sharkey stopped talking for a second and pushed the doors closed again, slapping his hands together afterwards. ‘I can’t hang around now–I need to get this vehicle out of sight.’
‘I have to find my sister. Will you help me? I have no idea who has her, and I don’t know how long … how long she’ll last out there.’
Sharkey nodded in understanding. ‘It’s a shocking situation you’re in. And everyone believes you had something to do with it.’
‘Help me find her.’
‘I’m on to it already,’ he said. ‘That’s why I’m here. To help.’ He pulled out a card and pressed it in my hand. ‘Call me and we’ll meet somewhere safe to talk. Sooner rather than later.’
I felt some of the heavy pressure on my shoulders easing. ‘Thanks, Detective Sharkey.’
‘Ex-detective. And Nelson or Sharkey will do,’ he said before jumping back into the driver’s seat. The ambulance that had taken me to freedom sped away, out of sight.
I hurried through the darkness and up the street, stopping only to pull off the nurse’s gear and toss it into someone’s rubbish bin. When I reached the building, I rushed to the back and silently headed up the fire stairs.
At the top of the fire-escape, I ran across the rooftop, straight to Winter’s door.
I tapped on it softly at first. I didn’t want to scare her.
I started tapping a bit louder.
A soft light came on, glowing through a front window.
‘It’s me,’ I whispered. ‘Winter, it’s me, Cal.’
Another light went on inside.
‘Cal?’ I heard Winter say. ‘Is it really you? Or am I dreaming?’
‘You’re not dreaming. Open up, please.’
Winter unlocked the door and eased it open a fraction. From behind it, she looked up at me with sleepy, hopeful eyes.
‘Cal!’ she cried, throwing her arms around me, and pulling me inside her flat. ‘I can’t believe it’s really you!’ She hugged me tighter than I’d ever been hugged before, burying her face into my shoulder. ‘We were so worried about you,’ she said, stepping back to look at me, her eyes filled with concern. ‘At the cemetery … we had no idea where you were or what was happening to you, or whether they’d reach you in time.’ She let go of me for a second and locked the front door again. ‘We hid in the bushes and watched the Emergency Services digging you out. They dug up three graves before they found you. Three! The ambulance was there waiting. They loaded you into the back of it and took off at full speed with the siren blaring; that’s how we knew you were still alive. But then we didn’t know where they were taking you.’
Winter was wearing a white, oversized T-shirt and her hair was even wilder than usual. I was so happy to see her, but right now all I could think of was my little sister.
‘They’ve taken Gabbi,’ I said.
‘I know,’ she said, solemnly.
As I looked around her place, I couldn’t help thinking that last time I’d been here we’d all been so full of hope, with the Ormond Riddle and the Ormond Jewel on the table, thinking we were on our way to cracking the DMO. Now the atmosphere was very different. Now I had nothing but the clothes on my back. And hospital shoes.
Winter wandered over to the couch, and that’s when I saw a big lump on it covered by a blanket.
She shook it.
The big lump rolled over and snorted, opening his eyes.
Boges!
As soon as he saw me he threw the blanket off, and jumped up.
‘Dude!’ he said, leaning in to give me a big bear hug. ‘I thought I was seeing things! You’re alive! I have to say, we thought we’d lost you for sure.’ He paused. ‘I was kicking myself for letting you down back at Rathbone’s. We said we had your back, and then … we let you slip away. Winter and I have been here racking our brains, trying to work out what to do …’
I patted his arm. ‘I owe my life to you,’ I said. ‘To both of you.’
‘So you’ve heard the news?’
I nodded. ‘I just hope whoever has her is looking after her properly. I just can’t believe they’d take her. She’s just a kid. A sick kid. I mean, she needs to be fed intravenously.’
I thought of Gabbi, helpless in the hands of criminals. Tears stung my eyes. I tightened my jaw. ‘We have to find out who has her and get her back.’
‘How did you get out of police custody?’ asked Winter, from behind the door of her open fridge. ‘What’s that on your wrist?’
&nbs
p; Winter pulled out a bottle of orange juice and some leftover pizza, then handed them both to me. In between mouthfuls, I explained how I woke up in a bed in a secure hospital ward, with no idea of how I got out of the coffin. I told them about the detective, Dorian McGrath, questioning me, and Mum and Rafe showing up, hoping I’d fess up and tell them what I’d done with Gabbi.
‘Then you wouldn’t believe how I got out,’ I said.
