DAY 33: Wednesday
My skims: 6
Wriggler’s skims: 0
Tearley’s skims: 0
Mr Black’s skims: 12 (He’s getting better.)
24 hours until police raid the cellar. 24 hours until the tinnie goes on eBay.
Wrigs rang first thing.
‘Let’s go.’
‘Where?’ I said.
‘The river. We’ve got to catch Mr Black.’
I hadn’t told Wrigs about my meeting with Mr Black in the hardware superstore. With all the fuss caused by Tranh and Stevens going undercover the day before, I hadn’t had the chance.
‘We need to take the clip down from YouTube,’ I said.
‘No way,’ he said. ‘It’s had almost four hundred views.’
‘I’m not sure it’s right,’ I said.
‘Which part was wrong?’
‘I ran into Mr Black when I was at the hardware store on Monday and he seemed like a really normal guy.’
‘A normal guy who keeps a cellar full of rare reptiles?’ Wrigs said.
‘Maybe there’s some simple explanation,’ I said. ‘Like I don’t know, maybe he’s a scientist or something.’
‘Yeah, right,’ said Wrigs. ‘Like a scientist would keep all those animals underground. Even the police want to arrest him.’
‘That’s because of us. We might have got it wrong.’
‘We’ve spent all holidays trying to tell people he was up to something,’ said Wrigs. ‘And as soon as someone finally listens, you decide we’re wrong. Stop panicking.’
‘Yeah, maybe,’ I said. It was true, I was probably worrying too much.
‘We’ve got to go to the river, like Tranh told us to,’ said Wrigs. ‘If we see Mr Black, we text the police. If we don’t, you get to practise for the world record. I’ve already spoken to Tearley.’
I got to the river first. As soon as I arrived, Mr Black walked out of the house. He was carrying an empty hessian bag and his briefcase.
‘Hello. The quick-set cement and sand worked, yeah?’
‘Yeah, really well.’ I could hear my voice crack.
‘You have beaten the skimming record, yes?’
‘No, nowhere near it,’ I stammered.
‘You’ve come down for practice, yeah. Good idea. Can I have a go, yes?’
He picked up a rock and let it fly. It went like a bullet and skimmed twelve times.
‘Twelve, that’s really good,’ I said.
‘So-so,’ he said. ‘How many for the record, yeah?’
‘Fifty-two.’
‘Fifty-two. That’s massive, yeah. You must be very good, yeah.’
At this point Tearley came running down the path and through the bushes. She was completely out of breath and holding her side like she had a stitch. She was carrying a copy of the South-West Daily newspaper.
When she saw Mr Black, she stopped and stared at him.
‘Girl, you look like you’ve seen a ghost. It’s okay, it’s just me, yeah,’ said Mr Black.
‘Sorry, I just wasn’t expecting anyone to be down here.’
She folded up the Daily and tried to cram it into her back pocket.
‘Your friend is just giving me a skimming lesson, yeah. You’re very good at it, too?’
Tearley didn’t answer him. She turned to me and said, ‘Digs, I think we better go to our … our … meeting with, y’know … y’know, the … thing.’
I’d no idea what she was on about. ‘What thing?’ I said.
‘Y’know, the man … we’re supposed … to … see.’
‘I think she wants a bit of time with you, yeah,’ Mr Black said. ‘I may not know much, but I know you shouldn’t keep a beautiful lady waiting.’
He gave me a nudge.
‘But if you’ve finished with that paper, yeah, could I have a read?’ he asked Tearley.
‘No, sorry,’ she almost shouted. ‘We need it for our meeting.’
‘Okay, okay. No worries, yeah. I just want to check on a horserace. It’ll take two moments, yeah.’
He stuck out his hand and took the paper from Tearley. At that moment Wriggler came tumbling down the path. He looked liked he’d been running, too.
‘Ah look. The whole gang is here, yeah.’
Wrigs’ head was swivelling between Mr Black, the newspaper and me. He was trying to tell me something.
Mr Black’s nose was in the sports section at the back of the paper. Then I got the shock of my life. I could see a photo of myself on the front page. My big huge dumb head was spread right across the whole page. It must have been the photo Wills took. I couldn’t believe Mr Black hadn’t noticed.
‘Don’t put your heart into horses. They will break it, yeah.’ Mr Black folded the paper and gave it back to Tearley.
‘Nice to see you,’ he said. ‘You’ve been looking after our little bit of paradise, yeah?’
‘Yeah,’ we all jumped in, a bit too keen.
‘Cool, I’ll see you later, yeah.’ He started to walk off up the path, but just when we thought we were safe he came back.
‘Hey, show me that paper again,’ he said to Tearley.
‘Why?’ she squeaked.
‘I just need to check something.’
Tearley handed over the paper like she was handing over her life.
In fact she was handing over my life.
He turned back to the racing page and ran his finger down the page, talking to himself.
‘Aha,’ he said. ‘Good, good, yeah.’
He must have found what he was looking for because he closed the paper, turned it over, and went to give it back to Tearley. Just then he spotted the photo on the front.
‘Look, it’s you!’ he said to me. He looked at it again, and then at me, as though he couldn’t believe I was on the front of the paper. ‘You must be famous, yeah?’
‘Me? No, it can’t be,’ I said. But it was a bit hard to deny. There was my grinning face filling the page. It was under the headline: ‘NET JUSTICE’.
‘They’re talking about your record attempt, yeah?’
‘I guess so,’ I said and tried to grab the paper off him.
But he held it in the air. ‘One second, little man,’ he said and began to read: ‘Digger Field is a young man. But what he lacks in years he makes up in tenacity. He and his friends have uncovered what they believe to be an international native animal trafficking syndicate in the sleepy suburb of Pensdale.’
