Authors: Gabrielle Lord
November (7 page)
I opened the lid on the old wooden toy box in the corner. Inside were some cans of tuna, baked beans, nuts, chips and a loaf of bread.
‘You should be pretty comfortable here for a while, at least until something better becomes available. There’s plenty of bushy cover and there’s a tap just a few metres away that looks pretty unused. The only major downside is that there’s no power source for charging your phone in here, but I checked out the shed—it’s up closer to the house—and found a power point. You could probably sneak up there and use it at night, when you really need to.’
‘Yeah, this is cool,’ I said, pushing my
backpack
into the toy box with the food. ‘It doesn’t have a home theatre, but it’ll do. Thanks Boges.’
My friend laughed before getting up to leave.
‘I’d better get going—big day at school tomorrow. Maybe you should give Nelson Sharkey a call. See if he can help you out with a passport.’
I met the ex-detective at the gym. I noticed how his watchful eyes constantly scanned the street outside as he listened to what I had to say.
‘Cal, of course it’s do-able,’ Sharkey said, ‘but do you have any idea how much a false passport costs?’
‘I’m sure they’re not cheap,’ I said. ‘I was hoping you could tell me and help me arrange one.’
‘Where do you want to go?’
‘Ireland,’ I said.
‘Ireland? You’re going to Ireland?’ Sharkey looked surprised.
‘Where else would I want to go?’ I asked. ‘Disneyland?’
‘No, it’s just a coincidence,’ he said, laughing. ‘I’m about to head off there myself, to a family
reunion. My family’s Irish, and all the Sharkeys who originated from this place called
Roscommon
, in Ireland, are meeting up there over Christmas for a twenty-five-year reunion. We’re expecting nearly a thousand people to descend on the place, from all over the world—America, England, Australia.’ His face became serious. ‘I guess you want to go to Ireland to find out more about your dad’s final activities?’
‘That’s right,’ I said, nodding.
‘Probably a good idea,’ he said. ‘It will be a heck of a struggle to get you out of the country, but there’s not much else you can do here right now. The answers you’ve been looking for—if they exist—will most likely be found there. In my opinion.’
Slowly I took in what Sharkey was saying. I was lucky to have someone like him to give me advice.
‘So you’ll go to Ireland, you’ll track down this mysterious Ormond Singularity thing, you’ll claim the reward—or whatever it is—and then you can come back and clear your name. Is that your plan?’
‘That’s the plan. I bet you were a great
detective
in your day,’ I said. ‘Don’t you ever want to get back into it?’
Nelson grunted and brushed the idea away
with a flick of his hands. ‘Too corrupt,’ he said, bitterly.
For a moment I wished things were different for him. The way he’d contacted me, offering me his help, made it obvious he still wanted to be working for justice. Even if it was in an unofficial way. I could tell he really missed the job, but he refused to admit it. I recalled how he’d told me about his former boss betraying him and setting him up, which led to the loss of his badge. He’d also mentioned losing touch with his kids because of it. Maybe he reached out to me because he had a kid of his own that was my age. A kid he couldn’t talk to.
I was too afraid to ask him about his family. ‘Will you help me get a fake passport?’ I asked him, instead.
‘Where do you think we’re going to get the money from?’ He leaned towards me. ‘I told you, I don’t have a lot of money. Definitely not that kind of money. And I can’t imagine you have hundreds of dollars in
your
pockets.’
I didn’t have hundreds of dollars in my
pockets
, but I had something just as good. ‘If money wasn’t a problem, would you be able to arrange the passport for me?’ I asked.
‘Of course I could. Anything’s possible in this city. All you need is the right connections
and
the right amount of money.’ He leaned back in his seat and fiddled with the lid of his drink bottle.
‘If I get the money—’ I started to say.
‘How are you going to do that, Cal?’ he said sternly, in a way that my dad would’ve spoken to me if I’d just suggested something he thought was going to put me in danger. ‘I think a trip to Ireland would be good, but not if you have to do something crazy to get the money for it.’
‘I’m not about to go and hold up a bank,’ I said with a half-smirk. ‘There’s no need, when I already have this,’ I said, reaching into my pocket for the pouch of remaining gold nuggets.
Nelson Sharkey whistled when he took the pouch from me and peered inside at the
gleaming
gold. ‘Where the heck did you get this?’
‘Remember how I told you about the two old Dingo Bones Valley prospectors? One of them tried to tie me up—wanted to hand me over to the cops for the reward money—and in the struggle I pocketed some of
his
bounty … kinda like a souvenir.’
‘Right, a souvenir,’ said Sharkey, tipping some of the gold into his palm.
‘Do you think you could trade it in for me?’ I pictured the suspicious gold trader who’d given me cash for the first half of my stash. I couldn’t
risk trying to cash it in with him again. ‘That should be enough to cover the passport, right?’
