Squishy Taylor and a Question of Trust (6 page)

I pull Jessie and Vee over to a tram stop and we lean against the glass, pretending to wait for the tram. Mr Hinkenbushel is very nearby, half in the queue for a coffee cart.

But really, we’re all listening as hard as we can to Lord Smiggenbotham-Chancery’s phone call.

‘This is absolutely our last chance,’ he declares into his phone. His posh voice sounds less lazy than usual. ‘If we don’t make our move tonight …’ Then he pauses. ‘If you cannot manage to locate the documentation, then I shall do it alone.’ He hangs up and
scowls
down at his phone. ‘Utterly useless,’ he mutters.

‘He’s very angry with the police,’ I whisper.

Jessie nods. ‘Well, they’re not doing a very good job.’

I wonder what Mr Hinkenbushel will do now. He’s turned around. His hat is off now and he’s almost
strutting
. He actually looks quite pleased with himself, almost as though he
wants
to be seen. We trail behind him but he just goes straight home. Jessie and Vee and I look at each other, confused. Why did he even go out in the first place?

Mr Hinkenbushel stops in front of the door of our building to answer his phone.

Jessie silently passes me the hopscotch stone and I toss it onto the court and start hopping. I don’t have to strain my ears to hear what Mr Hinkenbushel has to say.

‘I’m out. I’m catching a plane to Sydney this evening,’ he says quite loudly. ‘For a meeting, but I’ll be back tomorrow.’ He pauses. ‘Yes, the document is in my apartment, all safe.’

Then he nods, hangs up, and glances down the street. I follow his gaze. Was that Lord Smiggenbotham-Chancery ducking round the corner?

Mr Hinkenbushel looks pleased for some reason and goes inside. Is he pleased because of the phone call? Or did he do something we didn’t notice to Lord Smiggenbotham-Chancery?

We wait until the lift doors close.

‘The document!’ I say. ‘It’s right there,
next door to our place
.’

Jessie shakes her head. ‘He could have been talking about any document.’

‘We just caught him following Lord Smiggenbotham-Chancery!’ I say. ‘Of course it’s the document.’

‘Are we a hundred per cent sure that was Lord Smiggenbotham-Chancery?’ Jessie asks.

‘
A million per cent
,’ I say.

We all nod. We’ve heard his voice enough times.

‘But they didn’t talk to each other,’ she says. ‘It
could
have been a coincidence that they were in the same place at the same time.’

‘But it wasn’t,’ Vee says.

We all nod. Mr Hinkenbushel deliberately went looking for Lord Smiggenbotham-Chancery, made sure Lord Smiggenbotham-Chancery saw him, and then walked away. We just don’t know why.

Dinner isn’t quite ready so I lie on the floor with Baby, giving him my finger to grip and then pulling his little fist around. But I’m not really paying Baby any attention. I’m thinking.

Mr Hinkenbushel is going away and his flat will be empty. The police and Lord Smiggenbotham-Chancery have no idea how to find the missing document that will lead them to the smugglers. And the document is in Mr Hinkenbushel’s flat, which will be
empty
tonight.

I skype Mum.

She coos at Baby and tries to make him clap but he just wriggles his hands at her. He’s not coordinated enough to clap yet. Then he tries to
eat the iPad
so I leave him on the rug and take Mum into our room.

‘Mum, those diamond mines. Are they really bad?’ I ask.

‘Yeah, Squishy.’ She nods. ‘They’re really bad.’

‘OK.’ She’s helping me make a decision, even though she doesn’t know it. ‘And, Mum, what would you do if the police didn’t believe you, but you knew you were right?’

Mum suddenly looks suspicious. ‘Is this about that revenge gang thing? Have the police been round again? Do I need to speak with your father?’

I forgot she only
just
found out about the HRC video, and of course she’s still worried.

‘Mum, it’s
fine
, nothing else has happened.’

‘Sure?’

‘Sure I’m sure.’

‘Mum, it’s about something totally different …’ I make up a little lie. ‘It’s a thing I’m doing for school … about … um … justice.’

