Game Play (8 page)

Chapter 13

‘Make sure you're back here by half past,' Sara called as the twins popped their heads into the UMs office, as promised. ‘There's another call from your aunt. She'll be here in twenty minutes.'

‘Okay. Thanks.' They had twenty minutes of airport sleuthing time left. ‘Let's check these.'

On a seat outside, Christopher opened the SPORTS magazine to the back pages. ‘Here are the ads Tom was talking about. German ones.

And some from India. The ads where athletes are invited to send money for steroids. Only they're not called that.'

Amy peered at the ads. ‘But where are the packages to be sent?'

‘To the post office which the person writes down.'

‘Like Cairns Airport? The poste restante? Or the mail boxes?'

‘Could be, I suppose. D'you think Tom did that?'

‘Someone calling me?' Tom Savvas stood over them, holding a large padded bag. ‘I heard you twins followed me to the post office.'

Christopher wondered how he found that out. Did he watch them? But he said ‘heard' so the post mistress probably told him. Or the grumpy newsagent. ‘Did you get your package?' Turning his head,

Christopher was trying to place the country the stamps came from. Or the currency. That might give a clue where the package was posted. It might match one of the SPORTS ads. ‘Amy collects stamps. Are those

German stamps?'

‘Yes. Would you like them for your collection Amy?

‘They looked like deutsch marks.' Amy said. ‘Thanks.'

Was Tom researching or was he doing something else? Was he the hunter or the hunted?

‘What d'you think this is?' Tom tapped the padded bag

‘Were you researching about mail order steroids?' asked Amy. ‘Is that why you arranged for a package to be sent here?'

Tom looked defensive. ‘Ah. A journalist should not reveal all his sources.'

‘Have you sent your story in yet?' asked Amy quickly.

Tom looked at his fake-designer watch. ‘Ten minutes to my deadline.'

‘Did Gloria arrest Mr Muscles?' Amy asked. ‘We would have come too but she told us not to ...'

Tom Savvas shook his head and told the twins something surprising.

‘No. She detained the soccer player. The one whom Christopher so kindly pointed out to us as wearing different clothes.'

‘The one with the different navy track suit?'

‘Yes.'

‘Why?'

‘We became suspicious. He looked at Mr Muscles' newspaper in the bin. And put it back!'

‘I know. I was there! I told Gloria.' Amy was indignant. That clue was part of her sleuthing.

‘Why d'you think he did that?' asked Christopher.

‘Because his luggage already contained steroids,' suggested Amy.

‘Was Mr Muscles his opposition?'

‘We'll find out soon.' Tom glanced at his watch. I've got to meet Gloria, now. To get a quote.' He strode away, leaving the twins confused.

Who was the other steroid smuggler? Mr Muscles? Tom Savvas? The soccer player or someone else? And where were the steroids? In the rolled up newspaper? In the CAIRNS bag? Or in Tom's padded bag? Or somewhere else?

‘That's the same bag. The one with CAIRNS on it.' Amy pointed.

‘Are you sure?' Christopher stared at Mrs Silver and Mrs Gold who were sitting on a seat, waiting. The bag was between their legs.

Other bags were piled on the seat.

‘There must be hundreds of bags like that.'

‘But not with a scuff mark at the side,' observed Amy. She walked across and sat down beside the elderly ladies.

‘Hi, again.'

‘Hullo, dear. Hasn't your aunt arrived yet? We're waiting for our grand nephew to come. He's late.' Mrs Silver fiddled nervously with her gold necklace. ‘He promised he'd be here to help us. Haven't seen him for years. Probably won't recognise him.'

Christopher stared at Mrs Silver's gold necklace. It was an unusual collection of round pill-like shapes. Could they be steroids? Or was he getting Amy's ‘mystery-itis' and suspecting everything?

‘Our Aunty Viv is going to collect us in twenty ... er ... fifteen minutes.' Christopher reached for the bag. ‘Do you need help with your bag? It feels heavy. Is that why you left the bag in the locker?'

‘How did you know that?' Mrs Gold spoke sharply.

‘We saw the CAIRNS bag in locker 4,' explained Amy. ‘The door was unlocked.'

‘Yes. And he told us that there would be a key.' Mrs Silver touched the bag, as if to reassure herself. ‘That's why we took it out again. It wasn't safe.' She fiddled with a nail file.

‘We were to leave the key in an envelope for him at the MESSAGES board,' said Mrs Gold. ‘Such a kind young man to save us carrying such a heavy bag.'

‘Shhh,' cautioned Mrs Silver.

Amy wondered what was so valuable. Surely the gold and silver bling was so obvious. Customs would have checked.

‘Did you have any trouble going through Customs? With your jewellery?'

Mrs Silver's hand went to her neck. ‘Not as much as we expected.' She played with the coin set in the brooch.

‘Why did you have the coins set as brooches?' As a coin collector, Amy was curious. Money was for spending rather than wearing, she thought. It seemed a waste of money to wear it

‘One belonged to my aunt. The other one is new.'

Amy peered at the date on the Mrs Silver's coin. ‘1964' Was she a very young aunt?

‘We have a very big family. All over the world. Some of the nephews and nieces are older than the aunts and uncles.'

‘Are any 100 years old? Like antiques?'

‘What do you know about antiques?' Mrs Gold asked abruptly as a dark haired man strode quickly towards the elderly women.

‘Is this your grand nephew?' asked Amy.

