The Arrowhead Moor Adventure

by Fleur Hitchcock

  Chloe took her chance. She grabbed a fishing net and threw it over the man. Josh took the other side and the lady with the pushchair hit him over the head with a plastic spade. Then they sat on him and waited for a passing family to help them get him back up the hill to the police car.

  With the help of two gardeners, and Bella’s teeth, Aiden tied Forty Grand’s hands together with his belt and between them all they led him back towards the main entrance. Their captive swore and kicked the whole way. When they reached the front, another police car had arrived, and Scottish Man was sitting looking desperate in the back.

  “Snotty kids,” said Forty Grand, kicking at a stone mushroom and wincing.

  Near the entrance to the garden a policewoman ran towards them. “Another one, eh?” she said, snapping a handcuff over one of his wrists and attaching the other end to a railing. “Well done, kids, you’re doing better than we are – look!”

  Aiden followed the direction of her pointing finger to the thatched hut. Three police officers were still trying to get the third man out. But with occasional roars and more smashing glass, wood and possibly police, it sounded like he was successfully fighting them off.

  “Will there be any more police cars?” Ava asked.

  The policewoman shook her head. “I’m afraid that’s all there are of us. I don’t expect any more will come. Still, they’ll have him in custody soon, and then we can all go home.”

  “It’s just…” began Ava.

  “There!” yelled Josh, pointing down the hill past the house to the lane.

  “Oh my god!” said Ava, brushing past the policewoman and tearing towards the visitor centre.

  “Oh no!” said Aiden, and handed Bella’s lead to the policewoman.

  “What?” said the policewoman, but she was too slow. All four of the cousins had begun to run, their feet pounding the grass, racing each other towards the red car that had just pulled in to the car park.

  There was no plan, but Aiden knew that they had to keep the woman there. He also knew that the moment she saw the policewoman with the handcuffed members of the gang she’d run and probably disappear forever. But how were they going to stop her?

  The woman clambered out of her car and looked around. She wore dark glasses and a hat, but this time she was wearing flat shoes and jeans and looked much more ordinary. In fact, if it hadn’t been for the car, Aiden wouldn’t have known who she was. Reaching into the back seat for a large black holdall, she checked her phone. It obviously didn’t tell her anything she didn’t already know and she wandered towards the main entrance.

  As she turned her back on the car, Josh emerged from behind the bins, swooped past the little plant sale area, grabbed a tall metal stake with a wonky robin on the end of it and threaded it through the holes in the two front wheels, connecting one side to the other and effectively disabling it.

  Genius, thought Aiden. When the woman tried to set off, the metal rod would tangle one side with the other. It probably wouldn’t do too much damage, but it would almost certainly stop her going anywhere. It was almost perfect. It was a shame about the metal robin apparently glued to the outside of the tyre, but Chloe, shooting out from behind Josh, had thought of that. She swooped over with an armful of grass cuttings that she artfully scattered around the tyre as a disguise. Both cousins melted back into their hiding places.

  The woman was searching her handbag while strolling across the gravel drive and hadn’t noticed any of this. With barely a break in her stride she wandered to the visitor centre and went inside.

  “Quick!” hissed Ava. “Chloe, Josh – the police.”

  Aiden watched his cousins slide through a narrow gap in the hedge and run round the side of the house. He and Ava stood up and followed the woman. If they kept her within arm’s reach, then hopefully they could stop her running away.

  The lone policewoman had somehow acquired a cup of tea and was chatting to a gardener. Chloe thought she looked far too relaxed for a woman guarding two jewel thieves.

  “We need you to arrest someone,” said Josh.

  “What? Another one?” she said. And then she said to the gardener. “These kids are amazing.”

  “Aren’t they just?” said the gardener, ruffling Josh’s hair.

  Josh shook off the hand. He hated people ruffling his hair.

  “We need you now,” said Chloe, pointing the policewoman in the right direction.

  “And why am I arresting her?” asked the policewoman.

  “For wearing stupid shoes?” suggested Josh.

  “Handling stolen goods,” said Chloe, pressing gently on her cousin’s foot.

  The policewoman marched into the visitor centre, and Chloe and Josh linked arms behind her, blocking the entrance into the garden. Opposite them Ava and Aiden did the same, closing off the other exit.

  The woman turned from one side to the other looking for an escape. “What’s going on?” she said, and then she spotted Chloe. “You!” she said. “You brat!” And she raised her handbag to swipe at her, but the policewoman grabbed her arm and clicked on the handcuffs. “Now, now – hitting a child, madam? Enough of that! I’m arresting you…”

  The man behind the counter in the visitor centre looked bewildered. “Jewel thieves,” said Josh casually, as if it happened every day, and the man nodded as if he understood.

