Invitation to a Stranger (7 page)

 

At school the next morning, Katie was morose. “I asked Dad about a job for Drake, but he just said to get him to put in a
C.V.
and he would see whether he could help him.”

“Did you find any ammonia at your place?” Ronnie asked.

Katie cheered up. “No problems, there's a bottle in the laundry. Mum said that she uses it as a cleaner. So why would it wake people up?”

“My Mum said that in the old days they used to wave it under the noses of people who fainted,” Ronnie reported.

“I've been thinking,” Katie continued. “Not much use rescuing the kids and whoever else they've captured if they can steal them back again.”

“Drake said the only way they could be destroyed was by fire,” Ronnie reminded her.

“If we set the Castle Street place on fire the fire brigade would be down there within minutes,” Ronnie said. “The fire brigade is just around the corner from that street.”

“The locals at Munawala were lucky they could get the Demento place burned down without a fire brigade turning up,” Katie grumbled.

“But we don't live in the back blocks of Munawala,” Ronnie pointed out. “There must be another way of getting rid of them.”

She lowered her voice. “Do you remember Drake saying his family raised meat cattle and not beef cattle?”

"
Still sounds like vampires to me,” Katie whispered.

“My Mum says there are no such things,” Ronnie whispered back.

“Just suppose that they sleep all day, like vampires,” Ronnie said. “We shouldn't have any trouble getting all their captives out.”

“Except Mr. Demonto was awake during the day,” Katie said.

“We've only got a few days,” Ronnie worried. “Do you think we should tell Will and Jeff about it all?”

“They wouldn't believe us anyway,” Katie said. “Jeff is pretty solid, but there is no way he would believe in vampires.”

“Drake said they aren't vampires,” Ronnie retorted. “And whatever they are, Jeff won't believe.”

“Neither will Will,” Katie confessed with a sigh. “We are on our own.”

The bell went for Assembly, so they grabbed their bags and ran into place, their faces screwed into identical worried frowns that stayed on their faces right through the day.

“I've been thinking,” Katie said as they headed to Ronnie's place that afternoon.

“So
?”
Ronnie asked.

“Drake must hate his kin if he wants them incinerated.”

“He did look as if he was scared of his Dad,” Ronnie said.

“Scared enough to hope that someone, namely two fourteen year old girls, could kill his only rellies, his father, his grandfather and his two cousins?”

“Kill or murder?” Ronnie whispered. “I can't believe we're having this discussion.”

“Do you believe your little brother Jamie and his mate Herbie are in great danger, and according to Drake, the entire district could be in danger?”

Ronnie thought about her mother's permanently red eyes and Jasmine's blank face when they had visited. She shivered. “I believe
.
”

“Glad you came straight home,” Mrs. Campion said with relief as they walked in. “I've made muffins for your afternoon tea.”

“Thanks Mum,” Ronnie said. “We're going to have it in the tree house.”

“I'll put the hot chocolate into a thermos flask for you,” Mrs. Campion said. “Don't stay up there until you are chilled again.”

The two girls took their muffins and two thermos flasks of hot chocolate up to the tree house. It was a sunny but cold afternoon.

“Got any ideas?” she asked Katie.

“What about some sort of diversion so that we can rescue everyone out the back?”

“So how would we get a group of zombie-like kids and animals over that back fence?
"
Ronnie asked. “We could hardly carry them all over one by one.”

“Whatever,” Katie said. “We still will need a diversion.”

“What if we left an anonymous message with the cops?”

“What if the cops just thought it was a hoax call?”

Ronnie started to get annoyed. “Okay, Miss Know-It-All, got any more bright ideas?”

The platform of the tree house swayed a fraction as Drake silently landed on it. “What did your father say?”

“He wants a
C.V.
before he'll check around the industry for a job for you,” Katie reported.

“No probs, I'll bring one around tomorrow afternoon,” Drake promised.

“First time we've seen you in proper daylight,” Katie said. “Are you okay?”

Ronnie wondered about Drake. He didn't seem good looking or exciting any more, and no longer glowed with energy and vitality. He was too white faced, too tall and thin, and somehow hunched over as if he was in pain.

“I reckon I'll be okay if I can miss the ceremony next week,” Drake admitted. “I'm expected to fast until the ceremony. Will your adults be able to help?”

“They are not likely to believe us,” Ronnie confessed. “We're going to have to think of something by ourselves.”

