Lula Does the Hula (14 page)

‘Huh. I could hear you laughing from the house.’

‘Yeah, well, he’s a funny guy.’

Pen gave me a look. ‘Seems to me like you spend more time with Arnold than your own boyfriend.’

I got a prickly feeling all over that I didn’t like. ‘I’ll walk Boodle, okay, Pen? We might be quite a while. I’ll see you later.’ I held the door open.

‘Fine, fine,’ she said, and got out of the armchair. ‘But don’t go too far with her. Her back gets sore.’

‘Mine too,’ I said, and rubbed it. Damn that hula dancing. ‘Laters.’

I was waiting so anxiously that I heard the gate squeak before Boodle did, and flew out with her lead and my jacket tucked under my arm, and my backpack over a shoulder. Jack hadn’t even made it round the side of the main house by the time I’d got to him.

‘Hello!’ I said, breathless.

‘Mm,’ he said, and I could see a whisper of a smile in the moonlight. ‘You smell good.’

‘Maltesers,’ I said.

‘You don’t have to tell me.’

‘You want one?’

He grinned and pushed his hair behind an ear before pulling me towards him by the belt loops on my jeans. ‘I want a lot.’

‘Oh.’ I gulped. ‘You talking about chocolate?’

Jack laughed. ‘Sure I am. I take it we’re not staying in? Your phone message was very mysterious.’ He let go of my jeans and turned back towards the gate. He was wearing sturdy boots, dark jeans and a long-sleeved black T, like I asked. The T hung just right. I wished he wasn’t walking away.

‘I said we’d walk Boodle the Poodle for Pen, so we’ll take her with us, okay?’

‘Cool,’ said Jack. He held the gate open. I clipped the lead on Boodle and walked out first. ‘So what’s this about new info on the Cluny land?’ He shut the gate.

‘Before we talk about that’ – my chest suddenly got tight – ‘did you come over tonight because you wanted to see me, or because I lured you here saying I had news-story information?’

‘What?’ Jack stopped dead in the road ahead of me, looking over at my worried face.

I stopped too. ‘It’s no big deal either way,’ I added hastily. ‘It’s just that –’

Jack stepped up to me and tugged me against him. ‘Hey,
Lula. I’m sorry. I feel like a jerk not letting you know we were away this weekend. Gran was ill, Mum called, everything was last minute and then I left my bloody phone, and – Look. This is so messy. I’ve got no excuse. I’m not used to thinking about another person all the time.’

‘Stop,’ I said. ‘Just stop. You’re making me feel like a needy girlfriend. I don’t want you to
have
to think about me. I’d like it if you just
did
think about me. Okay?’

‘Everything I say is coming out wrong,’ groaned Jack. He stepped away, dropped his head and pinched the bridge of his nose. His hair fell across his face and suddenly I felt like I didn’t know anything about him at all. It left a strange sensation in the pit of my stomach that I wanted to go away.

‘Forget I said that,’ I murmured. ‘Okay? Let’s just have fun tonight.’

Jack opened his eyes and stared into mine. He put his arms round my shoulders and hugged me gently, and I tilted my head back. I had a glimpse of night sky and stars and a crescent moon before his lips were on mine.

It felt so good I got a little trembly.

‘Are you cold?’ asked Jack, pulling away.

‘No,’ I said, stepping closer.

Boodle whined and snuffled round our feet, but we kissed again anyway.

And, again, WOW. With Jack even a kiss was never just a kiss. He brushed his lips gently against mine, teasing, his
warm hands circling my waist beneath my shirt. I felt my heart flutter and my breath grow uneven as he tugged me closer, running his fingers up my spine.

‘Shall we go back to your room?’ asked Jack.

‘TALLULAH BIRD! ARE YOU UP TO YOUR SHENANIGANS AGAIN?’ shrilled a voice from over the road.

I peeked over Jack’s shoulder at the thick foliage of the Setting Sun’s new residence across the way.

‘Esme?’ I asked.

‘DOES YOUR MOTHER KNOW YOU’RE CARRYING ON IN THE STREETS WITH THAT BOY?’ Esme Trooter came into view, wearing a stripy seventies pantsuit and dragging Jeremiah Coldstock behind her by the hand.

