Hacker (18 page)

‘Well, you couldn’t get at it so it wouldn’t have done you much good,’ Gib pointed out. ‘Besides, I don’t think they’ll have much use for their kitchen-door key once they’re in Rio. Vicky, are you all right?’

‘Nothing a long, hot shower wouldn’t sort out.’ I tried to smile.

I felt smelly and dirty and I couldn’t stop looking over my shoulder. Then I realized something. This was the first time Gib had ever asked me how I was feeling. Somehow just that made me feel better.

‘Are you sure you’re OK?’

‘I’m fine,’ I replied.

‘I knew there was nothing wrong with you,’ Gib said smugly.

‘What d’you mean? I’ve been locked up in this grotty cellar all night,’ I said with indignation.

‘No, I was talking about that story Aunt Beth gave me last night – and I believed her. She phoned Mum and Dad to say you’d come back to her house and you’d be spending the night with them. She said that Sebastian would drop you off at school today,’ Gib snorted. ‘I didn’t realize she was lying until I’d almost fallen asleep.’

‘What made you realize?’ I asked.

‘Your jacket. I remembered that when Aunt Beth was telling me you’d gone home, your jacket was still over the banister. She should have made sure I couldn’t see it,’ Gib told me.

I glared at him. ‘If you realized she was lying, why didn’t you tell Mum and Dad, you little squirt?’

‘I was just about to, but then I started wondering why Aunt Beth had lied,’ Gib began. ‘I realized you must have found out something important. Something to do with Aunt Beth and Dad and Dad’s bank. I thought long and hard about it but I reckoned you’d be safe – at least until they set off for Rio. They were obviously up to something and I didn’t want to scare them off or warn them that I was on to them. Besides, I didn’t know what they were up to, so what could I tell Mum and Dad that they would believe? I could hardly say that I thought they were kidnapping you! I wasn’t to know they’d lock you up in the cellar all night.’

‘True. But I still want to throttle you!’ I scowled. ‘I’ve been locked up in that spider trap for ages. It was horrible. Like being shut up in a coffin.’

‘Stop moaning,’ Gib ordered.

‘What about Mum and Dad? Weren’t they worried about me?’

Gib shrugged. ‘They believed Aunt Beth’s story about you not feeling well and wanting to stay at her house for the night. Mind you, Mum was all for coming round here to get you but Aunt Beth managed to dissuade her in the end.’

‘I bet she did.’ I frowned. ‘Well, I’m not calling her Aunt Beth any more. She’s no aunt of mine.’

I waited for Gib to say something clever about Aunt Beth not being my real aunt in the first place.

‘She’s no aunt of mine either. Lying and locking you up like that,’ Gib replied. ‘So what happened? Am I right? Did you find out something important?’

‘I found out something all right. I found out that
ejones
stands for Elizabeth Janine Jones. Jones was Aunt Beth’s, I mean Beth’s maiden name before she got married the first time. That’s why next to JONES, E in the staff file, the user name is given as
SYSTEM
. Eric doesn’t have any other account but the
SYSTEM
account. He doesn’t need any other account. And, of course, Aunt Beth’s name wouldn’t be down as
ejones
because that’s not her name any more. She’s down as
bcarter
– for Beth Carter. Not
ejones
. And do you know what they’ve done? She and Sebastian have fleeced seven million pounds from Universal Bank.’

‘Seven million … You’re joking,’ Gib said, astounded.

‘No I’m not. I just wish I knew what their next move was going to be. I don’t know where they are. It’s too early for them to be on their way to the airport. Their plane doesn’t leave until four this afternoon.’

‘Four o’clock? How do you know?’

‘I saw it on their tickets,’ I shrugged.

‘Thank goodness for that,’ Gib whistled. ‘When they both left so early, I thought they might have a morning
flight
. We’ve still got some time then. Come on. Let’s go home, you can get tidied up and then we’ll go to school and wait for Chaucy there.’

‘What about Mum and Dad? If we go home now, they’ll want to know why we aren’t at school,’ I pointed out.

‘Dad’s taken Mum to the antenatal clinic. They’ll be gone all morning,’ Gib smiled.

‘Hmm! And why do we have to wait for Chaucy? When did you speak to him?’

