The Arrowhead Moor Adventure

by Fleur Hitchcock

  Scottish Man laughed. “I suppose some busybody might have decided to borrow it,” he said. “I mean, they’ll have a bit of a surprise when they sit down expecting a good read!”

  “Yeah,” said Forty Grand, sounding a little irritated. “Not in the original script. Stupid idea if you ask me. Anyway…” There was the sound of the zip being closed. “Let’s go and wait to hear about part two.” One of them dragged the bag across the floor and the torchlight disappeared. Then there was silence. The sound of water dripping through the stones. A crow.

  The cousins sat in the dark, listening.

  Then Bella burst out of the top of Aiden’s sweatshirt and charged over to sniff at where the men had been.

  It was another minute before Josh stepped out from behind Ava and headed for the entrance. “C’mon, what are we waiting for?”

  “Where do you think they were going?” shouted Josh, scribbling something in his notebook.

  “Somewhere with books?” said Aiden.

  “Yeah, I got that. A library? There’s one in Drake’s Bay,” said Ava.

  “There are the phone-box ones,” said Josh. “That one in Ash Bottom has comics.”

  “Gotta be somewhere close. Oh my god – yuck!” said Ava, pulling a cobweb out of her hair.

  “Think,” said Aiden, yanking his bike up out of the long grass beside the standing stones. “They were putting whatever it was in a book somewhere else, while she was dumping the bag here.”

  “Hang on a minute,” said Chloe, trying desperately to remember what she’d heard. “It’s not on a road – I’m sure she said that she couldn’t get there by car.”

  “You’d definitely need a road if you were moving a bunch of sheep,” said Josh.

  “There’s one at Damsel Bradley,” said Aiden. “By the old church. You can’t take a car. You have to park in the village car park – miles out. That must be it.” Swinging his leg over the crossbar, Aiden began to pedal away.

  “I still don’t get this,” said Josh, climbing on to his bike. “What’s it got to do with the stolen sheep?”

  “I don’t think it’s got anything to do with the stolen sheep,” said his sister, starting to pedal.

  “Don’t you think we should call the police?” shouted Chloe, climbing on to her bike and trying to catch up with the others. As she watched the back of Josh’s bike vanish over a dip in the road she found herself wishing that the police were dealing with this, and also that she had something other than flip-flops to wear.

  It took a few minutes to get to Damsel Bradley, and as they shot past the car park Ava noted that the red car was already parked there. She kept her eye out for the woman, but didn’t see her until they were nearly at the heart of the village, where she was reading a noticeboard. Damsel Bradley was a tiny, very touristy village with a single pub, a shop and a huge walled garden that took up most of the centre. An ice-cream van stood in the tiny square, and Josh looked at it longingly.

  “C’mon,” said Ava.

  She wiggled her bike along the edge of the crowd and headed up towards the church. She stayed well clear of the woman and led the others around the back of the church, where they leaned their bikes out of sight against a heap of stones.

  “Quick,” hissed Ava.

  “No,” said Chloe. “I’m just going to sit in the churchyard. It’s too risky. She’s almost up here.”

  “Suit yourself,” said Josh, breaking into a run and legging it towards the phone box.

  Chloe and Bella wandered into the churchyard and pretended to investigate the ancient stones. Bella found a stick and began to chew.

  Ava paused and looked back.

  “Come on,” Aiden said. “We’ve got about a minute.”

  The three of them ran to a red phone box and opened the door. Inside were ranks of books.

  “How do we know…?” asked Aiden, holding the door open.

  “Oh my god – this is hopeless,” said Ava, biting her lip and searching the titles for anything helpful.

  Josh started to pull books out at random, shaking them and jamming them back. Ava followed suit. Aiden stared at the books and reached out to take a single volume. “Diamonds Are Forever,” he read aloud and flipped open the cover. The inside of the book had been carved out.

  Back in the churchyard Chloe suddenly began to cough very loudly.

  “That’s a signal,” said Ava, while Josh’s nimble fingers whipped out a small black box that was nestled between the pages. He popped open the lid.

