Read Online Sleuth on Skates by Clementine Beauvais - Free Book Online Page B

letter . . . before he let her out of the cupboard—and Mum believed it!”
    â€œReally, Sesame, you’re so unfit,” said Gemma. “You sound like a tired Labrador.”
    â€œI . . . have . . . a stitch . . .” I stopped. “Mr. Barnes, I have a stitch which might very well tear up my stomach if I go on running. Can I stop please?”
    â€œNo.”
    I started again. “Jenna . . . did not have a . . . ouch! a nervous . . . breakdown! She . . . was . . . kidnapped!”
    â€œBut why would Professor Philips go through all the trouble if he was going to release her?” asked Toby. “And why didn’t she go straight to the police once she was free? It doesn’t make sense!”
    â€œHow . . . can you speak . . . so smoothly . . . when running? We have . . . to find out what they were up to. . . . Maybe they threatened to kill Jenna . . . if she said anything . . . to the police.”
    â€œThat’s absurd,” said Gemma. “No one ever kills anyone in this city. I’m sure it wasn’t the same letter. Maybe Professor Philips is dyslexic too!”
    â€œNo . . . way! Jenna . . . was forced . . . to write this letter . . . just as I’m being forced . . . to run around this stupid track. And I’ll . . . prove it.”

    But before I could prove it, we had lunch. Well, technically, no one apart from Toby had lunch. We just stared at our plates hungrily and refused to eat. Over in the corner, Mr. Appleyard was looking at his hands a bit meekly.
    â€œAre you sure you’re not hungry?”Toby asked, spluttering bits of cabbage. “It’s really good!”
    â€œI’m giving my wounded stomach a rest,” said Gemma pointedly.
    â€œYeah, dunno what it was about the Fitz yesterday,” retorted Toby. “Must have been bacteria in the air.”
    Gemma and I threw a dubious glance at him. “Or maybe it was something in the food,” she answered pointedly.
    â€œBut we only ate my dad’s food,” remarked Toby, “so it can’t have been that.”
    â€œRight. By the by, Sesame,” said Gemma, “I brought you the new program for the ballet. They reprinted them all without Jenna’s name! You’ll come and watch it,right? Friday’s the first night!”
    â€œOf course, I’d love to,”I lied as she rummaged through her bag. “You’ll come too, Toby, won’t you?”
    â€œI’d rather pull out my own toenails with a pair of rusty pincers,” he replied.
    â€œGreat. Thanks, Toby,” said Gemma. “Look, Sess, here it is.”
    She handed me the new brochure. Still the same layout on the front page, with that C in a circle—that’s where I’d seen it first! What was it doing on Fiona’s hoodie and on the Happy Ducks catalogue?
    Inside, on the first page, was the same pompous picture of Edwin. And on the next page were a picture and a blurb of the lead, Odette, played by —
    â€œAnastasia Vance?” I looked blankly at Gemma.
    â€œYeah, apparently, Stacy is just a nickname. Her real name’s Anastasia. Bit of a mouthful, I guess, that’s why she shortens it.”
    â€œWhash you chalking about? Anashtasia?”Toby intervened, munching on a greyish slice of roast beef. He failed to cut through it with his teeth, so we waited for him to swallow, watching his neck swell up and deflate again in the manner of the boa constrictor gobbling up a small elephant. “I watched it the other day when you abandoned me. You should have stayed with me and watched it too.”
    â€œWe’re talking about a person, not about your smelly film,” said Gemma.
    â€œIt