October (13 page)

‘Boges, that would be awesome.’

‘Cool. Let’s do it.’

‘Here,’ I said, surreptitiously peeling out some money from my gold stash in my backpack. I palmed it to him. ‘Winter’s locket,’ I said. ‘That might be the tricky part.’

‘I’ll leave you to deal with getting that off her, buddy.’

Just a few metres away, Winter hung up her phone. She jogged back to us. ‘I have to bolt,’ she said. ‘Miss Sparks is already waiting for me at my place—I had to make our study session earlier.’

‘Hang on, please don’t tell me the banquet’s on tonight,’ I said, catching a frustrated look
appearing
on Boges’s face.

‘Sure is,’ she said, as she picked up her bag. ‘I told you it was last minute. I’ll call you in a couple of hours—Sparks will be gone by midday.’

As soon as Winter disappeared down the stairs of the clock tower, Boges pulled out his mobile phone. ‘We’re going to have to move fast,’ he said to me. ‘Seriously fast.’

We both looked at the screen of his phone as he logged on to a surveillance specialist’s
website
. Within a few minutes, we’d seen the range of pinhole camera lenses housed in front of tiny radio transmitters, capable of delivering sound.

‘I could make this even smaller—get rid of the housing and use Winter’s locket as the housing,’ said Boges, pointing to the screen where he’d
zoomed in on the smallest of the range, ‘and then just drill a tiny hole in the front of it for the lens. I know a guy I can get this sort of gear from. I’d better go see him now and tell him what I need.’

‘Winter won’t like the idea of you drilling a hole in her locket.’

‘I’ll hide the wire by running it through the chain of the locket,’ Boges continued, taking no notice of what I’d just said, ‘then down the back of her neck under her gear. We tape the leads into the battery and tuck it into her waistband. I’ll direct the audio and video feed to my laptop, and then we sit in the next room—’

‘Whoa,’ I said. ‘It’s at Sligo’s place, remember? I don’t think we can
sit
in the next room.’

‘You have a point,’ he said, resigned. ‘That’d be dangerous.’

‘You don’t say. But we will need to set up somewhere close. We’ll be able to see and hear any plans they make. Catch any mention of the Riddle and the Jewel. We might find out who has them and if there’s a chance for us to snatch them back.’ I was beginning to feel hopeful again.

‘No way!’ yelled Winter, spinning around to face
me. ‘You want me to wear a camera and
microphone
into that banquet? That’s insane! How am I going to explain that if I’m sprung? Tell Sligo I’m practising to be a reporter? Doing a project on journalism? Next they’ll be dragging
me
out of the oil tank!’

‘Let me explain,’ I said. ‘Boges can customise a really small spycam. Nobody will see anything. I’m talking
micro
.’ I pinched my thumb and
forefinger
together to make a minuscule space. ‘A tiny spycam and a tiny transmitter—so small they’ll fit inside your locket. We’ll only need to drill—’

‘
Drill?
’ Winter’s hand flew to her chest and she grasped the locket. ‘
My
locket? Forget it! You’re not touching this!’ Winter’s face wrinkled up in fury. ‘How could you, Cal?’

‘It was just an idea,’ I said, pulling out my mobile. ‘See? Look at the size of the lens on my mobile’s camera.’ I pointed it towards her. The lens winked like a small, black bead. ‘See what I mean? And the one we have in mind is even smaller.’

Winter stormed away and plonked herself on the couch. She pulled her knees up, and turned her face away from me. I watched her as she held her locket and opened it, staring at the pictures of her parents inside.

A memory of her face suddenly flashed into
my mind—I recalled the way she had lovingly held the locket after I helped her get it back, in February. We were practically strangers then. We were friends now. How could I have asked her to damage something that meant so much to her? I’d need to find something else.

I walked over to the dressing table. Hung over the mirror, together with a couple of scarves and a long rope of pearls, was a crystal necklace, a gold pendant on a chain and a string of chunky, brown wooden beads. I picked up the beads. They were about half the size of walnut shells, and seemed hollow.

‘They’ll work,’ said Winter, from behind me.

‘These wooden beads?’

