The Complete Ruby Redfort Collection. Lauren Child

to be noticed – but then that was the point wasn’t it?

       ‘The smallest things…’

      Look for something tiny, Ruby. That could take all day. The square, in fact a park, was big and would soon be teeming with people on their way to work.

       ‘…people walking on by…’

      Bug had wandered off. He was busy going from tree to tree sniffing and doing what dogs do. Ruby watched him snuffling along the ground, making his way over to the tree in the middle where the footpaths met. He had spotted a brown paper bag on the ground under the tree and was busy trying to get whatever was inside it, out.

      ‘Geez Bug, do you have to eat everything? You just had breakfast a half hour ago.’

      Ruby went over and picked up the bag and out fell three squishy plums.

      Kinda weird to find plums at this time of year, thought Ruby. And then she looked up at the tree and down at the fruit and she remembered what the voice had said. This was a plum tree and it was in the middle of the square.

       Plum in the middle of the square…

       …where… everyone just walks on by…

      She walked right up to the tree and then walked around it and then she saw it, something red.

       ‘Do you notice everything ruby red?’

      The voice had not been saying her name, it had been telling her to look for something red. The something red was a price sticker – it had Joe’s Supermart printed across the top and a price, $15.49, printed in the middle.

       Is this the clue or is this just a price sticker?

      She looked at it some more.

       If it’s a clue then I guess I’m meant to go to Joe’s Supermart – but fifteen dollars and forty-nine cents? I’m meant to go in there and find something for fifteen dollars and forty-nine cents? I bet there’s nothing in Joe’s Supermart for fifteen dollars and forty-nine cents. No one who had fifteen dollars and forty-nine cents would shop there.

      The dog looked at her stupidly – he didn’t know what was going on but he wouldn’t mind doing something else. Ruby was taking no notice though – she was just staring at the little sticker. After a couple of minutes of silent staring she got back on her bike and headed off towards school.

      When she got to the crossroads in the middle of Bird Street she called over her shoulder, ‘OK Bug, time to go home.’ The dog looked at her, disappointed, but he knew what to do and he took a left and Ruby cycled on up the hill. She would be early for once.

      As soon as she arrived at Twinford Junior High she went to look for Clancy. He was there already of course – overly punctual was his style.

      ‘Hey, what happened to you?’ he asked. ‘You sorta look like a truck ran over you and then decided to reverse.’

      ‘Yeah well, I didn’t get too much sleep on account of someone stole my bed,’ replied Ruby

      ‘Someone stole your bed?’ said Clancy, his mouth open like a fish.

      ‘Yeah, and that wasn’t all they took.’

      ‘What do you mean?’ said Clancy, flapping his arms.

      ‘We don’t have a single piece of furniture left,’ said Ruby dramatically.

      ‘You got burgled?’ mouthed Clancy.

      ‘I guess you could call it that – though it looks more like we moved house, but no one bothered to tell us where we were moving to.’

      ‘They took everything?’ said Clancy his eyes widening.

      ‘Everything except the phones,’ said Ruby. ‘By the way, thanks for your call buster.’

      ‘What call? I didn’t call,’ said Clancy. ‘My dad grounded me, wouldn’t let me call, so I didn’t.’

      ‘No, I noticed,’ said Ruby. ‘But someone did, I tell you I got some super strange telephonic activity last night.’

      ‘You did?’ said Clancy. ‘What kinda super strange, weird strange or creepy strange?’

      ‘It’s hard to say,’ said Ruby. ‘One was a hang-up and the other was this gravelly voiced woman.’

      ‘Like the woman in A Date with Fate ?’ asked Clancy.

      ‘Sorta,’ said Ruby. A Date with Fate was a show that had been running for years; each week some mildly creepy ghost story was introduced by this old actress with this raspy voice – the stories tended to be a little lame.

      ‘What did she say?’

      ‘It’s hard to explain exactly – some kinda code.’

      ‘You crack it?’

      ‘Not yet, but listen, before that this kinda chiselled guy turns up at our house and says he’s the house manager my mom requested, only of course my mom being my mom is calling him a butler.’

      ‘You got a butler! Wow,’ said Clancy impressed, even though his family had never been without one his whole entire life. ‘What’s he like?’

      ‘A total airhead,’ said Ruby.

      ‘That doesn’t sound good,’ said Clancy. ‘You don’t want an airhead butler.’

      ‘Well, technically he’s not a butler, he’s a household manager – whatever that means.’

      Clancy whistled. ‘Mrs Digby’s not gonna like that!’

      ‘Yeah well luckily she’s with her cousin Emily right now, but you’re right – she’s bound to notice there’s something a little off about this guy.’

      ‘How dya mean – off?’

      Ruby paused for effect. ‘I think there’s something sorta strange about him.’

      ‘Like what for example?’ said Clancy, unable to keep the thrill out of his voice.

      ‘He seems to know too much. Things he couldn’t know – well, not unless he was psychic or something.’

      ‘So where did he come from?’ asked Clancy – he was on the edge of his seat or at least would have been had he been sitting down.

      ‘London, supposedly, but who really knows,’ replied Ruby.

      ‘He’s English?’

      ‘No, just been living there – the people he used to work for have ‘suddenly’ gone off riding elephants for three years.’ Ruby loved getting Clancy all wired about the possibility of some dark mystery.

      ‘Perhaps he stole their money and did away with them,’ he said earnestly.

      ‘Well that might explain the flashy car – he’s got this silver convertible, but I am not sure it explains the arm injury.’

      ‘The arm injury? You’ve got an injured butler? You don’t want an injured butler. He’s really injured?’

      ‘Oh yes,’ nodded Ruby. ‘He looks like he was involved in some kinda accident.’

      ‘Or shoot out!’ whispered Clancy conspiratorially. ‘You know what Rube, I’ll bet he’s not even a butler – he’s almost certainly a hit man or something.’

      ‘You’ve got some imagination Clance my old pal!’

      But she didn’t tell him the thought had crossed her mind.

      Ruby wasn’t one to get in trouble unnecessarily, but she was finding it hard to concentrate and several times during class it was noted that she wasn’t paying attention. The thing was she just couldn’t