August (12 page)
Authors: Gabrielle Lord
‘Where are you going?’ Winter sleepily called out from her bed as I was tying up my shoes.
‘Sharkey has a lead for me. He’s given me the name of a woman he thinks can help me out. I have to go speak to her now.’
‘When will you be back?’
‘Don’t know. I have my phone with me. Wish me luck.’
‘I can do better than that,’ said Winter,
climbing
out of bed and pulling on a pair of jeans. In the blink of an eye, she had a cardigan and sneakers on, and had her hair tied back in a ponytail. ‘I can come with you,’ she said.
She swung her bag over her shoulder, then grabbed two apples from a bowl near the sink.
‘OK. Let’s go.’
We found Fortescue House after a few wrong turns. It was an old building, needing a fresh coat of paint, down near the docks and across the road from something called the Mission to Seafarers.
From the flagpole over the main entrance, a banner flew with a striking image of a lionfish on it. Above the open doorway was a handwritten sign: ‘Reception’.
I looked into the dark hallway and saw
floorboards
, covered in part by worn carpet pieces, empty tables and chairs by a bar, and a rickety staircase leading up to the second floor. At the top of the stairs hung another handwritten sign: ‘House Guests Only’. The small reception alcove was just around the corner to our left.
‘I’ll go inside,’ I said to Winter. She nodded to me. ‘You stay out here. Wait a minute–’
‘What is it?’ she asked looking back at me.
‘You haven’t taken anything out of my
backpack
, have you?’
Winter rolled her eyes. ‘Should I have?’ she mocked.
I stepped inside and walked on creaking floorboards to the reception alcove. The smell of stale cigarettes was thick in the air, despite a
strong antiseptic cleaner that was being sprayed and wiped on tables by a thin man who turned around as I entered. There was no expression on his face, nor in his cold blue eyes as he stopped what he was doing.
‘Can I help you?’ he asked. He made it sound like a threat.
‘I’m looking for Ma Little. She’s expecting me,’ I added, although it wasn’t strictly accurate. But I wasn’t here to be accurate. I was here to be convincing.
‘She’s expecting
you
?’ he asked, like I was some sort of cockroach.
‘That’s right.’
‘Who’s there, Ray?’ called a man’s voice from somewhere deep in the reception area.
‘Some kid reckons Ma’s expecting him,’ said Ray, not taking his cold blue eyes off me. He clutched the cleaning spray trigger like a gun.
‘Tell her it’s Mouse,’ I said. ‘From Armitage.’
Ray laughed hard at my name, and accidentally squeezed the cleaner. A fine mist of antiseptic shot out.
From the corner of my eye I saw movement behind the reception area. I blinked in disbelief when the dark shadow I’d imagined was a couple of tall filing cabinets started to move and I
realised
I was looking at a huge mountain of a woman.
As she approached the grilled area that
separated
the reception counter from the rest of the entrance, I saw that she was wearing a tent-style dress covered with purple and white flowers on a black background.
‘What are you staring at, Mouse?’ the huge woman asked in a deep, intimidating voice, which I’d mistaken earlier for a man’s. ‘Cat got your tongue?’
Ma
Little
was almost two metres tall, and looked almost as wide. Her eyes glittered in a stern face topped with a big, black bob, so thick it could have been a wig.
‘Nelson Sharkey suggested we talk,’ I said, approaching the grille.
‘Old Sharkey and I go back a long way,’ said Ma in her gruff voice, giving me a look I couldn’t read. Had they been friends? Enemies? ‘Let’s find somewhere quiet to talk, shall we?’ she said.
I walked behind the huge woman as she wobbled into the parlour of Fortescue House, a seedy area past the bar with a few old-fashioned dark leather armchairs gathered around a fake fireplace. Ashtrays sat on stands near the
furniture
.
Ma Little stopped at a wide lounge chair, turned and practically collapsed into it. Some of
the folds around her waist spilled over the arms.
‘Nelson said you could help me,’ I said, easing myself into a chair nearby. ‘I’m trying to get information.’
‘What kind of information?’ she asked,
sounding
out of breath.