  “Oh!” Inside were twelve shining stones. Despite the rain, despite the grey sky, light bounced off the facets of the stones and they seemed to glow against the blue velvet lining the box. “Wow!” he said. “Diamonds?”

  “Quick, close it. Leave the diamonds,” said Aiden. “And run.”

  They jammed the book back into the bookcase and threw themselves out of the door, falling over each other to plunge into the wet shrubbery beside the church.

  “Twelve,” whispered Josh. “There were twelve.”

  “Shh,” said Ava, and then she put her hand over her mouth to stop a huge giggle coming out. “How did you know?” she asked Aiden. “The book I mean.”

  Aiden shook his head. “Luck – just luck.”

  Seconds later, shoes sounded on the stone path behind them and all three held their breath.

  The shoes stopped and picked their way round to the phone box. The phone box creaked as someone opened the door and Ava sank further back into the bushes.

  Something rustled in the bush behind her and Ava turned to see a dog’s nose thrusting through the leaves. The dog snorted and snuffled and found Josh. Ava tried to push it away, but it was determined to lick Josh’s face and incredibly he knelt in silence as it slathered his ears with drool.

  “Come away, Bernie,” said an elderly woman from behind them, and at last the dog was yanked off along the path.

  Grimacing, Josh dragged his arm over his ears, leaving a silvery dog-goo trail over his sweatshirt sleeve.

  The phone box creaked again, the footsteps faded, and Aiden tapped Ava on the arm. He pushed himself out of the bushes. Ava followed, Josh too, and they all crouched on the church path. The phone box was now on the other side of the hedge. They stayed where they were until the woman passed the end of the hedge. She had her back to them and was wearing the mac again. Her head was tilted down – she must have been looking inside the jewel box.

  Her shoulders rose and fell – a sigh? – and she set off back towards the village. The three cousins followed her, but she veered towards Chloe in the churchyard. “You again!” she said.

  Ava froze. The woman had no idea that they were behind her.

  “Er – yes,” said Chloe, her voice too high. “My cousins have gone to find me some more plasters.”

  “Whoops,” Aiden said quietly, before melting away from Ava’s side and running round towards the back of the church.

  “How very strange,” said the woman. “First you and your cousins are blocking the road as I drive over to that house…”

  “Arrowhead Moor House,” said Chloe.

  Chloe was bright red. Ava gave her cousin a thumbs up.

  “And then I come across one of you hiding in a field.”

  “Oh?” said Chloe.

  “And then a moment later you’re all having a picnic in a stone circle in the middle of the moor.”

  “Yes,” said Chloe.

  “And now here you are. I’d almost think you were following me.”

  “Well, we’re not,” said Chloe, smiling. Because of course they weren’t strictly speaking following her. “We’re just having a day out – doing…”

  “Easter egg hunts,” said Aiden, arriving behind Chloe, barely out of breath and clutching a box of plasters and waving a piece of paper about an Easter egg hunt.

  “Wow!” whispered Josh.

  “Hmmmm,” said the woman. And she stomped off down the cobbled path to the village, her high heels catching in the cracks at every
step.

  “I really think we should tell the police,” said Chloe as all four cousins sat on the wall of the churchyard sharing a bar of chocolate that Aiden had bought along with the plasters. “I mean, diamonds? Forty thousand pounds?”

  “They might be stolen,” said Ava, pulling out her phone and finding no signal. She put it away again. “But we haven’t actually got any evidence. It could just be a really weird way of selling some diamonds.”

  “I think we should wait,” said Aiden.

  Chloe sighed. “What did they look like?” she asked. “The diamonds, I mean?”

  Josh looked up from picking a scab on his knee. He considered saying “like raindrops” but in the end said, “Like diamonds. Sparkly and that.” Then he sprang to his feet. “Anyway, last one back to the farm’s a warthog.” Cramming on his helmet he swung his leg over the crossbar of the bike and took off towards the centre of the village.

