‘What if they’re thieves, and they’re getting Paul to find out when people who live in the street are going to be out?’
‘But why would they want to rob us? What have we got?’
‘Oh, I don’t think it’s us. At least, not just us. If you were a thief this street would be perfect because it backs onto the bush and it’s quiet. Not many passing cars or people. So I bet they picked this street, and then somehow found Paul, and then pressured him to find out as much information as he could about when people who live here are going to be out.’
‘That’s terrible,’ said Daisy. She thought a moment. ‘But quite clever. Much better than stumbling into a house and finding there’s someone there.’ Suddenly Daisy put her hand to her mouth. ‘Oh no!’
‘What?’
‘I told Paul that tomorrow morning there’s not going to be anyone here. Not even you.’
‘I know.’
‘Does that mean we’re going to get robbed tomorrow morning?’
‘If Paul tells the old man what you just told him, then … I think there’s a pretty good chance.’
‘Yikes,’ said Daisy. ‘We’d better tell Dad.’
Ben’s eyes widened, which made him look like he was raising his eyebrows – but he wasn’t, because dogs don’t have eyebrows. They have fur.
‘You’re right,’ said Daisy, ‘bad idea.’
Daisy’s mum had told Daisy that her father was ‘highly strung’ and had ‘an anxious disposition’. Daisy wasn’t exactly sure what that meant, but she did know that her dad broke out in a nervous sweat every time he had to go into a shop, usually hid at the back of the house when there was a knock at the door and drove so slowly that his car was regularly overtaken by cyclists and joggers.
Last week it had taken him an hour and a half to work up the courage to climb up on a chair and change a light bulb. Her father was kind, good-hearted and gentle, and Daisy loved him, but if you wanted a cool head in a crisis, you’d be better off with a lettuce. If she told him that their house was going to be robbed tomorrow, he would probably fall to his knees and start hitting his head against the floor and wailing, ‘Oonga! Oonga! Oonga!’ And that wouldn’t help much. ‘What about the police?’ asked Daisy. ‘They could ambush them and catch them red-handed.’
‘Why would they have red hands?’
‘No, it’s just an expression.’
‘Really? Weird,’ said Ben. ‘But if we went to the police, wouldn’t they just speak to your dad?’
‘You’re right. And he’d freak.’
‘Either that, or the police wouldn’t believe you. They’d probably think you were imagining it all. It’s not as if we have any evidence.’
‘What do we do then?’ asked Daisy.
‘How about we do my very favourite thing. Nothing. We go to Eliza and Miranda’s house as planned and if we get robbed, we get robbed. What are they going to get? An old TV? It’s not even a flat screen, which, frankly, in this day and age is disgraceful. A computer? My bowl?’
‘We can’t do that! We can’t just let them rob us.’
‘But the only way to stop them is to tell your dad.’
‘Not necessarily,’ said Daisy, a determined expression on her face.
‘Oh no,’ Ben groaned, covering his head with his paws. He knew that look. It was the one that meant trouble.
‘Now, darling, you have a lovely time,’ said Brian Malone as he very carefully brought the car to a stop outside Eliza’s house. It was in a quiet, suburban tree-lined street not far from Daisy’s own. ‘Be careful. If anything goes wrong, call me on the mobile. Do you know the number?’
‘Yes, Dad. You know I know the number,’ said Daisy.
‘Now, I have a meeting at half past ten.’
‘That’s great, Dad. I hope it’s exciting.’
‘That was sarcasm, wasn’t it, Daisy? I’m not mad on sarcasm, you know.’
Daisy smiled inwardly. She had been wanting to try sarcasm for a while and that had been her first attempt. It had worked!
‘During my meeting I’ll have to put my mobile on silent,’ continued Brian Malone, ‘but I’ll check it every few minutes to see if there is a missed call or a text message. And Eliza’s mother will drop you home at two o’clock. I will be home at the usual time, but you’ll be all right until then, won’t you?’
‘Dad, I’m always all right.’
‘What about that time we had to rush you to hospital and we only just got there in time?’
‘That was when I was being born.’
