Wave Riders

by Lauren St. John

  Terence, the valet, grabbed the other letters, including the second blue envelope, with a poisonous look at Jude.

  ‘Why am I the monstrous one?’ cried Jess. ‘We have a godmother we didn’t even know about who’s been desperately wanting to meet us. Why have you been keeping her a secret? Please give us that letter. It’s addressed to me and my brother.’

  ‘I refuse to discuss this in the driveway like a common peasant,’ snarled Marina, swivelling on her Jimmy Choos and stalking up the steps into the house.

  The twins ran after her. There was a brief tussle in the hall with Terence, who tried to prevent them from following Marina into the drawing room. By the time they’d wriggled past him, it was too late. The final lines of the unread letters were being swallowed up by flames.

  Jess watched their only link to their godmother, to hope, burn to ash in the fireplace. Her eyes were dry. ‘Why would you stop us seeing our godmother? She says she’s written many times before. Where are the other letters? What’s her name?’

  When Marina set down the poker, her face had resumed the mask she’d adopted in the Virgin Island hospital: warm, sympathetic and beguiling. With the envelopes disposed of, she was composed again. ‘My dear children—’

  ‘We’re not your dear children,’ Jude said angrily.

  ‘Oh, but you are. I can’t tell you how sorry I am about this. It was a shock, that’s all, seeing you reading the deranged musings of a woman claiming to be your godmother. You’re right. She has written before. Each letter more concerning than the last.’

  Jess glared at her. ‘What are you talking about?’

  ‘If you’ll only allow me to explain. As you can imagine, my husband’s high profile in the media business means he’s attracted many enemies over the years. Add in wealth and, sad to say, the number of crazies increases exponentially. Death threats. Ransom demands. You name it, we get it. I regret to say that, thanks to your newfound fame and the fact that you’re living at Blakeney Park now, you’ve become the subject of loony letters too.’

  ‘I don’t believe you,’ said Jude. ‘Why would someone pretend to be our godmother? She didn’t threaten us. She just asked to meet us.’

  ‘Don’t believe me?’ Marina opened a drawer in a writing desk. ‘I wouldn’t normally show this to a child, but if you need proof of what our security have to deal with on a daily basis, here it is.’

  She handed the twins a printout of an email from Scotland Yard, thanking Clifford’s head of security for his help with foiling a kidnap threat against Caspian.

  ‘That’s why we sent a helicopter to fetch Caspian from school and another to fetch both of you. We were worried about you travelling by road until this maniac was arrested.’

  It was a disturbing revelation and went some way to explaining Caspian’s subdued manner at lunch the previous day. But Jess wasn’t about to let go of the issue of their godmother. ‘But who is she?’ Jess demanded. ‘Why won’t you tell us?’

  Marina sighed. ‘As I explained, she’s not your godmother. She’s simply a batty old crone—’

  ‘That’s a big fat lie,’ said Jess. ‘And I don’t believe our mother stole your ring, either. I bet if I went upstairs right now, it would be sitting in your jewellery box or your husband’s safe. You lied to us about our dad too. He wasn’t driving the night of the accident. Robbie was. Our dad saved his life and lost his own in the process. Your old gardener told me that Robbie and our father were best friends. He said that Robbie died of a broken heart.’

  Marina was looking at Jess as if she were speaking Latin. ‘I – we – uh – what gardener? There have been so many.’

  Somehow Clifford materialized by her side. ‘Don’t distress yourself, darling. I’ll deal with this. These children are out of control. I’ll speak to Mr Riker. We may have to move to Plan B.’

  After that, things had escalated rapidly. The twins were sent to their rooms and told to stay there until further notice. A tray of leftovers was sent up at 8 p.m.

  At 10.20 p.m., just as Jess was dozing off, there was a knock at the door. Astrid let herself in.

  ‘You need to put on some warm clothes and come with me, Jess,’ she said. ‘I hear that you and your brother have been very hurtful to poor Marina. Clifford’s very upset with you. He’s decided that a night in the stable accommodation might make you both reflect on your behaviour and realize how fortunate you are.’

  She flipped open Jess’s school trunk, which had not yet been unpacked, and pulled out leggings, socks, a jumper and a rain jacket. ‘These will do. I’ll meet you in the corridor in five minutes. If there’s anything else you think you might need, bring it in your rucksack.’