Jack grinned, but did not pull away.

‘Yes, thanks, Esme,’ I called back, my cheeks on fire. ‘Just going to check up on what we spoke about earlier.’

‘Oh! Okay, then. Good girl! See you tomorrow!’ and she clipped down the road with Jeremiah hustling alongside.

‘All still very mysterious,’ said Jack.

‘It is,’ I answered, reluctantly letting him go. ‘You should know I’ve been on the phone to Forest this afternoon. You and I are heading up to Frey’s Dam to find dead birds and a man called Parcel Brewster.’

‘So you don’t mind being an unconvicted criminal,’ hissed Jack, hunkered down on the south ridge overlooking the still water of Frey’s Dam.

‘Not for a good cause,’ I whispered back. ‘If Esme is right, and there’s something going on that’s not actually bird flu, then we’ve got to fix things. Why’s it taking so long to hear back from that lab technician?’

‘He’d left by the time we got to the pub, and now he won’t talk to us. Jazz keeps ringing, but . . .’

I bet she does
, I thought unkindly. ‘Never mind,’ I said, ‘we’ll do our own samples.’

‘What?’ Jack was surprised, but not horrified. ‘How?’

‘Forest.’

Jack grinned at me. ‘Ohh, you are so clever, Lula-lu.’

‘That’s why you love me,’ I grinned back. Doh! I just did it again! Is it too dark for him to see me go reddest red
red
? Any other boy would have come back with: ‘I do?’, but Jack’s grin just got wider and he leaned in close.

Ooh. Moonlight. Beautiful boy. What’s not to like . . . He kissed me on my cheek, then my lips.

‘Mmm,’ he murmured.

I don’t know how I heard that. My heart was pounding so hard I don’t know how anything could make it to my ears, all that blood rushing about, my brain in serious shutdown . . .

We would have got totally distracted then, but bliddy Boodlington pulled on the lead, unbalancing me, so I ended up flat on my back.

‘Whoa!’ said Jack. ‘You’re keen!’

‘Ha!’ I retorted, cheeks aflame. ‘Come on. Let’s get down there.’

At the water’s edge it was obvious that all the dead birds had been cleared away. Footprints and drag marks littered the shore, and I couldn’t see a trace of birdlife anywhere. I wondered whether we were wasting our time here, whether every last feather had been found and burned by the Parks guys. Taking my backpack off, I opened it and crouched down to rummage inside. I hauled out a glass jar, some old ice-cream containers and a big plastic bag.

Boodle nosed around my stash, and sniffed appreciatively where ice-cream smell lingered.

‘Nothing in here for you, lady friend,’ I said to her. I held the jar out to Jack. ‘This is for the water sample,’ I said to him. ‘You fill that while I get sand and look for birds. If you see any bird food, or bread, or anything like that, bag it too.’

I was about to move off, anxious to get out of here as fast
as possible, when Jack grabbed my arm.

‘Hey,’ he said slowly. ‘I’m seriously impressed, Tallulah.’

I felt my cheeks flare, even in the icy moonlight.

‘Why didn’t I think of this?’ he continued.

‘It’s probably nothing,’ I said hastily. ‘Mr K thinks Esme’s totally overreacting.’ I paused. ‘But I spoke to Arns this afternoon and he says his mum isn’t very happy with the lab results. She won’t tell him why, though. I guess she’s not supposed to tell him every single thing that goes on. Unprofessional, you know?’

‘You like Arns,’ observed Jack. He was looking at me intently, as if he were searching for something that wasn’t there.

‘Sure,’ I said. ‘He’s a good friend.’

‘Sure,’ he said, echoing me, and still staring into my eyes intently. He smiled suddenly and my stomach flipped. ‘Okay, let’s do it,’ he said, and with a quick kiss on the lips we headed off in different directions, moving quickly and quietly. Boodle was walking obediently at my side, so I unclipped her lead and she found a big rocky shelf to flop down on to. There were bushes on each side of her and in the moonlight she looked like an ornamental stone lion guarding a palace. I stepped up to the outcrop and rubbed her forehead. ‘Your back hurting?’ I asked her. She gave a little whine and dropped her head on her paws, huffing out a sandy breath.

‘Wait here for me, then, Boodle, okay? Wait.’

