The Turnarounders and the Arbuckle Rescue by Lou Heneghan Read Free Book Online

with two desks, knocked over a pile of papers and looked at a secretary so aggressively that she spilled her tea.
    ‘He looks a bit cross,’ said Valentina, thoughtfully.
    ‘He looks like he’s going to explode!’ said Leon.
    ‘I’m not su rprised,’ said Seth. ‘I bet my grandfather’s given him a real mouthful. He’s broken about a hundred rules questioning us like this.’
    Alfie nodded then nudged Ralf with his elbow. ‘Don’t tell him nuffin, bruv,’ he said in a low voice. ‘He should have an adult there for interviewing you and he knows it.’
    ‘Right.’
    Ralf shuffled after Burrowes feeling a weird sense of disappointment, suddenly, like he’d read the first chapter of a book, only to find the rest of the pages were blank. He looked back at the others. They were in a row, grey from the harsh electric light, a hole in the middle where he’d just been standing and suddenly he forgot to breathe. The memory of the photograph he’d found during his first week with Gloria flashed into his head. He hadn’t looked at it for nearly a year but the similarity between the two images was striking, and so was the feeling of ‘Knowing’ that filled him. It was more than just the way they were standing, more than the light, the serious expressions on their faces. They could have been the same people. The idea made his heart thump. That photo had been over seventy years old!
     
    He wasn’t moving quickly enough for the detective. ‘WOLF Osborne!’ Burrowes yelled mockingly from the door of his office.
    Because he was now running, Ralf didn’t see Leon’s expression when Burrowes called him ‘Wolf’. The boy’s face was a mask of shock and the cards in his hands showered to the floor.
     
    ‘Shut the door.’
    Burrowes got straight to the point. ‘You lied to me earlier. No, don’t bother to deny it,’ he said as Ralf opened his mouth to speak. ‘Your body language told me all I needed to know. When I asked you about Ambrose you said you’d never heard of him. That wasn’t true.’
    Ralf needed a moment to clear his head, to swallow down the sickness he felt, but Burrowes kept firing questions at him.
    ‘I’m supposed to have a grown-up here when you talk to me,’ Ralf said, hoping desperately that Alfie was right. ‘Why can’t I go with the others?’
    ‘IN A MINUTE!’ Burrowes roared. ‘I’m not mucking about here. I know the rules.’ He gave a sly smile. ‘But I don’t always play by them.’
    He slapped a bright yellow flyer on to the table and stabbed at it with a shaking finger. Ralf was startled to see an inked outline of The Hooded Man in the centre of the page, with the words ‘Swann’s Circus Presents: The Amazing, Astonishing Vitallian Ambrose’ in bold type across the top. Underneath, in a slightly smaller typeface, the public was urged to ‘Cross his palm with silver and the future will be revealed.’
    Ralf felt sick. ‘Is this the man you want to know about?’
    ‘What can you tell me about him?’
    ‘He’s outside.’
    ‘That’s not funny.’ Burrowes eyes were stony. ‘He’s dead. And it wasn’t a nice way to go.’
    Ralf’s face burned but his lips were thin and white with anger. He jabbed a finger at the window. ‘You’re wrong! He’s right out there in the street!’
    Burrowes stopped pacing and came back to the table. His voice was quieter now. ‘We found Ambrose yesterday in the middle of the River Thames. He had house bricks in his pockets.’
    Frustrated, Ralf glared at Burrowes but remembering Alfie’s warning he kept his mouth firmly closed.
    Burrowes’ nose was a centimetre away from his own. The stench of stale coffee made Ralf want to retch. ‘Ralf. You have to help me here!’ Burrowes was yelling now. ‘I’ve got a delinquent martial arts expert, a genius computer hacker, a juggling magician, a ten-year old career criminal and you in the frame. You all know something about it but none of you are helping. I can’t find any record of