She still looks a bit suspicious, but also thoughtful. ‘What was your question? What would I do if the police didn’t believe me?’ She thinks it over. ‘Is it about something important?’ she asks.

I nod.

‘I suppose …’ She’s still thinking. ‘I suppose I’d do everything I could to
prove
I was right.’

It’s really late. Dad and Alice have gone to bed and Baby has stopped crying.

It’s time.

‘Vee,’ I whisper. ‘Let’s do it.’

‘Whaa…?’ Vee sounds groggy. She must have been asleep.

I feel Jessie sit up. ‘You two are
bam-bam crazy
,’ she says.

I’m already pulling my pyjamas off. I’ve got my climbing clothes underneath.

We planned it all after dinner. I get to be the one, even though Vee’s been climbing longer than me. I thought she’d argue more, but after she looked down out the window, she went a bit white and let me.

While I tie myself into my makeshift climbing harness, Jessie says all the things she said before we went to bed.

‘You’ll fall.
You’ll die
. There’s nothing there anyway. The police will come and put you in jail.’

Vee anchors the rope around the bedpost and holds it, ready to belay me. My harness is made of climbing rope and a leather belt and it’s
really strong
.

‘I won’t fall,’ I say. ‘Vee’s got me. Haven’t you, Vee?’

Vee nods, biting her lip.

‘It’s a question of trust, right?’ I say. I’m grinning and afraid at the same time.

I open the window. Jessie goes quiet and stands behind Vee to hold the rope.

Then I climb out onto the windowsill. The ground is a really long way down. The tops of the trees are a really long way down. My heart starts
thundering
, my throat blocks up and I feel like my forehead is burning from the fear.

I know my harness is good, and I can feel the strength of Vee’s hands on the end of the rope. It’s only two metres across to the balcony and the handholds are easier than the easiest wall at the climbing gym. This is nothing.

It doesn’t
feel
like nothing.

It feels like the
scariest
thing I have ever, ever done.

But I can’t climb back inside now.

I reach along the wall for the first brick and curl my fingers around it. It feels solid. I can do this. I have to trust myself. I nudge my toe out and find a hold.

My fingers feel strong and I know what I’m doing. I
inch spider-ways
across the wall. Trying not to think about the drop. Trying not to think about being an idiot and Jessie being right. Just feeling the gentle tug of the rope that tells me Vee is holding on. I try to focus on the strength in my fingertips.

I reach the balcony rail and swing myself over it onto the tiles. I collapse and just sit there, feeling sick. I already know that was the stupidest thing I’ve ever done. You’d think I’d be relieved that I didn’t die. But I’m not. Also, I know I have to do the whole thing again to get back.

‘You OK?’ Jessie
hisses
from the window.

‘Yep,’ I say. ‘Shhh.’

If Alice and Dad wake up and realise what’s happening, they’ll probably disown us. Then send us to some horrible boarding school for criminally minded children, or feed us to
ravenous sharks
. And Mum would fly back from Geneva to help them.

I make myself stand up and unclip the harness. Mr Hinkenbushel’s balcony door is exactly the same as Alice and Dad’s, but it opens into a lounge room instead of a bedroom. Lucky, because I do
not
want to see Mr Hinkenbushel’s underwear.

I look quickly around his lounge room, which is pretty bare. There’s not much here. The first door I try, I can tell this is where I need to look. There are bookshelves with lots of folders on them, and a computer on a desk with a mess of paper everywhere. I think whatever I’m looking for must be very well hidden, so I’m ready to do a thorough search.

But the first thing I see, as though it’s been placed there for me to find, is an official-looking piece of paper.

‘
The Cantaloupe Diamonds, purchased to the value of …’
I stare at the number printed on the page. The row of zeros seems to blur and I can’t count them.

I’ve found it. The document the police are looking for. It was too easy!

Then I hear a noise that makes my heart
jump
out of my mouth.

Someone is turning the handle of Mr Hinkenbushel’s front door.