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  ‘Shut up, Boges,’ I ordered, ‘and just listen.’

  ‘Hey! You’re right. I can hear it too,’ said Ryan.

  ‘But where is it coming from?’ asked Boges. ‘Outside somewhere? It doesn’t sound like it’s upstairs.’

  ‘Amazing that the sound penetrates down here,’ I said. ‘But I can’t make out any words.’

  ‘Let’s go take a look,’ said Ryan.

  We retraced our steps back into the house, and climbed straight up to the lookout room overlooking the sea, trying to get a fix on where the voice might have come from.

  I looked out the window and immediately noticed someone moving around near the back of Perdita. The person came fully into view. ‘Curly is snooping around down there! What’s he up to now?’

  ‘Let’s find out,’ Boges said.

  ‘Don’t let him out of your sight,’ I hissed, as we hurried down the front hall. We watched as Curly headed for the bush track that led to the beach.

  We followed and peered over the edge of the cliff to see Curly making his way down the steps. We watched him all the way down until he reached the sand. Then he seemed to be poking around with a long stick that he’d picked up.

  ‘He’s looking for something,’ I said, ‘in the rocks down there.’

  ‘Let’s get down there and check out what he’s up to,’ said Ryan.

  It wasn’t so hard getting down the cliff this time, and although I was worried that Curly might look up and see us coming, there didn’t seem to be much danger of that. He was completely absorbed in what he was doing—looking around the big boulders that were strewn along the base of the cliff.

  Finally, the three of us landed quietly on the beach some distance away from Curly, whose stooped figure was still probing and prodding between the rocks. Cautiously, we approached, keeping low and some distance behind him.

  ‘Don’t move,’ I whispered to the others. ‘He’s calling someone on his mobile.’

  ‘We need to listen in,’ Boges pointed out.

  ‘You’re right. But I think only one of us should get closer—less chance of being spotted. I’ll go,’ I volunteered. ‘You two stay here.’

  Crouching down, I crept closer until I found a large boulder and ducked behind it. I had a good line of sight to Curly, who was sitting on a rock not far from me, talking loudly on his phone. I turned and beckoned to the other two and they snuck over to join me.

  ‘People have already died trying to find it,’ we heard Curly say. ‘I don’t want to be next.’ There was a long pause as he listened. Then, ‘It’s supposed to be somewhere here but I can’t find it. It’s just a pile of rocks.’

  Boges nudged me. ‘That was the voice we could hear in the cellar,’ he hissed. ‘It must have been Curly.’ Boges’s voice fell silent as Curly’s voice continued, ‘What am I supposed to do about it?’ he asked the unknown caller. ‘They’re all here and they’re not leaving.’

  The person on the other end must have said something that annoyed Curly because he angrily shoved his phone in his pocket, stood up and started to stride away, turning in our direction while we flattened ourselves on the sand behind the boulder.

  He walked straight past us only a small distance away, head down, muttering. Yet all the time, those hard eyes were scanning the beach.

  I nudged Boges. ‘Let’s find where he hangs out when he’s not scaring his wife in the shop.’

  Keeping well back, we set out to follow him, all the way along the beach.

  ‘People have died trying to find—what?’ Boges asked. ‘Was he talking about the shipwreck? Is it supposed to be somewhere here near these rocks?’

  ‘I don’t know,’ I said, keeping an eye on the distant figure at the other end of the beach and hastening my steps. ‘But we mustn’t lose him.’

  ‘He’s been watching us the whole time and he doesn’t like that we’re still here. Because we’re in the way,’ Ryan said.

  ‘It’s pretty obvious,’ said Boges, ‘that he’s working for whoever he was talking to. Curly is only an employee.’

  ‘Hey, look!’ I said as we came round a bend. ‘He’s heading up the hill to that house way over there.’

  We stood and watched as Curly disappeared into a modern glass and concrete mansion. It stood standing by itself in a commanding position on the northern headland of Deception Bay, facing out to sea.

  ‘So the question is, who lives there?’ I said.

  9:07 am

  Following carefully behind, we made our way up until we were hiding in the bushland that surrounded the mansion.

