Ruby Redfort 1 - Look Into My Eyes (13 page)

Mrs. Digby, who was finding it hard to restrain herself from marching right out there and giving them a piece of her mind, was relieved to hear a woman’s voice shout out, “Just what do you numbskulls think you are doing?”

About time,
thought Mrs. Digby.

The woman continued. “We are looking for something very small and highly valuable, how are we supposed to find it if you have turned the whole place on its head!”

Silence from the numbskulls.

Couldn’t have put it better myself,
thought Mrs. Digby. She couldn’t see the woman from where she hid but she guessed she must be quite a force to reckon with, since for the next eleven hours the men went painstakingly through every item of the Redforts’ home, picking it up, opening it, inspecting it, and then replacing it.

What in tarnation are those creeps looking for?
wondered Mrs. Digby.

Whatever it was, it seemed they didn’t find it.

RUBY GOT HERSELF UP AND READY
nice and early. She was looking forward to going back to Spectrum and finding out more of its secrets. But first she had to find the Escape Watch, which meant locating her jacket. She was pretty sure that she must have left it in Hitch’s car, in which case it was safe — but what if he had found the jacket and looked through her pockets? She wouldn’t put it past him. In which case she was in big trouble.

But when she got downstairs Hitch was in the kitchen quietly studying a piece of toast.

“Is that piece of toast private or can anyone eat it?” she said.

He looked up. “Strictly confidential,” he replied, hurriedly biting into it. “So, you excited about your first day as a code breaker?”

Ruby gave him a withering look.

He winked at her. “Just pulling your leg, kid, I know you’re far too cool to get
excited
about things.”

She gave him another withering look and started for the back door.

“Where you going?”

“To get my bike. I might as well leave now. I can pick up breakfast at the diner.”

“No, that’s not how it’s going to be, kid. Strict instructions from the top: I’m going to drive you in to the Spectrum office each day and I’m going to collect you when you’re done.”

“Oh, man!” Ruby rolled her eyes. “I don’t need you driving me around. I’ll take my bike, OK?”

“Not OK, said Hitch firmly. “I gotta make sure no one tails you and I need to make sure you are all present and correct in one piece. If I’m not available then someone else will drive you home.”

Ruby opened her mouth to argue but Hitch simply held up his hand. “This is non-negotiable.”

Ruby said nothing.

“Get yourself in the vehicle pronto. We need to get going.”

“But I haven’t had breakfast!” protested Ruby. “Most important meal of the day and all that.”

“We’ll pick something up on the way, OK? Now scram. I’ll be with you in a split second.”

Ruby got into the car and was relieved to see her jacket crumpled on the floor behind the passenger seat. She felt around in the pocket until her fingers closed around the cold metal of the watch —
got you, you weasel
.

She looked at it. Of all the things she’d ever owned this was certainly the best — only thing was, she
didn’t
own it, and sooner or later someone was bound to discover it was missing, along with the whistle
and
the key ring. It wouldn’t take a master sleuth to figure out who the culprit was. What was happening to her? This was the kind of thing that happened to Red Monroe — not to Ruby Redfort.

She slipped the watch back into her jacket. The key ring was already clipped securely to her jeans and was tucked safely hidden in her back pocket. The whistle was around her neck, concealed under her T-shirt. She just had to find a way to put them back before anyone noticed they were gone.

On the way to Spectrum, while Ruby and Hitch were stopped at a light, who should cross the street but Clancy Crew, Del Lasco, and Elliot Finch, stuffing donuts into their mouths. Ruby slid down in her seat.

“Don’t worry, kid. They can’t see you, only me.”

“How’s that?” asked Ruby.

“Special glass,” said Hitch, knocking on the windshield. “If this switch is flicked down,” he said, pointing to a little silver lever, “then on the passenger side it just shows a blank space, as if you aren’t there.” To prove his point he wound down his window, stuck his head out, and called, “Hey, kids, don’t suppose I could persuade you to let me have one of those donuts?”

“No way, man,” said Del through a mouthful of donut. “I only have two left.”

Clancy said nothing, but he certainly wasn’t going to let that butler guy have anything of his, not for free anyway. He didn’t like him, and he didn’t trust him either.

Elliot looked thoughtfully at the remaining donut in its paper bag. “How much you offering?” he asked.

“How about I guess what flavor donut you got. I’m right, I get it for free; I’m wrong, I give you ten bucks for it.”

Elliot couldn’t believe his luck. This guy was never going to guess what flavor donut he had; this meant a big profit. “Sure,” said Elliot, “I don’t mind taking ten bucks off ya.”

“So?” whispered Hitch out of the corner of his mouth.

“Well, the one he was just eating was banana, which means the one in the bag is chocolate raspberry with strawberry frosting and rainbow sprinkles,” hissed Ruby.

“OK,” said Hitch, holding his finger to his temple as if he were channeling the information. “I’m guessing . . . chocolate raspberry, strawberry frosting, rainbow sprinkles — am I right?”

Elliot, speechless, handed over the donut.

“Pleasure doing business with you,” said Hitch as he pulled away from the lights.

“Who is that guy?” whispered Del.

“Some bozo who works for the Redforts,” muttered Clancy.

“They got a magician working for them?” said Elliot.

“Pretty cool,” said Ruby as they sped along toward Twinford Bridge.

“I aim to please,” said Hitch, handing Ruby the donut.

When they arrived at Spectrum, Ruby was told to sit in the waiting area. She was kind of fidgety. She wasn’t particularly looking forward to meeting Agent Blacker. So far everyone she had encountered at HQ had not exactly been Mickey Mouse friendly.

But when Agent Blacker turned up he actually smiled.

“If you don’t mind my saying, you look kinda youthful,” he said.

“I drink a lot of banana milk — keeps you young looking,” said Ruby.

