Mo
The next morning, I was relieved to see Hector waiting at the crossing as usual. I know Lottie thought I was being silly, but I couldn’t help worrying about all the things that could go wrong. We knew the Junkers were watching us all the time – Jax in school; Lorelai from her house – and we were constantly listening out for the tinkling of ‘Who’s Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf’. We knew that even if we couldn’t see Mr Gideon, he was probably lurking around a corner. If the Junkers saw Hector talking to us, they might realise he was our ally and do something nasty to him.
As he stood on the crossing to let us pass, I put my hand up to give him a high-five. He looked a bit confused, but smiled and winked when he high-fived me back and I put our note in his hand.
‘Message delivered?’ Lottie said, once we reached the other side.
‘Affirmative,’ I nodded.
Now all we had to do was get through a day of pretending to be friends with Jax, and then, at 3:30, we should get some answers.
Lottie avoided Jax as much as possible. If we were standing in the playground and she saw him coming, she pulled me away to do something else. But Lottie being Lottie, she couldn’t resist spending time with her other friends, catching up on what we’d missed while we were off sick. She couldn’t stay by my side every second.
At lunchtime, she finished her baguette in four big bites.
‘You’re so slow, Mo,’ she said. ‘Ha! Slow, Mo – like slow-mo – get it?’
‘Yep,’ I said, picking up a carrot stick.
‘Do you mind if I go and talk to Simran and Summer for a bit? Just while you’re finishing?’
‘Nope,’ I said, but she had already run off.
Jax sat down next to me. ‘Hey, Mo.’
I felt a bit uncomfortable. ‘Oh, hey, Jax.’
‘Are you all better now? You were sick, weren’t you?’ He watched me shovelling lasagna into my mouth.
‘Yes, I’m fine, thanks. Just a one-off thing.’
‘Yeah.’ I had no clue what to say. He was my enemy, apparently.
‘I don’t expect you were able to work on the Discovery project while you were sick?’ he said. ‘It’s almost the deadline and we haven’t properly finished.’
Of course, he still thought I was working on a gigantic lost-property database. And, of course, I was working on something completely different. I hated lying. ‘I just chilled, mostly,’ I said. ‘I guess we’re not going to be winning the competition.’
‘I guess not,’ he said. ‘I’m sorry, Mo – I know it was really important to you.’
‘Yeah, but stuff happens. There are more important things in life than winning a competition.’
‘Like family?’ he frowned.
‘Yes, exactly. Like family,’ I said.
‘Do you miss your dad?’ This was not a question I’d been expecting him to ask – Jax had never mentioned my dad before.
‘I’ve never known him, so I suppose it would be impossible for me to miss him.’
‘But you do anyway?’
‘It’s more of a feeling like knowing something you need is not where it ought to be. Like being hungry – having an emptiness in your belly that almost hurts, but you know there’s no food that will fill it up.’
‘You have your mum, though. She’s great. And you look so much like your parents – that must be nice.’
‘I’ve never really thought about it,’ I said. ‘I’m glad you like Mum.’ I couldn’t understand why he’d be asking me these questions. He was staring at his feet, deep in thought. ‘Are you OK?’ I said.
He looked up. ‘Things at home aren’t so good.’
‘Do you mean with your parents?’
Jax nodded. ‘I lost something. Something important that they need for their jobs. They’ve been so mad at me and have spent most of their time trying to get a replacement sorted out, but it’s taking a lot of time. I thought that if I could find the thing I lost, it would make everything OK.’
‘Did you find it?’
‘Yeah, I did. But I haven’t given it to them yet.’
‘Why not?’
‘Because I don’t know if it would make me feel any better. I don’t really like their jobs. They spend loads of time away from home. We move around a lot. Other stuff too.’
‘You think if you don’t give them the lost thing back, they might change their minds and do something else?’
‘I wish that could happen, but I don’t think it’s possible. They like what they do and they’re good at it. I don’t think giving it back would change anything. Not really.’
‘So, what are you going to do?’
‘I don’t know, Mo.’ He looked me right in the eyes. ‘What do you think I should do?’
