The Ruby Redfort Collection: 4-6: Feed the Fear; Pick Your Poison; Blink and You Die. Lauren Child

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      ‘So I guess the doorman’s always on duty? This is a fancy apartment block the Okras live in, right?’

      ‘Totally,’ said Blacker. ‘There are cameras, so anyone using the backstairs would be picked up on film.’

      ‘And Mr Baradi’s place?’

      ‘Not so much,’ said Blacker, ‘but what it lacks in fancy it makes up for in nosy neighbours. Mr Grint on the ground floor spends his whole time in the lobby watching people come and go.’

      ‘And what does Mr Grint say?’ asked Ruby.

      ‘He didn’t see any strangers that evening, not a one.’

      ‘So what’s your theory?’

      ‘The investigators think the thief must hang out somewhere in the building, a maintenance closet or somewhere like that. Then once it’s morning and the building gets busy he leaves, perhaps disguising himself as a mailman or maintenance.’

      ‘So what next?’ asked Ruby.

      ‘Froghorn is calling the TCPD, asking them if they could check out the apartments directly above and below Mr Baradi’s.’

      ‘You think you might be right about your theory – that the thief got the wrong floor first go, and so tried again?’

      ‘You know what, Rube – yes, I do.’

      ‘So you’re checking the floors above and below?’

      ‘Yes,’ said Blacker. ‘Yes, I am.’

      When Ruby reached home her brain was swimming with thoughts; she lay back on her beanbag and stared up at the ceiling and tried to pull them in, stack them up, create some kind of pattern with them.

       ITEM ONE: Unknown, but possibly taken from the 26th/27th/25th floor of the Lakeridge Square apartment block.

       ITEM TWO: Little Yellow Shoes worn by Margo Bardem in the film, The Cat that Got the Canary. Part filmed in the Scarlet Pagoda. Stolen from the top floor of the Scarlet Pagoda.

       ITEM THREE: the poetry book – A Line Through My Centre by JJ Calkin – a man who spent a lot of time hanging out at the Scarlet Pagoda, where apparently he went to see his “muse”. Question: who was his muse?

       The book was found by Mr Okra on a plane when he was travelling back from LA to Twinford. Previous owner unknown. Stolen from Mr Okra’s nightstand in #914, a ninth-floor apartment in the Fountain Heights Building. Handwritten inscription: To my darling Cat from your Celeste.

      This sounded like a reference to the characters in the film – there was after all a cat and a Celeste, the characters played by Hugo Gerard and Margo Bardem.

      And one thing was for sure: the Scarlet Pagoda certainly connected both items.

      Ruby took the poetry book from her drawer. The way the poems were laid out was interesting in itself. They weren’t simply all arranged in verses and lines: some of them travelled across the page, words changing size as they went as if to make a point of what they were saying, the hidden thought, the subtext. They were none of them poems that rhymed and none of them straightforward in their meaning.

      The poem that didn’t seem to be there, poem 14, was called You are a Poem, Celeste, so was it merely a coincidence that the handwritten inscription was from someone also called Celeste? And was it a coincidence that the character in The Cat that Got the Canary was called Celeste too? Ruby didn’t think so.

      She turned back to the cover.

      JJ Calkin. A Line Through My Centre.

      Click, click, click went her brain.

      A line through the centre.

      And she set about in search of poem number 14.

       It wasn’t difficult

       breaking in this time. . .

      . . .in fact he didn’t have to do any breaking in at all. No forcing windows or contorting through air vents – he just walked right in the door, followed her in.

      There was a moment when he thought she might have sensed him but how could she know that he was there? He had watched her as she placed the 8 key in the little safe-box, memorised the combinations and when she had left the safe-room he had taken it – just like that.

      Easy as 1 2 3.

Chapter 29.

      ‘OUR THEORY WAS CORRECT,’ said Blacker, ‘our thief did make a mistake when he went into Mr Baradi’s. And did then break into the right place.’

      ‘Huh,’ said Ruby. She had forgotten to turn her transmitter off on the Escape Watch and Blacker’s voice had pierced through her unconscious and dragged her from her dreams.

      ‘Our theory was correct, re: the window thief.’

      ‘Your theory,’ said Ruby, ‘I can’t take credit for it.’ She stumbled to her desk and picked up a pencil. ‘So which apartment was it that got burgled?’

      ‘25C,’ said Blacker, ‘I think he came in the window of 26C, couldn’t find what he wanted, opened the front door to check he had the right apartment number, saw he had screwed up and went back out the window.’

      ‘Why didn’t he just decide to take the stairs?’ She was noting down everything Blacker was saying.

      ‘It’s not his style – anyway, maybe he’s no locksmith, maybe to him, climbing in through the window is easier than breaking a lock, who can say?’ said Blacker. ‘Or maybe he’s just making a point.’

      Ruby stretched her arms out, yawning. ‘What time is it, man?’

      ‘You’re not up? Aren’t you supposed to be school-bound?’ said Blacker.

      She reached for her glasses and peered at her bird alarm clock.

      ‘Yeah.’ She yawned again. ‘So what are you saying? He climbed down a level and came in the window of 25C, is that it?’

      ‘Yup, so the guy who owns the place, a Mr Norgaard, is away, but a neighbour noticed the door was unlocked; he comes by once a week to water the plants and check on the place while the owner’s out of town.’

      ‘Very neighbourly of him,’ said Ruby.

      ‘Isn’t it,’ agreed Blacker. ‘So coincidentally the neighbour calls the cops yesterday evening having popped in for plant-watering duty and spotted something was wrong – one of the windows was open, and he swears he left it shut.’

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