Half Moon Investigations - Eoin Colfer [48]
My cover was falling apart. I had to become a Sharkey. And fast.
I smashed my fist on the table. ‘Call me law enforcement one more time and you’ll be picking those bullseyes out of your ears.’
Ernie relaxed. ‘Sorry – no offence. What do you want to know?’
‘The iPod. Did you steal it?’
‘Course not. Not my style. They never found it either. Little Miss Perfect points the finger and they all believe it. It’s a tragedy of justice.’
‘Travesty.’
‘That too.’
Red took out the bag of sweets we had stopped off for. He rolled a single bullseye across the table. ‘Yeah, but, Ernie, you’re always crying it wasn’t me. How can we believe you?’
Earnest tucked the sweet into his cheek. ‘I don’t care what you believe, Red. It’s the truth. I wouldn’t know what to do with that pod thing. I just take sweets or cola. Stuff like that. Stereos are more my brother’s area. Les Jeunes Étudiantes had it in for me, so I had to go.’
I wrote that down. ‘They had it in for you? Why?’
‘I dunno. Their head honcho, Devereux, cornered me in the yard one day, going on about how boys are ruining their education and how it’s got to stop.’
This didn’t sound like the Jeunes Étudiantes I knew. April and Co. were more interested in pop stars than pop quizzes.
‘Ruining their education? How?’
Ernie tapped the table. Red rolled another bullseye across. It disappeared just as quickly as the first one.
‘Me and the boys would be having some fun, you know, hiding the teacher’s books, setting the paper basket on fire. Harmless fun, and April says we’re interfering with their lessons. Can you believe that?’
I tried to appear sympathetic. ‘The cheek.’ A good investigator gains the interviewee’s trust however he can.
‘Yeah, one day, after I’ve superglued the teacher’s desk closed, April Devereux gives me this piece of paper. There’s nothing on it, and she says that’s what’s in my future if I don’t stop disrupting the class. She says it’s a warning. The next week an iPod goes missing and Mercedes swears she saw me selling it at the school gate. I offer to turn out my pockets and there’s twenty euro in there. I dunno how it got there. Honest.’
I closed my notebook. It was a solid lead, if it was true.
‘This is a solid lead, if it’s the truth,’ I said to Red.
Red passed the rest of the sweets to Ernie, who crammed at least six of them into his mouth.
‘Ernie, you know me. You know my family.’
‘Mmhuh,’ said Ernie.
‘I believe what you say. I’m going to act on this information. If it turns out to be a pack of lies, Roddy is coming over here for a chat.’
Ernie stopped chewing. The bullseyes collected in his mouth like ball bearings in a vase.
‘Ish the trush. Brick mish musht cell.’
Red was satisfied. A sportsman like Ernie would never break the marble code.
THE YOUNG STUDENTS
It was beginning to look as though my employer had more to do with events than she let on. I decided to pay her house a visit, except this time she wouldn’t know I was coming. But first, Red and I headed back to Chez Sharkey to pick up a few tools of the trade.
When we arrived, Herod was seated at the kitchen table sifting through a pile made up of two Mercedes wing mirrors, a digital TV dish, a trawler’s global positioning box and six Bob the Builder videos.
He glanced up at us. ‘Look at this. Fifty smackers’ worth right here. People just leave this stuff lying around.’
Red rattled the digital dish. ‘Bolted to their roof is hardly lying around, is it, Roddy?’
Herod grabbed the dish. ‘What do you care? I’m just doing what Sharkeys do. I don’t think you’re a Sharkey at all. I think you must be adopted. Last week I even saw you reading that horse book, Black Beauty’
‘You did not,’ protested Red. ‘Well, so what if you did. Reading is better than robbing!’ He pointed to the stash. ‘This has all got to go back.’
‘In your dreams. Who are you going to tell? Your new best friend, Half Moon here? Or his best friend, Sergeant Hourihan?’
‘It’s your funeral,’ sighed Red. ‘I’ll write to you in prison. Unfortunately you won’t be able to read it.’ He nodded at me. ‘Come on,