DAY 26: Wednesday
My skims: 13
Wriggler’s skims: 0
Tearley’s skims: 9
Another disaster, but at least we got more rocks from the police station.
Money made for tinnie: $0
Might as well give up now.
When we got back to the tents we looked at the video. Because it was shot in night vision, the film was green and white.
The picture was all shaky as we ran into the house. You couldn’t make much out, but you could hear our footsteps and how hard we were breathing. I was pointing the camera at the floor when Tearley tapped me on the shoulder. I jumped about a metre and the camera stopped. Then the camera turned back on for a millisecond and you could see Mr Black outside the window.
Then it didn’t come back on until I pointed it into the hole. It took a moment for the camera to focus as it adjusted to the lack of light, and then you could see all these beady things blinking back at it. They were eyes.
Animal eyes.
Stacked up in the hole were piles of cages, all holding snakes and lizards and geckos and bearded dragons.
‘It’s like a zoo,’ said Wrigs.
‘Why would he have so many animals under there?’ said Tearley.
Suddenly the truth hit me like a tennis racquet to the face. ‘He must be an animal trafficker,’ I said.
‘A what?’ said Wriggler.
‘Y’know, someone who smuggles lizards and snakes to Japan or wherever.’
‘Then what was Mr Black doing in the States?’ Wrigs said.
‘He probably sells there, too,’ I said. ‘We’ve got to show this to the cops.’
‘It’s one o’clock in the morning,’ said Tearley.
‘I reckon Ms Burke is behind it,’ said Wrigs.
‘What do you mean?’ I said.
‘I don’t trust that woman at all,’ he said.
‘She did have that photo of him in her house, which is really strange,’ said Tearley.
‘I bet she’s the mastermind behind the smuggling,’ Wrigs said. ‘Look how rich she is. Mr Black just does her dirty business.’
‘I thought you said he was a ghost?’ I said.
‘How could he be?’ said Wrigs. ‘You’re weird.’
We decided to try and get some sleep. Every time I closed my eyes I dreamt I was back in the deserted house and Mr Black was running down the corridor. Except in my nightmares he didn’t trip over and drop his torch. He came straight at me.
The next thing I knew it was bright daylight and Mum was shouting at me through the tent flap.
‘What did you say to Squid? He’s almost scratched off the top of his skull.’
‘Nothing much, Mum. I told you he’d get scared if he camped out with us when we were telling ghost stories.’
‘He’s only five.’
‘Almost six.’
Mum sighed and walked off.
It was boiling hot in the tent. And it smelt of Wrigs’ farts. I crawled across to Tearley’s tent and woke her up.
‘Let’s show last night’s video to Tranh,’ I said.
‘He’ll just say it’s none of our business again,’ she said.
Wrigs crawled into Tearley’s tent, too. The smell followed him.
‘We’re going to show this to Tranh,’ I told him.
‘Do we have to?’ he said.
‘Yes,’ I said. I must have sounded really determined because both Wrigs and Tearley agreed.
After breakfast we trudged off to the police station again.
Sergeant Tranh was on the phone when we got there.
‘So I can pay monthly or annually?’
When he saw us he said, ‘Sorry, can you hold for a moment?’ and put the phone down.
‘Ah,’ he said to me. ‘Here they are again— Supersleuth and his able assistants. What have you got for us today? A mild-mannered old lady who is a cat burglar at night perhaps?’
‘You know about Ms Burke?’ said Wrigs.
‘Who?’ said Tranh.
Tearley was right. We shouldn’t have come. I wanted to turn around and leave again. But we had to go through with it.
‘Have a look at this,’ I said and showed Tranh the video of the animals.
‘What’s this, a holiday video? You went to a zoo, did you?’
‘No, it’s the cellar under the old house we told you about,’ I said. ‘That dude we told you about keeps native animals in there.’
‘We think he’s a trafficker,’ Tearley said.
‘Trafficker? An animal trafficker? In Pensdale? You’ve been watching too much TV.’
‘He told us he wasn’t Mr Bayoumi either,’ said Wriggler.
‘Who?’
‘The owner of the house,’ said Tearley. ‘Constable Stevens looked it up for you, remember?’
Tranh turned to Stevens. ‘When do the school holidays finish?’ he asked.
‘In a week or so,’ she replied.
‘Thank goodness for that. See ya, kids.’ He waved towards the police station door like he wanted us to leave.
As we starting leaving, he picked up his phone again and said, ‘So, what’s your best price on this car insurance, then? Oh hang on a sec …’
He called out as we were going through the door, ‘By the way, we’d like those rocks back from our cactus garden. They’re police property.’
When we got outside Tearley said, ‘I told you he wouldn’t listen to us.’
We went back to the deserted house to get the pictures out of the sensor camera. They showed me hiding from Mr Black. He was so close, if he’d reached out he would have caught me. I’ve got no idea how he didn’t see me.