  Once dressed, Jess ventured out with trepidation. Astrid was tapping a message into her phone. She favoured Jess with a brilliant smile and took her arm, just as Jude, accompanied by a short man in a black Stetson, emerged scowling from his own room.

  Neither twin objected to being marched down to the barn. They were relieved to be out of the house. It was only when Astrid unlocked the door to the windowless storeroom that they started to feel alarmed. Why weren’t they being put into the stable bedroom? The storeroom was perishingly cold.

  ‘I’d advise you to think long and hard about how rude and unpleasant you’ve been to a family who have only ever shown you kindness,’ said Astrid. ‘If you’re genuinely sorry in the morning, you’ll be out in time for breakfast. If you’re not, Mr Riker here will have to have a chat with you.’

  The man in the Stetson gave a barely perceptible nod, then turned away without a word. He’d been silent since they had left the house.

  In the split second before the door slammed shut behind him, Riker took off his hat. His shadow was thrown into sharp relief on the opposite wall. Jess bit back a scream as his silhouette loomed large on the limewashed plasterboard.

  With a dungeon-like screech, the key turned in the lock.

  29

  WATER RATS

  ‘It’s him.’

  Jess was shaking as if she had hypothermia. ‘Jude, it’s him. The man I saw behind the sail at the boatyard in Tortola. The one who was fighting with Gabe. I’d recognize that silhouette anywhere. As soon as I saw Mr Riker without his hat, I remembered his spiky hair.’

  Wary of eavesdroppers, Jude steered his sister away from the door and sat her down on a sack of horse feed. Ripping open a box of sodas, he made her sip one to quell her nerves.

  He didn’t ask how she was so sure when she’d only ever seen the man once, through a dinghy sail, the previous November. He believed her.

  The soda revived Jess in double-quick time, and she began to quickly update Jude on her detective work in London.

  ‘The fact that Marina showed up in person to cancel my Wi-Fi privileges just twenty-four hours after I found that story online about their “enforcer”, tells me that I was potentially on to something huge.’

  ‘You think Mr Riker and their enforcer are one and the same person?’ asked Jude. ‘That maybe he travels the world doing the Blakeneys’ dirty work?’

  ‘It’s a stretch, but it’s not impossible. Let’s suppose it’s true. If an employee takes too much sick leave or starts asking difficult questions about the business, Mr Riker flies in like a dark knight and manufactures false evidence about them slacking on the job or stealing company stuff. That way, it’s much easier for Clifford to fire them. To me, a man capable of being so cruel wouldn’t think twice about tracking down Gabe or paying somebody to put a tranquilizer in his drink.’

  ‘That’s the part I’m having trouble with,’ Jude told her. ‘Where does Gabe fit into the picture? He was so easy-going. Everyone liked him. Why would the Blakeneys want to harm a shipwright from a backwoods Florida boatyard? I don’t get the connection.’

  ‘What if we’re the connection?’ said Jess. ‘Remember the email we found in Gabe’s cabin? “A long time ago, you promised that you’d go to the ends of the earth to keep them safe. Circumstances have changed, and I’m a
fraid that is now necessary.”’

  Jude was impressed that his sister remembered the words off by heart.

  Jess paced the storeroom as she tried to piece together the clues. ‘We know that our mom left Blakeney Park in a rush within days of Robbie Blakeney’s death. She must have been in pieces losing both Dad and her dear friend. It would have been understandable if she’d wanted to escape the memories by returning to New Zealand or going to stay with a friend. Perhaps even our godmother, if she exists.’

  ‘She does,’ said Jude. ‘Marina was lying, I’m sure of it . . . Go on.’

  ‘Well, Mom didn’t do any of the things you’d think she’d do if she was grieving and expecting twins. She crossed an ocean to the US, took a Greyhound bus to the middle of nowhere, and pitched up in Bantry Creek in the middle of a hurricane with only the clothes on her back. No suitcase. No identity papers. A made-up name. Nothing but the little oil painting and that horseshoe.’

