We left the play area, and walked across the grass towards the football field. We were just going past the ice-cream stand, which was closed, when Frankie clutched my arm.
“Look!” she hissed.
We could hardly believe our eyes. The M&Ms were walking along the path ahead of us, arm in arm!
“It’s them!” Kenny hissed furiously. “It’s the Queen and the Goblin – they’re Katie Shaw!”
“And they’ve probably got the disk on them right now,” I whispered.
“Quick, after them!” Frankie said.
“I’m gonna push both of them into the duckpond!” Kenny said under her breath, as we began to run towards them. “Don’t try to stop me, anybody!”
“Hang on a minute.” Rosie had stopped dead, while the rest of us were still running.
“Come on, Rosie-Posie, or we might lose them!” Kenny yelled impatiently over her shoulder. In the distance we could see the M&Ms heading towards the park gate.
“Look!” Rosie beckoned us to come back, and pointed over at the football field. Two very familiar figures were knocking a football around. It was Ryan Scott and Danny McCloud!
“What are they doing here?” Kenny gasped.
“I dunno,” Rosie wailed, “but it could be them, couldn’t it? They could be Katie Shaw!”
We all groaned. It was pretty bad luck to see two of our best suspects at the same time. What were we supposed to do now?
“Me and Fliss’ll go after the M&Ms,” Kenny decided quickly. “And Frankie, you and Rosie and Lyndz go after Ryan and Danny.”
Fliss pouted. “Why can’t I stay with Frankie and the others?” she asked.
“Because you’ll turn to jelly if Ryan smiles at you!” Kenny said, grabbing her hand. “Come on!”
“Hold on a minute.” Frankie was staring through the railings at the street outside the park. “Who’s that?”
We all stared. Would you believe it, Catherine Shaw was walking along the pavement, eating a Wispa bar!
“Oh no!” Kenny slapped her forehead. “They’re all here!”
“What are we going to do now?” Frankie asked. “We can’t accuse them all of being Katie Shaw.”
“Maybe we should just send an email to her saying we want to set up another meeting,” Rosie suggested.
“Yeah, we could make it this afternoon,” Fliss said.
“And we can still try and catch them red-handed,” I added. “Then Tom will get his disk back in time to do the posters for the gig.”
“Good idea,” Kenny agreed. “Let’s go back to my place – it’s closest.”
We all trailed out of the park, and headed for the McKenzie house. It was pretty frustrating to know that one of our suspects might even have had the disk on them when we saw them a few minutes ago. But Frankie was right. We couldn’t go around accusing everyone of being Katie Shaw. Not unless we had some proof anyway.
Kenny’s mum let us in when we rang the doorbell.
“Did you have a good sleepover, girls?” she asked, then took a closer look at us. “My goodness, you look like you were up all night!”
“Don’t be silly, Mum,” Kenny said, trying to smother this absolutely enormous yawn. Of course, that set us all off yawning then.
“Yes, I can see you all look bright-eyed and bushy-tailed,” Mrs McKenzie said, raising her eyebrows.
“Mum, is it all right if we use the computer?” Kenny asked quickly, before Mrs M had time to ask any more awkward questions.
Her mum nodded. “Your dad’s out on an emergency call, so there’s no-one in the study. And Molly’s out with Louise.”
“Good,” Kenny muttered, as we headed for her dad’s study. “We don’t want Molly the Monster finding out what’s going on – we’d never hear the end of it!”
Kenny’s dad’s a doctor, so the study’s full of all these gruesome charts and medical books. He’s even got a skeleton in there!
“That’s what Katie Shaw’s going to look like when I’ve finished with her!” Kenny joked, nodding at the skeleton as she switched the computer on.
“What shall we put in the email?” Rosie asked.
“We’ll just say that we couldn’t help being late, and we really want to arrange another meeting,” Frankie said.
“What’s the matter, Kenny?” Fliss wanted to know. Kenny had logged on to our site, and was staring at the messages section.
“We’ve got a new message from Katie Shaw!” she said, looking puzzled.
“What?” I frowned. “That was quick, seeing as we’ve only just got back from the park ourselves.”
