Author: Fleur Hitchcock
Category: Other
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Ava shoved him into the kitchen, closed the door and, using all her acting skills, picked up the hall phone and rang the police.
The leaves were really quite prickly and the ground not as soft as it had at first appeared and Chloe was wondering just how they were going to keep the woman here if she came before the police arrived.
“We’ll have to pretend to have lost something,” said Aiden. “Or say you’ve got something in your eye. Or, I know, fall in the water. She’ll have to pull you out.”
“Hmm,” said Chloe, looking at the pond, which appeared to be only knee-deep. “I’ve already done all that plaster stuff. She knows me.”
“We’ll think of something,” said Aiden, adding more leaves to his crown.
Chloe parted the tall rhubarb leaves. “Oh no!” she whispered. “Look.”
Aiden peered over her shoulder. “Oh!”
It wasn’t the woman; it was the men – and the two men had become three. Chloe knew it was them; Forty Grand was there, and Scottish Man, but now there was a third man and he didn’t look very friendly. He was bigger and even uglier.
Chloe looked down at her phone. Ten twenty but no signal. She doubted very much that Ava and Josh had even managed to get hold of the police yet. And if they had, they’d probably still be explaining the whole thing. They almost certainly wouldn’t know that the men weren’t still at the cottage, so they’d go there to try to arrest them before coming up here.
She and Aiden would have to delay the gang, but there was every chance that the woman would turn up. She wished she’d called the police at the very beginning. This was turning from a crisis into a disaster.
She peered at the new man. He looked like a hired thug. He had arms that hung out from his sides, swinging, like a gorilla. His T-shirt was too small and his muscles too big. Chloe swallowed. He could probably pick her up and throw her across the lake without even thinking. And they all looked really bad-tempered.
“Why are they here now?” said Aiden. “It’s far too early.”
“Maybe they’re still hoping to get the money off her, even though they’ve lost the diamonds.” Chloe pointed at the big man. “I wouldn’t argue with him, would you?”
Aiden retreated into the prickly leaves. “We’re going to have to think of something to delay them – and fast.”
In fact, it took nine minutes for the police car to arrive in the lane outside the farm and another ten to persuade the man and woman in charge of it that there wasn’t time to tell their grandparents and, yes, they were deadly serious, and, yes, the dog was coming too. There’d been a bit of a gasp as Ava had revealed her sock full of treasure, and some doubt when they had explained about standing stones and long barrows.
Now they were in the police car and Josh felt mildly disappointed. It had been his lifetime’s ambition to travel in a police car with the blue light flashing, but his dream was not to be realised because the policewoman wouldn’t switch it on. Apparently it wasn’t necessary. She still drove pretty fast, though, and he had to clutch Bella tight to stop her flying across the back seat.
They stopped at the clifftop cottages and the policeman rushed round to the back of the house while the policewoman went to the front door. “Stay here, you two,” she said.
Josh looked once again at the car parked out the front. He thought of the keys hanging from a twig in their tree house and smiled.
“No one in,” said the policeman, coming back. “Door was open, so I had a nosy about and I couldn’t find anything to even suggest there was anyone staying here.” He came over and, putting one hand on the roof of the car, leaned in. “Are you sure about this, kids? Are you sure those diamonds are real? Serious offence, you know, wasting police time.”
“We’re a hundred per cent sure,” said Ava, speaking too fast. “I’m really sorry, but if you think there’s no one there, that means we need to get up to Morehamstone, and, like, really quickly.”
“Excuse me,” said Chloe, her heart in her mouth. “I’ve got a message for you.”
Two of the men turned to face her. Forty Grand seemed to ignore her completely.
“Not now, little girl,” said the third man. Chloe began to take mental notes immediately. Not very nice. London accent. Unshaven. She sniffed. Maybe even unwashed.
“But I think it’s important; the lady gave me ten pounds,” said Chloe, trying really hard not to blush. She hated lying, her blushes always gave her away, but she hoped the men might just think she was overheating.
“What lady?” said Scottish Man, suddenly paying her more attention.
“Yeah, what lady?” asked Forty Grand.
“Well,” said Chloe, putting her back to the lake so that the men turned to her and wouldn’t see Aiden creep out of the huge rhubarb and off up the hill towards a small thatched building. “She was wearing these red high heels, and a black mac…” There was no reaction from the men and she realised they’d probably never seen the woman. “And she said something about meeting to hand stuff over, that you’d be here by the lake, but she’d rather do whatever it is somewhere less public.” Chloe closed her mouth and hoped very much that she hadn’t said too much. Or too little.
This time the policewoman put on the blue light and drove fast – so fast that Josh actually thought his scrambled eggs might come back up all over the seat in front of him. Even the policeman in the passenger seat gripped the dashboard so hard that his fingers turned white.
“Whoa!” said Ava, an excited grin crossing her face. She loved going fast; it didn’t matter whether it was in a car or on a bike. Josh had never seen her so excited.
While the siren blared, they shot up the hill past the farm, and out on to the top road. The policeman fiddled with a bank of electronic stuff that Josh imagined was the police radio. He pressed lots of buttons and held a little speaker to his mouth.
