Read Online In Search of the Time and Space Mach by Deborah Abela - Free Book Online Page B

you were helpless, I was just opening the door for you.’
    â€˜Well, you don’t need to. We’ve got a case to solve,’ said Max as she walked into the building.
    Linden stared after her and sighed.
    Max walked to the elevator as Linden stopped and looked around the foyer. He’d never been in such an expensive-looking place.
    â€˜You’d have to be really loaded if you wanted to live here,’ he said.
    The elevator doors opened and Max stepped in.
    â€˜Come on, let’s go,’ she interrupted Linden’s inspection of the foyer.
    On level nine they found flat 907. Francis’s flat.
    Just as Max was about to knock, Linden stopped her.
    â€˜What are you going to say to him?’ he asked.
    â€˜I don’t know. I haven’t thought about it yet,’ Max replied.
    â€˜Shouldn’t we have a plan?’
    â€˜Do you have one?’
    He didn’t.
    â€˜Just do it and we’ll take it from there,’ he suggested.
    Max swallowed hard and knocked.
    They could hear the sound of a chair being moved and footsteps walking heavily across the floor. They both took a deep breath.
    The door opened a crack and was stopped by a chain. A pair of beady eyes above a whiskered chin looked down at Max and Linden.
    â€˜What do you want?’ the man grumbled.
    Max was hoping this narky old man wasn’t Francis.
    â€˜We’re, um, looking for our uncle,’ Max stammered. ‘He lives in this building.’
    It was obvious the whiskered man didn’t like people knocking on his door.
    â€˜What’s his name then?’ he said angrily.
    â€˜Francis Williams.’
    The man’s eyes opened wide in fright.
    â€˜Never heard of him,’ he snapped, and slammed the door shut.
    Linden looked at Max.
    â€˜I guess we said something he didn’t like. Let’s try one of the others.’
    Max knocked on the door of flat 911.
    An old lady opened the door and smiled at them.
    â€˜Hello there, what can I do for you?’
    â€˜Hello,’ Max said in her best and most polite voice. ‘We were wondering if you wouldn’t mind helping us.’
    â€˜I’d be delighted. What can I do for you? Are you selling biscuits or something?’
    â€˜No, we’re looking for our uncle. He lives in this building but we’re not sure which flat.’
    â€˜I’ve lived here for twenty-five years,’ the old lady said proudly. ‘If anyone knows your uncle it would be me. What’s his name?’
    â€˜Francis Williams,’ said Linden.
    You would have thought Max and Linden had set a python loose in her flat the way the old lady’s face twisted up with fear.
    â€˜I don’t know him,’ she said, her voice suddenly icy.
    She began to close the door but Max put her foot in the way to stop it.
    â€˜Please. You’ve got to help us. We’re from Australia and it’s very important we find him.’
    The old lady looked up and down the corridor to make sure no one was listening. ‘Your uncle got himself into some terrible trouble,’ she whispered. ‘And one day some men in suits came and took him away.’
    â€˜Why would they do that?’ asked Linden, frowning.
    A door nearby opened and a man in a suit walked out. He nodded at the old lady and stepped into the elevator. The old lady looked nervous and when the elevator doors were closed she said quickly, ‘All I know is that one day he lived here and the next day he didn’t. I can’t tell you any more. Now please, go away.’
    The old lady closed her door and the sound of ten locks being set echoed around the empty corridor. It was obvious she knew more than she was saying. Finding Francis wasn’t going to be as easy as she thought, but Max wasn’t going to stop until she had done it.
    She turned to Linden.
    â€˜Something spooked the old lady and thewhiskered man when they heard Francis’s name, and we have to find out