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‘But meanwhile, you figure one of them has to be a bad seed?’ said Clancy. ‘Either it’s Baker or it’s LB?’
‘Or it’s neither?’ offered Ruby. ‘Unless of course,’ – she looked at him out of the corner of her eye – ‘they were both bad apples.’
Clancy made a face like he wished she wouldn’t say these kinds of things.
‘Look, could you give me a break here Rube? I can only cope with one double agent at a time.’
She thumped him lightly on the arm. ‘Take it easy,’ she said. ‘Yeah, I think it’s probably either Baker or LB, and let’s hope it’s Baker, right?’
Clancy nodded. ‘Because if it’s Baker then LB is on the level.’
‘Only thing is,’ said Ruby, ‘if LB isn’t the bad apple then who is, who’s the one pulling the strings?’
Clancy gave her the pained look again. ‘I don’t want to think about that right now.’
‘Yeah, well, time’s running out. Whoever is behind this whole series of events has a master plan and I get the feeling we’re heading towards the end game.’
‘So what’s your next move?’ asked Clancy.
‘I guess I need to find out more about Bradley Baker. I mean I know precisely zero about him other than what a great guy, what a smart agent, how we all wish he’d come back, but if I could dig down to what made him tick, what thoughts were whirling round that super-brain of his, and of course exactly how and why he died, then I might know more about LB.’
‘So ask around,’ said Clancy.
‘What, are you kidding? People don’t talk about Bradley Baker. They sorta mention him, how brilliant he was, but they don’t actually really say anything.’ Ruby shook her head. ‘No, if I started in asking a lot of questions then I would have to explain why I wanted to know, and then I would have to get into the whole bit about LB maybe being a murderer and I get the feeling that’s not gonna go down too well.’
‘You mean it might get you dead. If she’s a cold-blooded murderer, is that what you’re saying?’ said Clancy.
‘That is the worst case scenario,’ said Ruby, ‘and me dead is something I’m trying to avoid.’
‘You could tell Blacker?’ suggested Clancy. ‘You trust him, right?’
‘Sure, but this is not the same, this is me telling him not to trust his boss, and if you were asking, do I trust him not to go right ahead and speak to LB about my concerns? That would have to be a no. Blacker is loyal to Spectrum, loyal to the core, and I would have a pretty hard time convincing him that his boss is a bad egg or apple or whatever. People generally don’t like to believe they have been putting their trust in, and generally assisting, a dangerous psychopath.’
‘But her name was inside a bad apple,’ Clancy reminded her. ‘Blacker can’t ignore that.’
‘And who put it there?’ said Ruby. ‘The biggest bad apple of them all. Everyone knows the Count would be happy to see Spectrum destroyed.’
‘You have a point,’ said Clancy.
‘I know,’ said Ruby.
‘So you need to find someone who will talk.’
‘Who exactly?’
‘What about Froghorn?’
‘What about him?’ said Ruby.
‘Do you trust Froghorn?’
‘I trust him not to push me off a cliff or under a bus, but that’s about it.’
‘But do you trust him to tell the truth?’ asked Clancy.
‘Froghorn? Oh, he just loves to tell it like it is,’ said Ruby. ‘He’s like a regular truth trumpet.’
‘So ask him,’ said Clancy. ‘I bet you he’ll talk. He’s dying to rub your nose in the whole Bradley Baker legend, I bet you anything he’ll tell you whatever you wanna know, just to make you feel small.’
‘You know what Clance, that’s not such a terrible idea.’
He smiled. ‘Really?’
She gave him another friendly punch to the arm. ‘Nice going, Crew.’ She looked at her watch and then began to climb down the oak.
‘Where are you going?’ he asked.
‘Little Mountain Side,’ she said.
‘Where?’
‘It’s in the Sequoia Mountains, wanna come?’
‘Why would I wanna go to the Sequoia Mountains?’
‘Are you kidding? The Sequoia Mountains are a UFO hotspot,’ said Ruby. ‘I’m hoping to spot one on my way through.’
‘You’re looking for unidentified flying objects?’
‘Mushrooms,’ called Ruby.
‘Same to you,’ shouted Clancy.
SomehowLenny Rivers got the dying guyto the hospital in Ridgepoint beforethe dying guy actually died …
… the old man was relieved, not because he thought the fellow had a hope in Christmas of seeing Christmas, but because he didn’t want to see it happen. It was too sad, the idea that this Morgan Loveday could just pass away without a friend to hold his hand, die all alone on a deserted road or in the back of some stranger’s truck. Well, it was too tragic to contemplate.
It hadn’t been straightforward getting to the hospital. There had been some kind of incident on Pine Forest Pass, a cordoned-off road which Lenny had ignored – he’d had no choice.