‘I don’t know a great deal about gold value, but I’m pretty certain you have it covered.’
‘Cool. By the way, do the names Deep Water, Double Trouble and the Little Prince mean
anything
to you?’ I asked, hoping that the ex-detective might recognise the criminal nicknames.
Nelson Sharkey frowned, then shook his head. ‘No. Where’d you hear them?’
‘I saw them listed with the names of some other crims,’ I said. ‘I thought maybe you’d have heard of them.’
‘No, not familiar, I’m afraid.’
Three days up a tree later, I was relieved when Sharkey called me with some news.
‘I scored one thousand for the gold,’ he said. ‘I tried to get more but that was the best I could do.’
‘Thanks Sharkey. That’s heaps better than what I got for the other half.’
‘Happy to help. Now listen, I’m tracking down a very good forger I know, who owes me a favour or two. But you’ll need at least another four grand. He doesn’t work for anything under five.’
‘Four grand!’ I nearly choked as the
impossible
words came out of my mouth. ‘He wants another four grand? I need to have enough cash for flights, too. How am I supposed to make all this happen?’
‘Cal, I don’t have all the solutions. Think about
it and get back to me,’ he said before hanging up.
After the Lesley Street raid that almost trapped me, there was no way I was going to use Winter’s flat as a meeting place. I called my friends and asked them to meet me at the top of the clock tower instead. I liked this place as a rendezvous point, with its unbeatable aerial view of the city, although I knew I’d be in big trouble if I found a SWAT team ascending the stairs—there weren’t any rooftops
this
high I could jump to as an escape.
‘Boges,’ I said, as soon as he arrived,
breathless
from running up the stairs. ‘I have a big problem. Sharkey knows a really good forger—’ I began.
‘That’s not a problem, that’s a good thing,’ he said.
‘Wait until you hear his price,’ I continued. ‘Five grand.’
Boges’s hands flew to his head. The nervous scratching began.
‘Sharkey scored one thousand for the leftover gold I had, and I have one hundred and
thirty-seven
dollars, fifty-five cents in my pocket.’
‘That leaves you three thousand, eight hundred
and sixty-two bucks short,’ said Boges. ‘And forty-five cents. Here, I think I can chip in the forty-five cents,’ he said, digging into his pocket. He handed me a fifty cent piece. ‘Keep the change.’
‘Boges,’ I said, ‘this is serious.’
We looked up as Winter approached us from the stairs. The wind was whipping her dark hair across her face, and big sunglasses hid her eyes. Lately she always seemed to be wearing jeans and T-shirts, instead of the crazy skirts and shawls I first saw her in. Today she wore dark jeans, white sneakers and a red and white striped shirt, reminding me of a peppermint candy cane.
‘My passport’s sorted,’ she said, with a smile.
‘Mine, too,’ said Boges.
‘I’m excited,’ she said, nudging Boges and I with her shoulders. ‘So when are we going to Ireland?’
Then she saw my face.
‘Problem?’ she asked.
‘No passport. No Ireland.’
‘You have to get one. You can’t give up like that.’
‘Who said I’m giving up? I can
get
a passport, but it’s going to cost me. Somehow, I need to find almost four thousand dollars.’
‘Plus you need money for flights, and it’ll cost money once you get to Ireland,’ Boges said.
‘I know, thanks for the reminder,’ I groaned.
I slumped against the wall, hot and exhausted with everything.
‘Airfares, accommodation expenses,’ Boges continued. ‘Even if we live in youth hostels we’ll still need to find more money. I’ll talk to my uncle. He might have some ideas about cheap travel.’
That idea didn’t help lift my gloomy mood.
Suddenly, I brightened up. ‘Rathbone’s vegie garden! We can dig up his money chest!’
‘Whoa, dude,’ said Boges. ‘As if he would have left that stash there.’
‘Yeah, whoa, dude,’ repeated Winter. ‘He definitely would have moved that and hidden it somewhere else by now.’
They were both right. Unlucky for me.
‘You won’t find money buried in Rathbone’s garden any more,’ said Winter hesitantly, ‘but I do know another place where you’ll find a lot of money.’
‘Where?’ I asked.
‘I know where there’s money, too,’ said Boges, pointing down to Zürich Bank in the distance. ‘There’s all we need and more, just over there.’
Winter rolled her eyes. ‘I’m talking serious money I can actually get my hands on. Straight away, if necessary.’
‘Tell us,’ I urged.
Winter pulled her hair back and twisted it around, then let it fall again before answering us. ‘Sligo—’
‘Oh, no, not him,’ Boges interrupted. ‘I don’t like any sentence that starts with that name.’
Hands on hips, Winter snapped back. ‘Do you guys want to know, or not?’
‘You know we do,’ I said, elbowing Boges. ‘Go on.’
