Squishy Taylor and a Question of Trust (3 page)

‘Maybe we could go down to the corner and get a tub of ice-cream?’ Jessie asks. That’s the thing about Jessie. She knows when to ask for things.

Alice hesitates and then sees all the pizzas, neatly lined up and ready to go into the oven. ‘All right,’ she says, and reaches for her wallet.

The three of us race out the door and head towards the lift. We bang straight into Mr Hinkenbushel.

‘Oi! Watch where you’re going, can’t you? Lousy kids.’ Mr Hinkenbushel has messy hair and his jacket is all crumpled. He’s
scowling
at us.

‘Sorry,’ we chorus and then run for the lift. As the lift door closes, I see Mr Hinkenbushel put his key into the lock and open his apartment door.

We stare at each other. He really is back!

We fight over whether to get chocolate or salted caramel, and Jessie wins because she’s carrying the money. When we get home, we
tiptoe
past Mr Hinkenbushel’s door, but we may as well not have bothered because he’s standing in the kitchen with Alice.

‘Yes, my plane arrived this afternoon,’ Mr Hinkenbushel is saying. ‘I thought I’d better come home and get the place sorted out.’

Alice and Dad are nodding with
sympathetic faces
.

I push his diamond catalogue deeper into my pocket as Jessie edges past with the ice-cream to get it to the freezer. The room smells like hot melted cheese and I remember how hungry I am.

When Mr Hinkenbushel leaves,
scowling
, Vee sticks out her tongue at his back. Dad gives her a warning look. I pull pieces of salami off my pizza and eat them thoughtfully.

‘Did Mr Hinkenbushel say he just got back?’ I ask.

Dad nods.

‘Like, just this second, on the plane?’ I need to get this right.

Dad nods again.

I see the image of Mr Hinkenbushel unlocking his apartment as we got into the lift. ‘But he didn’t have any luggage!’ I cry.

Dad and Alice don’t seem to care.

But I know what my mum looks like when she gets off a plane. She always has at least two bags, one of them a big suitcase on wheels. Mr Hinkenbushel was carrying
nothing
.

After dinner, I skype Mum on my bed.

‘Hi, my
Squishy-sweet
,’ she says. She’s in her office because it’s daytime in Geneva. She tries not to be busy at my bedtime. ‘What’s happening?’

‘The news says there are illegal diamonds in Melbourne. Why would they be illegal?’ I ask.

‘Well …’ she starts. One thing I love about my mum is that she takes my questions seriously. ‘There are two reasons. Firstly, because in some countries, diamond miners are paid very badly and work in terrible conditions. So other countries try to help the miners by making it illegal to buy those diamonds.’

I understand why Dad said to ask Mum. Her work is all about countries working together to make everybody’s lives better. That’s what she’s trying to do at the UN.

‘And secondly, because when you bring diamonds into Australia, you have to pay tax. So some people
smuggle
them in, to hide from the tax office. Which means they make more money. It’s greedy.’

I nod. It makes me think of the shiny diamond catalogue in my pocket. The one I found on Mr Hinkenbushel’s doorstep. Why would Mr Hinkenbushel even have a diamond catalogue? Unless …

I hold the excitement in my chest while I say goodbye to Mum and while Jessie and Vee come to bed. Dad and Alice kiss us, and close our door. Then I make Jessie and Vee come sit on my bunk and whisper.

‘It’s Mr Hinkenbushel. He’s the
diamond smuggler
.’

They both laugh at me but I poke them. ‘No, listen,’ I say. ‘He had no luggage just now. Why would he have no luggage? Because he was already back!’

‘What?’ Jessie scoffs. ‘He was just hanging out with the burglars?’ Then she pauses thoughtfully.

I nod, even though they can’t see me in the dark. ‘He broke into his own apartment to make it look like he wasn’t there. That’s why nothing was stolen!’ I can feel my voice getting louder and I have to make myself calm down so Dad and Alice don’t hear us. ‘Plus, I found this.’ I hold up the diamond catalogue and shine the iPad light on it. ‘It was in his doorway. Why would he have this?’

Jessie takes the catalogue off me and turns it over. It
sparkles
under the light. She seems interested, but not convinced.

‘Anyway,’ I say, ‘do you know what his job is?’

Both of them shake their heads. I don’t know either. We stare at each other across the iPad light. Why would Mr Hinkenbushel keep his job a secret? That’s pretty suspicious.

