Ruby Redfort 1 - Look Into My Eyes by Lauren Child Read Free Book Online

her out of his sight.
    Ruby silently watched the minute hand tick slowly around the clock face, while the big-nosed guy walked around the store, eyeing her furtively. If someone was trying to test Ruby Redfort’s patience, they were doing a good job, though patience was not a quality that Ruby was lacking.
    However, she was relieved when at exactly two minutes to five, the phone rang. She jumped and almost knocked the receiver off its cradle. “Hi, hello,” blustered Ruby.
    “Am I talking to Ruby Redfort?” asked that same gravelly voice.
    “Yuh huh, yes,” confirmed Ruby.
    “Good, glad you made it this far. I have a job offer for you — let’s make a date . . . how about tomorrow night at eight for eight not a minute sooner not a minute later. And keep it zipped.”
    “Anything else you wanna tell me?” asked Ruby.
    “Yes,” said the voice. “Be lucky.”
    No good-bye, just the dial tone.
    I guess directions would be too much to ask for,
thought Ruby as she left the store.
    On her way back home Ruby stopped off at the green. Up in the tree she found a neatly folded origami cuckoo. She knew what that meant without even reading the note.
    THE CUCKOO: a parasitic bird who takes over the nest of another by pushing the host’s eggs out and laying its own in their place. If necessary the cuckoo will devour the host-bird’s young.
    In other words,
    THE CUCKOO: a ruthless killer and imposter.
    The cuckoo was of course Hitch. It was classic Clancy Crew — he was joking but kind of serious at the same time. He had a sixth sense for trouble. He was often saying, “The thing is Rube, I got a hunch about this,” or “Trust me, I got a feeling I’m right about that.” He could never explain why he had a hunch or where it had come from but the remarkable thing was, he was almost always right. Ruby unfolded the bird and read the note.
    Vc spf jdyye I fucefy xrs. C ussxubu ds!
    Ruby smiled. It wasn’t easy to fool Clancy Crew. Ruby tore a piece of paper from her notebook, wrote Zvuu lvh miv, dsps mpcxd zcf oiwswuzv? , folded it, and pushed it into the knot.
    When Ruby got home she saw the same police car once again parked in the driveway, and as she walked up the stairs she heard the familiar voice of Sheriff Bridges and also another voice, which turned out to be a police detective.
    “So you didn’t notice she was gone, Mrs. R.?” asked Sheriff Bridges.
    “Well, to be honest, Nat, what with everything else disappearing I just didn’t get around to noticing. I wasn’t surprised
not
to see her yesterday — she said she was going to stay with Emily — but Emily says she hasn’t seen her for two weeks.”
    “Emily?” inquired the detective.
    “Her cousin Emily — lives in North Twinford. You see the thing is she was offended. She shouldn’t have been, but that’s Mrs. Digby all over, she gets offended at the drop of a hat.”
    “Offended? By what, Mrs. Redfort?”
    “You know, anything really. It can be the smallest criticism. I have to be so careful, the slightest thing can set her off; I ask her to dust, she thinks I’m criticizing, I ask her not to, she thinks I don’t trust her with a duster . . .”
    “No, Mrs. Redfort,” said the detective, who seemed to be trying hard to hold on to his temper. “I meant to say how did you offend her
this time
?”
    “Well, look, it’s like this, Detective,” interrupted Brant Redfort. “Sabina stepped into an argument between Consuela, our talented new chef, and Mrs. Digby, our much-loved housekeeper — some tomato juice was thrown and Sabina was understandably rather upset.”
    “It went all over my new Oscar Birdet jacket. It’s most probably ruined — tomato juice is stubborn to get out,” said Sabina.
    “The thing is,” continued Brant, trying to keep the conversation on track, “Mrs. Digby felt Sabina was taking Consuela’s side — she’s very high-strung.”
    Ruby was by now standing in the doorway quietly observing. The detective was