‘Try us,’ said Winter, leaning in to cut the remaining cuff from my wrist.
Boges and Winter listened intently as I relayed what had happened.
‘So Nelson Sharkey turns out to be a good guy,’ said Boges. ‘And Kelvin … what was he doing there? Do you think Oriana has Gab?’
My friends looked at each other, then back at me.
‘I’m still trying to work that out,’ I said. ‘Rathbone must be working with Oriana, and the whole thing was a set-up. They have everything. The Jewel, the Riddle,’ I mumbled, feeling completely deflated. ‘And now, maybe, Gabbi.’
‘But that doesn’t make sense,’ said Winter. ‘Why would she take your sister if she has everything from you already? Why would she send Kelvin after you?’
‘He had a gun,’ I said.
‘He was trying to kill you?’
I shrugged. ‘What other reason could there be?’ I said. ‘I was supposed to die down there in that coffin. Someone attacked me at the undertakers’ and before I knew it, I was buried. They knocked me out with something, and I don’t think they were counting on me ever waking up.’
‘Incredible,’ said Winter. ‘Some people are totally evil!’
‘So do you think Sligo has her?’ I asked Winter. ‘You’d know if he was up to something, wouldn’t you? Have you heard anything?’
‘Cal, believe me, I’ve been on red alert, trying to listen in on everything that’s been occupying him. I haven’t heard a thing.’
‘So there hasn’t been any unusual activity? Nothing out of the ordinary?’
‘Nothing, I’m afraid. But I’ll report back on anything I hear that could help us. Are you OK, Cal?’ she asked. ‘You look kind of white.’
‘I’m just wrecked,’ I said, falling back, deep into the couch. ‘And exhausted. I’m sick to my stomach about Gabs. I’ve lost everything we’ve worked so hard on, and now Gab … I just don’t know what to do next.’
‘You know, maybe that Ormond Angel is looking after you,’ Boges said, after a pause. ‘You made it out of the coffin alive, and you escaped from the cops again.’
‘If he is, he’s going to have to try a whole lot harder,’ I said. ‘And he sure isn’t looking after Gabbi, right now, and that’s all I care about.’
‘So,’ said Boges, ‘I know everyone thinks you’re a dangerous criminal, but surely they need substantial incriminating evidence?’
‘They said my DNA was found at the crime scene–where she went missing. Rafe’s place.’
Boges nodded, knowingly. ‘You broke into Rafe’s that time and probably would have touched almost every surface there. There’s a legitimate reason for your DNA to be there.’
‘Yeah, I tried to tell them that, but it didn’t go down very well. And anyway, apparently they can tell the difference between historical DNA and something that’s just been laid down–and that’s what they reckon they found in Gabbi’s room. My fresh DNA.’
Winter and Boges looked at each other again, hopelessly.
‘And of course Rathbone and Oriana’s messages on my blog have been deleted, so they didn’t believe a word I said about the meeting we arranged.’
Boges’s eyebrows were almost hitting his hairline. ‘I’m the administrator of that blog. Someone’s hacked in!’
‘Try telling the cops that,’ I said. ‘They don’t believe anything I say. Neither do Mum and Rafe. Rafe was so protective of Mum–he went ballistic at me at the hospital when I mentioned the possibility of my double. He was furious, thinking I was acting crazy, making up more stories, distressing Mum.’
‘A twin would have the same DNA!’ said Boges. ‘What if your twin is involved?’
Your twin. Boges’s words sounded so unbelievable to me.
‘So you think I do have a twin now?’ I asked him.
‘Anything’s possible,’ said Boges. ‘You have to get to the bottom of that mystery and find out where that guy fits in–if he fits into the story at all. Who knows what he might be capable of doing, and what his motives are.’
The three of us sat wordlessly for a moment, surrounded by the deeper silence of the night.
‘My brain needs more sleep,’ said Boges, blinking and rubbing his eyes. ‘I think I’ll go home and sneak into my room. I’ll come back soon so we can work out what to do next. And I guess I’ll have to resupply you with some necessities, Cal. Take the couch, dude. Get some rest.’
He patted me on the back as he left. ‘We’ll get her back, dude. We’ll get our Gabster back.’
I was having a nightmare where I was in the coffin, struggling in the dark, trying to scream. Out of nowhere the threadbare white toy dog was licking my face, and the scent that I couldn’t identify back at Rathbone, Greaves and Diggory suddenly became clear to me. But as soon as I woke up it disappeared again down some deep sinkhole in my mind, like I’d never known it.