‘
Sligo
keeps a packed suitcase in the back of his wardrobe. I overheard him call it his “scram bag”. I’m not supposed to know about it, of course, but as you guys know, I make it my business to find out everything that goes on in Vulkan Sligo’s place.’
‘Scram bag?’ I asked, repeating her phrase.
She nodded. ‘His emergency suitcase. Already packed. Ready to scram. So he can grab it and get out of the country at a moment’s notice.
Everything’s
there—passport, travel documents, clothes, toothbrush, cologne … and
cigar boxes.
’
‘Cigar boxes?’ I asked. ‘I don’t get it. Cigars aren’t worth
that
much, are they?’
I turned to Boges, but he looked as confused as me.
‘It’s not the cigars that I’m interested in,’ said Winter, ‘it’s what else is inside the cigar boxes!’
‘Money?’
‘Cold, hard cash,’ said Winter, rubbing her fingers together in front of our faces.
I recalled how Sligo had handed Rathbone a cigar case last month, back at the banquet. Was he paying him off for something?
‘Have you actually seen this cold, hard cash?’ I asked Winter.
The look on her face instantly told me she hadn’t.
‘Look, I know it’s in there. I’ve seen him hand the cases over to people in the past, and I know Sligo’s passing around more than just cigars. I caught a glimpse inside the scram bag
yesterday
and he has a row of these boxes stacked along one side of the suitcase. He doesn’t even like smoking cigars! Trust me, they’re lined with money.’
‘Dangerous,’ I warned. ‘You said he’s been
acting
funny—more paranoid. What were you doing over there, snooping in his room?’
‘I wanted to confirm my theory on the money in the cases, but I ran out of time. I took lunch over to him, then snuck into his room while he was taking a call. I saw the cigar boxes in the bag, but I freaked out thinking he was about to walk in on me, so I didn’t get any further than that.’
‘So it’s just a theory?’ Boges asked.
‘I’ll say it again for you. I know the boxes have
money in them.
I
don’t have to see it to know it’s in there.’ Winter shrugged. ‘I just have to go over there and take it. Sligo owes me so much,’ she said. ‘The guy stole my inheritance. If we help ourselves to his stash, I would just be getting back a very small fraction of what he’s taken from me. As soon as I’ve returned to his yard and scoped out the wreck of my mum and dad’s car, and as soon as we’ve solved the mystery of the DMO, my relationship with him will be over. I’ll be taking my evidence to the police, and then he’ll be dead to me. I’ll finally be free to move on with the rest of my life.’
‘And I’ll be right there beside you, when you go to the police,’ I said. ‘That’s a promise.’
‘Me too,’ said Boges.
She flashed us a grateful smile. I loved the confident way Winter spoke, as if another trip to the car yard was just one minor obstacle
standing
in the way of the truth about her family. I also loved the way she spoke about the DMO, as if we were about to crack it, any day now.
I just hoped Sligo wouldn’t find out
prematurely
that his ward was spying on him, trying to get evidence on him. If Winter took money from him and he found out, she’d be in real trouble. Underground oil tank trouble.
‘If you’re going to help yourself to his cash,’
I said, ‘you’ll need to cover yourself. Make it look like a professional break-in. Put him off the scent with a false trail.’
I suddenly thought of something. ‘Hey, you have something belonging to Oriana that you could plant. That piece of the leopard-print scarf she used to half-throttle me. It’s still at your place, isn’t it? You could use that to complicate things.’
Winter’s face brightened. ‘Love it,’ she said. ‘Yep, I’ll use that, Cal. And leave it at the crime scene. Maybe I could drop a few of those little silver things she’s always eating. The cachous.’
‘Sweet,’ said Boges. ‘They won’t be such tight allies after that!’
‘I will need your help, though,’ she said,
looking
from Boges to me, ‘to make sure of a clean getaway. Just someone to keep an eye on his place, in case something goes wrong.’
‘We’ll be there,’ I said.
‘I’ll drop by for a swim,’ said Winter, ‘and invite myself to dinner. I can do that any time. He loves an audience when he’s talking about himself. He thinks the rubbish he’s telling me—about sponsoring the ballet, about the art he’s acquired, about the huge party he wants to host next month—impresses me. I guess I can handle that. I won’t have to do it for much longer. In
fact,’ she said, narrowing her eyes, ‘it’ll be kinda fun to sit there, nodding and smiling, while all the time I have his emergency stash hidden away in my beach bag!’
‘Winter,’ said Boges, ‘you are one fearless chick.’
She winked at him. There was no mistaking the admiration in Boges’s voice.
My mobile beeped. It was a text message from Sharkey.
let me know if u want me to go ahead with the passport. as soon as you give me the nod, my friend can get on with it. he’ll need the $ and a photo.
