There wasn’t a single other person who had noticed so much as an insect crawl up the building and no one had seen the intruder come out of the Okras’ apartment, and though the cops searched from basement to rooftop, there was no sign of the intruder anywhere in the building.
Clancy and Ruby were sitting up in the oak tree on Amster Green. Ruby had risen early that morning and left the house by climbing out of the window and down the eucalyptus tree. She didn’t feel like running into Hitch and had decided to stay out of his way for as long as possible, then maybe he would eventually stop wanting to strangle her.
She and Clancy were perusing various local papers; they were actually meant to be looking for a French polishing service that might visit the Crew’s house pronto, no questions asked. This would save Clancy’s older sister, Minny, from a month of hard labour and evenings in her room. Minny had trashed their mom’s Louis XV dressing table by splattering it with hair dye – she would be suffering a whole lot of grief if something wasn’t done about it before Mrs Crew discovered the wreckage.
Clancy’s mom was out of town but was expected back in 24 hours. Clancy for one couldn’t cope with the stress of the imminent storm and so had decided to take matters into his own hands. However, he and Ruby had got diverted from their perusal of the ad pages by yet another sensationalist piece about the Okra robbery.
‘Was it highly valuable?’ asked Clancy. ‘This poetry book that was stolen?’
‘Ummm,’ Ruby scanned the words, ‘no, unless you call twenty bucks a lot.’
‘I do actually,’ said Clancy, ‘but I wouldn’t climb up or down the outside of a building for it – so what makes this book so special?’
Ruby read on a little more. Mr Okra was describing the book’s importance to him. ‘I found it tucked into the seat pocket of a plane I was on. I guess whoever it belonged to had forgotten it when they disembarked. I was travelling back from LA, I was very depressed at the time, my life was in tatters, but I discovered that book and I began reading – it turned me around. I wrote a piece about it for the Twinford Herald.’
‘Must be some book,’ said Clancy.
‘I guess things don’t have to be valuable to be valuable,’ said Ruby.
‘I guess you’re right,’ said Clancy.
Ruby looked at her watch. ‘Better go,’ she said. She and Clancy were heading to meet Mouse and Elliot at the outdoor ping-pong table in Harker Square. It had recently been fixed having suffered a mishap at the jaws of a tiger (it’s a long story). They were sort of dawdling; it was just that sort of day. When they finally got there the same topic was being discussed. Why would a person break into a swank apartment on the ninth floor of a secure building, stuffed full of super valuable stuff and only steal one single book?
‘I guess this person likes reading,’ said Elliot. Ruby looked at him. ‘I mean, a lot,’ he added.
‘There’s a library down the street,’ said Mouse.
‘Maybe he lost his library card,’ said Elliot.
‘Yeah, but there has to be something about this particular copy,’ said Ruby.
‘Maybe it had cash in it. My mom sometimes does that, hides a hundred-dollar bill in a book,’ said Elliot.
‘Why does she do that?’ asked Mouse.
‘Because it gives her a thrill when she finds it; she always forgets about it until one day, bingo!’
Mouse smiled. ‘I might come over later and borrow some books,’ she said.
PING-PONG WAS BECOMING INCREASINGLY DIFFICULT because the wind was beginning to pick up and the four of them spent most of the time chasing the ball round the park. After a half-hour they gave up. Mouse and Clancy had to head home and Elliot went on over to Del’s place. Ruby said she’d join him, but first she had to pop home to pick up Bug.
‘He could do with the exercise; he’s been taking it easy since I got injured,’ said Ruby. ‘Hey, head on without me, I’ll see you in a while, OK.’
Ruby went home and collected the dog, then hit the streets. The wind made Bug uneasy. He didn’t like it blowing into his ears or ruffling through his fur. It was as if he felt some unknown presence just to his side or close behind him; someone invisible.
He was the same with ghosts, or at least that’s what Elliot believed.
Whenever Bug or any dog for that matter would stop still and bark for no visible reason, Elliot would say, ‘You wanna know why he’s barking? Spooky dead things that only dogs pick up on.’
Unluckily for Bug, the Twinford county region was prone to getting these short-lived but violent wind storms. They blew in fast and blew out fast. Hard to predict, but destined to repeat over and over, gaining in force during the season until they eventually moved on. The locals often referred to them as Twinford gusters – they usually began in mid-October and whirled away till November arrived, but occasionally they arrived early and hit in September. When this happened, they usually culminated in a truly fearsome coming-together of rain, wind, thunder and lightning. It seemed that this year was a year when one might want to batten down the hatches.
When it came to storms, Ruby did not feel the same way as Bug. The storm’s force, only made visible by what it tore up or tossed into the air, terrified the dog, his animal instinct telling him this was bad news. But Ruby loved it. The sheer energy with which it churned the sea and bent the trees; all this she found exhilarating. Sure it was dangerous, but somehow it transferred its energy and made her feel invincible.
Ruby called to the husky, who reluctantly got to his feet and followed her out of the back door. She put him on the leash, not because he needed to be controlled (Bug was a very well-trained husky), but because the wind was already making him anxious, as if he might be required to do something – the result was one on-edge dog.
They walked all the way to Del’s place, skirting through the back streets. The house backed onto the ocean and Ruby could hear the waves crashing onto the beach as she passed through the front gate. She didn’t bother to knock on the door, but instead slipped through the gap to the side of the house where she knew Del would be. Del was an outdoor type and when hanging out at home was usually in her yard fixing something or kicking, throwing, or catching a ball, maybe twirling a hoolahoop or standing on her head. Today she was sitting on the wooden yard chairs with Elliot, both watching the ocean. The sea was bringing in some big waves and there were a lot of surfers out – the sound of the ocean boomed loud and the wind carried their words.
‘Hey Rube,’ Del said, patting the seat next to her, ‘sit yourself down. Bug need a drink?’ She was up and walking towards the kitchen.
‘Sure,’ said Ruby, ‘you got any strawberry-shake?’
Del raised an eyebrow. ‘Your dog drinks strawberry-shake?’
‘Yeah, funny one Del, I might crack a smile one day.’
When
