Sewer Mayhem Read online

  ‘Is there anything in here we can use to defend ourselves,’ Charlie whispered. ‘They outnumber us, but we have to try!’

  I pointed behind me at the kitchen cabinets. ‘Well, there’s Gus’ treasure…’

  ‘Noooo,’ Gus yelled, backing into the cabinet that hid his treasure.

  Charlie’s eyes lit up. ‘That’s perfect. We can chuck it at the Mob.’

  Gus ran forward and grabbed Charlie’s arm. ‘You can’t do that to me. Please…’

  The Mob advanced.

  ‘We’ll kill you all,’ Victor said through clenched teeth, his claws out. This time he was taking the lead.

  ‘No time like the present,’ Charlie said and shoved Gus aside. He pulled at the cabinet door and it swung open on the one hinge.

  Charlie, Vinnie and one of the squaddies each grabbed a heavy diamond ring off the pile and hurled them at the enemy with all their might. I went for a pearl earring, but Gus cut me off.

  ‘Leave them alone,’ he yelled. ‘Those are my favourites!’

  ‘Don’t be silly,’ Leo said. ‘Those are not your favourites. These ones are.’ He held up the two earrings Gus had been wearing and flung them over his head at Dino, who had advanced on us.

  ‘Look, diamonds!’ one of the Mafiosi said and he dived on top of a ring, losing all interest in the fight.

  ‘Mine,’ yelled Victor. ‘They’re mine!’

  To Gus’ despair, we started throwing more and more of his treasure at the Mafiosi, who were now fighting each other for pieces of the treasure, completely forgetting about us.

  ‘Seriously, that’s my favourite,’ Gus yelled as Vinnie flung a blue emerald necklace at a large rat. It hit him in the head and he stared at it for a second, before picking it up and running away with it.

  Suddenly a voice came from the kitchen door. ‘Be quiet, everyone, or I will hurt her!’

  I turned around and my stomach rolled. Sal stood in the door opening, holding Daisy, pointing the sharp end of a pencil to her throat. Daisy’s eyes were wide with fear, her whiskers pulled all the way back. ‘Give us the treasure in exchange for the girl.’

  Everyone stared, slack jawed and you could hear a pin drop. Victor saw his chance to grab some of the jewellery that the Mafiosi had kept for themselves. Then he walked up to Sal.

  ‘Great idea, brother,’ Victor said and looked at us. Gus and Charlie stood rooted to the ground, nostrils flaring as they glared at Sal.

  ‘Don’t you dare hurt Daisy!’ Gus yelled.

  ‘Then give me your treasure,’ Victor said.

  Gus looked at Charlie, then at Daisy, who now struggled to get loose. Dino walked up to her and pawed her arm. She flinched and tried to back away from him.

  ‘Give him the treasure,’ Charlie said and he gave Gus a push.

  Gus eyed what remained of his treasure. Then his body slumped and he waved with his paw. ‘Give it to them.’

  He turned his back as we emptied out the cupboard and shoved the treasure into the Mafiosi’s paws. Calmness had returned and none of them tried to steal the treasure for themselves any more. I wondered if that was why Sal had taken Daisy. Did he want to make sure his brother remained the feared leader?

  With all the treasure now theirs, the Mafiosi backed out of the kitchen. We followed them out.

  ‘You’ve got what you wanted,’ Charlie said. ‘Give us Daisy back.’

  Victor grinned at him and motioned for the Mafiosi to make their way back through the hole in the wall. They disappeared with Gus’ treasure and only Victor, Dino, Sal and Daisy remained.

  ‘We’ll keep hold of her for a little while longer,’ he said, looking down his nose at us. ‘Just to make sure you don’t follow us in to take back the treasure. You can stay here in this stupid building. Make it your home.’

  ‘How dare you?’ Gus yelled. ‘Daisy!’

  But the Three Bambini had ducked into the hole, dragging Daisy with them.

  ‘Stop them!’ Charlie ran up to the hole, followed by Vinnie, Leo and me, but we were barred by Gus, who stood, arms stretched out, in front of the hole.

  ‘We can’t just go down like that,’ he said. ‘What if they hurt her?’

  Charlie looked daggers at Gus for a moment, then his whiskers and ears drooped.

