How Ali Ferguson Saved Houdini (16 page)

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Chapter 32

The air outside was delicious, fresh and cold. Ali took great lungfuls. Mum was safe. But Dave wasn't. They had to find him. Caitlin had already grabbed her bike from its hiding place. Ali and Gez followed suit. Then they were pedalling as hard as they could, bouncing over potholes and churning loose stones into the air. Falcon ran alongside, panting, with her tongue lolling out of the side of her mouth.

Caitlin kept ahead of them the whole way back to the flats, and she was the first to toss her bike aside at the main door and rush into the building.

Ali followed. He had a heavy feeling in his heart.

Caitlin slammed her palm against the lift call button, willing it to come quickly. Ali, Gez and Falcon reached her just as the doors opened and they all piled in together. Caitlin hit ‘14' and the lift rose.

‘What if he's not there?' Gez asked.

Caitlin stood stock-still; she didn't answer.

‘If he's not there,' Ali said, ‘then we look for him. And we find him.'

Caitlin smiled gratefully.

The lift came to a stop and the doors opened. The corridor in front of them was lit only by small yellow lights set above the front doors. The space between the lights was in dark shadow. Caitlin ran out of the lift to her flat. She opened the door and rushed inside. ‘Dad? Dad?' she shouted. Then she came back out. ‘He isn't here,' she said. Ali could hear the tears in her voice.

‘Don't panic,' he said, taking hold of her arm to steady her. ‘They can't have taken him far. He'd have shouted the whole way, and people would have heard.' Ali felt Falcon's warm, furry body lean against him. He had an idea. ‘Falcon, find Dave,' he said.

Falcon looked up at him, her head cocked to one side as though she was thinking.

‘Come on, Falcon. Dave – fetch.'

‘She can't do it,' Caitlin said. ‘You know she's daft.'

‘No, she was on our side back there. Against Miss Osborne. She can do it. Caitlin, give her something of his to smell.'

Caitlin grabbed one of Dave's coats and held it under Falcon's nose. ‘Find Dad,' she said in a shaky voice.

Falcon gave a little bark, then she sniffed the air. Her tail wagged gently, then more vigorously. She took a few steps one way, and back the other way, sniffing all the time. She barked again, before setting off down the hall with determination.

‘She's found something!' Gez said. ‘She's going to the roof!'

Caitlin followed Falcon, with Ali and Gez not far behind, up towards the roof access.

With Falcon nosing eagerly at the door Caitlin leaned against it, pushing it open. Instantly, the stairwell filled with a cold wind, sharp against their faces. Up on the roof, the city cast an orange glow into the sky, hiding the stars.

‘Is he here?' Gez said.

Ali looked around. Black shadows draped over the rooftop like shrouds. There could be anything crouching in the darkness, watching them. Ali blinked, clearing the tears that the cold wind had whipped up.

‘There!' Caitlin shouted. She and Falcon bounded forward together. Something lay on the concrete. Something large and still.

Dave.

His eyes were closed and his skin looked pale and waxy.

‘Dad? Dad!' Caitlin shook his shoulders. Dave made no sound.

‘Caitlin,' Ali said, ‘give Gez your keys. Gez, go to Caitlin's flat and call an ambulance.'

Caitlin's hand shook as she handed over the keys. Gez sped away, without looking back.

‘Dad?' Caitlin whispered. He didn't move. Ali saw a tear fall from her face and splash on to Dave's cheek. They were too late.

Dave's eyelids flickered.

He moaned gently.

He was still alive! Ali felt a rush of something through his body, a warm gladness that made his own heart leap.

‘Caitlin! It's OK, he's not dead!' He knelt next to Dave. ‘Dave, can you hear me? Dave?'

Dave whispered something. It was so soft that it was hardly more than a sigh. Then, he repeated it, louder. ‘Anita?'

Ali gasped in surprise. Dave was injured, maybe near to death, and the first thing he asked about was Mum. ‘It's OK. Mum's OK. We found her.'

Dave smiled. Then he gasped. His breathing was ragged now, as though the pain was growing.

‘Dad? Where does it hurt? What did they do?'

‘Sn . . . sn . . . uck,' Dave whispered. Then a horrible juddering ran through him, as though electric currents had been slammed on.

‘Dad!' Caitlin's scream tore the air.

‘Caitlin,' Ali said firmly, ‘he said “snake”. At least, I think he did.'

Dave's body shook and trembled. Time was running out.

‘Quick. Look for a bite.' Ali bent down to start looking.

Caitlin made a strangled noise in her throat but didn't move.

‘Caitlin, listen. Your dad will be OK, but only if we act fast. First aid. Look for the bite. Now!'

‘I can't see, it's too dark.'

Ali remembered the bag he had been clinging on to: the torch! He grabbed it and switched it on. In the beam of light, Dave's face looked worse. His skin was the colour of sour milk and he was covered in a thin film of sweat. Whatever the venom was doing to him, it was serious.

Caitlin ran her fingers gently over Dave's face, checking every inch of his skin. Nothing. She moved down, Ali keeping the torch trained closely on her moving hands.

‘Here!' Caitlin had reached Dave's arms. She held his right arm cradled in her own. Ali could see straight away what she meant. The wrist was thick and swollen like a side of ham. Two bright red puncture marks throbbed in the centre of the swelling. The skin around the marks looked ragged.

‘What is it?' Caitlin said.

