The Game You Played (36 page)

Detective Gilroy’s expression was troubled as he eyed me. “Does Pria own a yacht?”

“Not as far as I know. She sold her parents’ yacht a long time ago. But Luke does. He keeps it moored at the docks.”

“I don’t know what’s going on here, but I tell you what. We’re going to follow up on what you’ve told us tonight. First thing, we’ll find out if Luke’s yacht is still moored.”

TWO NIGHTS AGO

Monday night

ROUSING, I THOUGHT I HEARD A horn. A ship’s horn.

I sat up in bed. Where was I?

It took me a few moments to remember. I wasn’t at home anymore. I’d left that far behind.

I’d woken too soon. Through the porthole, I could see that it was still dark. I watched the porthole lights of a large ship pass us by.

I stretched and slid from the bed. Mum was lying asleep on the bed in the other room—Mr Basko’s room. Maybe she didn’t want to wake me by coming in here. Would Mr Basko get angry with her for being in his room—like Mum did when I was where I wasn’t supposed to be?

I decided to go back to sleep. I didn’t want to go up on deck alone and talk to Mr Basko. I’d never been shy of him before, but I was now.

When I woke again, we were docked. I thought we’d arrived at our mysterious destination, but Mum told me it was just a stop off. Somewhere called Sanctuary Point.

My stomach was woozy as I left the yacht. The sunrise lit the water pink and yellow. The first day of my holiday. We were already a long way from home, Mr Basko told me.

We had breakfast at a small café—sausages and eggs. But I couldn’t eat much.

Mum and Mr Basko carried boxes of food and drinks onto the yacht and filled the fridge. I took a walk along the beach, scuffing the sand with my toe.

“Help me put the things away, Jess,” Mum called from the cabin.

Regretfully, I left the sand and returned to the yacht. Mum’s cheeks were bright from the cold, but she was smiling. I couldn’t remember ever seeing her this happy. Working beside her, I put the frozen food away in the freezer and the milk and cheese in the fridge. She told me there was no point putting anything else away as we’d be taking it all off the yacht again.

I felt the buzz of excitement return. Where were we going? Mum was still keeping it a big surprise.

“Just put the cereal in a cupboard, honey, so it doesn’t knock around,” she told me.

The box wasn’t heavy, but it was big, filled with ten or so different types of cereal. I tried to open a rounded plastic door in a recess under the cabin stairs. It reminded me of a hobbit door. I noticed then that the turnstile wheel had a padlock.

“What are you doing?” Her voice turned sharp.

“Just trying to find somewhere to shove this box.”

“Well, aren’t you lazy? You could have just taken the boxes of cereal out of the big box and put them in a kitchen cupboard.”

“But you said you didn’t want stuff unpacked.”

“Well, use your brains. Anything loose has to be taken out of the boxes.”

“I didn’t know.”

“Okay, well, just don’t touch that door. Luke might get cranky. It’s a place to keep important things secure. So that if you dock the boat and leave it, no one can steal your money and things.” She switched back to her happy face. “Why don’t you go back up on deck? I’ll finish up here.”

I didn’t need to be told twice. Mum could go on and on sometimes if I got things wrong. I walked out to the bow of the boat.

Mr Basko grinned at me from the steering wheel. “How’s your stomach? Handling it better?”

“Not too bad I guess.”

“Good.” He took in a deep breath as he eyed the ocean. “We’ll make a sailor of you yet.”

“Mum told me that you were a sailor. She was fibbing.”

One side of his face creased into a wink. “I’m kind of a sailor. I just don’t get paid for it. So, do you like it out here? Or would you rather be sitting at a school desk doing fractions?”

“I’m terrible at fractions.”

“Maybe I can teach you.”

His eyes looked sad then, and I wondered if he was thinking of Tommy. Maybe he was thinking it should be Tommy on this boat instead of me, and he should be teaching Tommy how to do things.

“Mr Basko, how long until we get there?”

“I’m hoping to get there in a few hours. There’s some bad weather coming.” A quick smile spread across his face. “But nothing we can’t handle. We’re sailors, right? And hey, call me Luke.”

“Okay.” But I didn’t know if I could get used to calling him that. Phoebe was Phoebe, but Luke had always been Mr Basko or Tommy’s dad. I didn’t know him like I knew Phoebe.

White clouds spun across the sky overhead. There was just ocean all around now. No land at all. It was beautiful and scary at the same time. I hoped Mr Basko knew where he was going. How did anyone find their way out in the middle of all this water?

*

My sea sickness went away sometime on Wednesday. Which was just as well, Mum said, as she brought out a chocolate cake to celebrate our first trip together.

We’d made another stop on land, this time overnight, at a spot called Eden. Mr Basko and Mum slept in the same bed that night, the door closed.

I wanted to stay in Eden, the coastline looked so beautiful. But Mr Basko was steering the yacht back out to the endless ocean.

We played monopoly out on the deck in the afternoon. Mum won. She almost always won games when we played at home. Mr Basko tried to help me work out what to sell and buy, but my mother stopped him, telling him the best way for me to learn was on my own.

When the game was done and Mr Basko started steering the yacht again, Mum started cuddling him, telling him he was a different man than the one that’d left Sydney. She kissed him a few times on the cheek, the kisses getting longer each time.

“Going to go read my book,” I mumbled.

I was surprised she heard me. “Stay on the deck. You’ll start getting seasick again if you go in the cabin. Okay?”

“Yeah, okay.”

Taking my book, I wandered down to the other end of the yacht. I didn’t want to watch her kissing Tommy’s father.
Phoebe’s husband.
Maybe it was okay because Phoebe was going to jail and she couldn’t be Mr Basko’s wife anymore, but it was all so mixed up.

