Into the Fire (7 page)

Hannah hurried over to a tourist information stand in the library’s foyer, pulled something from the rack, and stuffed it in her pocket, all the while thinking about the security tape. Mrs Hastings didn’t seem to have thought of it. If Hannah could just remember the code and extract the tape then she might have some solid evidence on who had taken the brooch.

Ling, Mrs Hastings and the police officer came in the door.

‘Officer, I’m not sure what these children are up to, but I think it’s high time that they left. There’s only one last box of artefacts I want to take, just in case something happens to the building.’

Hannah stole a look at Mrs Hastings. ‘Maybe you should try and find the tape from the
security cameras. They might have filmed the theft taking place.’ Hannah watched Mrs Hastings lick her lips.

‘What do you know about the security tapes?’

‘Well, my father installed the whole system about two months ago. Amy told me it was because so many books get stolen.’

‘Amy?’ the police officer asked.

‘She’s a staff member here,’ Mrs Hastings said. ‘Look, there will be time to look at the tapes later. When we’re safe.’

Hannah pressed on. ‘You need to know a code to get the tape out.’

‘Yes, I know that.’ But Mrs Hastings cast an anxious look towards the back of the library. It was obvious to Hannah that she
didn’t
know about the security code.

The policewoman put her radio to her ear and listened intently before moving forwards. ‘Okay, we can talk about this later. Most of the buses have left. We are going
now.’

Shouts came from outside the library. About a dozen firefighters, armed with hoses and other equipment, were rushing across the parkland behind the library.

‘Let’s go! Let’s go!’ a firefighter called, waving his arms at the group standing inside the library.

The policewoman bundled them outside, directing Hannah and Ling towards her car. Mrs Hastings went to the other police car. Hannah turned to watch the firefighters and gasped as a bush on the far side of the park burst into flames. Two firemen swung their enormous hose towards the bush and a volley of water doused the flames within seconds.

‘Girls, hop in the car. Now!’ the constable ordered. The girls slid into the back seat. The policewoman flicked a switch and picked up a microphone.

‘We’ve got spot fires starting in Campbell Park,’ she said. ‘I’m bringing in two young females then I’ll head back and evacuate anyone else from the area.’

‘Roger that,’ a voice replied.

‘Now, what’s going on?’ The policewoman looked at the frightened girls through her rearview mirror. ‘What are you guys up to?’

‘Our friend is missing. She may still be in the library.’

‘There’s no one in the library. Mrs Hastings has checked and double-checked the entire building. What’s your friend’s name?’

‘Gabby Hunter,’ Ling said.

‘Okay, hang on.’ The policewoman flicked a switch behind the steering wheel. ‘This is C24, do you copy?’

‘We’ve got you, C24. What’s up?’

‘I want you to file an MP on Gabby Hunter. Location: Teasdale library area. Last seen within two hours prior to 14:00 hours. Description to follow.’ She pressed the same switch and turned to the girls. ‘Can you provide a detailed description of Gabby for me? What she was wearing. Age. Any features.’

Ling nodded.

‘Okay. Go.’

‘Gabby is 13 years old. She’s wearing a white singlet top and knee-length blue denim shorts. She is tall and has blond hair.’

‘Okay, well done, girls.’

‘C24 to Command Centre: we have those details,’ a voice crackled through a small speaker.

The driver turned right and looked again at the girls. ‘I’m sure she’ll be okay. That message will get through to all the SES and firefighting crews operating in the area as well as every police patrol car and unit.’

‘I think Mrs Hastings knows more than she’s letting on,’ Hannah said, staring through the car window. Although it was dark, she could make
out tiny bits of ash and soot floating in the air.

‘We’ve got one of our officers looking into the case, but as you can imagine, we’re pretty tied up with this brute of a fire at the moment.’

The police car pulled up in front of the community centre. ‘Take these,’ the police officer said, handing the girls two water bottles. ‘Remember to keep drinking. And don’t wander off again. The mobile phone network is breaking up and pretty unreliable and it’s getting harder to keep in contact with everyone. Are your parents in here?’

‘No, they’re caught up outside town and can’t get in at the moment.’ Hannah opened the door.

‘Well, make sure you report to the officials and get on that last bus. You’ve done the right thing by reporting your friend missing. We’ll find her.’

The girls thanked the policewoman and watched as she wheeled the car around and drove back towards the library.

The community centre was a hive of activity. A bus pulled away, and through its window, Hannah could see anxious faces staring out.

‘What are you waiting for, Hannah?’ asked Ling, halfway up the ramp to the centre’s entrance. ‘Come on.’

‘Gabby is
missing.
She
must
be in the library. If we report in, they’ll put us on a bus and we’ll never know if they’ve found her.’