‘Yes, but it gave me a nasty shock. It took me weeks to recover.’
‘I’ll be fine, Dad.’ Daisy leant over and kissed him on the cheek. ‘Love ’oo.’
‘I love you too. I’ll wait until I see you go in.’
Daisy knew he would say that. This was going to be tricky, but she and Ben had a plan. They walked through Eliza’s large front garden and up three steps onto her porch. Her front door was at one end of the porch, but crucially, at that end of the porch a wall came around it at the front, which meant that from the street you couldn’t see the front door. If Brian Malone was looking – and Daisy knew that he would be – he would see Daisy and Ben vanish from sight, blocked by the wall, about three steps before they entered the front door.
Daisy stepped out of her dad’s view towards the door, raised her hand, but did not knock. Then, as if she was waiting for the door to open, she stepped back so that, once again, she could be seen by her dad.
‘On the count of three,’ she whispered to Ben out of the side of her mouth. ‘One. Two. Three.’
Daisy smiled, mimed saying ‘Hi’ and waved as if Eliza had just opened the door. Then she took two rapid steps forward and abruptly stopped, her nose pressed up against the front door. Ben squeezed next to her.
They had to stay there until they were sure Brian Malone had driven off and, of course, Brian Malone being Brian Malone, always took ages to start the car and get going.
Daisy heard voices inside the house. It was Eliza and her mother. Then she heard a dog barking, and light footsteps approaching the front door.
‘It’s Miranda!’ whispered Ben. ‘She’s smelt me!’ He couldn’t help but feel excited. Miranda was a hot dog!
Daisy heard the car’s engine splutter, and then start.
Miranda was pawing at the inside of the front door, still barking. Louder footsteps approached the door.
‘What is it, girl?’ said Eliza’s mother. ‘You’re excited about seeing Benny, aren’t you?’
Despite the circumstances, Ben felt a warm glow inside.
The car’s engine revved and drove off. Its noise faded into the distance. In another few seconds Brian Malone would be gone.
‘I don’t think Benny’s here yet, girl,’ said Eliza’s mother.
Daisy breathed a sigh of relief.
‘But let’s have a look, just to be sure.’
Her relief turned to horror. Daisy turned and fled from the porch into the garden, desperately hoping her dad’s car was out of sight, or at least that he was not looking in the rear-view mirror. She heard the door open, and dived behind a rosebush, Ben right behind her.
‘See. Not here yet,’ said Eliza’s mum.
Miranda padded into the garden and came around the rosebush, face to face with Ben and Daisy.
Ben gave Miranda a long look, and then pointed at Daisy with his front paw, wagged his tail three times and brought his paw up to his mouth and sniffed. Miranda stood still for a few moments, and then turned and padded back up the steps to the porch and through the front door.
As soon as they heard the door shut, Daisy and Ben scuttled out of the yard and down the street back towards Daisy’s house.
Chapter 4
A GLOW IN THE ATTIC
‘Well, it worked,’ said Daisy, slowing t
o a brisk walking pace as they turned a corner.
‘Thanks to me. Again,’ said Ben.
‘What did you say to Miranda to convince her not to bark when she saw us?’
‘It’s not “saying” exactly. It’s more a body language, vibe thing.’
‘… And?’
‘I just let her know not to worry, everything was fine and I would … umm … ’
‘Yes?’
‘I’d be back to smell her bottom soon.’
‘Yuck!’
‘Don’t be so judgemental. That’s just what we do. It’s a nice thing, like saying “hello”.’
When they reached their street, they walked cautiously along it until they could see their house. They hid behind a tree and looked about for any suspicious-looking people or cars, although what a suspicious car would look like Daisy didn’t know. Maybe one that was wearing sunglasses and a fake moustache. But not only were there not any suspicious-looking people in their street, there weren’t any people on the street at all. Just in case, they decided to stick to their plan and enter the back way. They slipped down a laneway between numbers 8 and 10 and onto the bush track behind the houses, and were soon standing at their back gate.
