by Jude Watson
“As I told you on the phone, we think that the Outcast was operating in Singapore until recently,” Sammy said as they walked up the stairs to the front door.
“At first I thought the Outcast takeover was just a joke,” Tiff said, her lips pressing together. “It all sounded so ridiculous. I thought it would last a few hours at most. The Cahills have always battled and sniped at each other. It’s why we got out. Tired of the infighting.”
“I didn’t realize you were outside of the Cahill circle now,” Sammy said. “Uncle James set up the stronghold here.”
“Yes, James was very involved for a time, but that was several years ago. Before the Clue hunt, really. We had quarrels with Bae Oh’s leadership, and we fell away.”
Nellie nodded. She couldn’t blame them for having problems with Bae Oh. He was a ruthless despot, safely in prison now.
The atrium was open and airy, with skylights for illumination. White sofas ran along one whole wall, and bright paintings were splashes of color on the walls. Fans revolved overhead. Exquisite orchids sat in blue-and-white pots. Floor-to-ceiling windows gave a view of green gardens, flowers, a tennis court, and a turquoise pool.
“Sammy, you’re here!” A young girl raced toward them, her ponytail streaming out behind her. She looked like a miniature adult in a navy blazer and skirt and white shirt and tie.
“Mabel!” Sammy bent down to give the girl a hug.
“My daughter, Mabel Rose,” Tiff said with an indulgent smile. “Mabel, this is Nellie Gomez.”
“How do you do,” Mabel said. Her tone was polite despite the fact that Sammy had her in a headlock and was giving her a noogie.
“I used to babysit for this squirt,” Sammy said. “We used to catch lizards in the garden.”
“Are you here to investigate what’s going on?” Mabel asked. “Is there going to be another Clue hunt? Because I’m old enough now to join in. I’m eleven.”
Tiff frowned. “You know the rules, darling. You are not to be involved in Cahill affairs. James!”
A handsome man in shirtsleeves hurried toward Sammy. James shook Sammy’s hand, then hugged him. “Sammy, I was so glad to hear you were coming. I have been monitoring Ekat chatter for the past twenty-four hours. I’m shocked at how many Ekats are listening to this madman.”
“We heard the Outcast called a meeting in Singapore and some high-level Cahills were invited,” Sammy said.
James nodded. “I heard this, too.”
“We were not invited,” Tiff said. “They know how loyal we are to Grace’s memory.”
“Did you know Grace well?” Nellie asked.
“Not intimately. But she was a force.” Tiff smiled. “A role model for me. She was so strong. And how are Amy and Dan? I heard they left the family.”
“They’re back,” Nellie said. “They’re helping to stop the Outcast. My kiddos would never let down the family.”
“I had no idea they were back. That’s good to hear.”
“I think there’s got to be someone who will talk about the Outcast,” Mabel said. “I have a suggestion!”
Tiff turned, her displeasure evident. “Mabel, this is not for you to concern yourself with. You have your studies. Your Chinese tutor will be here in thirty minutes, and you must practice your violin first. You have a tennis lesson at four. You can catch up with Sammy at dinner.”
“Yes, Mother,” Mabel said. She gave one last reluctant look at Sammy before heading out of the room.
“I’ve used every contact in Southeast Asia,” James went on. “The next step is the other Ekat strongholds.”
“If you could wrangle an invitation for me to visit, it would be terrific,” Sammy said.
“Sammy, I’m overjoyed to see you, but I have to admit, I’m worried,” Tiff said. “Can’t you leave the investigating to James? I heard what the Outcast is planning. He sounds ruthless, maybe crazy. This could be dangerous. I …” She shot a quick, nervous look at James. “Today, I thought I was being followed.”
“What?” James exploded. “And you didn’t tell me?”
She put a hand on her husband’s arm. “I think you’re confusing me with some kind of fragile flower. No one is going to get to me.”
“Of course. You’re more than a match for anyone.” James softened as he put his hand over hers. “I would never underestimate you. But we all need to be on alert.”
Tiff nodded. “That’s why I think Sammy and Nellie should relax and see what you can discover. But first, let’s give our guests a chance to rest. They’ve had a long flight. Sammy, Nellie, let me show you to your rooms.”