‘Earlier this morning,’ Gib said. ‘His mum was a bit annoyed that I phoned so early, but she let me speak to him. I told him about you being here and that something strange was going on.’

‘Did you have to do that?’ I asked.

‘Of course. I needed his help,’ Gib replied, as if it was the most logical thing in the world. I almost envied him. He found it a lot easier to ask for help and confide in people than I did.

‘His help with what?’ I said.

‘To follow Beth, of course,’ Gib replied.

‘I DON’T UNDERSTAND
. What d’you mean?’ I asked, baffled.

‘Well, Sebastian’s car wasn’t in front of the house when Chaucy and I got here, so we thought we’d had it. Then we saw Aunt Beth through the front-room window and, luckily for us, Sebastian turned up about ten minutes later. He went into the house and then he came out carrying one big suitcase and a little one. At first I was scared that they were both going to the airport for their flight to Rio and then what would we do? But Sebastian got into his car by himself and drove off. About ten minutes after that Aunt Beth … that is, Beth came out of the house. She walked off down the street and Chaucy followed her.’

‘Why didn’t you follow her?’ I asked.

‘I was going to until Chaucy pointed out that he had less chance of being spotted. Beth doesn’t know him. Besides, someone had to see what had happened to you.’

‘You needn’t make it sound like you’d rather have had your toenails pulled out,’ I sniffed.

‘I’m here, aren’t I?’

I couldn’t argue with that. I smiled.

‘Yeah, you are. Thanks! So where’s Aunt Beth now?’ I asked.

‘How on earth am I supposed to know that?’ Gib said. ‘That’s the whole reason why Chaucy’s following her. We figured she was going somewhere first, before heading for the airport. He’s got his mobile phone on him so I told him to phone me or you when he could.’

‘Yeah, it was a stupid question,’ I mumbled. ‘Put it down to the rotten night I’ve just had!’

‘Let’s get cracking,’ Gib said. ‘We’ve got a lot to do.’

Yes we have, I thought. The only trouble was, Chaucy was doing most of it.

‘Maybe we should phone the bank and at least tell them what Beth and Sebastian are doing,’ I suggested.

‘Oh yeah! Like they’re going to believe you and me,’ Gib scoffed. ‘We’re kids – and not just any kids, but David Gibson’s kids. Of course they’ll believe us!’

‘I think we should at least try. We need help and it might get dangerous.’

‘Vicky, as you were so fond of telling me before, we’ve still got no proof. Without definite proof, no one’s going to take us seriously.’

‘Then we can tell Mum and Dad,’ I insisted.

‘By the time they get back home from the antenatal class, Beth and Sebastian will be on some Brazilian beach somewhere and that’ll be that,’ Gib said.

With a sigh, I gave up.

Half an hour later I’d had my shower at home and had changed my clothes and wolfed down a huge bowl of cornflakes. I was starving. We tried phoning Chaucy’s mobile, but we just got the answering message. I was a bit freaked and gave Gib a worried look.

‘He’s fine. He’s probably just on the Underground or something and can’t get a signal.’

Then Gib and I had to run to school so we wouldn’t be too late. All we could do now was wait for Chaucy.

Time crawled by on its stomach. Half an hour passed, then an hour – and still no Chaucy.

At breaktime Gib came up to me in the corridor. He looked about as worried as I felt – which didn’t help. In fact, it made me feel worse.

‘OK, face-ache! Where is he?’ I asked Gib.

‘I don’t know,’ Gib snapped back.

I glared at him. ‘I knew it! I knew you should never have left Chaucy to it. Anything could’ve happened to him,’ I ranted.

‘He’ll be all right,’ Gib said doubtfully.

‘What if Aunt Beth saw him? What if she met up with Sebastian and they both saw him? What if …?’

‘Hold on …’ Gib protested.

‘No, I won’t hold on. We should never have involved him in the first place. What if …?’

‘Look! Nothing’s happened to Chaucy,’ Gib interrupted. ‘He’s probably still following her, I told him to stick to her like glue!’

‘You … you don’t think they might have switched to an earlier flight, do you?’ I asked doubtfully.

Gib stared at me. ‘Nah! They’d have left together then … wouldn’t they?’

