Squishy Taylor and a Question of Trust (8 page)

I’m thinking Mr Hinkenbushel might be a nice man after all. But just then, the cage door beeps and Mr Hinkenbushel comes in. He
scowls
at us and at the suitcase of diamonds.

He obviously thinks showing them to us is a terrible idea.

‘Morning, ma’am,’ he says to Boring Lady. ‘I’m here to sign these out.’

He puts the diamonds away and closes the suitcase. Then he takes it over to a desk on the other side of the room and starts filling out a form.

Boring Lady grins at us. ‘He’s a
cranky-pants
,’ she whispers. ‘But he’s good at his job.’

As we’re stepping out onto the street, I turn back to Boring Lady. ‘If you’re the chief, how come you just type at your computer all the time? Why don’t you act like a spy?’

‘
Squishy!
’ Alice says, embarrassed.

Boring Lady waves a ‘don’t worry about it’ hand to Alice, and turns to me. ‘I have all my meetings in the big room. Your window looks into my quiet office. No-one’s allowed to disturb me there
ever
.’ She laughs. ‘I guess I would be pretty boring to watch.’

That night, Dad talks to Mum for a long time before I’m allowed to. When he
finally
comes out of his room and hands me the iPad, Mum’s smiling but also looks a bit serious.

‘Sounds like you’ll have to take me rock-climbing when I come home,’ she says.

I can tell she’s worried by the stuff Dad told her.

‘Squishy, I’m glad I taught you to be brave and take risks, but …’ She pauses.

‘
But don’t die?
’ I suggest.

She grins. ‘
Please don’t die
.’

‘Don’t worry, Mum, I won’t.’

I get into bed first. Jessie tucks herself in beneath me, and Vee does a celebratory
Clambereeno
up to her bunk. I lie on my tummy, staring out at Boring Lady’s office. The light is off, but now I know she might just be in another meeting room.

I think about the basement room with the safe and the diamonds. I think about traps and criminals being caught red-handed.
By me
. I grin into the dark. Weird stuff. I love weird stuff.

About the author and illustrator

Ailsa Wild
is an acrobat, whip cracker and teaching artist who ran away from the circus to become a writer. She taught Squishy all her best bunk-bed tricks.

Ben Wood
started drawing when he was Baby’s age, and happily drew all over his mum and dad’s walls! Since then, he has never stopped drawing. He has an identical twin and they used to play all kinds of pranks on their younger brother.

Squishy Taylor and a Question of Trust
published in 2016 by
Hardie Grant Egmont
Ground Floor, Building 1, 658 Church Street
Richmond, Victoria 3121, Australia
www.hardiegrantegmont.com.au

This ebook is also available as a print edition in all good bookstores.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publishers and copyright holders.

A CiP record for this title is available from the National Library of Australia.

eISBN 9781743583975

Text copyright © 2016 Ailsa Wild
Illustrations copyright © 2016 Ben Wood
Series design copyright © 2016 Hardie Grant Egmont

Series design by Stephanie Spartels
Illustrations by Ben Wood

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