  I also had to agree with Gus and patted his shoulder.

  ‘Don’t you worry. We’ll get Daisy back,’ I said and threw a glance at the hole in the wall. ‘But we first need the best plan we ever came up with!’

  CHAPTER NINETEEN

  Ricky watched and waited as more police cars disappeared around the corner. There had been some incident on Woolaston Road, but he didn’t care. He knew what had happened to the group of rats that had rampaged through the car park before and for some reason he felt the need to check it out.

  It couldn’t have been a coincidence that the warden had hung around in the car park after Mr Hicks had gone, checking under cars and talking to people. The place had been infested by rats. Rats that normally lived in the sewers, the place where he’d hidden his loot.

  He needed to follow the rats. Maybe they would lead him to it!

  Ricky made his way to the back of the old post office. The place was completely boarded up, but in the bottom panel of the door was the hole he’d seen the rats go through. He put his ear to one of the boards and listened.

  Nothing. No sounds at all.

  What if the rats had found a way to go down into the sewers from the post office? That would probably mean they weren’t in the building any more. And this meant that Ricky could safely set foot in the post office, without risking being scratched all over again!

  Ricky checked the boards that criss-crossed the back door. They’d been nailed shut. His crowbar would make light work of that. He looked over his shoulder and slid the crowbar out of his sleeve, glad that he’d brought it with him today. It only took a few seconds to remove the boards and make the back door free.

  Ricky tried the doorknob – locked. Not surprising, really.

  A swift tap with the crowbar broke the glass in the bottom pane. Ricky reached inside, careful not to get cut by the jagged edges of the glass, and unlocked the door. He pushed it open and looking over his shoulder one more time, stepped inside.

  The boarded up windows made it dark. Ricky picked his way through the back room and into the front room, where the post office used to be. Some light came in through one of the windows, the glass of which was broken. He saw some people walking past on Woolaston Road. He’d better be careful that they didn’t see him. Staying close to the walls, Ricky noticed there was loads of stuff lying around. Paper clips, pencils, streamers and confetti littered the floor. What had happened here? Had some teenagers broken in and held a party? Had to be as there were the remains of someone’s fish and chips in a corner. Ugh, disgusting.

  A movement caught his eye. He slowly turned his head and saw a large rat staring back at him, watching his every move. Crap! They were still here!

  A slight fear settled in the pit of his stomach. Was this one of the rats that had attacked him in the sewer? His hand firmed the grip on his crowbar, ready to strike if the rat attacked. But the animal just sat behind an empty box and watched.

  Ricky shrugged. Stupid creature. He’d better ignore it and get on with what he was here for – looking for his loot.

  Picking his way through the rubbish on the floor, he suddenly saw something gleaming in the light. No! Was that what he thought it was? He stooped and picked up a diamond ring. He immediately recognised it as one of the rings he’d stolen from the jewellers a week ago. It had a large diamond in the middle and two smaller ones on either side. He even remembered admiring it that evening.

  Ricky stood still while his mind raced. If this was one of the rings he’d stolen before, then the rest of his loot was also likely to be in this building!

  Suddenly Ricky didn’t care if anyone saw him or not. He went down on all fours and searched through the stuff on the floor. Nothing. Then he chec
ked the shelves on the walls and searched through the drawers behind the old post office counter. Still no luck. The kitchen! No doubt the loot was hidden there. He opened all the cabinets, but didn’t find anything. There was only the back room left. He was sure he’d seen some shelves on the walls there.

  Less than a minute later Ricky realised that his loot wasn’t in the back room either. He took the ring out of his pocket and studied it again. He was sure this ring belonged to his loot. It had to be in this building.

  One more time Ricky searched the whole post office from top to bottom. He noticed more rats staring at him now, but he didn’t care. They were sitting in a row on the windowsill. Idiot fur balls. He hadn’t been this close to his loot for days, he just knew it! If only he could find it.

  His second search left him empty-handed as well. This was so frustrating!

  ‘Arrrggg!’ Why was this happening to him? Where was his loot?

  Angry and frustrated Ricky stomped out of the building. He slammed the door shut behind him. A little old lady packing the boot of her car with shopping bags looked up, but chose to ignore him after he gave her an angry glare. How was it possible that all these people conspired against him?

