something!’ cried Gabbi, walking over to me and tugging on my jacket. She slipped her hands into my pockets and I brushed her away.
‘My hands are cold,’ she whined. ‘What’s wrong with you guys?’
‘There has to be an explanation,’ I said.
‘ Hello? ’ said Gabbi. ‘Am I invisible? Why are you ignoring me?’
‘Sorry Gabs,’ said Boges. ‘We’re just a little distracted right now with some new … umm … developments. Look, Cal,’ he said. ‘Let’s just focus on the fact that we have them back. That’s good news. Let’s worry about the other things later, huh?’
‘Boges is right,’ said Winter, with an arm around Gabbi. ‘There could be a perfectly reasonable explanation.’
She hugged my sister, who was turning the Jewel over in her hands.
‘We’d better get you back home,’ said Boges, tugging on one of Gabbi’s plaits.
My sister groaned and brushed Boges away. ‘Ican help you guys,’ she said. ‘I’m not a kid any more. Why can’t you see that?’
‘We know,’ said Winter, ‘but it’s just too dangerous right now. You need to stay home … and keep an eye on your mum and Rafe. We need someone to make sure they’re OK. OK?’
‘Let’s go,’ said Boges to Gab. ‘I’ll walk you home.’
Back at the treehouse I charged up my phone and realised I had a couple of missed calls from Sharkey. Winter and I listened carefully to his voicemail message, hopeful for news on our trip.
‘Cal, it’s Nelson,’ he’d said. ‘I have the tickets. The four of us are booked to fly out on the twenty-third . Do yourselves a favour and stay out of strife until then.’
‘Wow, it’s all happening!’ said Winter, excitedly. ‘Can you believe we finally have a date, plus the Jewel and the Riddle in our possession?’
‘Crazy stuff,’ I said, relieved, but unable to shake off the bad feelings I had about Mum.
A tiny spider crawled up Winter’s arm. She yawned and shook it off gently.
‘Until we fly out, I’m going to have to find betteraccommodation, Cal. A girl like me can only live up a tree for so long. I might give Sharkey a buzz back and see if he can hook me up with a place to stay. Somewhere Sligo will never find me.’
9 DECEMBER
23 days to go …
Boges, Winter and I sat on upturned crates out the back of the gym. We were meeting up with Sharkey to go over our travel plans, and were waiting for him to return from the showers.
I’d missed Winter’s company in the last few days. Sharkey had set her up in a motel that was run by a retired cop he knew. She’d tried to convince me to join her there, but I felt safer up the tree on Luke Lovett’s property. I also didn’t want to risk bringing any attention to her. We couldn’t let Sligo find her.
‘I have something for you,’ said Boges proudly. He passed me some sort of diving watch. ‘It works like a regular watch but it’s also a radio beacon.’
‘Another distress beacon?’
‘Yep. Consider it an early Christmas present.I’ve adapted the winder so that if you press it like so,’ Boges leaned over and depressed the tiny button, which lit the watch-face up with a strange, blue pulsing light, ‘you’ll activate the emergency radio signal. I have the receiver here,’ he said, holding out a similar watch on his wrist. ‘This watch picks up the signal and gives me the GPS coordinates of where you are.’
I tightened the watch around my wrist, while Winter shuffled forward to get a closer look at it.
‘Awesome, Boges,’ she said. ‘Hopefully he won’t need to use it like last time.’
‘Better safe than sorry,’ he said. ‘I was hoping it would soften some other news I have,’ Boges began.
I groaned. ‘Spit it out.’
‘I read a report online this morning that the authorities believe you’re a flight risk.’
‘A flight risk? How do they know?’
‘I’m not sure, but they’re upping security at all the major airports until you’re detained.’
‘They’ll have to catch you