Chapter 1. Ruby's diaries

The day was really hot. I wiped the sweat from my forehead with the back of my hand and looked at the others. The whole gang – Nick, Liz, Elmo, Sunny and Richelle – was here, in the little storeroom in the back part of "Craigend", the old people's home. The Craigend family was one of the most prominent and rich families in Raven Hill, they owned a lot of land in the old days. We often visited "Craigend" and got on with Matron, who was our constant client. This time she asked us to make an inventory of old things of the Craigend family. Miss Ruby Craigend, the last member of the family, had this house turned into a retirement home many years ago. Since then old things, documents and books, belonged to the Craigend family, had been piled in a small storeroom in the back part of the house behind the kitchen. Matron always wanted to sort out them, but she always had a lot of other things to do and had no time for it. Finally she decided that Craigend's things didn't deserve to be piled in a closet and that was when she thought of us, Teen Power Inc. And here we are, in the small, stuffy storeroom with only one tiny, dusty window, sorting out the old, dusty things and writing down their names into the account books.

I guess all these things would have been quietly lying here for many years, and no one would have remembered about them, if some distant relatives of the Craigend family hadn't decided to visit Raven Hill. When Matron heard about it, she decided to decorate "Craigend" with things from the storeroom.

Sunny came into the room, dragging a very old stepladder. We needed the stepladder to reach up to the top of the shelf stand, because the shelf stand there was very tall. So we decided that Sunny, as the most adroit and smallest member of the team, would climb on the top of the shelf stand and hand the things to me, one by one. My task was to stand on the top of the stepladder, take things from Sunny and pass them to Nick, who had to stand on the middle step of the stepladder and pass the things to the others. We decided to put all things from the high shelves on the floor and only then to write down them into the account book.

'Stop dawdling, Tom,' Sunny smiled at me.

I smiled back. Sunny's a good friend. I can trust her. Melanie's picture floated in my mind and I felt as if a cold hand squeezed my heart. I always felt this when I thought about Melanie and her betrayal. I had met Melanie in the night club and fell in love with her at first sight. I remembered how I was waiting for her and accidently saw her kissing with another guy. She just started dating with another guy without even telling me about it. I've never thought that feelings can hurt you so much. But Mel was a really cool girl, though my friends didn't agree with it. They'd never said it of course, but I knew it. Sunny was the only one I had told about Mel's betrayal. I didn't want the others to know about it. Although I was sure that they knew. In Raven Hill High gossips spread very quickly.

I shook my head. I should get her off my mind. Nothing good would come of it. But it was so difficult to forget her. I shook my head again and forced myself to concentrate on the job.

I rushed to Sunny and helped her to drag the heavy stepladder over to the shelf stand.

'Okay, I'm going,' she said and climbed up the steps. The old stepladder began to rock threateningly.

'I guess this ancient stepladder also belonged to the Craigend family,' Nick snorted.

'I don't know if it's one of Craigend's things,' Elmo muttered, grabbing the stepladder and trying to make it stand steadily, 'but it isn't new. It's a fact.'

'Of course it isn't new,' I grinned. 'This thing looks as if it can ruin any moment.'

'Sunny, don't climb there,' Liz began to worry. 'You can fall.'

'I'm okay,' Sunny replied calmly. 'Don't worry, Liz. Just hold the ladder tightly.'

She quickly climbed up on the top step of the ladder, crept onto the shelf stand and sat down on the dusty shelf.

'It's okay,' she said down to us. 'This shelf stand is quite steady. Tom, climb up.'

Frankly I didn't feel like climbing there at all. For one thing I was allergic to dust and I always was afraid of heights. And for another thing, this ladder didn't seem reliable to me. But I sighed and started up the steps. When I reached the middle step, the ladder started to rock so violently that I nearly fell down. I stopped and clutched the rails of the stepladder for dear life.

'Hold it tightly,' I shouted to the others.