  With long strides, Ricky made his way back home. Maybe his mother still had some of that chocolate left. She might even have hidden some from him, but he would find it and eat it all!

  * * *

  Jacob watched as one of the extraterrestrial larvae of a dragonfly in the pond pounced on a baby newt, slowly devouring it.

  He looked up to see Emily walking into the garden, making a beeline for him. She looked a bit extraterrestrial as well, with one rat riding on her shoulder and the other one in the crook of her elbow, her blue hair sticking out on all sides. Well, extraterrestrial for Milbury that was.

  ‘You do know that the Bateses are glaring at you from their kitchen window, don’t you?’ Emily pointed with her thumb over her shoulder.

  Jacob glanced at the window. ‘They don’t mind me being here.’ He waved at them and Mrs Bates gave him a reluctant wave back. ‘See?’

  ‘You keep saying that the people in Milbury don’t mind you stalking about their gardens, but the opposite seems to be true.’

  ‘Nah, they’ve known me for years.’ Jacob got up and put his notebook in his pocket. ‘They’re used to it.’

  Emily glanced at the window again. ‘In any case, we need to talk about Patrizia’s murder and Colleen’s possible involvement.’

  ‘Yes, let’s get out of here.’ They made their way out of the garden and walked up the street. The setting sun shone down, almost blinding them.

  ‘What is so secret about Colleen’s past that she saw the need to kill Patrizia for it?’ Emily said.

  ‘If Colleen killed Patrizia.’

  Emily looked at Jacob. ‘You don’t think Colleen is the murderer?’

  ‘I don’t know,’ Jacob said. ‘I’ve asked myself that question over and over, and I simply don’t know. There’s definitely something mysterious going on with that woman, but that doesn’t need to mean she’s the murderer. We have to ask ourselves if she had the opportunity to kill Nate and Patrizia.’

  ‘Yes,’ Emily said. ‘Does she have an alibi or not?’

  ‘And then there’s the question of her living in Milbury,’ Jacob continued. ‘She has a young son at home. Why not commute between York and Leeds, like so many other people do? It isn’t that far.’ He put his hand deeper into his pockets. ‘Why does she see the need to be here day and night? Who is she keeping an eye on and why?’

  They rounded the corner.

  ‘I need to tell you about the missing picture,’ Jacob said. ‘Colleen was eyeing it in the school corridor two weeks ago and now it’s gone. It was a class photo from 1998, Year 11.’

  ‘Do you think Colleen took it?’

  Jacob shrugged. ‘Seems like an awful coincidence if she didn’t.’

  ‘You might be right. Maybe that missing picture holds a clue?’

  ‘It might very well. We need to get a hold of a copy.’

  ‘If we knew who was in Year 11 in 1998, we could perhaps ask this person if they still have a copy somewhere.’ Emily’s eyes lit up. ‘Perhaps we could break in to the admin office again. They should have records there.’

  ‘I’m not doing that for a second time. I’m in Molly’s bad books as it is already.’

  ‘Molly?’ Emily arched an eyebrow. ‘So the admin lady is another one of your girlfriends, is she? Aunt Peggy’s not going to like that.’

  ‘Molly’s not my girlfriend!’ Jacob glared at Emily. ‘It’s not my fault she’s taken a shine to me.’

  Emily smiled.

  Jacob looked away. She was such a brat.

  ‘Umm…’ Emily said. ‘I bumped into Abe earlier and he told me that after Patrizia’s murder, McDermott is now fully convinced again it was the burglar who did it.’

  Jacob shook his head. ‘McDermott gets more stupid by the day.’

  ‘Also, everyone at ASBOW is very nervous. They’re afraid they’re going to be next on the burglar’s list. Aunt Peggy has organised an emergency meeting for tonight to calm everyone down.’

  ‘Has she?’ Jacob said. ‘Pity you weren’t invited. Perhaps all this will still turn out to have something to do with strife within ASBOW.’

  ‘Are you serious?’

  ‘I don’t know any more.’

  ‘Anyway, I’ve promised Liz I’d meet up with her, so I’d better go.’ She touched Jacob’s arm. ‘Try to stay out of trouble.’

