Читать книгу The Complete Ruby Redfort Collection: Look into My Eyes; Take Your Last Breath; Catch Your Death; Feel the Fear; Pick Your Poison; Blink and You Die - Lauren Child - Страница 70

Cat Woman

Ruby was standing outside Mrs Beesman’s house with Clancy Crew.

He was peering over the fence looking at the debris in her yard. Boy, was it ever a mess.

‘We really have to do this?’ said Clancy.

‘You got me into this Clance, telling my mom I was such a super nice kid, helping old Mrs Beesman out. Now I guess I gotta be a super nice kid.’

Clancy sighed. ‘I was only trying to cover for you Rube.’

‘I know,’ said Ruby giving him a friendly thump on the arm. ‘Just next time think before you open that big mouth of yours.’

Clancy frowned. ‘You sure she wants us to clear her yard?’

‘I had to talk her into it,’ said Ruby. ‘She took a lot of persuading.’

They were about to push open the gate when they were surprised by a bleeping sound coming from Ruby’s coat.

‘You’re bleeping,’ said Clancy.

Ruby pushed up her sleeve to reveal Bradley Baker’s watch, still fastened around her wrist. The fly was flashing blue. In all the chaos of last night Ruby had forgotten to hand it back to Hitch. With some trepidation she pushed the talk button and held the watch to her ear.

‘Where are you?’ demanded a gravelly voice.

Ruby gulped. She didn’t really feel up to talking to an irate LB. ‘Look, sorry about the watch and the whistle – I promise I’ll hand them to Hitch before he leaves.’

‘Too late for that, Redfort,’ said LB. ‘He’s back at Spectrum.’

Ruby’s heart sank. Just like old Mary Poppins, she thought, he’s taken off without so much as an adios. ‘He could at least have said goodbye,’ muttered Ruby.

‘Goodbye? What do you mean goodbye?’ said LB. ‘I just wanted him to bring in that watch so we can have one of our technicians take a look at it. A faulty rescue device is no good to any agent.’

Ruby’s mind was working overtime but she couldn’t make sense of what LB was saying.

‘You can consider this your week off, Redfort, but I want to see you at 6am in exactly seven days time, no excuses, no sick notes from your mom. Understand?’

Ruby did not. ‘My week off?’ she stammered. ‘My week off from what?’

‘You want to be an agent don’t you? Well, being an agent takes a lot of training. Hitch will be in charge of that so you had better listen to him.’ LB cleared her throat before saying, ‘The rescue watch you can keep, but look after it, it belonged to a friend of mine.’

‘You can count on me,’ said Ruby.

‘I hope so,’ said LB. She paused. ‘Oh and by the way, you did good kid.’