Half Moon Investigations - Eoin Colfer [14]
April shut the computer’s lid and faced me. If she had been pink in school, now she had gone into pink Overdrive. She was wearing so much pink that it cast a glow on to the walls.
‘Pink!’ I blurted.
I was treated to a twirl. ‘I know. Isn’t it fabulous? Us girlies love pink. It’s the essence of femininity.’
I was starting to feel that at least some of this pinkness was for my benefit.
May took two bottles of chilled water from the fridge, handing one to me.
‘Nice place,’ I said.
‘Dad built it for me so that I can practise my dancing. He really wants me to win a medal or something.’
‘I’m sure you will. Some day.’
How could I say that? What a crawler.
April changed the subject. ‘We should talk about my case. How much of your valuable time does that ten euro buy?’
This was it. The big time. ‘I charge a fee of ten euro per day. Plus expenses. But, because this is my first real case, I’m going to waive the expenses. And because of school and homework, it generally takes me about three days to put in a full day’s work. So I’m all yours until Sunday.’
April took out her wallet and peeled a ten-euro note from a roll. If she became a regular customer, my rates would have to go up.
‘Now I own you for a week.’
I had to think about this for a moment. April was not the noble kind of client I had always imagined. Her father was not a kidnapped professor, nor was she searching for a missing orphanage fund. But on the plus side, this case was about the Sharkeys, and she did have a big roll of cash.
I took the money, slipping it into my breast pocket. Now I could buy my own chocolate, instead of accepting it as payment. The note felt good in my pocket. It made me feel like a real private detective.
‘OK. That’s the formalities out of the way, now what do you want investigated?’
April opened her mouth to answer, but May spoke first.
‘Are you sure, April? You know, Fletcher is not a bad person. He could get in trouble.’
April glared at her. Her glare was so intense that you completely forgot she was wearing pink.
‘Of course I’m sure, cousin. Why don’t you go and do your Riverdance thing and let me worry about Fletcher? He’s supposed to be this great big detective.’
‘April is right,’ I said reassuringly to May. ‘Trouble goes with the shield.’
April and May stared each other down for a long moment, like two Manga girls about to throw lightning bolts. For some reason, May didn’t want me involved. Maybe she thought I was stupid, or maybe she was actually worried about me. Whatever the reason, I was more intrigued than ever.
Once their eyeballs dried up, April and May called off the staring match and settled for not talking to each other. May continued to irritate April by taking off her hard shoes and drumming them on the worktop.
April waited for a break in the shoe tattoo before starting her story.
‘The Sharkey’s are major pains,’ she began. ‘They must have stolen a million things from people, which is totally illegal.’
A million and one, I thought.
‘I don’t care about this usually,’ continued April, “cause it happens to other people who are not me. But a couple of weeks ago, the Sharkeys stole something from moi.’
I pulled a small spiral notebook from my pocket. ‘How do you know it was the Sharkeys?’
April’s eyes widened and I noticed she was wearing pink eyeshadow. ‘’Cause I know, OK, Half Moon.’
I shook my head in a wise sort of way.
‘Just knowing isn’t evidence, April.’
April wasn’t in the mood for wisdom. ‘I don’t have video evidence or anything, but I just know. Plus, don’t take that tone with me, like I’m a baby or something. You may be older than me, but I am cooler than you times infinity, so that cancels out the years.’
I was about to argue further when I remembered that I just knew Red had taken my shield.
‘OK. Tell me what happened.’
‘I bought a lock of Shona Biederbeck’s hair on eBay.’
I swallowed a smirk. Had April just used the words bought and hair in the same sentence?
‘It’s laminated and the plastic is autographed. It meant more to me than anything.’ April hugged an imaginary