Mumbersons and The Blood Secret, The (14 page)

Jerry frantically banged on the door with his fists. ‘Open up, you stupid blasted thing.’ He gave it a kick as well, which only hurt his foot.

‘Dad. We
can
open it.’

‘With
what
, Billy!’

Billy swayed, and was caught by Adiblo. ‘Mum gave you something, didn’t she?’

Jerry’s eyes blazed at him. ‘This is no time for nonsense, Billy. It’s...’ He stopped, gulped, and leaned his forehead against the door. ‘I am such a fool!’ He thrust his hand in his pocket, and drew out the pack of cards. ‘How
the heck can these help?’ He’d lost all his composure. ‘I don’t know what to do with them, Billy.’

‘Give them to me, Dad.’ Billy grabbed the pack and tore at the cellophane around it. ‘There must be something in here.’ He pulled the cards out of the box. They seemed to be an ordinary pack, like any pack of cards you’d buy from any shop. They smelt new, they were clean, they’d never had their corners turned down or been bent while being shuffled. Billy skimmed through them, not seeing anything. He was desperate. Perhaps he was wrong after all, perhaps this wasn’t what his mother meant when she’d told Jerry about a
door that must be opened
. He reached the court cards at the end, the jacks, the queens, the kings, the jokers.

But one of them wasn’t a joker. It was a
Get Out of Jail Free
card.

‘What do you do with it?’ yelled Jerry in frustration.

Before Billy could answer, the door began to behave very strangely. It started trying to do two things at once. The first was what Slaggard had said it would do: vanish. They could all see the edge of the door fading.

‘Quick!’ yelled Olivia. ‘Use the card!’

‘I don’t know how!’ said Billy.

But the door was also trying to do something else. It was trying to open. It growled, the way Stevedore did after Olivia dropped a bone for him on the grass and some other dog wanted to join in. The fading stopped for a moment, then seemed determined to carry on. The edges shimmered. The door creaked loudly and opened a fraction. Jerry grabbed at the edge and tried to pull at it. He’d have lost his fingers if he’d left them there, because the door slammed shut
again. The edges shimmered even more until the framework threatened to turn into the ordinary stone wall.

Billy forgot how sick he felt. He stood in front of the door and said in as loud a voice as he could muster, ‘This is a
Get Out of Jail Free
card. I command you to open, and stay open!’

The door made such a variety of noises no one afterwards could exactly describe them. It could have been several speedboats bumping and banging into choppy waves, or chainsaws spitting and barking as they bit into hard and ancient wood, or elephants trumpeting and thumping because their herd was under attack.

At the same time, the frame merged into the wall, though the shape of the door remained visible.

Finally there was a humongous sickening wrenching sound and they all leapt back - Slaggard had to be rolled out of the way because he’d fallen over with fright. The door tore itself loose from what had been its frame before it merged with the wall, and the huge thing crashed flat on the floor, its hinges warped and broken, its lock shattered into several pieces. The flagstones cracked and broke under its weight, and dust that had been on the floor for centuries flew up, covered them, and made them splutter and cough.

No one waited for anything else to happen. They ran through the opening to the steps and began climbing up them as fast as they could. ‘Wait for us!’ shouted Lavitch, as he shuffled forward with Slaggard.

But now they were out of the dungeon, the others wanted to make sure they weren’t going to get stuck anywhere else. Worse, the gas lights, which flickered and lit up when they started to set foot on the stairs, began to fade. It was like waking in the night and not being sure what you were going to walk into. Some of the gas lights popped, one or two exploded, and the glass mantles shattered around them.

Everyone was shouting at once. Jerry helped Billy up the stairs while Olivia raced ahead of them. Mr Mumberson muttered and groaned at having to climb so fast but each time he stopped Mr Adiblo gave him a hearty push and made him move. Their hearts were working overtime, especially Billy’s.

Lavitch and Slaggard were soon left behind. They were able to climb, but slowly, and Lavitch in particular sounded as though he was whimpering.