‘I'm not sure,' said Mrs Silver. ‘Could be. He'll tell us.'

That was a bit suspicious. He kissed both of them loudly. He looked quickly at their jewellery and said in a loud voice. ‘Hullo, Aunty Golda. Hello, Aunty Sylvia.'

Amy listened in amazement. There was something wrong here. Could anyone be named Golda Gold or Sylvia Silver? The elderly women looked confused, too.

‘I'm Mrs Gold and this is Mrs Silver. ‘Who are you?'

‘I'm your grand nephew Bruce. Don't you recognise me?'

Obviously they didn't.

‘My mother wrote and told me you'd be arriving on this flight. She was so happy that you were bringing out the family jewellery. You have got it all, haven't you? I'll carry the bag for you.' He seized the carry bag with the scuff mark.

‘When I couldn't find it in the locker, I was worried. No trouble with Customs about the inherited stuff then?'

‘We told them that it was inherited from Great Great Aunt Ruby's estate.'

‘Good. Would you like me to carry it for you now?' He didn't wait for an answer. He seemed more interested in getting the bag than helping the elderly women. ‘I'll bring my car to the front, over there. Then you won't have to walk so far. I'll take the luggage now. Meet you out the front in about five minutes.'

‘What colour is your car?'

They didn't seem to know anything about him.

‘It's a green Toyota. Number plate EJV 362.'

He fumbled in his pocket for the car keys and a white slip fell out.

That detail about the number plate seemed to reassure the women. But the twins weren't so sure. Was he really their nephew? He didn't seem to know their right names. And why was the original arrangement to leave the bag in the locker for him to collect? Another thing made Amy very suspicious. She nudged her twin. Why was the grand nephew taking out only the CAIRNS bag? Why didn't he offer to take some of the others, too? What was inside that bag which he wanted so badly? It was very suspicious.

Christopher picked up the white slip. It was a parking ticket. It was time and date stamped. ‘He won't be able to get his car out without this.'

‘But he's coming back for us,' said Mrs Gold and Silver. ‘To drop us at the hotel.'

The twins weren't so sure. They decided to follow him. To return the ticket of course. They followed him and the jewellery bag towards the carpark. He was moving quickly and they had to hurry to keep up.

They might just have caught up with him if they'd called or ran full speed, but they tailed him instead. Just to see if he did intend coming back.

‘Eleven minutes,' warned Christopher checking the clock above the car-hire counter as they dashed past. ‘Then we'll have to get back for Aunty Viv. She'll chuck a mental if we're not there. That's five and a half minutes one way. If we don't find out anything, five and a half minutes back, running!'

‘And what if we do find out something?' Amy protested. ‘Sara expects us back soon.'

Christopher was getting bossy. Usually she made the ‘hurry up' decisions.

‘We'll work that out when it happens.'

Hurrying was the reason Amy fell in the mud of the salt marsh. Grand nephew Bruce strode across the marsh, heading for the carpark. Further out, beyond the ring road was a boardwalk across the mangrove swamp. Would he go that far? Looking up at the air traffic control tower to get their bearings, the twins followed. Luckily other people were walking towards the carpark too, so they didn't stick out.

But then Amy slipped. ‘Yuk. My new sneaker!' Carefully she dragged her sneaker sole along the dry edge. Some mud oozed off. At that moment, grand nephew Bruce stopped, to change hands with the heavy bag and fumble in his pocket for the parking ticket. Luckily for the twins, he seemed to have forgotten where he left it.

‘Turn around so he doesn't see our faces,' warned Christopher holding his nose. ‘Muddy sneakers will smell in the van later.'

‘No worse than the animals. And it's only one sneaker. It's almost clean.'

Christopher was always complaining about smelly feet. Usually hers. Amy sniffed. It wasn't too bad. If they had time on the way back, she'd go in the chemist and squirt the free perfume near her sneaker.

That would disguise the smell.

‘Hey. Look. He's moving again.' Christopher suspected that he was not going to come back for the elderly ladies. And he was right!

‘What sort of car did he say?'

‘Green Toyota.' Grand-nephew Bruce had stopped beside a mini.

‘Number plate?'

‘He said, EJV 362,' remembered Amy.

Christopher pointed. ‘ECP 123. That's wrong, too. I think he just made up the number and the car.'

‘What else has he made up?' Amy was hopping and still scraping mess from her shoe. ‘What are we going to do about it? They gave him the bag. It's not really our business.'

‘But they did think he was their grand nephew. Didn't they? Or were they just pretending?'

The twins weren't sure what to do next. Should one of them run back for Gloria? Should they try to find Tom?

Christopher glanced at his watch again. Just then, Aunty Viv's

‘ANIMAL ANTICS' van drove into the carpark. The twins had never been so glad to see her.

‘Aunty Viv!' She wound down the window.

‘Hi twins. Jump in. So glad your plane didn't crash. I worry about you flying over all that water. At least you're both good at backstroke.

Hang on. I'll have to find a parking space.'

Christopher opened the passenger door. They hugged her.

‘Try to park near that mini ,Aunty Viv.'

And she did. At first, she didn't even ask why. That was the great thing about Aunty Viv. Apart from being scared of flying, she didn't fuss about normal things. In the back, the twins could hear the animals. Amy thought of phoning Gloria for help. ‘What happened to your mobile phone, Aunty Viv?'

‘My phone?' Aunty Viv looked puzzled.

‘The one Dad bought for you.'

‘Oh. It's in the van pockets somewhere, dear.'