There he was, standing in front of me and giving me the chance to tell him to stuff his parents and give the lost item to me. I wasn’t sure whether he knew that I knew he was talking about the armband, and that his parents were Lorelai and Gideon, or if he was just asking a friend for advice. I thought about his empty room – about how lonely he must be living just across the street with parents who weren’t that interested in him, and no friends. I had Mum and Schrodinger, and now Spencer, Lottie and Sadie too. I was lucky. I knew I wasn’t supposed to trust him, and that Lottie would be furious with me if she thought I’d helped him, but he just looked so sad.
‘You can only do what you feel is right,’ I said. ‘And if you need a friend, I’m here.’
We had to stop ourselves from running to the school gate at home time, we were so desperate to get to Hector. There were giant holes in the information we had and he was the only person who could fill them in for us. But we didn’t want to make anyone suspicious, so we tried our hardest to act casual.
As we walked through the gate, we could see a large crowd gathered at the crossing and could hear the sounds of a struggle.
‘Oh no, what’s he done now?’ Lottie said, as we forgot about acting casual and ran towards the road to see what was going on.
‘I haven’t done anything wrong!’ Hector was shouting, as a policeman stood in front of him, looking frighteningly serious. Another policeman stood a few metres away, talking to a lady in a purple coat with straight brown hair who was crying into a tissue.
‘That’s as maybe,’ the first policeman said. ‘But an allegation has been made and we need to bring you in for questioning.’
‘But I don’t even know who that woman is,’ Hector said, glaring at the crying lady.
‘What an outrageous lie!’ the lady shouted, before sobbing even louder.
‘You’re the liar,’ Hector said.
‘Come on, sir,’ the first policeman took a step closer to him. ‘Let’s sort this out at the station.’
‘I’m not going. You can’t make me.’
‘I’m afraid we can if we have to, sir,’ the policeman reached for his radio.
‘Let me just tie my shoe while we discuss this,’ Hector said, kneeling down so that the bottom of his coat spread around his feet like a neon yellow puddle.
‘Be quick, please, sir. We need to continue this conversation at the station.’
‘But there’s no evidence! I’ve been framed, guv’nor! It’s all circumstantial! Call in forensics if you don’t believe me!’
‘Sir, none of those comments bear any relevance to the request we’ve issued you.’
‘Why’s he shouting random phrases from cop shows?’ I said. ‘I don’t think that’s going to help.’
‘He’s nuts,’ Lottie said.
‘If you were to investigate the scene,’ Hector continued, ‘and get your CSIs to examine the clues, they’ll understand exactly what I mean.’
‘Come on, sir, let’s not make a fuss in front of the kids.’
‘But the answer is right under your noses,’ Hector looked over at us. ‘Underneath your feet.’
The policemen moved to either side of him and firmly held his arms. The crying lady had gone.
‘I see there are two of you. Do you have two cars? Two separate modes of transportation?’
‘No, sir, just the one car. We’re taking you to it right now.’ The policemen led him away down the street to where a car was waiting.
Hector glanced around at us one last time and wiggled his eyebrows.
We watched in silence as he got in the car and was driven away, then waited while the crowds gradually disappeared on their journeys home.
‘Why has he been arrested?’ I said. ‘He would never hurt anyone.’
‘I know, Mo. He might be weird but he’s not a criminal.’
‘Why would that lady make things up about him?’
‘Didn’t you notice anything familiar about her? Or her hair?’
There had been something pulling at my memory when I looked at the lady, but I couldn’t make it stick. ‘What about her hair?’
‘We’ve seen it before, Mo. But not on that woman’s head. Remember what the Junker poem said – they’re masters of disguise.’
A feeling of horror seeped through me. ‘It was Lorelai.’
‘It was Lorelai,’ Lottie nodded. ‘She must have seen Hector with us and decided to get him out of the way.’
‘Poor Hector,’ I said. ‘It seemed like he was trying to tell us something.’
‘How did you make that out? I thought he was just talking nonsense like usual,’ Lottie frowned.
‘All that stuff about evidence underneath our feet – he was looking right at us.’
We both looked down.
On the middle white stripe of the zebra crossing, I could see a small squiggly red shape. There were no cars in sight, so I pulled Lottie into the middle of the road and pointed.
‘What is that?’ she said.
It was a bunch of strawberry laces placed into the shape of a square within a square.
‘I’ve seen it before.’