Given that they had only been away from the house for about fifteen minutes, Daisy thought it was unlikely that the robbers, if that was what the two men they had seen with Paul in fact were, were already inside. But it was possible. Ben had a good, strong sniff under the gate.
‘They definitely haven’t come in this way,’ he said. ‘But if they came in the front I wouldn’t be able to smell them.’
Daisy gulped. She could still back out, head back to Eliza’s and have a wonderful morning bouncing on the trampoline, making up a play, and stuffing as many pieces of the world’s best home-made coconut slice into herself as possible.
The other option was to sneak into their own house and spend the morning hiding in the attic waiting for thieves. Suddenly Ben spun around and stared along the bush track.
‘Someone’s coming!’
Daisy’s heart leapt into her mouth, but she quickly swallowed it again and hoped it would find its way back to where hearts are supposed to be. She only had a split second to make her decision. She opened the back gate and hurried in, Ben on her heels, then ran to the back porch and grabbed the spare key from under a flowerpot that was actually just a pot because it didn’t have any flowers in it. She unlocked the back door, and then locked it behind them.
‘Up to the attic,’ she said.
‘Not yet,’ replied Ben quickly. ‘You have to call Eliza’s mum and say you’re too sick to come, or else she’ll call your dad. If it’s the thieves, we’ve still got a minute or two. They’ll check the place out before they enter, then they’ll have to get through the back door. Quick.’
Daisy grabbed the phone. Luckily she knew Eliza’s number off by heart. Eliza’s mum answered on the third ring.
‘Hello, Mrs Dawson. It’s Daisy here. I’m so sorry but I’m sick and I won’t be able to come to play this morning.’
‘Whoa! Daisy, slow down. You’re speaking so fast I can’t understand a word you’re saying. Are you all right?’
‘Yes, I’m fine. Except I’m sick. But not too sick. So don’t worry. But too sick to play.’
Ben’s ears pricked up and he turned to face the back door. ‘They’re coming,’ he whispered.
‘All right, Daisy, well Eliza will be upset, but …’
‘I have to go, I’m going to vomit,’ said Daisy, and slammed down the phone. Footsteps approached the back door. It wasn’t the sturdiest door around. Daisy guessed that a few hefty shoulder charges would cave it in. She crept along the hallway towards the front of the house. The entrance to the attic was a few steps inside the front door. A ladder led up to it, but it only did that when it was unfolded, and right now it wasn’t. It lay folded in three pieces along the ceiling. A grabbing stick hung down, but it only really worked as a grabbing stick if you were adult-sized. For Daisy it was less of a grabbing stick and more of a stare-up-at-it-and-realise-that-the-brilliant-idea-you-had-of-hiding-in-the-attic-had-one-big-problem-namely-that-there-was-no-way-of-pulling-down-the-ladder stick. She jumped for it, but didn’t even get close. Even Brian Malone could only reach it on tippy toes. There was a rattling at the back door. Daisy picked Ben up, whispered ‘Grab it,’ and then, before he had time to say something unhelpful like, ‘Don’t throw me in the air!’ she threw him in the air. As Ben reached the top of his flight path, he grasped the grabbing stick in his teeth and, as he fell, pulled the ladder down. As Ben crashed into the polished floorboards, Daisy caught the ladder.
‘Why didn’t you catch me?’ hissed Ben.
‘Because the ladder hitting the ground would have made more noise than you hitting it,’ Daisy hissed back. ‘Come on!’
Not having arms, hands or even fingers, Ben wasn’t very good at climbing ladders, so Daisy scooped him up and started to pull herself up one-handed. On the third step she realised she had forgotten the phone. Damn! The plan had been to call the police from the attic.
She reached the top of the ladder. Normally she would now hold on to the ladder with one hand and push open the trapdoor above her head with the other, but this time one of her hands was full of dog. Daisy leant into the ladder, grabbed the top rung with her teeth, then let go of the hand holding the ladder and tried not to imagine what her dentist would think if he could see her. Then again, if he could see her, surely he could have held Ben for a few seconds whilst she opened the trapdoor in the normal way, so her teeth would have been fine.
