She pulled on her robe and tip-toed silently along the far side of the warehouse, where she was hidden from sight by huge cargo crates. From here she had a goodish view of what was going on and she did not like what she saw one bit. There were several thuggish-looking men tearing at the furniture, pulling open drawers and cupboards, opening jars, ripping into feather cushions. Mrs Redfort’s jewellery boxes were simply tipped upside down and emptied onto the floor. None of the thugs seemed at all interested in the contents once they had rummaged through them, yet these jewels were worth many thousands of dollars.
Mrs Digby, who was finding it hard to restrain herself from marching right out there and giving them a piece of her mind, was relieved to hear a woman’s voice shout out, ‘Just what do you numbskulls think you are doing?’
About time someone saw sense, thought Mrs Digby.
The woman continued. ‘We are looking for something very small and highly valuable, how are we supposed to find it if you have turned the whole place on its head!’
Silence from the numbskulls.
Couldn’t have put it better myself, thought Mrs Digby. She couldn’t see the woman from where she hid but she guessed she must be quite a force to reckon with, since for the next eleven hours the men went painstakingly through every item of the Redforts’ home, picking it up, opening it, inspecting it and then replacing it.
What in tarnation are those creeps looking for? wondered Mrs Digby.
Whatever it was, it seemed they didn’t find it.
Strictly confidential
RUBY GOT HERSELF UP AND READY nice and early. She was looking forward to going back to Spectrum and finding out more of its secrets. But first she had to find the escape watch, which meant locating her jacket. She was pretty sure that she must have left it in Hitch’s car, in which case it was safe but what if he had found the jacket and been through her pockets? She wouldn’t put it past him – in which case she was in big trouble.
But when she got downstairs Hitch was in the kitchen quietly studying a piece of toast.
‘Is that piece of toast private or can anyone eat it?’ she said.
He looked up. ‘Strictly confidential,’ he replied, hurriedly biting into it. ‘So, you excited about your first day as a code breaker?’
Ruby gave him a withering look.
He winked at her, ‘Just pulling your leg kid, I know you’re far too cool to get excited about things.’
She gave him another withering look and started for the back door.
‘Where you going?’
‘To get my bike – I might as well leave now, I can pick up breakfast at the Diner.’
‘No, that’s not how it’s going to be kid. Strict instructions from the top, I’m going to drive you in to the Spectrum office each day and I’m going collect you when you’re done.’
‘Oh man!’ Ruby rolled her eyes. ‘I don’t need you driving me around – I’ll take my bike, OK?’
‘Not OK, said Hitch firmly. ‘I gotta make sure no one tails you and I need to make sure you are all present and correct in one piece – if I’m not available then someone else will drive you home.’
Ruby opened her mouth to argue but Hitch simply held up his hand. ‘This is non-negotiable.’
Ruby said nothing.
‘Get yourself in the vehicle pronto, we need to get going.’
‘But I haven’t had breakfast!’ protested Ruby. ‘Most important meal of the day and all that.’
‘We’ll pick something up on the way, OK? Now scram. I’ll be with you in a split second.’
Ruby got into the car and was relieved to see her jacket crumpled on the floor behind the passenger seat. She felt around in the pocket until her fingers closed around the cold metal of the watch – got you, you weasel.
She looked at it. Of all the things she’d ever owned this was certainly the best – only thing was, she didn’t own it and sooner or later someone was bound to discover it was missing, along with the whistle and the keyring. It wouldn’t take a master sleuth to figure out who the culprit was. What was happening to her? This was the kind of thing that happened to Red Monroe – not to Ruby Redfort.
She slipped the watch back into her jacket. The keyring was already clipped securely to her jeans and was safely hidden in her back pocket – the whistle was still around her neck, concealed under her T-shirt. She just had to find a way to put them back before anyone noticed they were gone.
On the way to Spectrum, while stopped at lights, who should cross the street but Clancy Crew, Del Lasco and Elliot Finch, stuffing donuts into their mouths. Ruby slid down in her seat.
‘Don’t worry kid, they can’t see you, only me.’
‘How’s that?’ asked Ruby
‘Special glass,’ said Hitch, knocking on the windshield. ‘If this switch is flicked down,’ he said pointing to a little silver lever, ‘then on the passenger side it just shows a blank space, as if you aren’t there.’ To prove his point he wound down his window, stuck his head out and called, ‘Hey kids, don’t suppose I could persuade you to let me have one of those donuts?’
‘No way man,’ said Del through a mouthful of donut, ‘I only have two left .’
Clancy said nothing but he certainly wasn’t going to let that butler guy have anything of his, not for free anyway. He didn’t like him and he didn’t trust him either.
Elliot looked thoughtfully at the remaining donut in its paper bag. ‘How much you offering?’ he asked.
‘How about I guess what flavour donut you got – I’m right, I get it for free; I’m wrong, I give you ten bucks for it.’
Elliot couldn’t believe his luck – the guy was never going to guess what flavour donut he had; this meant a big profit. ‘Sure,’ said Elliot, ‘I don’t mind taking ten bucks off ya.’
‘So?’ whispered Hitch out of the corner of his mouth.
‘Well the one he was just eating was banana flavour, which means the one in the bag is chocolate raspberry with strawberry frosting and rainbow sprinkles.’ hissed Ruby
‘OK,’ said Hitch holding his finger to his temple as if he was channelling the information. ‘I’m guessing… chocolate raspberry, strawberry frosting, rainbow sprinkles – am I right?’
Elliot, speechless, handed over the donut.
‘Pleasure doing business with you,’ said Hitch as he pulled away from the lights.
‘Who is that guy?’ whispered Del.
‘Some
