The Case of the Vanished Sea Dragon (2 page)

Holly Bigsby got off the bus at the stop near her house and hastily headed down the road in the opposite direction.

‘Oi, Holly Hockey Sticks,' shouted Archie Snellgrove, following her off the bus.

She quickened her pace.

‘Are we going for tea and scones?' jeered Archie's ginger-haired friend, in what Holly guessed was supposed to be a posh voice.

She didn't turn her head. She had to lose them. If Archie discovered where she lived he would make the whole summer a nightmare. He had certainly gone out of his way to make her last two months as
miserable as possible.

When she had arrived at Gristle Street Comprehensive, Archie had honed in on her like a heat-seeking missile, taking every available opportunity to humiliate her in public and make his friends laugh. He started off with fairly general jokes but when he had learnt that her dad had worked for the Ministry of Defence he quickly worked it into his routine.

‘Hey, Bigsby, will you lend us a hand …' he would start before pausing for comic effect, pushing his dirty blond hair away from his face then adding, ‘… grenade? A hand grenade, get it? … Oi, Biggles, is it true you've got bullet-proof pants? … Oi, Beggars-be, do you keep your fish in a fish tank or an armoured tank?'

Holly was determined not to rise to it. She couldn't afford to get into trouble. Dad had made it clear that even though he had lost his job and they didn't have as much money coming in now, one step out of line and she would be packed off back to William Scrivener School, which she had hated because it was so far away from her home and her cat, Willow, and her only friend, Dirk Dilly.

More recently Archie had grown tired of army jokes
and decided she must be posh, taunting her with names like ‘Posh Girl', ‘Lady Penelope' and his new favourite, ‘Holly Hockey Sticks'.

She didn't know what grudge he had against her but she was sure she hadn't done anything to deserve it. Every single evening he followed her home, trying to discover where she lived, so he could extend her torment beyond school hours, but every time she had managed to lose him.

Finally, the end of term had come. There would be no more Archie for six weeks, providing she could lose him one more time. She glanced at the boys in a car wing mirror, making sure she had enough time for a getaway.

‘Will mummy be making caviar for tea?' shouted Archie, making his friend laugh.

This upset Holly more than Archie could have known. She drew a deep breath. Letting Archie know that her mum was dead would give him months' worth of material.

Besides, Holly didn't talk to anyone about her mum's death. Not even her dad. Holly sped up. She needed just a little more distance to lose Archie and his friend.

‘Is one in a hurry? Does one need to feed the
corgis?' shouted Archie, laughing loudly.

Holly broke into a run, turning a corner and another into a drive that led to a row of garages. She ran full pelt towards them. It was a dead end.

Archie's friend yelled, ‘She's gone down there.'

Their approaching footsteps echoed around the walls. She ran to the garage door in the far corner and pushed herself against it. They were almost within sight. With all her concentration she focused on what it would feel like to be a dark green garage door.

Archie and his friends rounded the corner and stopped in their tracks.

‘Where did she go?' exclaimed Archie.

‘She must have gone over the roofs,' said his friend.

‘How could she have done? No one's that quick. We'd be able to see her climbing up there.'

‘What else could she have done?'

‘I dunno.' Archie grinned. ‘Maybe she can fly.'

‘That's mental,' said his friend.

Archie looked at the garages. His pale blue eyes drifted past Holly. He scratched his head in confusion, ruffling his dirty blond hair.

‘Maybe she's invisible,' he suggested.

‘People can't turn invisible,' scoffed his friend.

Holly wasn't invisible. Not entirely. If Archie and his
friend had looked carefully they would have seen her brown eyes and the faint outline of the girl, standing perfectly blended with the garage door behind her.

Archie said, ‘She's quick. I'll give her that. She ain't here. Come on.'

Holly waited until they were gone then smiled, causing her mouth to reappear. Certain that no one was watching she shifted, and her natural colour returned completely. She had never intended to taste dragon blood. She had only been trying to identify the sticky green liquid that had rubbed off Dirk's injured body when he had come to find her at her last school. She certainly hadn't known that by tasting Dirk's blood she would gain some of his powers, but, over the last couple of months, she had become increasingly grateful for this extra advantage she had over Archie Snellgrove.

Dirk felt annoyed with himself. He should have known about the fire alarm. He was on the familiar route back to his office, jumping from rooftop to rooftop, somersaulting to a school building and diving off the edge, spreading his wings, gliding down to a row of houses, running across them, over a busy road, checking the street below before soaring through the open window.

It was such a familiar route that he could have done it blindfolded, which was why it came as such a surprise when he crashed headfirst into something inside his office.

‘Owmph,' he exclaimed as the rest of his body
caught up with his face.

Dirk had no idea what he had hit but it was soft and unstable and moving backwards. He grabbed what felt like a pair of shoulders, lifted his head and found himself face to face with a rather startled-looking Sea Dragon, staggering precariously backwards through his office.

Dirk wasn't exactly the tidiest of dragons. Old newspapers, case files, discarded orange-squash bottles and empty baked bean tins littered the floor. The Sea Dragon tripped, losing its footing, sending Dirk flying over its head, in a move that would have scored top marks in a judo competition.

The second object that Dirk collided with was considerably harder than the first. It was his filing cabinet. The cabinet rocked. The TV that rested on top, toppled and fell on his head.

‘Oof,' he uttered, quickly grabbing it to prevent it smashing, then placing it carefully back.