“Maybe she sent it before she left for the park this morning,” Rosie suggested.
“Quick, open it up, Kenny, and have a look,” Frankie urged her. “The email will have the time it was sent on it.”
Kenny clicked on the email.
“It was sent at ten-fifteen this morning,” she told us, pointing at the time and the date.
“But we were in the park until ten past ten, and so were the others,” Frankie pointed out. “How could any of them have got back in time to send this email at ten-fifteen?”
“Emma Hughes lives quite close to the park,” Kenny said doubtfully. “But I dunno if she’d have had time to get home, put the computer on and send an email, all in five minutes.”
“What about Ryan and Danny?” Rosie asked.
“Ryan lives in Stamford Close,” Fliss piped up, then blushed as we all turned to look at her. “I just happen to remember that,” she said hastily.
“And Danny lives near me,” I said. “I don’t know where Catherine Shaw lives.”
Frankie was staring at the screen, her eyes almost popping out of her head. “Have you read the email?” she asked.
You weren’t on time this morning, so the price goes up again. How if s DOUBLED! If you want the disk back, if s going to cost you twenty-two pounds, and if you don’t pay up, I’ll give the disk back to Tom Collins, and tell him EXACTLY how you lost it!
We were all fuming, especially Kenny.
“I’m totally fed up with this!” she yelled.
“Let’s just write back and tell her to get lost,” Rosie suggested. “After all, Tom’s doing a new poster, and we don’t need all this hassle.”
“Yeah, but then we won’t find out who it is,” Frankie pointed out. “Not unless we arrange another meeting.”
“But what if Katie Shaw goes and tells Tom what happened?” I said anxiously. “I’m going to be in doom forever. And my parents are going to kill me – if Tom doesn’t first!”
“I think we should stick to our original plan,” Fliss said. “I think we should go along and pretend to leave the money, and then find out who it is.”
“I’m with Rosie,” Kenny grumbled. “Even if we try and catch her, how do we know it’ll work? She might be so mad that we’ve left fake money, she’ll just go and tell Tom anyway.”
“Maybe I should just confess to Tom right now,” I said. “Then we can tell Katie Shaw to get lost.”
We just didn’t know what to do. There were so many things to think about, our heads were spinning.
“Look, don’t reply to that email yet, Kenny,” Frankie said. “Not until we’ve decided what we’re going to do.”
“OK,” Kenny replied, switching the computer off. “Let’s go up to my room, and we can talk about it.”
We all trailed gloomily out of the study, and up the stairs. Molly the Monster was at her friend’s so we had the room to ourselves.
“I’m sick of Molly’s mess,” Kenny said, picking a huge heap of clothes off the floor, and dumping them on Molly’s bed. “Honestly, if it wasn’t for her, this room would be really tidy.”
“Oh, yeah?” Frankie raised her eyebrows as she stepped over a pair of Kenny’s trainers lying in the middle of the floor on top of a pair of jeans.
“So what are we going to do?” I asked. “About Katie Shaw?”
“We either tell her to get lost or we try and catch her,” Rosi
e said. “That seems to be pretty much it.”
“Yeah, and I reckon she’s had enough fun with us,” Kenny said grimly. “It’s about time we put a stop to it!”
“Don’t you want to know who it is, Kenny?” Frankie asked.
“’Course I do,” Kenny shrugged. “But even if we find out who it is, she might still drop us right in it with Tom.”
“I don’t want that if I can help it,” I added. “Hic!”
“Now look what you’ve done,” Frankie said to Kenny. “You’ve given Lyndz hiccups.”
“Sorry – hic!” I gulped. “It’s just that I’m really stressed out.”
“Hold your breath, Lyndz,” Fliss said, as Frankie started hunting around for something cold to put down my back.
The front door slammed, and there was the sound of footsteps running up the stairs. A moment later, Molly and her friend Louise came into the bedroom.
“Oh, not you lot again,” Molly sniffed. “Well, you can get out of here, NOW. Me and Louise have got homework to do.”
