The Mystery of the Clockwork Sparrow (12 page)

‘
All red ribbons
,’ continued Sophie. ‘What does that mean?’

‘It’s almost as if it’s just . . . made up. Any old words, scribbled down anyhow,’ said Lil.

‘But what for? Why would anyone make up a list of clothing like that?’ Sophie wondered.

Billy sucked in his breath. ‘They might if it isn’t really a list of clothing at all,’ he burst out.

‘Whatever do you mean?’

‘Maybe it isn’t a list,’ said Billy. ‘Maybe it’s a coded message. You know, like in
The Adventure of the Dancing Men
, or
Journey to the Centre of the Earth
. A secret code. The thieves wanted to keep their communications secret, so they disguised them.’

Sophie laughed in spite of herself. ‘A secret code! That’s a little far-fetched, isn’t it?’

Billy folded his arms. ‘Well, how else do you explain it?’ he shot back.

Sophie shrugged. ‘I don’t know. I just can’t imagine anyone making up a secret code about . . . handkerchiefs and nightgowns, and so on.’

‘But that’s the point, isn’t it?’ said Lil. ‘I mean, it’s supposed to look completely ordinary.’ She turned to Billy, suddenly excited. ‘I saw it in a play once. The villain was sending all of these postcards that sounded perfectly innocent – you know,
Weather is fine, Aunt Mildred expected in Brighton on Tuesday
– and actually they were coded messages giving instructions to his accomplices!’

‘And that’s what you think this is?’ said Sophie, glancing down at the list doubtfully.

Billy nodded emphatically.

Lil clapped her hands, looking elated. ‘Now all we have to do is work out what it says!’

B
illy frowned and scribbled down a few words in the exercise book that was resting on his knees, then crossed them out and started again, feeling irritable. He was supposed to be collecting boxes from Gentlemen’s Outfitting and taking them down to the stable-yard for delivery, but instead he was perched on his secret window ledge, staring at the list Joe had found and trying to recall everything he had ever read about cryptograms and ciphers.

He had been keeping a sharp eye out for any quiet corners where he could read in peace, out of sight of Uncle Sid, and this was the best of the hidey-holes he had found so far, much better than the staff cloakroom or the stables – an out-of-the-way store cupboard where surplus stock from the Sporting Goods Department was kept. It had a small rectangular window with a conveniently wide window ledge, which made the perfect place to sit and read. Now, however, the story he had been engrossed in earlier that day was all but forgotten as he squinted at the list, determined to decipher any hidden meaning it might conceal.

The horrible thing was that he was beginning to have an unpleasant feeling that Sophie might be right. There was certainly nothing suggestive about any of the things in the list: he couldn’t see any connection to the events of the burglary at all. Worse still, he wondered uncomfortably, what if Joe had just pretended to see the shooting? He could easily have picked up any old rubbish off the ground and made up the story of what he had seen, knowing that he could use it to convince Billy to help him.

He rubbed his head. He didn’t want to believe that Joe had set out to trick him, and he wasn’t ready to admit defeat, not yet. He just needed to be systematic about it, he told himself. It was really no different from an arithmetic problem on the blackboard at school, and he’d always been good at solving those. He sucked the end of his pencil thoughtfully, scribbled down a few more letters and stopped again. No, that couldn’t be right. He scowled, scribbled, crossed out and started afresh.

‘Hullo!’ said a brisk voice, close beside him. He jumped so violently that he nearly fell off the window sill. ‘What are you doing here? How did you find me?’ he demanded.

Lil smiled, rather pleased with herself. ‘I followed you, of course,’ she said, hopping neatly up on to the window ledge beside him. ‘I know how it’s done. You’re not the only one who likes detective stories, you know. I saw this simply wonderful mystery once, all about –’

But Billy cut her off before she could say any more, not feeling at all in the mood to hear Lil raving about a play. ‘Listen, I’m trying to work out this code,’ he said curtly. ‘It’s important.’

‘I realise that,’ said Lil, impatiently. ‘That’s why I’m here. I thought I might be able to help. Two heads are better than one, and all that.’

