Puppy Pie (29 page)

‘That's nice,' Gull says listlessly.

‘And so,' Shirley says brightly, ‘we'll be having a special afternoon tea for her. Which means,' Shirley continues quietly, ‘I'll open the file from my computer and print it out while we have afternoon tea. And while you have cake and tea, you can stand by the printer and put everything in this folder for me, can't you?' she adds handing an empty folder to Gull. ‘And then you can put it in your backpack.'

Gull looks up at Shirley and then beams. ‘I'm so happy for Mary.'

‘Knew you would be,' she grins. ‘It couldn't have happened at a better time.' She glances down at her watch, noticing it's two o'clock. ‘I'll just nip out and get a cake. And I'll tell Mr Sprogg about Mary on the way.' Hurrying back to her desk, Shirley picks up her purse and turns to walk towards the front door.

Just then, Mr Sprogg emerges from his office. He and Shirley almost collide. He has his jacket on and is carrying his briefcase. Gull watches the two of them talking. Mr Sprogg looks surprised and smiles a tight little smile. Quickly, he walks over to Mary, shakes her hand clumsily, waves and then turns away to walk towards the front door. Instead of following him, Shirley returns to her desk and beckons Gull over to her.

‘Mr Sprogg has left for the day,' she says brightly. ‘I'll just start printing out this, er, information for him for Monday morning.' Whispering, she says, ‘Just write down the password for me, Gull, and I'll start.' Quickly, Gull grabs a pencil and scribbles ‘beware' on a notepad. Shirley sits down at her computer and starts to type the word. Both hold their breath as she presses ‘Enter' and the screen goes blank for an instant.

‘Oh good,' Shirley sighs with relief as the file opens. Gull leans heavily against the desk behind Shirley.

‘Make us both a cuppa, Gull,' Shirley says happily. ‘I'll be a while.'

As Gull walks slowly on wobbly legs over to the urn, she hears Shirley call out, ‘Ah, does anyone want the printer for the next hour? I thought I'd use it while we have afternoon tea?' The others shake their heads. ‘And Gull, when you've made the tea, could you put all the information in these folders?' she calls out so everybody can hear her. Gull nods her head.

‘And don't let us catch you reading it either,' Flora laughs. ‘After all, it's Bank business. Remember, we'll be keeping an eye on you.'

Gull smiles back tightly thinking,
I really want to know what's in that file. If I didn't have to stand at the printer, I could go back to my desk and open it up. But now, it looks as if I'm under surveillance from the friendly ladies at the Bank
.

‘Don't worry about getting the cake,' Flora says to Shirley. ‘I'll just slip out myself. You look busy there,' she says as she takes the petty cash purse and trots out the front of the Bank and into the street.

‘And I've already got the kettle on, so it won't be long now,' Betty adds.

Quickly, Gull goes over and stands by the printer as Shirley hits the ‘print' icon. Gull stands transfixed as page after page rolls out. ‘Here's a cuppa and a piece of cake, Gull,' Mary says.

‘Thanks,' she says. ‘Oh, and congratulations,' she adds hurriedly.

‘This'll be my first,' Mary says smiling shyly. ‘So we'll see how this one turns out before we think of any more.'

Gull nods as Mary moves away and hands Shirley a piece of cake.

While Gull stands guard at the printer, Shirley bustles around making sure everybody has enough tea and cake. Occasionally, she goes to stand near Gull with another slice of cake and quietly reads some of the pages from the file.

‘Well if I ever wanted my blood pressure to rise, this would be the way to do it,' she says tapping the folder lightly.

Gull says, ‘Harry is so lucky to have you and Ted as friends. And here you are feeling so outraged for him.'

Shaking her head, Shirley glances over at her. ‘I hate to disappoint you Gull, but this particular file is not about Harry and the Folly.'

Chapter 14

Gull gasps.
Oh no! Don't tell me it's the wrong file after all.
Before Gull can grab Shirley to explain, Mary appears to fill up their teacups.

‘Tell you later,' Shirley whispers as she wanders away.

Twenty more minutes to go
, Gull groans as she looks at the clock above the Bank door.
At least the printing has finished at last. What a huge file
, she thinks as she tries to stuff it all into the one folder. ‘Shirley, have you got any more folders?'

