Journey to the River Sea - 10th Anniversary Edition (20 page)

Careful not to look back, Maia went to her sponge bag. As well as her hairbrush and her shoes, she had hidden a packet of nuts and a sandwich wrapped in greaseproof paper. She took them out.

‘Who are they for?’

Beatrice had come up behind her. Now she wrenched her arm back and Maia dropped the nuts.

‘You’d better tell us.’

‘No one . . . For me.’ Maia was getting more and more flustered.

‘Don’t be silly. The house is full of food. You were going to give them to someone, weren’t you? The boy you’re hiding.’

‘No.
No.
Oh please . . .’

Beatrice had taken Maia’s arm and was twisting it.

‘You’re hurting me. Stop it.’

There wasn’t any need to act now. Beatrice was really hurting her. And now Gwendolyn took her other arm and jerked it back.

‘Let me go!’

‘Not till you tell us where he is. Not till you admit you know.’

Real tears came to Maia’s eyes as the twins, one on either side, yanked her arms still further back.

‘It’s only . . . oh please . . . You don’t want him to be caught – he doesn’t want to go back to England. He’s only a boy and he’s so afraid.’

The twins gave grunts of satisfaction. They had caught her out!

Two more savage yanks, then Gwendolyn took hold of a handful of Maia’s hair and twisted it away from her scalp.

‘Quick, where is he? If you don’t tell us we’ll really hurt you.’

‘And scratch your face, so that your precious Sergei won’t want to look at you again.’

Maia gulped, sniffed. It wasn’t difficult; the twins, when in an evil mood, were surprisingly strong.

‘If I tell you will you let me go?’

‘Yes. Unless you lie to us.’

‘He’s in the museum... in the Natural History Museum, but please, please don’t give him away! He’s not a criminal and—’

‘Whereabouts in the museum?’

The door was thrown open and Sergei stood there. ‘What are you doing? How dare you! Let her go!’

The twins dropped Maia’s arms. Then they ran out past Sergei, leaving him alone with Maia.

‘They’re fiends, those girls!’ he said, putting an arm round Maia. ‘What was it about?’

‘I can’t tell you, Sergei, but it’s all right, trust me. It really is all right.’

‘I’ll kill them,’ muttered Sergei through clenched teeth. ‘I’ll really kill them.’

But when he came to look for the twins, they were nowhere to be seen.

The twins, in their flesh-pink party frocks and satin shoes, had run out into the street. They panted across the square, turned down a side road, and as they ran they quarrelled.

‘We can’t go and see those men without Mummy,’ said Gwendolyn.

‘Yes we can. I know where the Pension Maria is; it’s quite near.’

‘But it’s down by the docks. There are awful men there. I’m not going without Mummy,’ said Gwendolyn obstinately.

‘All right then, we’ll get her. But don’t blame me if she tries to get half the reward.’

‘She won’t. We wouldn’t let her. It’s for us and no one else.’

A man came out of his house and stood by his garden gate.

‘You see, he wants us for the White Slave Traffic,’ said Gwendolyn, and tried to run faster.

The man, who had come out to walk his dog, crossed the road but the twins did not stop till they reached the club where their mother was playing bridge.

‘Right, that’s it,’ said Mr Trapwood. He shut the lid of his suitcase. ‘In another couple of hours we can go on board.’

He looked longingly at the lighted ship, ready for her start at dawn. She looked so clean, so nice, so British . . .

Mr Low came to stand beside him. ‘Decent bunks, decent food, people speaking English. You can’t believe it.’

But in spite of the relief of being on the way home, the crows were broken men. Mr Low was still feverish, Mr Trapwood’s insect bites had spread in an infected mass over his face and neck, and neither of them could keep down their food.

It wasn’t being ill, though, that worried them the most. It was failure. They would go back with an empty berth in their cabin and a sad story to tell Sir Aubrey.

‘He’ll probably hire some other detectives and send them out. He won’t give up so easily.’

‘It’s The Blood,’ said Mr Trapwood gloomily. ‘The aristos are like that when it’s The Blood they’re dealing with.’

Down below the pension bell pealed loudly. Then the maid came up and knocked on the door.

‘There’s three ladies to see you,’ she said.

And before the crows could ask any more, the door was thrown open and Beatrice and Gwendolyn, followed by their mother, came excitedly into the room.

‘We know where he is! We know where the Taverner boy is hiding!’

‘We know for sure!’

The crows, who had been lying weakly on the bed, sat up. Their eyes glinted. They were changed men.

‘Where? Where?’

Beatrice said, ‘If we tell you, are we sure to get the reward? As soon as you’ve found him?’

‘Of course.’

‘All of it?’

‘Yes, yes . . .’

‘He’s here in the museum. The Natural History Museum, just down the road.’

Mr Low was hitching up his braces, fetching a coil of rope. Mr Trapwood was strapping his pistol underneath his jacket. They were not surprised; they had suspected Glastonberry all along.

‘We want to see you catch him.’

‘No!’ Mrs Carter spoke sharply to her girls. ‘There may be a struggle. Or violence.’

‘That’s true enough.’ The crows were buttoning up their jackets. ‘You just go back home; we’ll see you get the money.’

‘The address is Carter,
Tapherini
, Rio Negro. I’ll write it down for you,’ said Mrs Carter.

‘But send it to Miss Beatrice and Miss Gwendolyn,’ said Beatrice. ‘Send it to us.’

‘It’ll go to the police station; you can fetch it from there,’ said Mr Trapwood, patting the bulge inside his jacket. ‘How do you know he’s in the museum?’

‘Maia told us. We made her. We twisted her arm till she did. We knew she had a secret.’

