How Ali Ferguson Saved Houdini (3 page)

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Chapter 4

Ali got up early the next day. The previous night felt a bit like a dream. Being out in the misty night; finding Dave; half carrying him back to Caitlin's flat. And then, instead of sending Ali straight to bed, Mum had wrapped him up in a duvet on the couch while she made hot chocolate for them both. They drank the chocolate and talked about whether they should have called an ambulance after all. It had taken ages before they were able to go to sleep. Nothing this interesting had ever happened at Nan and Grandpa's.

Once Ali was dressed, he left a quick note for Mum. With a piece of buttered toast in one hand and his keys in the other, he left the flat and took the lift up to the fourteenth floor. He tapped lightly on Caitlin's door.

‘Oh, it's you,' Caitlin said when she answered his knock. She flattened down her hair, then scowled.

Ali took one last bite of his toast, just leaving a little ‘L' of crust. Falcon padded quietly to the door, wagging her tail. ‘Hey!' Ali said. ‘She's being friendly. I think she likes me.'

‘I told you, she's thick.'

‘Can I feed her the crust?'

Caitlin shrugged.

‘Sit!' Ali said, holding out the toast.

Falcon looked at him, her head cocked on one side. Then, with a little shuffle of her back legs, she sat.

‘No way!' Caitlin said. ‘She's never done that before. She really must like you.'

Ali held out the crust and patted the top of Falcon's head as she took it. ‘How's your dad?'

‘Asleep. Come in if you want.'

Caitlin led the way into the living room. It was the same shape as Ali's, but with more furniture, beanbags and cushions on the floor filling the space. Two terriers lay curled up on a pile of old newspapers, one resting its chin on a headline about a local crime lord.

‘How many dogs have you got?' Ali asked. Falcon – and now two more – all in one flat seemed like three too many.

‘None,' Caitlin replied.

‘Ha ha, very funny.'

‘No, really. None. None of them belong to us. I told you yesterday – Dad just looks after them when people are away, on holiday and stuff. We're cheaper than kennels. And more fun too. Those two are Laurel and Hardy. Their owner's coming back today.'

‘So where's Falcon's owner?'

‘Miss Osborne? She's always on holiday. She's got tonnes of money. She goes around in bright orange tops and zebra prints, stuff like that. She's a bit weird.' Caitlin shrugged. ‘We look after Falcon loads.'

Ali smiled. How amazing was that, to go on holiday all the time? Perhaps Miss Osborne wasn't just travelling, perhaps she was making discoveries. Perhaps she was, right now, this minute, discovering new species in the rainforest or tracking rare creatures across the plains.

‘She's in Spain just now,' Caitlin said, cutting through his daydream.

Oh, Spain, Ali thought. It was hardly the Amazon. Still, perhaps she was saving endangered lizards, or something.

‘Why are you here, anyway?' Caitlin frowned.

Ali shook his head. He had never met anyone as rude as Caitlin before. After all, she had come round to their flat, practically in the middle of the night, and asked for their help and then, in the morning, it was as though they were strangers again! ‘I just came to see how your dad was, that's all. Did he say what happened?'

Caitlin bit her lower lip. ‘No, he wouldn't tell me. He just kept saying that he was OK.'

‘What do you think happened? Did he get sick and faint, or . . . or something?'

‘No. He's never sick. And he'd tell me if he was. I think someone hurt him. On purpose.'

‘No! Really?' Ali sat down on a beanbag, the beans sliding around beneath him. ‘Why? Does your dad have enemies?'

‘No!' Caitlin said frowning. ‘Well, no, not really. Some people gossip. But it's not true what they say. I think it's because of the way he looks.'

‘What do you mean?'

Caitlin looked at him as though he was daft. ‘I mean that people are thick. Just because Dad's got tattoos and muscles, they all think he must be dodgy.'

Ali thought about the way Dave looked, the tattoo, the gold tooth – he
did
look dodgy. ‘But wouldn't he tell you if that's what happened? Why would he keep it secret?'

Caitlin shrugged. ‘Well, he likes to think he's a hard man too. He isn't – he's sweet and kind. He's a fluffy bunny really. But he thinks he has a reputation to keep up. It scares people off. I've told him he'll never get a girlfriend if he keeps shutting people out, but he doesn't listen to me.'

Ali did his best to follow what Caitlin was saying. ‘So he doesn't want you to know that someone beat him up? Because of his reputation?'

Caitlin nodded. ‘I think so.'

‘Is he a gangster?' Ali asked warily.

‘No! I've told you! Everyone thinks he is. But they're just prejudiced. You must know what people are like. You look different too. Foreign.'

‘I'm not foreign,' Ali said, bristling. ‘I said. My grandpa came from India years and years and years ago. Mum was born here, and my dad comes from Glasgow. I haven't got an accent! I speak just like you! I am not foreign!'

‘OK.' Caitlin grinned. ‘Don't get your sari in a twist.'

Ali laughed. He couldn't help it. Caitlin was rude and prickly and difficult. But for some reason he liked her. She was funny.

‘Who do you think did it?' Ali asked.

‘What?'

‘Hurt your dad.'

‘I don't know,' she said.

‘We should find out,' Ali said. He felt excited. This was a proper mystery. Day two at the flat looked as though it was going to be just as good as day one!

‘How are we going to do that if Dad won't tell us?'

‘We'll investigate. Come on!'

Caitlin reached for a lead. ‘OK. We could go and look at where it happened. Falcon needs a walk anyway.'