“Are there other police if they’re needed?” asked Josh.
“They’re all looking for the sheep,” said the policeman.
“Sheep?” said Ava. “I know where they are – in the Sunny Grange House conservatory – or at least they were last night.”
“Seriously?” said the policeman, pointing back over his shoulder. “Where we’ve just been?” He fiddled with the radio and started to speak to someone on the other end about the sheep.
“And what do these jewel thieves look like?” asked the policewoman, taking a corner at speed.
“Oh, ugly,” said Josh.
“I don’t really know,” said Ava. “Never actually seen them properly.”
“Ugly,” repeated the policeman, copying the information into his pocket book.
“One of them wears a yellow top.” Josh checked his notebook. “One of them’s Scottish. They went to those cottages we’ve just visited, and then Ava…” Josh stopped and looked at his sister.
She glared back.
“Ava what?” asked the policeman.
“I got the diamonds, these ones…” She waved the sock at the policeman. “I got them back from the men.”
“How?” he asked as they swung round, first right, then left.
Luckily it was at that point that a herd of cows began to cross the road and the policewoman had to slam on the brakes, sending the diamonds spinning out of the sock and arcing through the car. They bounced off the roof, catching the sunlight, falling like magical raindrops all around Josh and Ava’s heads. The Well of Beauty landed neatly in the cold dregs of a cup of coffee jammed in the cup holder and the others scattered across the upholstery and the floor.
“Oh!” said the policeman, fishing about in the coffee, retrieving the diamond and rubbing it on an old tissue. “Where were we? Oh yes, so you got the diamonds.”
“Some of the diamonds, these diamonds – not the first few diamonds,” explained Ava, scrabbling around on the floor and whisking them away from Bella’s interested tongue. “The first twelve diamonds went to the woman in the red car with the high heels.” She leaned forward to pick up a diamo
nd that had wedged itself in the air vent.
“And she came from the pub,” said Josh. “The Three Witches on the moor.”
“But, hang on,” said the policewoman, “that’s not where we’re going? Is it?”
“No – we’re going to Morehamstone because that’s where they’re meeting. Only the men didn’t have a car, so they must have taken a taxi or something to get there.”
“Or they’ve got friends,” said the policeman.
“Or they’ve got friends,” repeated Josh, realising that even though they now had two police officers, Chloe and Aiden might be in real danger.
“So the thing is,” said Chloe, wandering slowly up the path towards the little wooden house at the top, “it’s all because my cousin’s allergic to fish…”
“What?” said Scottish Man, who was struggling with the slight slope. “All fish?”
“Fish with bones,” said Chloe, wondering what on earth she was saying.
“She’s allergic to fish with bones?” said Forty Grand, stopping to stare. “What?”
“Oh,” said Chloe, desperately trying to think of anything to say. “I don’t mean fish, I mean crustaceans. You know, shellfish.” She was wittering on; she knew it. But she needed to behave like a girl who had no cares and no idea that she was leading a gang into a trap. She needed to walk fast enough to make sure that they didn’t meet the woman in the red car if she should arrive, but slowly enough to make sure that Aiden could be ready to spring the trap. If he could spring the trap.
They’d had no time to make a proper plan, so this was the best they could do. But the little house was perfect. Rumour had it that some mad baron had kept a bear in it a couple of hundred years ago. She glanced back at the big man. He was certainly a bear. She just hoped that the little house really did have bars over the windows like she’d imagined.
“So the thing is,” she heard herself saying for the thousandth time, “it means we eat a lot of cheese sandwiches.”
“What you on about?” said Forty Grand, who seemed to have developed a facial tic since meeting Chloe.
She took them the long way, pointing out various landmarks, dogs’ graves, ponds of toads, and tree ferns, and finally led them round a group of pine trees into a woodland glade. Wild garlic stretched under the trees, filling the air with a pungent perfume, and Chloe thought how much she wished she was sitting on the little bench under the huge pine trees, gazing at the view and smelling the flowers. Instead she glanced up at Forty Grand. He looked as if he was going to explode.
“Anyway,” she said, trying to sound normal, “you can see the hut.” She pointed up the path to the little thatched building. “I hope you have a nice meeting with the lady. I’m going to find my mum. Bye!” She waved and ran off to the right, away from the little house.
“Hey!” Forty Grand called, but Chloe just flapped a hand in a kind of half wave and picked up speed, so that by the time she reached the stone gateway at the other end of the path she was sprinting. She ducked through the arch and turned up the hill, running half crouched behind the low wall so that they wouldn’t be able to see her. To her right bluebells stretched away into the woods, creating a blue haze where there were distant families exclaiming at the carpet of flowers, none of them near enough to be of any help. Then at the end of the wall she swung round on to another path hidden between borders of spiky leaves that would lead her to the back of the hut and Aiden.
Only just missing an ancient lady and her equally ancient husband, the police car skidded to a halt in the car park at Morehamstone, pinging gravel against all the cars.
“Red Shoes?” asked Ava.
“No,” said Josh, hanging half out of his window. “Don’t think she’s here yet.”
“Should we hide the police car?” asked Ava.