Billy glanced up at her doubtfully. Somehow he couldn’t imagine that code-cracking was exactly Lil’s strong suit, but she looked so earnest that he couldn’t refuse. ‘Very well then,’ he sighed, moving the note over so that they could both see it.

‘So what do you think so far?’ she asked, with interest.

‘I don’t know yet. There are all sorts of different ciphers. Transposition ciphers. Substitution ciphers. It could be a really tricky one. They could even have used invisible ink.’

‘Well let’s start with a simple one,’ said Lil promptly. ‘What’s the easiest kind of cipher?’

Billy wrinkled his forehead. ‘I suppose something like just writing the words backwards. Or using the first letter or the last letter of each word to conceal the hidden message.’

‘Well, let’s try those then.’

‘But it’s bound to be something much more complicated,’ protested Billy.

‘Oh go on, let’s just try it.’

Sighing heavily, Billy quickly began to write out the words backwards, starting at the end of the list.
EITKCEN 1 TAOCNIAR DNA STOOB
, he wrote. ‘See? Useless.’

‘Well, what about that other one you just said? The first letter of each word?’

Billy jotted down the first letter of each word and then tapped the page:
ONIGHDG
. ‘It’s just nonsense.’

Lil shrugged. ‘Well maybe, but at least we’ve tried it.’ Then she leaned over and pulled the piece of paper closer towards her. ‘Wait a minute, though, what about the numbers and the prices?’ she asked, suddenly. ‘We have to take them into account too.’

She snatched the pencil from Billy’s hand, scribbled for a moment, paused, and scribbled again. Then Billy grabbed the pencil back and added a few swift pencil marks. Suddenly, three quite recognisable words had appeared on the page:

TONIGHT/DELIVER/SPARROW

‘Oh my goodness . . .’ said Lil, slowly.

Billy gazed at the paper, and then up at Lil once more. A moment later, they had both leaped down from the window sill, Billy upsetting a box of shuttlecocks and Lil almost tripping over a stack of tennis rackets as they hurried out of the room.

In the Millinery Department, Sophie was serving a customer – a very fashionably dressed young girl, with an even more fashionably dressed lady beside her. They were sitting comfortably in velvet armchairs, whilst Sophie trailed to and fro from the storeroom, fetching one hat after another as the girl tried them on, admired her reflection in a gilt-framed looking-glass, and then discarded them carelessly again. Lil and Billy hovered impatiently just out of sight, watching Sophie nod and smile to each new request, focused on her task, just as if it were a perfectly normal day.

After what seemed like an impossibly long time, the young lady finally seemed satisfied, and the customers departed. They watched Sophie pick up the enormous plumed hat that had finally been chosen and head towards the storeroom, presumably to pack it for delivery. Seizing the opportunity, they darted forward.

‘We’ve done it!’ Lil said, her voice shrill with excitement. ‘We’ve cracked the code!’

Sophie jumped in surprise. ‘
What?
’ she exclaimed.

‘Look,’ said Billy, steering her behind a potted palm, feeling shivery with the thrill of the discovery. ‘Just look. Remember how you said that there was something funny about this list – how the prices didn’t sound right, and so on? Well
you were right
. It’s a secret message. Look.’

‘It’s so simple really,’ said Lil, as they all bent their heads over the piece of paper. ‘Just the first letter of each word,’ and she gestured to where they had underlined, on the first line, ‘organdie’ and ‘nightgowns’. ‘And you turn the figures into words. So the number “3” becomes the word “three” and then you apply the same rule.’

‘Three organdie nightgowns,’ read Sophie carefully. ‘T-O-N . . . Ivory gloves . . . I-G . . . Handkerchiefs 10s . . . H . . . and then I suppose the ten is T.
Tonight
,’ she concluded. ‘That’s incredible,’ she breathed. ‘It really does say something! However did you do it?’

Lil’s cheeks were red with pride. ‘It’s awfully simple really,’ she said.

‘Go on – what does the whole thing say,’ said Sophie, her face flushed with excitement too.

Lil read the message out in full. ‘
Tonight. Deliver sparrow underground by ten. Baron.
’

‘Baron?’ Sophie repeated, confused.

‘
The Baron!
’ Billy’s eyes widened as he suddenly recalled Joe’s strange story from the previous evening. He had been so excited about the code that he hadn’t made the connection with what Joe had told him until now.

