Scavenger Hunt

by Erika McGann

  ‘Yes.’

  ‘Mmhmmmm.’ I meant to carry out the official-sounding questioning a little longer, but I was too excited at having caught a real-life actual thief. ‘And, Mr Klein, is it also correct that you have been stealing shiny trinkets from unsuspecting residents of Shady Oaks like some giant trinket-stealing magpie?’

  Mr Klein blushed all the way to his bowl-shaped hair.

  ‘Oh. Oh my.’

  ‘That’s right, Mr Klein, you’ve been caught red-handed! Now hand over Carmella’s gold locket, and all the other stuff you’ve stolen, and we won’t have to involve the authorities.’

  ‘Carmella’s locket?’ he said. ‘B-but I would never take Carmella’s locket.’

  ‘Mr Klein, I saw you. I saw you steal the green bead from Edwina Barnes’s cardigan. We know you’re the thief.’

  ‘Well, yes.’ Mr Klein blushed again and hurried to his chest of drawers. He gently lifted something from a dish sitting on top. ‘Yes, I have been collecting Edwina’s things. But … I’m going to return them all.’

  In his hand was a loose chain of shiny trinkets. It was a mishmash of rings and beads and bracelets and pins, silver and gold, with blue and green and pink and red stones.

  ‘You see,’ Mr Klein went on, ‘she doesn’t realise she’s lost them. So I’ve been looking for them, to make this beautiful necklace. It’s a present for her birthday – a lovely necklace of all her lost things. Do you think she’ll like it?’

  It was the worst necklace I had ever seen. But I didn’t say that.

  ‘So you didn’t take Carmella’s locket?’

  ‘No, of course not. I wouldn’t do that – that’s stealing.’

  I believed him. I believed that he didn’t take Carmella’s locket. And I believed that he was making the worst-looking necklace in the world for a woman he liked.

  Mr Klein wasn’t the locket thief.

  Chapter Twelve

  Me, Lex and Nicholas were hunkered down behind a car opposite Bianca’s house. We were on a stakeout. (The last time we did a stakeout, we made an amazing fake bin that all three of us squeezed into – but Bianca’s house was a last-minute stakeout so we didn’t have time to make a brilliant disguise. Besides, the amazing fake bin ended up being a magnet for yippy dogs and too small for us all to run in).

  Bianca’s friend, Tara – who had also been on the Time Lords team for the scavenger hunt – was hanging out at Bianca’s house after school. At first they’d disappeared into the house, and we felt a bit silly hiding behind a car waiting for them to come back out, but now they were sitting on the wall of the front garden, checking their phones and chatting to each other.

  Tara had a maroon mini-backpack on that she wore all the time. I remembered that she’d been wearing it the day of the scavenger hunt too.

  ‘If that backpack’s big enough to fit a weather vane,’ I whispered, ‘then the Time Lords had motive and opportunity.’

  We weren’t trying to listen in on their conversation, but being so close we couldn’t help overhearing.

  ‘And I was like, I don’t care if you started wearing those bracelets first,’ Tara was saying, ‘cos like I’ve always liked them, and like I just wear them more. Like I’ve always had them.’

  ‘Oh my god,’ Bianca chimed in, ‘I know. Like I started wearing them a year ago.’

  ‘I never saw you wear them a year ago.’

  ‘I totally always wore them. Like not loads of them together, but like I’d always have one on.’

  Tara checked her phone again. ‘Yeah, but loads of them is the thing. Like, we’ve all always had them, but Killian thinks he’s the first one. Like he always thinks he invented everything.’

  ‘Yeah, I know, like it’s so annoying.’

  Lex leaned on me to peek over the car bonnet.

  ‘Do teenagers always talk like that?’ she whispered. ‘Are we going to end up talking like that when we go to secondary school?’

  ‘I’d rather eat my own arm,’ I replied.

  ‘This is so boring my brain’s going numb,’ Nicholas said, readjusting his feet. ‘And so are my legs.’

  ‘We just need to get to that backpack,’ I said. ‘If it’s wider than forty centimetres, then it was big enough to hide the weather vane.’

  ‘How are you going to check?’ said Nicholas. ‘Are you planning to mug her in broad daylight?’

  ‘No.’

  ‘Then what?’

  I reached into my pocket and pulled out a measuring tape.

