Half Moon Investigations - Eoin Colfer [38]
‘Don’t have a freak attack, Half Moon,’ she said when I began hyperventilating. ‘It’s only henna. It’ll wear off in a few weeks.’
I lifted my arm, reading the tattoo.’“Don’t X me”?’
‘Don’t cross me,’ corrected Genie, slightly miffed. It s a cross.
I was grateful that my other arm was in a cast, or heaven knows what the Sharkeys would have done to it.
Red elbowed his way into my reflection, draping an arm round my shoulder.
‘Do you remember, at the sports field? You said that being me would be easy?’
I nodded. I remembered.
‘Well, now’s your chance to prove it.’ Red held me at arm’s length, grinning. ‘Welcome to the family, Half Moon,’ he said.
I hadn’t just bent the rules of investigation, I had stomped on the manual, shredded the pages and burned the strips. Instead of being the discreet detective on the shadowy outskirts of the case, I had become the case. My involvement was changing things. Now my own future depended on the outcome. This case was no longer just a job, it was my life.
I tried to concentrate on the facts, but images of my parents crept into my thoughts.
Twenty-four hours, I told myself. Twenty-Jour hours.
If I didn’t use this day to solve this crime, then I would always be seen as the crazy Moon kid who went around starting fires and playing detective. I decided to do what I always do when life won’t leave me alone. I lost myself in my iBook.
The Sharkeys had broadband. Not because they paid for it, but because they were piggybacking on a neighbour’s wireless modem signal. I opened my Internet browser and logged on to the police site. In a few keystrokes I was downloading all the September cases that were not related to the Sharkeys. I hadn’t done this at home because it would have taken hours with a regular modem and tied up the phone line. With broadband it took less than five minutes.
I searched through the files, looking for something unusual. Something an adult might view as trivial. I speed-read for half an hour until the phrase ‘chocolate report’ caught my eye. That was nothing if not unusual. I opened the file and read the following statement:
Complainant:
Maura Murnane. 18 yrs. Female.
I had been off the chocolate for ages. Six months and three days, that’s half a year. The trick is to avoid the stuff. There was none in the house. I never went to the shops alone and Mam made me leave the room during the adverts on TV. I was in the local paper as slimmer of the year.
Chocolate. I was off it. Staying away from it. Then one day, it just started showing up. I woke up and there was a Mars bar on my pillow. I thought I was dreaming. I closed my eyes, but when I opened them again, there it was. Looking at me like a chocolate kiss. Like the sweetest good morning you ever had. I jumped out of bed and ran downstairs. I thought it must be a joke. My little brother maybe. Not a chocolate bar at all. Otto is like that. Once he tied my dog to the bumper of a bus. Mam threw the Mars bar away, but the next morning there was another one. And the next, and the next. It was like the chocolate fairies were stalking me. But I resisted. I was very good. So Mammy moved into my room, to try and catch whoever was planting the Mars bars. But there were no more Mars bars. And I thought that was the end of that, until one day at lunch, I made a sandwich. Brown bread, lean ham and low-fat mayonnaise. I left it on the table, but when I bit into it – ten seconds later, I swear – the ham had been replaced with After Eights. They were lovely, even with the mayonnaise. I’ve been hooked on those sandwiches ever since. Mayonnaise and After Eights.
There was a note underneath tagged on by the investigating guard.
This is not a priority one case. The girl’s mother made her complain. Possibly Maura is sneaking herself chocolate and invented this mysterious After Eight man to stay out of trouble.
I, on the other hand, was not so sure. Another one of Lock’s youth had been hit in the weak spot. The list was growing: April, May, Red, MC Coy, Maura Murnane and, of course,