Time Out!, page 4
‘Maybe the ghost is HJ,’ Rusty said. ‘How long have we been stuck in here?’
‘Sixteen minutes and thirty-two seconds,’ said Eddie.
‘Maybe we could try to work the lantern?’ said DT. ‘To get people’s attention.’
‘I already checked it out,’ said Eddie. ‘The casing around it is locked.’
‘Maybe Abigail hasn’t got her phone with her,’ said Rusty, checking her messages again. ‘Or her battery’s flat! We could be here forever if we’re relying on her.’
‘Should we call the police?’ said Eddie. ‘They could get a key from the council.’
‘Nah, too embarrassing! We don’t need help.’ DT jumped down off the ledge. ‘Hey, these windows must open. There’s a little railing outside.’
They spread out. It was difficult to see in the dark. Eddie ran his hands along the window edges searching for an opening. As far as he could make out, they were sealed shut.
‘Found it!’ said DT, his voice blending into the crash of waves.
DT started to squeeze through the small window, and Eddie and Rusty followed.
As they huddled on the railing outside, with the wind sweeping up and around them, they found a small metal door. It led to a set of rungs on the outside of the lighthouse that went all the way to the ground.
Eddie tried not to look down.
The drop was sheer. He could feel his knees WOBBLING. As if all the bones had suddenly dropped out of his legs.
They walked in slow single file along the narrow ledge, holding tight to the railing. In the dim light Eddie could just make out a set of metal handgrips jutting out of the plaster.
‘It’s just like rock climbing,’ said DT. Before Eddie could reply, DT had swung over the railing and grabbed hold of one of the handrails. Then he monkeyed down the vertical face to the ground.
‘Come on, it’s easy!’ he called back to Eddie.
Eddie swallowed. Fine for DT to say. Eddie had never been rock climbing before.
‘You go next,’ said Rusty.
‘Why me?’ asked Eddie, his voice sounding squeaky.
‘Because you might fall.’
‘What if you fall?’ Eddie said.
‘Eight years of gymnastics training,’ said Rusty. ‘If anyone’s going to fall, it won’t be me.’
She had a point. If anyone was going down, they both knew it was going to be him. Eddie gulped.
‘You’ll be fine, just don’t overthink it,’ said Rusty.
Eddie began overthinking immediately.
Sweat prickled against his shirt. He hoped his glasses didn’t slip off on the way down. His mum would kill him if they broke.
Eddie stepped out onto the first rung holding tight to the rails. He took a breath and made a mental note not to look down.
And that’s when he saw it.
There were a series of letters and numbers etched into the sill of the giant lighthouse lantern. Eddie recognised them immediately as latitude and longitude co-ordinates. He committed them to memory.
He lowered himself down onto the next rung and the next, reciting the co-ordinates over and over in his head to calm himself.
It worked.
Finally, his foot touched solid ground and he let out a ‘WHOOP’.
‘I’ve got it!’ Eddie said, punching the air.
‘I’VE GOT THE NEXT CLUE!’
11
‘X’ MARKS THE SPOT
DT clapped Eddie on the back. ‘You Super Sleuth! You found a clue while shimmying down the lighthouse? Even with your eyes closed? That’s proper ninja stuff.’
‘My eyes were not closed!’ said Eddie.
‘What are you guys talking about?’ Rusty called from halfway down the wall.
‘Eddie found a clue!’ DT called.
Rusty reversed nimbly down the steps and jumped to the ground.
‘Spill the beans,’ she said to Eddie, hands on hips.
‘There are numbers in a pattern above the lantern,’ Eddie exclaimed. ‘We looked everywhere but we forgot to look up.’
‘So, if we hadn’t been locked in, we would never have seen it,’ said Rusty. ‘Thanks, ghostie.’
‘So more numbers?’ said DT.
‘I think they’re map co-ordinates,’ said Eddie. ‘Let me write them down before I forget.’
Eddie typed the numbers into his phone.
