Riddle Gully Secrets (10 page)

A few seats along, HB and Angela chatted with Joe di Nozi. Beside them, restless as a cornered animal, his knee jigging up and down, sat Twig.

Ash, Dan, Pollo and Will were in the row behind. Ash tapped Twig on the shoulder and soon they were in deep discussion about a constellation lately in the eastern sky, Twig's knee still.

Pollo stopped eyeing Pooky and Curly and poked Will in the ribs. ‘So, are you going to tell HB or not?' she whispered.

‘Tell HB what?'

‘That two dangerous criminals are sitting only metres away. For all we know she has gelignite in her handbag. HB should arrest them before they blow us all up!'

‘HB's onto them,' said Will quietly. ‘When Dan and I let slip about the gelignite business he just about blew up himself … well, as close as HB gets. But he wants to know more before he confronts them. We didn't actually see them, remember – we only heard their voices.'

‘And their nicknames for each other!' whispered Pollo.

‘HB checked the police database for them but nothing came up. But he found out their booking at the Federal Hotel is under Mayor Bullock's name.'

‘So they
are
working for His Sliminess!'

Will grinned. ‘I thought you'd like that.'

‘Has HB talked to Mayor Bullock?'

‘He tried when we got here,' said Will, ‘but Mayor Bullock shooed him off, saying he was trying to get into character.'

‘He's playing someone nice.' Pollo grinned. ‘It would take some work.'

‘HB left him to it,' said Will, ‘on the condition that they have a chat after the show.'

Sherri, in the shadowy wings of the stage, nudged the heavy curtain aside to see if Joe di Nozi had made it yet. She smiled. Front row!

Pollo and Will were seated just behind him. They seemed to have hit it off with that odd kid who'd come into her shop yesterday. They told her their mistake while they were setting up the hall. He'd had a haircut
since – possibly Angela's work, thought Sherri. He looked rather spruce, almost unrecognisable. And that must be Ellie Swift's daughter next to them.
Her
hair looked like a tangle of Scotch tape! Sherri smiled. The kid was a free spirit alright.

Sherri beckoned Ellie. ‘There, in the second row. Is that your Ash? Behind Joe di Nozi and that thin fellow with the beard?'

Ellie's face lit up. She rested her clipboard on the props table and peeked around the curtain. She gasped.

A brick hit her carefully assembled life and revealed it to be made of glass. Blood surged to her head. Him! Still with his silly ponytail and straggly beard! Sitting there … waiting for the show to start! She blinked away tears and stared. After all these years. It couldn't be!

‘Ellie? Are you okay?' Sherri put a hand on Ellie's shoulder.

Ellie nodded. But as she stared, her eyes narrowed and her lips went thin and her fingers on the curtain clenched so that when Sherri prised them open to guide her away there was a spider web of creases left behind.

The applause petered out, lights came on and people milled into the Town Hall foyer for cordial and cake. Pooky and Curly vanished. Soon Angela had drifted into conversation with Twig by the exit, and Sherri was introducing Joe to a bunch of cast members. Dan, oblivious to Principal Piggott's glare, had just gone for thirds on the raspberry cream sponge when Sherri left her group and appeared at Ash's side.

‘Have you seen your mum, by any chance, Ash?' Sherri's face wore a bright smile.

Ash shook her head. ‘Not yet. But she doesn't like parties. She might have gone on home.'

‘Mmm … Probably a bit weary,' said Sherri, her eyes casting about the room.

At that moment, Mayor Bullock, still wearing his
Elvis wig, entered the foyer. He raised his palms to the applause for the leading man whose performance had brought tears to many an eye for reasons best not shared with him.

HB waited patiently by the supper table. Eventually Mayor Bullock could hold off no longer and came over. Pollo, Will, Ash and Dan hovered nearby, rearranging glasses, eating remains and listening in.

‘Gelignite?' scoffed the mayor, wiping cream from his chin. ‘Don't be preposterous, Harry! You honestly think me foolhardy enough to have anything to do with gelignite?'

‘Not you, Orville. The two people in your employ who were observed in the vicinity of Mustang Rock.'

‘Why, they're fine upstanding business associates! They were sitting in the front row tonight, such is their community-mindedness.'

‘Have you checked their credentials, Orville? We don't want any hotheads blundering about with explosives out there. It's a reserve, remember, and the caves are no place for amateurs.'

‘Honestly, Harry, how do you dream up this nonsense? There are no hotheads on the loose and no one has any speleological aspirations. It's that bearded praying mantis talking to your wife you should be
investigating.' The mayor gestured to Twig as though flicking something nasty off his finger. Twig felt eyes on him and gave Mayor Bullock and HB a cheery wave.

‘I've no reason to suspect that poor bloke of anything.'

‘That poor bloke, as you call him, has set up camp on an unauthorised site. Leaving his utility on a firebreak presents a fire risk. If you were doing your duty, Harry, you'd have moved him on by now.' Mayor Bullock poured himself a drink. ‘Now, if you'll excuse me, I'll be getting back to my fans.' He waved airily to the corner of the room where old Mrs Bullock and a gent were chortling over their cups of tea.

‘Before you dash off, Orville,' said HB in a deep voice. ‘These business associates of yours, can you tell me a little about them?'

Mayor Bullock thought for a moment, then muttered, ‘Cousins.' He rubbed his nose. ‘Here on a private family matter.'

‘And the names of these cousins?' HB brought out his police notepad and clicked his pen.

Mayor Bullock puckered his lips and slid them around his face like an infant dodging a spoonful of mash. ‘They are, in point of fact, not so much cousins as friends of cousins,' said the mayor. ‘Their actual names escape me.'