Shirley is running around gathering mugs and plates and giving them to Flora and the other women to wash up in the small sink at the other end of the room.

‘Oh, my,' she says looking at the large amount of paper now on her desk. ‘Just run into the stationery cupboard and bring out that box of empty manila folders, would you, Gull? I'll take all this over to the big table and sort it into the relevant piles for Mr Sprogg for Monday,' she says, again loudly enough so that the other women hear her.

As Gull dashes into the stationery cupboard, Shirley picks up the large pile of papers and takes it down to the empty sorting table at the same end of the room. Gull brings the box of files over to the table. Expertly, Shirley divides the papers into categories and quickly scribbles an initial in pencil on each of the folders, with several headings underneath. Gull glances over at her backpack and then back at Shirley.
They're not going to fit,
she thinks to herself. Shirley follows the direction of her glance. As if reading her mind, she says, ‘Don't worry, Gull. We'll get to the shops before we go home. I've brought some bags from home. They're in my handbag: I know how much you hate using those plastic bags,' she adds giving Gull a wink.

‘Being environmentally friendly, are you dear?' Flora says. Gull smiles at her, relieved that Shirley had the foresight to bring extra bags.

‘Would you mind locking up?' Mary asks coming over to the table where Shirley is skillfully sorting the files.

‘Not at all,' Shirley replies. ‘I can't leave until I've finished these for Mr Sprogg anyway.'

‘Oh good,' she says relieved. ‘As you close the door, just push the keys through the letterbox on the door. As he's always first here, Mr Sprogg collects them from the carpet on Monday morning.'

Before she can stop herself, Gull says, ‘That doesn't sound very secure to me. I mean,' she says flustered, ‘couldn't someone just get a hook and pull them back out? Or something?' she adds lamely.

‘Why, you're a burglar in the making,' Flora says joining them. ‘Anyway, no one's ever robbed this Bank. We all know each other too well in this district. And besides, everyone's money is tied up in this Bank so you'd only be robbing yourself.'

Gull manages to bite her tongue before she can say, ‘But what if it's not an inside job? What if it's someone from out of town?' Then it hits her: she's surrounded by trusting people.
They can't imagine anyone trying to rob them or worse still, commit some sort of big crime. Such as,
Gull thinks to herself,
their trusted bank manager seems to be about to commit
.
With maybe a little help from one of the other trusted people in their community. After all, who do people trust? Family and friends. And the local bank manager!

‘Come back, Gull,' Shirley says gently as the other women begin to pack up and pick up their bags.

‘Oh, sorry,' she says. ‘I was far away.' At the front door, she hears the others calling out their goodbyes as they walk briskly out.

‘Time for us to go too,' Shirley calls back as she locks the front door after the others. ‘Now,' she says, racing back to the long table where the folders are neatly stacked. ‘Get your backpack Gull, and we'll put your folders in there. And just grab a few of those bags out of my handbag.' Rummaging around, Gull finds several bags and gives them to Shirley.

‘Made out of good, old parachute material,' she says as she hands a bush green one to Gull. ‘Now these files are about the Folly, the biggest lot. And these,' she says handing more folders to Gull to put in the bags, ‘are about Jimmy's place.'

Gull gasps.

‘And these,' Shirley says sternly, shoving more folders hard into a pale beige bag, ‘are all about our place.'

‘You're joking,' Gull says wide-eyed.

‘Told you my blood pressure had risen. And this is why. I haven't had time to read it all but just enough to know that it's definitely not the Bank's business. If I ever had any qualms about taking files from the Bank, I don't have anymore. Because they're not the Bank's files at all.'

‘What? But how come?' Gull asks.

‘I'll tell you how come, Gull,' Shirley says now well and truly fired up. ‘Because when this information was obtained, Cyril Sprogg hadn't started working for this Bank. It looks like he brought the information with him. Now, let's get all this stuff back to Harry's before I blow a fuse, I'm that mad.'

In no time at all, the dull coloured bags and Gull's backpack are stored safely in the boot of Shirley's car.