  The woman with the red car was led away to the police car, and Ava watched her go. She wanted to know if they were going to find the rest of the diamonds. She wanted to know where the woman came from and who the diamonds had been stolen for. But she knew that was something she might actually have to leave to the police.

  The original policeman came down, dishevelled and sweating. “Was that man difficult to catch?” asked Josh.

  The policeman nodded. “Yes, very. But I think my colleagues have it under control – I just thought I’d buy you kids an ice cream each. To say thank you for all your hard work.”

  The man behind the counter opened the top of the freezer cabinet and the cousins reached in. Josh took a giant choc ice that Ava knew would melt before he got to the end, Chloe read each wrapper to make sure it was vegetarian, and Aiden chose something sensible and cheap.

  Ava chose an ice lolly. She was thirsty, and she was just eyeing up the bottles of cold drinks when she heard a shout from the garden. Looking up, she saw some sandwiches flying through the air as a woman staggered backwards towards the ornamental ponds, and she saw Bella break free from her lead and the huge bear man charging straight for them.

  The policeman stepped forward to block his path, but he was thrown aside by the man, who picked up speed and belted through to the visitor centre like an out-of-control bowling ball.

  The cousins handed their ice creams to the man behind the counter and lined the route.

  “Now!” yelled Aiden. Ava launched herself and clutched the man’s leg just behind the knee, while Aiden did the same on the other side. Simultaneously Josh and Chloe leaped up to grab his arms, so that by the time he cannoned into the leaflet carousel he was almost horizontal.

  Bella leaped in for the kill, closing her jaws round the man’s ear.

  “Wowee!” said Josh, appearing from under a mountain of leaflets. “That was close.”

  More police officers arrived. Some of them asked questions. Some of them poked around in the red car. The day grew hot.

  Two policemen in white suits crawled around in the bottom of the police car, searching for the diamonds that had flown out of the sock during the journey. Chloe watched them, thinking about her bike, and the ride home, and whether they would finish any time soon because it was turning into a lovely afternoon and they could go down to the beach at Moreham and paddle.

  “Can we go home yet?” she asked.

  “Not yet, I’m afraid,” said one of the policemen.

  “Check under the mats, and down the crack at the back of the seat,” said Josh, leaning in through the door of the police car.

  They ignored him, and soon
another man in a white all-over-suit-thing began to photograph and arrange the diamonds in a long string on a stone wall. He peered at them very carefully, counting and recounting.

  He looked over to the children, a frown on his face.

  “What’s the matter?” asked Ava.

  “Well, there’s one missing – has anyone taken it? A souvenir perhaps?”

  “No,” said Ava. “Just – no.”

  Josh’s eyes widened. “We’d never do something like that – it must be in the car somewhere.”

  It was when he leaned forward to peer inside the car that Chloe spotted a small glinting thing by his collar.

  “Oh!” she exclaimed, picking out what seemed to be a piece of glass.

  Josh stood open-mouthed. “What?” he said. “How?”

  “Ah, thank you,” said the policeman, smiling. “Thank you very much. Now you can all go home.”

  A police Land Rover gave them a lift back to the farm. Chloe stuck her arms out of the window, feeling the cool wind and the hot sun run through the gaps between her fingers. The countryside bounced past. Small lambs clustered around their mothers, and calves ran kicking and skipping over the fields. Fledglings dive-bombed the road behind. The countryside was beautiful and growing more amazing with every sunlit hour. Chloe felt huge untempered happiness at being here, at being part of it.

  They came up to the moor and went down the other side, and through the windscreen Drake’s Bay opened up in front of them, sunlight on the water, with Thorn Island sitting like a green jewel in a silver setting. A lone fishing trawler headed out from the harbour and disappeared into the bright shimmer of the horizon.

  The policewoman driving them pulled in to the farm track. “Well, if you’re sure you don’t want me to come in,” she said, stopping at the entrance. “I could tell your grandparents how totally brilliant you’ve been.”

  “Honestly,” said Aiden, “we don’t want to worry them. Thanks for the ice creams.”

  “And the lift,” said Chloe, handing down her bike and then Aiden’s. “I’ve had enough cycling for one day.”

  “Thank you all. Take care,” said the policewoman, swinging the Land Rover round and waving as she headed off up the hill.

  Aiden shoved the bikes back into the bike shed, and all four cousins wandered up to the farm, instantly hooked by the smell of baking that was floating out of the back door.

  “Delicious,” said Ava.

  “Yum,” said Chloe.