He rubbed his head, stood up and found the light switch. He couldn't see the other dragon but there was only one place in his office big enough for a dragon to hide. Under his desk. He knew this because when, not so long ago, Holly had barged into his office uninvited it was where he had hidden. It was the largest desk he
had been able to find in the mail-order catalogue but even so he had found it a squeeze to get under. His tail could be curled round to take minimum space. The neck was also squashable. It was his large belly that had proved difficult. For this reason, Dirk knew how the Sea Dragon was feeling. The pins and needles would have already started and soon the cramp would follow.

‘Hello, Mister Dilly,' called Mrs Klingerflim on the landing. ‘Is everything all right in there?'

‘Fine, Mrs K,' responded Dirk. ‘Just clumsy old me.'

‘Right-oh. Call if you want anything. I'll be putting the kettle on in a minute.'

‘OK,' said Dirk. ‘Thanks, Mrs K.'

Dirk dropped on to all fours and approached the desk. He picked up a bottle of orange squash and poured himself a glass.

‘Whoever you are you shouldn't be here,' he said. ‘You know the punishment for breaching the forbidden divide.'

Around a thousand years ago at a conference held high in the Himalayas, the dragon world had voted on whether to hide from mankind or to destroy them before they became too strong. Those in favour of fighting rose into the air and became known as
up-airers. Minertia, the greatest dragon of all, counted the votes and announced that all dragons would retreat to remote corners of the earth until mankind's time was past. Attacking a human, being seen by a human or allowing a human to find evidence of dragons were outlawed, punishable by banishment to the Inner Core.

Ironically, many centuries later, Minertia herself was convicted of breaking her own law and banished.

‘You know, there's very little point hiding when you've already been seen,' said Dirk.

The Sea Dragon said nothing.

‘OK, here's what I know about you,' said Dirk. ‘You're a Sea Dragon; you recently left the sea in a hurry and travelled to London specifically to find me.'

The desk wobbled and the Sea Dragon's head appeared.

‘How are you knowing this?' she said. It was a female, with some kind of accent. Dirk wasn't sure what, maybe Spanish.

‘Well, it's not difficult to see you're a Sea Dragon. The gills are a dead giveaway. A Sea Dragon's back hardens with time out of water, but your back is still soft. Usually you would hide out until it hardens, but you didn't, so you were in a hurry. I can't believe that
your presence under my desk is a coincidence, which means you came specifically looking for me.' Dirk blew a smoke ring. ‘How did I do?'

‘Everything you say is right, but I do not understand how you can live with the humano,' she said.

Until recently Dirk could have shrugged this off, saying that Mrs K had no idea he was anything other than an unreliable human tenant with a heavy smoking habit. He pulled out his copy of
Dragonlore
from behind his wing and placed it on the desk.

‘What do you want?' he snapped.

The Sea Dragon climbed out from under the desk and cricked her back. ‘I am wanting the help from you.'

‘What sort of help?'

‘Detective help,' she replied, ‘like you give the humanos. My name is Alba Longs. My sister, Delfina, has gone vanished. I was supposed to be meeting with her in Spain but she is gone. I am needing you to help finding her.'

‘I don't take cases from dragons,' replied Dirk. ‘They're too much trouble and they don't pay well.'

‘I have gold to pay you,' she said, reaching behind her wing and holding out several lumps of gold.

Dirk inspected them. ‘Look, that's great in the
dragon world, but I can't exactly pay the rent in gold, can I?'

Alba looked confused. ‘I do not know what is this the rent but you must help me. I have no one else to be asking.'

‘Do I look like I give a rat's banjo? You shouldn't be this close to humans. It's not safe.'

‘But you are living with them and speaking with them and making work with them.'

Dirk didn't like how much this Sea Dragon knew about him. ‘I can blend and I'm experienced. If you get spotted, your lost sister will be the least of your problems. If you get seen we're talking full-scale war.'

‘I do not want that but I must find my sister.'

Alba was prowling around the room, inspecting the strange objects she found on the floor. She picked up an unopened tin of chilli-flavoured baked beans. ‘What is this?' she asked.

‘My dinner,' replied Dirk tersely.

‘Food? I am starving,' she said, biting into it, sending beans and chilli tomato sauce across the room, splattering the walls and catching Dirk in the eye. Alba chewed and swallowed the tin.

‘I very like it,' she said, burping, ‘but the shell is too crunchy.'

Dirk wiped the sauce away from his eyes.

‘Ooh, what is this?' she asked, picking up the TV remote control.

‘Leave my stuff alone,' barked Dirk. ‘I've told you, I can't help you find –'

Dirk's words were drowned out by the TV, which Alba had managed to turn on. There was a music show on. A group of scruffy-looking teenagers were playing guitars and screaming, ‘
We're louder than a juggernaut / We're crazy like a fox / We're playing our guitars / And not wearing any socks.'

Petrified by the noise, Alba threw the remote control behind her and ran at the TV. Dirk tried to block her but she whacked him in the ear and leapfrogged over him.

‘Stop the loudnesses,' she screamed, knocking the TV off its resting spot. Dirk attempted to catch it but Alba was in his way and he watched helplessly as it fell to the ground. The fall smashed the screen but the speakers were unaffected and the rock band continued to sing.

‘
We do whatever we want / Beg, steal or borrow / We were rocking all of yesterday / And we'll carry on tomorrow. Yeah.
'

‘The loudnesses … Make the loudnesses stop,' yelled Alba.

A pounding came on the door.

‘Mr Dilly, are you all right?' It was Mrs Klingerflim.

‘Fine, Mrs K. Sorry, it's my TV,' he replied.

‘Well, it's quite noisy, dear.'

‘Yes, I'll turn it down,' replied Dirk.

‘
Fish still swim, birds still fly, rock's still rock and I'm still I.
'

Another banging started, this one from the adjacent wall. A voice shouted, ‘Keep the bleeding noise down or I'll call the bleeding police.'