‘Yes,’ she said, taking the necklace from me, and placing it around her neck. ‘Yep, they’ll work,’ she said with conviction. ‘You’d better call Boges and tell him I’m in.’

‘Are you sure?’

‘We have to take risks for what we believe in. That’s what my mum and dad always told me.’

Old leaves and bits of newspaper whirled around in the corners of the rooftop as I waited for Winter and Boges to turn up. Winter said she’d be back from Sligo’s at three, but was running late. She
had gone there to gather as much information about the party as she could. Boges had managed to buy the spycam we needed from his contact, but was frantically trying to get his tools together and back to us in time to carry out the rest of our plan.

Convinced my friends weren’t going to show up any time soon, I went back into Winter’s flat and parked myself in front of the TV. It flickered to life just as Winter flew through the door.

‘Sorry I’m late. Boges is right behind me,’ she said, holding the door open with her hip. Moments later Boges appeared, red-faced and sweaty. ‘It’s OK, guys,’ she continued, ‘the banquet’s not on until late—nine pm. We still have time. Quick, to the table.’

Leaning over a bowl of pretzels, Winter began telling us everything she could about the night ahead.

‘Sligo is using the big downstairs living area for his banquet,’ she said. ‘He’s hired tables and dining chairs, which he’s set up all in a line. I offered to lay the tablecloths and arrange the flowers—that’s why I was so late—so I’m in his good books right now. The caterers have already begun preparations in the kitchen. He’s taking it very seriously. Remember how I told you about
the New Year’s Eve Council Ball that he wants to host? I think he’s considering this as some sort of practice run. He wants me serving drinks
outside
in the gardens around the pool terrace from about eight thirty.’

Boges nodded. ‘Any good suggestions as to where we can set up the observation post?’

‘I think the safest place would be the pool shed where the pool chemicals and garden tools are kept. It’s only new, so it’s pretty empty at the moment. It’s always locked but I can make sure it’s unlocked, and before the guests arrive, you guys could set up in there.’

I looked at Boges and nodded. ‘Sounds good,’ I said. ‘Plus we’re not too far away from you, in case things get—well—messy.’

‘Let’s try not to think about that happening. I’m so nervous,’ said Winter, holding up her two hands in front of her. ‘Look, they’re shaking.’

I grabbed both her hands with mine and they felt really cold. ‘You can do it,’ I told her.

In less than half an hour, Winter’s small
apartment
had been turned into a technical workshop again. Boges’s tools were spread all over her table and an extension lead for his drill snaked along the floor.

Winter and I watched as Boges used a tiny drill to bore through the back of the brown, hollow bead that hung in the centre of Winter’s necklace. He drilled an even smaller hole in the front, for the camera lens, then fitted the spycam and its minuscule microphone into the round space behind it.

Next Boges threaded the wire through the existing holes in the beads on the necklace,
concealing
it almost completely.

‘There,’ said Winter as she fastened it around her neck. ‘How does it look?’

‘I can still just see the microphone wire,’ I said. ‘It needs to be invisible.’

‘You can see it because you’re looking for it,’ said Boges. ‘Winter, you’ll have to wear a jacket or something to cover the wire going down your back, and tuck the battery into your waistband. We’ll tape everything down, so nothing comes loose. When you’re ready we’ll give it a test run.’ Boges hoisted his laptop out of his backpack. ‘You flick that small button on top of the battery pack to activate the spycam.’

Once Winter was ready for the test run, she disappeared through the front door, closing it behind her. Boges and I waited inside, tensely staring at his laptop screen.

Suddenly the screen came to life. The world of
the roof outside Winter’s flat appeared in grainy, monochrome grey on the screen. The familiar cityscape and timber flowerpots came into view, all moving as Winter moved, like images from a black-and-white film.

‘Cool!’ I said, patting Boges on the shoulder.

‘I hope you guys can hear me,’ Winter’s voice came through the built-in speakers on the laptop.

Then she must have turned, because the camera jerked a little and panned around. Now, instead of the cityscape that we’d been looking at before, we saw wind chimes and her front door coming closer and closer with each step she took towards it. Then the door opened and we could see ourselves on the screen.

‘Could you hear me?’