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CLANCY:‘So what makes it interesting?’
RUBY: ‘Nothing.’
CLANCY: ‘Nothing?’
RUBY: ‘Nothing except for who it belonged to.’
CLANCY:‘So who did it belong to?’
RUBY: ‘Bradley Baker.’
CLANCY:‘Really? You know this? Like for sure?’
RUBY: ‘Not actually, and not exactly for sure. I guess I’m guessing in a way, but it just stands to reason, cos LB told me it was a memento, that someone gave it to her when she was a child, and I sorta figured the person closest to her was Baker.’
CLANCY: ‘Why not her dad, or her mom or maybe her grandpa? I mean it could even have been her junior karate master, he was important to her, no? Or her trombone teacher, if she ever learned trombone, that is.’
RUBY:‘I don’t imagine she did.’
CLANCY: ‘Whatever, my point is, it doesn’t automatically follow that it had to be Bradley Baker who gave her the key-tag. It could have been a person of influence.’
RUBY: ‘OK, you’re right, it doesn’t, but you see, well, I kinda have this strange feeling that it was.’ She looked at him. ‘Do you think I’m losing it?’
CLANCY: ‘Nah, you’re listening to your gut feeling and …’
Pause.
CLANCY: ‘I actually think you’re right.’
Another pause.
CLANCY: ‘Well, almost right.’
RUBY: ‘Almost?’
CLANCY: ‘You’re saying that the boss of Spectrum 8 was given this key-tag by her best friend when he was a kid?’
RUBY: ‘Yes, LB said it was sentimental.’
She stopped talking. And then her eyes widened like she was seeing something.
It was unusual for Ruby Redfort to feel like she was the last one in the room to see the gorilla. It was more unusual still for her to feel like a complete and utter chump, but this was that moment.
RUBY: ‘What a bozo! LB wouldn’t use some old key-tag given to her years ago to attach something as valuable as the 8 key, a coder key. Spectrum is a professional outfit, LB’s a professional agent, she hasn’t got time for this stuff.’
She looked at Clancy.
RUBY: ‘That’s what you were going to say, right?’
CLANCY:‘I wouldn’t have called you a bozo, but yeah.’
RUBY: ‘How did I swallow that garbage?’
CLANCY: ‘Quit beating yourself up, everyone screws up once in a while – if we’re talking about me, that would be most days.’
RUBY:‘Yeah, well, you saw through LB’s lie right away, why didn’t I?’
CLANCY:‘Because why would you? You had no reason to doubt her two months ago. Plus, when LB told you this story you had just survived being dropped from a high building. Your mind was on other things, i.e. wow, I’m not dead.’
RUBY: ‘Life and death – being thrown from high buildings – I’m supposed to be able to deal with things like that.’
CLANCY: ‘Yeah, I’m sure it’s all part of the job, but don’t you see, at that moment, right at that particular instance, this whole key-tag tale was just a detail. LB mentions it in passing and why wouldn’t you believe her? Like I said, back then you trusted her completely, if she told you the same story today you’d probably question it.’
He was right about that.
‘So how do you think she did end up with the key-tag?’
‘Beats me,’ said Ruby.
Silence.
CLANCY: ‘Just one thing I don’t get: if LB is the overarching villain and she is the one commissioning the Count to acquire all these truth serums and cyan scents and stuff, then explain why she would go to all the trouble of stealing her own key-tag?’
RUBY:‘That’s easy. She wants to throw Spectrum off the scent. You see, everyone gets paranoid about moles and double agents. They’re all busy wondering who it could be, but no one’s gonna point the finger at her.’
CLANCY:‘Seems kinda far-fetched.’
RUBY: ‘Everything’s far-fetched.’
CLANCY: ‘OK, but what if LB isn’t the bad guy here, then what?’
RUBY: ‘Then I guess I’m right, there is more to that piece of Lucite than meets the eye.’
Clancy took another look at the list of unknowns. ‘So what do you think the deal is with the Jade Buddha? I mean the cyan scent and the truth serum make sense. What criminal wouldn’t want a scent that can lure anyone anywhere? Or a drug that can make anyone blab the truth. But what does the Buddha have to do with any of it? What’s with that?’
‘I don’t know,’ said Ruby, ‘but I think that Buddha holds one pretty big secret, and personally I think the eyes have it.’
‘Huh?’
‘It’s in the eyes of the Buddha,’ said Ruby.
‘Isn’t that just some old legend?’ said Clancy. ‘Look into the eyes of the Jade Buddha at midnight and halve your age and double your wisdom … I mean what fool believes in that nonsense apart from your dad … no offence intended.’
‘None taken, Clance. What I’m saying is, I have no idea what the Count read when he shone that light into its ruby eyes, but I’m guessing he was able to see something, a symbol, or even a code maybe.’
‘So can’t you get someone to look into its eyes for you?’
‘It’s back in Khotan,’ said Ruby. ‘Who am I going to ask?’
