The Four-Fingered Man by Cerberus Jones Read Free Book Online

across the room and pressed his ear to the door. Amelia followed, and heard
Mum speaking in a hushed voice.
    ‘I told you it wouldn’t work,’ she said.
    ‘It will,’ said Dad. ‘There’s nothing to panic about.’
    Amelia’s eyes narrowed.
    ‘The kids messed up,’ Dad went on. ‘In a kid way for kid reasons. Nothing’s changed.’
    ‘I agree,’ said Mary. ‘They’re worried about Tom; he’s the only issue here. It’s
Tom we need to sort out for them.’
    Their voices were fading away now. Amelia heard footsteps creaking down the stairs,
and strained to hear as Dad said, ‘I’ll talk to him. Ask him to be more careful.
I really don’t want the kids finding out any …’
    But his voice faded away, and Amelia couldn’t make out the rest. She turned to Charlie,
a chill snaking up her back. ‘Did you hear that?’
    Charlie nodded mutely, and Amelia felt the cold sink deeper into her bones. Mum and
Dad knew what Tom was doing – and they were keeping it from her.
    Whatever was going on, they were all in on it together.

‘I still think Miss Ardman was overreacting,’ Charlie said, as they walked home from
school the next day. ‘Get cross about kids in your room – fine. Yell a bit – whatever.
But crying for half an hour?’
    ‘Charlie …’ Amelia said warningly.
    ‘I’m just saying. It’s weird.’
    Amelia knew it was weird – weird, and also awful, because she couldn’t forget that
the crying had been their fault. But she didn’t want to talk about Miss Ardman. Who
cared about Miss Ardman when she’d just found out she couldn’t trust her own parents?
    You’re being stupid, she told herself. Mum and Dad are good people. If they’re keeping
a secret from us, that doesn’t mean they’re bad …
    Unless Tom was blackmailing them into doing something.
    But it sounded more like they were in on it with Tom. And Mary too.
    What could they all be –?
    ‘And I still can’t believe they made us go through with that whole apology thing!’
Charlie broke in on her thoughts, oblivious. ‘How awkward was that! And anyway, we
were only trying to help Miss Ardman!’
    ‘Oh Charlie, just shut it, will you?’ Amelia snapped, surprising even herself.
    ‘Fine,’ said Charlie holding up his hands in mock surrender. ‘ Sorry .’
    Amelia hadn’t spoken to Charlie at all at school. She didn’t avoid him exactly; it
was just easier to let the Sophies and Shani carry her along with their chatter,
and pretend she couldn’t see Charlie trying to catch her eye. Once he came right
over to where they were sitting, but when Amelia ignored him and Sophie T said in
her coldest voice, ‘Excuse me, Charlie, can we help you?’ he went away and didn’t
try again.
    Amelia didn’t feel good about it.
    On the other hand, school was the one place she could just sit and think through
what was going on at the hotel without worrying that something else was about to
start happening. And even though she knew Charlie wanted to discuss the same thing,
even though he was the only person in the world who could possibly understand what
was going on in her head, Amelia wanted some space to figure it out by herself. After
all, if she couldn’t rely on her parents any more, she might as well get used to
being on her own.
    By the time the bell rang for home time, Amelia had gone over the facts about five
hundred times, but they still didn’t make any more sense to her. She had a whole
lot of homework that didn’t make sense to her either (she might not have been listening
very much in class), and Sophie T was a bit distant with her when they said goodbye
to each other at the gate. Amelia got the impression she might have zoned out a few
too many times.
    So when she saw Charlie waiting for her by the big tree outside school, she was ready
to talk to him again. She even smiled when the first words out of his mouth were,
‘We really need to figure out the deal with Tom.’
    They dawdled along the footpath past the beach,