March (14 page)

With the jokes about my hair finally over, we all went out to the back verandah and sat next to each other with our legs dangling off the edge.

I turned to Boges. ‘What’s the latest on Mum and Gabbi?’

Boges wouldn’t look at me. ‘Same as last time,’ he said.

I was aware of a gentle hand on my shoulder and looked beside me, surprised. Winter whipped her hand away as if she’d been burned. For a moment our eyes met, until she picked up her skirt, stood up and walked away.

I thought she’d left, but then I saw her huddled down on the side of the verandah, a little way off.

Boges had brought some bread rolls and cold meat with him and we threw them together and started eating. Winter sat quietly at the other end of the verandah, some distance away from us, fiddling with the bells on the bottom of her skirt.

Boges and Winter had not got off to a good start, I thought. She was a difficult girl, no question. But she’d put her hand on my shoulder as if to comfort me. I found myself staring at her when she wasn’t looking …

‘It’s only a matter of time,’ said Winter, breaking the silence and looking up from where she was sitting, ‘before Sligo finds out where you are.’

‘If you haven’t told him already,’ said Boges.

‘I’ll ignore that,’ she said crisply, wiping her hands on her skirt. ‘Stupidity is so unattractive.’

‘Why,’ I asked, ‘are you interested in helping me? I still don’t get it.’

Winter gave me a sharp look. ‘You don’t have to get it,’ she said.

She got up again and stalked away, pushing branches out of the way, disappearing into the overgrowth. I could see her pop up occasionally, picking the purple and yellow flowers from a vine that grew all over the backyard. Boges sat down again beside me on the step of the sagging back verandah. He glanced in Winter’s direction.

‘Cal,’ he said, lowering his voice, ‘there’s something you should know. Your mum told me that your uncle has hired a private detective to find you. She said he is determined to track you down—bring you home again. He wants you all to be together again as a family and he said he doesn’t care how much it costs him. He said he’ll stand beside you and support you and get you the help you need.’

‘The only help I need is to discover the truth
about the Ormond Singularity,’ I said, dreading the thought of having yet another person following me. ‘And stop the criminals who are trying to destroy me and cash in on my dad’s secret. If I can do that, I won’t need any help clearing my name. Everyone will see that I didn’t hurt Gabbi or my uncle.’

Boges grunted. ‘OK. So what’s the grand plan?’ he asked. ‘We’ve gotta get hold of that paper on Oriana de la Force’s desk, right? How do you think we’re going to get in there?’

I had counted on Boges’s help, but had changed my mind about it just this morning. I could see he wanted to help me out and I didn’t want to hurt his feelings, but I knew that he was not the man for this sort of job. Boges wasn’t a fighter. He was the brains of this operation. Plus I didn’t want to put my friend in any more danger. What I needed was someone with Singapore martial arts championship experience under their belt.

‘I have something slightly different planned now,’ I said to Boges. ‘If Oriana found out that you’d been in her house or taken something from her, you’d be joining me on the run. I’ve heard a few stories about her—about what happens to people who cross her, and as much as I’d love to have you round …’

‘That’s OK,’ agreed Boges, a little too quickly. ‘You know I’m up for it, if you change your mind.’

Winter appeared holding several of the purple and yellow flowers from the vine. Against the dark green garden and soft light, she stood out like a rainbow.

She came up the stairs and sat beside me. ‘You don’t look very happy,’ she said as her skirt made a sinking cloud around her.

‘I’ve never been happier in my life,’ I said. ‘I have the police, and now a private detective, two criminal gangs including your Mr Sligo—’

‘—he’s not
my
Mr Sligo!’ she snapped.

Boges’s face was a picture of disbelief. ‘You hang around with him, though,’ he said. ‘Maybe Cal got that the wrong way round. Maybe he’s not
your
Mr Sligo. But maybe you’re
his
girl!’

Winter jumped to her feet, her eyes blazing with anger. ‘You don’t know anything about me!’ she cried. ‘You should just shut your big mouth!’

She ran inside the house and I jumped up after her.

‘Hey! Put that down!’ I yelled, when I saw her pick up my backpack.

Instead, she stood there, one hand on her hip,
the other holding out my backpack. ‘Seeing as how your so-called best friend doesn’t have the brains to warn you,
I’ll
have to do it. You
have
to believe what I’ve been trying to tell you!’ she said. ‘You
must
leave this place!’

I frowned. ‘Do you know something I don’t?’

‘I heard them talking the other night. I heard Sligo saying he knows what area of the city you live in now. That he’s narrowed it down. You don’t have time to be sitting around; you need to move.’

I thought of how Red Singlet—Bruno—and his companion had been able to follow me to the laboratory where Jennifer worked. It did feel as if Sligo was closing in on me.