But even as his thoughts raced, Sophie’s face became anxious. Mrs Milton could be seen gathering all the girls together by the counter. She was looking around for Sophie, a frown on her face.

‘Oh dear – you’d better go,’ Sophie said hurriedly. ‘Come and find me later.’

Sophie hastened over to the circle of girls. Mrs Milton smiled at her as she came up, but it did not escape Sophie’s notice that her smile did not reach her eyes, and she was quick to glance away again. All the excitement Sophie had felt about the coded message immediately rushed away, like the air out of a burst balloon. Apparently now even Mrs Milton was suspicious of her.

‘Well, my dears,’ Mrs Milton began briskly. ‘I know that the opening days have been rather upsetting. But we must try very hard to all pull together. Pull together – and do our best. That’s what Mr Sinclair wants. We have the opening party coming up on Saturday, which as you know, will be a very special occasion: everything must be absolutely faultless for Mr Sinclair’s guests.

‘Now, I have an announcement to make. As you know, I have been thinking carefully about who should be appointed as my assistant. This morning I have been discussing the matter in detail with Mr Cooper, and I’m pleased to say that we have decided that my new assistant will be . . . Edith!’

One or two of the girls gasped in surprise, and though Violet began to clap, she soon faltered awkwardly and let her hands drop. Astonishment flooded Edith’s face, but was swiftly replaced by a look of triumph.

‘Well done to Edith,’ said Mrs Milton, rather hurriedly. ‘Her new role will be in effect as of today. And now I see we have customers coming, so we must get to work.’ Some of the girls were still whispering and staring, and she flapped at them with her hands, suddenly cross. ‘Come along, Ellie, don’t dawdle.’

She hurried back to work, the girls following obediently behind her. Sophie came last of all, feeling sick at heart.

Leaving Lil to return to the mannequins’ dressing room to prepare for the afternoon’s dress show, Billy ran back down the stairs, his heart thumping. He had been right – it really had been a coded message – and they had cracked it! Of course, it had actually been Lil who did the cracking. He shook his head for a moment, feeling slightly disgusted with himself. He was the one who knew about codes, yet it had been she who had used her brain and worked out the solution to the puzzle.
Deliver sparrow underground by ten
.
Baron
. He murmured the words over to himself again as he reached to the ground floor.

He had planned to go straight down to the basement to tell Joe what they had discovered and to ask him more about this Baron character, but he stopped suddenly in his tracks, remembering his earlier idea of examining the Exhibition Hall. Perhaps he could find some other clue, which, together with the coded message, would prove that the man known as ‘the Baron’ was beyond any possible doubt the one responsible for the burglary. After all, Lil might be quick when it came to working out that code, but he bet she didn’t know anything about examining a crime scene. Full of enthusiasm now, he swerved in a different direction, going quickly through the door that led on to the shop floor, and cutting through the crowded Entrance Hall.

The door to the Exhibition Hall was still hung with the sign that read
Closed to the Public
. The door was probably locked, he thought, but when he touched the handle, he was surprised to find that it swung open quite easily. For a moment, he hesitated. He was quite sure of what both Uncle Sid and Mr Cooper would have to say about him going into the Exhibition Hall, when it had been made clear that it was out of bounds. But surely this was too important to be worrying about rules? He took a deep breath, looked swiftly around him to be sure that no one had noticed what he was up to, and then slipped quickly through the door.

The Exhibition Hall was completely empty. The big glass cases with their printed labels and velvet cushions were all standing empty: several were broken, and shards of shattered glass crunched underfoot. It looked as though it had been left exactly as it was immediately after the burglary. Moving as quietly as he could, he began to examine the cases, working his way slowly from one side of the room to the other. The only problem was that it was difficult to know quite what he should be looking for. There certainly weren’t any of the usual things that Montgomery Baxter found when he was investigating: no little shreds of tobacco, no bullet holes or smears of paint. He carefully collected a tiny piece of black cotton he found snagged on a sharp edge of broken glass, but he couldn’t help feeling that it wasn’t very promising. Perhaps examining the scene of the crime hadn’t been such a very good idea, after all.