Eye Spy (8 page)

I felt really nervous when we came downstairs on Friday morning, and Donna looked petrified. Neither of us wanted to face Dad, and we were afraid Nan was going to have a go at us for upsetting him again. Luckily, Dad was already in the workshop. To our surprise, Nan didn't tell us off. Maybe she realised we'd only been trying to help. However, she did warn us not to mention Holtech again.

“But why?” Donna asked. She sounded as if she was going to cry again. “Why does he hate Holtech so much? Did they mess him around in the past?”

Nan pursed her lips. “It's not for me to say. Ian will explain when he's less upset. Now get moving or you'll be late for school.”

On the way to school I tried to get Donna to discuss what we'd found out about Annie, but it was as if she was trying to pretend that we'd never discovered the letters. She seemed to want to avoid the whole subject. It was the same when we got to school. She went off with Em and sat next to her in every lesson, totally ignoring me. I got the message and left her alone

All through Maths, I was trying to work out how I could discover more about Annie. Donna had made it plain she wasn't yet ready to take the next step, so I would have to go it alone. I figured that if I wanted answers to my questions, I had two alternatives: I could search for more clues at home, or I could try and persuade either Mr Cohen or Miss Wren to tell me what they knew. I hardly knew Miss Wren; she'd only joined the school at the beginning of the year. Mr Cohen was OK as teachers go, but I didn't fancy discussing our family secrets with him. In the end I settled on a further search at home. It was the easy option. All I had to do was wait for the right opportunity.

With so much on my mind, I wasn't really paying attention to what was going on around me. I was the last to leave the Maths class and was dawdling across the Somme in the rain, in no hurry to reach Mr Owen's Biology class, when I heard a voice saying, “Look, guys, it's Lea Green's newest acting sensation!”

As I turned round, I felt as though my insides had been clamped in a metal vice. Aidan, together with the boy who'd played Romeo and another boy with a black eye that was just beginning to fade, was standing right behind me. I glanced round, but there was nobody else in sight. I was on my own.

It's difficult to look unconcerned when your legs are shaking and the blood is rushing to your head and making you feel dizzy. I didn't fool Aidan. “On Tuesday you learnt how to lose a fight,” he said, sneering at me. “Now let's see if you can figure out how to win one!” He jerked his head, and his two friends positioned themselves on either side of me. There was no escape.

Romeo started it. He moved closer to me and gave me a shove. I staggered, trying to keep my balance on the slippery ground. Then it was the prize fighter's turn. He pushed me sharply in the other direction. This time I would have fallen, but Aidan grabbed me and literally lifted me off the ground. For a moment I hung in the air, feet scrabbling to find the ground. Then, as suddenly as he'd picked me up, he dropped me, and I fell back with a body-jarring thud onto the sodden, muddy ground. As I lay there, staring up at Aidan, he carefully placed one of his huge shoes on my chest and pressed down – not hard enough to break a rib, but enough to leave a huge muddy footprint on the front of my blazer. Then he removed his foot and leant down so his face was close enough for me to smell his breath

“I don't like people who embarrass me in public,” he said. “Don't annoy me again or your life won't be worth living.”

Their laughter echoed in my ears as they walked away from me. A few seconds later Mr Owen discovered me scrambling to my feet and trying vainly to brush off some of the mud. He glared at me.

“What on earth are you doing, boy?”

“Sorry, sir. I slipped.”

He shook his head in disgust. “Go and clean up, and don't take all day about it!”

“Yes, sir.”

I washed off as much of the dirt as I could, but when I walked into Biology ten minutes later, there was still enough mud on my clothes for everyone to guess what had happened. Some of the boys at the back of the class sniggered. Even Donna broke her silence and whispered to me as I passed, “What happened?”

“I ran into Aidan and his buddies.”

“Sit down, Macintyre, and be quiet!” snapped Mr Owen, scowling. “You've already missed ten minutes of this lesson. Any more disruption and you'll have a detention.”

When the lesson ended, Donna and Emerald fell in beside me as we exited the building and headed towards the entrance gates. I couldn't help looking over my shoulder every few seconds just to make sure Aidan wasn't following me.

“Stop being so twitchy!” Donna said. “He'll leave you alone now that he's had his fun.” I wished I could believe her.

Outside the gates, Donna announced that Emerald had invited her to have supper with her family that evening. “I don't want to have to face Dad until he's calmed down a bit,” she said.

I shrugged. “Fine. See you later.”

As they walked off down the road towards the Lea Green Estate where Emerald lived, Em glanced over her shoulder and gave me an apologetic smile. At least one of them cared about my welfare. I was angry with Donna. She had good reason to avoid Dad, but that didn't mean she had to avoid me too. It was frustrating that she didn't want to discuss what we'd discovered yesterday, and I could have done with her company that evening because I knew Nan would throw a fit over the state of my clothes.