The crows nodded. The dark girl with the pigtail. There’d been something fishy about her from the start.

‘Now, ladies, if you just go home, everything will be taken care of, and I assure you that your reward is safe.’

The museum, of course, was locked, but it was not difficult to find Professor Glastonberry’s house. It was a modest bungalow in a quiet street lined with palm trees. The crows rang the bell; then thumped on the door, then rang again.

After a long time it was opened and an old woman peered through a crack.

‘We want Professor Glastonberry. At once. Fetch him.’

‘
Nada,
’ she said. ‘Nothing. No here.’

‘Yes, he is. You’re lying.’

The crows pushed her aside. The professor’s house had a small study, a sitting room and a bedroom with an empty bed.

‘Where is he? Tell us at once!’ They shook her roughly by the arm. ‘Where?’

‘Is in Obidos. Fetch
bichos
for museum.’

‘Well, find his keys then.’

‘No keys.’

‘Don’t lie to us.’

The crows were losing their tempers.

‘No lies,’ she said. ‘Professor has keys on himself.’

‘We’re wasting our time,’ said Trapwood. ‘Come on; we’ll go to the police. They’ll force open the door.’

At the police station there was only the glimmer of a light in one window. The crows thumped on the door, shouted, banged on the glass. At last a very young man, his uniform unbuttoned, came out yawning.

‘You must open up the museum at once,’ shouted Mr Trapwood. ‘The Taverner boy is hiding there.’

‘Eh?’

‘The museum. You must open it quickly,’ squeaked Mr Low.

The policeman shook his head. ‘Colonel da Silva no here.’

He yawned again and tried to go back into his office, but the crows pushed him aside.

‘Show us where your tools are. For entering a building.’

‘What is tools?’ asked the befuddled young man.

But the crows were already rampaging through the building, opening doors, peering in cupboards...

‘Here – these’ll do. A chisel, a crowbar... and this metal rod. We can use it as a battering ram.’

‘Right.’

Ignoring the young policeman, who was shouting and waving his arms, the crows ran out into the street.

The outer door of the Museum of Natural History was massive, but the crows were no longer the ill and feeble men they had been an hour ago. They were men of steel now they were so close to success.

They chiselled and they prised, they cursed and they sweated, and presently the hinges broke and they were through.

‘Find the lights,’ ordered Trapwood.

Mr Low bumped into an anaconda, stumbled over a case of coatis, and found the switch.

The whole world of the rainforest appeared before them; coiled snakes, crouching monkeys, huge caymans with bared teeth. It all looked very different at night.

‘He might be anywhere.’

They began to search.

‘Come out, Taverner, we know you’re there!’

‘Your time’s up, boy. We won’t hurt you.’

‘You’ll be all right with us.’

They went on shouting and searching – behind a case of capybaras, under a bench holding an aquarium of piranha fish, on the top of a cupboard of pelts . . .

Nothing.

They went into the second room, and the third. Then up the stairs to grope among the throwing spears and necklaces of teeth . . . .

Still nothing.

Downstairs again, into the professor’s office and his lab. Nothing except an eerie skeleton on a metal stand.

‘Get the girl. The pigtailed girl. We’ll force her to tell us.’

‘All right.’

Mr Low made for the door.

The yellow eyes of a snarling jaguar stared at Mr Trapwood. He didn’t much like the idea of being in the museum alone.

‘No, wait. I’ll come with you. We may have to bring her by force.’

Miss Minton was behaving oddly. She had taken no steps to follow the twins and had prevented Sergei from doing so. Instead she was watching Maia, who was pretending to enjoy the party and not making a good job of it. Maia’s colour was high, she was obviously upset, but Miss Minton did not go to her; she just watched.

She had been watching now for several days.

The children were not dancing any longer. They were falling on the food. Maia did her best to eat, she had never seen such exotic dishes, but she could hardly swallow anything. What was happening in the museum? Sergei had interrupted the twins before she could tell them about the trapdoor under the sloth. Poor Sergei who had only wanted to help and protect her, and who now looked at her, angry and bewildered, not enjoying his own party as he should.

What was happening? Had they found Clovis yet?

In the entrance hall there was a disturbance. One of the maids was arguing with two grim-faced, black-clad men, who now pushed her aside.

‘We want the pigtailed girl who lives with the Carters.’

‘Maia, she’s called.’

They opened the door to various rooms, while the servants tried to stop them. Then the door of the dining room . . .

The only pigtailed girl was a very small blonde sitting on the lap of her governess so that she could reach the table. Maia sat bent over her plate. She had arranged her loose hair so as to partly hide her face, but it didn’t help her. The crows knew her at once. ‘That’s her – over there. You, girl, you’re to come with us.’

‘No.’

Maia had risen and was holding onto the side of the table.

‘If you don’t, we’ll have to use force.’

Sergei got to his feet, prepared to do battle. Then a bony hand descended on Maia’s shoulder.

‘I think you had better go with these gentlemen and tell them what they want to know,’ said Miss Minton. She turned to the crows. ‘I shall, of course, accompany her.’

‘No, Minty, please! I can manage by myself!’

‘You must let me be the best judge of that. Come along, Maia.’

By the time they got to the museum, Maia did not have to act her panic. There was no chance to explain anything to her governess; if Miss Minton told the crows that Clovis was not Finn Taverner, all her work would be undone. If only there was a moment to explain before the trapdoor was opened.

But there wasn’t.

‘Right. Now. Where’s the boy?’

Maia was acting again. ‘Don’t make me tell you, please. He’s my friend. And he begged me not to let you take him back.’

Miss Minton said nothing. She looked grimmer than Maia had ever seen her. There was no help to be expected there.