by Lauren Child
‘I don’t want any more excuses, just make it happen,’ said LB, abruptly hanging up.
She looked at Ruby. ‘So do you want to explain what occurred out there?’
Ruby opened her mouth, but she couldn’t think of a thing to say.
Hitch came to her rescue. ‘As you know, the kid has been listening to the Chime Melody tapes and there’s evidence that the interference is not interference but is actually coded communication, musical notes that can be translated into instructions.’
‘All right,’ said LB. ‘Show me.’
Ruby took the file of papers from her satchel and laid the various communications on the desk. LB leaned forward, studying them.
‘You see, Chime Melody is the only radio station you can clearly receive in the Sibling waters so it makes sense that they would hijack this particular station,’ Ruby explained.
‘I would agree,’ said LB. ‘The part I’m a little hazy about is what led you to believe that the “she” they refer to in the messages was the wreck of the Seahorse?’
Ruby took a breath. ‘Well, that was kind of a hunch based on what I’ve been reading about in the City Library. It just seemed to fit together that these pirates might be after the same treasure that the pirates were after 200 years ago. I mean it’s super valuable.’
‘Super valuable?’ LB evidently did not appreciate this description of treasure. ‘Well, super valuable it may be, but when all’s said and done, you acted on a hunch, a hunch that left one of Sea Division’s most super valuable agents out of action and me with a lot of explaining to do.’
‘But you see, I think someone got there first. I think they already found the treasure,’ said Ruby. ‘I found evidence of it, a gemstone that got left behind, dropped.’
LB looked up. ‘You did? Where is it?’
Ruby bit her lip. ‘Well, that’s the thing.’
‘The kid dropped it,’ said Hitch. ‘Not her fault.’
‘She dropped it?’ said LB. She turned to Hitch. ‘So Hitch, did you see this precious stone?’
Hitch shook his head. ‘No,’ he said, ‘I didn’t.’
‘There were sharks,’ said Ruby. ‘A lot of sharks. And I sorta let go of it.’
‘You let go of the one piece of evidence that might make me believe this whole fairy tale?’
‘It happened, OK? I’m sorry, but you might do the same if you were surrounded by a whole mob of sharks.’ Ruby was feeling the anger rise up in her. Sooner or later she was going to say something everyone would regret.
‘The collective noun is a school or shoal, or if you must be dramatic, a shiver,’ said LB.
‘Well, a mob is what it felt like to me,’ said Ruby, her voice loud and firm. She was on the very verge of telling LB where she might want to stick it. But fortunately, Hitch stepped in.
‘Look LB.’ His voice was calm and steady. ‘I wouldn’t have taken a risk like this if I hadn’t thought there was something sound in the kid’s thinking. Ruby’s a smart kid, we all appreciate that. More importantly, I trust her instincts – maybe these guys already plundered the wreck; maybe we were just too darned late.’
‘Acting on instincts is all very well. Acting on instincts without getting permission from your senior agent is reckless. Let me remind you both that you are not the ones who have to call up Agent Trent-Kobie at Sea Division and explain the actions of their renegade staff.’
‘I’ll give you that,’ said Hitch. ‘But what if the kid had been right? What if the kid is right? Shouldn’t we be trying to track these guys down?’
‘Have you ever paused to consider why anyone would go to all this effort for something as corny as treasure? Is it really worth it?’
‘No,’ said Ruby. ‘It isn’t worth it.’
LB turned to look at her, speechless. She waved for Ruby to continue.
‘Either the mastermind behind this is a madman or the treasure is only a part of it. To my mind, there has to be something more.’
‘Now I’m interested,’ said LB. ‘Continue.’
‘I don’t know,’ said Ruby. She didn’t want to mention her theory to LB yet – that someone was after the rubies in a cave that a four-year-old girl had insisted was real exactly 200 years ago. It would sound too crazy. Too ‘fairy tale’, as LB had put it.
LB stared at her for the longest fifteen seconds ever recorded and then said, ‘Well, come back when you do.’ She picked up the phone, dialled a number and launched right into a whole ’nother conversation.