'We hold it, don't be afraid,' Liz and Elmo assured me. 'Obviously the floor isn't level here, that's why the ladder is rocking.'

'You know, Tom,' Richelle said crossly, sitting on a chair as far as possible from the dusty shelf stand, 'Matron climbs up and down this stepladder all the time, without any help. But you, a big guy, are afraid, though two people are insuring you.'

'Shut up!' I snapped. 'If you're so incredibly clever you can climb there then.'

Richelle gave me a superior glance.

'I can't climb up there,' she said. 'I'm in the skirt.'

She wore a pretty, but very short skirt today, which emphasized her long, beautiful legs. As if she's come at a party, not to work, I thought with irritation. 'I don't mind if you climb up in your skirt, Richelle,' I said out loud.

'No way,' Nick growled. 'Don't show off, Moysten. Climb up, will you? I don't want to be here all day.'

I started to climb up the steps quickly.

'Hey, Tom, slow down a bit,' Elmo panted from below. 'The ladder is rocking, we can hardly hold it.'

'You're hard to please,' I muttered as I climbed on the top step. 'Climb quickly, climb slowly.' I tried to stand upright, but at that moment the stepladder rocked so violently that I nearly stumbled down.

'Damn!' I clutched at the shelf. Probably people feel the same when it's an earthquake.

Nick climbed on the third step of the stepladder, counterpoising it with his weight. 'Is that better?' he asked.

'I don't think so,' I grumbled.

'Let's get it over with,' Sunny said and handed a pile of books to me.

I let go of the shelf and reached for the books. The stepladder immediately started rocking from side to side.

'Hey, stop that, you idiot!' Nick barely kept his footing.

'Now you know how I feel,' I sneered mischievously.

I clutched at the shelf again. 'Hold it tightly,' I yelled down to Liz and Elmo. Clutching at the shelves I slowly stood upright. Now I could stand on the top of the stepladder more or less steadily. I'd say I felt even comfortable, if it hadn't been for my fear of heights.

'That's better,' I said down to the others, taking the books from Sunny and passing them to Nick. 'At least nothing is rocking here. This shelf stand is so old,' I went on chattering. 'As you know most of ancient things are everlasting and…' I didn't manage to say what I wanted to say because at that moment there was the loud crack of breaking wood. Sunny yelled. Huge clouds of dust flew to the ceiling. Then I felt the ground quake under my feet. Liz and Richelle squealed.

A moment later their voices were muffled by an awful crash. Something hit me on the head and I guess I lost consciousness, because the next thing I knew, someone was shaking my shoulder.

'Tom, are you okay?'

I opened my eyes. Liz and Elmo bent over me.

'Where am I?' I asked weakly.

'You've fallen from the stepladder,' Elmo explained gently. 'The shelf stand suddenly started to break. Nick managed to jump from his step, but you didn't. And everything from the shelves fell right onto you.'

'You were falling so terribly,' Liz looked at me, her face was completely pale. 'I was afraid that you'd break all your bones.'

I tried to move with my arms and legs. They moved. It's a good sign.

'I'm okay,' I sighed. 'My body is just aching all over, but nothing's broken.'

I sat up and looked around. Nick stood aside, brushing dust off his clothes and muttering something under his breath. Richelle helped him, looking anxious.

I struggled to my feet. 'Sunny, are you okay?' I looked around. Sunny wasn't anywhere in sight. I looked up. 'What?' I yelled.

There was no shelf stand any more. The old shelf stand turned into a huge pile of magazines, books, folders, statuettes, boxes and wooden boards. 'Sunny!' I squealed in horror and rushed to this pile.

We found Sunny under the pile of books and magazines. Her face was very pale. She didn't seem to breathe.

'She isn't breathing,' I bent down to her chest.

'Sunny!' Liz squealed.

'Don't stand like a log, ring the ambulance,' I roared to the others. 'Quickly!'