  ‘Are your pockets like Mary Poppins’ bag?’ said Nicholas. ‘Can you just pull anything out of them?’

  ‘It’s not magic, Nicholas,’ I said, looking down at him. ‘I’m just prepared. Like any brilliant detective should be.’

  ‘Well, brilliant detective, how are you planning to measure Tara’s backpack without her or Bianca noticing?’

  That was a good question.

  ‘You two are going to have to distract them,’ I said.

  ‘How?’ said Lex.

  ‘You could have a fight. Yeah! A big shouty fight, and while they’re watching I’ll sneak up behind Tara and measure her backpack.’

  ‘Fight about what?’ said Lex.

  ‘I don’t know, anything. Just improvise.’

  ‘I can’t improvise. I’ll say the wrong thing.’

  ‘You can’t say the wrong thing,’ said Nicholas. ‘That’s what’s so great about improvising. You just go with the flow, say whatever you want – there are no wrong lines.’

  ‘I can’t.’ Lex was already looking scared. ‘I-I-I’ll say something wrong. I can’t make it look real.’

  Nicholas sighed. ‘What if Cass and I have the fight, and you measure Tara’s bag?’

  ‘Okay.’

  ‘But what will we fight about?’ I asked, suddenly feeling like I was on the spot. ‘We need to decide.’

  ‘No we don’t,’ said Nicholas. ‘That’s what’s so great about improvising–’

  ‘We have to agree on something to fight about, Nicholas, otherwise it won’t look real.’

  ‘It doesn’t matter what you say, that’s the point. Just go with it.’

  ‘Oh really? Doesn’t matter at all? So if I said … I’m mad at you for wearing a frog as a hat, would that work? Can you improvise a fight about that, Nicholas?’

  ‘They’re coming this way!’ Lex suddenly hissed.

  ‘Nicholas, move!’ I snapped as Bianca and Tara crossed the road towards the car. ‘Crawl around to the back. Go, go!’

  ‘My legs are dead!’ Nicholas was trying to get out of sitting cross-legged without using his feet.

  ‘Move!’

  I pushed on Lex, who tried to lift Nicholas, who knocked her into me; I tipped back and sprawled over the curb, right in front of the car.

  ‘Eh.’ Bianca stood over me with a weird look on her face. ‘What are you doing, Cass?’

  Like a flash I zipped open a length of the measuring tape and pressed it to the road.

  ‘Checking for sinkholes.’

  ‘For what?’

  ‘Sinkholes. You know, sinkholes can appear anywhere at anytime. They’re these giant holes in the ground that just open up all of a sudden and swallow everything above them. I’m just, eh …’ I pretended to carefully read the measuring tape. ‘I’m just checking these cracks in the road. Checking they’re not getting bigger.’ I squinted up at Bianca and Tara. ‘Just making sure there isn’t a sinkhole on the way.’

  Tara turned to Bianca. ‘The kids on your street are weird.’

  ‘You have no idea,’ said Bianca.

  They were walking away when suddenly Nicholas popped up in front of them.

  ‘Ow!’ he yelled, suddenly grabbing his shin. ‘Ow, my leg! I think it’s broken.’

  ‘What?’ said Bianca. ‘How did you break your leg?’

  ‘Just there. Just now, when I fell. I think it’s definitely broken. Can you call my dad?’ He gestured to the phone in Tara’s hand.

  ‘Your house is ri
ght over there,’ Bianca said.

  ‘I can’t walk that far. Can you please call my dad? Please? The number’s O84 … no, wait … yeah, no, it’s 084, then I think 93 … no, wait …’

  While Bianca and Tara were distracted by Nicholas, I crept up behind Tara and held the measuring tape to her backpack. Twenty-nine centimetres. Not wide enough to fit the weather vane. Over Tara’s shoulder I shook my head at Nicholas.

  ‘Actually,’ he said, standing straight, ‘I think it’s fine. Yeah, it’s actually fine. Must have been a cramp or something. Thanks anyway.’

  Tara frowned at Bianca as the two of them walked away. ‘The kids on your street are seriously weird.’

  ‘Good work,’ I said to Nicholas, ‘but her bag’s not big enough.’

  ‘If the Time Lords didn’t take it,’ said Lex, ‘where did the weather vane go?’

  I had no idea.