“Just you two young kids,” Drake said in disbelief. He shivered, and then buried his head in his hands. “So disaster will fall upon your people and there is no way it can be prevented.”

“That's negative thinking,” Ronnie snapped. “Of course we'll think of something.”

“I am just so sorry,” Drake said as if he didn't believe her.

“So why is so much take
-
away being delivered to your place?” Katie asked.

“You don't want to know,” Drake said shortly.

“Do you promise to help us in any way you can to prevent next week?” Katie asked.

“Of course, but there will be others of that mob, equally powerful.” Drake threw his hands out in disgust. “You haven't a
n Eskimo's
hope
in the desert
of succeeding.”

“Negative thinking again,” Katie said shortly. “You promise?”

“I promise.”

“Will's here,” Ronnie's mother called from down below.

“Coming,” Ronnie called.

The platform swayed as Drake sprang off it and vanished into the foliage of the other tree. Ronnie swung over the edge and climbed down the ladder with Katie close behind.

“Gutless,” Katie said in disgust.

“Funny background he must come from,” Ronnie mused. “Just because we're girls, he thinks we're useless.”

“Pack of
chauvinists
,” Katie agreed.

“That's our advantage!
”
Ronnie decided. “His mob won't take us seriously until it's too late.”

“A decent diversion,” Katie mused. “We've got until the end of the week to think of something.”

“We'll think of something,” Ronnie agreed with a lot more confidence than she felt. Five days wasn't very long to think of something seriously disruptive.

 

“I went to visit Mrs. Kotsos,” Katie whispered at school on Thursday. “She believes in vampires, evil, lots of garlic, holy water and stakes through the heart.”

“That's a great help, I don't think,” Ronnie whispered back.

Their teacher coughed warningly, and they both shut up.

“Meet you up in the tree house after school. Dad's found someone prepared to interview Drake on the strength of his
C.V.
” Katie whispered.

After school, the two girls were heading home with some of the other girls when Ha
y
ley and her friend Jenny bumped into them.

“Going to the party?” Ha
y
ley asked.

“Whose party?” Katie asked.

“The Dementos are having a party Saturday night because the three cousins will all turn eighteen and we've all been invited,” Ha
y
ley gloated.

“Studs, the entire three of them,” Jenny drooled.

“Bit out of your league,”
Ronnie
said, looking worried instead of superior at the gloating Ha
y
ley.

“Our parents have given permission, so we are allowed to go,” Ha
y
ley said. “Me, Jenny, Jordyn, and Sandy.”

“It will be so exclusive,” Jenny said.

“Sure to be with your gang,” Katie said drily.

“I think they are in over their heads,” Ronnie said as they separated from the rest of the girls and ran
to their
home
s
.

“They might be able to vanish an odd child, but not a gang of four girls,” Katie said, but she still looked worried.

Will escorted Katie to Ronnie's place after school and then headed off.

“It's a very unpleasant day to have your afternoon tea in the tree house,” Mrs. Campion protested.

“Terrific views from up there,” Katie assured her. “And we won't be able to go up there if the weather gets much worse.”

This was true. The temperature had dropped, and there had been showers on and off during the week, sometimes hail, and a misty indeterminate rain as well.

The two girls took their afternoon tea and a thermos flask up to the tree house. The platform was wet and uninviting. Ronnie had taken all Jamie's toys down and put them into his bedroom, so
the tree house
looked bare and desolate. They sipped their hot chocolate, munched muffins and waited in a discouraged silence.

Because of the cloud cover it started to get dark much earlier than usual. They sat there shivering, waiting for Drake to arrive. In forty
-
eight hours the mysterious ceremonies at the Castle Road House would start and neither of them had worked out a way to either think up a diversion or how to rescue whoever was still captive in there.

There was the sudden sway of the platform, and Drake was squatting beside them. His eyes looked huge in his suddenly gaunt face.

“You look terrible,” Ronnie said.

“I'm still all right,” he gasped. “Have you found me a job interview yet?”

Katie handed over a card. “You'll have to go see them tomorrow at 5.30
.
I told Dad you had a job and could only get out about that time.”

Drake's hand was shaking as he took the card. “Very good.”

“Your side of our bargain,”
Ronnie
reminded him.

“The
re is
a tunnel that leads out to the reserve behind the yard. If you find it you might be able to use it to get everyone out,” Drake said. He was shivering violently, his teeth were chattering, and there was a stammer in his voice.

“You okay?” Ronnie asked.

