July (13 page)
Authors: Gabrielle Lord
When Blue Streak started shuddering with an emptied tank, I wheeled it into a sheltered spot off the road, covering it with branches and leaves. I hoped Matt would get over the fact that I’d taken his bike, and I hoped that it would be returned to him somehow. One day, I thought, I’d find a way to repay him.
i’m back at enid. zombie’s DEAD. crazy
shoot-out
with cops and bruno. don’t know how i’m still alive. call me when u wake up.
Back on the rug in the living room, I looked through the three Piers Ormond letters. It wasn’t just the spidery, fading sepia ink that made them difficult to read—once Piers finished writing a page, he’d turned the paper sideways and
continued
writing over the existing words. It was like he must have run out of paper or something.
I was falling asleep, but really wanted to get up and change my look. There were people
gunning
for me and I wasn’t going to make it easy for them. The panic that pumped through my veins every day was pumping harder now that Zombie was dead. Yeah, it was one less guy chasing me, but now Sligo would be chasing me twice as hard.
I needed to look like another person. I stared at my reflection in the pristine, marble bathroom, then tore open a packet of brown dye I’d bought from a chemist, and fumbled around for a pair of scissors.
When I was done, my hair was darker, shorter, different. I scrubbed the sink, removing all remnants of hair and colour. Would the day ever come when I could just be myself?
‘Zombrovski’s dead?’ Boges’s voice came down the line, sleepy, but shocked. His call had woken me up, so I was just as dazed.
‘He was trying to kill me,’ I explained. ‘I found him roaming the halls on my second night at the convent, and we fought each other all the way up this bell tower … and then when he was trying to wipe me out by shoving this massive bell towards me, I dodged it, and it ended up
swinging
back and swatting him out into the sky.’
Boges was silent, in what must have been disbelief.
‘Broke his neck when he landed,’ I added. ‘The cops were on their way, so I knew I had to get out, and then Bruno showed up, guns blazing, so I had even more reason to get outta there.’
‘Cal, that is not good news,’ said Boges, very
seriously. ‘Sligo will go even crazier trying to … to
get
you now.’
It was obvious Boges was trying to avoid
saying
kill
you.
‘I know,’ I agreed. ‘So I’m back at Enid Parade. Your uncle’s not going to spring me here, is he?’
‘Nah, you’re cool there for now.’
‘So tell me about what the Jewel says. What did you find?’
‘I did what you said, and gave it the
once-over
with a powerful magnifying glass. At first, I thought the words were just tiny scratches, but when I looked really closely on the narrow strip of gold that runs around the inside, framing the portrait, I could see there were letters engraved near the hinges.’
‘Say it: “Winter Frey was telling the truth”.’
Boges groaned.
‘Go on.’
Boges groaned again. Louder.
‘Go on!’
‘All right, all right, she was telling the truth!’ he admitted. ‘But don’t think that means I trust her all of a sudden. Anyway, back to business: it’s in French. I’ve run it through an online
translator
, but it’s turned up all sorts of rubbish.’
‘All we need to do then is find someone who speaks French,’ I said, instantly thinking of
Winter—she seemed like the type of girl who’d understand French. ‘We need to take a look at these letters I took from the convent archive.’
‘Did you find Piers Ormond’s will?’
‘No, but I have some old letters of his. They’re really hard to read,’ I added.
‘So, what are we waiting for? Let’s meet up already,’ said Boges. ‘I’ll come over as soon as I can.’
‘How’s your back fence escape route?’ I asked. ‘You sure it’s safe?’
‘Should be OK. I won’t come if it’s not. No-one’s been out on the street for days. And Zombrovski was the regular house-sitter, but I guess he won’t be coming round any time soon.’ Boges laughed awkwardly. ‘This arvo cool?’
‘Yep. See you when you get here.’
‘Nice look!’ said Boges, in a way that made me unsure whether he was making fun of me or not. My hair was pretty different, and I was wearing a blazer I’d picked up at a thrift store, over jeans and a T-shirt.
‘Something smells good. What’s in the bag?’ I asked, checking out the heavy-duty bag Boges had in tow.
He looked down at his watch. ‘Early dinner?’
We tucked into some kebabs, and in between greedy mouthfuls I gave Boges a more detailed run-down of my trip to Manresa. When we’d finished we took a look at the Jewel.
‘It never leaves my side,’ said Boges, carefully handing it to me, along with a magnifying glass. ‘Take a look for yourself.’
Sure enough, what had looked like nothing but tiny scratches before suddenly jumped into focus, and groups of letters began forming words.
Boges held out a piece of paper. ‘Here, I wrote it down.’
‘Awesome,’ I said. ‘Something about celery!’
‘“Amor” means “love”,’ Boges explained, ‘but I’m not sure about the rest. I can ask Madame Rodini at school. I’ll just tell her it’s for a … umm … oh, I’ll come up with something, don’t
worry. Your turn; let’s take a look at the Piers Ormond letters.’
‘Paper must have been scarce or something,’ I said as I grabbed the envelope. ‘Check it out; when he finished going one way, he turned the paper around and wrote over the top of what he’d just written.’
Boges pulled out his laptop, and handed the letters back to me. ‘Start reading out loud and I’ll type it up,’ he said. ‘That’ll make it a bit
easier
. Just focus on following the lines.’
I put aside the first two, which were about travels from Australia to London and Dublin, and began on the third.
‘“Kilfane”,’ said Boges. ‘That’s from the
transparency
!’
‘Yep,’ I said, ‘it was the first thing that jumped out at me.’
Boges dug through his backpack and brought out a folder with the transparency safely stashed in it. Sure enough there were the two names—G’managh and Kilfane, with the black dot between them. I remembered my kidnappers’ interrogation:
Your father gave you a map. Where is it?
Was this a map? Was this what they had been referring to?
