Cora Flash and the Diamond of Madagascar (A Cora Flash Children's Mystery, Book 1) (13 page)

"
Willy,
"
said
Dabruzzi
,
"
w
ould
you mind giving me a little bit of food and something to drink? This might take a while.
"

"
Sure thing, Inspector
.
I
'
ll rustle up something for you right away.
"

He
retreated to the corner of the
d
ining
car to set about preparing the
officer’
s
lunch.

"
Well
,
I insist on going first,
"
said nervous Mr. MacEvoy.
"
I want to get this nonsense out of the way.
"

Dabruzzi
nodded.
"
That is fine, sir, if no one else objects
.
"

No one in the room
spoke up
.

"
Very well then
.
Please follow me.
"

Inspector Dabruzzi walked to the other end of the
d
ining
car and through the sliding door to the
l
ounge
.

T
his was my opportunity.
I ran over to Willy, who was busy preparing
food for the officer
.

"Willy," I said anxiously
,
"
y
ou
have to do me a favour."

"Are you hungry
,
too?"

"No, not that. Something else
.
"

A few minutes later,
the door to the
l
ounge
compartment opened and Willy entered, pushing a cart covered in a white tablecloth.
The cart had a small silver tray on top and a bottle of sparkling water with one drinking glass.
I spotted a small hole in the tablecloth, almost too small to notice, but the perfect size for an eleven-year-old girl to peek through!

Neither the
i
nspector
nor Mr. MacEvoy thought it odd for Willy to use a whole food cart to transport one sandwich and a bottle of water, but what they did not know was that it was part of my plan.
Willy had agreed to let me
be part of his delivery. My
idea
was to sneak
into the room on
the bottom shelf of the cart, concealed beneath the tablecloth. Willy agreed, hoping I would share what I learned with him after I came out of the room.

"Thank you
,
Willy," said
Dabruzzi
.

Willy parked the cart in the corner of the room and smiled as he returned to
where
the
others waited
.

"
I do not have my tape recorder with me,
"
began the
i
nspector
,
"
s
o
I will take notes as best I can. To begin, can you tell me your full name?
"

"
Charles MacEvoy,
"
he said, with more than a little bit of annoyance.

"
Mr. MacEvoy, what is the reason you are traveling to
Topaz Mountain
?
"

"
I don
'
t think that is relevant to the investigation.
"

"
Oh
.
"
Inspector Dabruzzi
laughed
.
"
Of course it is! This is an investigation. Everything is relevant!
"

"
Fine. I am going to find a Spotted Pilkington
.
"

"
Pardon?
A what?
"

"
A Spotted Pilkington
.
"
The tone in Mr. MacEvoy
'
s voice suggested he was surprised the
i
nspector
did not know what a Spotted Pilkington was.
"
You
’
re obviously not well versed in the science of ornithology.
"

"
Ornithology,
"
the
officer
repeated slowly.
"
Ah, birds. Yes, of course.
"

"
Yes. Of course.
"

"
And you will see a Spotted Pilkington in
Topaz Mountain
?
"

"
Oh, my goodness
.
"
Mr. MacEvoy laughed.
"
I could only hope so! No one has seen a Spotted Pilkington in over twelve years! And then, just two weeks ago, my good friend
,
Wilma DeVries, spotted one while she was cycling along the waterfront. She could barely get the words out of her mouth when she called to tell me. Oh, this is something people have been waiting years,
if not
decades, for. It has been the lead story on
Fancy Feathers
for weeks now!
"

"
Fancy Feathers
?
"

"
My blog
.
I write a blog called
Fancy Feathers
. It has one of the highest visits of any bird blog on the
W
eb
. I
'
m very proud of it.
"

"
I
'
m sure you are
.
So
,
you are taking the train to find the bird?
"
Inspector Dabruzzi couldn
'
t bring himself to say the name of the
animal
again. With his accent, it was far too difficult to keep repeating.

"
Yes, I refuse to fly. Only birds should fly
.
"

"
Can you
re
trace your steps for me? Can you tell me all of your movements from the time you woke up to the time Mr. Sloane reported his diamond missing?
"

"
Of course I can, which is more than I can say for the others in the next car. I
'
m sure they
'
re all formulating their lies right now!
"

"
Leave that part to me. I will sort out the truth from the lies.
"

"
Yes, well. I woke up early. Very early. I think it must have been about five o
'
clock. I am
us
ed
to being up
that
early,
as
it
'
s part of my routine.
"

"
Up with the birds, as they say?
"
T
he
i
nspector
chuckled at his little joke
.

"
Yes!
"
cried
Mr. MacEvoy in a
n
excited tone.
"
That
'
s exactly it.
Anyway, I knew the
d
ining
car was not open until eight, so I tried to fall back asleep. I knew that would be impossible, but I did make an effort. After about thirty minutes, I just could
n’
t do it any longer. I took out a book that I had brought and read for a little while instead.
"

I
listened
from beneath the tablecloth
with great inte
rest.
"
And then what happened?
"
I
whispered to
myself
, willing
Dabruzzi
to say it out loud.

Much to my satisfaction, he asked,
"
And then what happened?
"

"
Well I don
'
t know if it was the motion of the train or reading a less-than-thrilling novel, but sometime between five
thirty and six, I fell back asleep.
"

"
For how long?
"

"
Until seven
thirty.
I was quite shocked, I must say. I have never slept that long before. Absolutely never!
"

"
Sometimes a change of routine is all it takes.
"

"
Well
,
then I
started to get ready. The benefit of having my own compartment is that I have my own private washroom, so I was able to shower and get dressed in complete privacy. How people are able to share a bathroom, on a train no less, is beyond me. I was dressed and ready to go out the door at precisely seven fifty-five. I remember because I had to wind my watch.
I wind it every
morning;
I find battery watches terribly unreliable.
I considered waiting another five minutes, but decided to take my chances and get
to breakfast
early.
"