Secret in the Clouds

by Christopher Cummings

  Even so it was a pleasant hour before the girls were picked up by Sheila’s father. At that stage Peter and Graham also took their leave. Stephen saw them out, then retired to his room, ostensibly to do his homework, but actually to mull over the days findings.

  It was a very thoughtful boy who dropped off to sleep late that night. With the morning came no resolution to the moral dilemma. To cause harm to a total stranger for something he had not done went against Stephen’s notions of right and wrong and he mentally prepared himself to convince Tom to drop the whole thing. “It will do us no good, and may cause a lot of harm,” he said.

  To his relief a tired looking Tom nodded and agreed. “I’ve been thinking about it all night and I think you are right. I will just give it up,” Tom said.

  “What will you do now?” Stephen asked.

  “Arrange to go back to Victoria I suppose,” Tom replied. “Although I don’t really want to.”

  “Why not?” Stephen asked.

  Tom coloured and shrugged then said, “Because I think Judy is wonderful.”

  That staggered Stephen. It also annoyed him but he knew he had been deliberately giving the impression that he wasn’t interested in her. ‘I’ve only myself to blame,’ he thought, ‘but what ever does she see in a dopey looking bugger like Tom?’

  So Stephen headed off to school determined to wipe the mystery of the crashed floatplane from his mind and to devote his efforts to impressing Judy. Much harder, he thought, would be the effort needed to convince Graham and Peter to give up the investigation.

  It was hard, but mainly because they had difficulty being alone long enough to discuss it. There always seemed to be some other people within earshot. But both Peter and Graham did agree that it was wrong to wreck a man’s career just on supposition and rumour.

  “I mean, we’ve got no real proof,” Stephen said.

  “And not likely to get any now either,” Peter commented.

  Graham frowned. “What about the thing you took from the wreck?” he asked.

  Stephen shook his head. “It is proof, of a sort, but it can’t be pinned on any individual.”

  “So that’s it then? The end of the mystery in the clouds,” Graham said. “Now it will chew at me for the rest of my life. Every time I see Black Mountain I will think about it.”

  “What about poor old Tom?” Peter added. “He will lie awake wondering for the rest of his life.”

  “He already does,” Stephen said, “But he agrees it isn’t right to harm innocent people.”

  “So the guilty go free?” Graham asked.

  Stephen nodded. “If they are still alive, yes.”

  “What if it wasn’t Potts’ father? What if it was that Jorgenson fellow’s father, the one with the bulldozer? Would that hurt an innocent man?” Graham asked.

  “Jorgenson might not know anything about what his father or grandfather might have done,” Stephen replied. “Do you know all your father’s dark secrets?”

  “My dad doesn’t have any dark secrets,” Graham replied. “He’s just a grumpy old bugger who’s boring.”

  “How do you know?” Peter asked. He grinned and added, “If they were secrets you wouldn’t know them would you?”

  “Well Jorgenson knows something,” Graham persisted. “Why else has he made such an effort to get those documents in that briefcase, and why has he gone to such trouble to search around the wreck, and then chase us all over the country?”

  That was an uncomfortable thought but Stephen still shook his head. “We still don’t have any proof and I’d rather we dropped it.”

  “Ok, if that’s how you want it,” Peter agreed. “Now let’s go and practice for the swimming carnival.”

  They left it at that but Stephen sensed it hadn’t really been settled. He wasn’t happy with the decision himself but tried his hardest to put the matter out of his mind. Instead he concentrated on Judy. During swimming practice he noted that she had a very trim and shapely figure. ‘Boobs aren’t all that big but she’s got a nice bum and lovely thighs,’ he observed.

  So he put on all his charm and spent more time chatting and telling silly jokes than he did swimming, despite repeated injunctions by the PE teacher to get on with it. Stephen even began contemplating asking her for a date and hinted at various places it might be nice to go. She responded so well that he felt very pleased with his efforts. ‘I think I’m going to win here,’ he thought happily.

