Read Online The Mask of Destiny by Richard Newsome - Free Book Online

away from this lot.’ She whipped a tea towel off a platter of steaming sausage rolls, pies and pasties.
    â€˜Go on,’ she said to Sam. ‘Don’t hold back. There’s no bad manners in a working kitchen.’
    Sam didn’t hesitate. He snatched up a sausage roll and bit into the pastry, sending a shower of flakes down the front of his shirt.
    â€˜Mmmph,’ he mumbled. ‘Del-ish-us.’
    Mrs Rutherford piled a small basket with a selection of pastries and handed it to Ruby.
    â€˜Here,’ she said. ‘A little picnic for you. Fancy thinking people would want to eat parsley and sheep’s bits.’
    Gerald thanked Mrs Rutherford and tried not to laugh at the sight of Mr Fry laying a clean white handkerchief across his lap before nibbling on a piecrust.
    â€˜Come on,’ Gerald said to Sam and Ruby, ‘let’s take this back to my room.’
    The lift stopped on the fourth floor and they were halfway up the hallway towards Gerald’s bedroom when they saw her. The woman was dressed in a black cat suit, complete with triangular ears on her head and a mask covering her eyes. She was at the end of the corridor, one slender leg out the window and about to step onto the neighbour’s roof.
    Gerald couldn’t understand it. What was a party guest doing climbing out a window?
    But then his eyes caught a flash of red in the woman’s hand. A corner of leather poked from her clenched fist. The jewellery roll from his bedroom. The ruby!
    â€˜What are you doing?’ It was all Gerald could think to say.
    The woman glanced down at the leather pouch in her hand and shoved it inside a pocket.
    â€˜I thought you might be otherwise detained, Gerald,’ she said, in rounded tones. ‘This changes things a tad.’
    Gerald baulked. How did she know his name? And what did she mean ‘otherwise detained’? Then he saw a glint of silver in her hand. Something shiny. Something sharp.
    Without warning, the woman flung out her fist. In the blur of movement, Gerald sensed something coming at him, fast. He dived to the wall, crunching hard into the flocked velvet wallpaper. A dart shot past his ear, missing him by millimetres. Gerald slid to the floor and took a second to recover from the impact. ‘She’s got the ruby,’ he called out.
    Sam lunged for the woman, but she was already out the window. Gerald joined Sam at the sill and caught a glimpse of the woman, slinking around a chimney pot and away into the night.
    â€˜She moves like a cat, too,’ Sam said.
    Gerald rubbed his shoulder where it had hit the wall. ‘She must have come in with the other guests,’ he said.
    Ruby’s voice came from back in the hallway. ‘You two need to see this.’ She was standing by a potted palm tree. As they watched, the deep green of the trunk turned a mottled grey, then it sagged to the floor. Ruby pointed to its base, out of which stuck a silver fountain pen.
    â€˜Somehow, I don’t think that was dipped in ink,’ she said.
    Sam went to pluck out the pen but his sister pulled his hand away. ‘Wasn’t Inspector Parrott downstairs? I think we need to get him. Now.’
    Gerald stared at the tree—it looked like it had been gassed. ‘Wait on,’ he said. ‘I want to check something.’ He raced down the hall to his bedroom and came out a second later, carrying his beaten backpack.
    â€˜The drawing of the castle is still here,’ he said. ‘The ruby is the only thing missing.’
    â€˜How would anyone know you had it?’ Ruby said.
    â€˜Beats me. But she somehow knew where to look. Let’s go get the inspector.’
    Gerald jabbed at the lift button, glared at the still-closed doors, then made for the stairs. They rounded the landing to the third floor, and were about to launch down the final dozen stairs to the second floor when Gerald skidded to a stop. Sam and Ruby piled into the back of