  ‘Probably Autumn’s,’ said Jude. ‘And now we’re back at the estate where everything started, and we still don’t know what Mom was running from. When we first got to Blakeney Park, I thought we’d be safe. I thought that if anyone really was hunting us, the guards, dogs and razor wire would keep the bad people out. But what if they’re in here with us? What if the Blakeneys brought us here so they could lock us up and control us? What if they think we know some secret they’re trying to hide? We don’t, but maybe they’re scared that we do?’

  Jess took another swallow of soda. ‘Jude, I think you’re on to something. It could be that, before he died, Robbie Blakeney told our mother about some scandal involving the family or Daybreak Media. It wouldn’t surprise me if Clifford’s done something criminally corrupt. Something that would ruin the Blakeneys if it ever got out. Maybe Clifford discovered Mom knew about it and threatened her life or got his enforcer to do it.’

  She looked anxiously at her brother. ‘Jude, what do you reckon Clifford meant about moving to Plan B?’

  ‘I guess they’re going to send us to some hideous orphanage after all, escorted by Mr Riker. Or maybe they’re planning to get rid of us in some other way. Personally, I don’t think we should hang around to find out.’

  Jess gave a sad laugh. ‘What choice do we have? We’re in a locked room, surrounded by guards, dogs and razor wire, as you just mentioned.’

  Jude hopped on to a chair and took a tin down from a high shelf. He rattled it. ‘Seth showed me where he stashed his spare key. He got locked in the storeroom by mistake once and didn’t want it happening to me.’

  ‘Great start!’ cried his sister. ‘Now, how do we get past security and where do we go if we do manage to escape? If we don’t catch pneumonia in this room and die in the meantime. Maybe that’s Plan B: turn the twins to icicles.’

  Rubbing the goosebumps on her arms, Jess went over to a heap of laundered horse blankets. As she rummaged through it, the pile toppled over, exposing a shiny cardboard box.

  ‘Jude, look!’

  Her brother rushed over. He flung open the box. Inside, was a military-type drone. Unlike Caspian’s, this was no toy.

  Jude gave a low whistle. ‘So Caspian was telling the truth when he said that it wasn’t his drone that frightened Tempest that day she threw you. Looking at this one, I’m ninety-nine per cent sure that the drone that buzzed you was army-green and silver, like this one. Whoever owns it intended to hurt you that day. We both know you could have been killed.’

  Jess shuddered at the memory. ‘Jude, do you think Mr Riker could have been behind the drone attack too?’

  Jude was tense, poised for flight. ‘I don’t think we should wait around to find out. Jess, these people aren’t playing games. We need to get out of here.’

  ‘I agree,’ said Jess. ‘The Blakeneys want us out of the picture, dead or alive. Jude, what about the river? If we could make it there without being devoured by the dogs, maybe we could swim across and escape across the fields.’

  ‘Yeah, but we’d die of hypothermia along the way. It’s cold enough in here.’ He grabbed a rug and wrapped it around Jess’s shoulders. ‘I have a better idea. How about we try calling in that favour from Sirius. Remember the hunt sab? We trusted him once and it worked out pretty well. We saved those foxes. Maybe this time, Sirius will save us.’

  ‘Genius plan,’ Jess said wryly. ‘Or it would be if we had the faintest idea how to locate a stranger we met in the woods in January on a pitch-dark night in March.’

  As she spoke, she had a lightbulb moment. ‘Jude, I don’t suppose you still have Sirius’s map.’

  Jude grinned. He hopped up. Borrowing a hoof pick from a grooming kit, he used it to lever a crack in the plasterboard wall. The map was in the cavity beneath.

  ‘Before I went to Dragon Ridge, I hid this. I was afraid it might get confiscated.’

  He retrieved the map and spread it out on the floor. ‘You know how I told you that Ms Flowers emailed the Water Rats about the forest development? Well, while she was trying to track down a contact, she found a Cornish blog with a map like this one. Apparently, the Water Rats use a water-taxi system for their volunteers.’

  He pointed at the symbols dotted along the River Severn.

  ‘See these pen marks? The Water Rats restore old boats and leave them moored in different places. One volunteer will take a kayak upriver to a tree protest, say, and someone else will drive a fishing boat somewhere else. Basically, if we can get to the river and find this boat marked right here, we have a chance of escape.’