‘First names, perhaps? You were with them at the Federal Hotel only yesterday.'

Mayor Bullock tutted. ‘So I was! Well then, let's get the old brain cells firing, eh? Ah yes – the young fellow was called Ben.' Mayor Bullock pondered but not too deeply. ‘And she was Jerry! Yes, that's right!'

‘Ben and Jerry, eh?' said HB with a waggle of his eyebrows. ‘Like the icecream, eh? Quite a coincidence.' HB flipped shut his notepad. ‘Well, thank you, Orville. It's good to get everything out on the table.'

‘Quite,' said the mayor, stroking his Elvis locks and turning on his heel.

HB joined Will and the others. ‘I'm going to grab the police van and have a word with Ben and Jerry at their hotel on the way home. Let them know we're keeping an eye on them.'

Just then HB's mobile buzzed. He answered it and listened, frowning. He checked his watch. ‘Right-ho. I'll be there ASAP.'

He turned to the group. ‘Sorry you lot. Change of plans. Got to go out to Two Wells. A truck has lost its load on the highway and it's bedlam. Looks like an all-nighter. I'll pay a visit to Ben and Jerry tomorrow, first chance I get.'

They watched HB explain to Angela, kiss her on the
cheek and dart out the door.

‘Does that mean a change of plans for us too?' said Dan.

‘Yeah,' said Will. ‘Looks like I'm walking home.'

‘That's not what Dan means,' said Pollo. She gnawed her thumbnail, frowning.

Dan wrung his hands. ‘What if Pooky and Curly go back to work before HB catches up with them? We can't sit back and wait for that strongbox to get blown to bits!'

‘We sure can't,' murmured Pollo.

‘We wouldn't need much, would we?' said Dan. ‘Just a few tools and ropes and torches … and maybe some more bacon sandwiches.'

The others stared at him.

‘What?' said Dan, looking around the group. ‘The strongbox wasn't wedged in that deep, was it, Pollo?'

‘The limestone was hard but it didn't look all that thick,' said Pollo.

Will turned to Dan, wincing in concentration. ‘So let me get this straight. You want to go back down into the cave to get the strongbox, even though Pooky and Curly are sniffing around, talking about gelignite?'

‘We don't know what's in the strongbox, Dan,' said Ash. ‘Remember it could be nothing.'

‘I've just got a feeling – an instinct.'

Ash raised an eyebrow. ‘An instinct? I thought you only cared about what you could see with your own eyes.'

‘I thought you'd be too chicken to go back,' said Will. ‘I mean, on account of you being the cautious type … who doesn't like trouble … kind of thing.' Will looked wistfully out the door.

‘I
am
chicken!' said Dan. ‘I feel a bit sick about going back to the cave, if you want to know. But it feels important to save that chest. I don't know why. I'll find out if my instincts are any good if we ever get to open it.'

Ash smiled. ‘Dan's discovering himself as much as anything else in that strongbox.'

At dawn the next morning, Ash was up a tree waiting when Pollo and Will arrived at their meeting place at the edge of town. Will was carrying a tool satchel containing equipment raided from HB's shed – chisels, hammers, gardening gloves and the like – along with a stash of muesli bars.

Ash jumped onto the ground beside them.

‘Were you hiding?' asked Will.

‘Sort of,' said Ash. ‘As I was leaving, Mum called out, wanting to talk. I think she might have even followed me a bit. But I pretended I didn't hear and ran off. She's always worrying too much. I feel bad now though.'

‘You can make it up to her later,' said Will.

They crossed the meadow next to the cemetery in the silty light, the damp grass slapping their ankles, and
entered Diamond Jack's Trail. When they reached the burnt-out red gum tree, Dan was waiting for them, a coil of rope over his shoulder.

‘Greetings!' said Pollo. ‘Did Twig notice you leaving?'

‘Oh, he was already up and boiling a billy. He saw me get the rope from the truck last night. I ended up telling him about the cave and the strongbox – not Curly and Pooky though! I knew he wouldn't stop me as long as I wasn't going near town. It was funny,' said Dan, ‘his eyes watered up like I was saying I was leaving home.'

Pollo shrugged. ‘Maybe he was sad to discover his precious portal was just a cave.'

‘Oh, he hasn't given up on that idea,' said Dan. ‘Not yet. He says we don't know for sure that Great-however-many-greats-grandfather Fergus ever went down there.'

‘He might have realised you've got a life of your own – aside from hanging out with your alien pals,' said Will. ‘That he's got to share you with the rest of the world.'

Ash looked up to the treetops and the pink sky beyond. ‘That the universe includes here on Earth, too.'

‘It would be a nice start,' said Dan.

‘Did you tell him about the iPad?' asked Ash.

‘I didn't go that far.'

They walked quickly along Diamond Jack's Trail, going over their plan in soft voices, the forest around them growing rowdy with birds and insects. Eventually they came to a thin path leading up a slight rise. Beside it was a rotted signpost – the lettering no more than scattered flecks of yellowed paint.

‘Here we are,' said Pollo. ‘The old path up to Mustang Rock.'

Will turned to Ash. ‘Are you one-hundred-and-fifty per cent sure you'll be okay on your own?'

‘No one will see me unless I want them to,' said Ash. ‘I'd rather keep lookout than go back under.'

‘You've got the signal?' said Will.

‘Course!' said Ash. She whistled three short peeps, followed by a longer one that swept up. ‘Let's hope Pooky and Curly don't know that the Yellow-crested Pipebird doesn't live around here.'