  After school was cadets. It was a normal Wednesday afternoon Home Training parade. It was a routine cadet training parade. For Stephen the most memorable thing was having four new recruits added to his platoon so that it began to look like something respectable on parade. Most of his time and energy was taken up by ensuring the NCOs looked after the new cadets, explaining how things worked and ensuring they knew how to wear their uniform.

  After cadets Stephen rode home, thinking deeply about the mystery and whether to let it all drop. It was 6:30 pm by the time he got home and he got another shock. As he went along the hall he met Tom coming out of the bathroom. Tom was brushing his hair and was dressed in good clothes: long trousers and long-sleeved shirt.

  “You going out Tom?” he asked.

  “Yes. Judy and I are going to the movies,” Tom replied.

  Stephen was so surprised that he was unable to think of an immediate response. What he was aware of, as he reached the privacy of his own room, was that it hurt. That put him in a bad mood but he knew he had only himself to blame for being so off-hand with Judy. He also wondered if his hurt was jealousy or injured pride.

  When he came back out from changing Stephen sat near Tom in the lounge. “We have talked about dropping the investigation,” he said. “We are going to.”

  Tom nodded. “That’s good. I know it will be hard to do, but I don’t want to hurt innocent people.”

  “When are you going home?” Stephen asked.

  “I’d like to stay,” Tom replied, “But I’d better go on Saturday or Sunday. I’ll see if I can book a seat tomorrow.”

  “Good,” Stephen hissed between teeth that had involuntarily clenched themselves. “Don’t you hurt Judy.”

  Tom looked at him in surprise. “Oh! Oh I say, sorry! I didn’t think you liked her. No, don’t worry. I won’t hurt her, but who she likes and goes out with is up to her.”

  The challenge was offered softly and Stephen chose to ignore it. ‘Why fight?’ he thought ‘Tom will be gone in a day or two and any romance will then wither.’

  But it still pained him to see Tom walk out and get into the car driven by Judy’s mother half an hour later. To twist the knife Judy did not come in but waved from the car and favoured Tom with a dazzling smile as he walked across the lawn to the car. That put Stephen in a grumpy mood and he went to his room and sat trying to write an English essay.

  That was hard work too, because his mind kept straying back to the mystery of the floatplane. He went back to the lounge to watch TV and his father commented on his surly attitude. Stephen went back to his room and sulked, trying not to think of Tom kissing Judy, or of them doing anything more. ‘No,’ he tried to console himself. ‘Judy isn’t like that. She wouldn’t let Tom do anything. Besides, he’s so wet behind the ears he probably wouldn’t know what to do anyway!’

  Even that wasn’t very convincing because the niggling thought kept bursting through: when had Tom managed to ask Judy for a date? ‘The bugger must be a smooth talker,’ he thought morosely.

  By the time Tom came home Stephen was in bed and he pretended to be asleep. But sleep would not come. Nagging thoughts of Tom and Judy together mixed with ‘what ifs?’ about the crashed floatplane. The end result was a horrible nightmare in which Stephen found himself being chased by a rotting corpse that rose out of a rusty car body. In his frantic attempts to escape he climbed into a floatplane. To his intense relief the engine started and he tried to take off. But somehow the floatplane vanished and he found himself floundering in a swampy lake. Then a green hand, all
coated with weeds and slime, thrust up out of the black water to grasp at him!

  When he woke on Thursday morning Stephen felt washed out. He was in a bad mood but made an effort to hide his curiosity about how Tom and Judy had made out. He was careful to avoid any reference to it, to the extent of hardly speaking to Tom at all.

  It was a very grumpy boy who set out for school on his bicycle at 8:15. As he pedalled along Stephen went over in his mind all the reasons for dropping the investigation into the crashed floatplane. These seemed to be still valid so he sighted with regret and turned his mind to Judy, and how to win her attention and affection.