  Chapter Thirteen

  Our garden plots at Shady Oaks were nearly finished. I felt really bad about how long Operation Stolen Locket was taking, especially because I saw my dad comforting Carmella in the garden. She’d been crying.

  ‘She noticed her locket was gone again,’ my dad told me when I asked.

  Poor Carmella. It must have been awful to forget and then remember it like it had just happened.

  Inside the centre, I wandered around aimlessly looking for inspiration. How could I find the locket thief?

  I wandered past Mr Fox’s room, and the yellow pictures on the walls were so inviting I knocked on the open door.

  ‘Can I come in?’ I asked.

  ‘If you want.’

  Mr Fox was sitting by the window, reading.

  ‘I did a collage at school,’ I told him. ‘It wasn’t as good as your yellow rose, but it was only my first go. I’ll get better at it.’

  ‘Good for you.’

  Mr Fox didn’t seem in the mood to chat, so I looked around at all his gorgeous pictures. He made every kind – collages, paintings, photographs, drawings – and loads of them had yellow roses in them. There was the bronze-brown collage, a painting of a really tall bunch of roses, and a single massive yellow rose in the middle of the wall – it had a gold centre, and curly sheets of yellow paper were the petals, so it was 3D.

  Mr Fox even had a vase of real yellow roses on his chest of drawers.

  ‘Lovely flowers,’ I said. ‘Where’d you get them?’

  ‘The garden.’

  ‘Hmm.’

  He still wasn’t in the mood to chat, but I didn’t want to leave right away – the room was too lovely – so I stayed for a few more minutes until a magpie landed on the windowsill outside and made this loud chattery, squawk.

  ‘Grr,’ Mr Fox said, and rapped on the window. ‘Magpies.’

  The bird flew off.

  ‘I like magpies,’ I said. ‘They’re really sure of themselves – like crows.’

  ‘They’re too loud,’ said Mr Fox, ‘and there’s too many of them.’

  ‘Around here, you mean?’ I said, suddenly interested. ‘There are a lot of magpies around Shady Oaks?’

  ‘Isn’t that what I just said?’

  I smiled.

  ‘Thanks Mr Fox, you’ve been a great help.’

  He gave me a crooked look. ‘Whatever.’

  I’d fallen through the giant winding worm tunnel, all the way through the earth, and down into Dungeon World. Don’t feel sorry for me – I jumped in on purpose. My friend was missing, and I had to save her.

  It was quiet in the Swamp of Lost Souls, but I’d have to keep my wits about me. There were lots of icky creatures hiding in the muddy waters; sticky blue lizards, underwater weasels, fiery cockroaches … not to mention the Lost Souls.

  ‘Quick!’ Lex ran at me from across the green. ‘They’re right behind me! Run.’

  ‘What’s right behind you?’ I yelled, confused.

  ‘The Lost Souls!’

  ‘But wait,’ I said as Lex flew past me, ‘I haven’t rescued you yet!’

  I chased her over the green, nearly hitting Nicholas on the way.

  ‘I thought you were stuck in the dungeons?’ I said.

  ‘You were taking too long to get to the dungeons, so I came to the swamp instead.’

  He ran after Lex.

  ‘Wait!’

  I finally caught up with both of them at the end of the green, and I was really out of breath.

  ‘Lex,’ I gasped, ‘I was supposed to rescue you.’

  ‘I know, but it was taking ages and it was boring just sitting on the ground. I decided to escape instead.’

  ‘But you didn’t have the ring of power.’

  ‘No, I just used a dagger to cut the ropes.’

  I sighed. ‘They were supposed to be enchanted ropes – a regular dagger shouldn’t have worked on them.’

  ‘I know, but I was bored.’

  ‘If we’re going to be in different parts of Dungeon World,’ said Nicholas, ‘then you need to move faster, Cass. Otherwise me and Lex are wasting the game just sitting around.’

  I didn’t bother arguing (I was too out of breath to try anyway).

  It was Saturday. The Bubble Street Gang were taking a break from our two operations (any decent detective will tell you that if you want to be good at work, then it is also essential to rest and play. We’d already rested by watching a movie in Lex’s house, and now we were playing. Though I was so exhausted it kind of felt like work).

  ‘I’m tired,’ I said.

  ‘Already?’ said Lex. ‘Want to play something else instead?’

  ‘Anything where I don’t have to run.’