'No,' Sunny groaned weakly. 'Don't ring the ambulance. I'm okay.'

I helped her to sit up. She leant back against the wall, groaning and checking herself out.

'I'm okay,' she mumbled. 'It was just a faint.'

Liz rushed to her and gave her a tight hug. I sighed with relief. Luckily Sunny's so agile. If someone else had been on her place, he or she would have ended worse.

'You're a clumsy idiot, Moysten,' Nick grumbled.

I didn't answer, just rubbed my leg. 'Damn, it's aching,' I muttered.

'You deserve it,' Nick grinned mischievously. 'Who asked you to use these ancient shelves as rails? You could kill Sunny and me.'

'What's up?' Matron stormed into the room. 'My God!' she said quietly, looking around at the great mess. 'Oh, I'm so sorry! If only I knew that this shelf stand is so weak! I wouldn't ask you to work here! Oh, you could be seriously injured!'

'We won't give up now,' I said in a tone of a warrior, who'd got his first experience of fire.

'We can't leave this mess and just go away,' Liz added.

'That's the point,' Matron sighed. 'The relatives will arrive soon. I can't imagine what they'll think of us when they see this mess.'

'Matron, we'll clean the room, don't worry. But could we open the window?' Elmo asked. 'It's so hot and stuffy here. And dusty now.'

'I don't know,' Matron shook her head. 'That is I don't mind, of course, but I've never opened this window. But you can try of course.'

Elmo came up to the window and twisted the handle. But no matter how much he jerked it, the window didn't open.

'Tom, you go outside and push it from there,' Elmo commanded.

'I don't think it's a good idea to ask Tom to do something after what he's done with the shelf stand,' Nick drawled. 'At best he'll just break something again, at worst we'll all blow up together with "Craigend" and its residents.'

'Drop dead, Kontellis,' I grumbled and limped towards the door.

I came out into the garden, walked round "Craigend" and found the proper window. It wasn't very difficult. I put my hands on the window and started to push it. At the same time Elmo pulled it in the room. At first nothing happened. But then the situation changed very abruptly and unexpectedly. The window threw open and I flew into the room, cannoned into Elmo and we crashed down onto the same pile of books and magazines from the shelf stand. My body acquired a few new bruises and grazes.

'I reckon I've done enough physical exercises for today,' I muttered, scrambling to my feet.

'You manage to open this window!' Matron exclaimed admiringly.

'Yeah,' Nick drawled. 'Tom's opened it. But I'm afraid you'll never close it now.'

He bent down and picked up the broken handle.

'I'll call the carpenter,' Matron said doubtfully and went out of the room.

'Okay guys, let's go back to work,' Sunny started to collect old folders.

I sighed and began to help her. So did the others. Suddenly a small piece of paper flew out of Liz's folder. Elmo bent down to pick it up.

'Hey! Look here!' Liz exclaimed. 'It's a diary,' she opened one of the notebooks in the folder. 'Wow! It's Ruby Craigend's diary.'

'What is this then?' Elmo asked quietly.

He was holding a piece of paper, where something like a site plan was drawn. Nick came up to him and had a closer look. 'It seems familiar,' he drawled thoughtfully.

'Yeah,' Elmo nodded, studying the plan. 'Look. This is the park. This is the harbor. And this is the church,' he said, pointing at the little pictures on the plan. 'And the graveyard near the church. Listen,' he whispered, 'it's the plan of Raven Hill. And "Craigend" is in the centre.'

'What!' Liz exclaimed, opening her eyes wide.

'Elmo's right,' Nick whispered excitedly. 'Look, there're many crosses all over the plan.'

'This plan flew out of Ruby's diaries,' Elmo said. 'It's weird. Maybe we can find other interesting things there?'

'Maybe,' I nodded.

'Tell you what,' Nick looked at us, his eyes alive with curiosity, 'let's take this folder away from here. I'm sure we'll find something interesting there.'

