August (8 page)

‘You OK back there?’

‘Think so,’ I said, finally pulling the sheet off me, and sitting up.

‘Where to?’

I could only think of one place–somewhere I hoped I’d be safe, somewhere the police wouldn’t think of looking.

I directed him to a spot about fifteen minutes away from where we were.

Eventually the ambulance came to a stop and I crouched beside the stretcher, waiting for the back doors to open. I pulled at the pale-green top I was wearing and fanned myself. I was drenched in sweat.

As Sharkey opened the back doors, I got my first proper look at him. He was a broad-shouldered guy, maybe in his fifties, with short black hair and watchful eyes. There was a half-smile on his face as he said, ‘OK, we’re here. It looks safe to get out.’

I jumped out and looked around. The street was deserted, aside from a couple of cats hissing at each other from opposite sides of the road.

‘Mr Sharkey,’ I said, offering him my hand, the dirty nylon cuff still dangling from my wrist, ‘that was an awesome escape. I didn’t think I was going to make it. You couldn’t have had better timing.’

‘Like I said when I tried to contact you on your blog, I’ve always believed in your innocence. Still do. A good detective has a sixth sense about that sort of thing.’

Sharkey stopped talking for a second and pushed the doors closed again, slapping his hands together afterwards. ‘I can’t hang around now–I need to get this vehicle out of sight.’

‘I have to find my sister. Will you help me? I have no idea who has her, and I don’t know how long … how long she’ll last out there.’

Sharkey nodded in understanding. ‘It’s a shocking situation you’re in. And everyone believes you had something to do with it.’

‘Help me find her.’

‘I’m on to it already,’ he said. ‘That’s why I’m here. To help.’ He pulled out a card and pressed it in my hand. ‘Call me and we’ll meet somewhere safe to talk.
Sooner
rather than later.’

I felt some of the heavy pressure on my
shoulders
easing. ‘Thanks, Detective Sharkey.’

‘
Ex
-detective. And Nelson or Sharkey will do,’ he said before jumping back into the driver’s seat. The ambulance that had taken me to
freedom
sped away, out of sight.

I hurried through the darkness and up the street, stopping only to pull off the nurse’s gear and toss it into someone’s rubbish bin. When I reached the building, I rushed to the back and silently headed up the fire stairs.

At the top of the fire-escape, I ran across the rooftop, straight to Winter’s door.

I tapped on it softly at first. I didn’t want to scare her.

I started tapping a bit louder.

A soft light came on, glowing through a front window.

‘It’s me,’ I whispered. ‘Winter, it’s me, Cal.’

Another light went on inside.

‘Cal?’ I heard Winter say. ‘Is it really you? Or am I dreaming?’

‘You’re not dreaming. Open up, please.’

Winter unlocked the door and eased it open a fraction. From behind it, she looked up at me with sleepy, hopeful eyes.

‘Cal!’ she cried, throwing her arms around me, and pulling me inside her flat. ‘I can’t believe it’s really you!’ She hugged me tighter than I’d ever been hugged before, burying her face into my shoulder. ‘We were so worried about you,’ she said, stepping back to look at me, her eyes filled with concern. ‘At the cemetery … we had no idea where you were or what was happening to you, or whether they’d reach you in time.’ She let go of me for a second and locked the front door again. ‘We hid in the bushes and watched the Emergency Services digging you out. They dug up three graves before they found you. Three! The ambulance was there waiting. They loaded you into the back of it and took off at full speed with the siren blaring; that’s how we knew you were still alive. But then we didn’t know where they were taking you.’

Winter was wearing a white, oversized T-shirt and her hair was even wilder than usual. I was so happy to see her, but right now all I could think of was my little sister.

‘They’ve taken Gabbi,’ I said.

‘I know,’ she said, solemnly.

As I looked around her place, I couldn’t help thinking that last time I’d been here we’d all been so full of hope, with the Ormond Riddle and the Ormond Jewel on the table, thinking we were
on our way to cracking the DMO. Now the
atmosphere
was very different. Now I had nothing but the clothes on my back. And hospital shoes.

Winter wandered over to the couch, and that’s when I saw a big lump on it covered by a blanket.

She shook it.

The big lump rolled over and snorted,
opening
his eyes.

Boges!

As soon as he saw me he threw the blanket off, and jumped up.

‘Dude!’ he said, leaning in to give me a big bear hug. ‘I thought I was seeing things! You’re alive! I have to say, we thought we’d lost you for sure.’ He paused. ‘I was kicking myself for letting you down back at Rathbone’s. We said we had your back, and then … we let you slip away. Winter and I have been here racking our brains, trying to work out what to do …’

I patted his arm. ‘I owe my life to you,’ I said. ‘To both of you.’

‘So you’ve heard the news?’

I nodded. ‘I just hope whoever has her is
looking
after her properly. I just can’t believe they’d take her. She’s just a kid. A sick kid. I mean, she needs to be fed intravenously.’

I thought of Gabbi, helpless in the hands of criminals. Tears stung my eyes. I tightened my
jaw. ‘We have to find out who has her and get her back.’