Meeting over.
Hitch closed the door behind them. ‘Well, I think that went well kid.’
‘She doesn’t give a person a whole lot of slack, huh?’ said Ruby.
‘Never has, never will.’ He patted her on the back. ‘Come on, let’s get out of here. You need to take some time off; you’re growing dark circles around your eyes.’
Ruby sighed. They had found nothing, but that didn’t mean there had been nothing to find. Maybe, like Hitch said, they were just too darned late. Perhaps it was also too late to catch these particular sea bandits; perhaps they had found exactly what they wanted and were now miles and miles away…
Or perhaps not.
Wherever they were though, they had managed to find a pretty secret hiding place. There had been absolutely no sign of them today, neither below the sea nor above.
Ruby was right back at square one. And worse still, she’d managed to get Kekoa pretty badly injured and really annoy the powerful woman who ran the secret agency she worked for.
A great day’s work, thought Ruby. Nice going Redfort.
Chapter 34.
Laugh all you like, sucker
THE HOUSE WAS QUIET – Ruby’s parents must be out at their tennis club, unaware that their daughter had almost been swallowed by a whole batch, shiver or mob of murderous sharks.
It had been a sobering experience and it made Ruby want to talk to one person above all. She dialled the number, but it went straight to voicemail.
‘Look Clance, sorry for what I said, OK? Sorry for being a complete pain in the behind and a total duh brain. No excuses, just sorry. Call me.’ She replaced the receiver and went to change her clothes. Before she had made it four steps across the room, the telephone rang. She picked up the donut phone.
‘Hey Rube, you’re forgiven, wanna hang out?’
‘Sure I do Clance my old pal. What have you got in mind?’
It was Elliot’s idea. Cycle out to Far-West beach and spend the night telling ghoulish stories under the stars. No one took a whole lot of persuading, but it was Elliot who was the true campfire kid – he liked nothing better than collecting driftwood and frying things out in the open.
Elliot, Mouse, Red and Del were already there by the time Clancy and Ruby arrived. It had been a last-minute sort of plan, but like all the best last-minute plans it had come together easily. There was no danger of running out of supplies since Mrs Digby had packed them off with way too many home-made burgers, ingredients for hot chocolate, marshmallows and everything else that made an evening cookout satisfying.
It was a pretty perfect night for such a plan and once they had got themselves settled, they rolled out their sleeping bags and sat warming their hands by the fire’s glow. Gradually, the talk moved from school to current Twinford events, the fleeing crabs, the dangerous dolphins, the confused sharks and the sea strangler that had killed the fisherman. All of Twinford had read about it in the papers – it was big news.
‘Who do you think he is?’ asked Elliot.
‘Or she,’ said Mouse.
‘Yeah, that’s right,’ agreed Del. ‘It could be a female strangler.’
‘How do you think she does it?’ asked Red.
‘Or he,’ added Clancy.
‘I reckon she or he climbs aboard the boat while the victim is looking the other way and takes the poor old fisherman by surprise,’ said Del.
‘I don’t think so,’ said Elliot, shaking his head. ‘It’s just not realistic. The strangler’s
already in the boat – hiding under a tarpaulin or nets or something.’
‘So what’s the perpetrator’s motive?’ said Mouse, finally asking the question no one had got around to asking.
‘He’s a psychopath,’ said Clancy firmly.
‘Or she’s a psychopath,’ said Red.
‘Did anyone ever think,’ said Ruby, the merest hint of drama in her voice. ‘Did anyone ever think that this he or she might be an it?’
Her words hung in the air. No one had thought this thought because it didn’t really seem possible.
‘What,’ said Clancy, ‘like you mean some kind of creature?’
‘What kind of creature?’ asked Del.
‘I get it,’ said Mouse. ‘I see where you’re coming from, like maybe this creature they talk about in the legends of Twinford.’
‘That kinda thing,’ said Ruby.
‘Wow!’ said Red. ‘You really mean there’s an actual sea-strangling monster!’