They followed Tiff down quiet corridors to the back of the house, where they passed through a courtyard to a guest cottage. A suite of bedrooms led off a private sitting room. Tiff left them, suggesting they rest and join them for dinner at seven.
Nellie couldn’t imagine resting. She dropped her pack in her room and wandered back to the sitting room. She poured a glass of iced tea from a frosty pitcher sitting in a bowl of ice. The tea tasted minty and cool.
She opened the French doors to a small patio. The cool greens of the trees were brilliant against the blue sky. A colorful bird dipped and soared above, then came to rest on the branch of a tree.
“Sammy!” Nellie called. “I think I see a parrot!”
“It’s a kingfisher.” The voice came from behind a bush.
Nellie peeked around the bush. Mabel sat on the grass barefoot, a violin tucked under her chin. She played a few notes. “There are three hundred and seventy-six bird species in Singapore,” she said. “Some studies say more.” She played another string of notes. One of them screeched.
Nellie winced.
Mabel smiled. “I know. Don’t quit my day job, right?”
“Listen, kiddo, I’ve lived through Dan Cahill practicing the trombone. This is nothing.”
“Music to your ears!”
“Well, I wouldn’t go that far,” Nellie teased. Mabel grinned, and just like that, they were friends. Nellie picked up a blossom that had fallen in the grass and twirled it in her fingers. “You were about to say something inside when your mom cut you off.”
“I’m not allowed to get into anything Cahill related. Of course, they think I’m too young for everything. They’re so protective. In my business constantly. All these gigantic windows in the house? It’s so they always know what I’m up to.”
“They just want to protect you.”
“Dur. I’m eleven, but I’m not an idiot.”
Nellie turned away to hide her smile. “Why don’t you tell me now what you wanted to say?”
Mabel swung the violin off her shoulder and pointed the bow at Nellie. “If I was going to start a conspiracy, I’d start with the people who are already outsiders.”
“That’s exactly right,” Nellie agreed. “It would be great if we knew someone here in Singapore that the Outcast tried to recruit….”
“I might.” Mabel sawed away at the violin.
Nellie wanted to grab the violin and get the answer, but she knew better. Mabel was tired of being treated like a kid. “I’d love to know what you think.”
Mabel stopped playing. “Bee Arnold,” she said triumphantly. “She just moved here six months ago. Rumor is that she was a big Ekat. Mother gave her a welcome dinner, but I don’t think anyone liked her. Then she sort of became this hermit. I think everybody forgot about her.”
“Except maybe the Outcast,” Nellie said.
“Exactly!” Mabel dug in her pocket and handed her a piece of paper. “Here’s her address out in Punggol. Take the MRT, it’s the fastest way. Take the North East line all the way to the end. Now I have to do my homework.” She took off running. “And don’t tell my parents!” she tossed over her shoulder.
In the Punggol district, restaurants with enticing smells called to Nellie.
“Popiah,” Sammy told her. “Vegetarian spring rolls. Gado gado,” he said, pointing to someone eating in a sidewalk café. “One of my favorite s
alads. Vegetables, cucumber, steamed rice cakes in a spicy peanut sauce.”
“It’s no fair being in Singapore and not able to eat. It’s like leading a horse to water and not letting him drink. It’s like holding a lollipop out of a kid’s reach. It’s like locking Amy out of a library. It’s like …” Nellie realized she was talking to empty air. Sammy was behind her, speaking to a guy at a street cart.
Sammy came back and handed her a bundle. “Here. Goreng pisang. Deep-fried banana fritters. This will hold you over. Plus I got directions.”
“You are my superhero,” Nellie said through a mouthful of deep-fried deliciousness.
Sammy turned down a causeway that ran along the bay. Nellie checked her GPS. “No wonder we’re lost,” she said. “The street isn’t on the map.”
Bee Arnold’s street turned out to be a tiny, overgrown alley. The leafy branches of the trees met over their heads, creating a green tunnel they walked down. Nellie felt like she was underwater. They passed modest cottages painted in pretty pastels, tucked away behind little gardens.