Boodle flicked her eyes open in a yes, and I set off again.

Jack and I each had a torch and I could see his light bobbing not too far away. I felt vaguely terrified in the dark on my own, but swallowed it down and swung my torchlight carefully back and forth all the way round the water’s edge looking for a bird. I was just about to give up and go back over to Jack when I saw something white in the water and a tiny movement on a mound of sticks under a bush just ahead.

I looked back across the dam, and could just make out Jack putting the jar back in the bag and shouldering it. He began walking round towards me. I left the containers I had on the sand and tiptoed over to the pile of sticks.

Just as I’d thought.

It was a cleverly hidden nest, but my eyes teared over because in it was a female mallard and three ducklings, all dead. The tiny movement I’d seen had come from the smallest duckling of them all. Even without my torchlight I could see it was barely alive. Instinctively, I reached forward and picked it up. Its tiny heart thundered in the palm of my hand.

‘You poor little thing!’ I murmured. It was shivering uncontrollably and I’m sure it nestled closer to my skin, laying the side of its head against my thumb. ‘Ohhh,’ I breathed, ‘I’ll take care of you,’ and before I could think
anything sensible at all I’d placed that newly hatched duckling in the fuzzy warmth of my jacket pocket.

I walked back over to the bag and containers I’d left on the ground to find that Jack had reached my pile of stuff. ‘Jack,’ I said, about to show him the tiny duckling.

But then he said, ‘Wait till Jazz hears about us coming up here tonight. I
bet
she can get some stats out of that lab guy. I’m going to call her the second we get back.’

And the moment was gone. There was no doubt in my mind that my brand-new boyfriend would go nuts at the idea of me nursing a bird that I’d removed illegally from a bird-flu zone, but I felt too deflated by Jazz being here when she wasn’t really here to have an argument with Jack. I don’t know what I was thinking, except that I had a weird sense that Esme was right – there was no bird flu; something else was going on – and I hoped our samples would prove it. I bent down and picked up the plastic bag.

‘Could you go back there and put the female and a little one in this bag, Jack?’

He took the bag. ‘Sure,’ he said, and I heard him curse softly when he got to the nest. I felt for the duckling, murmuring reassurances. It felt less shaky now, though the heartbeat was still pattering too fast.

Jack returned.

‘Now for Parcel Brewster,’ I said.

*

We scoured the area around Frey’s as best we could with our torches and by moonlight, calling quietly all across the north ridge, but could find no sign of anyone living in the area.

‘I think we should go, Lula,’ said Jack. ‘It’s nearly ten o’clock now and I don’t want your folks getting worried about you.’

‘Their meeting ends at eleven,’ I said, distracted, ‘but they might go for coffee after. Let me think.’

Jack was quiet while I tried to remember everything Esme had told me. Nothing new came to mind. I thought back to when Grandma Bird was alive and often came up into the hills around here with her witchy friends. There was a movement in my pocket and I reached in to stroke the soft feathers. I turned slowly on the spot, searching the skyline while keeping the dam in my peripheral vision.

‘The bird man,’ I muttered.

‘Hmm?’

‘Esme called him the bird man, and Grandma used to bring grain up here sometimes. He would have wanted to be able to see the birds from his camp, surely.’

‘You said Esme suggested the north ridge.’

I sighed. ‘She did, but we’ve searched those slopes . . .’ I looked over at the ridge again. Trees lined the horizon, some rocks, gaps in the woods here and there. ‘Maybe higher,’ I wondered out loud.

‘Wait,’ said Jack. ‘What’s that?’

He pointed ahead and then I saw what he’d spotted, right at the top of the ridge. A sharp angle tucked to the side of an enormous pile of boulders. ‘A tree branch?’ I suggested.

‘Let’s check it out.’

It was a serious hike to get up there. We had to scramble over a lot of rock and stone, and I had to keep checking the duckling was okay in my coat pocket. It was very still now and I hoped it was still alive. I made sure it could breathe, put my torch in my mouth and hurried after Jack.

Boodle was still slumped on that rocky ledge, way below us now. It looked like she was power napping, and I worried that I’d walked her too far.

Jack and I got to the top at the same time.

My jaw dropped. ‘Frik!’

‘Holy moley,’ said Jack.