After what seemed a very long time they saw the door to the offices. Billy hoped they wouldn’t have to find some magic way through that, but by the time he got to the top of the stairs, Olivia was holding the door open with her foot. ‘Give me your phone, Billy. I need to text your grandmother. To bring the car around to the main gates.’

While he fumbled for the phone in his pocket, Jerry shepherded him through the door.

Mr Mumberson and Mr Adiblo arrived at the top of the steps a minute later. Mumberson was exhausted. However fit he might have been from his years in the mine, he was now struggling to breathe, making a horrible rasping noise. Adiblo supported him, so that at least he was able to keep moving, but they made an odd sight: the little man, barely reaching Mumberson’s chest, trying to hold the much taller man upright.

Olivia, having finished texting Mrs Mumberson, continued to hold the door open, because Lavitch and Slaggard were still slowly making their way up.

Jerry said, ‘Leave the door, Olivia. Prop it open with that chair. We need to move.’

By the time they got to the front gate
Mrs Mumberson had already brought the car around.
Jerry immediately noticed the scraping along the left hand side but kept his mouth shut. Stevedore was standing in the passenger’s seat barking furiously. He stopped the moment he saw Olivia, jumped out of the car and gave her face a thorough wash.

Mrs Mumberson cried aloud at Billy’s bleeding hand, but didn’t ask for an explanation: there was too much else to sort out, like how to fit two children, four adults and a dog in the car.

Mr Adiblo helped out by saying, ‘I’ll walk. I need some fresh air after that stinking dungeon.’ He shook hands with Mr Mumberson and apologised three times for all the trouble he’d caused, and for being so suspicious. ‘I feel quite safe now that those awful women are gone.’ He set off down the hill. Stevedore decided to join him, and trotted alongside, either to keep an eye on him to make sure he didn’t do anything else he shouldn’t do, or merely to keep him company. Mr Adiblo leaned down and patted the dog on the head. Stevedore responded by almost swallowing his hand in one great lick.

Adiblo turned round and called back to the others. ‘I forgot. My car is at your house. I’ll have to collect it.’ Then he was off again.

Meanwhile Jerry had got in the driver’s seat. ‘We must get to the Emergency Department, before Billy loses any more blood.’ The others bundled into the car as best they could, and were about to set off when a green Commodore tore out of the entrance gates and stopped right in front of them.

‘What!’ shouted Jerry, banging on the steering wheel and blasting on the horn.

The Commodore stayed where it was. It changed from green to white, the black police markings reappeared, as well as a round blue siren on top. Lavitch was in the driver’s seat, looking like the big bully he’d always been, with his muscles once again bulging through the police uniform. Slaggard was in the passenger seat, an unpleasant grin on his face, trying to keep his police cap from slipping over his forehead.

There was no sign at all of the cords they’d been tied up in a few minutes before.

‘Should have left them in the dungeon!’ snarled Mr Mumberson.

Jerry reversed the Fiesta at speed and swung it round. The early evening sun nearly blinded him. He smashed down the sunshade and raced towards the top of Habitation Hill. Halfway down it they could see a cable car full of tourists making its slow descent.

Lavitch revved up the police car and drove close behind them, tailgating them, the blue light flashing and his siren blaring. In his rear vision mirror, Jerry saw the smug look on Lavitch’s face.

Just then, to the surprise of everyone in the Fiesta, Lavitch shot over to the wrong side of the road, and drove down it, parallel to them
.

‘What the heck’s he doing?’ said Jerry. ‘He’ll run into a car coming up the street.’ The cable car was still ahead of them, doing a tenth of the speed of the two cars.

Both cars reached it together. As soon as they passed it, Lavitch pulled ahead and began to veer across the road towards Jerry. Slaggard waved and gave them a silly grin. Then his grin vanished and he drew back sharply into his seat, as Lavitch braked hard.

As did Jerry. Everyone in the Fiesta plunged forward in spite of their seatbelts, and there was a nasty smell from the tyres burning on the road. Jerry muttered several rude things under his breath. Mrs Mumberson said, ‘Gerard!’