  We decided to head to the clubhouse. Halfway across the green we met Graham walking Mr McCall’s dogs.

  ‘If it isn’t the investigators! How are you lot getting on?’

  ‘Hey Graham,’ I said, ‘we’re fine. We haven’t figured out what happened to your weather vane yet, but we’re still working on it.’

  ‘Really? Well aren’t you brilliant. I’d better fill you in on the latest development in the case then.’

  ‘What’s that?’

  Graham took a quick look around, then whispered dramatically, ‘They’ve struck again!’

  ‘What?’

  ‘Seriously. Bought a replacement weather vane – just put it up yesterday – and it’s gone already.’

  ‘No way!’

  ‘I know,’ he nodded. ‘Shocking stuff. No weather vane is safe apparently.’

  ‘That changes everything!’ I said.

  ‘It does? Well,’ Graham reined in the dogs that were getting a bit jumpy, ‘I’ll leave it to the professionals. If you find the culprit, you let me know.’

  ‘We will.’

  We waved as Graham walked on with the dogs.

  ‘Does it?’ asked Lex. ‘Change everything, I mean.’

  ‘Of course,’ I said. ‘It means it’s got nothing to do with the scavenger hunt. It never had anything to do with the scavenger hunt. Someone wanted the weather vane itself. Bad enough to steal it.’

  ‘But why?’ said Nicholas. ‘What’s so special about a weather vane? And why steal two of them?’

  ‘I don’t know,’ I said. ‘But I’m going to find out.’

  Chapter Fourteen

  I was halfway up a very tall tree. It hadn’t looked that tall when I started, but now that my arms were getting tired and there were still miles of branches above me, I realised it was a very tall tree.

  Lex was already at the top of her tree.

  ‘You okay, Cass?’

  ‘Yep,’ I said, grunting with the effort of the climb. ‘I’m fine. Don’t make me talk.’

  ‘Okay, sorry. Nicholas, you okay?’

  ‘Yeah, I’m grand.’

  Nicholas was in the tree next to me, and that one seemed to have an inbuilt ladder; he was climbing almost as fast as Lex.

  I finally reached the last big branch. It kind of curved out from the trunk, so I was able to sit into it, like a hammock, and have a rest.

&
nbsp; ‘See anything in those nests, Lex?’ I asked.

  We were investigating magpie nests. There were a bunch of them in the trees, and I was sure one of them had Carmella’s gold locket in it. Everybody knows that magpies steal shiny things – I’ve read it in loads of books.

  ‘Hang on.’ Lex grabbed a long twig and tiptoed out onto a branch like a tightrope walker.

  ‘Don’t touch the nests,’ I said. ‘And if there are any eggs or chicks in them, don’t touch them either.’

  ‘I know,’ Lex said, peering over a fork of twigs to see into one nest. ‘Nothing shiny in there. Just twigs and brown-looking stuff.’

  ‘Next one then,’ I said, still resting on the hammock branch.

  It was Sunday and my dad wasn’t working that day, but I pestered him so much about knowing exactly where Carmella’s locket was that he eventually agreed to drive the three of us to Shady Oaks. While we stayed in the garden, Dad had gone inside for a cup of tea – I was glad because I hadn’t mentioned that we’d be climbing the old trees in the corner and I’m not sure he would have been happy about it.

  ‘Cass, look!’

  Nicholas was pointing towards the fountain.

  Edwina Barnes was sitting at a picnic table, and Mr Klein was handing her a package wrapped in colourful paper.

  ‘Uh-oh,’ I said, ‘here it comes. The worst birthday present ever. She’s going to hate it.’

  ‘Do you think so?’ said Nicholas.

  ‘Unfortunately for Mr Klein, I do. Ms Barnes likes fancy jewellery – and that necklace is a disaster.’

  ‘Poor Mr Klein,’ Lex said, taking a break from the nests.

  We watched as Ms Barnes unwrapped the gift. She paused for a second – here it comes, I thought – then her hands shot to her face and I could just hear,

  ‘Oh my goodness!’

  I was about to feel sorry for Mr Klein when Ms Barnes grabbed his arms and pulled him into a big bear hug. After she let go, she lifted the necklace to the light (and there was loads of necklace – there were giant brooches hanging off that thing), then put it over her head to hang around her neck.

  ‘Huh,’ I said.