‘Hannah, come on! That police officer is going back to look. There’s nothing more we can do now. We’ve told the people who should know. As for the theft—who cares about a gold brooch? It’s not our problem.’

‘It is if Gabby is somehow involved with it.’

Ling closed her eyes. ‘Okay. So you heard a weird conversation and we found Gab’s sunnies down there in the library.’

‘What was Gabby
doing
in the office section of the library?’

‘I’ve got no idea. Like I said, she was probably too embarrassed to walk out the front door while Mrs Hastings was speaking so she went looking for a less obvious exit.’

‘Since when would Gabby care if someone saw her walking out the main entrance?’ Ling didn’t say anything. ‘Ling, it doesn’t add up. What is the matter with you?’

Ling looked down at her black and grimy feet. Tears dripped down her face. ‘You’re right. I’m sorry. I just want everything to be the way it was. If only I’d listened to her. She didn’t want to go to the exhibition in the first place. It was
me who dragged her away from her swimming pool. And for what?’

‘Well never mind about that,’ Hannah said. ‘Look at this.’ She pulled a map from her back pocket and spread it open on the concrete steps. The few people that were outside, gaping at the smoke and glow from the other side of town, were paying them no attention. ‘This is why I went back into the library. Look here.’ Hannah pressed her finger on one side of the map.

‘This is Teasdale, right?’ Ling stared at the large-scale map. It was a detailed picture of the township of Teasdale as well as the surrounding areas.

‘Derwent’s Hut,’ Hannah muttered. ‘I knew I’d heard the name somewhere before. One of our teachers helped build it about five years ago.’

‘A bark hut built by the citizens of Teasdale to commemorate the Bicentennial Anniversary.’
Ling read the tiny inscription next to a small brown symbol that indicated the hut’s position. ‘What was it you heard about Derwent’s Hut when you were listening to Mrs Hastings on the phone?’

‘I’m not exactly sure, just that the word Derwent was used and it rang a bell. That’s why I asked the reporter if she knew, but she
wouldn’t because she’s not familiar with the local area.’

‘I’m not really following you, Hannah, but if you think it will get us to Gabby then I guess we’d better go check it out.’

The hot wind blowing through the power lines whined eerily as yet another fire engine sped by, its red lights bright and luminous in the dimness. Ling wiped her face. Her eyes stung and her lips felt dry and swollen. ‘I’m thinking you have a plan.’

‘You go and fill up the water bottles, Ling. Meet me over by those trees there.’ Hannah pointed to a line of tall poplar trees, bending and swaying in the strong wind.

Ling went to a tap and topped up the water bottles.

‘We’re not going to walk there, are we?’

‘Of course not. We’re going to ride,’ Hannah said grimly, pointing to the bike rack at the side of the community centre. Four bikes were parked there and only two of them were locked.

‘Are you crazy? You want me to ride halfway up a mountain in the middle of a 40-degree day with the entire bush around Teasdale burning?’

‘To find your cousin? Yes, I do.’

‘This is madness. We should just go and tell the police.’

‘Well, like that nice policewoman said, they’re all a bit busy at the moment. No one seems to be listening to us, Ling. C’mon, before I let you talk me out of this.’

‘I don’t think there’s much chance of that happening,’ Ling sighed, handing Hannah a bottle of water. Hannah drained half of it, clipped it into a holder on her bike, and climbed on. Ling attached her helmet, adjusted the strap and followed Hannah along a narrow path that wound behind the centre. ‘You know where we’re going?’

‘Yep. And don’t worry. It’s actually not that far.’

Ling wasn’t sure that Hannah realised how far they had to go but she followed her anyhow. As they rode out of the car park, Ling vowed to herself that next time, she wouldn’t let some ancient brooch get in the way of a lazy dunk in Gabby’s pool.

One person saw them go. From inside the community centre, Sean watched as the two figures on bikes peddled away from town. He frowned, packed the gyroscope into his backpack
and smiled at his friend’s father. ‘I’m just going to the toilet,’ he said.

It wasn’t a lie. He went to the toilet, locked himself into a cubicle, stood on the toilet seat and peered out of the small window. From where he stood, he could just see the library. It didn’t take long to wriggle out through the open window, and in even less time he grabbed his backpack from the ground where he’d dropped it and crouched behind a shrub, out of sight. There was one thing Sean knew he could do to help, and nobody was going to stop him.

E.D. only spotted Angus once as he bounced across the paddocks towards Golden Ridge, until he reached the creek easement and carefully steered across the dry stream bed. From there, he saw two galloping horses—one with a rider—but they were too far in front of him to call out. By the time he emerged and could see down the road, the horses were gone.