‘I knew it,' Ali said. ‘Look at those two holes. He's been bitten. Something deadly, by the looks of it.'

‘What should we do? Could we suck the poison out?'

Ali thought about the
Giant Atlas of World Animals
; Chapter 4: Australia. There was an information box about snakes. He knew what to do! ‘No. You have to bandage it up tight, to stop the poison spreading. And keep him very still.'

Caitlin pulled off her cardigan and pulled it taut against her dad's skin, wrapping it securely around the bite. She was just in a T-shirt now, and the cold wind was making her shiver.

‘The blanket too. Here.' Ali rifled through the bag and pulled out the small picnic blanket. Caitlin lay it over Dave, tucking the edges around him as though he was the child. She looked up. ‘Ali, that man, Sidney, wanted this to look like an accident.'

Ali looked at Caitlin. What was she getting at? Then he realised. If this was an accident, it had to look as though Dave had been bitten by his own snake. Which meant that the snake was still up here, on the roof with them. Ali felt his skin crawl up his spine.

He looked out across the rooftop, looking for a coiled mass preparing to strike. It was no use; it was too dark to make out anything. Every shadow seemed to slither and slide as he peered into it.

He looked down at Dave and Caitlin. It seemed as though Dave was slipping away from them with each faint heartbeat. Caitlin moved back to cradle his head on her lap. Ali took a long, deep breath. When the ambulance got here, they would need to know which antidote to use. They'd only know that if he could show them the snake that bit Dave.

Ali turned out to face the city. The wind had calmed a little and he could hear the sound of a siren. But it was faint. The ambulance was still miles away. He was on his own.

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Chapter 33

Ali picked up the hold-all. It was much lighter now – the rope was at Miss Osborne's house; Caitlin was using the torch to check the swelling on Dave's arm; the blanket was gone; the tin of dog food must have rolled away somewhere.

He stepped away from Dave.

There was a venomous snake somewhere out here that needed to be caught.

He tipped out the contents of the bag: a tin opener, some biscuits and a bowl. On those TV shows where that man in combat trousers wandered around picking up snakes and crocodiles and things, he always used a stick. He had nothing that was anything like a stick.

And he had to find the snake if there was any chance of saving Dave.

He took slow steps into the darkness beyond Caitlin's torchlight and looked back. Falcon had laid her head next to Dave's; Caitlin was whispering quietly to him, stroking his forehead. Caitlin and Dave needed him to do this. They needed him to be brave. If he'd trusted Dave in the first place, this might not have happened. This was his only way to say sorry. After all, he couldn't say sorry to a dead man.

He forced his legs to keep moving. This wasn't like looking at pictures of snakes in a book. He imagined fangs gleaming, venom dripping, yellow eyes glaring all around him. Was that a hiss? No, it was the lift machinery whirring into action.

‘Here, snakey, snakey,' Ali whispered.

There! Something shining! It was a small cage. Ali approached carefully, not even daring to swallow. He could see through the wire mesh that there was a darkness, a shadow in one corner. Something small, coiled in on itself.

‘I found it,' he tried to shout, but the words just croaked out.

The cage door was open. The men must have forced Dave's hand in there and the snake, defending itself, bit him. Then they left the cage for the police to find. He leaned down; the snake was inside the cage, still and silent. Right next to the open door. He was going to have to reach out and close it. He was going to have to put his hand right out where the snake could strike. Near those shiny scales and dripping fangs.

The empty bag! He could use that! He wrapped the thick nylon around his arm, covering his hand, and reached out slowly, his ears straining for an angry hiss. Nothing. The door was just millimetres away. So was the snake. Through the fabric his fingers felt the metal bars. He clawed at the frame. The door swung closed. He pushed home the bolt.

He sank to his knees.

The snake was trapped.

He wasn't done yet. Picking up the cage by the handle, he moved back towards the torchlight and Dave's still body.

‘How's he doing?' he asked.

Caitlin looked up, her face grey and tight.

‘Don't worry,' Ali said. ‘I know he's going to be OK.' He hoped and hoped that what he said would be true. More than anything, he wanted a second chance to get to know Dave properly and to say sorry.

The access door opened. Gez came through, followed by three people in green jumpsuits. They swarmed around Dave, asking Caitlin questions.

Gez came up to Ali. ‘What's that you've got?'

Ali held up the cage so Gez could see. A brown-black snake with golden bands lay coiled in the corner.

Gez peered closer. ‘Hey!' he yelled. ‘Hey, ambulance-people, there's a snake here. Do you want it?'

‘It's what did this,' Ali said, pointing to Dave's arm.

Heavy footsteps came towards him. ‘Thanks, son. We'll take it to be identified,' a deep voice said. ‘Careful. Don't touch it.'

‘It's OK,' Gez said. ‘I've got a snake at home. That one's asleep now. It's the cold up here, you see. After biting someone, then being left up here, it's knackered. It won't hurt anyone. At least, not till it gets somewhere warmer.'

Ali stared at the cage. The snake was asleep? He shook his head. He should have known that. He'd got more than one thing very wrong tonight, but with luck, he'd be able to make up for it.

‘What's up?' Gez asked.

‘Nothing,' Ali said, shaking his head. ‘Do you think he'll be OK?'

Gez nodded towards the access door. The paramedics were wheeling Dave away on a stretcher, wrapped in a thick blanket. Caitlin walked alongside, gripping the rail.

‘Well, they haven't covered his face,' Gez said, ‘so I reckon he'll be fine.'