‘Of course they would,’ I decided firmly. ‘We mustn’t panic.’

‘Vicky, don’t do that to me!’ Gib said, his hand on his chest over his heart. ‘What I don’t get is if they’re not leaving until later, why’d they set off so early? Where d’you think Sebastian was going?’

I shrugged. ‘I wish I knew,’ I said unhappily.

Gib shook his head. ‘I still can’t believe it. Aunt Beth and Sebastian. They’re supposed to be Dad’s friends. Chaucy wouldn’t do that to me! I mean, how could they? Especially now when Mum’s pregnant.’

‘Mum being pregnant has nothing to do with it,’ I said. ‘They saw a way of making a lot of money and they went for it, that’s all. You know what grown-ups are like. A lot of them only care about money. Nothing else matters but having it and making it and getting more and more.’

‘Well, they won’t have it for long.’ Gib’s eyes narrowed. ‘When Chaucy gets here, we’ll go to the
airport
. We can work out a plan of action on the way there.’

‘
If
Chaucy ever gets here,’ I said.

My next lesson was double art. It might as well have been double Dutch for all the notice I took. When at last the buzzer went for the beginning of the lunch break, I was the first out of the art room. On my third circuit of the corridors, I spotted Chaucy and Gib deep in conversation. I headed straight for them.

‘Where on earth have you been, Chaucy?’ I said angrily. ‘I was worried sick.’

Chaucy grinned at me. ‘Were you?’

My face started to burn.

‘It’s not funny, you moron,’ I said coldly. That wiped the smile off his face.

‘There’s no need to be like that,’ he protested.

‘Never mind her,’ Gib interrupted. ‘What happened? Where’s Aunt Beth? Tell us everything.’

‘I’ll tell you all about it on the way to the airport,’ Chaucy replied.

‘Aunt Beth isn’t already there, is she?’ I asked, panicking again. ‘It said sixteen-hundred hours on the tickets.’

‘She stopped a taxi and asked to go somewhere. I didn’t quite catch the name, but it wasn’t Heathrow Airport,’ Chaucy replied. ‘Maybe she went to meet Sebastian somewhere first. We’d better get going though. They must be on their way to the airport by now.’

We all turned around and headed out of the school gates – making sure we weren’t spotted by any of the teachers.

‘So what happened, Chaucy?’ I asked, as we walked down the road.

‘Do you mind if I get a sandwich or something first? I’m starving,’ Chaucy replied.

‘Get on with it, Chaucy, before I strangle you!’ Gib warned.

Chaucy was loving every moment in the spotlight.

‘Well, I started following your aunt as directed …’

‘She’s not our aunt,’ Gib interrupted.

‘I’m only calling her what you two call her,’ Chaucy said.

‘Get on with it!’ I begged.

‘I followed
Beth
to the train station and I hopped into the same carriage as her. I made sure she didn’t see me though. I sat in the set of seats behind her, but where I could see her when she got up.’

‘Good move!’ I approved.

Chaucy smiled at me, but this time I hardly minded.

‘Anyway, we got off at Blackfriars about thirty minutes later. She walked through the station and I followed her. I should’ve got danger money for that bit. I was pushed and crushed and flattened by millions of rude grown-ups rushing to get to work. If
I
had to go to work each and every morning, I wouldn’t be rushing,’ Chaucy said scornfully. ‘I didn’t like that bit at all.’

‘Chaucy …’ Gib warned.

‘All right! Keep your shirt on.’ Chaucy frowned. ‘Oh yes! Anyway, your aunt, I mean Beth, then went to another platform and hopped on a – what do they call it? – a City Thameslink train? We had to wait a while for that one so I had to hide out of the way. When the train finally did arrive, I almost got my head chopped off leaping on to it. A couple of stops later, Beth got off at Farringdon. I almost lost her then because a really snotty ticket collector looked closely at my travel pass and saw it didn’t take me into the city. So he hit me with a penalty fare! Twenty quid! Lucky I had my emergency fund. When I finally got out of the station I was turning my head every which way trying to find her. Lucky she had on that huge white hat or I would have lost her for sure. But she was still well ahead of me. I had to run to catch her up. It was really exciting. I felt just like James Bond!’