I hated to think of Phoebe going to jail. She’d been a friend to me.

I picked a sunny spot on the deck and sat cross-legged.

Mum glanced down to check on me a few times, but then she stretched out on a deck chair, content to watch Mr Basko and the ocean.

I’d only had three chapters left to read of
The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making
, and I finished the chapters quickly. Proud that I was up to the second book in the series already, I thought of going to tell Mum. But she seemed to have dozed off in her deck chair.

I hummed the tune from a song I liked as I headed down into the cabin.

A knocking sound made me pause mid-stair.

Tap tap tap tap

It was dull. But I heard it.

Did a bird get in and was trapped in a cupboard? Continuing down, I checked the cupboards and rooms. There was nothing at all here.

Looking through my box of books, I picked out the book I was reading next. Tracing a finger over the shiny new cover, I returned to the stairs.

Tap tap

The noise was coming from under the stairs.

From inside the cupboard with the hobbit door.

A thought flashed in my head. What if Mum was only pretending that she’d given the dog away and she’d actually brought it with us? Or maybe she’d already bought the new puppy that she promised me?

Something
was making that sound.

I remembered Mum bringing home a few rescue dogs and cats before from the pound. But they’d always ended up running away or something. I’d been small then.

The lock had the key still in it. I could open the door and take a quick peek. But if it was a pup, I’d be ruining her surprise.

Tap tap tap tap tap

If it was a pup, maybe it was stuck. And I’d almost convinced myself it was a pup. If I went and told Mum about the tapping, she’d only be annoyed. I wasn’t supposed to go below deck at all.

I was going to peek.

Tiptoeing around and under the stairs, I ducked my head until there was enough space above me to stand almost straight. The key in the padlock was tiny. I had to be careful that it didn’t fall out and get lost. Because then the padlock could never be opened again. And Mum would know I’d tampered with it.

Gently, I rotated the key and removed the heavy padlock. Now, there was a wheel thing to spin around. It made a squeaking sound as I wrenched it.

My heart started to jump as I cracked the door open.

The cupboard was large, going deeper and higher than I expected. A soft-glowing light hung on the wall. There was nothing in there.

Wait.
There was a yoga mat on the floor. A thick blanket hid whatever was sleeping under it.

It moved.

Its foot was under the blanket, kicking a metal tin that was as big as a barrel.

Tap tap tap

I drew closer.

I could see soft fur—very light in colour.

A golden retriever? A Maltese?

I knew all the dog breeds. I’d wanted a puppy forever.

The head was large and round. Too big for the small size of the dog. What kind of dog had—?

My feet glued to the floor.

It wasn’t a dog.

It was a boy. A little boy.

Here.

I didn’t even think about getting in trouble anymore as I knelt down beside him. He was asleep. Kicking the tin in his sleep. Sweat beaded on his forehead.

He was too hot. I tugged the blanket back. There were straps—wide straps around his arms and legs.

My throat hurt as I swallowed.

I felt the same way I did at Mia’s sleepover party, when her teenage sister put on a horror movie to scare us. We thought it was a joke at first, until we were too scared to speak or move.

This was all kinds of wrong.

And then I knew one of the things that were wrong.

I knew who he was.

He was a little bigger and different than last time I saw him.

He was Tommy Basko.

I couldn’t catch my breath as I backed away, the little boy’s name roaring inside my head. Hot tears sprung into my eyes and ran down my cheeks.

Why was he here?

I hated closing the door on him, but I didn’t know what else to do.

As I fumbled with the padlock, I heard someone on the stairs.

Mum rushed down the stairs, gasping angrily.

Her hands were around my shoulders and throat before I could even turn around. She shook me. Hard. Her fingers pressing in deeper.

“
Luke!
” I cried out. But my voice was muffled, spluttering.

She released me, roughly turning me to face her.

I coughed and breathed in sharply, holding my throat, protecting it from her.

Her upper lip trembled, her eyes switching from angry to alarmed and fearful. “Oh, Jessie, what did you make me do that for? It’s not me to do that. You know that. I didn’t expect you to disobey me. You caught me off guard.”

“You hurt me,” I accused.

She crushed me to her, stroking the back of my head. “Parents get pushed too far sometimes. I’m sorry.
I’m sorry.
Okay?”

Her hold felt suffocating. I wriggled out of her arms.

“Jessie, are you upset by what you saw in there? We need to talk about this.”

I breathed in a tiny measure of courage, pointing at the hobbit door. “That’s Tommy Basko in there.”

“Yes, it is.” Tears wet her eyes as she nodded.

“Why? Why is he here?”

“Because he’s ours, that’s why.”

“He’s
not
ours. He’s Phoebe’s.”

“No, you don’t understand. Phoebe’s not well. She did bad things to Tommy. She wasn’t a good mother. So we had to rescue him.”

“The police think she killed Tommy. That’s why she’s going to jail. But she didn’t.”

“If he was there with her for much longer, she would have. You saw the news and all the cut-up teddy bears? That would have been Tommy. Someone had to keep him safe.”

I panted, leaning against the door. The cut-up toys had terrified me. A Phoebe that I didn’t know had ruined those toys. There’d been groups of strangers on our street for days, yelling out horrible things about Phoebe. I’d heard them when I was walking home from school. Everyone thought bad things about Phoebe.

I swallowed, tasting my own tears. “Tommy was the puppy upstairs, wasn’t he? We never had a dog.”

“It killed me not being able to tell you the truth. Yes, Tommy’s been part of our family all along. It’s been rough on me just looking after him.”

“What about Mr Basko? Does he know Tommy’s here?”

“Of course. But he was worried about how you’d react. He wanted it kept secret until we get where we’re going. You mustn’t say a word to him.”