Chapter 4. Ruby's relatives

The rest of the day in school was quiet. After lessons we met in the school yard and went straight to "Craigend".

Matron was in her office. She looked tired and upset.

'Is everything so wrong?' Liz exclaimed sympathetically.

'Yeah,' Matron sighed. 'Someone broke into "Craigend" last night. Luckily the residents are okay. They don't even know about it. The thief rummaged only in the storeroom, where you'd worked, so I decided not to tell them.'

We glanced at each other. Matron led the way into the storeroom. The door was locked, as usual.

'They got in through the window, that you'd broken,' Matron explained. 'And it's weird, but they didn't even try to unlock the door to steal something from "Craigend".

'Oh, I'm so sorry!' Liz exclaimed. 'It's our fault. We shouldn't have opened that window.'

'No, Liz dear,' Matron objected. 'It isn't your fault. No one blames you.'

'I wonder why anyone would want to break into a storeroom,' Richelle said, puzzled.

'I don't know,' Matron sighed. 'I don't think there were expensive things to steal.'

'There were,' Elmo objected. 'For example, the rare old books of the Craigend family are priceless. A collector of books could give a fortune for them.'

Matron shrugged and unlocked the door. We all came into the room. There was an incredible mess. We looked around in horror. It was difficult to believe that someone could turn the whole room upside down just in one night. Everything from the shelves and drawers was lying on the floor, shuffled.

'Yeah,' I drawled. 'It's impossible to find anything in this mess now.'

We shuffled our feet, not knowing what to do. Papers, documents, books, folders weren't just lying everywhere, it looked as if the robbers shuffled them on purpose.

'What did they steal?' Liz broke the silence finally.

'I can't say for sure yet,' Matron answered. 'It's difficult to notice what they stole in such a mess. I thought you would help us to find what had been stolen, using your account books.'

'It looks like they looked for something,' Nick said suddenly, thoughtfully looking around the room.

'You're right,' Elmo nodded. 'It looks as if the robbers took a book, leafed through it and threw it on the floor. Then they did the same with the next book.'

'Okay,' Matron sighed. 'I'll leave you alone. I have a lot of things to do. The relatives of the Craigend family are arriving tomorrow.'

'Sure, you can go,' Nick nodded impatiently. He was desperate to get rid of Matron and read the article in the book that we'd found the day before.

'If anybody wants me, I'll be in my office,' Matron said and went out of the storeroom.

As soon as she closed the door behind her, Nick rushed towards the pile of books where we'd left the book with the plan, and started to rummage in the books and magazines.

'No,' finally he said, disappointed. 'The book isn't here.'

'There's no need to worry,' Liz objected. 'We'll find it. The book must be lying somewhere in this mess. I don't think the robbers stole this book. Who could want an old, boring book about rich people?'

'Besides, this book wasn't rare,' Elmo added. 'I'm sure you can find it in every library.'

'A lot of people could want this book,' Nick muttered. 'I want this book. I told you, we should have taken it away yesterday.'

'Stop grumbling!' I yelled at him. He glared at me and opened his mouth to say something, but Sunny quickly interfered.

'Stop arguing, you both. We have no time for it,' she said firmly. 'Now. Tom, Liz, Elmo and I will name everything what is lying on the floor. Nick and Richelle will find things in their lists of things and mark. Let's go.'

She took a deep breath, sat down on the floor, grabbed a folder and started to enumerate everything what was in it. We did the same. We took things from the floor, named them and orderly stacked them up. Nick and Richelle looked up everything what we dictated in their lists, and marked them as "found".

We'd been working for about two hours, but the book with the plan hadn't been found yet.

'I told you, we should have taken it yesterday,' Nick began to grumble again.

'Don't make a fuss, we'll find it,' Elmo replied, taking papers from a folder and looking through them. 'Look, Nick,' he started to dictate. 'There is a sheaf of complaints against Mr Craigend from a neighbor.'

