Read Online Novel - Half Moon Investigations by Eoin Colfer - Free Book Online Page A

bit I was flat on my back and Red was kneeling on the crooks of both elbows. There was barely enough time to be scared, but I did manage to squeeze it in.
    “You’re not getting it,” he said, still reasonably calm. “I don’t want to be on or off any list In fact, I want you to burn the list. Leave me alone, Half Moon, or you’ll be sore and sorry.”
    I believed him. Not a doubt in my mind.
    May tried to help. She beat Red on the back with an empty cola can. “Get off him, Red Sharkey. You’re not impressing anyone. I’m sorry now I tried to help.”
    Red looked up at May. For a moment something new appeared in his eyes. Something like anguish.
    “It’s hard enough already, May,” he said. “Being a Sharkey is hard enough, with my family the way they are. I’m trying, you know, but what chance do I have with everyone in this town bad-mouthing me? And now Half Moon is jumping on the wagon.” He tucked the hurl under my chin like a violin. I could feel it against my Adam’s apple. “I’d like to see you try to be me for a day, even an hour. Little weird Fletcher Moon, poking around in other people’s business. I bet your biggest problem is which pencil to write with in your stupid little play-detective notebook.”
    In spite of the situation, I felt anger of my own thumping inside my chest. Don’t get me wrong, most of me was terrified, but there is a steel fist of stubborn pride inside me that punches its way out every now and then, especially when someone belittles my profession.
    “I could live your life,” I grunted, each word a struggle because of the pressure on my throat. “I could go around bullying smaller people. I could steal stuff that doesn’t belong to me. And you know what? I’m smarter than you, so I could get away with it, too. But you couldn’t do what I do. You couldn’t find a clue if it was wearing a T-shirt that said ‘I’m a clue.’”
    This was a long speech, given the circumstances, and pretty well put together, too. Not many kids would have stood up to Red Sharkey like that. Of course, when I say stood up , I don’t actually mean stood up literally. Emotions flicked across Red’s brow, as though his brain was channel hopping. He went through amazement, fury, and sadness among others, eventually settling on a blank expression that reminded me of the one Mel Gibson did in Braveheart , just before he cut some English guy’s throat.
    “That’s what you think?” he growled, and the words did seem to come from the back of his throat. “You think all I do is bully and steal?”
    “You think I play at being a detective?”
    “It is a game,” shouted Red, pulling me to my feet. “A baby’s game. You go around playing detective, and innocent people suffer.”
    I pulled away from him. This was too much hogwash for anyone to bear.
    “Innocent people like you, I suppose?”
    Red gave me his standard-issue charming grin. “Exactly.”
    I decided to cut the chase. “Just give me my badge, Sharkey. Give me the badge and the hair thing, and I can close the book.”
    Red grabbed my shirtfront, dragging me toward him. It was classic hard man stuff, almost an act.
    “I didn’t take your stupid plastic badge, or the hair. So close the book right now, Half Moon. Close it or else.”
    Or else what? I wondered, but I never found out, because May’s dad pulled up in a station wagon. He opened a window and called to Red.
    “Show some backbone, Sharkey. That boy is barely up to your waist!”
    Red had never taken orders well. As far as he was concerned this was between him and me, and none of Gregor Devereux’s business. So rather than release me, he lifted me higher until my shirt tightened at the back, and I was forced to rise to my tippytoes.
    I often wondered what would have happened then, if Gregor Devereux had been forced to actually rescue me, but it never came to that, because we had a bit of a movie moment.
    Something that sounded like a really big lion purred down the