A short grunting snort came from Elliot’s nose, then silence. His face was contorted, his eyes shut tight. There was a twenty-second pause before Elliot Finch finally erupted into uncontrollable giggles, barely audible at first but gathering volume.
‘You mean…’ He was almost unable to string the words together as he gulped in air. ‘You mean you think… You think the strangler has to be some kinda…’ He fell off the rock he was perched on. ‘Giant squid or humongous lobster or something? Oh boy, I think… I think I’m gonna pass out.’
‘Laugh all you like, sucker, but I don’t see you getting in a boat and heading out to sea.’ Ruby had had a great deal of practice when it came to keeping a straight face around Elliot – it wasn’t easy, Elliot’s giggles were very infectious and sooner or later they would get you.
‘I think Ruby is most probably right,’ said Red, trying hard not to succumb to the Elliot influence. She had great faith in Ruby: Ruby knew most things and was right about a lot of things. That said, Red liked to believe in monsters and ghosts, pixies even; she was what some would describe as fanciful, but others might describe as gullible. To her this was not far-fetched – she was quite prepared to believe in a monster squid or a humongous lobster. For this reason she wasn’t exactly helping Ruby’s argument.
‘Could you put a sock in it bozo!’ Ruby threw a burger bun at Elliot. ‘I’ve been reading up on all this stuff at the City Library and it’s all beginning to hook together. The Twinford treasure – I reckon that’s true. I reckon the Seahorse went down exactly where Martha Fairbank said it did. So what if she was also telling the truth about the sea monster?’
‘Wasn’t she like four years old when that happened?’ said Mouse.
‘Yeah, but she was the smartest kid around, that’s well documented – besides, everything she described is actually so.’
‘You’re just saying that because she’s your great-great-however-many-greats-grandmother,’ said Elliot.
‘So who wants to go for a dip?’ said Del who was losing interest in the discussion. ‘I dare ya.’
Elliot shook his head. ‘No way, you’re not getting me in that water.’
‘How about you Crew?’ said Del, elbowing him in the ribs.
‘You are kidding, I hope,’ replied Clancy.
None of the others volunteered either so Del stood up. ‘OK, it looks like it’s just me and old Bug here. Come on boy.’
The girl and the dog walked purposefully towards the sea; the moonlight was so bright that the ocean shone silver. Del started to wade in, but then something very curious happened. Bug did not follow. Bug never missed an opportunity to plunge into water of pretty much any kind, he loved to swim, but not tonight it seemed.
‘Come on fella!’ called Del, but Bug stood there very still, a strange low growling coming from his throat. Del waded out further and Bug became more agitated. He started to bark.
Ruby looked up at Bug and knew something was very wrong. She ran across the sand, hollering, ‘Del, get out of the water!’
Del stopped. ‘What? What is it?’
‘I don’t know, just get out!’
‘Give me a break,’ said Del, moving forward again. She was up to her waist in water.
‘Del!’ hollered Ruby. ‘Quit arguing! Would you just listen for once?’
Del turned and shrugged. ‘OK, if you feel that strongly about it.’ And she began to stomp back out of the surf.
The fur on Bug’s back relaxed and he stopped barking. He ambled over to Del, licking the salt from her ankles.
‘Cut it out, would ya?’ said Del. ‘I have no idea what your problem is.’
‘Neither do I, but he sure is upset about something.’
It turned out that Bug had done Del quite a favour – perhaps he had even saved her life, because the next morning after falling asleep on the beach they were woken by the screeching of seagulls. They were all tightly clustered together making a sort of mound of birds, squawking and flapping. Elliot and Ruby climbed out of their sleeping bags and went to take a look.
‘What is it?’ called Mouse.
‘You don’t wanna know,’ shouted Elliot.
‘Is it gruesome?’ asked Clancy, scrambling to his feet.
‘You could say that,’ called Ruby.
‘How gruesome?’ asked Red.
‘You’ll be glad you haven’t had your breakfast,’ said Elliot.
‘I have,’ said Del.
‘Well, prepare to see it again,’ warned Ruby.