“No, but it won't matter if I can get away,” he said. “There will be a fairly quiet party and some outsiders present but they will be not be a problem at midnight when the ceremony happens.”

“Why won't they?” Katie demanded.

“They will not hear or see anything they should not, and they will be protective cover in case there are problems,” Drake said.

“So where does the escape passage lead from?” Katie asked.

“From somewhere under the house.”

“Whereabouts under the house?” Ronnie asked.

“I don't know,” Drake confessed. “I haven't been game to snoop around there in case I raise suspicion. Brod and Jerain
e
watch me all the time.”

“Unhelpful,” Katie judged.

“It probably branches off somewhere from the main corridor under the house on the left of the stairs,” Drake explained.

“Time you girls came down,” Mrs. Campion's voice called. “Will's arrived to collect Katie.”

The platform swayed as Drake moved off it and the girls climbed down the ladder.

“Catch up with you tomorrow night,” Katie whispered. “We've just got to think of something before Saturday.”

“Before Saturday,” Ronnie repeated glumly.

 

Late Friday night, Katie rang Ronnie. “Dad said that Drake's got his job. The firm interviewing him were very impressed with his marks, and intend to employ him and pay for him to finish his course.”

“How does that help us?” Ronnie demanded. “Thought of anything for a diversion?”

“No.”

Ronnie closed her mobile with a feeling of utter despair. If only they had some wise, courageous adult to help them. Mrs. Kotsos hadn't been much help with her weird beliefs about garlic, holy water and prayer, or stakes through the heart, and even if they set the house on fire, their efficient fire brigade would be along before it could get started.

Saturday morning started badly. Ronnie felt tired because she hadn't slept well
. S
he had a bad headache
along
with a tendency to burst into depressed tears. Jeff was, unusually for him, surly and unhelpful.

She had been sitting at the computer doing her homework when it crashed. She yelled for Jeff to help her.

“How can you be so stupid,” he snapped. “You should have had enough sense to put the machine on save before you started pushing the wrong buttons.”

“Okay Mr. Perfect, just retrieve the stuff I was chasing on the internet and ease off with the lecture.”

“What are you doing in the notice board section? You won't find anything about beehives in there.”

“It moved there by itself.”

“Couldn't have unless you were poking around.”

“Didn't touch anything–the machine's got a virus or something.”

“Or a ham-fisted operator too illiterate to chase up her information,” Jeff yelled at her.

Ronnie sighed, and wiped her eyes. Any minute she was going to burst into noisy sobs. How could life be so horrible and wrong all the time?

She blinked at all the notices. “I am the last person in the world to be interested in parties anyway. Why do you always pick on me all the time.”

Jeff noticed the tears on her cheek and his voice softened. “Sorry, Ronnie. Guess everything is getting to me. Didn't mean to yell.”

“Why are there so many party notices?” Ronnie asked, not because she was interested, but just to try to settle herself down before she had to concentrate again.

“Some idiots hear of parties and put them on the net so all their ratbag friends can gate-crash them.”

“Ratbags,” agreed Ronnie. She sniffled. “How do I get out and back on to Google and my information?”

Jeff settled down beside her and took over the keyboard. Five minutes later, the information Ronnie wanted was up on the screen and she was finishing her homework.

It was later in the morning that she was talking to Katie on her mobile, and mentioned about how long it took to get her information for her homework.

“There sure are idiots around,” Katie's voice agreed. “Will reckons all these bikies chase around looking for parties to crash, and actually enjoy having the police come to break them up just to liven their lives up.”

“Ratbags,” Ronnie agreed without much interest.

There was a long silence. “Katie?” Ronnie asked, wondering if her phone had died on her.

“That's it!” Katie's voice said. “You clever
,
clever Ronnie. You've found our diversion!”

“Diversion
?”
echoed Ronnie.

“We'll put their party on the internet so it gets gate
-
crashed by bikies. Ideal diversion.”

“Would they come early enough–remember we only have until midnight.”

“We've got to catch up with Drake today,” Katie's voice said. “His place has got to sound like a wild party with plenty of booze to attract every biker in the district.”

“Without meeting up with Brod or Jeraine, whoever he might be,” Ronnie warned.

“They're sure to be asleep,” Katie scoffed. “Remember that Drake said they sleep all day.”

“What about
his father
?”

“We'll risk it.”

Ronnie was silent.

“Don't be negative,” Katie's voice nagged. “This is our only chance.”

Ronnie thought of her mother's permanently pinched face and red eyes and sighed. Katie was right, but she was still scared.