Operation Gadgetman! (9 page)

The nearest phone kiosk was in the shopping precinct. Beans and Louisa weren't keen on losing sight of Ann, but they had no choice. Beans opened the telephone directory and began to flick through its pages.

‘Yaahoo! He's here!' she shouted, before remembering where she was.

‘Louisa, have you got a pen?' Beans asked.

‘Yeah, here you are,' Louisa said excitedly.

She handed it over, and Beans wrote the address and phone number down on the back of her hand.

‘I would have brought my spy kit along, but I thought it'd get in the way,' Beans said.

‘Same here. I'm sorry I didn't now,' Louisa said.

Beans studied what she had written. ‘Oak House, Berryfield . . . He lives quite a way out.'

‘The perfect place to keep someone you've snatched,' Louisa said. ‘An out-of-the-way spot, surrounded by fields and trees . . .'

‘And not too many nosy neighbours,' Beans finished. ‘Come on. Let's get back to Ann.'

‘Hang on. How about if we tried phoning his home first?' Louisa suggested. ‘We know from your dad's letter that there's at least one other man involved in all this somewhere. Maybe the second man is at Lucas Moynahan's house right this second.'

‘But what good will phoning him up do?' Beans asked.

Louisa shrugged. ‘We'll know for definite if another person is there. If someone
is
there, tell them you're from a charity or something, but in the meantime listen out to see if you can hear any background noises. You might even hear your dad.'

‘It's a bit unlikely,' Beans said doubtfully.

‘But it's worth a try. You've got nothing to lose,' Louisa said.

And Beans couldn't argue with that. After dialling the number, she held the phone between her right ear and Louisa's left. It had barely rung once before the phone at the other end was picked up.

‘For God's sake, Lucas, I'm moving as fast as I can. Stop phoning me. You're panicking.' The man's voice at the other end of the line was angry, impatient.

Beans's heart leapt up to her throat. She struggled to find something to say. The words of the man at the other end of the line had thrown her.

‘Hello. I'm from . . . I'm from . . .' Beans's voice dried up. Her mind went blank. The silence at the other end of the line was deafening.

‘Who is that?' the man said at last, the wariness in his voice crackling down the phone.

Louisa nodded frantically at Beans. ‘Go on!' she mouthed.

Beans's mouth was bone dry, her tongue stuck to her palette. She swallowed hard, then swallowed again. It didn't help.

‘Can I . . . can I speak to M-Mr Conran, please?' Beans's whispered words came out in a rush. At the other end of the phone, the man gasped.

‘Who is this?
Who is this?
' he asked furiously.

Then the phone was slammed down.

‘Beans, are you crazy? What did you say that for?' Louisa asked, appalled.

Beans stared at the receiver in her hand. The continuous purr it made, showing that the connection had been broken, mocked her.

‘Beans!' snapped Louisa.

‘It was your idea to phone in the first place,' Beans argued.

‘I never told you to ask
that
,' Louisa fumed. ‘Now they're on to us. They know we think your dad is there.'

‘It . . . it just slipped out,' Beans said miserably. ‘Besides, they don't know it was me.'

‘Talk sense. Who else would it be?' said Louisa.

Deep down, Beans was just as shocked as Louisa. She hadn't meant to ask that at all. ‘It's just that . . . that suddenly all I could see was Dad locked up or tied up and all for a stupid gadget. He's
there
! I just know he's there. I can
feel
it.'

‘Feel it, my left eyeball!' Louisa scoffed. ‘Beans, you need more proof than feelings. Detective Warner isn't interested in your feelings. Suppose you got it wrong? Suppose that was Lucas Moynahan's dad or brother or something and they have nothing to do with your dad?'

‘Yeah, but the man on the phone complained that Lucas has been phoning him a lot. I bet that was after he saw me in the building society,' Beans tried to defend herself.

‘That doesn't prove anything. Lucas might have been phoning up all the time to make sure his lunch was ready when he got home,' Louisa said.

Crestfallen, Beans nodded.

‘And supposing, just supposing, you're right. What if Lucas Moynahan and the man you just spoke to
are
somehow involved in your dad's kidnapping? All you've done now is tip them off,' Louisa said.

‘I was stupid, wasn't I?' Beans said glumly.

‘Yes, you were,' Louisa agreed immediately. ‘Come on, let's get back to Ann.'

As they walked back, Beans said, ‘I'm sure I'm right about Lucas Moynahan though. He would have been the first one at the building society to read Dad's letter. As soon as I get home I think I'd better give Detective Warner a call.'

‘You're certain Moynahan's the one you saw outside your house?' Louisa asked. ‘As I remember, the man you saw in the Escort had on sunglasses . . .'

‘It
was
him,' Beans replied immediately. ‘I recognized him at once. He also has this habit of drumming his fingers. He was drumming his fingers on the steering wheel when I saw him the first time, and he was drumming his fingers on the table just now.'

‘Are you sure you didn't see the drumming fingers and the beard and put two and two together to make three and three-quarters?' Louisa asked.

‘No, I didn't. It was him. I know it was. Besides, you didn't see the way he looked at me. He recognized me all right,' Beans retorted.

The rest of the short walk back to Ann was carried out in silence. Beans glanced up at the blue sky, shading her eyes from the dazzling sun. It was going to be a scorcher. Was Dad somewhere where he could see it . . . ? Feel it . . . ?

They reached the line of cars opposite the building society where they'd left Ann.

She wasn't there . . .

‘Ann . . .' Louisa called out nervously.

