‘Drop the bag and put your hands behind your head,’ a voice barked.
‘I found it!’ I shouted again, trying not to show the stark cold terror that I felt. There were guns pointed at me.
‘That’s Jacob Smith,’ I heard someone call out. ‘He goes to our school.’
That wasn’t quite true, after the session with Mr Curtis, but it was close enough for me.
The cops seemed to relax a bit at that, but the guns did not waver. ‘Drop the bag and put your hands behind your head.’
I dropped the bag. I put my hands behind my head and clasped them together to stop them shaking.
‘Now lie down!’
The grass was soaking wet! Still, I wasn’t about to argue with an armed bunch of cops. I lay down beside the bag and called out desperately, ‘I followed the robber! He stashed the bag in the bush, but I found it! I saved the school!’
As I did so I aimed a single thought at all the police officers I could see. Lightning flashed again and lit up their faces and I lit up their minds with two small words.
It’s true.
They believed me. Suddenly, I was just a small frightened boy lying on a muddy bank. More than that. A hero. Guns vanished. Police officers were all around me, strong hands helping me to my feet, brushing mud from my clothes. A police tunic was draped around my shoulders, some relief from the pouring rain.
Police surrounded me, and a crowd of onlookers surrounded them, a multi-coloured sea of umbrellas and raincoats completely blocking the road.
I gabbled out what had happened. Well, as much of it as I could and still appear to be a hero and not a villain.
‘I saw him in the admin block,’ I said, ‘and followed him out here. It was the Hunchback Robber! I couldn’t let him get away.’
A policewoman in plain clothes poured me a cup of coffee out of a thermos and, as she did so, I looked up at the crowd of onlookers. I saw Ben, and his parents. Blocker was there, and Miss Pepperman. There was Jenny Kreisler, looking wet, cold and alarmed, clutching the arm of Phil Domane. And Erica. Standing next to … oh my God!
There he was. The cheeky son-of-a-bum. Right in the middle of the crowd. The invisible man. The man who could disappear into thin air. The Hunchback Robber. And he didn’t look happy.
‘That’s him!’ I yelled, dropping the hot coffee all over my shoes and pointing. ‘That’s him!’
The crowd’s eyes turned towards the man, who, after an initial startled glance, broke suddenly and ran. The police were all around me, there were none close enough to stop him. He headed for the school grounds, where he could lose himself amongst all the buildings.
The crowd parted like the Red Sea, recoiling from the wild eyes and frantic windmilling limbs. And then there was only one kid in front of him. One kid between the running man and freedom.
What a shame, for the Hunchback Robber I mean, that it was Tupai White.