August (11 page)
Authors: Gabrielle Lord
I knocked and waited for Winter to open the door of her flat.
It was late. After meeting Sharkey I went by Oriana’s place and scoped it out for a while, to suss out whether anything unusual was
happening
there. I watched the place closely for a couple of hours but it remained empty the whole time.
I knocked again. She had said she was going to be home, but I couldn’t see any lights on inside. Maybe she had to duck out for something.
The lock on the door finally twisted, but then it swung open slowly, like it was moving of its own accord.
‘Hello?’ I asked. ‘Winter?’
Cautiously I stepped into the flat.
‘Surprise!’ Winter and Boges both jumped out from behind the couch!
‘Happy belated birthday!’ Winter added, revealing an awesome-looking chocolate cake with sixteen candles on top of it.
I grabbed Boges around the shoulders. ‘You both nearly gave me a heart attack! Nice hats!’ I added, noticing the sparkly party hats they were both wearing. Once I’d caught my breath I realised that the place smelled delicious, and Winter’s table was covered in good stuff–lollies, chips, slices and cupcakes!
Boges cleared his throat and in a deep voice started singing ‘Happy Birthday’. Winter was quick to join in and add the higher notes.
‘Go on, Cal’ said Winter. ‘Make a wish and blow out the candles!’
I stared into the glow on the cake and smiled. It sure wasn’t a
happy
birthday–I was so worried about Gabbi–but having my friends on
my side, and a powerful ally like Nelson Sharkey, gave me the boost I needed to know we’d get through it OK.
I blew the candles out and my friends came over and hugged me.
‘That’s for Gabbi,’ said Winter when she saw me looking at a thick, pink candle that was burning on the desk near the photos of her parents. ‘That’s her candle. I’m going to keep it burning, whenever I’m here, until we bring her home.’
Inside me, the small light of hope in my mind grew, until it shone like sunlight on a murky pond.
‘Thanks guys,’ I said, and plunged the knife into the cake.
‘We’re a bit late!’ said Winter. ‘We planned on doing this after your meeting with Rathbone, but we all know how that didn’t quite go to plan. Anyway, you should open your present,’ said Winter, pulling out a small box tied with a bow. ‘It’s from both of us.’
Boges sawed off huge chunks of chocolate cake, while I opened my card and present.
‘This is unreal, thanks you guys!’ I stared in awe at what I had been given–a new mobile. It was similar to the one I’d just lost, but a newer version.
‘I’ve already set it up for you,’ said Boges.
‘The number’s written on the back of your card. I’ve done what I can to make sure you can’t be tracked on this one, but it’s hard to know for sure when technology’s always changing. I don’t fancy setting another phone up for you again, so do me a favour and try to hold onto this one, will you?’
‘And now for present number two,’ announced Boges as we demolished the cake. He lifted a bulging backpack out from behind the couch. ‘What do we have here?’ he said to himself. He unzipped the bag. ‘Ooh, some new clothes!’
Out came a pair of jeans, some T-shirts and hats, and a new hoodie. Boges pulled one thing out after another, flourishing them like a stage magician pulling rabbits out of a hat. He waved them around before tossing them to me.
‘Here’s your new backpack,’ he said, sliding the now-empty bag over to me with a kick of his foot. ‘Like I said about the phone, try to hold onto these this time.’
‘One final thing,’ said Winter, looking at me sheepishly.
‘What is it?’ I asked. The curious look on Boges’s face matched my own. Clearly he had no idea what she was about to reveal either.
She stood up and twisted on the spot, seeming
unsure about whether she wanted to follow through with handing over her gift or not.
‘Come on,’ said Boges. ‘We’re late enough with his birthday as it is.’
‘OK, but please don’t get angry at me,’ she begged. ‘Promise you won’t get angry?’
‘Winter, what are you talking about?’ I asked.
‘Promise?’
‘Fine, just out with it already!’
Winter opened a drawer in her kitchen and pulled out a familiar handful of folded papers. She walked over to me slowly, and placed them in my hands, all the time staring into my eyes as if she was afraid of how I was going to react.
Confused, I removed the rubber band around them and unfolded them. A memory stick fell out from in between some of the papers.
‘The drawings?’ asked Boges, taking the words right out of my mouth. ‘The memory stick! And the transparency!’
‘And the letters!’ said Winter, excitedly, before turning to me very seriously again. ‘Remember you said you wouldn’t get angry at me.’
‘You’d better start talking and explain this, fast,’ I told her.
‘I can do that,’ she agreed, nodding to both of us. ‘OK. So on the night that we went with you to Temperance Lane, and we were waiting outside
before you went in … I was thinking about how dangerous the situation was and how I didn’t want you to risk losing everything. I knew you had to take the Jewel and the Riddle, but no-one ever said anything about the drawings or the transparency or the letters that you’d collected and worked on for months.’
