Read Online Matty and Bill for Keeps by Elizabeth Fensham - Free Book Online

never have to see him again. There’s nothing to worry about.’ Mrs Townsend reached down to help Isabelle up.
    â€˜Don’t you touch our girl!’ cried Mrs Farquay-Jones.
    â€˜Very well. Stay where you are, Isabelle. But I’d be obliged if you would answer Mat’s questions, Mr and Mrs Farquay-Jones.’
    With Isabelle screaming like a squadron of fighter jets breaking the sound barrier, Mr Farquay-Jones said over the top of the noise, ‘Her hands were tied with a silk scarf. She was blindfolded with another silk scarf and there was rope around her legs.’
    â€˜Where did the scarves and the rope come from?’ asked Matty.
    â€˜I know what you’re up to, you nasty girl!’ yelled Mrs Farquay-Jones, clutching at the silk scarf that was draped fashionably around her neck. ‘Don’t say another word, dear!’ she commanded her husband.
    Isabelle was still on the floor, but she’d heard this exchange and was now silently waiting to see what her father said.
    â€˜No harm in answering that, darling. The scarves are my wife’s and the rope was something I had lying around – in the laundry cupboard, I think. That delinquent over there must have stolen them.’
    â€˜Stolen the scarves from where?’ pursued Mat. ‘Where were the scarves, for instance?’
    Mrs Farquay-Jones called her husband an ‘idiot’ and then refused to answer a ‘child’s question’.
    Sergeant Smith said, ‘It’s a pretty simple question. Where do you keep the scarves?’
    â€˜In a hat box on a shelf in my bedroom cupboard,’ she muttered.
    â€˜And when and how would Crispin have found the scarves and this rope if he’d only visited for the first time that very night and he only re-entered the house after he’d tied up your daughter?’ asked Sergeant Smith.
    â€˜I don’t know. He just did, that’s all.’
    â€˜Is that it, Matty?’ asked the sergeant.
    â€˜That’s it from me, but the Union rep has some questions for everyone.’
    â€˜Ask away, Bill,’ said the sergeant. ‘But be quick about it.’
    Bill had been so impressed with Matty’s cool-headed performance that he didn’t have time to get nervous about his role.
    â€˜I’d like to ask you, Crispin, what you think about oysters?’ he asked.
    â€˜I detest them. They make me want to puke,’ said Crispin quietly.
    â€˜Liar!’ shouted Mrs Farquay-Jones. ‘We saw with our own eyes the way you scoffed down those oysters.’
    â€˜Did you scoff those oysters, Crispin?’ asked Bill.
    â€˜No, I didn’t. I pretended to. I secretly dropped them into my pocket through sleight of hand.’
    â€˜Aunt Victoria,’ said Bill, ‘are you aware of Crispin’s magician skills? Can he use sleight of hand?’
    â€˜As a matter of fact, he’s very adept at magic tricks,’ said Aunt Victoria. ‘He taught himself those skills during long British winters when he could hardly venture from his tower.’
    â€˜What has dropping oysters into your pockets, you ungrateful boy, got to do with our Isabelle’s ordeal?’ asked Mr Farquay-Jones.
    â€˜Because Crispin needed to get out into your garden to empty his pockets,’ explained Bill.
    â€˜True or not, that has no bearing on how our girl came to be tied to a tree,’ said Mr Farquay-Jones.
    Mr Slark nodded his head and took down more notes. He’d had barely anything to do; Bill wondered if Mr Slark had to look busy in order to earn his money. He then seemed to see his chance to appear useful. ‘Did you or did you not tie Isabelle to that tree?’ Mr Slark asked Crispin.
    â€˜I suggested it to Isabelle as a sort of game. She liked the idea and she was the one who got the scarves and the rope and . . .’ Crispin paused.
    â€˜And what? Finish, lad!’ commanded Mr Slark.
    â€˜And Isabelle wanted