-32.928364, 151.780554
‘See, that looks like latitude and that’s longitude,’ said Eddie.
‘It’s like finding the actual “X marks the spot” on the treasure map,’ said DT.
Eddie entered the numbers into Google Maps on his phone. A map of Australia popped up on the screen and began to narrow in on a blue dot.
‘I wonder if we’ll need to take a road trip into the outback?’ Rusty asked.
‘Or maybe to the US!’ added DT.
‘It’s a little closer to home,’ said Eddie.
The map on the screen showed Red Hill and began zooming in on the city. Eddie recognised a few of the street names; Barker Street, Wembley Road and Church Crescent. The map stilled and the blue dot flashed about midway on Church Crescent.
‘Isn’t that the top of the hill?’ asked DT.
‘I know exactly what it is,’ said Eddie. ‘It’s the old Cathedral.’
‘It’s only five minutes from here,’ said DT. ‘We can go there now.’
Rusty checked her watch. ‘As long as I’m back by 8 o’clock.’
They checked Abigail’s cottage to see if she was there. She was watching TV, feet up, sipping hot chocolate. She waved.
‘She completely forgot about us, didn’t she?’ Eddie asked the others.
They nodded.
They peered through the wire fence surrounding the church property.
The old Cathedral was gloomy and gothic. Eddie knew that huge stained-glass windows filled the pointed arches at ground level, but they couldn’t be seen as the building’s windows and doors were firmly boarded up.
‘It’s been closed for years,’ Eddie explained.
‘We can’t let a few bits of wood stop us,’ said DT as he slipped through a gap in the fence and entered the property. ‘We’ve got treasure to find!’
Rusty followed.
Eddie couldn’t shake the feeling that someone was watching him, but when he turned there was just an alley cat staring at him from under the streetlight.
Just being jumpy, he thought. But, it was good to be alert. Senses on high. Danger didn’t send out a warning sign. Eddie’s previous super sleuthing had taught him that.
He followed the others.
‘All the entrances are boarded shut,’ said Rusty.
‘But what about that?’ DT pointed to a stack of wooden pallets and timber boards piled up beside the western wall. ‘It’s begging us to climb it.’
Eddie groaned. More climbing!
DT had a point though. The pallets reached just below the biggest window.
Rusty didn’t need any encouragement. ‘I knew those parkour classes would come in handy one day,’ she said to Eddie as she sprang onto the lowest pallet.
DT followed quickly.
Eddie took a deep breath. He decided to keep reciting the co-ordinates over and over again and to – of course – not look down.
Legs shaking and heart racing, Eddie climbed to the top of the stack. He made sure they distributed their weight evenly once at the top. With a bit of awkward manoeuvring that felt like a life-threatening game of Twister, they were each able to reach the base of the windows. But the windows were all boarded up.
‘I came prepared,’ said DT pulling out a crowbar from his backpack.
‘You’ve got to be kidding,’ said Eddie, ‘you’ve been carrying that around all day?’
‘Nah, I saw it on the ground by the fence,’ DT chuckled and used the crowbar to slowly remove each board. They fell away, making a dim crack as they splintered onto the ground below.
Behind the boards was an enormous stained-glass window made up of five panels, each featuring a different image. Eddie studied each picture. Some had religious images and others were patterns of colour.
The central window stood out to Eddie and he couldn’t put his finger on why. Something rumbled around in the back of his mind. He could almost grasp it but his train of thought was interrupted by DT returning from his search.
‘None of the windows open,’ said DT.
‘That’s it then,’ said Rusty. ‘We might as well just give up.’
‘Yeah, I guess we can’t break in,’ agreed DT.
‘But we’ll never get the next clue if we can’t get inside the Cathedral,’ said Rusty.
Eddie could feel the synapses in his brain connecting and firing: each neuron sending signals to thousands of others. They multiplied across his mind in a cascade of electricity and thought, starting a mental chain reaction that pieced together distant concepts and thoughts.