  “Mine,” said Josh, breaking into a trot that became a canter and finally a full-on gallop.

  “Goodness,” said Grandma, holding the back door open as they streamed past. “How do you children always know when the scones are out of the oven?”

  For a moment they all sat quietly, concentrating on spreading rich cream across the hot scones.

  “Cream then jam,” said Josh, slapping the thick white cream over the scone and then dropping a dab of raspberry jam in the middle.

  “Nah – jam then cream,” said Aiden, melting the jam into the scone and arranging a delicate circle of cream on top.

  “Either way,” said Ava, taking a huge bite and smearing cream across her chin while the others laughed.

  Chloe thought how different eating scones round the table was from chasing jewel thieves across the countryside. She spread jam on the cream and nibbled the edge, savouring the flavour.

  The cousins sank back into their chairs and chewed, and rubbed their scuffed knees and elbows and said nothing.

  “Oh, I’ve just remembered,” said Grandma, sitting down at the table. “We had a phone call from the police. Guess what?”

  Panicked, Aiden looked across at Ava. “I can’t. What is it?”

  “Apparently, Ava dear, it was you that found the sheep! And Arrowhead Moor House would like to reward you for finding them, so they’ve offered you all free tickets to the Arrowhead Moor House Adventure. Isn’t that marvellous?” She looked round the table. None of the cousins looked very excited.

  “Goodness, you’re all very cool about it,” said Grandpa. “When I was your age I’d have been thrilled to win an adventure. Apparently you get to follow loads of clues and go on a zip wire.”

  “It’s just—” started Josh.

  Ava kicked him under the table. “It’s just that we’ve had a very exciting time already this holiday.”

  “Have you?” said Grandpa. “What’s happened so far then?”

  “Um…” Ava looked round the table.

  “We caught the jewel thieves,” said Josh. “It was reeeally dangerous.”

  “Did you?” said Grandma, laughing and not believing a word. “That’s terrific. I love your stories, Josh.” She ruffled his hair.

  Josh glared.

  “Where did you find the sheep?” Grandpa wiped a blob of cream from his plate and popped it in his mouth.

  “They were in the conservatory at Sunny Grange House.”

  “How marvellous! But how did you find them there?” asked Grandpa. “I thought that place was closed for the spring?”

  Ava stared desperately at Chloe.

  “We were walking past?” said Chloe, glancing desperately at Aiden.

  “What’s the weather going to be like tomorrow?” said Aiden, jumping up from the table and switching on the radio.

  “And, in further news, after a dramatic series of arrests in an ornamental garden, the gang that stole the Eliza Necklace have been captured and the necklace recovered. Malcolm Angus reports from the scene…”

  Aiden turned down the volume. “Actually, Grandma, that Arrowhead Moor House Adventure thing sounds really exciting,” he said. “How do we get it? Do we all have to go up there? We could set off now if you like.”

  Hours later, after Grandpa had driven Ava and Chloe to Arrowhead Moor House and they’d come back with the tickets for the adventure, and when they’d eaten some chocolate and Josh had eaten all the chocolate that he could possibly stuff in his mouth, they lay in their tree house staring up at the blue tarpaulins and listening to a little fresh spring rain pattering on the plastic.

  “That was an awesome twenty-four hours,” said Aiden. “Scary and excellent.”

  “I can’t believe that Little Miss Perfect broke into a house,” said Josh.

  “If you mean me, I don’t believe it either,” said Ava, flapping her face with her hand.

  “And weren’t those diamonds amazing?” said Chloe. “I mean, they belonged to Queen Victoria. Queen Victoria might actually have worn them.”

  “S’pose so,” said Josh, unimpressed.

  They gazed out at the rain.

  “It was …” started Ava, “… sooooo exciting. Racing through the lanes with the siren and the car all over the place was…” She shivered at the memory.

  Josh rolled on to his back. He said something that the others couldn’t quite hear.

  “What?” asked Ava.

  “Isn’t that why we’re here?” He rolled back over, crossed his legs and sat up. “This farm, this bay. This countryside where all the adventures happen.” He stood up and filled the entrance of their shelter, stretching his arms wide so that they reached both sides. He laughed and then shouted, “We’re probably in the very best place in the whole world!”

  Copyright

  First published in the UK in 2019 by Nosy Crow Ltd

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  Nosy Crow and associated logos are trademarks and/or registered

  trademarks of Nosy Crow Ltd

  Text copyright © Fleur Hitchcock, 2019

  Cover illustration copyright © Tom Clohosy Cole, 2019

  The right of Fleur Hitchcock to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by her in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

  All rights reserved

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