Bee Arnold’s house was blue with yellow shutters. Climbing vines covered the gate, and the door was painted a ravishing shade of pink. Nellie felt reassured by the pots of flowers on the porch.
“Lovely,” Nellie whispered. “A double-crosser wouldn’t spend all this time gardening and planting flowers, would they?”
They knocked on the front door. Nellie heard soft footsteps.
Dressed in a faded sundress and sandals, her red hair in a long braid, Sinead Starling opened the door.
“Ah,” Nellie said. “I guess I was wrong.”
Sinead’s shock was visible on her face, but she recovered quickly. “Nellie. This is a surprise.”
“I’m sure it is,” Nellie said. “Can we come in?”
Sinead turned and led the way inside. The last time Nellie had seen her had been over a year ago, after they’d discovered that Sinead had been the mole who’d betrayed them. Even though Amy had forgiven her and even offered her a place to stay on Grace’s estate, Sinead had disappeared with her brothers, and nobody had particularly wanted to find her.
Nellie didn’t particularly trust her now, either.
Ted Starling walked into the room, smiling. “I know that voice! Nellie!”
Nellie hurried over and hugged him. “It’s so good to see you! You look fantastic.” She was fond of Ted and was happy to see him looking so rested and healthy.
“You mean, besides the blind thing?” Ted grinned. “I’m great. Starting to see shadows and colors again. The doctors say the trauma is healing slowly.” Ted had lost his sight in the original Clue hunt due to an explosion.
“That is fantastic news.” Nellie introduced Sammy to the Starlings.
“Ned is better, too,” Ted said. “He gets those terrible headaches less and less.”
“We’re all better here,” Sinead said quietly.
She led them through the bright living room and into a small sitting area off the kitchen. “We mostly hang out here,” she explained.
“It’s pretty,” Nellie said. The lush garden bloomed with flowers, and she saw the blue glint of the sea. The house was decorated in shades of white and pale blue, except for a glass vase crowded with pink flowers. It was obvious that the Starlings had worked hard to create a peaceful home.
“It’s remarkable, actually,” Sinead said. “We’re … happy.”
It was true that Sinead looked different. Gone were the buttoned-up polo shirts and pressed trousers. She was dressed in a loose linen dress, and Nellie noted how she kicked off her sandals as soon as she sat down. Yes, this Sinead was much more relaxed than she remembered.
“Why are you calling yourself Bee Arnold?” Nellie asked.
Sinead’s mouth twisted. “Isn’t it a good name for a traitor?”
B. Arnold. Benedict Arnold. Nellie understood in a rush.
“So you exiled yourself here,” she said.
Sinead glanced at her brother. “Amy forgave the unforgivable. That shouldn’t make it harder, but it did. I just couldn’t face anyone anymore.”
“Ned and I were worried about Sinead,” Ted explained. “She would hardly get out of bed. Ned and I were the ones to contact the Ekat network. We knew she needed to go far away. We all needed to start over. They arranged the false identities, the best doctors, even this house. They invited us to a fancy welcome dinner.”
“Who is ‘they’?” Sammy asked.
“Patricia Oh and a friend of hers,” Ted said.
“A friend?” Nellie sat up. “Who?”
“We never met him,” Ted said. “She called him Oh. We figured he was a relative. She’d say, ‘Don’t worry, Oh will take care of that!’”
“‘Oh,’ like her last name? Or ‘O,’ like an initial?” Nellie asked.
Ted frowned in a puzzled way. “I don’t know, actually. I just assumed it was a relative, come to think of it.”
“This dinner,” Nellie said. “Where was it?”
“At some fancy house. I think their name was Chen.”
Nellie gave a start, which she tried to conceal by readjusting her position on the sofa.
Sammy leaned forward. “Was ‘O’ at the dinner?”
Sinead shook her head. “I don’t think he was invited. We’ve kept away from Patricia since then. Frankly, I never liked her. There’s something … off about her niceness. And she gave me a big pitch on getting involved in the Asian branch of the Ekats. She said I deserved a leadership position again. That she was prepared to back me all the way. I told her I wasn’t interested, and she didn’t take no for an answer.”