The road was blocked. More skateboarders than they’d ever seen had appeared out of nowhere. They coasted around the moving cable car, like moths around a swinging light bulb, and blocked the rest of the road, in front and behind. None of the skaters seemed familiar to either Billy or Olivia. Perhaps they’d come from out of town for a competition.

Out of the corner of his eye, Billy saw Stevedore racing down the hill towards them. Mr Adiblo was far behind him, running, calling him, but he was wasting his breath. The dog had no intention of stopping. Stevedore raced in amongst the skateboarders, leaping and dancing as though he was chasing butterflies in a field.

The cable car came to a stop to avoid hitting anyone. The conductor leaned out the door and shouted, ‘Get out of the way!’ to the skaters, while the driver grabbed the clapper and banged it loudly on the bell. Several tourists cheered with delight and took photos on their smartphones.

Lavitch inched his Commodore around the front of the cable car, barely avoiding several fast-moving skaters in the process. Perhaps he intended to block Jerry from moving forward once the skaters got off the road.

Just then, Olivia spied Liam amongst the skaters, and called to him out the car window. He turned towards her as he whizzed past, and shouted, ‘We’ve been waiting for you all to turn up!’

He gave a piercing two-fingered whistle and immediately all the other skaters gathered behind him. Almost as though they were one person, they swirled around the police car, which was now straddled at an angle across the road, its rear end over the cable car tracks. The skaters whirled round and round the Commodore until they were almost a blur, making a terrific noise not only with their boards on the road and as they drove over the tracks, but with a kind of chanting as well.

Lavitch’s confidence had vanished again. His hands seemed welded to the steering wheel, as though he was afraid he was going to be pulled out of the car. Slaggard shrunk into himself and his clothes got even more loose and floppy.

Stevedore took a great leap, soared over the skaters and onto the bonnet of the police car. He barked loudly at its occupants. ‘Stevedore!’ shouted Olivia. She was going to get out of the car, but Mrs Mumberson wrapped her arms tightly around her.

Billy couldn’t see what was happening clearly because he was sitting in the back of the Fiesta behind Jerry. ‘What’s going on?’ he said, starting to open the door.

‘Stay inside the car, Billy!’ shouted his father.

The skaters whizzed faster and faster around the police car until it seemed as if there was a long coloured chain encircling it. If Lavitch and Slaggard wanted to escape, they had no way of even opening the doors.

‘Seems to be a day for magic,’ said Mr Mumberson.

‘I’ve had enough magic for one day,’ said Jerry, his fingers tapping furiously on the steering wheel. ‘I just want to get Billy to the hospital.’

Stevedore continued to balance on the bonnet of the Commodore, barking more and more wildly. The cable car conductor had given up shouting at the skaters to move. He, the driver and the tourists all stared at the sight without the slightest idea of what was happening. Some of the tourists thought it was a special show put on just for them, and were impressed that it was included in the price of the cable car ticket.

Liam suddenly broke out of the whizzing circle, flipped his board up, caught the end, and stood looking on. It was like a signal. The police car lifted off the ground inch by inch. Lavitch and Slaggard’s faces slowly rose above the skaters’ heads. They were very unhappy, and seemed to be floating inside the car - it didn’t help that in the rush they hadn’t put their seat belts on. Their heads bumped on the inside of the roof. The Commodore, which had now turned green again, rose further and further.

Stevedore was still on the bonnet. ‘Stevedore!’ shouted Olivia through the open car window. The dog turned briefly, gave her a friendly bark and ripped off first one windscreen wiper and then the other. Lavitch and Slaggard gaped.

‘Stevedore! What are you doing?’ The dog woofed loudly again without turning. He kept his balance on the bonnet, even though the car continued to rise. Then with his teeth he tore a great hole in the windscreen, as if it was made of clear plastic. When he flicked it over the heads of the skaters, however, it shattered on the road.

He put his head through the gap and barked. It wasn’t the friendly bark he’d given Olivia. It was the noise a dog makes when a stranger comes to the door, loud and insistent. Lavitch and Slaggard scrambled to try and get into the back of the car, their arms and legs flailing in all directions as each one pushed past the other.