Mr Black stopped reading. He just looked at the paper like he couldn’t believe what he was seeing, and started prodding it with his index finger.
‘What are they talking about?’ He looked at me. ‘You have been telling people I am some kind of animal smuggler, yeah?’
Tearley said, ‘It doesn’t say anything about you. Why do you think it is about you?’
‘You think it’s smart to make up stories? It’s not smart. It just causes trouble.’
He stepped towards Tearley like he was about to grab her.
‘We know about the cellar,’ Wrigs said.
Mr Black spun around and looked at Wrigs.
‘What cellar? What are you talking about? You’re a mad kid. There is no cellar, yeah.’
‘We’ve got photos,’ continued Wrigs.
‘Of what? There is no cellar, there is no trafficking. Understand, yeah?’
Wrigs pulled out the police phone and started punching buttons. Mr Black grabbed the phone and threw it at the ground. It shattered into a thousand pieces.
‘You say anything to anyone, I’ll break every other bone in your body,’ he hissed at Wriggler.
‘He’s just making stuff up,’ I said. ‘We’re going.’
We turned to go but Mr Black grabbed my arm so hard I almost fell over. He pulled me back towards him. I could feel his breath on my cheek.
‘This is the worst, yeah. You have no idea.’
At that moment Wriggler proved that he was the best bestie it was possible to have.
He ran at Mr Black at full speed, screaming like a lunatic. He launched himself through the air like a rugby player about to flatten his opposing forward. His one good arm was ready to wrap around Mr Black’s chest, and his shoulder was ready to drive him into the ground.
Mr Black looked at him. There was fear in his face.
He let me go. Then he stepped slightly to his left.
Wrigs went flying through the air, past me, past Mr Black and landed on the rocky ground on his good arm.
You would have been able to hear his scream on the other side of the river.
Mr Black looked at Wriggler. ‘Are you okay, yeah?’
Wrigs just lay on the ground. He was still screaming.
‘Your arm, it doesn’t look good, yeah.’
Wrigs’ good arm was bent out of shape.
Mr Black looked at me. ‘Do you know how much trouble this is going to cause, yeah?’ he said. Then he ran up the pathway.
Wrigs was in complete agony.
We helped him up to his feet. He could hardly walk.
‘We have to get him to the hospital,’ said Tearley. ‘I’ll go and find someone to help.’
‘No. It’ll take too long,’ I said. ‘Let’s take him up to the road and we’ll get help there.’
I tried to carry Wrigs but we both almost fell over. He was groaning.
‘It’s okay, Wrigs, we’ll get you to the hospital,’ I said.
‘I told you Mr Black was bad,’ Wrigs said through the pain.
‘Yeah, I know. You were right,’ I said.
Tearley and I each put an arm around Wriggler and we walked side by side up the pathway. Wrigs wasn’t able to grab onto anything so when we got to the ledge we both had to lift him up.
As we got to the road a battered old black station wagon drove down the street towards us. Tearley waved it down.
It pulled up next to us. The driver was Mr Black.
‘Get in,’ he said.
‘No way,’ Tearley said.
Wrigs couldn’t run, so we walked as fast as we could to get away from Mr Black.
‘I’ll take him to the hospital, yeah,’ called out Mr Black.
‘We won’t get in your car,’ shouted Tearley.
Mr Black pulled his car over and jumped out.
‘Okay, okay, you don’t trust me, yeah? I understand, yes,’ he said. ‘But your friend is going to pass out.’
He reached back into his car and pulled out his phone. He punched in three numbers.
‘We need an ambulance, yeah … Bottom of View Street in Pensdale … Yes, a boy … Broken arm, I think … Looks like he is in shock, yeah … An accident while playing … Yes, quickly, please … He is in a bad way, yeah.’
He hung up and turned back to us. ‘Sit him down on the gutter. They’ll be two minutes, yeah,’ he said.
Wrigs groaned as we sat him down.
‘Your friend, he was very brave trying to protect you, yeah,’ Mr Black said to me. ‘Look after him.’
He jumped back into his car and drove off down the road.
‘Leave us alone,’ Tearley shouted at the back of Mr Black’s car.
The ambulance came down View Street about a minute later.
We were allowed to sit in the back of the ambulance with Wrigs on the way to the hospital. The paramedic rang his mum.
‘It looks like a pretty clean break,’ he told her.
Me and Tearley waited at the hospital with Wrigs until his mum turned up. Then we walked down to the police station.
I was feeling really guilty about Wrigs. I wish I’d never even come up with the idea of becoming skimming world champion. Then we would never have seen Mr Black and then none of this would have happened.
‘Hey, guys,’ said Stevens when we walked through the station door. ‘What’s up? You look stressed.’
We told her what happened.
‘That’s terrible,’ she said. ‘Sergeant Tranh is not here at the moment. He’s looking for a new, um …’ She looked embarrassed. ‘He’s gone to pick up some cheap parts for his car. But I’ll call him and let him know. I’m sure he’ll get back to you as soon as he can.’
She opened a filing cabinet and pulled out another mobile phone.
‘You two should go home,’ she said. ‘But take this. Call us if you’re worried. You’ll be fine, but I probably wouldn’t go to the river.’
Me and Tearley went and hung out at my place for a while but neither of us felt like talking. We just watched tele for a while. Then we went around to check on Wrigs. Both his arms were in casts.
‘How do you go to the toilet?’ I asked.
‘I don’t know yet,’ he said. ‘But I’m going to try and hold on.’
‘For six weeks?’ said Tearley.
‘If I can.’
Tranh rang a little later to tell us not to worry. He had a plan.