'Oh! I read these complaints yesterday!' Liz exclaimed. 'Probably this neighbor was a quarrelsome man. He wrote such awful things about Mr Craigend.'

'Okay, okay,' Elmo took another folder.

In an hour everything in Nick and Richelle's lists was marked as "found". We found everything, except the book with the plan. We stared at each other.

'Let's look through the books again,' Liz suggested doubtfully.

'What for?' I shrugged. 'We've already looked through every single book, every single folder.'

But all the same we quickly looked through the books, we'd just sorted out.

'The book disappeared,' Elmo said, puzzled. 'Everything else is here. Could the thieves have broken into the storeroom for only this book?'

'It's quite weird of them, don't you think?' Richelle sighed, putting her lists aside. 'You said that this book wasn't rare or valuable. Just an old, dusty book about noble people.'

'She's right,' Liz nodded. 'I leafed through this book yesterday. There was nothing interesting except the plan. Just old pictures of famous mansions and their owners.'

'The plan!' Nick opened his eyes wide. 'What if it was the plan what the robbers was looking for.'

'The plan?' I sneered. 'I wonder who could know that there was a plan of Raven Hill and "Craigend" in that book. And who could know that there was something important on this plan? Even Matron knows nothing about it. Let alone other people.'

'We know about it,' Nick objected. 'And anyone else could know.'

We fell in silence. Could the plan be connecting with Ruby's mystery? Why not? I had to agree with Nick. Someone could know about the plan in the book. But who?

'It could be one of the residents,' I suggested. 'They could know. Especially if they've been living here for a long time.'

'Why didn't they steal the book earlier, then? Why wait so long?' Elmo shook his head.

'Besides, resident could have taken the book without attracting attention,' Nick supported him. 'If someone volunteered to sort out old books here, Matron wouldn't mind.'

At that time the door opened and Matron came in.

'How is it going?' she enquired.

We told her about the missing book. She didn't seem very upset. 'One missing book is all right,' she said, looking around the room with satisfaction. 'I'm so grateful to you! You've done a terrific job! You can go now,' she said. 'The carpenter will repair the shelf stand on his own.'

'If you want so,' Nick grinned happily.

'Now let's go to my office and I'll give you your money,' Matron said.

'No,' Liz, Elmo and Sunny protested. 'You have so many problems. We can't accept this money.'

Nick and Richelle gloomily stared at them.

'No, I want you to accept it,' Matron insisted. 'You deserve it. You've done so much work.'

We followed her into her office and she handed an envelope with money to Liz. At that moment we heard the sound of arriving car and voices. Matron looked through the window and frowned.

'Wait here,' she said to us and went out of the office.

'Listen, I hope you're not going to look for this stupid book?' Richelle stared at us expectantly.

'There's nothing to look for,' Liz sighed. 'Obviously the thieves stole the book. I don't think we'll see it again.'

'But Ruby wrote about a mystery,' Elmo didn't agree with her. 'And we have the first plan from the diary. We just must think where to find the answer.'

'Yeah,' Nick drawled. 'I wish Ruby described the mystery instead of her stupid love.'

'Her love wasn't stupid at all!' Liz exclaimed indignantly. 'Ruby described her feelings so poetically.'

'Okay, poetically,' Nick agreed. 'But all the same, the mystery is much more interesting.'

'You're so cold-hearted,' Liz looked at him pityingly.

'I'm not cold-hearted, I'm businesslike,' Nick objected. 'Look. An old plan of "Craigend" and Raven Hill flew out of Ruby's diary. Then we found the same plan in a book about noble families. Then someone broke into "Craigend" and stole exactly this book and nothing else. Why? What for?'

'But they stole the book!' I exclaimed. 'It means that they needed it.'

'Yeah,' Nick snorted. 'That's all what we know.'