Sure enough, Nan started on me the minute I got through the door. “What on earth have you been doing with yourself? Now I'm going to have to wash your entire uniform. I do have better things to do with my time, you know…” While she ranted on, I switched off mentally from her angry words until finally I managed to escape to my room. When I came downstairs later, there was a bad atmosphere in the house. It was different from earlier in the week when Dad had been sunk in depression. Now he was grim-faced and tight-lipped. The odd thing was, I got the impression he was angry with himself rather than with us. I hoped that both he and Donna would be in a better mood next day.

The following morning was a Saturday, so we all had a lie-in. At half past nine, just as I was coming downstairs, the phone rang. Nan reached it first and said “Hello.” As she listened to what the caller was saying, she beckoned me over.

“It sounds like your French teacher. I hope you haven't got behind with your homework again.”

French teacher? Then it clicked. “Er… hello, Mademoiselle Boudet,” I said. I realised I'd been so busy thinking about our family secrets for the last couple of days that I'd forgotten all about the case of the missing dog.

“Hello, Alex,” she said, before sneezing noisily. “
Pardonnez moi
. I have the cold.” She sneezed again. She didn't sound at all well. “Alex, I need your help.” She told me she had had a call from a woman who claimed to know where Kiki was. “She asked me to meet her at the end of the pier at noon today. She says she will show me where Kiki is. But Alex…” she sneezed again. “I'm really not well. I have the flu. Would you and your sister go in my place?”

I tried to kick-start my brain into action. It couldn't have been Atlanta who'd phoned Mademoiselle Boudet, because we'd ruled her out.

“Did the woman mention money?”

“No, she said nothing about money.”

”What did she sound like?”

“I cannot say. It was a bad line. You will do this for me, Alex? You will get my little Kiki back for me?”

I tried to sound professional. “Of course. We'll be there at twelve o'clock, I promise.”

“Thank you
, mon ami
, thank you.” I heard her sigh with relief as she rang off.

When I told Donna about the phone call, she didn't believe me at first.

“They say they know where Kiki is, but they're not asking for money? That doesn't make sense. If they got Mademoiselle Boudet's number from the poster, they must know about the reward.”

It did seem odd. “Maybe they're going to ask for much more money when we get there?” I suggested.

“They could have done that over the phone.”

“OK, then, maybe this woman is just some kind-hearted old dear who wants to return a lost pet to its owner.” But neither of us really believed that.

We had to think of a reason for going out, so I told Nan that our French teacher had offered to give us some free tuition to help us with our homework, and that we were going round to her flat. It was the best story I could think of at the time, but luckily she didn't question it.

We were still trying to guess who Mademoiselle Boudet's caller might have been as we walked down the hill to the seafront later that morning. The wind had dropped and it was warmer than it had been all week. As we walked along the promenade past the mall, I could see the pier ahead of us, rising up on its wooden legs above the choppy grey sea. Normally at this time of year it's almost deserted, but as we got closer I saw lots of little blue figures milling about on the pier, and there were a couple of police cars parked by the pier-head.

We started to run, and as we reached the point where the promenade widened out to form a small square, we saw two police officers pushing some scruffy-looking people into one of the cars. Several people were standing around watching what was going on. I went up to the nearest onlooker, an old man carrying a shopping bag, and asked him what was happening.

He looked at me sourly. “They've been clearing all the dossers out of that old observatory at the end of the pier. Waste of time and money, if you ask me. They're not doing anyone any harm and nobody's used the place for years. But then, what do I know about it?” He wandered off across the square, muttering to himself.

We stayed where we were while the remaining police moved off the pier and dispersed, some on foot, some in cars. When everything was quiet again, we hurried over to the pier-head. I looked at my watch. It was five to twelve.

“Come on,” I said to Donna. “We can still make it to the end of the pier by noon.” But secretly I felt it would be a waste of time. If the person who'd phoned had broken the law, they would have been frightened away by all the police.

Our footsteps echoed on the wooden planks as we walked quickly past the shops selling postcards and rock, the arcade with the ancient slot machines, and the little café. They were all locked and shuttered because it was winter. There was a long gap between the last shop and the old observatory that stood at the very end of the pier. It's round, with windows looking out to sea in three directions. At the back of it there's a small platform with a big telescope standing on it.

Ever since I can remember, the observatory has been locked up and there's been a big notice on the door saying ‘DANGER – KEEP OUT'. Now the door was broken, as if someone had forced their way in. A piece of wood had been nailed roughly across the broken panels and a huge shiny new padlock had been fitted to the door.

“Poor old Kath,” said Donna. “Where will she and her friends sleep now?”

We waited by the observatory for half an hour, taking it in turns to look through the telescope, but there were no ships around to look at so it was pretty boring. At twelve thirty we decided nobody was coming and began to walk back towards the shore. I thought how sad Holcombe Bay looked in winter when there were no visitors. The pier and the small funfair next to it were shut, and the merry-go-rounds, the dodgem cars and the helter-skelter were all covered in tarpaulins to protect them from bad weather. Normally, it was deserted at this time of year, but as we drew nearer to the beach, we saw a tall man come out of the Portakabin that served as an office for the company that operated the funfair. Even without his fur hat, there was no mistaking Sergei.

