The Lornea Island Detective Club

by Gregg Dunnett

  He slides the bag across to me. At once I dive in, and pull out a bacon double cheeseburger. It tastes every bit as good as I’d been imagining.

  I don't hear much for a few minutes. I'm too busy eating, but when I finish, I realize that Dad and Lieutenant Langley have been talking for a long time, and they're just finishing up.

  "So what happens now?" Dad says.

  "You take young Billy home is what happens now. And you make damn sure he keeps his nose out of this."

  Forty-One

  The rest of the day is a bit like when you get better from having a fever. You're kind of dizzy, and you're not sure what's real and what isn't. I get the sense Dad's not sure how to react either. He feels like he ought to be mad at me, but he doesn't know why, or even if that's the right response at all. After all, it's not exactly a normal situation.

  He keeps trying to have a chat with me, but it never really goes anywhere. He keeps shaking his head and asking if I’m alright, but then he doesn’t know what to say next. In a way he takes it so well I actually consider telling him I know all about Tucker and what they're planning to do. But that would be a bit much, on top of everything else that's happening. So I keep quiet.

  I spend the rest of the day moving Steven. It's actually something I should have done a long time ago, since he's easily ready. I put him outside, in a kind of pen that Dad built. He covered it in chicken wire, so that Steven wouldn't be able to fly off, but I take that bit off, because I actually want Steven to fly away if he wants to. But of course he doesn't. When I go back inside he just comes and sits on my windowsill, I pull the drapes shut so he can't see me. But I know he's still there.

  And then I realize I'm actually really tired. Like exhausted. So I go to bed early, and for once I don't go on my computer at all. I just get into my bed and go to sleep.

  I'm woken the next day by my phone ringing (I put my own SIM card back in it a long time ago), and I see it's Amber.

  "You'll never guess what?" She says, when I answer it.

  "What?" I reply. I'm still feeling really sleepy.

  "The police have gone into the school. They're gonna dig up the gym."

  Forty-Two

  They don't close the school, they just shut off the gym hall. They don't even cancel gym classes, they just get moved out into the school field. In fact, it's almost like there's nothing going on at first – there's just a few police cars parked outside the gym hall, and an officer in uniform standing by the door to make sure no one tries to go in. But then the noise starts.

  Deep, rumbling hammering noises, that you can hear from all over the school.

  I don't tell anyone about what I know, I just listen to the noises, and rumors that have already started. Some people are saying how it might be Principal Sharpe the police are looking for buried there, which is bonkers when you think about it, but it tells you something about the intellect of some of the students at Newlea High School. Others are talking about how there might be bodies of students there, hundreds of them, murdered by teachers over the years. Like I said, a lot of the pupils here aren't that bright.

  Even the teachers are gossiping about it, though they pretend they're not. They say how they just want us to get on with our work as normal, but when a television van turns up with a big satellite dish on the top, and the whole of my science class goes and watches at the window, Mr. Matthews doesn't do anything to stop us until he's had a good look too. So then we get to see this woman in a red dress with her microphone talking to a camera guy, in front of the all the police cars. And then someone manages to get her interview streaming live to their phone and we all end up gathering around that, trying to listen.

  "...The Lornea Island Police Department refuse to state at this point why they are interested in the gymnasium of Newlea High School, saying only they are acting on 'credible information'..."

  Then Mr. Matthews does make us all go back to work. But it's impossible to focus, even on science class, with the noise of the concrete breakers. And the rumors keep flying.

  I watch the full interview with the presenter in the red dress, later on at home with Dad and Tucker. But there's no actual news as such. Only that the police are looking for something, but they haven't found it yet. It's the same the next day, and the day after that. And then it's Saturday, so I don't go to school, although I keep an eye on the news websites to see what's happening. And then on Sunday night I'm upstairs and Dad calls me down to see something on the TV with him. I almost don't bother, but he says it's important. So I do go down. And this time there is actual news, as in something new.

  But it isn’t what I expect.

  Forty-Three

  On the TV Lieutenant Langley is sitting at a table with the chief of police on one side, and a woman I don't know on the other. There's a load of microphones in front of him on the table.

  "What's this?" I ask Dad.

  "Local news," he says. "Just came on."

  "As you all know," Langley's voice comes through the speakers in a drone. "Over the last few days we’ve been conducting a detailed search of the foundations of the school gymnasium of Newlea High School. This was in response to credible information regarding the possibility of uncovering evidence related to a possible homicide." Langley pauses, and for a moment he looks at the wrong camera, then he seems to realize it.

  "However, that search has not uncovered anything suspicious, and we no longer consider this site to be of interest in this investigation."

  Then he starts to make an appeal for information from the public, but I don’t really listen to that part.

  "What does all that mean?" I ask, when the TV moves on to something else. Dad turns the sound down.

  "Does it mean they couldn’t find him?"

  "No," Dad replies. "It means he wasn't there to find."

  I spend the rest of the day trying to make sense of it. It’s possible the police didn't look properly. Or that Mrs. Jacobs was lying to us. Or maybe that she got confused, and she never actually killed Mr. Jacobs at all. But I can’t work out which. Then the police want to see me again, which is quite good, because at least they’ll explain what’s going on.

