Olivia's Enchanted Summer (9 page)

Everyone nodded.

“It would be brilliant!” said Eel. “Emmy and I are planning a midnight feast on Thursday night.”

“I didn't hear that,” said Jack.

“Me neither,” said Lydia with a smile.

“Ace!” said Evie. She turned to Jack. “My uncle will be happy for us to stay with you; he'll be pleased to have us off his hands.” She glanced at Olivia, looking at her from under her eyelashes with what Olivia interpreted as a look of triumph.

At that moment, Pablo arrived back. “What took you so long?” Jack asked him.

“I got caught up in a police operation. Caused a big traffic jam,” said Pablo. “Apparently, there was another one of these robberies this afternoon, but the jewel thieves got away.” He looked hard at all the Swans, a smile twitching on his lips. “I hope everyone can account for where they were around five
o'clock this afternoon?”

Everyone laughed, but Tati blurted out: “It was nothing to do with us…” She turned beetroot-red and tailed off. Everyone looked at her, a little surprised by her over-reaction.

Pablo laughed. “I was only joking, Tati, don't panic! Ooh, apricot tart! I'll have those last slices if no one else wants them…”

Later, when Olivia, Georgia and Aeysha were lying in their sleeping bags in their tent, Olivia suddenly piped up: “Didn't you think it was odd how Tati reacted when Pablo mentioned the robbery?”

Aeysha sighed. “She just didn't realise it was a joke. It's obvious that Evie and Tati aren't jewel thieves. They're just a couple of kids.”

“They were gone all afternoon, too,” said Georgia excitedly.

“Remember the sapphires Evie had at the boy's magic show? Where did she get them from?” asked Olivia. “If they're connected with the housing scam, maybe Evie and Tati have got connections with the criminal underworld too?”

“Oh, come on, Livy!” cried Aeysha. “We don't know that they've got anything to do with
the scam. The fact they're living in the garages isn't proof. And if you really want to know about the sapphires, why don't you just ask them? I'm sure they've got nothing to hide.”

“But what about the Mitch coincidence?” pressed Georgia.

“It's just that, a coincidence! Look,” said Aeysha wearily, “if you two want to cook up some kind of mystery, don't mind me. Go ahead. But don't say I didn't warn you. And,” at this point she propped herself up on her elbow and looked hard at Olivia, “maybe you should think about why you're so eager to prove that Evie and Tati are not to be trusted.”

Olivia blushed. She felt annoyed with Aeysha, but also a bit ashamed of herself. She had never been the kind of person to hold a grudge but Evie just seemed to rub her up the wrong way.

“We just want to get to the truth, don't we, Georgia?” she said defensively.

But Georgia hated any kind of disagreement between the friends and she swiftly changed the subject.

Chapter Thirteen

Eel tugged at Olivia's sleeve. “Look!” she squealed in delight. “It's the White Rabbit. Let's follow him.” The Swans were at a promenade version of
Alice in Wonderland
, one of the hottest shows at the Fringe. The show's director, Allegra Featherstone, was a former pupil of Alicia's and had offered the Swans free tickets.

It was unlike any show they had ever seen before. For a start, there was no stage and no auditorium with seats in neat rows. Instead the show was taking place in an old warehouse and the audience was free to wander around all four floors. There was a room where the Mad Hatter's tea party was taking place, another where a caterpillar sat on a toadstool smoking a hookah, and an entire space lined with tiny
bottles full of jewelled liquids. Each of the bottles were labelled “Drink Me” and if you were brave enough to do so you were ushered into a hall of mirrors that reflected back big and small versions of yourself.

There was another room laid out like a nursery with lots of cots, and in each of these was a little swaddled felt piglet in a baby's bonnet with a dummy stuffed in its mouth. As they wandered around the building they kept getting distant glimpses of Alices of differing sizes or an angry, red-faced cook with a rolling pin. At one point, they turned down a corridor and came face to face with a projected image of a giant striped cat that kept disappearing from the screen until only its smile was visible.

“It's the Cheshire Cat!” said Aeysha delightedly.

It was a totally magical and topsy-turvy ninety minutes. “It's as if we really have fallen down a rabbit hole into Wonderland,” sighed Georgia, her eyes shining with excitement.

“It's like being in a completely parallel universe,” said Aeysha. “I can't believe that outside there's a real Edinburgh. This feels realer than real. Sitting in a normal theatre is going to
seem so dull after this.”

“Not if there's dancing,” said Eel solemnly. “Dancing is never dull.”

“Gran said it's called immersive theatre,” said Olivia. “She told me that Allegra Featherstone was always an oddball even when she was at the Swan. She once staged
The Little Mermaid
in the bath in Alicia's flat for an audience of two at a time, and she transformed that little cupboard in the girls' cloakroom into a jewelled cave for her version of
Aladdin
.”

