Invitation to a Stranger by Margaret Pearce Read Free Book Online Page B

library book. “What’s he supposed to have a bike for?”
    â€œI’ll do it if I can have the change,” Jamie bargained.
    â€œYou should do it for nothing,” his mother said with a sigh as she gave him money and the bike bag.
    Half an hour later, Mrs. Campion was fuming. “Where is that child? I needed that flour for the cake I wanted to make.”
    â€œProbably stopped off at the reserve to kick a football around,” Ronnie said her nose still in her book.
    â€œIt’s getting dark,” Mrs. Campion worried. “I don’t like him out after dark. He hasn’t got a light on his bike. Ronnie, go straight around to the reserve and get him to come home immediately.”
    Ronnie sighed, but put down her book and wheeled out her bike. She rode around to the reserve. It was deserted. She rode back to the shops. Jamie had come in and bought the flour and also a chocolate bar.
    â€œBut that was about an hour ago,” the attendant volunteered.
    Ronnie nodded grimly and rode around to Jamie’s best friend’s place. Herbie Pickle was having dinner. Ronnie went in and questioned him. He said he had met Jamie at the reserve and kicked a football around for a while. They had both left the reserve together.
    â€œ So where was he going then?” Ronnie demanded.
    â€œDunno,” Herbie said. “Just headed straight down Castle Street towards home.”
    â€œOkay,” Ronnie said and rode off.
    Ronnie rode slowly down Castle Street looking into driveways for Jamie and his bike. It was getting dark. The street lights were going on and cars were slowing to pull into driveways. There was no sign of Jamie or his bike anywhere.
    As she drove past the big Demento mansion she noticed the big black car was there, but the house itself was in darkness. She reached home at the same time as her father’s car pulled into their driveway.
    She reported her failure to find Jamie to her mother and father.
    Her father immediately rang the local hospitals. “Well he hasn’t been knocked by a car,” he reported several heart stopping minutes later.
    â€œHe might have gone home with another of his mates,” Mrs. Campion fretted. “I’ll ring around all the mothers.”
    An hour later, she got off the phone, her face white. Jamie wasn’t with any of his friends. “What if he’s been kidnapped?”
    Ronnie held her tongue. No one would hold Jamie for ransom, and who would be silly enough to kidnap such a brat as her little brother ?
    By the next morning, Ronnie was feeling scared and guilty, and realized she was a lot fonder of her bratty little brother than she thought. If only she had obeyed her mother and gone to the shop and bought the flour for her mother . No one had seen Jamie riding his bike home the previous afternoon after he left Herbie at the oval. He had just vanished into thin air, and it was all her fault!
    So she and Katie, Jeff, Will and Mike Purdue joined the searchers. They tracked through the creeks, and down by the river. They went through all the parks , ovals and reserves, checking individually behind and under each bush and through each backyard shed or outbuilding in the district despite the outraged protests of the house owners.
    They checked behind the shops and the shopping centres. The y checked, all the dumpsters and rubbish places in the district in a sick apprehension . There was no sign of Jamie or his bike or his bike bag.
    â€œIf only I still had Billie, he would help us find him,” Jeff said mournfully, much later that afternoon after their unsuccessful day of searching.
    â€œOdd that so many animals and now a kid has vanished,” Katie mused.
    â€œProbably a coincidence,” Jeff said.
    That was Saturday afternoon. Saturday night Mrs. Pickle rang them in hysterics. Herbie Pickle had also gone missing! So the police started to take the two disappearances seriously … very