But their dust wasn’t. E.D. could tell by the cloud travelling down the road towards the bush that the horses had turned right. He revved the bike harder and drove along next to the creek, taking the opportunity to drive through a broken section of fence and out onto the road.

E.D. knew he wasn’t allowed on roads but this wasn’t
really
a road, he reasoned to himself.
The gravel track didn’t lead to anywhere that people drove to regularly. All it did was wind up the hills into the bush and end up as a fire track. It was too bumpy for ordinary cars. ‘It’s too bumpy for this bike,’ E.D. grumbled to himself, wishing that he was on his motocross bike and not the four-wheeler.

He followed the dust until the air was clear: the dust just disappeared. E.D. stopped the bike, and turned it off to listen. Somewhere to his left, deep within the bush, horse hooves thudded, but the sound faded almost as soon as he heard it. He got off the bike and explored the edge of the bush. A narrow track led off into the trees and hoof prints studded its path. Nothing could fit along that path, he thought, except fat kangaroos and skinny horses. Definitely not large quadbikes.

There were two choices: he either turned back home or he kept going up the gravel road in case Angus came out on it somewhere ahead. E.D. made his mind up straight away. I’ll go ten minutes up the road, he thought, then I’ll turn back.

Ten minutes seemed to go quickly. The big bike was slow on the track, especially as parts of it had been washed away, and E.D. had to move
carefully around huge potholes as well as avoid the stones and branches lying in his path. Another five minutes, he thought.

And another five. E.D. couldn’t help feeling that Angus would appear just around the corner and so he kept going forwards, bouncing up the bumpy road. Around one more corner, the track separated into two: the main road continuing up the hill and the other veering off to the left. E.D. paused, peering up the smaller track. In the distance he could just see what looked like a tiny house. He made his way towards it.

Inside the hut, Angus was untying Gabby from a heavy wooden table leg. She was talking and crying at the same time, and Angus listened, trying to weave together her story from the bits he could hear through her sobbing.

‘…and then I ducked out through the exit because I didn’t want Ling to think I was bored—where is Ling? Is she safe?—and there was a man going down the corridor with a briefcase in his hand and I looked back to see whether Ling was following me—and where’s Hannah? Does she know the fire is coming?—and I bumped into the man and knocked the briefcase and it fell open and a brooch fell out and he grabbed
me and dragged me into an office and I had to stay there and I was shouting but no one heard me until that woman came in and told me to shut my mouth—she even slapped me, Angus—and the man put a scarf around my mouth and pushed me into the car and drove me here and I’ve been here for hours, Angus, and I thought I was going to die in the bushfire!’

Gabby was really howling now and the moment she was free, she grabbed Angus and buried her face in his shoulder. ‘You’re wet, Angus,’ she said, her voice muffled.

Angus put an arm clumsily around her back and patted her nervously. ‘I went for a swim in the dam. But it’s okay now, Gabby. You’re free and the fire isn’t coming this way. Not yet, anyway. We have to get out of here in case they come back.’

‘They’ll be back,’ Gabby said. ‘They left that here.’

Angus looked. Gabby was pointing to a briefcase on a bench against the wall. Angus stood up and went over to it. The briefcase opened easily at his touch. Slowly, Angus lifted out a material-covered package and unrolled it. A gleaming gold brooch lay in his palm.

‘The man—I’ve never seen him before—and Mrs Hastings. The two of them took it!’
Gabby took out her mobile phone and tried it. ‘There’s no reception still. It’s been down since I was in the library.’

Angus wrapped up the brooch and tucked it back in the briefcase. As he latched it again he turned to Gabby. ‘That settles it. We’re out of here. We’ll take this with us.’

That’s when they heard the motorbike.

Gabby looked at Angus in confusion. ‘They had a car before.’

‘We’ve still got to get out of here. It might be some of their accomplices.’ Angus grabbed Gabby with one hand and the briefcase with the other. They opened the door—but it was too late. The motorbike—a small four-wheeler that somehow looked very familiar to Angus—pulled up right outside the hut.

‘Hello, anyone there?’ said a voice they both knew.

‘E.D.!’ screamed Gabby and leaped for him. E.D. held out his arms as she hugged him and Angus couldn’t help grinning.

‘Boy, are you here just in time! We have to get out of here.’

‘Why?’ E.D. stepped away from Gabby and took off his helmet. ‘What’s going on?’

Angus turned to Gabby. ‘Gabby knows the whole story.’

Gabby quickly told her tale again while Angus and E.D. listened. ‘But what about you?’ Gabby said as she finished. Then it was E.D.’s turn to tell them what had happened to him.

And then Angus filled them in on his fire rescue story. ‘And the horses are still there,’ he said finally, pointing down to the dam. Through the trees, they could see the two chestnut horses resting now at the edge of the bush.