  ‘You too.’ He watched as she walked in the direction of Milbury Hill. He’d better get home to feed Spike and perhaps drop in on his mother for a bit.

  Near Sant’Ambrogio’s he bumped into Spencer walking aimlessly along Milbury Road. The man didn’t look good. He’d lost his jacket and his hair was pasted to his skull.

  ‘Hey, Spencer. Why aren’t you at the ASBOW meeting?’

  ‘ASBOW meeting?’ He looked down at Jacob, his face blank.

  ‘Yes, Peggy has organised it. To talk about the murders?’

  ‘Oh.’ Spencer grabbed Jacob by the arm. ‘Never mind ASBOW, I was actually looking for you. We need to talk.’

  Jacob’s eyebrows raised. What on earth could Spencer want to talk about with him? ‘Okay, let’s sit down somewhere.’

  They crossed the road and sat down on the bench near the car park. They watched the cars go by for a while, neither of them speaking. Spencer plucked the seam in his trousers and pushed a pebble around with his foot. Then he cleared his throat.

  ‘I… er… want to tell you that it was me who sent you the anonymous letter,’ he said.

  Jacob stared at him.

  ‘I feel bad about it now. Especially now that there has been another murder.’

  ‘Why did you send it?’

  Spencer looked at his hands. ‘A few days ago I realised that the new teacher at the school was Sarah Miller. She used to live in Milbury when she was young and went to the secondary school here. When I found out she was going by a different name, I confronted her about it.’ He glanced at Jacob. ‘You saw us in the alleyway that evening.’

  Jacob nodded.

  ‘I wish I’d never said anything to her. When I confronted her, she… er… threw back at me that she knew I was into men and that she’d seen me kissing her art teacher at the school in 1998. She said she would make it public that I’m gay if I told anyone about her not being Colleen Frost.

  ‘After you interrupted us, I realised that I wanted someone to know about her and that’s why I sent you the letter.’

  Spencer looked away. A flush crept across his cheeks. Jacob pretended not to notice.

  ‘I think I understand why you wanted me to know,’ Jacob said. ‘And I’m glad you did. Do you have any idea why Colleen wants to keep it a secret that she lived in Milbury before?’

  ‘No.’ Spencer shook his head. ‘I have no idea. I have not been able to think straight ever since she tried to blackmail me.’ H
e looked at Jacob. ‘But I need to tell you something else. My whole life has basically been one big lie and I need to get it off my chest.

  ‘In 1972, when young Robbie Dawson disappeared the police arrested a man for kidnapping him.’

  Jacob nodded. His stomach made a flip. Did Spencer know anything about Robbie?

  ‘I was nineteen at the time and had just realised that I didn’t fall for women but men. I hadn’t told anyone about it yet, as being gay was usually hushed up in those days. Then the police arrested this man, of which most people knew he was gay. It completely freaked me out. What if being gay automatically meant that you were a suspect for certain crimes, wouldn’t it be better to hide the fact altogether and pretend to be straight?

  ‘I felt so scared and alone that I decided to get a girlfriend and live like a straight guy. I met Fifi and married her.’ He smiled. ‘We’ve been married thirty-seven years and I love her very much. But I was never actually in love with her.

  ‘And even after the police released the man and it was made clear that he didn’t have anything to do with Robbie’s disappearance, I continued with my resolve to live a straight life. But there were times I found it hard to ignore my feelings and that’s why I fell in love with the art teacher. And about two years ago I had a crush on Nate Field.’

  He looked at his hands again. ‘I don’t normally go for younger men, but something in Nate made me feel young again. But I was mistaken about him. At least the art teacher loved me back, but Nate didn’t. And to make things worse, Kenneth saw how I tried to kiss his son.

  ‘It was around the same time that I found out that Kenneth had pilfered money from the ASBOW accounts a few years before. He needed it to save his shop from going under, but stealing money is wrong. We’ve always been good friends, so I was sad to realise that he hadn’t asked me for help. That’s when I knew I needed to confront him about the money. I was shocked when he told me he had seen Nate and me kissing and said he would tell everyone about it if I didn’t keep quiet about the money. It was the end of our friendship.