radio. There was a late-night quiz show aimed at security guards and insomniacs; the questions were pretty dumb, but they were some distraction.
‘WHAT WOULD YOU CALL A BABY WHALE?’
‘A calf,’ said Ruby automatically.
‘WHAT WOULD YOU SAY IF YOU STEPPED ON A GERMAN’S TOE?’
‘Entschuldigung,’ said Ruby. ‘No, wait, verzeihung.’
‘WHAT WOULD YOU DO IF YOU WERE A COOPER?’
‘Make barrels.’
‘WHAT WOULD YOU BE IF YOU WERE ON CHARON’S FERRY?’
‘I know this one… what is it?’
Suddenly a news announcer’s voice broke in.
‘WE ARE SORRY TO INTERRUPT THIS PROGRAMME FOR SOME BREAKING NEWS. TWO BODIES HAVE BEEN FOUND BY A FISHING CREW TWENTY MILES OUT TO SEA. THEY HAVE NOT YET BEEN IDENTIFIED AND AT THIS TIME WE CAN ONLY SAY THAT THEY ARE A MAN AND WOMAN OF APPROXIMATELY MIDDLE AGE.’
Ruby didn’t hear anything more of the broadcast; all she heard was the answer to the quiz show question pinging into her head.
‘Dead,’ she said.
She leaned back against the wall and let herself slide down to the floor.
RUBY DIDN’T SLEEP THAT NIGHT. She sat in her bedroom in the dark just staring out of her window, waiting for dawn to come.
At 6.30am on Wednesday morning the phone in her room rang. Clancy, she thought, but she didn’t pick up. She couldn’t talk to anyone, not even Clancy Crew. Talking to people meant listening to them telling her it was going to be all right, and she knew it wasn’t. It wasn’t all right at all.
At 6.39 Hitch knocked on her door. He could tell just by looking at her face that she must be aware of the latest reports.
‘I heard the news kid.’
She blinked back at him.
‘I agree it doesn’t look good,’ he said. ‘But we don’t know, not for sure. No one’s been identified.’
She didn’t speak.
‘I spent all night in the boat and I found nothing. Doesn’t mean it’s over; “nothing” can also be good. Zuko’s out in the chopper now; he’s a good agent with good eyes, good instinct. If there’s anything to find, he’ll find it.’
They went down to the kitchen and Mrs Digby came right over and kissed Ruby on the top of her head and squeezed her cheek, like she always did, always had done from the first day she was born.
‘I’m not going to class,’ Ruby said.
‘Course you’re not Ruby, you’re staying here with me,’ said Mrs Digby, nodding her head. ‘I’m making you French toast and proper English tea.’
The housekeeper didn’t want to let Ruby out of sight, but at about a quarter to noon Ruby managed to give her the slip. She wanted to be out in the fresh air where she could think, where she wasn’t surrounded by everything that was her mom and dad.
She took a walk down to Amster Green. She nimbly climbed the old oak and when she reached the topmost climbing branch, she sat down. She felt around with her left hand, reaching for the deep knot in the bark. She pulled out a neatly folded origami turtle. The coded note said,
ec hbbtzik erl ocoeqw rpuyl
She took out her pencil, crossed out the code and wrote,
‘Commiserations you now have
a blemished record.’
She climbed back down, got on her bike and rode out to Twinford harbour.
For some reason it was the only place she wanted to be. Maybe because her parents had always loved boats, had always loved the ocean, or maybe it was because this was one of the last places Ruby had seen them alive.
The Redforts had met in the ocean and now they had died in the ocean – what had been the most romantic of beginnings was now the most tragic of endings.
Her parents had told the story so many times Ruby could almost hear their voices explaining how they had met off the Tuscan coast of Italy.
SABINA: ‘It must be seventeen years ago now – boy, was your dad ever handsome.’
BRANT: ‘And your mom, she was a knock-out.’
SABINA: ‘Brant was working as a diver, for that marine biologist.’
BRANT: ‘Yes, and you honey, were sailing single-handed around the Mediterranean coast, what a gal!’
SABINA: ‘I was trying to become fluent in Italian, but I never really got further than the word ciao.’
But as it turned out she hadn’t needed to. They had met underwater and it was love without words.
Somewhere far off, Ruby thought she could hear a dog barking. A real yapper, she thought.
‘Could you give it a rest already!’ A loud voice belonging to a woman scolded the dog, and the dog stopped yapping.
Then…
‘Ruby Redfort! Ruby! Ruby Redfort!’
Ruby looked up, but the sun was shining directly into her eyes, blinding her. All she could see was a tall silhouetted figure, a woman in a long, voluminous robe who appeared to be waving.
‘Ahoy there!’ came another voice, deep and sort of fat sounding.
Ruby squinted into the bright light, trying to make out the callers.
‘Nice of you to come meet us.’ It was Bernie and Eadie Runklehorn.
‘Look who we fished out of the drink!’ bellowed Mr Runklehorn.
And then two other figures came into view, followed by a little dog.
‘Hey honey, how did you know we would be sailing in today?’
‘Mom? Dad? Are you really alive?’
Her father glanced down as if checking. ‘Last time I looked,’ he called back.
IT WAS AGENT ZUKO WHO HAD SPOTTED THEM. The yacht’s engine had failed and due to the lack of wind, they were making slow progress back to shore.