We heard voices in the hall. Matron put her head around the door and beckoned to us. We followed her. In the huge hall room we saw Mrs Drisk-Haskell, elegant and good-dressed as usual; a swarthy, big-boned woman in her fifties and a very fat man with a bushy mustache and ginger, frizzy hair around the shiny bald spot on the top of his head. They sat in soft armchairs and chattered.

'This is the relatives of the Craigend family,' Matron whispered to us. 'They arrived earlier than we expected. This woman is Ruby's cousin. The man is her husband.'

We nodded.

'This is my young friends,' Matron said out loud. 'They often help me with "Craigend".'

'It's very nice of them,' the woman said in such a deep and hoarse bass voice.

'It's quite difficult to meet kind and unselfish young people nowadays,' the man added in a thin shrill voice

I tried hard not to break into laughter when this huge, fat man started to speak in a voice of a little girl. Liz and Elmo politely covered their mouths with their hands. Sunny did worse. She snorted and clutched at my hand, trying to stifle the urge to laugh. Nick and Richelle managed to stay calm, smiling politely.

Matron introduced us to them. Then she stretched out her hand to the swarthy woman and said, 'This is Amelia Turner, Ruby Craigend's cousin, and her husband William.'

The woman and the man nodded at us indulgently.

'I thought you're also Craigend,' Liz said, surprised.

'Craigend is my maiden name. Now I'm Turner,' the woman replied, looking at Liz pityingly, as if she wondered how someone couldn't understand such an elementary thing.

'I see,' Liz seemed to be satisfied with her answer.

'Are you descendants of noble families, too?' Mr Turner squeaked.

'Alas, Mr Turner,' Mrs Drisk-Haskell shook her head. 'They're just teenagers from plain families. Some of them are even children of immigrants.'

'Ohh,' Mr Turner looked at us pityingly.

'I'm glad to visit this place,' Mrs Turner barked. 'I was born here and spent my childhood in this mansion. It was a wonderful place at those days. My grandfather owned a lot of lands here in Raven Hill.'

'But we don't have anything now,' suddenly Mr Turner took a great offence. 'All what we had is in other people's hands now. The mansion, the land and everything else.'

'Oh, you're absolutely right!' Mrs Drisk-Haskell exclaimed with sincere remorse. 'Your mansion is occupied with old people. Our houses are on your land. Oh, it's so awful to know that we're all invaders!'

'That's it, Mrs Drisk-Haskell,' Mr Turner nodded tactlessly. 'The most part of this suburb belonged to my dear wife and her family and everyone who lives in these houses, is an invader.'

'I'm not an invader,' I put in indignantly. 'We didn't seize these lands! We just live here.'

Nick dug me in the ribs, but it was too late. Mr Turner's bold head went bright red.

'If I were you, young man, I'd be quiet!' he yelled, panting. Then he broke off and started feeling his pulse. 'My blood pressure is very high,' he glanced at his wife fearfully.

'That's because of the heat,' she replied. 'Let's go out into the garden.'

'Oh sure, you'll feel better outside,' Mrs Drisk-Haskell nodded. 'I guess you're glad to visit the place where you ran and played when you were a little girl. You used to play with Ruby in the Glen and in the garden, I suppose.'

Mr and Mrs Turner pressed their lips together and exchanged glances.

'Ruby was much older than I, so I didn't play with her,' the woman said coldly. 'But of course I'm glad to be here,' she added coldly.

'Let's go to the garden,' Matron suggested, noticing that tension was growing. 'The table is set for tea in the Gazebo.'

They stood up and went over to the door.

'Let's go out of here,' Nick whispered. 'I don't want to have tea with them.'

'Neither do I,' I agreed.

'But we can't just go away without saying goodbye,' Liz protested. 'It's impolite.'

We went out into the garden and headed for the gazebo in order to say goodbye, when Mrs Drisk-Haskell stopped us.