I sat up. It was still a little dark outside and cold wind blew in through the open window near the door. I blinked as the light went on.
‘Cal! What is it?’ Winter sat up in her bed, swamped in her T-shirt. ‘You were trying to say something. You must have been having a nightmare.’
I flinched at the memory. ‘It’s just the recurring nightmare I have,’ I said.
Winter pulled a woollen blanket from her bed and wrapped it around her as she took a seat, cross-legged, on the couch beside me.
‘It’s always the same nightmare. There’s a baby crying somewhere in the dark, and there’s a worn, old white toy dog … Whenever I see it I get this horrible feeling–like I’m lost, and I’m all alone. Like I’ve been abandoned by someone who I thought cared about me. I wake up feeling like a huge part of me is missing.’
Recognition flickered across Winter’s face. She pulled the blanket closer around her shoulders.
‘I’ve never understood it,’ I continued, ‘and even though I still don’t get it, it feels like it should make sense to me. Like there’s some huge and obvious clue that I’m overlooking. You know, when I was at the convent, talking to my great-aunt, Millicent, she sang this weird little song about two children, how one was lost and the other one found.’
‘Why would she sing that particular song?’ said Winter. ‘Unless …’
‘Unless,’ I finished for her, ‘even her confused mind knew something about twin babies. Twin babies being separated. Remember how I caught a glimpse of that old newspaper clipping at Great-uncle Bartholomew’s place, about twin babies being abducted?’
For a few moments we just sat there, looking into each other’s eyes, as if some massive question was on the verge of being answered.
‘One was lost,’ Winter repeated my words, ‘and the other one found.’ She started chewing on her bottom lip. ‘Cal,’ she said, taking one of my hands, and staring at me very seriously, ‘I think your double is the lost twin.’
Winter’s mobile started ringing from her bedside table. She jumped up and grabbed it, speaking into it only briefly before passing it to me.
‘Bodhan for you,’ she said.
‘Good morning Bodhan,’ I said into the phone.
‘It’s Boges, thank you. Anyway, dude, I’ll need a little while to get you some decent clothes and a clean mobile, but I just wanted to let you know that I’m onto it. I’ll come round as soon as I can. We’ll work out a plan to get Gabbi back.’
Winter took the phone off me and walked away as she chatted with my friend. I was surprised at how well they were getting along. ‘Sure,’ I heard her say before hanging up. ‘Great idea. I’ll go halves.’
Before I could ask her an
ything, she spoke again.
‘Nightmares are a strange thing, that’s for sure. I used to have this one after my parents died,’ she said, hopping back down beside me. ‘They’re sitting on this park bench–we always loved walking to the park together–and watching me playing in a sandpit nearby. Then all of a sudden I can feel myself sinking, like the sandpit’s turned into quicksand. I look over at them for help, but their faces have disappeared.’
Winter looked full of sorrow. She retold her dream like it was a memory of something that had really happened to her. I knew what that felt like.
‘Their bodies are still sitting there,’ she continued, ‘exactly as they were before, but their faces are blank. Blank! I start to cry–it’s the worst feeling–but I can’t tell if they can even see what’s happening, or whether they can hear me crying for them. And then just when I’m down to my neck in the sand and think I’m doomed, all these little birds fly towards me from nowhere. Swallows,’ she said, her eyes starting to enliven. ‘Exactly like the ones I’ve drawn on my wall over there.’
‘Like your tattoo?’
‘Yep, just like my tattoo. So they swarm around me in a blackish-grey blur–they almost look like I’ve drawn them with a pen–then they each grab onto my clothes with their tiny claws, and together they flap their wings and lift me out of the sandpit.’
‘Then what happens?’
‘Nothing. I’m not sure.’
‘Your parents?’
‘I don’t know. That’s pretty much where it always ends.’
I tried to think of something to say about what her dream could mean, but I was drawing a blank. Just like her mum and dad’s faces.
‘I’m starving,’ said Winter. She stood up and wandered over to one of her cupboards. ‘Feel free to use the shower while I make us a tasty breakfast. There’s a white towel in there that you can use. Pancakes?’
Winter filled a blue and white Chinese bowl with berries, and put a bottle of maple syrup out on the table. Her place smelled so good, I couldn’t wait to tuck into the pancakes.
August Page 5