All of a sudden these ideas SNAPPED together and the storm clouds in his head parted.
‘Maybe we don’t have to,’ he said.
12
LOOK UP!
Eddie pointed at the biggest picture in the window above them. The window showed an image of a hillside covered with trees and red earth. In the centre of the image was a small waterfall. The creek at the base of the waterfall led out to sea.
‘See?’ said Eddie.
‘See what?’ said DT.
‘Doesn’t something look familiar?’
He looked at Rusty.
‘Um … no?’ Rusty shrugged.
Eddie shone his watch’s torch on the window to illuminate it. Two things stood out to him. The red colour of the dirt lit brilliantly by the sun behind it, and the waterfall.
‘It’s Red Hill Waterfall,’ he said.
Rusty’s eyes grew wide as she realised Eddie was right. ‘It is too!’
‘So, is this a clue?’ asked DT.
Eddie nodded. ‘There’s only one way to find out.’
‘HEY! YOU KIDS! What do you think you’re doing?’
A gruff male voice was shouting up at them.
Eddie peered down to see the man behind the voice, and immediately regretted it. The ground beneath him began to sway and he felt dizzy. Two men in security uniforms were glaring up at them.
Uh oh, thought Eddie. We’re in so much trouble.
‘GET DOWN HERE NOW!’
The bigger of the two men began scaling the pallet stack towards them. He was surprisingly fast.
The entire structure shook as he climbed, and Eddie held tight to the rim of the window to steady himself.
Hold on, he told himself.
‘Adventure’s over now, kids,’ said the man as he pulled up level with them. ‘Get down immediately!’
Eddie took one last look at the image of Red Hill Waterfall and began another slow, shaky descent.
‘How did you know we were up here?’ Eddie asked when they had all reached solid ground. He sat on his legs to stop them shaking.
‘Tip from an anonymous caller,’ said one of the security guards. ‘Said they were worried about your safety.’
‘That’s weird,’ said Eddie to Rusty and DT. ‘I didn’t see anyone, did you?’ They shook their heads.
‘We’re in charge of this site,’ said the bigger man, ‘and we can’t have any accidents on our watch. Now clear off, or I’ll call your parents.’
‘Okay, thanks,’ said DT.
‘We’re out of here,’ said Rusty.
They ran out of there as fast as they could before the security guards changed their minds.
The next day, Eddie was gasping for air.
Their school athletics carnival was only two weeks away so they were running laps around the oval in training.
Eddie and DT were at the back of the pack. Rusty had held back to run with them.
‘Don’t you think it’s a little strange?’ Eddie asked between gasps.
‘What?’ Rusty asked, tossing her ponytail in the air as she turned to speak to him. Now she was running backwards, and she was still faster than Eddie.
‘First we were locked in the lighthouse. Then the tipoff that we were at the Cathedral,’ Eddie panted. ‘I think someone is following us.’
‘Nah,’ said Rusty. ‘Nobody knows what we’re doing.’
Arlo Smythe pulled up alongside them. He was on his second lap while they were still on their first.
‘You’d better watch yourself, Eddie Woo,’ Arlo muttered, knocking Eddie off his stride. ‘You wouldn’t want to get hurt.’
Before Eddie could say anything, Arlo sped up and ran ahead.
‘Go, Rusty,’ Eddie gasped. ‘Catch him. Beat him.’
‘Do it for us,’ said DT.
Rusty smiled.
‘Easy,’ she said, quickening her pace.
She caught Arlo and overtook him.
It was a small win but it made Eddie smile.
13
A WARNING
RAIN.
RAIN.
RAIN.
Every single day since they’d found the last clue.
Eddie tried to focus on schoolwork, but it was impossible to think of anything except the treasure hunt. There was no way they’d be able to head into the National Park until the rain stopped.
He looked out the window at the BILLOWING BLACK CLOUDS and sighed.