'I want to ask you,' she looked at us. 'I want to present a bunch of lilacs to Mrs Turner. Cut a few lilacs branches, please,' she pointed at lilac bushes near the back part of "Craigend".

This part of garden belonged to the Glen, that's why the grass there wasn't mowed and bushes weren't cut. So it was quite difficult to reach the lilac bushes. We came up to the wall of bushes and stopped.

'So?' Mrs Drisk-Haskell stared at us expectantly.

'I won't go there,' Nick muttered sharply.

Drisk-Haskell glanced at him with disgust, but didn't say anything. Richelle didn't go there either, of course. Liz, Elmo, Sunny and I glanced at each other and started to make our way through knee-deep grass and thick bushes.

'Stupid Turners,' I muttered, cutting a branch with flowers. 'I feel insects falling down on me.'

'Shh,' Sunny shushed.

'No, no! Not these flowers,' Mrs Drisk-Haskell shouted. 'I want you to cut those flowers,' she pointed at another bush. 'Those white ones.'

On the way to the white lilac bushes we came across a wall of thorn bushes.

'Damn!' I cried when its big thorns scratched my arm.

'Be careful,' Elmo warned me. The next moment he screamed with pain and grabbed his leg. 'My foot,' he groaned.

As it turned out he trod on a stick with long thorns, which pierced through the sole of his sneaker and jabbed into Elmo's foot.

Finally we reached the clump of white lilacs.

'Cut only beautiful and lush flowers,' Mrs Drisk-Haskell kept commanding.

'I can't believe that we're doing this for the sake of these rude, superior Turners,' I went on grumbling.

'I can't believe that Ruby Craigend could have such a rude, superior cousin,' Liz whispered.

Ruby Craigend was an elegant and refined woman. We didn't know her, but we heard much about her from Matron and Miss Plummer. And it was difficult to believe that delicate Ruby could have such a rude and ill-bred sister.

'Hurry up!' we heard Mrs Drisk-Haskell's cross voice.

'She seems to think that we're her slaves,' Sunny said very quietly.

Finally we cut a few branches of white lilac flowers and crept out of bushes. While we brushed ourselves off and pulled leaves and twigs out of our hair, Mrs Drisk-Haskell grabbed the flowers from Liz's hands and handed them to Mrs Turner.

'Very beautiful flowers. Thank you,' she nodded indulgently to Mrs Drisk-Haskell. Then without saying a word to us, she pulled out a cigarette, lit it and rakishly blew a puff of smoke out of the corner of her mouth. 'Come on,' she turned to Matron. 'I'd like to drink a cup of tea.'

We quickly said goodbye and strode out of the garden, before they invited us to join them.

'Cool relatives,' Nick laughed when we went quite far from "Craigend". 'I nearly burst into laughter when this huge fatty started to speak in such a thin voice.

'I felt worse,' Richelle complained. 'I tried my best to keep myself quiet, but she,' Richelle dug Sunny in the ribs, 'bent down her head and snorted.'

'I couldn't help myself,' Sunny snorted.

'I pinched my arm, trying not to laugh,' Liz giggled. 'Especially when Tom said that he wasn't an invader.'

'Hey,' suddenly Nick stopped smiling. 'Mrs Turner said that she grew up here. What if she knows about Ruby's mystery? Ruby could have told her about the mystery.

'Even if she knows, they won't tell you,' Sunny grinned. 'They both don't think much of us.'

'Yeah,' Elmo frowned. 'They think that we're not worthy of them.'

'All the same, we can try to find out if they know the mystery,' Nick insisted. 'I'm dying to know what a terrible events could happen here.'

'Me too,' Elmo nodded. 'That's why I suggest that we should visit them again tomorrow.'

'What for?' Liz looked at him doubtfully. 'I don't think Mrs Turner will tell us about her childhood here and about Ruby's mysteries. Besides we don't even know if they know the mystery.'