“I've heard Sebastian Shaw talk about that in class,” said Georgia. “He said that for years after there were rumours that some people went into the cupboard and never came out again.”

“I'm going to check inside when we get back to school,” said Eel seriously.

“I think he was probably joking, Eel,” said Aeysha, with a smile. The White Rabbit suddenly appeared again, scurrying along the corridor, looking worried and murmuring: “I'm late, I'm late.” He started herding them towards another room and on the way they were passed by a furtive Knave of Spades carrying a plate of jam tarts. He offered them to the children. As they licked the jam from the pastry, the girls found a
room that had been laid out like a croquet lawn. A game was underway. Georgia waved at Will and Connor, who were over on the other side of the lawn, and Olivia found herself standing next to Evie and Tati.

The game of croquet continued until a murderous glint stole into the Queen of Hearts' eye and she started to swing her croquet mallet around, crying, “Off with their heads! Off with their heads!” The audience began to scatter as she advanced towards them. Aeysha and Eel were carried in one direction by the crowd and Olivia, Georgia, Evie and Tati were pushed towards a small gold door they hadn't seen before. Olivia wanted to try and find Eel and Aeysha, but when she looked over her shoulder she saw the Queen bearing down on them, swinging her flamingo-topped croquet mallet menacingly.

“Come on,” she shouted to Georgia, and they followed Evie and Tati through the door and slammed it shut behind them. They all stood in a gloomy corridor looking at each other with scared, sparkling eyes. They knew it was just a performance and that the Queen was an actor – one Georgia was sure she'd seen playing the
mother in a stage version of
The Railway Children
– but they were swept up by the delicious terror of the whole thing.

“Phew, that was a narrow escape,” said Georgia. She looked along the gloomy corridor, where a single light flickered at the far end. “Shall we go down there?” Tati glanced nervously into the gloom.

“Let's wait until the Queen's gone, and then go back through the croquet room and see if we can find Aeysha and Eel,” said Olivia.

Evie's phone bleeped. Olivia was quite tempted to say that it was rude to have your mobile on during a show, but she bit her lip. Evie took the phone from her pocket and as she did so Olivia caught a fleeting glimpse of the sapphires. Evie turned away from Olivia's gaze, flipping open the phone as she did so. The light from the screen shed an eerie greenish light in the gloom. At that moment the door was flung open and the Queen stood illuminated in a dull red light.

“Off with their heads!” she shouted, brandishing her croquet mallet at them. The children screamed and fled, and in her panic, Evie dropped her phone. She tried to pick it up,
but the others pushed her forward in their hurry to get away. Olivia scooped up the open phone and set off after the others with the Queen on her heels. Up ahead, the corridor forked in two, and Evie and Tati peeled off to the right while Olivia pushed Georgia to the left. They ran on down another corridor and emerged breathless into a room full of white rose trees, where men were busy painting the roses red.

There was no sound of feet behind the girls. They leaned against the wall, their hearts beating fast, and tried to get their breath back.

“That was a narrow escape,” said Georgia. “I feel as if my heart is going to burst.”

“Me, too,” said Olivia. She glanced at the open phone in her hand. The text message was visible on the screen. Olivia knew she shouldn't read it, but she couldn't stop herself. It said:
You clever, thieving little hussy. What a thing to do to your poor old uncle! Will do deal on the sapphires. Meet me in St Giles' Cathedral 5 p.m. today. Third pew from the front. No tricks. Will make it worth your while. Mitch
.

Olivia gasped. She showed the message to Georgia, who looked shocked. “So you were right, Livy. Evie does know someone called
Mitch and the sapphires are clearly stolen. She must have taken them from her uncle. So that's why he's looking for her.”

“Yes,” said Olivia. “And she must have told this Mitch person that she's nicked them. It sounds like he's going to buy them from her.”

“We have to tell the grown-ups,” said Georgia, looking scared. “This is getting really serious.”

Olivia shook her head slowly. “Not yet. We still need proper proof. We've got to be absolutely certain.”

“So what are we going to do, Livy?”

“We're going to the cathedral and watch to see what happens.” Olivia felt a thrill run down her spine.

Georgia looked a bit worried. “We'd have to be really careful not to be seen,” she said. “It all seems a bit scary to me.”

“It'll be fine,” said Olivia. “There are plenty of places to hide in a cathedral.”

“Maybe I could get a picture of Evie and Tati with this Mitch bloke on my phone?” said Georgia excitedly. “And then we could show it to Jack and he'd know what the scammer looks like.”

