Malice (7 page)

As we walked back inside, I could see the determination on my friends' faces. It mirrored my own. ‘Let's go right back to the beginning,' I said.

‘You mean the Perdita file?' asked Ryan, his face showing the same resolute focus I'd often seen in Cal.

I nodded. I opened the file. We crowded around as I turned the pages. We saw the documentation transferring the property from my parents' possession to Sligo as trustee for me. The property transfers went back quite a way. Slowly, understanding dawned on me. ‘My parents didn't buy this place,' I said, pointing to some older documents, ‘they
inherited
it. It was a family property on my father's side. Look, these rate notices go back over seventy years. That's in my grandparents' time.'

Then I noticed something glued on the back inside cover of the file—an old envelope. I lifted the flap and pulled out a worn sheet of paper. ‘What's this?' I wondered. It was a peculiar drawing. I passed it to Boges and Ryan so that they could have a good look.

‘It looks a bit like a ghost,' said Boges.

‘Ha! You've got ghosts on the brain!' I laughed. Looking closer, the shapes still seemed to make no sense. It looked as if someone had been interrupted halfway through drawing something.

‘And that looks like an “M” there,' said Ryan, pointing. He was right. A faintly drawn M was marked next to two circles.

‘Maybe it's just meaningless doodling,' I said, folding the page and slipping it back in the envelope.

‘But why would someone store it so carefully in the file if it was completely meaningless?' Ryan asked. It was a good question. ‘Everything to do with this place seems to involve a mystery.'

‘Whoever is after this place is after the secret it holds,' I agreed.

‘But we're going to beat them to it,' Ryan said.

‘I wonder,' I said slowly, ‘if it really is about the Windraker and all that gold.'

‘We need to ask a few more questions,' said Boges. ‘Time for a trip into town tomorrow.'

Abercrombie Village

2:49 pm

Rose looked up in surprise as we walked into the store. ‘Hi, Rose,' I said. ‘My name is Winter and these are my friends Ryan and Boges.'

‘You're the young people staying at Perdita!' she said. ‘I didn't expect—'

Then she lowered her voice, looking behind her where a curtain swung in a doorway. Was she about to say that she didn't expect to see us again? That we should have been frightened away by now?

‘I was hoping you might be able to help us. Maybe you know a little bit about Perdita, its history?'

‘There's rumoured to be a secret,' Rose whispered, looking behind her.

‘We've worked that much out,' said Boges. ‘We've heard stories of a sunken ship … laden with treasure … '

The curtain that separated the shop from the residence billowed open and Curly stepped through the doorway. Rose shrank in fear.

‘What have you been saying, woman?' He was trying to smile, to make it sound like a joke, but it wasn't. Behind the false grin, his eyes were hard. ‘Frightening the customers?'

‘Nothing, dear. Just chatting …' Rose was Curly's wife?

‘That's right,' I said lightly. ‘We were just asking your wife about the history of the local area.'

‘I heard you asking about a secret and that old house,' he said. ‘Something to do with a ship? Where'd you hear that?'

I flashed him my prettiest smile. ‘Places like that always have secrets. Plus, the house is built in the shape of a ship.'

I could see that Curly wasn't convinced. He continued to look at me suspiciously. ‘The only mystery I can think of is why you want to stay there. There are some very nice rental properties closer to town—nice and modern, with big balconies, swimming pools and all that stuff that you young folk like. I could get you a very good discount.'

‘Thanks, Curly,' said Boges, ‘but we're pretty happy where we are.'

Curly looked hard at Boges. ‘What about some more biscuits and cheese, Mrs Curlewis? And some orange juice?' Boges continued.

Perdita

5:25 pm

‘Curly is hiding something for sure,' I said. ‘And it's obvious his wife is scared to death of him.' We were standing in front of the fire, and I picked the Perdita file up off the top of the carved mantelpiece where I'd left it, intending to search it one more time for hidden secrets. As I did so, I took a long look at the mantelpiece itself. ‘You know, there's something about this carving,' I said. ‘It seems out of place. Why is there an acorn sticking out of a gum tree design?'

I ran my fingers along the carvings, the graceful wattle flowers and gum leaves chiselled out in the dark timber. I felt around and then leaned on the acorn. The carving suddenly caved in under my fingers. ‘Oh no! I've broken it! I didn't mean to press so hard.'

A creaking and knocking noise seemed to come from the nearby wall and I jumped back in fright.

‘What's that?' Ryan cried.

‘Watch out!' Boges yelled. ‘The whole wall is moving!'

The three of us gaped as the panel of timber closest to the right-hand side of the fireplace slowly opened, revealing a dark space inside.

‘I don't believe it! A secret room!' I gasped.

