Read Mumbersons and The Blood Secret, The for Free Online Page B

optimist, Billy Mumberson.’
     
    The three walked up the slope of Fivefold street, accompanied by Stevedore, who thought he was going out for a stroll, and was surprised at the pace the humans set. Even though they were heading in the opposite direction to the Factory, they kept looking over their shoulders in case anyone was following them. Mr Mumberson complained more than once that his feet were practically worn out after all the walking he’d done recently, but he kept up all the same. He was fitter than he let on. And he didn’t seem to mind that Olivia held his hand most of the time.
     
    At the end of Fivefold street they went down a narrow lane that wound round and round until it came to a steep set of cracked steps. These led into the back of the mostly deserted car park of a recently-built shopping mall. Several youths, including Liam, were noisily banging around on their skateboards. Loud chocks and clonks echoed across the park.
     
    ‘Olivia!’ shouted Liam, skating towards them. ‘Who’s the old bloke?’ Stevedore barked at him, and then raced amongst the skateboarders, who greeted him like an old friend.
     
    ‘Blooming cheek,’ said Mr Mumberson.
     
    ‘He’s Billy’s granddad,’ said Olivia. Liam skated along behind them as they crossed the car park and went into an alleyway with narrow shops on one side and brightly-painted murals on the other. He raced ahead of them, demonstrating his skating skills, and narrowly missed running over Stevedore.
     
    ‘Young show off,’ said Mr Mumberson, under his breath.
     
    Two more short streets brought them to Olivia’s house, a rambling villa in need of a good deal of repair, with an overgrown garden. Purple wisteria bloomed everywhere, climbing up the walls of the house towards the roof, and even managing to attach itself to a nearby power pole. Through the front windows they could see a wall covered in bright and striking paintings.
     
    Stevedore, who’d managed to avoid being run down by Liam, had beaten them home by a good five minutes, and was scratching at the front door. ‘Let the dog in!’ a man shouted from inside. ‘I’m working,’ a woman’s voice shouted back.
     
    Olivia didn’t invite Billy and Mr Mumberson in - Billy had never been inside, in fact - but she did give Mr Mumberson a hug before leaving them. As she opened the door, the man called out, ‘Finally home, Olivia?’ She banged the door shut behind her.
     
    ‘I wonder if she’ll tell her parents anything,’ said Mr Mumberson, as they made their way back home.

    ‘Granddad, who do you think those people at the Factory were? They wouldn’t work there, would they?’
     
    ‘Don’t know. Your father didn’t seem suspicious about them. Trouble is, he doesn’t think anything out of the ordinary ever happens. He was like that as a boy. Dumped the Tooth Fairy when he was five. Santa Claus when he was six.’ He sighed. ‘We can’t convince him we were kidnapped by a witch, and imprisoned in a diamond mine for twenty years. But...’ and here he chuckled for the first time since Billy had met him, ‘...I have some proof in my pocket. I have a few of the diamonds from the mine.’
     
    ‘Diamonds? Real diamonds?’
     
    ‘As real as they come.’ He lowered his voice. ‘Don’t tell your grandmother. She wouldn’t approve. Tomorrow I’m going to find a jeweller to take them off my hands. Then we’ll have some money to come and go on. Maybe she’ll approve of that!’
     
    ‘There’s a jeweller’s shop in the Arcade, Granddad.’ They’d reached the shopping mall again, and Billy pointed it out.
     
    Adiblo’s Jewellers was closed, like most of the shops around it. It was all the more strange, then, that there was a shadowy figure of a large person moving around inside in the half-lit shop.
     
    ‘See that?’ said Mr Mumberson, stopping. ‘I hope that’s the owner, not a thief.’
     
    ‘They should be safe from burglars,’ said Billy, looking at a