But the downtime did give him the chance to do some more investigating. Super sleuthing was as much about reading and thinking as it was about being out and about.
He spent Thursday after school at the City Library looking into the history of the Cathedral. An old history journal revealed HJ had been a member of the Cathedral construction committee. He had personally donated funds to finish the construction and was able to choose his own stained-glass window design to be placed in the front of the church.
Eddie thought about the window that looked familiar. He was convinced that it was the next clue in the treasure hunt.
After school on Friday, Eddie took the bus to the Red Hill National Park Visitor Centre and sat in one of the allocated booths with a geology book.
The signature red dirt in the National Park was caused by high levels of iron oxidation in the earth. The same oxidation process happened all around Australia – the outback and Uluru were famous for their rich red hue. But over time the red earth usually turned grey.
Eddie remembered the last time he’d walked in the National Park with his dad. It had taken them about two hours to reach the waterfall from the car park. It had been a beautiful sunny day and he could still picture the view from near the top of the waterfall – all red dirt and blue water streaming down to the sea.
Eddie checked the weather forecast on his phone. The rain was predicted to stop before midnight and Saturday was going to be clear. It would be a bit wet and muddy, but Eddie didn’t want to wait any longer. He texted the others.
Eddie loved reading maps, so he decided to study his dad’s again. You could study a map and learn everything about a place – its vegetation, elevation, location. On a map, everything was just where it should be.
As Eddie unfolded the map on the table in front of him, a small scrap of paper fell into his lap. It had a handwritten message on the side facing down.
He read the message again, his hands growing clammy. Someone was warning them to stop the treasure hunt.
Someone had placed this note inside the map in his bag.
He got out his Super Sleuth notebook and started to make a list of suspects:
SUSPECTS
• Principal Huggett
• Stan, the clockmaker
• Matthew from HJ’s estate
• Richard at the museum
• Abigail from the lighthouse.
Eddie’s mind swirled with possibilities, but nothing seemed to fit. Who would want to stop them? He was meeting Rusty and DT at 6 am the following morning to catch the bus to the start of the waterfall walk. Eddie knew he had to tell them about the message. He also knew they would want to keep searching.
He decided to text them and explain what had just happened.
Eddie glanced out of the window. The rain had stopped completely. If he left now, he could make it home without getting soaked. He returned the book he had been reading and headed towards the door.
Out of the corner of his eye he saw a familiar profile browsing the souvenir shelves. It was Stan. Stan turned, saw him and smiled. Eddie smiled tentatively and waved.
Eddie’s heart raced as he left the building.
Stan? He’s a suspect. Is it just a coincidence that he’s in the same place as me? Or is he following me?
Stan did know an awful lot about HJ. And he had set the whole treasure hunt in motion in the first place. What if Stan had twigged that the hands on the clock meant something more and followed the same trail that they had?
Eddie hailed the bus and tried to calm down.
But he knew he wouldn’t be getting much sleep that night.
14
ON THE TRAIL
The next morning, the world felt washed clean.
Even the ghost gums looked as if they’d had a proper wash, their exposed layers free from dust and dirt. Droplets of water wobbled on the eucalyptus leaves and ferns as they passed.
There was something about the smell of the bush after rain. Eddie breathed in the scent of eucalypt; lemon myrtle mixed in with the salty fresh scent of the sea. They could hear it somewhere through the bush to the east, but they wouldn’t see it until they reached the waterfall.
‘Someone’s been watching us the whole time and now they’re trying to scare us off,’ said Rusty as they walked.
‘But just because someone doesn’t want us to find the treasure doesn’t mean we should stop!’ DT said for the third time. ‘It makes it more exciting.’
‘Or DANGEROUS,’ said Eddie.
‘We’ve abseiled down a lighthouse and scaled up a cathedral all in a week. It takes more than a threatening note to put us off,’ said Rusty.
DT nodded as he munched. He said his backpack was too heavy so it was best he ate most of the snacks now.
