The Complete Ruby Redfort Collection. Lauren Child

said Clancy. ‘It’s interesting to mention this once, twice, even thrice, but not like sixty-seven times.’

      ‘Well, Mr Endell is kinda obsessive,’ said Ruby. ‘Did he mention how often YKK 672 happens to pass by the earth?’

      ‘Did he mention it? Are you kidding, he didn’t stop mentioning it! Once every 200 years – this fact is now etched into my memory.’

      Ruby smiled. Her theory was correct.

      ‘So what were you doing while Mr Endell was boring me to death?’ said Clancy.

      ‘Well, I was writing an essay about paying attention to Mrs Drisco,’ said Ruby.

      ‘Yeah, but what were you actually doing?’

      ‘You remember I was telling you about the Chime Melody interference?’

      Clancy nodded.

      ‘Well, what if it wasn’t interference? What if someone was using music to deliver a message?’

      ‘What kind of message?’ said Clancy. He was staring at her, his eyes saucer-like.

      ‘Like locations, information, instructions,’ said Ruby. ‘This someone is giving them all in code to someone else.’

      ‘You think these someones are the pirates?’ Clancy looked puzzled.

      ‘No,’ said Ruby. ‘I mean yes and no. The pirates don’t strike me as capable of thinking up this kind of code or of deciphering it – not from what my mom said anyway. Those guys sounded kinda Neanderthal.’

      ‘So you’re saying there’s more than the pirates out there?’

      ‘I’m saying there is more than likely someone who is kinda in with the pirates, but not part of their band. Someone super smart. Then there also must be someone else on the outside who’s issuing the orders. One super smart person sends out the code on the Chime Melody airways and one super smart person working with the pirates deciphers it.’

      ‘So where have you got to? With the code I mean?’ asked Clancy.

      Ruby bit her lip. ‘That’s the thing, I haven’t got it yet. I’m just guessing at this point and it’s making me crazy.’

      Clancy patted her on the back. ‘You’ll get there Rube, no doubt about that.’

      ‘Yeah but when?’ She sighed. ‘Maybe only once it’s all too late.’ She stood up and slung her satchel over her shoulder. ‘I better get going, got a lot to do.’

      ‘You can’t go,’ said Clancy. ‘It’s Friday night, we were gonna hang out, remember?’

      ‘Clance, I got a job to do, it’s kinda important, you know?’

      ‘Yeah, for your information I do actually! The job is more important than anything else including your friends, including me. I got that, OK? Loud and clear!’

      Ruby felt guilt wash over her, but rather than say the right thing, she said exactly the wrong thing. She regretted it as soon as she uttered the words and saw him flinch.

      Clancy didn’t reply, his face said it all, and Ruby, she just turned and left the diner, not once looking back.

      By the time she made it home she had a horrible little voice jabbering in her ear, telling her what a crummy friend she was. She ignored it, and instead allowed the white noise of her busy brain to block it out. Up in her room she turned on the mini cassette player and pulled on her headphones. The awful music played on and did nothing to ease her mind.

      Then at about half past four that morning she got it.

      1. She still holds her secret

      2. She lies where the toes of the sisters meet

      3. She won’t be accessible for long – act swiftly

       Chapter 30.

      The toes of the sisters

      WHEN SHE FELT SURE SHE WAS RIGHT, when she was positive the code worked, that what she was putting together made sense, Ruby went down to find Hitch.

      It was 5.05am on Saturday morning and he was sitting in the kitchen drinking a very strong-looking cup of coffee. He watched her as she placed the cassette player on the table. She pressed the play button and out scritched the unharmonious sound.

      When the piece was through, Ruby took out various pieces of paper, placing them in front of Hitch in order:

      First the musical score.

      Then the score marked with letters underneath the notes. Once he had taken in how it all worked, Hitch nodded and Ruby laid more papers on the table, each one delivering another short instruction.

      He looked at them for a long while, reading the messages over and over.

      Finally, Hitch spoke.

      ‘This “she” that they’re talking about, got any ideas who it might be?’

      ‘Uh huh,’ Ruby replied.

      Hitch looked up, his left eyebrow raised. ‘Go on,’ he said.

      ‘I reckon she’s a wreck, an old wreck,’ said Ruby.

      ‘You better not be talking about me,’ called Mrs Digby as she bustled through the room, bucket in hand – in one door and out the other.

      ‘Never would!’ Ruby shouted after her. They continued to talk, but with their voices hushed slightly: the housekeeper had sharp ears.

      ‘The eighteenth-century wreck of the Seahorse to be precise,’ said Ruby. ‘I’ve been reading up about it and I found an obscure account by some old guy called Featherstone which describes the night of the shipwreck as Martha Fairbank told it. She insisted the ship went down somewhere near the Sibling Islands.’

      ‘Even though every other account says it couldn’t have?’ said Hitch.

      ‘Yes,’ nodded Ruby.

      ‘OK,’ he said. ‘So tell me your theory.’

      ‘We start by assuming that the Seahorse did go down where Martha said it did,’ said Ruby. ‘Where the toes of the sisters meet – the toes of the sisters are the twenty small rocks sticking straight out of the sea a quarter-mile from the islands; the wild currents make it difficult and dangerous to navigate round them.’

      ‘The toes of the sisters?’ said Hitch.

      ‘Lots of people used to call the Sibling Islands the sisters in those days; the smaller rocks were called the toes – it’s to do with that old legend about them.’

      ‘What old legend?’ asked Hitch.

      Ruby waved her hand impatiently. ‘I’ll tell you some other time – it’s not relevant to this. What I’m trying to say is that if the wreck sank somewhere in that channel between the rocks and the Sibling Islands, then this explains why the pirates are trying to keep boats out of the Sibling waters or anywhere too close to the islands. They block coastguard signals and redirect cargo shipping way off course – if a pleasure boat comes by, they steal what they want and cut them adrift. It makes for good cover – makes it all seem random and about looting cash rather than premeditated and to do with 200-year-old treasure.’

      ‘But why now?’ said Hitch. ‘Why look for treasure that may not even be there, in a wreck that has been submerged for 200 years?’

      ‘Because now they can,’ said Ruby. ‘The currents are calm for the first time in living memory, so it’s actually possible to dive the wreck.’

      ‘But