Mumbersons and The Blood Secret, The

Read Mumbersons and The Blood Secret, The for Free Online

Book: Read Mumbersons and The Blood Secret, The for Free Online
Authors: Mike Crowl, Celia Crowl
leapt out again.
     
    Lavitch was seconds behind him. The door continued revolving as he tried to enter it. What a skinny boy can do in the blink of an eye, a hulking great man can’t. Getting yourself stuck in a revolving door as it swishes past you is very uncomfortable. First Lavitch banged his head on the oak doorframe. Then his arm got stuck. The door jammed and he couldn’t move it one way or the other.
     
    Billy raced down the drive towards the gates. A security guard who hadn’t been on duty when Billy arrived was supervising the automatic shutting of the gates after letting a car through. Billy put on his best burst of speed and managed to shoot through the gap before it closed. The guard shouted something rude at him.
     
    Billy stopped outside the wall. He couldn’t see Olivia anywhere. Was she still inside, or had she got out before him? He had no idea what to do. He stood against the wall for a few moments, getting his breath back, then peeked through the grill in the gates.
     
    Lavitch had managed to get himself unstuck, and was rubbing his bruised arm vigorously. He didn’t look like a happy person at the best of times; now he was exceedingly grumpy. He went back inside, presumably to report to the dark-haired woman.
     
    Billy was still peering through the grill when Olivia appeared beside him. He jumped out of his skin and banged his head on the gate. ‘Where did you come from?’
     
    ‘You mean, thanks for saving your life, don’t you?’
     
    ‘Thanks very much. But how did you get out here?’
     
    ‘We need to move. I’ll tell you at home.’ They began to run. As he ran, Billy undid the clasp on the tourniquet and tore it off his arm. He dropped it in the street. Suddenly Olivia wasn’t running beside him. She’d stopped to pick it up.
     
    ‘What are you doing?’ he cried.
     
    ‘We don’t want to leave a trail for them, do we?’ She put it in her pocket. ‘Anyway, we need evidence for the police.’
     
    They began running again. It was hard to talk at the pace they were going, but Billy managed to say, ‘The police?’
     
    ‘Of course. People can’t take blood off other people without their consent.’
     
    Billy slowed down a fraction. ‘And people can’t throw bricks through other people’s skylights without consent either.’
     
    Olivia stared at him, and began to run even faster.
     
     

Chapter 5 - A handful of diamonds
     
    Billy burst into his house with Olivia close behind him. Stevedore, who had obviously changed his mind about going home, was lying on the floor. Apparently Mrs Mumberson had given him some scraps when he’d found his way back again.
     
    Before Billy could explain what had happened, Olivia told the Mumbersons everything in far too much detail and all out of order.
     
    ‘Sit down, have a biscuit, and start from the beginning,’ said Mrs Mumberson.
     
    They did. Their stories interrupted and tumbled over each other. There were bits that Olivia hadn’t seen and bits Billy didn’t know about. Just when it seemed they were finished Olivia would remember something, and that had to be added in.
     
    Finally Mr Mumberson had had enough. ‘Stop!’ he said, more loudly than he meant. ‘What happened to your father? Where’s he?’
     
    The two children stopped talking, and shook their heads. ‘We don’t know.’
     
    ‘Call him on your phone, then,’ he said, with an exasperated sigh. ‘That might solve something.’
     
    Billy found his father’s number on his mobile. He put the mobile on speakerphone. After a few rings his father answered. ‘What do you want, Billy?’
     
    Mrs Mumberson muttered, ‘So rude.’
     
    ‘Dad, something really weird’s happened here.’
     
    ‘What have your grandparents done now?’
     
    Mrs Mumberson seethed.
     
    ‘Tell him, Billy,’ said Mr Mumberson. ‘Get on with it.’
     
    Billy explained how he’d got the text. ‘I didn’t send you a text,’ his father said. ‘Why would I be in

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