'Well we can try, can't we?' Elmo said. 'We should unostentatiously ask her to tell us about the mansion and Ruby, and to elicit as much information as possible. I think Nick will be able to cope with it. He can charm people and make them speak.'

'Yeah, he can,' all of a sudden Richelle filled with pride. 'He can brainwash anyone if he wants to. Sometimes it's difficult even to remember what you were talking in the beginning of conversation.'

'Oh, thanks a lot, Rich,' Nick grinned.

'Take it as a compliment,' Liz smiled.

'I've got another idea,' I put in. 'Ruby Craigend was a friend of your grandfather's, Elmo. Right? And she wrote in her diary that she was going to tell her friends about the mystery. So your granddad knew about it for sure. He could have written something about it in his letters, or in the first newspapers or somewhere else.'

'Right!' Elmo beamed. 'Why didn't I think of that? You're right, Tom. Let's go to the Pen office.'

We spent two hours in the library in the back of the Pen building, rummaging in old letters, documents, the first issues of the Pen, but didn't find anything connected with the terrible mystery, Miss Craigend had mentioned in her diary.

'I'm out of here,' Nick said finally, standing up and stretching his back. 'There's nothing about the mystery here. Even if your grandpa knew about it, Elmo, he didn't leave anything here.'

'Well it's all right for me,' Richelle said.

'Probably they're right,' Liz admitted reluctantly. 'We'll never know about this mystery. So we'd better think about our exams. The school year is finishing soon.'

'You go. I'll stay here for a while and look through the folders in dad's office,' Elmo said.

The others shrugged and went home. I stayed with Elmo. Firstly I wanted to help him. And secondly Brian was at home that evening and I'd rather rummage in old documents than spend time in his company.

We looked through every single folder with documents in Zim's office, but didn't find anything.

'Nothing,' Elmo sighed, closing the last folder and putting in on the shelf. 'Nick was right. Granddad didn't write about it.'

He thought for a while, nibbling his bottom lip. Then he grabbed his bag and pulled out the plan, we'd found in Ruby's diary. He flattened it out on the table and we both stared at it. There were a lot of little crosses and pictures all over the plan. Pictures meant places, it was obvious. But what did crosses mean?

'Look,' Elmo said and pointed at centre of the plan. 'This is "Craigend". This cross probably means the front entrance. And that one means the back door.

'Yeah,' I mumbled. 'And this is a fountain near the front door and there is a cross on it. But now there's no any fountain near "Craigend".

Elmo nodded impatiently. He didn't need my help. 'Probably it was removed,' he said. 'And even if there was a door inside the fountain, we wouldn't be able to find it now. But look here, there's one cross inside "Craigend". But now it's difficult to understand where exactly. The inside of the house had been changed a lot.'

'There are two crosses quite far from "Craigend",' I said. 'Do you think it could be entrances into the tunnels?'

'Maybe,' Elmo nodded. 'Oh, I wish we had the newer plan from the stolen book,' he struck his hand against his knee. Probably we could learn more if we compared them.'

'Let's go home,' I yawned. 'It's late.'

Elmo nodded and stood up. We went outside and slowly wandered along the street, discussing the plan and the mystery on the way.

'I'm starting to think that Nick was right,' Elmo said. 'The thieves, who had stolen the book, probably knew something about the mystery and the plan.'

'Mystery, mystery,' I grumbled. 'I'm already sick of this mystery. Maybe we should forget about the mystery.'

'Are you going to give up?' Elmo stared at me in disbelief.

'No,' I grinned. 'I just want to say that the mystery isn't the main point. Ruby wrote that this mystery had happened in one of the secret tunnels, her grandfather had built. So we must just find these secret tunnels. Then we'll be able to work out the mystery.'

'You're right,' Elmo nodded slowly. 'Yeah, Tom, you're absolutely right. We concentrated on the mystery, while we should have concentrated on the tunnels. Maybe we'll learn something about the tunnels from the Turners tomorrow.'

'Maybe,' I agreed.