Drive on, he thought, and have a chance of delivering a man with a pulse.
Turn back and he might as well have driven straight to the undertakers.
When Lenny Rivers handed him over to the ER team, Morgan Loveday was still breathing, but who knew for how long? Lenny gave his number to the triage nurse.
‘Would you mind calling me?’ he asked. ‘When he … you know, when … if … well, call me, his folks might want to speak to the guy that found him.’
‘Of course,’ said the nurse. ‘I promise I’ll call you when the time comes.’
(#ulink_1cd3cf5f-c6a5-519a-883f-51fef6f35a56)
DESPITE HIS RESISTANCE, Clancy Crew did join Ruby on her mission to find mushrooms. It took her no more than ten minutes of persuading before he reluctantly agreed. It took a lot longer than that to reach Little Mountain Side, but the journey was not the tedious experience Clancy had expected. As the bus wound up high into the Sequoia Mountains, the scenery became more and more spectacular, the great red trees rising from the rock. As the woodland thinned, they were confronted by staggering views to the south and west and far away in the distance one could just about see the ocean.
When at last the bus pulled up in Little Mountain Side there was no missing the perfect prettiness of the town either, perched high up there on the south side of the mountain, the sun slanting through the trees. As they stepped off the bus, Ruby and Clancy breathed in the mountain air; it was pretty good.
‘Sure doesn’t smell like Twinford,’ said Clancy.
‘You can almost taste the trees,’ said Ruby.
By the side of the road was a sign that read:
FRIENDLIEST TOWN IN THE NORTH-WESTERN MOUNTAINS AND ‘FREE OFSERIOUS CRIME’ SINCE 1951.
‘That’s reassuring,’ said Ruby.
It didn’t take long to find Daily Supplies.
The man behind the counter looked somehow familiar, but Ruby couldn’t place him. She decided that he probably just had one of those faces, even-featured, nice looking, a friendly kind of appearance (at least what she could see of it under the beard), older than her dad and perhaps a tad taller.
He waved at them as they walked in, but continued chatting to a customer at the counter and ringing up groceries.
Ruby and Clancy checked out the shelves while they waited. They were stocked with a lot of interesting and unusual things. However, they had no luck finding the maitake mushrooms.
The customer finally paid and exited the shop, and Clancy and Ruby walked up to the counter.
She looked at the storekeeper and then figured it out.
‘Oh, I got it.’
‘Got what?’ asked the storekeeper.
‘Where I saw you before,’ said Ruby.
‘You’ve seen me before?’
‘Yeah, in the bookstore.’
‘In Mountain Books?’ he asked, pointing in the direction of the bookstore across the street.
‘Ray Penny’s bookstore,’ said Ruby, ‘in Twinford – you were reading a book on rare fungi. I mean you must have read the entire book while you were there.’
‘It was a cold day and I was waiting for my truck to be fixed,’ he said.
‘You often in Twinford?’ asked Ruby.
‘Rarely.’
‘You ever been to Penny’s before?’
‘Never,’ said the guy. ‘At least, not that I recall.’ He paused. ‘You ask a lot of questions,’ he said. He looked at Clancy. ‘She always this curious, your friend here?’
‘Curious is a nice word for what she is,’ said Clancy.
The guy smiled at that.
The bell above the door jangled and a burly man strode in, a shock-haired baby on his back.
‘Hey, Mo,’ said the man. ‘How’s the old leg doing?’
‘Limping a bit in this cold weather. You know how it is.’
‘You got those Brazilian beans in yet?’
The storekeeper reached behind him and took a package from one of the shelves and stood it on the counter top. ‘Anything else for you Sven?’
The man took out a newspaper. ‘Seven down,’ he said. ‘Mix cantaloupe citrus.’
The storekeeper frowned. ‘How many letters?’
‘Five.’
‘I’ll give it some thought.’
‘Thanks,’ said the guy.
‘Anything besides the beans?’
The man shook his head. ‘Just the coffee, that’ll do it.’
‘How are you there, Spike?’ The storekeeper directed this question at the baby and it gurgled and looked very pleased.
‘See you around, Mo,’ said the man as he turned to leave.
‘See you Sven, see you Spike, don’t be strangers.’
When they reached the door the storekeeper shouted, ‘Lemon! Anagram of melon, from cantaloupe.’
‘Of course! Can’t think how I missed it,’ called Sven.
The storekeeper turned to Ruby. ‘He’s a cryptic crossword nut,’ he explained. ‘So what can I help you with?’ he asked.
‘That’s your name?’ asked Ruby. ‘Mo?’
‘It’s what everyone calls me.’ He looked at her. ‘So what do they call you?’
‘Ruby,’ said Ruby.
The storekeeper shrugged. ‘I had you down for something more edgy,’ he said.
