As she walked, the lights in the display cases popped on around her, the gadgets gleaming under the glass, like jewels in a jewellers. She went over to the drawer where the watch belonged and was about to open it when something caught her eye. It was a silver whistle – looked like a dog whistle but the label was smudged. Maybe it was the ribbon, maybe it was the fact that she had always wanted a silver dog whistle, but Ruby found that she couldn’t resist slipping it over her head and looking at her reflection in the glass.
She blew into it – no sound at all. Surely it wasn’t just a dog whistle? She blew into it again and again, still nothing. In her frustration she started blowing and inhaling in the way that one might suck air in and out of a harmonica.
‘Must be broken,’ said Ruby out loud, but her voice seemed to be coming from far, far away.
Wow, so it’s a voice thrower. She inhaled again. ‘Hello,’ she said. This time her voice sounded as if it was coming from right behind her. She experimented some more – there were four little holes in the whistle, and whichever one her finger covered determined the direction her voice came from – north, east, south or west of her. Point the whistle up – her voice was thrown above her.
It was precisely at the moment she called out the words, ‘I’m over here!’ that someone else decided to enter the room.
Ruby quickly ducked down behind the cabinets.
‘Did you hear that?’ said a voice she didn’t recognise.
‘Hear what?’ said a second voice.
‘Hey, these lights shouldn’t be on.’
‘Must be something wrong with the sensors.’
‘You think? Unless of course…’
‘What? Someone set them off? Should I call security?’ Ruby froze.
Oh boy, now I’m in trouble.
She was almost about to give herself up when the first voice said, ‘Well, either that or go get some bug spray – it will be a large spider. You know how many spiders set off alarms and sensors? I’ll tell you, a lot.’
‘Really? Must have been a pretty elephant-sized spider.’
‘Don’t tell me you’re scared of spiders.’
‘Not scared,’ said the second voice, a little aggravated. ‘Just don’t like ’em is all.’ Ruby could hear the footsteps moving towards her.
Darn it, she mouthed silently, as she tucked the whistle inside her T-shirt. Now she had managed to steal two things. She made herself very flat and began to crawl forward on her stomach. She was just about able to squeeze her way under the cabinets and make it to the door. Once in the corridor she sprinted as fast as she could to the restroom and retrieved her boots.
When she returned to her seat in Buzz’s office she was rosy in the cheeks and perspiring.
‘You know, you don’t look so good,’ said Buzz.
‘Yeah well I don’t feel so good,’ said Ruby sincerely, ‘but give me a few minutes and I’ll be OK.’
‘So long as you’re sure.’ Buzz looked concerned, she wasn’t used to queasy kids ‘Well if you’re really certain you’re all right,’ she said warily, ‘LB wants to see you – I’ll walk you to the waiting area outside her office. Don’t go anywhere, don’t touch anything, in fact don’t move until LB comes to get you.’
‘Sounds like fun,’ said Ruby.
No one was around, which gave her a good chance to have a snoop about. On the walls were big colourful paintings, all of them abstract. Some of them made your eyes ache to look at them.
LB must be a fan of Op Art, thought Ruby. Her mother sold a lot of this kind of work at her modern art gallery and Ruby knew that it was usually very expensive. One entire wall was painted with concentric circles in colours which seemed to buzz and vibrate. Ruby stared at it so hard that she eventually lost her balance and fell forward. Putting her hands out to save herself she unwittingly pressed on a hidden catch and what had looked like a wall sort of became a door and swung open.
Oops.
There in front of her was a room completely empty but for hundreds of black and white photographs which covered the walls from floor to ceiling. Photographs mainly of people, people and cars – people up mountains and in jungles, people on elephants, people canoeing down rapids. One picture particularly intrigued her. It was of a youngish boy, sitting at the controls of an aeroplane and smiling at the camera. She guessed he must be the son of one of the agents. There was another of him scuba diving.
Lucky kid, she thought. Right up high on the far left was a picture of a man looking a huge crocodile in the eye. He was making a stupid face, his eyes were crossed and he appeared not even slightly bothered by the reptile. The man looked familiar but even with her glasses on Ruby couldn’t quite make out who he was or where she had seen him before. Curiosity getting the better of her, she dragged a chair from the lobby and climbed up to take a closer look.
‘Well I’ll be darned, he certainly is some butler!’ she said out loud. Hitch could only have been about twenty or so in the picture, and out of a suit he looked quite different.
‘So, you’re a snoop, Ruby Redfort.’
Ruby spun round, losing her balance, toppled off the chair and landed in an undignified sprawl on the cool rubber coated floor.
She was eye level with a pair of bare feet – the toenails painted red.
‘Oh, sorry, I didn’t mean to, it was sort of an accident, the door kinda opened on its own,’ Ruby stammered.
‘What next? It wasn’t me?’ LB’s voice was chilly. She wasn’t mad – she was furious.
‘I’m not making excuses or anything – just saying it was an honest accident.’
‘You accidentally opened a concealed door? Accidentally dragged a chair into a private room? Accidentally stood on it and started accidentally examining my personal photographs? What complicated accidents you have.’
‘Well, when you put it like that it sounds kinda bad,’ said Ruby.
‘Too much curiosity can be fatal,’ said LB. ‘Something it is wise to remember.’ This statement sounded a little sinister and Ruby quickly picked herself up off the floor. She noticed she had torn a hole in her jacket – a huge rip down the left sleeve – which only added to her humiliation.
‘I’m sure I didn’t see anything important – by the way, that’s a very nice picture of you. When was it taken? You look kinda young, is that your boyfriend?’ Ruby was pointing at a picture of a girlish looking LB, who was smiling warmly at a good-looking young man. However, the real life LB was not smiling, she was glaring. If Ruby thought she was going to distract LB with the old flattery and fast talk then she had a great deal to learn about LB.
‘If it wasn’t for your test results and what we already know about you, I might be sorely tempted to think again.’