‘How cool is that!' Boges said.

‘What's in there?' asked Ryan, poking his head in and then pulling it out fast, tearing cobwebs away from his face. ‘Ugh! Spider webs!'

Boges found the torch and shone it into the hole. ‘It looks like a passageway,' he reported.

‘What are we waiting for?' I couldn't wait to get in there, spiders or not. ‘Come on, follow me.' I grabbed the torch from Boges and stepped into the dark space, shining the torch ahead of me.

The passage ran along to the left, behind the fireplace and along the wall of the front room, a narrow walkway hemmed in by solid walls. The others jostled behind me, heads down under the low ceiling. After about seven paces, the passage made a sharp turn to the right and I figured this must have been somewhere under the bedroom I'd been sleeping in. ‘There's a right-hand turn here, guys,' I called back. I followed the passageway a short distance to where a narrow flight of steps started. Flashing the torch on the dusty floor revealed the first of the steps … and something else. ‘Someone's been here recently,' I said. ‘You can see the footprints in the dust.'

‘That would explain the knocking and scratching in the walls!' said Boges.

The steps were steep and narrow. I went up and up, and suddenly banged my head on a low ceiling. Hunched over, I shone the torch above me. I'd run into a dead end above my head.

‘That looks like floorboards,' said Boges. ‘Must be the room above us.'

I switched off the torch and heard the others gasp behind me.

‘What did you do that for?' asked Boges. ‘Want to give us all claustrophobia?'

Now that it was pitch black, I could see a faint, square outline through which tiny chinks of light shone between the floorboards above me.

‘There's a trapdoor here,' I said, ‘just above my head.' I switched the torch back on, and tried to push it up. ‘I can't budge it.'

‘Let me try,' said Ryan. There was hardly any room for him to get past me and I was nearly crushed as he took my place.

‘It's no use,' he called back. ‘It must be locked. What room's on the other side of this?' Ryan asked.

‘I don't know. It could be the room I've been sleeping in, that front bedroom.'

‘We've climbed higher than that,' said Boges, ‘past that bedroom. I think it's that little lookout room above your bedroom, Winter.'

‘Of course!' I said, excited. ‘That's where they set up the video projector! They used the secret tunnel, crept up here and somehow know how to open the trapdoor. There's only that old chest up there.' I suddenly understood. ‘Come on!'

We turned around and made our way back to the opening next to the fireplace. We thundered upstairs to the lookout room. The three of us were about to move the heavy chest when I noticed something. ‘Look at the dust on the floor—you can see the outline of the chest just there, next to where it's standing on the rug now. Someone's moved it over the trapdoor.'

We heaved the chest away, pulled back the rug and sure enough, right in the floorboards, was a trapdoor with a slide lock. It opened easily and as we peered in, we could see the steps leading down into the tunnel.

‘So,' said Boges, ‘the “ghost” is finally laid to rest. Someone came through the secret passage, climbed up here with the projector, played the footage of the ghost onto the smoke and then left the same way. These steps go past the wall of your bedroom, Winter, no wonder you could hear strange noises in the night.'

‘They couldn't have pulled that chest across the trapdoor once they were underneath it,' I pointed out, with a shiver. ‘They must have come down the main stairs behind us when we went outside to investigate.'

‘Man, that is spooky,' said Boges.

‘What is it about me?' I cried. ‘This is the second house where I've had intruders! And what about the Drowner? Don't forget that clock is ticking down, and we don't even know who it is!'

‘Calm down, Winter,' said Ryan, putting an arm around me. ‘No-one's going to hurt you while I'm around.' He looked and sounded so like Cal in that moment, I almost forgot that it was Ryan.

‘Thanks,' I said, stepping over to the window. A thought came to me. ‘What if this isn't the only secret tunnel?'

‘Good point,' said Boges, excited by the possibility. ‘There might be more in another direction. Let's go down and check it out.'

6:32 pm

We climbed down through the trapdoor and followed the tunnel back to the entrance to the front room. We were almost at the end of the passageway and about to step out when I spotted something on the floor—something shiny. I bent down and scratched dirt away from it. It looked like a ring of some sort.

It was hard work in the squashed passageway,
but we took turns and eventually uncovered a heavy brass ring, attached to the ground.

‘This is it,' said Ryan, as he scraped the last of the dirt away to reveal a large slab of the rock. ‘Looks like we need to lift this whole stone up,' he added.

This trapdoor proved much tougher than the first one and it was obvious that it hadn't been used in a very long time. Our arms strained levering the heavy stone up, but finally we managed to lift it right out. For the second time that evening, we were peering into the black unknown.