Hopping into the front seat of the car, Gull waits hopefully for Shirley to start telling her about the files. As they pull out and head for home, Gull asks casually, ‘So, what did you find in the files?'

Shirley takes a deep breath and lets it out slowly. ‘I know you want to talk about the files, Gull, but I'm just so mad at the moment that I think I might explode!'

‘Er, yuk,' she says horrified. Glancing over at Gull and seeing the expression on her face, Shirley bursts out laughing. ‘I'm so sorry, honey. I know you're dying to find out but …'

‘It's okay,' Gull says trying to smile. ‘Anyway, I guess it's the right file after all. And we're almost home. Oh, look! There's Ted's ute, and Jimmy's too. Now you can tell us all together,' she adds just as they turn right into the Folly. As they climb out of the car, go around to the back and start taking the bags out of the boot, Gull says, ‘Oh, no!'

‘What?' Shirley says as she hands Gull her backpack.

‘The keys to the Bank! You forgot to push them through the door.'

‘Did I?' Shirley replies innocently. She smiles. ‘You know, Gull, on second thoughts, I believe you're right. There should be a better security system for the Bank. So, I think it would be better to hand these keys over to someone who'll keep them safe,' she says gathering up the other bags and slamming the boot forcefully.

‘Like …?' Gull asks as she pads after Shirley, walking briskly towards the busy kitchen full of cousins, Harry, Ted and Jimmy.

‘Haven't quite decided yet,' Shirley continues as they walk up to the screen door. ‘But someone I know I can trust,' she says as they push through the screen door. Just as they walk in, Gull hears the tail end of the conversation and Harry's last words, which seem to hang in the air.

‘… we need is some evidence.'

‘Did somebody order evidence?' Shirley asks beaming.

Almost immediately, Gull opens her backpack. Quickly clearing the kitchen table of tea and coffee mugs, Shirley and Gull begin to empty the files onto the table.

‘Well, well, well,' Harry murmurs as he picks up a folder at random. Ted and Jimmy do the same. Lucy opens another folder on the table and standing over it, begins to read while Jake and Tom look over her shoulder. Everybody is quiet for some time, reading voraciously.

Feeling left out, Gull notices seven rolls of paper lying on a chair, including the gang's sheets of butcher paper. Picking them all up, she walks quietly into the lounge room and starts laying them out on the massive coffee table. Looking around for something to weigh the corners down, she notices Tom's dusty collection of treasured rocks from around the property. Running over to the shelf, she grabs several of them. Finally, looking down at the three main maps on the coffee table, she frowns and then smiles.
Mmmm
, she thinks to herself,
they join up. This must be the Folly. And
, she muses straightening another,
this would be Ted's farm next door. So, this one
, she smiles as she adds another rock to the corner,
is Jimmy's farm on the other side. So, what are these?
she wonders glancing at the four remaining rolls of paper.
They feel like tough greaseproof paper.

Taking extra care, Gull begins to unroll the last four onto the floor. Jumping up and grabbing more of Tom's rocks, she unfurls all of the tough paper. Gull stares at them perplexed. Then she swivels around and looks at the maps of the three properties. Quickly, she stands up and goes back to the coffee table. Shirley walks into the study with two steaming mugs of tea and hands one to Gull.

‘What have you got there?' she asks as she stares across at the maps.

‘I'm not quite sure what they are,' Gull says scratching her head. ‘I thought it must have been about our three properties. But there are seven maps. I wonder if there are more somewhere.'

As Shirley sips her tea, she stares at the maps in front of her, curious. ‘They could be surveyors' maps. Let's ask the others.'

Holding their mugs, Shirley and Gull walk back into the kitchen. All the folders are now open and overlapping on the kitchen table.

‘Well!' Harry says sighing deeply and sprawling in his chair. ‘The Bank seems to know all about the farm.'

‘What do you mean?' Gull asks.

‘Well, from what I can gather, it looks like the Bank's been trying to find out whether the land my great-great-grandfather bought was all fair and above board. It looks like the Bank's been looking for any excuse to steal our land. But as I was telling Jimmy and Ted, old Fred only got what he paid for.' Harry stands up and stretches to his full height before sitting down again and flipping over another folder.