  I edged closer, keeping some cover between me and the house. Luckily, we were approaching from the side, away from the road to the village out in front. There was nowhere to hide on the neat lawns now between us and the house.

  ‘Check out the security cameras,’ said Boges, pointing to the small black boxes on each corner of the building. ‘This is high-grade security.’

  As we watched, one of the garage double doors slowly started rising and we strained to see who might be driving the red sports car backing out. But once out of the garage, the driver gunned the motor and screeched off down the side of the building and onto the road, too fast for me to get much more than a fleeting glimpse. They took off towards the village in a cloud of dust.

  ‘Same driving school as Harriet,’ chuckled Ryan to himself.

  ‘Did you get to see who it was?’ I asked.

  ‘Too quick for me. But I’m betting it wasn’t Curly,’ said Ryan.

  ‘Let’s take a closer look at the house,’ Boges said.

  Staying down, the three of us ran over to the garages, now closed again. Pressed against the wall, I sidled up to a window and peered through.

  It was a lounge room, with a few magazines piled on a table, comfortable chairs and a bright purple rug on the floor. Everything was quiet and still. But in a mirror on the far wall, I saw the reflection of a woman with short, spiky hair, her back to us, in the adjoining room, sitting at a desk.

  I was staring at this reflection when a door flew open with a bang and I nearly died of fright as a huge Doberman came bounding through. I bolted. I barely saw the man who was racing after the dog.

  ‘Hey, you little punks! Get off this property! What do you think you’re doing here?’

  Over the sound of the dog’s furious barking, I could hear the pounding of Boges’s and Ryan’s feet behind me as we crashed into the bushland.

  ‘Split up!’ Boges yelled, and we did—with me racing straight ahead, Boges and Ryan peeling off to the left and right.

  Branches and sharp twigs tore at my face and arms, snagging my hair, but I kept running and finally the sound of the dog’s barking started fading. I saw the boys ahead of me and raced up to join them where we caught our breath.

  ‘I think I just lost ten years off my life,’ said Boges, doubled over and panting. ‘That dog was the last thing I was expecting.’

  Just as he was catching his breath again, his mobile rang. He slowed his breathing as he answered. ‘What is it, Mum?’ he asked. Then I saw his face flicker with concern. ‘Sure,’ he said. ‘I’ll leave right away. I should be back in a few hours, OK?’ He hung up.

  ‘What is it, Boges?’ Ryan asked.

  ‘It’s Gran. She’s had to go to hospital. Mum needs me. I’m sorry guys, I’ll have to go back to the city.’

  ‘That’s too bad,’ said Ryan, ‘on both counts.’

  ‘I hope your gran’s OK,’ I said.

  ‘I hate to go—’ Boges began but I took his arm.

  ‘You’ve got to go, no question, Boges,’ I said. ‘Family is so important. Your mum needs you.’

  ‘It’s only for a day or two,’ said Boges. ‘Mum’s not really good at filling out official forms—she finds the language difficult sometimes. Plus she’ll need me to drive her around.’

  Back at Perdita, I considered my options. Even though it was important that we discover who lived in that mansion, it wouldn’t hurt to take a couple of d
ays off. And it would be unthinkable to mount a surveillance operation on the place without Boges.

  ‘How about we take a break, too, Ryan?’ I said. ‘This is a good chance to go back home, have a decent hot shower, get some takeaway and take stock of everything that’s happened so far. I should probably work on my holiday assignment, too.’

  We drove back to the city, Boges dropping off Ryan first and then me. ‘Give my love to your gran,’ I said, as he left.

  DAY 22

  9 days to go …

  Home

  Mansfield Way, Dolphin Point

  8:03 pm

  I spent the next two days dealing with the mail that had arrived while I’d been away at Perdita and calling Boges to see how his gran was doing. Cal rang too.

  ‘What’s been happening? Any more ghosts?’ he laughed.

  I brought him up-to-date. ‘I can’t wait to get back down there,’ I said, ‘and find out what Curly was looking for. And it’d be good to check out that house on the headland again.’