  “Wait!” shouted Chloe behind him. “I’m coming.” Her bike rattled as the two of them pedalled furiously down the hill until they must have been doing at least twenty-five miles an hour. Josh heard her panting alongside him and pushed harder until his legs were burning with the effort. They shot out of the village and past the car park, swerving wildly to avoid a woman with a child on the back of her bike.

  “Go left!” shouted Chloe.

  “No – right!” yelled Josh, and he leaned ever so slightly into the corner, neatly swinging into a lane that would eventually take them towards the sea.

  “Josh!” protested Chloe. But he knew she’d follow.

  For a few minutes the roads were empty, then they reached a crossroads and Josh screeched to a halt. There were three cars trying to come down from the moor and a stream of ten going the other way. Josh looked over them. “There they are!” he said, pointing. “The silver VW. The diamond men – that’s them.”

  “You sure?” said Chloe.

  “Definitely,” said Josh. “One in a yellow jacket, red stripes on the sleeves; the other all in black. ’S all in my notebook.”

  The traffic jam began to unravel. “Ready?” said Josh, rolling forward as he prepared to chase the silver car a few metres ahead of them.

  “Can’t we just go home and call the police?” said Chloe, getting her pedal up so that she could push off. But it was too late. Josh had gone.

  With a sigh Chloe followed him. He was, she supposed, heading sort of in the direction of the farm. It just wasn’t the short way she’d have chosen. And they’d never be able to keep up with a car.

  But their luck was in. The car in front of the silver VW was being driven by an elderly woman in a large hat, who took the road very carefully. Josh and Chloe lagged behind, keeping out of sight of the silver VW. This worked well until the elderly woman swung off to the left.

  Chloe watched as she turned, and slowed slightly. She was grateful that a light rain had started, which made it harder for anyone inside a car to see out.

  But without the woman at the front the driver of the silver car sped up. Josh leaned flat over his handlebars and pinched his elbows in, like a real cyclist, picking up speed all the way.

  There was no way Chloe was going to let Josh beat her, and soon they were charging unstoppably down from the moor. As she squeaked past potholes and ducked to avoid stray branches of brambles that stuck out from the hedges, she remembered the conversation she’d overheard. Both the men and the woman had talked about the second half of the deal. So they’d seen the first half. That meant there were probably more diamonds out there. But all thoughts went out of her head as they swept past the entrance of Clifftopper Farm, flying round the corners and descending madly towards Drake’s Bay, both of them knowing every bend and every turn, both of them going dangerously fast. As they approached the church Chloe touched her brakes, ready to take the next bend towards the village, but the silver car didn’t go on to the bay; instead it veered to the left, down Rosemary Lane and a tiny group of houses on the clifftop.

  “Stop!” yelled Chloe, putting her feet down and feeling the soles of her flip-flops burn with the friction.

  Josh squeezed his brakes and skidded to a halt thirty metres in front of her. “What?”

  “We can’t follow them there; it’s too obvious. We’ll watch from up here. We can see which house they go into.”

  Josh stood astride his bike, holding the handlebars. “What? Be more fun to follow them.”

  Chloe shook her head. “No – it’d be stupid. That woman’s already got suspicious. She might ring them and tell them about us.”

  Josh glowered but stayed put. Chloe could feel his disappointment, but she wasn’t going to go charging in and ruin everything. They needed to have a plan and Chloe knew from experience that Josh’s plans tended to involve taking action and then thinking about it afterwards. Ignoring his sulk, Chloe watched the brake lights of the silver car glowing as it stopped outside the cottages.

  For a moment no one got out, and then she saw the man with the yellow jacket climb out of the passenger seat and go through one of the little gardens at the front of the cottages. “There,” said Chloe, pointing. “I think it’s the one at the end.”

  Josh sighed. “Yeah,” he said, pulling out his notebook and writing something. “You’re probably right.”

  “So we’ve got more to tell the police now.”

  “S’pose so.”

  “After we’ve had something to eat back at the farm.” She smiled and waited for his reaction.