  As he rode past the corner store half way to school Stephen suddenly remembered that he needed a new pen. It was a small thing but he remembered it quite clearly later as one of those things that seems so insignificant but which ultimately turns out to be very important. Knowing he had enough small change in his pocket he glanced to check for traffic and then swung his bike around. The only car had been half a block behind and it just went on past. Stephen got off his bike and went into the shop, purchased the pen, then came out and continued his journey.

  It was half way along the next block he noticed the white car which had passed him before. It had pulled over and was parked beside the road. The driver sat in it reading a newspaper. Because Stephen had to slow down to allow two cars to pass before he pulled out to go round the white car he was forced to notice it. He even glanced at the driver as he did and was intrigued to note that the driver, whose eyes he had glimpsed in the side mirror, was now looking away.

  A peculiar feeling crept over Stephen but he kept on pedalling. ‘I’m imagining things,’ he thought. He rounded the next curve and then, on an impulse, swung his bike over to the footpath and got off, standing behind a parked car and one of the trees that lined the street. A few moments later the white car appeared at the corner. Stephen saw the driver look in both directions, far more carefully than he would have to merely observe traffic.

  ‘He’s looking for something,’ Stephen thought. He watched the car as it swung right and came down the street the same way. The car accelerated. As it went racing past the driver glanced towards Stephen. That he was seen was obvious from the momentary look in the driver’s eyes. Then the man looked away and drove on. To Stephen that moment of eye contact was like being struck by a bucket of ice water.

  “That man is following me!” he muttered with shocked realization.

  CHAPTER 25

  BEING WATCHED?

  Stephen stood and watched the white car drive on along the street. Then the idea came to him to test his theory. He sprang on his bike and began pedalling back along the street in the opposite direction. As he did he kept glancing over his shoulder to watch what the car did. It just kept on and vanished from sight around the roundabout at the next intersection.

  By then Stephen was at an intersection. Here he went right and slowed down- had to to avoid traffic. ‘He didn’t turn,’ he mused. But did that mean the man had given up? Images from numerous TV ‘police’ programs gave Stephen the notion that once a ‘tail’ thought he had been spotted he handed over to another. That got Stephen looking carefully at all other vehicles behind him and he stopped at the next intersection and waited till all cars in sight had gone on past him. Then he continued pedalling to school, going a different way from his usual route.

  As he pedalled along he began to wonder if he had just imagined it. ‘I am getting paranoid,’ he thought. ‘Surely a few kids aren’t important enough to spend all that time and money to watch?’ But the idea persisted. So did Peter’s theory that, if the career of a very powerful politician was involved, then this might in fact be the case.

  “Surely they would do something though?” Stephen asked himself. Peter’s other comment, that if there had been two murders then there might be more to cover them up, came to send icy chills up the base of Stephen’s skull. That got him looking around even more carefully. ‘A road accident would be a good way to do it,’ he decided.

  By then he was breathing fast and feeling very tense. He wiped perspiration from his face and slowed to keep a better watch on other traffic, then switched to riding along the footpath. After ten minutes and carefully crossing six cross-streets he slowed even more. ‘Now I’m being ridiculous,’ he thought. ‘They wouldn’t do anything like that.’

  But on arrival at school he received a real shock which made him rethink that. After placing his bike in the bike racks he went looking for the others. Finding none of his friends in their usual spot he stopped another student from his own class.

  “Hey Angus, have you seen Graham or Peter?”

  “Oh aye,” Angus replied. “They’re at the Sick Room. Graham’s just been knocked over by a car.”

  “By a car!” Stephen cried. He broke into a run and raced to the Sick Room. On arrival he found Peter, Roger and Andrew Collins seated outside. “Is Graham alright?” he asked.

  “Just bumps and bruises,” Peter answered, pointing in to where Mr Maclaren was busy dabbing antiseptic on gravel rashes on Graham’s elbow and knee. Graham saw Stephen and gave him a wry grin. Feeling much relieved but now very anxious Stephen sat with the others.

  “What happened?” he asked.