Beans looked around quickly, hoping Ann was still in sight. She wasn't.

‘Stay there,' Louisa ordered.

Before Beans could argue, Louisa crossed the road and went up to the building society. Beans's heart moved up to her mouth as she watched Louisa try to push open the front doors. A tall, slim woman with black hair appeared almost immediately and said something to Louisa through the glass doors. Louisa spoke back. Licking her lips, Beans glanced up and down the main road, wondering if she should cross it to be with Louisa. As Beans watched, the woman unbolted the doors and spoke to Louisa directly.

Just when Beans thought she'd have to join her friend or die of curiosity, she saw Louisa smile and thank the woman from the building society before turning to recross the road.

‘What happened? What did you say to her? What did she say to you?' Beans was all questions.

‘They closed over five minutes ago and our man Moynahan was out the door about two seconds afterwards,' Louisa filled in. ‘I said he was supposed to be having dinner with us later and Mum had sent me with a message for him.'

‘So Ann must have followed him,' Beans said nervously. ‘I hope she's all right.'

‘I'm fine.' Ann's voice behind them made both Beans and Louisa jump.

‘Ann! Where were you? I was beginning to get worried.'

‘I followed what's-his-face to the car park around the corner,' Ann said. ‘He got into his car –
his blue Ford Escort car
– and drove off, so I couldn't follow him.'

‘I
knew
it was the same guy. I knew it!' Beans hopped up and down. ‘He
was
parked outside my house yesterday. Ann, he didn't see you, did he?'

‘Are you kidding?' Ann said, her hands on her hips. ‘Of course he didn't see me. I've read your dad's book!'

‘I'm certain now that he's involved in Dad's kidnapping – absolutely certain.' Beans's eyes narrowed.

‘That's all very well, but what's our next move?' Louisa said, bursting Beans's bubble by injecting a practical note into the conversation.

Beans chewed her bottom lip for a moment. ‘We visit Lucas Moynahan at his house. We see if my dad's there.'

‘You got his address? More spying! Yes!' Ann waved her arms above her head.

‘Maybe now would be a good time to call Detective Warner?' Louisa suggested.

‘Why? We don't have any more evidence or information than we did yesterday,' Beans argued. ‘I reckon we should call him after we've been to Moynahan's house. If we manage to pick up some clues there, then we'll definitely phone him.'

‘Let's hope that when we want to go to the police, we haven't left it too late,' Louisa muttered.

Beans looked at her but said nothing.

They headed for the bus stop.

I wonder if Ann and Louisa feel as nervous as I do? Beans thought. What would she do if Dad
was
in Lucas Moynahan's house? What would happen then? How would they rescue him?

Oak House was indeed well hidden. Miles out of town, you had to turn up an unmarked side track which was very easy to miss, overgrown as it was with brambles and bushes which grew higher than Beans's waist. It was only thanks to the bus driver's instructions that Beans and her friends didn't miss the turning altogether. The entangled leaves on the trees above them were an all-enveloping cloak, deadening the light from the afternoon sun and flattening sound. They could hear one or two birds chirping and lazy buzzing sounds from distant insects, but even those noises were quiet and subdued.

‘Do you think Lucas came back here?' Ann whispered.

Louisa shrugged as Beans said, ‘Shush!'

They carried on walking. The ground under their feet was baked hard, making the going very tiring. Beans studied the path for tyre marks or other potential clues, but the rock-solid earth held nothing but the faintest impressions.

‘Keep your eyes and ears open for clues, everyone,' Beans whispered.

‘Shush!' Ann said. ‘What's that noise?'

They all stood absolutely still and listened.

‘It's a car. A car's coming!' said Beans.

‘Get back!' Louisa ordered. ‘It might be Lucas.'

The track lay before and behind them. To the sides lay brambles and bushes and stinging nettles, with dense trees behind that. They each stood there, none of them keen to scramble through the thick undergrowth. The unmistakable sound of a car engine was getting closer.

‘Beans, Louisa . . .' Ann said desperately. ‘What do we do?'

‘We've got no choice,' Beans said. ‘Come on!'

They waded through the bushes and brambles before squatting down, out of sight.

‘I can't believe I'm doing this,' Louisa muttered. ‘I dread to think what I'm standing in.'

‘Shush!' the other two girls glared at her.

The car came closer and closer. From around the bend just up ahead, the blue Ford Escort appeared unexpectedly quickly and drove straight towards them. There, in the driver's seat, was Lucas Moynahan. But Lucas wasn't the only one in the car.

Beans jumped up. ‘Dad . . . DAD!' she screamed as the car roared past them.

‘What?' Ann said.

‘My dad's in that car!' Beans started running after the Escort, which was speeding away from them. Two men sat in the back seat and one of them was her dad. He turned his head, his expression frantic as he mouthed words Beans couldn't hear. Dad! Dad was in there. So close . . .

Suddenly, the car screeched to a halt. Beans froze.

‘Beans . . . Beans, come back!' Louisa ran forward and grabbed her by the arm.

One of the Escort doors opened. Lucas Moynahan got out of the car.

‘Come back, you two!' Ann cried out. ‘They're after us.'

Beans hesitated for only a second. She pelted back to Ann and all three of them dived for cover into the bushes, scrambling to get as far away from Lucas as possible.

‘Come back here!'

They heard Lucas's furious voice call after them. If anything, his voice made them scramble faster and further away from him. Beans pointed to the right and they veered off in that direction, roots and brambles tearing at their clothes, scratching at their faces.