She reached above her head and pushed the trapdoor open, then grabbed the edge of the hole and climbed up into the attic. As she pulled the ladder up after her, she heard footsteps coming from the back of the house. Quickly she lowered the trapdoor back into position.
They’d done it! But then she realised what they’d done: trapped themselves in the attic of their house as thieves prowled about downstairs.
Daisy and Ben sat next to the trapdoor, breathing softly and listening hard. Enough light filtered in through the roof to allow them to see the statues, boxes, wood carvings, sculptures and old toys that surrounded them. One of the good things about having a mum who was an archaeologist was that she was always bringing home interesting stuff. Of course, one of the bad things about having a mum who was an archaeologist was that she was away a lot and Daisy missed her. (But let’s not harp on about that or Daisy might get sad and right now she really needs to focus on what’s happening. And so do you, so stop thinking about all that homework you haven’t done and pay attention.)
‘Where do we start, boss?’ The voice came from what sounded like almost directly below them and definitely belonged to Lots-of-Curly-Brown-Hair who, from now on, even though we don’t know his name, we shall call Dennis, because it’s easier than calling him Lots-of-Curly-Brown-Hair, and it uses four fewer capital letters and no hyphens, and conserving capital letters and hyphens is good for the environment.
‘I know,’ continued Dennis. ‘Let’s start at the front and work our way to the bottom. I’ll …’
‘You mean the back.’ That was White Beard’s voice. Again, for simplicity’s sake, let’s give him a shorter name. Let’s also call him Dennis. No, wait. That might get confusing. For example:
‘Come here, Dennis,’ said Dennis.
‘Okay, Dennis,’ replied Dennis. Dennis got up and walked across the room towards Dennis.
See? Not at all clear. So let’s call him something else. How about Cardboard? No. Bad name. I know! Until we know the man with the white beard’s real name, we’ll call him Sinclair.
‘You mean the back,’ said Sinclair.
‘No. The front,’ replied Dennis.
‘Yes,’ explained Sinclair patiently. ‘We start at the front and work our way to the back. Not the bottom.’
There was a pause during which Daisy could almost hear Dennis’s brain attempting to think. Then he said, ‘Oh, yeah. Okay. Well, I’ll go out the front and start in their garden. I’ll dig it right up.’
Footsteps headed towards the front door.
‘Stop, you idiot,’ ordered Sinclair. ‘You can’t go out the front. People will see you!’
‘So?’
‘We’re intruders. Robbers!’
‘Robbers! Where?! I’m scared of robbers!’
‘We’re the robbers, you idiot!’
There was a pause. ‘Oh yeah. Sorry.’
Sinclair let out an exasperated sigh. ‘Come on. We’ll start searching in here.’ Daisy heard a door swing open and then their voices became muffled. She guessed they had gone into one of the two rooms at the front of the house, either her parents’ bedroom, or the office they shared.
Daisy decided to try to get further towards the front of the house so she could better hear what was going on below. The only problem was that it was a lot darker up that end of the attic, and there was only a proper floor in a small part of it, near the trapdoor. The rest of the floor looked solid enough, but Daisy remembered her mum warning her that it was made out of plasterboard, and that if she stepped on it she would go right through it. There were, however, four wooden beams that ran up and down the attic that looked just wide enough to crawl along.
Daisy could hear sounds coming from below, in front of her and to her left, which meant that the thieves were in her parents’ office. She was now at the edge of the attic floor. She slid her hands out along one of the beams and very gently eased her weight down onto it to decrease the chance of the beam creaking, groaning, shrieking or otherwise making a fuss. It was about as wide as her leg and seemed solid enough. She slid along the beam a bit further, trying not to fall off. If she did, she would probably crash through the plasterboard into the room below and she was pretty sure that Sinclair and Dennis would notice that. Well, maybe not Dennis, he seemed a bit dim, but definitely Sinclair. She kept sliding along the beam, Ben right behind her. Up ahead was an air vent. She got a bit closer to it and could hear voices below.
Daisy Malone and the Blue Glowing Stone Page 3