  Roger answered. “We were crossing the road from the shop when this big white car suddenly pulled out from the kerb and came straight at us. I saw it first and got out of the way but Graham wasn’t quick enough. He tried to jump aside but it hit him and knocked him over. He was bloody lucky he wasn’t killed.”

  “A white car?” Stephen queried. “Was it a Commodore?”

  “No, some sort of ‘Yank Tank’ I think,” Roger replied.

  “Did it stop? Who was driving it?” Stephen asked.

  Roger shook his head. “No, it just kept on driving. I didn’t see the driver.”

  “What about its number?” Stephen said.

  Roger shook his head. “Didn’t think of it. I was too busy looking at Graham.”

  All this did nothing to still Stephen’s growing alarm. Indeed it added to it. ‘They must be watching Graham as well,’ he thought.

  As soon as the teacher finished the First Aid Graham was allowed up. He had not sustained any serious injury and did not want to go home. He was told to wait at the office while a written statement was taken. The boys all walked there in a group and sat while Graham did this. It took all of Stephen’s patience not to tell the others what he was thinking.

  Then he wished he had because Kylie and Margaret came hurrying along. “Where’s Graham?” Margaret cried. “I heard he was knocked down by a car.”

  Peter indicated the principal’s office. “In there giving a statement to the principal and the police,” he replied.

  Stephen smiled. “Don’t worry, only the good die young,” he commented.

  “Oh poo to you Stephen Bell!” Kylie snapped. Margaret just looked weepy and anxious. She was a very plain girl with hazel eyes and freckles but Stephen had to admit she was a good kid; brave and loyal. For the first time he could remember he felt a twinge of envy for Graham. Margaret had adored him for years and had made no secret of it. Graham had often been exasperated and irritated by her open affection but at present he seemed to have quietly accepted her as a friend. Because Margaret was not only a corporal in the cadets but also one of Graham’s section commanders he ensured there was no ‘fraternisation’ problem. ‘If Graham’s got half a brain he should stop chasing the really pretty ones like Ailsa and Rowena who don’t even know he exists and love Margaret,’ Stephen decided.

  Then more girls arrived, all anxious about Graham: Barbara and Fiona, and Wendy ‘Wobbles’ Werribee, all from cadets. They all fussed and wanted to know all the details.

  Because the girls were there Stephen could not discuss his suspicions. He found it very irritating to have to sit and try to pretend things were normal when all the time he was bursting with anxiety and excitement. Then the bell for classes went and he had the added frustration of no
t getting a chance to talk until Graham joined him in the classroom. Then he was in trouble from Mr Ritter, their Maths teacher, for talking and not working.

  During the break between lessons Stephen at last managed to get Graham alone and tell him his theory. As he talked Graham looked at him incredulously but with growing worry showing on his face. “So you really think that was a deliberate attempt to kill me?” Graham asked.

  “Possibly,” Stephen replied. He conceded his suspicions were a bit thin on supporting evidence. “So I reckon we need to be extra careful.”

  Later, when they mentioned this to Peter and Roger during the first break, Peter was the most sceptical. “If that is the case then all we need to do is talk where they can overhear us to let them know we have dropped the investigation.”

  It was a good idea they all agreed. “But where? We don’t know where their bugs might be,” Roger pointed out.

  “Or even if there are any,” Peter added. “This might all just be supposition and imagination.”

  “It might be,” Stephen conceded, “but it won’t hurt to take precautions.”

  Satisfied that his friends were now on their guard Stephen was able to devote some attention to Judy. He went off to find her but got no chance to talk to her alone till lunch time. He was however cheered by the fact that she gave him a bright smile and a happy wave when she saw him coming. They sat and talked in a relaxed way till the bell went. That put Stephen in a hopeful, happy mood during the afternoon lessons.

  This mood only lasted for two hours. After school Stephen went with a group of friends including Graham, Peter, Andrew and Blake to the swimming pool to practise for the swimming carnival. Despite his gravel rash Graham insisted on going in. He was a very good swimmer and was down to do a dozen races the next day. Stephen was only an average swimmer but he was willing to try hard to support his ‘house’.