At the sound of her name Falcon thumped her tail on the ground.

‘Cool,' Ali said. ‘Can I hold the lead?'

.

Outside, the mist of the night before had vanished. Now the sky was a crisp blue and the air tasted fresh. Ali let Falcon walk wherever she wanted to go. She kept her nose down, following some trail of her own.

‘Look,' Ali said after a few minutes of being pulled behind the dog. ‘She wants to go towards the river. She wants to investigate too.'

‘She doesn't need to investigate. She was there, remember? She knows what happened. She just can't tell us, that's all,' Caitlin said.

‘If only she could talk.'

‘That would be weird.'

‘Yes, OK, I suppose it would. We'll just have to find the clues ourselves then,' Ali said excitedly. ‘We'll be like the Famous Five!'

‘Yes. Except there's only two of us.'

‘Well, there was only four of them. But they counted the dog too, I think. So, with Falcon, there's three of us. The Famous Three!'

They had reached the lane where they had found Dave. Ali gave a short tug on the lead and Falcon stopped pulling. It looked different in the daylight. On one side of the lane there was a narrow strip of birch trees. On the other side, the back gardens of a row of terraces. None of it looked anywhere near as spooky as it had been last night. Ali felt a bit disappointed.

‘So,' he said, ‘the bad guys either came from the houses or from the footpath. We can't go snooping round people's yards. We should check out the footpath for clues!'

‘What kind of clues?' Caitlin asked.

‘I don't know. But I bet we recognise them when we see them. Come on.'

Falcon trotted by his side as he ran to the footpath. Ali kept his eyes down on the ground, looking for anything that could lead them to the robbers, or gangsters, or . . . or . . . or
pirates
that had hurt Dave last night.

Suddenly, there was a rustling noise in the bush behind him. A boy hurled himself out of the undergrowth. Ali just had time to notice red hair and a blue tracksuit before he fell backwards into the mud with the boy's knee in his stomach.

‘Gez! Get off him!' Caitlin yelled. Falcon barked, then cowered behind Caitlin.

‘Smashdown!' the boy yelled in a fake American accent.

‘Gez!'

The boy grinned down at Ali. He had dark green eyes like a cat's. Ali tried to breathe, but the boy's weight pinned his chest. He wriggled angrily, upsetting the boy's balance. With a quick twist Ali managed to slip his arm under the boy's leg, then he heaved upwards. The boy tottered for a minute, then crashed down on his side. Ali was up on his feet in an instant. ‘Smashdown yourself!' he said.

‘Gez, you're an idiot,' Caitlin said.

Gez got up off the ground, wiping a big muddy smear down the leg of his tracksuit. ‘You're only saying that so he won't guess you've got a crush on me.'

‘No,' Caitlin said firmly, ‘I said it because you
are
an idiot.'

Gez grinned again. He reminded Ali of a rubber ball – no matter how you squished it, it just popped right back out again. ‘You're new,' Gez said.

Ali nodded. He picked up Falcon's lead.

Gez looked at Caitlin. ‘You're supposed to introduce us,' he said.

Caitlin rolled her eyes. ‘Well, I thought you already did that when you threw yourselves at each other. Gez, this is Ali. Ali, this is Gez. He's in my class at school. Worse luck.'

Gez ignored her. ‘You didn't see me, did you? You didn't know I was watching?' He sounded eager.

‘No,' Ali agreed, a bit grudgingly. ‘We didn't see you.'

‘We'd have run a mile if we had!' Caitlin said.

‘Aw, Caitlin, don't be like that. I haven't seen you all holidays,' Gez said, grinning.

Caitlin scowled. ‘Half-term only started two days ago.'

‘I know. But it feels like ages. What are you two up to? Can I play?' Gez asked.

‘No,' Caitlin said. ‘Leave us alone, or Falcon will eat you. She's a demon dog. She eats boys for breakfast. Especially ginger ones. They taste like marmalade.'

Gez laughed. ‘No, she isn't. That dog is a scaredy-cat. She's frightened of her own shadow. I've seen it!'

‘No, you haven't!' Caitlin said indignantly.

‘I have too! Last night.'

Ali looked across at Caitlin and gripped Falcon's lead tighter. Gez had seen something last night! They had found a witness. Well, really the witness had found them. But it amounted to the same thing. ‘Where did you see Falcon last night? Was it here?'

‘Shh!' Gez held a finger up to his lips. ‘Not here. Not out in the open. Come on, follow me. I'll tell you everything I know.'

Gez stepped off the path, into the bushes. Ali followed, leading Falcon behind him. Caitlin came last. Ali could hear her complaining quietly about the mud on her trainers.

The bushes were a thick tangle on either side, but a narrow passage had been forced through. Gez led the way, crouched low and stepping carefully so that he hardly made a sound. Then the branches seemed to lift a little. There was a small clearing surrounded by brambles and dark, wet leaves. The clearing was just big enough for two plastic crates and a log. Gez sat down on one of the plastic crates and stretched out. ‘Welcome to my office. Take a seat.' He waved towards the log. Caitlin rolled her eyes, then sat on the crate. Ali took the log. Falcon sat on the wet ground and managed to look expectant.

‘So you saw Falcon last night? Was she with Dave?' Ali asked.

Gez nodded gravely.

‘Well, tell us then!' Caitlin said.

‘OK, OK, keep your hair on. I'll tell you.' Gez leaned in closer and began to whisper. ‘It was about ten thirty. I was in my room. My mum thought I was asleep, but I wasn't. I was looking out of the window.'