  The patrolman at the front desk leads Dad and me out of the reception area straight away. I expect him to take us to the interview rooms like normal, but instead he goes upstairs where there's a big room full of desks. We follow the patrolman to a little cubicle at the end.

  "Lieutenant Langley will be along any moment," the patrolman says. And then he leaves us.

  Lieutenant Langley's desk is just like any normal desk, like the ones the secretaries have at school. There's a few neat piles of papers on one side, a coffee mug and a photo frame with its back facing us. I can't quite see it so I lean forward to get a better look.

  "Sit still Billy. Don't touch."

  "I didn't... I wasn't gonna..."

  I don't go on. Dad seems angrier about the whole business today. It's like he was giving me the benefit of the doubt when he thought I might have actually solved a murder. Like he didn't have much choice about that. But now the police are saying there wasn't a body, he's not so sure about it all. I guess I’ll have to find that out later though, since right now Lieutenant Langley strides in, wearing the same brown suit he always wears, with his detective badge on his belt. He closes the door on his glass cubicle and nods to Dad.

  "Get you a coffee?"

  "Sure."

  There's a cabinet by the wall with a coffee percolator half full. Langley pours out two cups and puts one in front of Dad. I don't get anything.

  "You've seen the news?"

  I look at Dad, and he's nodding back.

  "We didn't find nothing." Langley shakes his head.

  "We pulled up the entire floor. Right down to the bare earth." He glances at me. "Guess you're not gonna have gym classes for a little while..."

  "I don't mind that," I interrupt, and he frowns at me, like I wasn't supposed the say anything. Then he sits down behind the desk.

  "
Listen kid. The reason I've brought you in. We've been here before, and we're not gonna be here again."

  He looks at me really seriously, but I don't know what he means.

  "This website you made. This detective agency..." He stops and sighs. "You realize you need a license to operate as a private investigator on Lornea Island? Plus you have to be eighteen years of age. You could be looking at a fine of ten thousand dollars. We could lay charges for fraud. If Barbara Jacobs wanted, she could file a civil suit."

  I'm not entirely sure what all this means, but it makes me feel nervous. I don't dare look at Dad, but he's the next to speak.

  "Does she?"

  Langley hesitates. "Not yet she don't."

  "And what about you? You said you could lay charges...?"

  Langley doesn't answer at once.

  "We're not gonna do that either. But we are gonna have this little chat. To make sure we don't find ourselves in this situation again. And I mean ever." He turns to me.

  "OK Billy? This ends here. No more inserting yourself into other people's business. No more detective agencies. No more... Period."

  I open my mouth to speak, but think better of it.

  "Cos if this happens again, we're not gonna be having a chat. We're gonna be throwing the book at you."

  Still I don’t reply.

  "You got that?"

  I nod.

  “I need to hear it Billy.”

  "Yeah. I got it."

  "Good." Lieutenant Langley takes a glug of his coffee.

  "So what happens now with Mrs. Jacobs?"

  "Billy!" Langley sets his coffee cup down. "Did you not understand what just happened?"

  "Yeah, I did, I just want to know what's going to happen to Mrs. Jacobs..."

  "No you don't. That's not your business. Listen to me, and listen good. The Lornea Island Police Department thank you for bringing this matter to their attention. And we ask you to step away. And if I hear you don't do that, I'm gonna personally see to it we file every damn charge we can."

  There's a silence, but Dad breaks it this time.

  "He understands, don’t you Billy?"

  Eventually I nod.

  “Sure. I get it.”

  After that, Dad takes me to school. I think he's just dropping me off and I unclip my seatbelt on the road outside, but he keeps going, right into the parking lot.

  "What's going on?" I ask. "Where are you going?"

  "In to see your Principal." Dad says, swinging into a space too fast.

  "Why?" I ask, but all he does is yank on the parking brake hard.

  "Why do you want to see Principal Sharpe?" I ask again.

  "What makes you think I want to see her?"

  And so, for the third time in a month, I find myself summonsed to Principal Sharpe's office. But this time, I'm there alongside Dad.

  Forty-Four

  She's super mad. I see it right away. She has to struggle to be polite to Dad, because she's not allowed to shout at the parents in the same way she does to us kids. But she still talks to him in her real tight lipped way that makes it obvious she hates his guts.

  "Do you know what this is?" She holds up a folder of documents.

  The veins on one side of her neck are sticking out and throbbing.

  "Mr. Wheatley?"

  It's weird having Dad here. When we came in I thought maybe he would demand answers to what really happened to Mr. Jacobs, but it just feels like he's getting told off too.

  "This is the school's insurance policy. I've spent the morning reading it. As well as case law on Section 12 of the 1983 Civil Rights Lawsuits. Do you know why?"

  Dad looks at her, and for a moment it seems like he's gonna fight, but then he sighs. "No."

  "Well would you like to know?"

  Dad kind of waves a hand, like he knows she's going to tell him anyway.