Vee starts to get excited. ‘A real-life
diamond smuggler
!’ she says. ‘Cool.’

‘You’ll have to be able to prove it, though,’ Jessie says.

‘We have to tell the police,’ I say.

The next morning, I announce to Dad that we need to go to the police. Baby is screaming on the change table in the bathroom, and Vee and Alice are in the kitchen
fighting
about homework. Vee and Alice are the only ones who ever fight about homework. Jessie does hers because she
likes
it and Dad just forgets about mine. Alice says she’ll cook for me and wash my clothes, but she won’t make me do my homework. This is
fine
with me.

‘Mr Hinkenbushel is the diamond smuggler, Dad,’ I say, over the noise of Baby crying.

Dad wipes poo off Baby’s kicking legs. ‘What diamond smuggler?’ he asks.

‘The one on the news! Haven’t you been listening? There’s a Lord from England trying to find him and he’s in Melbourne and we know it’s Mr Hinkenbushel. We have to tell the police.’

Alice’s voice gets louder in the other room. ‘Just
focus
, Veronica. You could finish this in half an hour if you tried. You’re not
trying
.’

Dad smears some cream onto Baby’s bottom, which makes him scream even louder.

‘So, can we go to the police?’ I ask.

‘No,’ Dad says. Just like that. I don’t think he even heard me properly.

‘But Dad –’

‘
No
, Sita.’

‘But you didn’t even –’

In the other room, Vee yells, ‘MUM! I’M TRYING TO TELL YOU! SHE NEVER EXPLAINED IT TO ME.’

‘Do something useful and play with your brother,’ Dad says and puts Baby into my arms. Baby stops crying and reaches around my neck.

Dad takes my shoulders and turns me towards my bedroom. I hear him talking as he steps into the kitchen. ‘Cup of tea, Alice?’

Jessie is in our room on the bottom bunk. She’s lying on her tummy, looking at the iPad. I plop Baby on his back next to her and he starts pulling her hair and giggling.

‘No-one will believe you,’ she says. ‘You don’t have any evidence.’

She nudges her nose up to Baby’s and
nuzzles
it from side to side. He gurgles and his smile gets even bigger. He’s pretty cute.

‘But the police station’s only round the corner,’ Jessie says. ‘We could just go.’

She shows me the map. She’s already done a search and we don’t even need to cross a road to get there.

Alice says we can take Baby for his nap (he always goes walking for his nap) but she makes us tell her the three rules:

We know them off by heart.

Vee
glares
at us and we grin back. She knows we’re up to something fun but she can’t come with us. She has to finish her project.

Baby is asleep before we get to the lift. The police station is four doors down from the ice-cream shop. I do
One-Foot-Slide-Scoots
with the pram down the hill and Jessie tries to stop me.

I figure it’s not dangerous, though, because I obey rule number three: I never let go of the pram.

As we get close to the police station door, I start to feel nervous.

Inside there’s a big glass window with a little hole in it. I almost wish we didn’t come. A policeman steps up behind the counter. He is younger than Constable Graham and has a big smile.

‘What’s going on, guys?’ he asks,
grinning
. ‘D’you find a baby?’

‘No, he’s ours,’ I say.

‘Let me guess … you’re the father?’ He points at me and we all laugh.

When we stop laughing, Jessie speaks. ‘We’re here about the diamond smuggler.’

‘Oh-kaaaay,’ the policeman says. ‘Hang on a minute.’ He types something into his computer.

‘So, talk to me,’ he says.

Jessie nudges me. So I tell him about Mr Hinkenbushel having no luggage and how he wasn’t away at all, so he must have faked the burglary himself. I show the policeman the diamond catalogue I found. His lips are
pinched
together, like he’s trying not to laugh, but he types it all down.

‘Is that everything?’ he asks.

I think about what the news said – the police are looking for forged documents that declare the diamonds to be legal.

‘Well, Mr Hinkenbushel probably has the forged documents. They’d be in his apartment. Or a secure bank safe,’ I say. ‘Or maybe buried somewhere.’

His face cracks into a huge smile, like I’m the funniest thing he’s ever seen, but he’s nice anyway. ‘OK. Well listen, thanks for coming in.’ His face goes serious. ‘It’s really important to report
suspicious
things. Even if they feel a bit … silly.’

He doesn’t believe us.

Out on the street, Jessie pushes Baby and I climb up and walk the fence rail by the church. I can usually take seven steps before I have to jump down, but this time I only get to three. I hate that the policeman doesn’t trust us.