  ‘Riding bareback isn’t all it’s cracked up to be in the movies,’ said Jess, gritting her teeth as Autumn’s bony spine jutted through the saddle pad and bumped against a nerve in her coccyx. She leaned forward and clung more tightly to Jude’s waist.

  ‘Shhh, we’re almost there.’

  At night, the atmosphere in the forest was more cemetery than cathedral. Blue mist hung between the trees. The ghost wings of a fleeting owl startled Autumn. She shied and almost threw them. To be on the safe side, the twins dismounted.

  Before they could get their bearings, an engine revved. A searchlight strobed the trees. Jude dropped Autumn’s lead rope in fright. The mare wheeled around with a whinny and was gone.

  ‘Stop where you are!’ ordered a guard over a megaphone.

  ‘Run, Jess!’ yelled Jude.

  They sprinted into the undergrowth, but couldn’t keep up the pace. Jude’s feet were still recovering from the Explorer’s Challenge, and Jess was unfit after spending too many afternoons e-sailing on her iPad.

  Soon, a stitch skewered her side.

  ‘Release the dogs!’ someone shouted in the distance.

  ‘How much further?’ Jess whispered between gasps.

  ‘It’s around here, I think.’

  Panting and wheezing, the twins slithered down a steep bank to the water’s edge. Jess’s heart leaped with hope when she saw the kayak. The Rottweilers were baying somewhere behind them, invisible in the darkness.

  ‘Where are the oars?’ groaned Jude, looking around frantically. ‘What use is a kayak without oars?’

  Before he could take another step, a man materialized out of the shadows and seized Jude’s arms, twisting them behind his back. A young woman in a scarf rushed down the bank and barred

  Jess’s escape route with an oar.

  ‘Identify yourselves.’

  Terror ripped through Jess. She was torn between saving Jude and flinging herself into the water to try to swim for help. At the last second, she glimpsed the woman’s sweatshirt logo: ‘KEEP THE SEA PLASTIC FREE.’

  ‘You’re Water Rats, not guards,’ she cried with relief. ‘We’re looking for Sirius. We need his help to get to our godmother.’

  The man regarded her with extreme suspicion. ‘How do you know Sirius?’

  The woman flicked on her torch. ‘Blake, these must be the kids who helped with the foxes. Thanks to them, the vixen has six healthy cubs.’

  ‘That’s ace for the foxes, but what’s
with the midnight flit? If we’re caught aiding and abetting two runaways, it’ll stir up a whole hornet’s nest of trouble for us.’

  Blake released Jude. ‘Sorry, kid, but if you’ve had a row with your new foster parents, the best we can do is call social services and ask them to check on you. Olive, let’s go before we’re shot or arrested by the Blakeneys’ guards.’

  ‘You’re going to abandon us after we risked our necks to help Sirius?’ accused Jude. ‘He promised he’d be there for us if we ever needed help – and now we do!’

  He pulled the map from his pocket. ‘Sirius gave us his word that if we could get to his narrowboat, right here –’ he put a finger on the ‘X’ – ‘he’d return the favour.’

  Jess was a nervous wreck, watching the guards’ powerful searchlights rake the trees. The dogs sounded frighteningly close now.

  ‘I don’t like this,’ the man said stubbornly. ‘The last thing we need is the law breathing down our necks. We’ll help you call Social Services, kids, but that’s as far as it goes.’

  ‘Blake, have you forgotten the Water Rats code of honour?’ demanded Olive. ‘I’ll take the twins to Sirius, even if I have to row.’

  Suddenly, a Rottweiler bounded on to the bank – Jess recognized it as Gnasher, the security guards’ biggest dog. Blake now had two choices: abandon the children to a grisly fate, or save them. He flew into action.

  ‘We’re going to need a bigger boat!’ he shouted to Olive and the twins. ‘Follow me!’

  It was nearly too late. As Jude scrambled into a cleverly concealed Ribcraft, stashed one hundred metres away beneath a willow – Gnasher sprang at him, ripping his jacket sleeve. Olive wrenched him to safety as Blake pressed the start button and eased the boat into gear.

  Had the engine on the camouflaged boat been any less powerful, and had the dogs not been baying so hysterically, the guards would have heard it.

  But by the time the men reached the river, the twins and their rescuers were gone. The Ribcraft left barely a ripple in its wake. All that remained was a circling otter.