‘Can’t you phone someone in China?’ suggested Clancy.
‘What, just telephone China and say, “Please take a look at the eyes of the jade Buddha of Khotan”?’
‘Not just anyone,’ said Clancy. ‘Obviously it will have to be someone working at the Khotan museum.’
‘It’s not as easy as that. I still got to figure what that laser light device was, the one the Count used to read its eyes, it wasn’t any regular flashlight,’ said Ruby. ‘And then I have to convince someone at the museum to go and do it.’
‘Get someone else to phone the Chinese, like Blacker or someone?’
‘I’m not authorised to investigate anything,’ said Ruby. ‘If I ask someone to put a call through to the Chinese then I’m basically involved in an investigation and only senior agents are permitted to access anything.’
‘So ask a senior agent?’
‘What, like LB?’ said Ruby. ‘How many ways have I gotta say it, Clance? I don’t want LB to know that I might be onto something if it turns out that she is the something I’m onto.’
‘Right,’ said Clancy unsteadily, ‘I guess not.’
‘I need to know what happened between LB and Baker. If she killed him then why did she kill him?’
‘If only you could trust LB then you could ask her.’
Ruby sighed. ‘If I could trust LB then I would feel better about a whole lot of things. I might even be able to sleep at night.’
‘So you’re going to have to talk to Hitch. You trust him, don’t you?’
‘A hundred per cent,’ said Ruby, ‘but I’m not so sure he’d give me the time of day if I asked, so Hitch, you think LB might be a murderer? And to be truthful, I’m not sure I even want to go asking that particular question, at least not until I have a whole lot more information up my sleeve and possibly a hideout or some sort of weapon.’
‘Are you scared?’ asked Clancy.
Ruby looked into the darkness. ‘You bet I’m scared. If I wasn’t, I’d have to be crazy.’
‘So what are you gonna do when you next meet her face to face?’
‘Hold my nerve, I guess. The thing is not to let on; act normal.’
This was actually a Ruby rule. RULE 51: WHEN YOU DON’T TRUST THE OTHER PLAYERS, ALWAYS PLAY YOUR CARDS CLOSE TO YOUR CHEST.
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‘THE WANDERER RETURNS,’ said Mrs Digby as Ruby walked in through the kitchen door. ‘Where have you been?’
‘Trying to solve your hen of the woods problem.’
‘Well, knock me down with a feather,’ said Mrs Digby, who looked genuinely astonished. ‘Any luck with that?’
‘I got a lead on them,’ said Ruby.
‘From whom?’
‘You gotta understand, I gotta protect my source, but suffice it to say, the wheels are in motion and there’s a good chance I can get the mushrooms to you by the end of the week.’
‘Nice work,’ said Mrs Digby. ‘You earned yourself a cookie, cookie.’
‘Just one?’ complained Ruby.
‘Don’t want to spoil your supper,’ said Mrs Digby.
Ruby looked at the table, set for two.
‘Hitch is coming?’ Ruby asked.
‘He better be, I’ve made enough stew to feed an army.’ She reached for a ladle, but was interrupted by the ring of the telephone. ‘Well, howdie, stranger … What? … I can’t say I approve … it’s not good for you to skip meals, did your mother never tell you that? You’ll be jumping into an early grave … I’ll leave it in the warmer, if the dog doesn’t get to it first.’ She put down the receiver.
‘He’s not coming?’ asked Ruby.
‘He said he had to get off somewhere in a hurry; something about a friend of his with a broken-down car.’ The housekeeper sniffed disapprovingly. ‘He’ll not be long for this world if he doesn’t take the time to eat.’
‘I didn’t know he had any friends,’ said Ruby.
‘Too many friends, if you ask me,’ said Mrs Digby. ‘He certainly didn’t seem one jot put out by my going off on that cruise. He couldn’t pack me off quick enough.’
‘Yeah, well, at least you wound up in the Caribbean,’ said Ruby. ‘He packed me off to spend a month in the back end of nowhere.’
The housekeeper picked up the dog bowl and served a generous portion to Bug. ‘Anyone would think he wanted rid of us,’ she said.
Ruby decided to get an early night: she needed to catch up on her sleep and if she hit the hay early then she might clock up a round ten hours. That would have been nice, but in the end all she managed was an uneven five. First of all came the phone call from Paris.
‘Hey, Ruby, it’s us!’
‘Bonjour, Mom, bonjour, Dad. Quelle heure est-il, by the way?’
‘Pardon?’
‘What time is it?’
‘Almost lunch time, what time is it with you?’
Ruby reached for her watch.
‘Three in the am.’
‘Oh, Rube, you should really be asleep,’ said her mother.
‘Yeah, you might want to try calling a little later, six hours maybe, either that or a whole lot earlier, there’s a nine-hour time difference – that’s nine hours behind.’
‘Oh, I thought Twinford was nine hours ahead,’ said her father.
‘Other way around, Dad.’