I shone the torch down. This time, stone steps carpeted in thick dust fell away steeply and vanished around a corner. ‘This one seems to go away from the house,' I said, trying to discern more in the torchlight.

7:01 pm

I lowered myself down onto the stone steps and into the narrow passageway. Slowly, I descended the stairs, Boges and Ryan close behind me. I heard Boges sneeze from the dust and Ryan almost slipped on a step, grabbing me to stop his fall. I took hold of his arm and for a moment we held each other until he regained his balance. ‘You OK?' I asked.

‘Fine, Winter.'

I lifted the torch to reveal a small stone room ahead of us.

‘It's an old cellar,' said Boges, switching on the light on his phone. Ryan did the same to reveal a small damp square room that had been hewn out of the rock. The stillness was broken only by the swing and thud of the nearby ocean, a dim, intermittent roar. A huge iron hook on a thick iron chain hung from the cellar's roof and I wondered what it was for—maybe hanging meat or fish to dry out.

‘In the old days, before refrigeration,' Boges said, ‘people needed cool, dark places to keep their vegetables.'

The light from my torch blinked and dimmed. ‘The batteries are dying,' I said. ‘Let's get better equipment so that we can explore properly. We really need some good lighting.'

‘We really need some good food, too,' said Boges. ‘I'm starving!'

‘Me too,' said Ryan. ‘C'mon, we'll make a fresh start in the morning.'

I called Cal to give him an update.

‘Secret passages? I wish I was there!'

‘They'll still be here when you get here, don't worry,' I laughed.

Secret passageway,
Perdita

8:34 am

Next morning, we couldn't wait to get back to exploring. We hurriedly put new batteries in my torch and found Ryan's camping light.

We made our way through the secret passage and down the stone steps to the cellar. It was mesmerising to hear the sound of the sea so close, the shuddering dump of a wave as it struck the rocky beach beneath us. But there was something else. I strained to listen.

‘Shh!' I hissed. ‘Quiet everyone! I can hear something. What is that?'

We all stopped to listen.

‘All I can hear is the sea, crashing on the rocks,' said Ryan.

‘Can't you hear voices? Or is it just one voice?'

‘Winter, you are seriously freaking me out! What voice?'

‘Shut up, Boges,' I ordered, ‘and just listen.'

‘Hey! You're right. I can hear it too,' said Ryan.

‘But where is it coming from?' asked Boges. ‘Outside somewhere? It doesn't sound like it's upstairs.'

‘Amazing that the sound penetrates down here,' I said. ‘But I can't make out any words.'

‘Let's go take a look,' said Ryan.

We retraced our steps back into the house, and climbed straight up to the lookout room overlooking the sea, trying to get a fix on where the voice might have come from.

I looked out the window and immediately noticed someone moving around near the back of Perdita. The person came fully into view. ‘Curly is snooping around down there! What's he up to now?'

‘Let's find out,' Boges said.

‘Don't let him out of your sight,' I hissed, as we hurried down the front hall. We watched as Curly headed for the bush track that led to the beach.

We followed and peered over the edge of the cliff to see Curly making his way down the steps. We watched him all the way down until he reached the sand. Then he seemed to be poking around with a long stick that he'd picked up.

‘He's looking for something,' I said, ‘in the rocks down there.'

‘Let's get down there and check out what he's up to,' said Ryan.

It wasn't so hard getting down the cliff this time, and although I was worried that Curly might look up and see us coming, there didn't seem to be much danger of that. He was completely absorbed in what he was doing—looking around the big boulders that were strewn along the base of the cliff.

Finally, the three of us landed quietly on the beach some distance away from Curly, whose stooped figure was still probing and prodding between the rocks. Cautiously, we approached, keeping low and some distance behind him.

‘Don't move,' I whispered to the others. ‘He's calling someone on his mobile.'

‘We need to listen in,' Boges pointed out.

‘You're right. But I think only one of us should get closer—less chance of being spotted. I'll go,' I volunteered. ‘You two stay here.'

Crouching down, I crept closer until I found a large boulder and ducked behind it. I had a good line of sight to Curly, who was sitting on a rock not far from me, talking loudly on his phone. I turned and beckoned to the other two and they snuck over to join me.

‘People have already died trying to find it,' we heard Curly say. ‘I don't want to be next.' There was a long pause as he listened. Then, ‘It's supposed to be somewhere here but I can't find it. It's just a pile of rocks.'

Boges nudged me. ‘That was the voice we could hear in the cellar,' he hissed. ‘It must have been Curly.' Boges's voice fell silent as Curly's voice continued, ‘What am I supposed to do about it?' he asked the unknown caller. ‘They're all here and they're not leaving.'