‘On the metal armband thingy!’ Lottie gasped.
‘Hector must have made it when he tied his shoe!’
‘That was actually quite clever of him.’
‘It was,’ I agreed. ‘We have to work out why he left it and what it means.’
As we looked down at the strawberry cube, a familiar sound crept into my ears. It was faint at first so I didn’t really think about it until Lottie started singing: ‘Who’s afraid of the big bad wolf, the big bad wolf, the big bad wolf…’
‘Shush a sec,’ I said, grabbing her elbow.
The music was getting louder.
‘Mr Gideon’s coming!’ I said.
‘Ooh, ice cream!’ Lottie clapped her hands.
‘Yes,’ I said, feeling around in my pocket for coins. ‘Wait – no! He’s a Junker, Lottie; we can’t let him find us here alone.’
‘But…’
‘I know, I want ice cream, too. But he’s evil, and the ice cream is full of Kandy, remember?’
‘Yes,’ she said, looking a bit confused.
‘And we found that box in his van, of things he took from the people he junked.’
‘Yes,’ she said, her eyes wide. ‘We need to get rid of this diagram. We don’t want him to know we know!’
We both started kicking at the strawberry laces, trying to destroy the picture. It was harder than you might think because they were sort of stuck to the ground. In the end we bent down and scraped them off with our fingernails, until there were just a few broken red worms on the white stripe.
‘I can see him – he’s almost here!’ Lottie panted, pulling my sleeve. ‘We have to go, Mo!’
We ran.
Lottie
We ran so fast I thought my lungs were going to explode. We leapt up the steps to our house, two at a time, opened the door, and slammed it behind us. Then we sank to the floor, trying to catch our breath.
‘Have you two been racing again?’ Emma said, hanging up our school bags.
‘Yes,’ I panted. ‘I won.’
‘Only because I’m injured,’ Mo said, holding the knee he’d scraped jumping out of Mr Gideon’s van.
‘OMG, Mo, will you ever stop going on about that tiny little cut?’ I said.
‘Shut up, Lottie. I think it’s bleeding again.’ He rolled up his trouser leg: there was a bit of blood oozing through the plaster.
‘I’d better have another look at that,’ Emma said.
‘Let me rip the plaster off for you!’ I leant over it and reached for one of the corners.
‘Get off, Lottie – I’ll do it!’
‘It’s better this way,’ I said. ‘I’ll be quick. It won’t even hurt.’
‘It will. You won’t be gentle.’
‘Fine,’ I said. ‘There’s a spider behind you, just FYI.’ As Mo turned in alarm, I ripped the plaster off hard and fast.
‘Ow!’ Mo said. ‘I hate you!’
‘That looks like a nasty wound,’ said a voice that gave me the chills. ‘How did it happen?’
Lorelai was standing in our hallway wearing a purple coat and looking slightly out of breath.
‘My Mo-Bear fell while rescuing the school lollipop man from a rampaging squirrel,’ Emma said, pulling Mo up while we both just stared at her.
‘What a brave boy,’ Lorelai said. ‘I hope Hector was grateful.’
‘He was lovely, actually,’ Emma said. ‘Are you off now, Lorelai? That was a quick visit.’
‘Yes, I’ll let you see to your boy,’ she smiled at me and Mo, but it wasn’t a friendly smile. ‘See you soon, lovely lady! And look after these adorable children of yours. We wouldn’t want them having any more accidents, would we?’
My heart only started beating again as the door closed behind her.
‘What was she doing here?’ I asked Sadie, while Emma was re-plastering Mo’s knee.
‘Merow merow mew,’ Sadie said.
‘Nosey cow,’ I said. ‘She’s trying to find out what we’ve invented for the Discovery Competition. I hate the way she sucks up to Emma, just so she can get information.’
‘Meow.’
‘Yes, we’d better tell Mo not to tell Emma too much about what we’re doing. If she doesn’t know, she can’t tell Lorelai, can she?’
‘Perew mew meowl?’
‘I know Emma’s super-nice, Sadie, but I still don’t think she’ll believe us if we try to explain what’s going on. And Dad definitely won’t. We need a team meeting upstairs. Go and get Mo.’
Sadie saluted and walked towards the kitchen.
‘And tell him to bring cheese slices!’ I called after her.
