Read Ruby Redfort 1 - Look Into My Eyes for Free Online Page A

said Ruby.
    “That doesn’t sound good,” said Clancy. “You don’t want an airhead butler.”
    “Well, technically he’s not a butler, he’s a household manager — whatever that means.”
    Clancy whistled. “Mrs. Digby’s not gonna like that!”
    “Yeah, well, luckily she’s with her cousin Emily right now, but you’re right. She’s bound to notice there’s something a little off about this guy.”
    “How do ya mean — off?”
    Ruby paused for effect. “I think there’s something sorta strange about him.”
    “Like what, for example?” said Clancy, unable to keep the thrill out of his voice.
    “He seems to know too much. Things he couldn’t know — well, not unless he was psychic or something.”
    “So where did he come from?” asked Clancy. He was on the edge of his seat, or at least would have been had he been sitting down.
    “London, supposedly. But who really knows,” replied Ruby.
    “He’s English?”
    “No, he was just living there — the people he used to work for have ‘suddenly’ gone off riding elephants for three years.” Ruby loved getting Clancy all wired about the possibility of some dark mystery.
    “Perhaps he stole their money and did away with them,” he said earnestly.
    “Well that
might
explain the flashy car — he’s got this silver convertible — but I am not sure it explains the
arm
injury.”
    “The arm injury? You’ve got an injured butler? You don’t want an injured butler. He’s really injured?”
    “Oh, yes,” said Ruby, nodding. “He looks like he was involved in some kinda accident.”
    “Or shoot-out!” whispered Clancy conspiratorially. “You know what, Rube? I’ll bet he’s not even a butler. He’s almost certainly a hit man or something.”
    “You’ve got some imagination, Clance my old pal!”
    But she didn’t tell him the thought
had
crossed her mind.
    Ruby wasn’t one to get in trouble unnecessarily, but she was finding it hard to concentrate and several times during class it was noted that she wasn’t paying attention. The thing was she just couldn’t put it together — what was the significance of fifteen dollars and forty-nine cents?
    After lunch it came to her — she couldn’t believe she had been so stupid — it was the most simple kind of clue, the staring you in the face kind. So obvious you missed it. As Ruby all too often remarked, PEOPLE OFTEN MISS THE DOWNRIGHT OBVIOUS {RULE 18}.
    It was Mr. Walford who got her to see it. He used to be in the military and liked to be precise about things. He was a stickler for using the twenty-four-hour clock.
    “Redfort, Ruby,” he barked. “It is precisely thirteen thirty-one, recess is no longer in progress, march your way swiftly to class please.”
    Ruby stopped in her tracks, paused, and then suddenly turned to Mr. Walford. “Three forty-nine p.m.! Of course! Not fifteen dollars and forty-nine cents but fifteen hundred hours and forty-nine minutes — or put another way, eleven minutes to four.”
    The price sticker is telling me to be at Joe’s Supermart at 3:49 p.m.
    Mr. Walford looked at her as if she was a complete crazy but that didn’t matter. Nothing mattered . . . oh, except for the school basketball tournament, scheduled to begin at sixteen hundred hours.
    Darn it, Del is going to kill me.
    Ruby would be sorely missed if she didn’t show. Del’s team, the Deliverers, was playing Vapona Begwell’s team, known as the Vaporizers, and there was always a lot of rivalry. Del Lasco would not forgive her unless she had a good excuse, and even then, she still might not.
    Inspiration came during Phys Ed when Ruby dramatically faked a foot injury — everyone saw as she tripped down the outside steps. A stuntman couldn’t have done a better job.
    “Jeepers! My toe, I think I just broke my little toe.”
    Ruby knew that toes get broken all the time and that they don’t necessarily require a trip to the emergency room. More often than not you just need to ice it. She