'I don't think Matron will mind. I'll ask her,' Liz suggested.

'She won't mind, of course,' Nick nodded. 'But I don't want to attract attention. Let's see what's in this folder and then we'll just return it on its place.'

'It'd be better,' Elmo agreed with him. 'I don't think Matron will notice if one folder from this mess disappears,' he added quickly, noticing that Liz frowned disapprovingly. 'Don't forget that Ruby Craigend was a friend of my grandfather's. And my grandfather liked mysterious stories.'

Having received such encouragement, Nick quickly shoved the dusty folder into his backpack.

We went back to work. We decided to split into two groups. Liz, Elmo, Sunny and I sorted out things, dictated their names, state and number of things to Nick and Richelle, and orderly stacked them up. Nick and Richelle sat on convenient chairs and wrote down what we dictated into the account books.

Finally we decided to finish the job for the day, said goodbye to Matron and went outside. We walked round "Craigend", strolled along the garden and into the Glen, the patch of bush between "Craigend" and Raven Hill Park. We settled down on our clearing and Nick pulled the folder out of his backpack.

The folder was old and dusty. There were six thin notebooks inside. I grabbed one of them and opened. The flourish writing on the first page read: "May 21, 1936. Miss Ruby Craigend, sixteen years old".

'Wow!' I breathed, leafing through the diary.

The others took a notebook each. All of them were Ruby's diaries. Struggling through the old orthography and flourish handwriting, we tried to find something interesting. In Richelle's notebook was a description of Ruby's school days. Nick was reading about the journey to an old auntie. Elmo was reading about Ruby's closest friends – Alfie Bigge, Elmo Zimmer, and Pearl Plummer. Pearl was still alive. She lived here in "Craigend" and Liz visited her every Friday. Elmo Zimmer was Elmo's grandfather. Liz was reading about Ruby's overseas journey.

I had the most romantic part of the diary, where young Ruby wrote about the secret and unrequited love for her friend Alfie Bigge.

'Rubbish,' I muttered finally, completely exhausted by her flourish handwriting.

'What's there?' Sunny enquired.

'About love and nothing more,' I explained. 'Nothing about the plan.'

'About love?' Liz grabbed my notebook. 'But it's the most interesting part!'

'Hang on,' I stopped her. 'Let me read my part to the end. Then you can read this ancient soap opera as long as you want.'

I turned a few pages, but didn't find anything interesting for me.

'Hey,' Elmo yelled suddenly. 'I've found something about the plan.' He fell into silence again, with his nose stuck in the notebook. We all stared at him expectantly.

'So?' I exclaimed impatiently.

'Wait a minute,' Elmo waved me away. 'Listen. "Our old house steward Alex told me a story today. From his words I concluded that my grandfather, who'd built this mansion, was afraid of thieves. He ordered to dig a few secret tunnels, which he could use to escape if someone attacked the house. A few secret tunnels had been dug. Alex even gave me the plan of these passages. As he said, it was the last copy of the plan. All other copies were burned. Although Alex likes to stretch the truth, you shouldn't believe in everything what he says. But it doesn't matter. The main thing is that I have got this plan. I'm looking forward to telling my friends about it. Elmo will be over the moon. He loves such mysterious stories. He wants to be a journalist when he grows up. I'm sticking this plan here, just in case. By the way, Alex also told me about a terrible mystery, which had happened in one of these passages. But I'll write about it later. My Mum is calling me. I have to go."' Elmo stopped reading.

'Don't stop, Elmo!' Liz pleaded. 'Read further.'

'I can't,' he spread his hands. 'The diary is over.'

'No!' I grabbed the notebook from his hands.

Elmo didn't lie. There were several blank sheets in the notebook, but young Ruby Craigend didn't write anything anymore.

'We should check every notebook and every folder in the storeroom tomorrow,' Nick said. 'Probably other parts of the diary are in another folder.'

We just looked at each other and nodded silently.