‘So put this on,’ Winter threw my bag to me, ‘and get moving. Don’t you see?’ Winter continued, ‘If
I
could track
him
here,’ she looked at Boges, who’d just walked inside to join us, ‘anyone could. It’s just a matter of time before either Vulkan Sligo or the authorities find out where you are.’

Boges nodded. ‘She’s right,’ he said, but his face narrowed. I could see he hated to admit that. And I knew he was trying to work out what her angle was in this. Just like I was.

Out of nowhere, the sound of a tremendous crash had us all scrambling to our feet. I
watched transfixed, as the old front door fell flat on the ground, and a wild and dishevelled woman, wearing filthy clothing and clutching a shiny black suitcase, fell into the house on top of the door. She scrambled to her feet, gestured back over her shoulder and shrieked, ‘They’re after me! They’re after me!’ then continued her wild race through the house, disappearing out the back.

The sounds of her scrambling outside through the overgrown garden and over the back fence thrashed through our ears. Then we all saw the reason for the woman’s flight. A huge cop, wearing riot gear, filled the door frame. And he was intent on pursuing his catch.

‘Where’s that filthy thief?’ his voice boomed as he ran through the house after the wild woman. Winter made a dash to the back door as I tried to run through the door the cop had just come through … and then I heard Boges shout.

I turned sharply to see that the riot cop had a partner, who’d come up the side of the house. He had Boges. And before I knew what was happening he’d grabbed me, too.

‘All right,’ he snarled, ‘I want to see some sort of identification.’

I couldn’t even move under the cop’s iron grip.

‘Sure thing, officer,’ said Boges, searching his pockets with his free hand. ‘It was here a minute ago,’ he muttered. ‘I always carry my bus pass with me.’

The big cop turned his attention to me. ‘And what about you? I don’t like the look of you at all.’ He peered more closely at my face. ‘Don’t I know you?’

‘No way,’ I said. ‘I’ve just got that sort of face. People think they know it.’

‘Don’t be smart with me, pal.’

‘I wasn’t being smart, I was—’

‘Quiet!’

Boges couldn’t find his bus pass and I had nothing at all to show. I thought back to the passes I’d taken from Repro’s but there was no way I could pull one of them out now without the cop seeing my stash. I had to get out of this situation but I couldn’t think of how.

‘OK. Both of you are coming along with me. I’m taking you down to the station. On suspicion.’

‘Suspicion of what?’ Boges asked.

‘On suspicion of being a serious smart arse, that’s what.’

Boges gave me the look that he would give me when he was about to pass me a ball in soccer—he
was about to make a run for it. But how was I going to get away?

Boges took off, attempting to run out the back door just like Winter had, but because he was bulkier, he was unable to disappear like she had. The cop took off after Boges, releasing his grip on me.

I’d just dropped into the hole in the floorboards when I saw Boges trip on a rotting floorboard and crash to the floor. The big cop collided with his body, and tripped over, falling on top of my friend.

They both flailed about, trying to get to their feet when I spotted the cop’s capsicum spray, buttoned down on the back of his belt. His big backside, sticking up in the air as he finally pinned Boges down, gave me a great idea. I pulled myself back up into the room.

Quick as a flash, I grabbed my backpack, pulled out a tranquilliser syringe and ripped off the plastic seal. This was my chance! I had no idea where the other cop was and hoped he was a long way away by now, still chasing the thief.

I plunged the tranquilliser into the cop’s uniformed backside. He roared, half stood up, swayed, then fell sideways, crashing heavily down onto the floor.

Boges slid out from under him, staring from the cop to me then back again, his eyes rounder than I’d ever seen them. ‘Awesome move, dude! Just awesome!’

‘Quick!’ I said. ‘Let’s go. If his partner comes back we’re totally screwed!’

The cop was out cold, the needle still in his backside, sticking up in the air. I leaned over him and pulled out his capsicum spray.

From outside came the yells of the crazy woman. I could hear the first cop, who was now holding her, cursing as he dragged his prisoner away down the road. Any moment now, he’d be back to check up on his partner.

We had to get going.

‘You better take that out,’ said Boges, pointing to the tranquilliser. ‘Fingerprints. DNA.’

I did as he said, pushing the used syringe back into its lid and packing, stuffing it into my backpack.

‘Now let’s get the hell out of here!’ I grabbed Boges and my backpack and we launched ourselves outside, keeping low until Boges cautiously took a look up and down the street.

‘Looks OK. The cop car’s parked down the road a bit. Let’s make a break for it!’

We ran as hard as we could, away from the police car and away from the house.

I didn’t even have time to wonder what had happened to Winter Frey.