  ‘I’ll be done here next weekend,’ said Cal. ‘I might even be able to leave earlier after we have the final course exams next week. I’ll spend a night with Mum and Gabbi on the way, and then I’ll ride down to Perdita.’

  ‘Can’t wait,’ I said.

  DAY 26

  5 days to go …

  Perdita

  10:09 am

  The previous evening, with Boges’s gran on the mend, the three of us had driven back down to Perdita. It was good to be back in the big front room again with a fire blazing. Perdita no longer felt strange to me.

  The next morning, we made our way down to the beach. Ryan had brought his climbing gear in case we felt like trying it out. The sun was warm, although a strong wind blew in from the sea. We sat on the rocks at the base of the cliff, planning our next move. ‘Last time we were here,’ I told the others, ‘I saw that woman at the house on the headland—the one with really short hair. But we still don’t know who she is.’

  ‘She’s got some overkill security,’ said Boges, ‘which really makes me suspicious.’

  ‘Maybe she’s just nervous,’ said Ryan, ‘living alone.’

  ‘But she’s not alone,’ Boges said. ‘A guy was driving that car, and another set the dog after us.’

  ‘And why was Curly sniffing around down here?’ I said. ‘I’d love to know what he was looking for.’ I was eager to take action, so I climbed over the large boulders behind us, piled up like huge building blocks. As I straightened up, looking back at the way we’d come down, I looked at the cliff looming before me and noticed a small overhang just above the pile of rocks on the beach.

  ‘Boges! Ryan! Come here! See next to that old fence post? I want to go up there and take a look.’ I clambered over the rocks and a little way up the cliff, stepping onto protruding stones some distance away from the cliff path.

  ‘Glad I brought all this gear,’ Ryan complained. ‘What a waste. Hope you don’t fall and break a leg!’

  In less than a minute, I was at the overhang, holding onto the iron post, once part of a now derelict fence. Why was there a fence in this strange position? I pushed away hanging vines and weeds. I could hear a churning noise, a whooshing. Curious, I stooped to get in under the overhang, not much bigger than a beach shelter.

  There, in the back wall, was a narrow cleft. I squeezed through it and gasped. I had stepped into another world!

  11:35 am

  I was standing on a small rocky ledge in a large cave, where two metres beneath me, the turquoise sea frothed and crashed, racing around the cave and vanishing into several dark, echoing openings. I stood there transfixed by the beauty, unaware that Ryan and Boges had squeezed through and were standing beside me.

  ‘Awesome!’ Ryan breathed. ‘What an unreal place!’

  Beneath us, the sea sucked and swirled, forced through the narrow entrance by the power of the massive ocean swells, lit underneath by the magic light coming through the cracks in the rocks from the beach, and rushing up to disappear down three dark arches.

  ‘Look, there are a few tunnels going back under the cliff,’ I said. ‘I wonder if there are more caves. A rock fall must have blocked off the main entrance and now only the sea can force its way through. This is the only way in, through this little overhang.’

  ‘So that’s what Curly is looking for,’ said Ryan, ‘a way into these caves. But why would he be interested in them? No ship could get in here in the first place!’

  ‘When we get a warmer day,’ I said, ‘we should go sea caving. We’ll need ropes and waterproof lights.’

  ‘I’ve got ropes,’ Ryan said. ‘And we’ll need to watch the tide, too. It’s coming in now, you can tell.’

  It was true. Even in the short time we’d been on the ledge, it was clear that each wave was washing in a little higher than the one before. I looked around for a tide line to see how far the water rose inside. Boges must have been reading my mind, because I saw him pointing across the cave to the opposite wall.

  ‘There’s the high tide mark,’ he said. ‘The water will be up to this ledge that we’re standing on then.’

  ‘Cool,’ said Ryan. ‘We can jump into the water from here.’

  ‘And it’s probably easier to swim through the system,’ Boges said, ‘than try to scramble over the rocky floors and walls. This will be a great spot in summer!’

  As we climbed back up the cliff, we made plans as to what to do next. Ryan volunteered to lead the expedition.

  ‘We need the right gear,’ he said, ‘and to be roped together … and we’ll need good lighting.’