It was so much information, Angus’s head was spinning. He knew he had a lot to deal with. ‘I think we’d better go now,’ he said. ‘We need to get home.’

‘So, what is this place?’ E.D. asked, walking towards the door of the hut.

‘I’ll show you where they tied me down,’ said Gabby, following him into the wooden cabin.

‘It would have taken a fair effort for someone to tie you down, Gab,’ E.D. laughed. ‘How long did you say you were here for?’

Dust and dirt covered the old wooden table and chairs and thick, grey cobwebs hung limply from the ceiling. The room was dark and stale.

‘Hey,’ Angus called from the door. ‘Why don’t I hunt through these cupboards here for some food and then we can have a picnic?’

‘Really?’ Gabby said, clapping her hands.

‘NO!’ Angus and E.D. said together.

When he thought about it later, Angus didn’t know why he followed E.D. into the hut. It would’ve been much quicker to head off and get the horses. But he didn’t. So they were sitting ducks when without warning the door of the hut burst open, revealing a man and a woman outside.

‘You were right, Patricia,’ the man sneered. ‘Some unwelcome visitors.’

E.D. charged the man but he was too slow. The man stepped aside and brought his fists down hard on E.D.’s shoulder, knocking him to the floor. Before he could get up, the man sat on top of him and tied his hands behind his back and then tied his feet together.

‘This is a dangerous place for children,’ Mrs Hastings said. ‘But we’re glad you directed us to the brooch. Thank goodness it’s back in my safekeeping: that’s what I’ll tell the police if they catch up with us while you’re stuck in this hut.’

‘You can’t leave us here!’ Gabby said desperately. ‘We might die!’

‘I don’t think so,’ said the man, deftly tying Gabby back to the table leg. ‘The fire is nowhere near here.’

‘You’re taking the brooch,’ said Angus, pulling his arm away as the man grabbed him.

‘Which I reckon proves you a thief,’ E.D. added. For his trouble, he got slapped.

‘I think it looks like
you’re
the thieves,’ Mrs Hastings sneered. ‘We’re
returning
the brooch from the hut where you had hidden it.’

‘Well that’s just plain stupid.’ E.D. lay facedown on the floor and his voice was muffled. ‘Do you think we’d get away with hiding a stolen brooch anywhere around here?’

Mrs Hastings walked to the door. ‘That’s for you to talk about with the police once we let them know where you are. Which will be as soon as we’re on the plane to Morocco.’ She looked back at the children. ‘Goodbye. The police will be here to rescue you—in about five hours’ time.’

Five hours seemed about the time it was taking to cycle to Derwent’s Hut. Hannah stopped again and had a drink. Her water bottle was only a quarter full and the water in it was warm. ‘Yuk,’ she said.

‘Come on, Han,’ called Ling. ‘We’re nearly there.’

They were on the uphill track in the bush. Although they both had mountain bikes, it was a slow climb. Ling was much quicker than Hannah and often disappeared ahead until Hannah discovered the shortcuts. At times, instead of following the road around, they took a smaller track that went through the bush, cutting the corner. They were on one of these shortcuts when Hannah heard a car snaking up the road behind them. They were hidden from view, but Hannah was still able to glimpse the driver through the trees. She stopped in alarm. ‘That was Mrs Hastings!’ she said to Ling.

Ling looked at her in horror. ‘They’re going to the hut. What if Gabby’s there? What are they going to do with her?’ She let her bike drop to the ground. ‘It’s quicker if I run, Hannah. Sorry.’ Ling powered off, leaving Hannah behind.

Hannah flung her bike on the ground and sat down to catch her breath. She drained the last of her water and stood up to go. Walking somehow seemed easier than trying to ride the bike. She walked out onto the main track, preferring the wide road to the dusty shortcuts.

Although it wasn’t quite as hot walking, Hannah soon ran out of energy. It seemed a very long time since Ling had jogged off. Suddenly
she heard the sound of the car returning down the road, the noise loud in the otherwise quiet air. Hannah paused for a moment then hid behind a tree. The car swung into view, going slowly down the pitted road. It was a four-wheel drive that covered the ground easily. Hannah could see Mrs Hastings and a man in the front seats. Mrs Hastings was laughing and holding up something, a glint of metal flashing from her hand.

Hannah had a split second in which to make a decision: go up the hill or go down the hill. Ling went up, she thought, so I’ll go down. Between us we’ll find out what’s going on.

She waited until the car had just gone past then ran out behind it, stooping low to avoid being seen by its occupants. As the car slowed to negotiate a corner, Hannah grasped the large spare wheel and jumped clumsily onto the rear bumper bar. Trying to keep her head lower than the window, she held on grimly, terrified of falling, as the vehicle rumbled down the hill.