  "I've been reading this because the police, over the last week – and thanks to your son's harassment of my mother – have utterly destroyed the school gymnasium. At an estimated cost of..." She stops, and searches for a paper on her desk.

  "Over three hundred thousand dollars. And apparently neither the police department nor the school's buildings insurance will pay for it. Which means it will need to come out of the school budget. Meaning every single student in this school will have their education suffer as a result."

  She drops the folder on the desk.

  "Well?"

  Dad just shakes his head.

  "Well Mr. Wheatley?"

  "Well what?"

  "Well, don't you have anything to say?"

  It seems like he doesn’t at first. I figure he doesn’t want to get in a fight with my school principal. But then he replies, his voice calm and almost casual.

  "Cops say they had a warrant. Which means they must’ve had some reason. So the way I see it, that's hardly Billy's fault."

  "Oh yes. Mr. Wheatley. I forgot you're an expert on legal matters. With your background."

  She glares at him, but he stares right back.

  "What happened to me has nothing to do with this."

  "No? You don't think so? Because I wonder if it's part of the problem. It's hardly a stable home life you're giving your son is it? Were you aware Billy was operating an illegal so-called detective agency?"

  Dad's eyes flick over to me, then back to Principal Sharpe.

  "No."

  "I understand from Lieutenant Langley it's an offence to do so without a license. But he won't be pressing charges. For reasons I am unable to fathom, and do not agree with."

  There's silence for a long while.

  "I've also taken advice on what would be appropriate in respect of Billy continuing to attend this school. As I'm sure you can appreciate, in any normal circumstances what Billy has done is far beyond the threshold needed to expel him from the school. Well beyond."

  This makes me glance up. I didn't think you could get expelled if you were a good student like me.

  "And I sincerely doubt, if that were to happen, that any other school on this island would take him on."

  She glares at me now, like she actually hates me, and I start to feel quite worried. I don't much like Newlea High School, but I do need to get good grades. Otherwise I won't be able to go on and study to be a scientist. And I'll end up like Dad, in dead end jobs. And if I can't even go to school on the island then I don't know what we'll do. We'll have to leave.

  "However." And suddenly she looks really disappointed. "I have been persuaded by the state board of education that it might appear inappropriate for me to take any decisions in this case personally, given the involvement of my family." She stares at me.

  "I argued strongly against this position as well. But the agreement we came to is this. In this instance the board will take no action. However, if Billy continues his invasion into my, or my mother's privacy, then I shall expel him, immediately, without any further warnings and all the negative repercussions that would bring. Is that clear?"

  I look at Dad, to see if he's going to argue against this, but he's looking down at the floor. Then I feel Principal Sharpe's eyes boring into me, and I look up again. She smiles.

  "Billy. I want you to listen very carefully."

  I don't reply.

  "I clearly asked you to leave my mother alone. I explained about the illness she is suffering from. Yet you ignored me. In doing so you have caused an untold amount of damage to this school, both financially and in terms of its reputation. Furthermore you have caused a lot of anxiety and stress to an elderly woman who has done nothing wrong.

  "Billy, if you step out of line again. If you even think about stepping out of line, I will expel you with great pleasure. And if you go anywhere near my mother again you will be pursued in the courts for compensation for the damage you have caused. Is that understood?"

  After a little while I nod.

  But after that she lets us go. No detention, no nothing. It's weird. I get sent to classes, like nothing has happened. And then the
afternoon is just like a normal Wednesday afternoon. Except gym class is held outside on the school field, not in the hall.

  Forty-Five

  It's over a week now since all that happened, though it seems longer. Dad told me again how we had to have a proper talk, and how we had to make changes so that nothing like this ever happened again, but then he went out with Tucker, and didn’t come back till late. And when they did come back I could tell they were drunk. Then a few days later Dad told me he had another trip on Ocean Harvest lined up. And how important it was he went, because he made such good money the last time. And when I asked him who was gonna look after me, he told me Tucker would still be here, and this time he’d make sure he kept a better eye on me. I felt like pointing out how we wouldn't need the money quite so much if he wasn't here, eating all our food, and living rent free. But I couldn't say that. So I just had to bite my tongue.

  I haven’t seen that much of Amber. She got grounded by her mom, and Principal Sharpe put her in detentions every lunchtime. And she has to register for every class, to make sure she doesn’t skip anymore. It’s kind of annoying, because I really wanted to see her to work out what really happened to Mr. Jacobs, if he's not buried under the school gym after all.

  But then I decided maybe it was for the best. Maybe I should put all this behind me, and just forget it ever happened.

  But then something else happens. Something pretty bad.

  Forty-Six

  It happens when I'm doing my homework. Only it's quite boring homework, so I decide to take a break to have a look through Dad's emails.

  You'd think, when someone goes off on a fishing boat, they wouldn't be able to do emails, but actually it's the best way to keep in communication. There's loads of time when they're fishing that they're not actually doing anything, just waiting while the boat goes from one place to another, or when the nets are in the water. And even though cell phones don't normally work that far out to sea, they have this special network where they can bounce an internet signal from one boat to another, up to sixty miles out. But it’s a bit like the internet in the old days, you can't stream stuff, but websites and emails work OK.