  ‘While you sort that out, we’ll find out who’s behind Curly—who’s really pulling the strings,’ Boges said. ‘That mansion needs surveillance.’

  ‘I’m not keen on becoming a Doberman’s breakfast,’ I said.

  ‘Remote surveillance, Winter,’ said Boges. ‘You couldn’t have forgotten my Hummingbird Hawk-moth creation already?’ Boges had adapted a couple of tiny drones—flying spy cameras—which had been very helpful when we’d found ourselves up against Sligo once more.

  ‘I’m going to modify one,’ he said, ‘and send it on a fact-finding mission. Just give me a day to organise it. And we should go into the village and see what intel we can get from the locals about this place and that shipwreck.’

  As we approached the house, I couldn’t help glancing over at the grove with its forbidding cypress trees crowded together. I was determined to hack a way through that dense, green-black wall and uncover the building hidden at its heart.

  DAY 27

  4 days to go …

  Perdita

  3:45 am

  I bolted awake! What time was it? I grabbed my mobile from beside my bed. It was still so early, but something had woken me from deep sleep. I sat up, straining to listen. Silently, I crept over to the half-closed French windows to the balcony and looked out. It was pitch black outside and I nearly screamed as someone crashed into me in the dark.

  ‘Shh!’ whispered Boges, ‘it’s me. Sorry, I can’t see a thing. Did you hear that? Someone’s in the secret passageway!’

  I picked up my torch, switching it on. ‘Right. This time we’re going to nab him. Get Ryan.’

  ‘I’m already here,’ Ryan whispered loudly from the darkened doorway.

  Again came the scratching and knocking that I’d heard in the walls two weeks ago when the ‘ghost’ first put in an appearance.

  ‘I can’t wait to get my hands on whoever’s been trying to scare me out of my own house. This time, they won’t get away with it.’

  We crept down the main staircase, not really needing the torch, knowing our way through the darkness now, pausing outside the door to the big front room. I briefly flashed the torch beam in front of me. On the floor near the entrance, lay the old sheet that Ryan had used to scare us on that first night at Perdita and I picked it up.

  I whispered instructions. ‘We’ll wait at the entrance to the passageway and as soon as he star
ts coming through the doorway into the room, we throw this over him and take him down. Ryan—you grab his legs, Boges—you sit on him and pin his arms. I’ll be on standby with the torch, ready to whack him if he gives us any trouble, OK?’

  ‘Got it,’ whispered Ryan.

  We tiptoed into the room and another quick flash from the torch showed that the secret panel was open, revealing a darker blackness within.

  We positioned ourselves silently—the boys on either side of the passage doorway, me a little to one side with the old sheet in one hand and my heavy torch raised in the other, ready for action.

  The knocking and scratching became louder and now we could hear cursing and muttering. Maybe he was having some difficulty finding his way out. So much the better, I thought. He’ll be disoriented and completely taken by surprise by our ambush.

  My mouth was dry with excitement and I could hear my heart banging in my chest. The enemy came closer, the sounds drew nearer, then finally, like a grub coming out of a hole, a head, upper body and then lower body emerged.

  ‘Get him!’ I yelled, throwing the sheet over the intruder. The boys moved like lightning, crash-tackling him down to the floor, where he floundered and kicked and yelled …

  That voice!

  It couldn’t be!

  ‘Better watch out! Black belt! Black belt! You let me go right now! Nearly won the karate championship in Hong Kong! Let me up if you know what’s good for you!’

  I dragged the sheet off the struggling figure and shone my torch on his face.

  ‘Repro?’

  Boges and Ryan stared as the skinny figure clambered to his feet, brushing himself and his tattered bag down.

  ‘What sort of welcome is that? I come all the way from the city to give you a hand, and you treat me like this? There’s no justice in the world—that’s what I told the magistrate.’

  I don’t know who was more shocked—Repro or us, as he stood there in his old green coat with the too-short sleeves, green fingerless mittens on his long hands, a moth-eaten beanie on his head, and a green and red scarf around his scrawny neck, now covered in dust. Cal and I had outfitted him with a brand new wardrobe, but obviously Repro was happier in his preferred style, although he seemed to have put on a fair bit of weight.