‘A little girl was kidnapped. I need to get a message to her kidnapper.’
A bemused expression creased into her face. ‘You’re speaking of the Ormond child?’
‘That’s right.’
‘The one with an older brother on the run?’
‘So I’ve heard,’ I said, keeping my voice steady.
‘Some sort of psycho kid,’ she said, peering closely at me. ‘Violent, dangerous,
unpredictable
,
deceitful
.’
‘It’s his sister I’m interested in. I have to get a message to the people who are holding her.’
‘And you think I know who that is?’
‘I don’t know. I hope so.’
‘And who do you think has her?’
‘I have my suspicions,’ I said. ‘I want to put an offer to them.’
‘Oh, really? What makes you think
you
can get her back, Mouse?’
‘I have some things that they need. Things that will be crucial in achieving their … greater goals.’
‘Things?’
‘Things,’ I repeated, unwilling to say too much.
‘And you’d like to offer these items in exchange for the little girl? What do you have? A treasure map?’ she joked. Her laughter quickly turned into wheezy coughing.
A treasure map …
‘Something like that,’ I said. ‘I also have information that will help them understand any items they might have already. Without this information, nothing will make sense.’
‘I may have heard a whisper of the girl. But I don’t work for nothing.’
I was tempted to pounce and shake the
information
out of her, but I restrained myself.
‘If it’s money you’re after,’ I started to say, with a feeling of despair. ‘Then I’m not sure you are the woman to help me.’
‘It’s not your money I want. If I help you, I’ll collect from Sharkey. You tell him that.’
‘OK.’
‘What are you going to tell him?’
‘That you’ll collect from him.’
‘That Ma Little will collect from Nelson
Sharkey
,’ she repeated.
‘I have it,’ I said.
‘Repeat it after me,’ she demanded.
‘Ma Little will collect from Nelson Sharkey,’ I recited.
‘That’s good. As for information about the
little
girl, I hear all kinds of things here in this boarding house. All sorts of people come here. People who are just out of prison. People who are on the run. People who talk too much. They’re always talking about what’s happening on the street.’
Her eyes narrowed in her pudgy face.
‘Like I know there is some kid with a huge price on his head who’s giving the cops a very hard time.’ She threw back her head and laughed, making me really uncomfortable. ‘Don’t I just love it when the cops are having a very hard time!’ she cried, slapping her knees. ‘And you! You must be wetting your pants laughing!’
I wasn’t wetting my pants laughing. I didn’t feel like joking around–I was worried sick about my sister. I stood there wondering if this woman would ever agree to help me, or whether she just wanted to play with me like a toy.
Her laughter suddenly stopped. Her mouth was a hard, tight line as she spoke. ‘You want me to pass on the deal you’re offering? The
things
?’
‘Yes. Make sure you tell them that without the information I have,’ I added, ‘they’ll
never
get what they want in time. I’m also offering
everything I have up here,’ I said, tapping my forehead.
‘Your head on a plate?’ She leaned back in her chair and laughed again, the rough, scratchy sound ending in another wheeze.
Once she’d recovered, she sat staring at me.
Finally she spoke. ‘Give us a hand up, will you?’
I got up and grabbed her hands, but I could barely budge her. She started yelling for Ray.
Ray came running, wiping his hands on his jeans. It took all our strength, with Ma Little heaving and grunting and trying to help, to finally pull her out of the deep lounge.
We slowly walked her back to the reception area. She squeezed through the archway near the counter, calling back. ‘I’ll pass the information on to someone who might be able to help. But don’t forget. Tell Nelson Sharkey I’ll collect from him.’
Ma Little and Nelson Sharkey seemed to know each other well. I wondered what it was she wanted to collect from him. I didn’t think he’d have a great deal of money to hand over. But before I could think any more about it, I heard Ray’s voice shouting after me.
‘Hey! I know who you are! You’re that psycho kid!’
I bolted. I heard him break into a run behind me, and I jumped down the steps leading out of Fortescue House, straight onto the footpath, head down and running as hard as I could. Ma Little might not be after the price on my head, but Ray sure was.