July Read Free

phone.
    ‘It’ll cost ya,’ he said, reaching into his back pocket.
    ‘How much?’
    ‘Five bucks.’
    ‘Five bucks for one, quick call?’
    ‘It’s a good deal for an urgent call!’
    I was in no position to argue. I dug into a pocket in my backpack, scrounged up five bucksin coins and handed it over. In exchange, Squid passed me his mobile.
    I stood there, waiting.
    ‘Oh, I get it’ he said. ‘Girlfriend, eh? You only got one minute, OK? It’ll be my head on the block if you’re caught slacking off.’
    I ducked back into the cubicle and closed the door.
    Boges picked up the phone so fast, like he was there waiting for it to ring.
    ‘You’re not going to believe this!’ I blurted out.
    ‘Whose phone are you calling from? The state is in lockdown!’ he yelled over me. ‘There’s a man-hunt going on around the beaches. Where are you?’
    ‘I’m at the fish markets.’
    ‘What?’
    ‘I’ll explain later, I don’t have much time to talk. We’ve gotta meet. We have everything now. The Riddle, the Jewel.’
    ‘That’s great, but I’m serious, you have to keep out of sight! Hide, blend in, do whatever it takes, and then we can meet up when everything’s cooled down again. I’m stuck here at the moment anyway, trying to get my application together for an internship.’
    Squid banged on the door. ‘Hurry up! The boss wants to know why we’re not working!’
    ‘Gotta go?’ Boges asked.
    ‘I’ll call you,’ I said before hanging up.
    ‘Be back here in five!’ Squid shouted at me as I ran past him, head down, on my way back to where the fishing boat was moored.
    It didn’t look like anyone was on board, so I jumped on and draped my damp gear over some crates on the deck. The wind and sun would dry them out soon, I hoped.
    I’d been very lucky. I’d escaped the police—again. But Boges was right, and I already knew the whole state would be looking for me. I hoped Oriana de la Force and Vulkan Sligo didn’t have any information on where I was.
    What Squid said about the police raids on the wharves had me rattled. This was a good enough place to hide out for a while, but I couldn’t stay here too long … I wanted to meet up with Boges and see what we could make of cracking the double-key code, now that we had both halves —the Ormond Riddle and the Ormond Jewel. I also wanted to know if he’d had any luck tracking down Great-uncle Bartholomew’s sister, Millicent.
    I could hear Squid yelling out, so I slung my backpack on and jumped off the boat to join him.
    Squid and I hurried over to a spot where hundreds of boxes of fish were piled high. The fish auctions were in full swing and the voices of theauctioneers boomed through the area. Buyers and sellers milled around on the wet and slippery floor.
    We worked hard, loading the heavy boxes onto our trolleys as they were purchased, and wheeling them through the crowds to the loading dock. Once there, we’d unload them and help the buyers stack them on the backs of their trucks, or in their vans.
    As we were lifting a really heavy box of red fish on top of a couple of boxes of flathead, Squid groaned and wiped sweat from his forehead. ‘Gary’s supposed to be helping us,’ he said.
    ‘You mean the other guy?’ I asked. ‘The other deckhand?’ I’d barely seen him—only heard his voice and I hadn’t liked what he’d said.
    ‘That’s Gary. He’s only been working here a few weeks. He just disappears when there’s hard work around. I don’t like the guy,’ Squid continued . ‘I don’t trust him. I mean, I know you can hardly trust anyone around here, but I really don’t trust him. The skipper only keeps him on because it’s hard to find deckhands.’

    Three hours later, the auction was almost finished and the last of the buyers were leaving with their purchases. Behind us, other workerswere hosing down the tiled and cement surfaces, clumping around in bulky gumboots.
    ‘I’m so glad this is almost over,’ said Squid,