Half Moon Investigations - Eoin Colfer [71]
‘Quick as you can, Half Moon.’
I barely noticed the nickname any more. It was the least of my worries. To be honest, I liked it now. It was like a battle scar.
The pupils were recorded alphabetically, and by year of enrolment. I flipped the pages forward until I came to the names I was looking for.
‘Well?’ asked Red.
My pulse began to race. I had seen something. My eyes blurred with excitement and my hands shook. Of course. Of course. Idiot. Moron. Call yourself a detective?
‘Shut up,’ I hissed at Red. An offence punishable by a severe Chinese burn not so long ago. ‘I’m thinking.’
It was all there in the pictures. The dancer. The karaoke queen. The DJs. But I needed to be sure. I flicked back the pages to fifth class. There was See-saw with a little dancer drawn beside his name. Then third class. There was Gretel Bannon. And after her name, a scrawled recorder. She was a musician. I checked the rest of the names. My theory was sound.
‘It’s the talent show,’ I whispered, as though speaking aloud would break the spell, shatter my deductions. ‘You were all in last year’s talent show. May and See-saw danced. Mercedes did the karaoke. Johnny and Pierce were DJs. Julie Kennedy and Gretel Bannon were musicians. You did your Elvis bit.’
‘Bit?’ said Red, miffed. ‘It was more than a bit. I’ve had offers. Anyway, you weren’t in the talent show.’
I closed the ledger. ‘Don’t you see? We were a two-for-one. When my attacker got me and blamed you, I was off the case and you were suspended.’ I snatched the talent show line-up from Mrs Quinn’s notice-board. ‘They’re all out of the show except May, even though he burned her lucky costume. He’s probably going to go after her again.’
‘He’d better hurry up,’ noted Red. ‘The talent show started twenty minutes ago.’
My knees almost gave way, and my voice rose a panicky octave.
‘Tonight. It’s on tonight?’
Talent shows were not the kind of thing I kept track of. Bernstein would be disappointed with his star pupil. A good investigator should keep abreast of everything.
‘Yep. I was going to do “Love Me Tender” before you came along.’
I rubbed my forehead. Cobbling a plan together.
‘You’re still doing it. May is not safe. We have to get in there.’
‘How? I’m suspended from school.’
‘Technically this is an extra-curricular event, not held on school property. Only the community centre committee has the power to ban Elvis from the building.’
We left the office the way we had found it, carefully replacing the pane and rubber. Five minutes after we’d gone over the fence, the only sign that we had ever been there was the confused blinking of Larry and Adam.
MOON SEES THINGS AS THEY REALLY ARE – FINALLY
Nothing is guaranteed to pack ‘em in like a kiddies’ show. The Lock Community Centre was jammed with little stars and their extended families. Some of the performers had entourages that would put an A-list movie star to shame.
Cars were jammed into the car park so tightly that it seemed as though they had crashed. Body heat pulsed in waves through the hall’s open windows.
Red had texted his backing singers, and they met us at the stage door in full sixties regalia. Luckily the costumes had already been prepared, so all the Sharkeys had to worry about was hairdos. Genie’s hair was piled atop her head in a rock-hard beehive. She wore a spangled minidress with elbow-length gloves and heels so high they looked like little ski ramps. Herod was there too in black sunglasses and stick-on sideburns.
‘You really look the part,’ I said, trying to be friendly.
Herod swivelled his hips and shot me with two finger guns. ‘Well, thank you very much.’
‘All you need to do is get me inside. After that, go on with your act as normal. I need to watch May, make sure nothing happens to her.’
Red frowned. ‘I’ve been thinking about that, Half Moon. Nothing really happened to May.’
I knew what Red was thinking, and I wanted to nip it in the bud. ‘Her lucky dress was burned, Red. I call that