‘How did you get out of police custody?’ asked Winter, from behind the door of her open fridge. ‘What’s that on your wrist?’

Winter pulled out a bottle of orange juice and some leftover pizza, then handed them both to me. In between mouthfuls, I explained how I woke up in a bed in a secure hospital ward, with no idea of how I got out of the coffin. I told them about the detective, Dorian McGrath, questioning me, and Mum and Rafe showing up, hoping I’d fess up and tell them what I’d done with Gabbi.

‘Then you wouldn’t believe how I got out,’ I said.

‘Try us,’ said Winter, leaning in to cut the remaining cuff from my wrist.

Boges and Winter listened intently as I relayed what had happened.

‘So Nelson Sharkey turns out to be a good guy,’ said Boges. ‘And Kelvin … what was he doing there? Do you think Oriana has Gab?’

My friends looked at each other, then back at me.

‘I’m still trying to work that out,’ I said. ‘Rathbone must be working with Oriana, and the whole thing was a set-up. They have everything. The Jewel, the Riddle,’ I mumbled, feeling
completely
deflated. ‘And now, maybe, Gabbi.’

‘But that doesn’t make sense,’ said Winter. ‘Why would she take your sister if she has everything from you already? Why would she send Kelvin after you?’

‘He had a gun,’ I said.

‘He was trying to kill you?’

I shrugged. ‘What other reason could there be?’ I said. ‘I was supposed to die down there in that coffin. Someone attacked me at the
undertakers
’ and before I knew it, I was buried. They knocked me out with something, and I don’t think they were counting on me ever waking up.’

‘Incredible,’ said Winter. ‘Some people are totally evil!’

‘So do you think Sligo has her?’ I asked Winter. ‘You’d know if he was up to something, wouldn’t you? Have you heard anything?’

‘Cal, believe me, I’ve been on red alert, trying to listen in on everything that’s been occupying him. I haven’t heard a thing.’

‘So there hasn’t been any unusual activity? Nothing out of the ordinary?’

‘Nothing, I’m afraid. But I’ll report back on anything I hear that could help us. Are you OK, Cal?’ she asked. ‘You look kind of white.’

‘I’m just wrecked,’ I said, falling back, deep into the couch. ‘And exhausted. I’m sick to my stomach about Gabs. I’ve lost everything we’ve
worked so hard on, and now Gab … I just don’t know what to do next.’

‘You know, maybe that Ormond Angel
is
looking
after you,’ Boges said, after a pause. ‘You made it out of the coffin alive, and you escaped from the cops again.’

‘If he is, he’s going to have to try a whole lot harder,’ I said. ‘And he sure isn’t looking after Gabbi, right now, and that’s all I care about.’

‘So,’ said Boges, ‘I know everyone thinks you’re a dangerous criminal, but surely they need substantial incriminating evidence?’

‘They said my DNA was found at the crime scene–where she went missing. Rafe’s place.’

Boges nodded, knowingly. ‘You broke into Rafe’s that time and probably would have touched almost every surface there. There’s a legitimate reason for your DNA to be there.’

‘Yeah, I tried to tell them that, but it didn’t go down very well. And anyway, apparently they can tell the difference between historical DNA and something that’s just been laid down–and that’s what they reckon they found in Gabbi’s room. My fresh DNA.’

Winter and Boges looked at each other again, hopelessly.

‘And of course Rathbone and Oriana’s
messages
on my blog have been deleted, so they
didn’t believe a word I said about the meeting we arranged.’

Boges’s eyebrows were almost hitting his hairline. ‘I’m the administrator of that blog. Someone’s hacked in!’

‘Try telling the cops that,’ I said. ‘They don’t believe anything I say. Neither do Mum and Rafe. Rafe was so protective of Mum–he went ballistic at me at the hospital when I mentioned the
possibility
of my double. He was furious, thinking I was acting crazy, making up more stories,
distressing
Mum.’

‘A twin would have the same DNA!’ said Boges. ‘What if your twin is involved?’

Your twin
. Boges’s words sounded so
unbelievable
to me.

‘So you think I
do
have a twin now?’ I asked him.

‘Anything’s possible,’ said Boges. ‘You have to get to the bottom of that mystery and find out where that guy fits in–if he fits into the story at all. Who knows what he might be capable of doing, and what his motives are.’

The three of us sat wordlessly for a moment, surrounded by the deeper silence of the night.

‘My brain needs more sleep,’ said Boges,
blinking
and rubbing his eyes. ‘I think I’ll go home and sneak into my room. I’ll come back soon so
we can work out what to do next. And I guess I’ll have to resupply you with some necessities, Cal. Take the couch, dude. Get some rest.’

He patted me on the back as he left. ‘We’ll get her back, dude. We’ll get our Gabster back.’

I was having a nightmare where I was in the coffin, struggling in the dark, trying to scream. Out of nowhere the threadbare white toy dog was licking my face, and the scent that I couldn’t identify back at Rathbone, Greaves and Diggory suddenly became clear to me. But as soon as I woke up it disappeared again down some deep sinkhole in my mind, like I’d never known it.

I sat up. It was still a little dark outside and cold wind blew in through the open window near the door. I blinked as the light went on.