As he set off across the square, Donna said, “Perhaps he was the person who was going to meet us, but the police frightened him off.”

“Maybe. But then who was the woman who phoned Mademoiselle Boudet?”

By the time we reached the Portakabin, Sergei had disappeared down a side street. I started to hurry after him, but Donna pulled me back. “Wait! I can hear something.” I stopped and listened. She was right. There were faint sounds coming from inside the Portakabin. It sounded like an animal scratching the door and whining.

I tried the door handle, but it was locked. Donna ran round the side and tried to peer through the grimy window, but it was too high up for her to reach. “Give me a leg up,” she called. I glanced across the square. There was no sign of Sergei. I knelt down and she clambered onto my shoulders.

“I can't see much; it's too dark in there. Hang on…” She squirmed sideways. “I can hear a dog, but I can't see it.”

“Knock on the window,” I suggested. “Maybe it will come over here to see what the noise is.”

She tapped twice on the window, then squeaked with excitement. “Here it comes!”

There was a sudden angry shout from across the square. Instantly, Donna jumped off my back and we took to our heels, turning left out of the square and along the promenade. I glanced over my shoulder and caught sight of Sergei in hot pursuit.

“Up here!” Donna panted as we reached the tarmac path leading to the shopping mall. We pelted up the slope, just managing to avoid a couple of skateboarders on their way down, and didn't stop until we were safely inside the mall. There was no sign of Sergei, but we slipped into the department store and mingled with the shoppers to make sure we were safe.

When I'd got my breath back and my heart had finally stopped pounding, I asked Donna, “Did you see anything useful before we ran off?”

She frowned. “There was a dog. I only saw him for a split second, but I thought I recognised him…”

“Him?”

“Yes. I think it was Rockerfeller.”

“Rockerfeller?” I stared at Donna. “Why would Rockerfeller be with Sergei?”

She shrugged. “Dunno. Unless… if Kath was one of the dossers the police arrested, perhaps she left Rocky with Sergei because she couldn't take him to the police station with her?”

Something clicked in my brain. “Hang on! When I spoke to Kath last Sunday, she said she'd left Rocky with a friend. I wondered who that could be. Maybe she leaves him with Sergei regularly.”

“Maybe. But what's Sergei doing in the Portakabin?” I couldn't think of an answer to that, but it didn't seem to matter since we still couldn't link Sergei with Kiki. And the woman who'd claimed to know where Kiki was hadn't showed up. Mademoiselle Boudet was going to be disappointed.

There didn't seem to be anything useful we could do on the seafront, so we set off home. We were passing the bus station when someone called out, “Hey, Donna!” and I saw Jason Dundy crossing the road to join us.

Donna gave him a brilliant smile. “Hi, Jason! We missed you at school.”

“Missed you too, babe.” He was a cocky as ever.

“What did your parents say about the poker game?” I asked.

He grinned. “Mum was furious. She said one gambler in the family was quite enough, but Dad called me a chip off the old block. I've been running errands for him – earned a bit of cash.” He jingled the coins in his pocket and turned to Donna. “You doing anything tomorrow afternoon? That new movie about aliens is on at the cinema.”

For a moment Donna looked astonished. Then she rearranged her face into another dazzling smile. “I love sci-fi movies,” she said.

“Great,” said Jason. “See you outside the cinema at two o'clock. Hey, there's my bus. Gotta go.” He ran across the road to the bus stop, narrowly avoiding being hit by a cyclist, who swore loudly at him.

“I didn't know you liked sci-fi movies,” I said as we began the long walk home.

Donna tossed her head. “I'll enjoy any film I see with Jason.”

That was the whole problem: in her eyes, Jason could do no wrong. I wondered how long it would be before she saw him in a different light.

Nan was in the kitchen when we got home, but there was no sign of Dad and there were no lights on in his workshop. I asked Nan where he was.

“He went out earlier, saying he was meeting someone for a drink. He even asked me to iron a clean shirt for him.”

I stared at Nan. Dad never worried about what he wore. What on earth was going on? “Perhaps he's having another go at selling Hamish?” I suggested.

Nan shook her head. “I don't know, Alex. I didn't ask. He'll tell us soon enough if he has any news.”

Neither of us wanted to be the one to tell Mademoiselle Boudet that we still hadn't found Kiki. In the end we tossed a coin to see who would ring her and I lost. I waited until Nan was out of earshot and then punched in her number. To my relief, her answer-phone was switched on. I left a short message explaining that nobody had turned up, but there didn't seem to be any point in telling her the rest of what had happened.

Dad was still out when we went to bed that night. I really hoped he was having a productive business meeting, but I wasn't optimistic.