“Go into the study then.” Kenny glared at her. The mood she was in, you could see that she was ready for a fight! “We were here first.”
“Hic!” I said again, and clapped my hand over my mouth.
“Do you mind not hiccuping your horrible germs all over my bedroom?” Molly said, and she and Louise sniggered.
“You leave Lyndz alone,” Kenny scowled, as Molly picked up her schoolbag and began pulling books out of it.
“Hic!” I got up and started walking around the room, trying to hold my breath. Suddenly Frankie came up behind me and slapped me on the back, hard. I wasn’t expecting it at all. I stumbled forward, and banged straight into Louise, who wasn’t expecting it either. She stumbled forward, and bumped straight into Molly’s bedside table. All the stuff on it flew off, including the bedside light, an empty glass and a little wooden box, painted with flowers.
“You stupid idiot, Lyndz!” Molly yelled, red-faced. “Look what you’ve done!”
“Sorry, Lyndz,” Frankie apologised. “I thought if I took you by surprise, it might cure your hiccups!”
“It did,” I said, but I wasn’t bothered about that now. I was staring down at the carpet.
The lid of the little wooden box had flown off when it hit the floor, and a computer disk had fallen out. It was labelled:
There was silence in the room for about thirty seconds. Molly and Louise both turned a very deep red, and started shuffling their feet.
“The disk,” Kenny said faintly. She charged across the room and picked it up. “It is!” she said more loudly. “It’s Tom’s disk!”
She swivelled round, and glared at Molly and Louise. “It was you. You’re Katie Shaw!”
“So?” Molly jeered, obviously trying to make the best of it. “You lot are so stupid, you didn’t even know we had the disk. We had it right from the start. You dropped it here when you came round after the sleepover at Lyndz’s— OW!”
Kenny had lunged forward and given Molly a shove. She cannoned into Louise, and the two of them went flying on to the bed.
“Let me at them!” Kenny yelled, launching herself forward, but luckily Frankie and Rosie grabbed her arms and dragged her off.
“We really had you fooled,” Molly went on scornfully. “Didn’t we, Louise?”
“Yeah, we did,” Louise muttered in this weedy little voice. You could tell she was dead scared of Kenny!
“You knew that disk belonged to Tom,” Kenny roared. Her voice was muffled because Frankie and Rosie were pinning her to the bed, not letting her move. “You had no right to keep it!”
Suddenly the door opened.
“What on earth’s going on here?” Mrs McKenzie was standing there, frowning.
I glanced at Molly and Louise. They both looked pretty nervous, and that gave me an idea.
“Nothing, Mrs McKenzie,” Frankie said. “Just Molly and Kenny fighting, as usual.”
“You two!” Kenny’s mum sighed. “I don’t know why you can’t just get on with each other.” And she went out, shutting the door behind her.
“You’re just mad because we fooled you,” Molly taunted Kenny. “We win!”
“No, you don’t,” Fliss said hotly, “because we’ve got the disk back, and we haven’t paid you a penny. So there!”
“Yeah, Fliss is right.” Kenny looked a bit brighter. “You lose!”
Molly looked incredibly smug. “Not when we tell Tom Collins that you were the ones who nicked his disk!”
“You wouldn’t!” Kenny said, dismayed.
Molly grinned. “Watch me.”
I stepped forward into the middle of the room. “In that case, there’s only one thing we can do, Kenny,” I said. “I think we should go downstairs right away and tell your mum exactly what’s happened.”
This time it was Molly and Louise’s turn to look shocked.
“Lyndz! What are you talking about?” Kenny began, but I interrupted her.
“And then I think we should go and confess to Tom, and tell him exactly what happened,” I went on.
I could see that Frankie and the others were beginning to catch on, but Kenny was still too wound up to see where I was heading.
“I don’t get it, Lyndz,” she said crossly. “We’ll just get into a whole heap of trouble if we do that!”
“Well, Tom might be a bit upset at first,” I admitted. “But once we explain that we took the disk for a special surprise for his birthday, I think he’ll forgive us.” I stared hard at Molly the Monster and Louise, who were beginning to look very uncomfortable. “I reckon he’ll be much more annoyed with the people who found the disk and didn’t give it back!”