  She could almost feel his mood change. He rubbed his stomach, as if it was going to talk to him through his fingers. “Yay!” he said. “Beat you back to the yard.”

  Aiden watched Josh and Chloe take off through the village. He grabbed his bike and thought about racing after them for a second before he heard Ava calling him back.

  “No point,” she said, zipping up her waterproof. “Josh’s too fast on his bike. And he’ll take a stupid route. He always does.”

  The light rain became heavier, dripping off the branches over their heads. Aiden swept water off his saddle and pulled the handlebars straight before freewheeling gently through the village. Stopping at the bottom by the bus stop, he took out the map and held it under the shelter. “If we go straight over the moor on this old track, we could cut miles off the ride. Chloe’s probably right – we should call the police.”

  “C’mon then,” said Ava, wrenching her bike round.

  They left the village in the opposite direction to Josh and Chloe, and headed out along the moor. Bella trotted alongside, her fur already soaking. She no longer looked like a dog so much as a bath mat.

  Ava pulled her waterproof closer and scrunched her nose up against the rain. She glanced back to Aiden. She knew he could barely see through his wet glasses and was just following her back.

  “Look out for the track on our right,” he shouted to her. “Soon.”

  She slowed. Even without specs it was hard to see where they were going, and the rain was beginning to creep in under the cuffs and round the neck of her waterproof. It was drifting across them in wet billows and every now and again they rode through deep puddles that threw water up over their legs. It was almost as if they were in a cloud, and it occurred to Ava that perhaps they were.

  “Here,” she said, and pulled off the lane. It was a rutty track, but it seemed to head off in a straight line over the moor. “This must be it.”

  Aiden pulled in behind her, took off his glasses and wiped them on something underneath his waterproof. He put them back on and, in the millisecond before they became wet, stared off down the track. “This looks right – I’ve done it in the sunshine before.”

  He didn’t sound very sure, but Ava couldn’t see any other track, so she swung her bike round and began to pedal. It didn’t look particularly difficult, but it was harder than it seemed. It was very uneven, and she had to hang on to her handlebars as the bike twisted and pulled this way and that. She was so busy concentrating on staying on that she didn’t look be
hind her until the mist became so thick that she could hardly see her hand in front of her face.

  “Bella?” she called, her voice dead in the wet air. “Bella?”

  A crow called in the distance and she put her feet down and stopped. “Aiden?” she said.

  She turned. She couldn’t see Aiden. She couldn’t see anything. “Aiden?”

  There was no reply.

  Looking down, she wondered if she’d actually stayed on the track, because now there seemed to be grass beneath her wheels and she couldn’t see any sign of the gravel strip that she’d been following.

  “Aiden! Where are you?” she yelled. And then she listened.

  Silence.

  She was on the moor, lost, with the cloud coming down.

  “Oh. My. God. Aiden?” Her voice bounced off the mist.

  The crow cawed again, but otherwise the moor was scarily empty.

  “Bella?” There was no reassuring bark. Nothing.

  “Don’t panic,” she said to herself.

  The first thing she needed to do was establish where the track was. Or was it to work out which way was north? Would that help? She stared into the cloud. The sun should be in the south about now, but it was impossible to work out where the light was coming from. Reaching into her jeans she took out her phone and switched it on. No signal. “Oh, please!” she said, and tried switching it off and then on again. Just in case.

  Nothing.

  Ava stood with her hands on the handlebars, listening to the rain brushing her waterproof. Chewing her lip, she tried to imagine what had happened to Aiden. He had definitely been behind her. So could she work out which way she’d come from?

  Turning the bike round, she examined the turf. Water droplets clung to the stubby grass, except for one line where they didn’t. “Yesss.” That must be her bike track. Where her tyres had run through the grass, the water had been squashed and it showed green rather than silvery.

  Clambering back on to her bike she began to pedal slowly back over the soft ground, keeping the line in sight. After a couple of minutes the line disappeared, but she saw the gravel track.