Olivia nodded enthusiastically. “That's a great idea.” She scrolled down Evie's phone to see if there were any more messages but there was nothing. Then she clicked on the picture gallery and quickly looked through the photos. It made her feel guilty to be looking in somebody else's private photo gallery, but she needed as much evidence as she could find.

There were some pictures of Evie and Tati together and some of a woman who Olivia guessed must be Cora. The woman was laughing in the photograph and with a pang Olivia realised that this woman with the dancing eyes was now dead. She clicked on some more recent pictures as Georgia craned to look over Olivia's shoulder. The pictures were all of the same man wearing a hat angled low over his face. The pictures were often taken from slightly odd angles so his face was never entirely visible, as if the photo had been snapped without him knowing. The date and the time of each photo were recorded in the bottom right-hand corner, and they all seemed to have been taken in hotels. In one, the man was sitting in a lobby reading a newspaper. In another he was entering a lift; in a third he was in a corridor with doors leading
off it. In a fourth he was making his way down a fire escape.

“That's Evie and Tati's uncle, isn't it?” said Georgia.

“It is,” said Olivia excitedly. “But what odd photos.”

“Yes, they're not exactly pics you'd want to put in your album,” agreed Georgia.

At that moment the White Rabbit ran into the room and beckoned them to follow him. They were directed into a large room in which the entire audience and cast had assembled for the trial scene. Olivia saw Evie and Tati whispering agitatedly to each other at the back of the crowd. She sidled over and held out Evie's phone to her.

“You dropped this,” she said gruffly.

“Oh, what a relief,” said Evie. “Thanks ever so.”

“We thought it was lost for ever, or that it'd be crushed in the stampede,” said Tati.

“It's fine,” said Georgia.

“It was really kind of you to pick it up, Livy, I'm really grateful.” Evie's dark eyes showed she meant what she said.

Olivia shrugged. “I hate to be without my phone. You never know when you're going
to get an important message or need to take a photo,” she said innocently. Evie threw her a suspicious look as she turned away.

When they got out of the show Olivia had a text from Tom.
Will be travelling to Edinburgh with Aeysha's folks. So many of us we've had to book almost an entire carriage. Very excited and can't wait to see you all! T xxx

Me too,
texted back Olivia.
We've just been to see some immersive theatre. It was sick
.

Sounds a bit damp to me,
texted Tom.
Did you have to wear swimming costumes?

Not that kind of immersive, idiot,
texted Olivia. She felt much more cheerful now that the investigation seemed to be getting somewhere.

Later that afternoon, Olivia and Georgia walked up the Royal Mile towards St Giles' Cathedral. They had slipped away from the group of Swans who were handing out flyers for the next performance.

“Georgie and I are going to try a bit further up,” Olivia had said casually.

“I saw Evie and Tati head that way, they should have it covered,” said Aeysha.

“Oh well, it's still best if we spread out,”
said Olivia. “You stay here with the little ones.”

She and Georgia pushed their way through the crowds who were watching the Fringe acts perform in the late-afternoon sunshine. People kept trying to thrust flyers for shows into their hands. They had put their own flyers in Georgia's bag.

“Come and see
Macbeth
performed on a bouncy castle!” entreated a young man.

“Four-star reviews for a puppet version of
Oedipus Rex
. Described as ‘blindingly good' by the
Guardian
,” said a woman, waving a leaflet under their noses.

Olivia and Georgia smiled and shook their heads politely. They knew how soul destroying it was to try and sell your show every day, and they had total sympathy for the desperate performers. They had almost reached the cathedral when Olivia spotted the boy-magician. She was irresistibly drawn towards him, even though Georgia pointed at her watch and said it was nearly five.

“Let's just stop a minute,” said Olivia. “We need to wait until Evie, Tati and Mitch are there, otherwise they might spot us. We can creep up behind them and maybe then we'll be able to
hear what they say.”

There was a dense throng gathered around the boy, so they stood on a bench. Even so, they were just able to see him over the heads of the crowd. The boy was in the middle of a complicated card trick but he noticed Olivia and Georgia and gave them a wink. His resemblance to Jack was so astonishing that Olivia felt faint. She knew that her dad had laughed when she'd asked him if he had any other children, but how did she know he was telling the truth?

Olivia grasped Georgia's sleeve. She felt a terrible urge to confide her fear that this boy must be her dad's secret son. What other explanation could there possibly be? She needed to talk to someone about it.

“Georgie,” she said, “I know you're going to think I'm insane, but that boy… That boy, I think he could be…”

Olivia stopped. She felt that if she said it out loud she might make it true. Georgia looked quizzically at her, waiting for her to continue. Olivia was very pale and looked so anxious that Georgia felt worried for her friend.