“What do you mean? What did she say?”
“A lot of manipulative stuff,” Sinead said. “About how I was justified in what I did. About how she was going to be the new branch leader and she needed people she could trust.” She shook her head with a rueful smile. “And why would she think she could trust me? I betrayed my best friend.”
“You did it to protect us,” Ted said softly, but Sinead just shook her head.
“Have you heard about the Outcast?” Nellie asked. “Did Patricia ever mention him?”
Sinead shook her head. “I’ve never heard that name.” She gave Nellie and Sammy a shrewd look. “Are you saying that it could be the ‘O’ Patricia was talking about?”
“Possibly,” Nellie said. “Patricia has joined forces with someone called the Outcast and kicked Ian Kabra and Cara Pierce out of the mansion. The Outcast is in control, and he’s set up a contest to test Cahill leadership.”
Sinead looked genuinely shocked and concerned. “What about Amy? Is she okay?”
“She’s fine,” Nellie said shortly. She was a lioness when it came to her kiddos. Sinead may have seemed different, but she wasn’t about to trust her, either.
“You said Patricia didn’t take no for an answer,” Sammy said. “Did she contact you again?”
Sinead nodded. “Recently. Last month. She asked me to tea at the Raffles Hotel. I didn’t want to go, but she insisted. She said she had important news. But actually she just wanted to pressure me to attend a meeting. She said others who had been wronged by Grace’s grandchildren would be there. I told her I didn’t feel that way anymore. She said that change was going to happen whether I liked it or not. It would be better to be with them than against them. She frightened me. I told her not to contact me anymore. I said I wouldn’t do anything to betray Amy and Dan ever again. She was quite … nasty about it. There was an implied threat.”
“Did she say anything else? Did she give you any names of others?”
Sinead shook her head. “I’m sorry.”
“What about something that seemed small, or didn’t make sense?” Sammy asked.
“Nothing.” A spark of memory lit Sinead’s face. “Just one thing. Probably nothing. I got there a bit late, and she was on the phone. I came up behind her and heard her say that the jet had taken off from Chicago with the package.”
“Chicago,” Nelli
e repeated. Not much to go on.
“It’s a big city,” Sammy said, echoing her thoughts. “Doesn’t exactly narrow it down.”
“Tell her what you told me last night,” Ted said.
Sinead hesitated. “Ever since I said no to Patricia, I have this creepy feeling. Like my e-mails and phone are monitored. I took Ned to the doctor a few days ago, and I was sure I was being followed.”
Nellie exchanged a glance with Sammy.
“Did anything else happen?” she asked Sinead.
Sinead shook her head. “Patricia was so vindictive. She said the Cahill family was in deep trouble. That Amy and Dan and now Ian had made so many mistakes. Children had destroyed it, and adults would put it back together again.” She looked at Nellie directly. “I have to admit I’ve been worrying about it, thinking about maybe contacting Amy. I have no right to warn anybody, or to have anybody listen to me. But I’ve been there. I’ve felt resentment like that — so huge it takes over your life. I let it twist me into a creature who would stop at nothing to get revenge. I know what that’s like, and I saw it in her.”
“We just want to live quietly,” Ted said.
Sinead twisted her hands. “We can’t help you any more. Can you please go now?”
Nellie stood. “Thanks for talking to us. It was good to see you, Ted.”
Sinead walked them toward the door. “Do me a favor? Tell Amy I wasn’t part of this?”
“I’ll tell her.”
Sinead opened the door. “And tell her to be careful. Tell her …” Sinead bit her lip. “Tell her I’m afraid.”
Halifax Harbor, Nova Scotia
Ian stepped in front of Amy. He didn’t look at the muzzle of the gun. He looked at Atlas’s face. His cold eyes.
This wasn’t a threat. He wasn’t trying to scare them. This was real.
“Just a moment,” Ian said. “We have a deal.”
Atlas’s lip curled. “Do you think I’d allow a bunch of kids to threaten me? Know my business?”
“We might know your business better than you do. We have reason to believe your ship is booby-trapped. When it gets into the harbor, it will explode.”