Boges started scratching his head and opened his big mouth to interrupt, but Winter quickly shut him up again with one look.
‘As I was saying, you needed the Jewel and the Riddle, and that was it. I had an
opportunity
to reach into your bag and remove the other stuff from it, so I did.’
I couldn’t believe it–I hadn’t lost everything after all!
‘Why didn’t you just tell me you wanted to do that?’ I asked her.
‘What, and completely freak you out? I didn’t want you to feel like you were in danger! I wasn’t even sure if I needed to do what I did, I just did it. In case.’
‘And why haven’t you told me this already? I’ve been stressing out thinking I’d lost
everything
, and all along you’ve had all this here!’
‘Well, I wanted to, but see there was a slight hitch with my plan … so I needed to sort that out first. Before I could tell you.’
‘Don’t stop talking now,’ said Boges. He was enthralled!
‘The hitch,’ she repeated. ‘Somewhere in the craziness at the cemetery, I lost them. I thought you were going to
die
, Cal. I wasn’t thinking straight.’
‘I thought you were dead, too,’ added Boges. ‘It was one crazy scene. Winter was on her hands and knees trying to find you and dig you out.’
Winter smiled at him, happy to have him defending her.
‘When you showed up here I couldn’t bring myself to tell you. I’d retraced our steps twice already, trying to track the documents down, without any luck. But then I went back there again this morning … and
voila
!’
She sat down, quietly. Her eyes were wide with anticipation. I could see she was nervous and really unsure. ‘I’m so sorry, Cal, I was just trying to–’
‘Thanks, Winter,’ I said, cutting her off with a hug. I held her tight. ‘This is the best present,’ I whispered in her ear.
‘Enough already, guys, you’re going to make me cry,’ joked Boges.
‘I can’t believe it,’ I said. ‘I thought I’d lost everything.’ Gabbi’s freedom was in reach. ‘Now I have bargaining power.’
Boges grinned widely. ‘I’m going to
concentrate
on checking out Oriana de la Force,’ he said. ‘Follow her. See what I can find out.’
‘Her place was empty this afternoon,’ I said.
‘Winter,’ continued Boges. ‘I suggest you keep concentrating on Sligo.’
‘I’m already onto it,’ said Winter. ‘But I might sniff out the books–see if there have been any strange arrangements made, like the purchase of any medical equipment.’
‘Good idea,’ said Boges.
‘Why haven’t they made contact?’ I asked. ‘Isn’t that what kidnappers do? What’s the idea of this waiting game?’
‘They probably want you to sweat a while,’ said Winter. ‘Make you panic a bit, in the hope that you’ll give up more than you would
normally
. Maybe they weren’t counting on you being caught by the cops either … it depends on who has her.’
‘Boges,’ I said, suddenly thinking about my online page, ‘have you been monitoring my blog?’
‘There hasn’t been anything on there worth mentioning, but you should check it out.’
I pulled out my new phone and entered my blog address. Winter nibbled on a cupcake while Boges watched over my shoulder.
He was right. There weren’t any new private messages, or any clues on my wall, but there were a few messages of support.
Boges stood up and swung his own backpack over his shoulders. ‘I have to run, guys,’ he announced. ‘I’ll check in again soon, OK.’
‘Want to take some cake or something?’ asked Winter.
‘Do I look like I need more cake?’ he said, patting his belly. ‘I’ll answer that for you–no.’
‘Thanks again,’ I shouted as he ran out the door.
A whole week had passed since I’d blown out the candles on my belated birthday cake. It had been the fastest week on record. Time was flying through my fingers and we weren’t any closer to finding Gabbi.
I was still hiding out in Winter’s flat. I had to leave a few times–when she was being tutored–but I felt safe. Boges dropped round whenever he could so we could all talk over any
developments
. Nelson Sharkey and I had also been in touch, but we were dry on information.
How can a little girl just disappear? Someone must have seen something. I had three people helping me work on it, and so far we’d unearthed nothing. When were the kidnappers going to contact me? I kept thinking of my little sister, wondering if she was still alive.
Something in my heart told me she was.
My mobile started ringing just as I was drifting off to sleep. I almost fell off the couch as I
scrambled
for it.
‘I have a name for you,’ said Sharkey. ‘But you need to be very wary of her.’
‘Her? Who is she? Does she have Gabbi?’
‘This is someone who might be able to help you find out who does. Her name is Ma Little. You’ll find her in the parlour at Fortescue House–a big old tumbledown mansion she runs as a pub and boarding house. Go there tomorrow, but be very careful. People like Ma, who run messages for both sides, are often in the
pay
of both sides. That way they can sell secrets to the highest bidder. She can put you in touch with a well-known police informant. I can’t do it myself. It’s important I keep my mug out of the picture.’