The policeman frowned. “Why?” he said, stuffing the sock and the diamonds that they had managed to retrieve into the glove compartment.
“Because if the woman comes, she’ll take one look at it and disappear. She’s got the rest of the necklace—”
“And the rest of the money,” said Josh.
The policeman stared at them as if trying to work out if they were spinning some elaborate story or telling the truth. “OK. I’ll take you round to the farm shop. You can wait here in the car until we come back.”
“I’ll see you in the garden in ten.” The policewoman grabbed her hat and headed towards the entrance, talking into her radio.
“But you can’t leave us here; you won’t know who you’re looking for,” complained Josh as the policeman started the engine.
The policeman looked at them in the mirror. He didn’t say anything, just turned the car and drove it to the farm shop entrance, parking it at the far end of the car park out of sight.
“You have a point,” he said.
“I do?” said Josh, beaming.
“Come on then, but behave,” he said, opening the door.
Aiden was behind the hut. He heard Chloe’s feet thundering on the path behind him and he waved to slow her down. It was too loud. The men might hear her.
Distant laughter came from the families enjoying the bluebell woods, but it was drowned out by the heavy footsteps on the gravel path in front of the hut. Then there were voices – male voices. They were chatting to each other in low tones and he got the feeling that Forty Grand was in a really foul mood.
He’d checked the hut. The windows were metal, but not really barred. He figured it might hold them for a few minutes.
Once again he glanced at his phone. Eight minutes to eleven.
Chloe crawled down next to him. She’d overheated and was flapping her hands to cool herself down.
Aiden put his finger to his lips and Chloe nodded.
They listened for the sound of feet on the floorboards.
One set.
Two sets.
Where was the third man?
The voices rumbled from inside and then they could hear hands brushing the walls and roof, searching. Then came another set of feet thumping up the path.
“Ready?” whispered Aiden.
“Yup,” breathed Chloe, and they ran to the front of the hut, leaned on the door, closed it, bolted it and ran as fast as they could down the hill.
It felt important to be waved through the entrance gate and Ava might have enjoyed it, but she was starting to worry about Chloe and Aiden. They’d taken ages to get up here, and it might be that the woman in the red car had been and gone. But Chloe had been sure about eleven, and it was only ten to.
The policewoman was talking to one of the gardeners, who pointed off down the main path, and the four of them moved through the garden, checking and listening and generally frightening small children and families.
“The actual pond thing’s down there,” said Josh. “Where we think they’re supposed to be meeting.” He took Bella to look inside an enormous rhubarb plant, and Ava and the policewoman checked a clump of bamboo.
They moved through the garden searching everywhere as they went, and Ava began to wonder if Aiden and Chloe were actually here. They might not have made it to Morehamstone at all. They might have taken another route and be stuck somewhere on the way. She was still worrying when she made it to the ornamental ponds and spotted Chloe and Aiden arriving on the other side.
“Quick!” called Aiden over the water. “We’ve got the men in the bear house. It won’t hold them for long.”
“Show us,” said the policeman, following him up the track while the policewoman started talking into her radio.
A second later there was a terrible sound of smashing glass. Everyone in the garden froze and looked up towards the little hut.
“C’mon!” yelled Aiden, racing up the path, closely followed by Chloe, Josh, Bella and the policewoman.
The policeman had opened the door, and was trying to get a handcuff on Forty Grand, but the Scottish Man was clambering out of the window and a huge man Ava had never seen before had armed himself with a bench.
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“Josh! Chloe!” she yelled, pointing to Scottish Man, who was already heading off in the direction of the icehouse.
“Yes!” yelled Chloe, running after him, with Josh alongside her.
Forty Grand punched the policeman in the jaw and charged out of the bear house straight past Aiden.
Ava raced up the slope.
“Mine!” shouted Aiden ahead of her and they both swung to follow him.
They ran pace for pace through the woods and out on to the main lawn, right through a guided tour, swerving round some people in a golf buggy, and then back into the orchard, getting closer and closer with every step. Suddenly Bella leaped alongside them, her lead trailing, her legs faster than anyone else’s.
“Hey!” shouted someone who looked vaguely official, but Ava ignored him, digging for an extra turn of speed that she didn’t know she had.
Forty Grand swung up out of the orchard into a small garden laid out with neat beds. He charged up the middle, Aiden following, and Ava took one of the side paths, getting ahead of him and turning to face him at the end.
He stopped, leaning forward, sucking in air. “Kids, get out of the way; you don’t know what you’re dealing with.”
“You’re not passing me,” said Ava, dodging from side to side and flicking a glance at Aiden behind the man.
“Oh, come on,” said the man. “Stop playing silly beggars.”
The man sidestepped, which was when Bella lunged, grabbing the man’s ankle in her jaws and bringing him down heavily into the only prickly rose bush in the border.
Beyond the icehouse was a path that lead to the sea. It headed straight down through sheer woodland and Scottish Man almost managed to lose Chloe and Josh, but they knew the path better, cutting off corners and catching up with him at the bottom. He rushed out into the tiny harbour, startling a woman and tangling himself in a pushchair before crashing into a pile of lobster pots.