Kenny began to grin. “Yeah, you’re right, Lyndz!”
“And I don’t suppose your mum and dad would be too pleased if they knew Molly had tried to blackmail us,” I went on, playing my last and best card. “So, actually, I don’t think we’ll get into any trouble anyway. But I think Molly and Louise probably will!”
Louise glared at Molly. “I told you we shouldn’t have done all that,” she squeaked. “My sister’ll go mad if she finds out I’ve been using her email address!”
“You’re bluffing.” Molly stared straight back at me. “You wouldn’t go and tell my mum.”
I grinned. “Watch me!”
There was silence for a minute.
“OK,” Molly said through gritted teeth at last. “You don’t tell Mum and Dad, and we won’t tell Tom you took his disk.”
I looked at the others. “Deal?” I asked.
“Deal!” said Kenny, grinning all over her face. “Now who loses?”
Molly and Louise didn’t answer. Still red in the face, they flounced out of the room, and we heard them stomping off down the stairs. Then we all started laughing and doing high fives.
“That showed them!” Frankie grinned.
“It all makes sense now,” Kenny said. “Louise Ball lives right next to the park – that’s how they got back to her house so quickly to send the email. We must have just missed them. And I knew Louise had a sister who’s married – I just didn’t know her name was Katie Shaw.”
“You were so smart, Lyndz!” Rosie said admiringly. “You really showed Molly the Monster who’s boss.”
“Yeah, Lyndz, I didn’t know you could be so devious!” And Kenny slapped me on the back. “Oops!” she added, as the disk flew out of her hand and landed on the carpet.
“I think I’ll look after that from now on!” I said, picking it up. “And the first thing I’m going to do is give it back to Tom. Let’s go round to my place.”
“No, the first thing we’re going to do is copy the poster for the website,” Frankie said.
“OK,” I agreed. “But I’m not letting this disk out of my sight, until it’s safely back with Tom!”
* * *
“It’s my disk!”
Tom stared down at it, looking completely dazed as if he couldn’t believe his eyes. “Where did you get it?�
�
“Kenny found it,” I said. “It must have fallen into her sleepover bag by accident.” That was the story we’d agreed on.
“I’m really sorry, Tom,” Kenny added.
“No worries,” Tom said, still gazing at the disk as if he thought it was going to vanish into thin air or something. “Oh, this is cool. Now I can get the posters out on Monday. Thanks, girls.”
We slipped out of his bedroom, and grinned at each other.
“I know it’s not my turn, but can we have our sleepover here next Friday night?” I asked the others. “I really want you to be here when I show Tom the Aztec website.”
“Sure, no problem,” everyone agreed.
“Hey, aren’t the band playing at the comp that Friday night?” Rosie asked.
I nodded.
“Wouldn’t it be great if we could go along and see them?” Fliss suggested.
Well, everyone went wild at that idea, so of course, I had to go and ask my dad, didn’t I? He wasn’t sure at first, but we all promised to be really good and not get in the way. In the end he said he could sneak us backstage so that we could see the gig, but then we had to go straight home. Cool or what?
So there we all were on Friday night, crammed in backstage at the school hall, watching Tom and his band playing a whole load of songs at the disco. We even managed to have a dance, although Kenny’s attempt at break-dancing wasn’t too successful – she nearly broke one of the stage lights!
It was really weird to see my brother on stage being a popstar, but it was great too. Everyone seemed to like them – they clapped and cheered for more, which was a bit awkward because the band only have about six songs, so they had to sing some of them again.
We were having a great time, so we didn’t really want to go home when Dad came to fetch us. But we’d promised to go without a fuss, so we all went back to my place and got into our jim-jams, and my mum made us some hot chocolate. Then we went up to bed, and had our midnight feast. Tom didn’t get back till after twelve, because the disco went on quite late, but we were still up, waiting for him. When we heard him come into the house, we rushed into his bedroom and put the computer on. Quickly we linked up to the Internet, and found the Aztec website. Frankie’s dad had put it on the Net that morning.
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