The person on the other end must have said something that annoyed Curly because he angrily shoved his phone in his pocket, stood up and started to stride away, turning in our direction while we flattened ourselves on the sand behind the boulder.

He walked straight past us only a small distance away, head down, muttering. Yet all the time, those hard eyes were scanning the beach.

I nudged Boges. ‘Let's find where he hangs out when he's not scaring his wife in the shop.'

Keeping well back, we set out to follow him, all the way along the beach.

‘People have died trying to find—what?' Boges asked. ‘Was he talking about the shipwreck? Is it supposed to be somewhere here near these rocks?'

‘I don't know,' I said, keeping an eye on the distant figure at the other end of the beach and hastening my steps. ‘But we mustn't lose him.'

‘He's been watching us the whole time and he doesn't like that we're still here. Because we're in the way,' Ryan said.

‘It's pretty obvious,' said Boges, ‘that he's working for whoever he was talking to. Curly is only an employee.'

‘Hey, look!' I said as we came round a bend. ‘He's heading up the hill to that house way over there.'

We stood and watched as Curly disappeared into a modern glass and concrete mansion. It stood standing by itself in a commanding position on the northern headland of Deception Bay, facing out to sea.

‘So the question is, who lives there?' I said.

9:07 am

Following carefully behind, we made our way up until we were hiding in the bushland that surrounded the mansion.

I edged closer, keeping some cover between me and the house. Luckily, we were approaching from the side, away from the road to the village out in front. There was nowhere to hide on the neat lawns now between us and the house.

‘Check out the security cameras,' said Boges, pointing to the small black boxes on each corner of the building. ‘This is high-grade security.'

As we watched, one of the garage double doors slowly started rising and we strained to see who might be driving the red sports car backing out. But once out of the garage, the driver gunned the motor and screeched off down the side of the building and onto the road, too fast for me to get much more than a fleeting glimpse. They took off towards the village in a cloud of dust.

‘Same driving school as Harriet,' chuckled Ryan to himself.

‘Did you get to see who it was?' I asked.

‘Too quick for me. But I'm betting it wasn't Curly,' said Ryan.

‘Let's take a closer look at the house,' Boges said.

Staying down, the three of us ran over to the garages, now closed again. Pressed against the wall, I sidled up to a window and peered through.

It was a lounge room, with a few magazines piled on a table, comfortable chairs and a bright purple rug on the floor. Everything was quiet and still. But in a mirror on the far wall, I saw the reflection of a woman with short, spiky hair, her back to us, in the adjoining room, sitting at a desk.

I was staring at this reflection when a door
flew open with a bang and I nearly died of fright as a huge Doberman came bounding through. I bolted. I barely saw the man who was racing after the dog.

‘Hey, you little punks! Get off this property! What do you think you're doing here?'

Over the sound of the dog's furious barking, I could hear the pounding of Boges's and Ryan's feet behind me as we crashed into the bushland.

‘Split up!' Boges yelled, and we did—with me racing straight ahead, Boges and Ryan peeling off to the left and right.

Branches and sharp twigs tore at my face and arms, snagging my hair, but I kept running and finally the sound of the dog's barking started fading. I saw the boys ahead of me and raced up to join them where we caught our breath.

‘I think I just lost ten years off my life,' said Boges, doubled over and panting. ‘That dog was the last thing I was expecting.'

Just as he was catching his breath again, his mobile rang. He slowed his breathing as he answered. ‘What is it, Mum?' he asked. Then I saw his face flicker with concern. ‘Sure,' he said. ‘I'll leave right away. I should be back in a few hours, OK?' He hung up.

‘What is it, Boges?' Ryan asked.

‘It's Gran. She's had to go to hospital. Mum needs me. I'm sorry guys, I'll have to go back to the city.'

‘That's too bad,' said Ryan, ‘on both counts.'

‘I hope your gran's OK,' I said.

‘I hate to go—' Boges began but I took his arm.

‘You've got to go, no question, Boges,' I said. ‘Family is so important. Your mum needs you.'

‘It's only for a day or two,' said Boges. ‘Mum's not really good at filling out official forms—she finds the language difficult sometimes. Plus she'll need me to drive her around.'

Back at Perdita, I considered my options. Even though it was important that we discover who lived in that mansion, it wouldn't hurt to take a couple of days off. And it would be unthinkable to mount a surveillance operation on the place without Boges.

‘How about we take a break, too, Ryan?' I said. ‘This is a good chance to go back home, have a decent hot shower, get some takeaway and take stock of everything that's happened so far. I should probably work on my holiday assignment, too.'

We drove back to the city, Boges dropping off Ryan first and then me. ‘Give my love to your gran,' I said, as he left.