The four of them raced over to where Elliot and Ruby were standing.
As they approached, the gulls flew up in one screeching mass and revealed the carcass of a killer whale.
Chapter 35.
Connecting the dots
THE AUTHORITIES WERE CALLED OF COURSE and various experts came down to look at the giant mammal dead on the sand. No one could offer an explanation as to what might have killed it other than it had been attacked by something huge.
Crushed and then drowned.
Ruby got home much later than she’d intended, and there was no sign of Hitch anywhere in the house. She looked out of the window – her mom and dad were sitting poolside, drinking fruit punch.
‘Hey honey,’ called her father. He was looking up, shielding his eyes from the sun. ‘You want to join us?’
‘Ah, in a while maybe. I got some studying to do,’ said Ruby.
‘Oh. By the way Ruby,’ said her mother, ‘Elaine Lemon called earlier. She asked me if your skin condition had cleared up – I felt so terrible, as a mother I mean – I didn’t know you had a problem with your skin.’
‘Oh,’ said Ruby, ‘didn’t you?’
‘No,’ said her mother. ‘What kind of skin condition? Elaine said it was contagious.’
‘No, it’s fine,’ said Ruby.
‘Contagious doesn’t sound fine,’ said Sabina. Sabina believed that skin was the most important of all the body’s organs. ‘Without it you’d be all over the place,’ was something she was very fond of saying.
‘Well, no need to worry any more. My skin is all de-contagious again.’
‘Oh… good,’ said Sabina, unsure if the word de-contagious was a word or not.
‘What subject you studying?’ asked her father.
‘Natural history,’ Ruby replied.
‘That’s a good subject,’ said Brant, ‘one of the best.’
‘I gotta go Dad, lots to read.’
‘That’s our girl,’ called Brant.
‘It sure is,’ smiled Sabina.
Her parents naturally put two and two together and figured that the studying must be schoolwork, but of course it wasn’t – it was far more important than that.
* * *
Ruby sat at her desk and took out her now very large piece of paper, several sheets stuck together with tape. The list of events and clues spiralled out from the centre, some of the spirals interconnecting, reaching out to each other and touching hands. She knew she was right about the treasure, she just knew it. Someone had got th
ere first. The question now was where had these guys gone, what were they after next and had they already found it?
Ruby glanced out of her window and noticed the stranger sitting on the wall on the opposite side of the street a couple of houses down. What are you doing here? He was wearing a hat and shades and by his feet was that same yellow carryall. From her vantage point she could make out a blurry shape of blue printed on the yellow bag, a logo perhaps.
It was one thing to see him sitting outside the Full-O-Beans coffee shop and inside the Double Donut, not so strange to see him walking around town, but now he was in their street – waiting, but for what? Was he tailing her? Yes, had to be; this was no coincidence. So what exactly do you want? thought Ruby.
She would go and ask him, that’s what she would do.
Right now.
She opened the hatch to the laundry chute and fed herself in head first. She shot through it in just a few seconds, landing on the lower ground floor on top of a bundle of sheets. She crawled through the hatch, ran out of the back door and through the gate into the alley. By the time she had sprinted into Cedarwood Drive, barely one minute later, the street was deserted.
The man was gone.
That evening Ruby caught up with Hitch over a glass of banana milk and a cheese sandwich.
‘That milk you drink taste any good?’ he asked.
‘Wanna slurp?’ offered Ruby.
‘No, I don’t think I’m ready for it yet.’
‘You don’t know what you’re missing man,’ said Ruby. ‘So what are they saying over at Spectrum?’
‘We have agents watching the Sibling waters and yet nothing has been picked up, no strange whispers in the sea, no strangling, no pirate activity.’
‘Any more Chime communications?’ asked Ruby.
‘I was coming to that,’ replied Hitch. He took a brown envelope from his jacket. Ruby took a look – three cassette tapes, each one with a time scrawled on the label, each recorded that very day.
‘So what do they say?’ asked Ruby.
‘Nothing,’ replied Hitch.
