Half Moon Investigations - Eoin Colfer [19]
I got the decks for my seventeenth birthday. Record decks. Got them sent from Germany, special. You should see the amount of bubble wrap that came out of those boxes. You could wallpaper your house with it. Nothing like them in the country. The arms are balanced down to the last gram. I don’t put vinyl on those decks unless it’s been brushed. I make the young lads wear surgical gloves when they’re mixing on ‘em. You never know what those fellas have been scratching, if you know what I mean.
I generally unleash the decks on the public every Friday in the community centre. I can mix so smooth you’d barely know you were listening to a different song. The girls love me, or they will when I get the braces off. But last Thursday I did the school junior disco, as a favour to the lads who idolize me. It was a good night too. I did a bit of rappin’ myself. I call myself MC Coy, ‘cause of my name. It’s clever, isn’t it? Well, I think it is.
I was a big hit that night. The kids were all questions about my rig. The dads were impressed too.
After the show I went out to the van with a box of vinyl. When I came back, someone had stripped down the decks. They were lying on the tables like jigsaws. Laid out real neat. Not smashed or anything. They were fine, except for one thing. Well, two things. The needles were missing. Someone took the needles. It’s gonna take me a month to get another set from Germany. That’s at least four gigs, you know. Popular culture in Lock could collapse.
Someone wanted me off the circuit for a month. That’s what happens when you have talent. But MC Coy will be back, better than ever. I’m using the time to grow my hair a bit so I can have braids put in. In a month’s time, MC Coy is gonna tear the community centre up like a hurricane. Not really, you know. Because I could get in trouble for that and my mam would ground me.
I closed the file. Were the youth being targeted for some reason? Was Red the link between MC Coy and April Devereux? Or was someone else behind this mini crime spree. I needed more subjects. I opened the next file and began to read.
By the time I called it quits, the birds were whistling outside my window. After half an hour trying to sleep, I was beginning to take the whistling personally. By the time I dropped off, my curtains were backlit by a dawn glow. I slept on top of the sheets, the bed strewn with sheaves of paper.
I woke at noon to the sound of metallic pounding. Hazel was starting the weekend at the typewriter, as usual. We would all be subjected to several sonnets on the subject of Stevie before the day was over. I dressed quickly in black, stuffing the Hawaiian shirt deep into the wardrobe.
Mam and Dad were waiting for me at the kitchen table. I could tell by the sudden silence that they had been talking about me.
‘How was your little date, honey?’
I selected some fruit from the basket. ‘It wasn’t a date, Mam. It was a business meeting. I’m helping April out with a little puzzle.’
Dad put down his paper. ‘Really? What is it?’
‘Sorry, Dad. Client confidentiality.’
Dad smiled. ‘Nice try. Client confidentiality only applies if you’re licensed by the state. I want details.’
I smiled back, then covered it with a growl. Sometimes it was a pain having a smart dad. But I enjoyed our verbal battles.
‘April has lost a keepsake that’s very important to her. She wants me to find it.’
‘So what’s your strategy?’ asked Dad.
I hesitated. If my parents knew the extent of my investigation, I would be grounded for all eternity and banned from any activity that contained the letters D-E-T-E-C-T-I-O-N.
‘I’m going to conduct a few interviews. See if any of April’s friends know anything.’
Dad nodded. ‘Good idea. Did you check behind her couch?’
‘Not personally, Dad, but April did.’
Mam smoothed my hair. ‘Did April like the shirt, honey?’
I sighed. ‘No, Mam. She didn’t. There are people in space who didn’t like that shirt.’
*
I arranged to meet April and her pink posse by the