“Is that so? How many pints do you drink exactly?”

He was a disheveled-looking man and his badge was upside down and his hair didn’t look like it had been combed since Christmas. He had a nice voice though. It had warmth — she could tell from just a few words.

“So,” he said. “You gonna solve this Lopez code for us?” He ruffled her hair and added, “You know what? I think you just might.”

Messing with Ruby Redfort’s hair would not ordinarily have been a good idea, but for some reason, today, Ruby didn’t mind. Perhaps she was just relieved that someone was finally on her side.

“Thanks, but I’m not sure anyone else around here would agree with you. I feel about as popular as a person infected with the Black Death.”

“Nah, they wouldn’t talk to you at all if you had the Black Death,” said Blacker.

Ruby was surprised when she was ushered through a door and found herself outside in an alley, facing a Dumpster and an old van that
looked
like a Dumpster. “There’s our ride,” said Blacker, walking toward the van.

“You’re kidding, right?” said Ruby.

But he wasn’t.

“Where we goin’ — the junkyard?”

“Yeah, I hear what you’re saying, Ruby. She is a bit of an old lady, but she runs OK. Inconspicuous too.”

“Only if we are going to a real dump of a neighborhood,” said Ruby.

Blacker laughed awkwardly. “Yeah.”

Twenty minutes later Ruby understood why. They had pulled up in front of an old office building on Maverick Street on the east side of town in the area known as Trashford. It was a dump.

“Here we are — the file office,” said Agent Blacker. “Lopez worked from here because it made for a good cover, and it was safe.”

Ruby looked up at the derelict building that was sandwiched between an ancient-looking Laundromat and a boarded-up convenience store. “If you don’t mind my saying so, it doesn’t look very safe.”

Blacker pointed at the door. “Try drilling through this baby in a hurry — it will take you upward of eighteen hours.”

If that was true then it was disguised well.

He unlocked the door. It was brown — at least the top layer was — large flakes of ancient paint were peeling off to reveal many past color choices, all the colors of the rainbow. Ruby stepped inside. The small room was lined floor to ceiling with files, brown ones.

“If anyone did ever happen to tail Lopez, we wanted them to find some dusty old office. Lopez told everyone she was a bookkeeper. No one outside Spectrum knew what she really did.”

“So, what, she never got to go out on any missions or adventures?” asked Ruby.

Blacker shook his head. “She never did anything for Spectrum that involved any danger. LB doesn’t like losing her code breakers, not after . . . well, she just doesn’t. She likes to keep her great minds safe and sound.”

Ruby looked around at the dismal office. She couldn’t help feeling it was capable of
depressing
a person to death.

“So every day she sat looking at these drab old walls? What did she do for kicks?” asked Ruby.

“Rock climbing,” replied Blacker.

“She probably enjoyed the scenery,” said Ruby, glancing at the window, almost black with dirt.

“So, I guess LB filled you in on the case,” said Blacker, pointing at the far wall. “All these files on this shelf here cover every little thing we found out about the planned bank heist.”

Ruby counted them. There were more than a few.

“We want you to read through every single file, and try to spot what we missed the first time around. We know we musta missed something because old Lopez worked it out while she was on her vacation. Her mind musta been ticking over and suddenly — vavoom! — she figured something out. But that leaves us with a problem; we don’t know what it was.”

“So what tipped you off about the robbery in the first place?” asked Ruby.

“We had a call from the Gotz Bank in Switzerland. That’s where the gold’s coming in from. They reported that they were sure someone had infiltrated their security and possibly got their hands on information relating to the gold bullion which is due to be transferred from Gotz Bank to the Twinford City Bank on April twenty-second.”

Ruby took some bubble gum out of her pocket. “Mind if I chew?”

Blacker shook his head. “Why should I mind?”

Ruby shrugged. “You’d be surprised.” She popped the pink cube into her mouth. “So, anyway, what made them suspicious?”

“The person in charge was very, you know, fastidious. She liked everything all lined up ‘just so,’ and was the only person to have access to the documents and papers, and although nothing was missing, she was certain that her papers had been disturbed.”

Ruby nodded.

“Not long after this we intercepted a call from a new customer who claimed she wanted to make a deposit of highly valuable jewelry in the Twinford City Bank. She also wanted to visit the vault it would be kept in.”

“That’s not unusual. I know my mom would do the same.”

“But your mom probably wouldn’t ask quite as many questions as this woman did.”

“Questions like what?” said Ruby.

“Like, was it true that the basement was designed by Jeremiah Stiles? Was there really a trick to working one’s way through the maze of passages?”

“Maybe just interested in architecture,” suggested Ruby.

“Maybe,” said Blacker. “According to the bank employee who showed her around, she certainly
seemed
interested. She actually seemed to be
memorizing
the corridors. And there was something a little
off
about her, apparently. She had a strange accent — strange meaning it sounded a little fake. Kinda staged, like she was trying to sound like she was from around here when she wasn’t. She was wearing a hat with a veil — looked like something from out of an old movie — very stylish and all but a little over the top for a visit to the bank.”

“So she was an eccentric — there are lots of strange people in Twinford,” said Ruby.

“I can’t disagree with you there, but when the bank checked out her ID later it was discovered that she had been dead for twenty years.”

“Ah, now that is a little strange,” agreed Ruby. “Even for someone from Twinford. So what about the security cameras — didn’t they get a good look at her?”

“Something went wrong there,” said Blacker. “Maybe it was her veil, but in every picture her face came out a blur, as if the camera couldn’t see through it — couldn’t even make out one feature.”

“So then what?” said Ruby.

Blacker shook his head. “Nothing. No more inquiries about safes and security, no more eccentric ladies turning up at the city bank.”

“But you didn’t think whoever it was had given up?”