The House of Puzzles Read Online Free Page B

sitting opposite
Ruby was studying her face intently. Gerald recognised him from his French class:
Kobe Abraham.
    ‘You were in the newspapers over the Christmas break,’ the boy said, his eyes growing
wider. ‘Did someone really try to cut out your heart?’
    The room could not have gone more quiet had a penguin walked in and asked for directions
to the sauna.
    Every eye was fixed on Ruby. Even Miss Davenport, who appeared to be a stickler for
maintaining control in the classroom, was reeled in by Kobe’s question.
    Ruby cleared her throat with a tight cough. ‘I may have had a run in with someone…’
she began.
    ‘It was in a torture chamber under a farm on an island off Sweden,’ Kobe said, his
gaze intensifying. ‘That’s right, isn’t it?’
    Ruby raised her eyes to look at the boy. ‘You must have read a lot of newspapers
on the holidays,’ she said.
    Kobe nodded eagerly. ‘I like to stay up to date,’ he said. ‘The man who attacked
you wanted to use your heart in a potion that could cure all known diseases, right?’
    Ruby’s eyes returned to the rug.
    One of the girls who had been giggling at Alex chirped up. ‘What’s the matter? Couldn’t
he find it?’ Her friend emitted a sharp snort. ‘Or is it because your heart already
belongs to Gerald Wilkins?’ The two girls collapsed in laughter again.
    Miss Davenport found her voice. ‘That is enough Millicent. You and Gretchen, control
yourselves.’
    The girls smiled sweetly. ‘Yes, Miss Davenport,’ they chorused.
    The get-to-know-you session dragged on for an hour, during which the campers got
to know about Kobe’s obsession with current events (‘If you’re not in the know, you’re
in the nowhere.’), Millicent’s fascination with fashion (‘Those hiking boots are
so last season.’), and Charlie’s desire to open the batting for the English cricket
team (‘I’ll run, but I’ll never walk!’).
    Finally, it was Gerald’s turn.
    After an hour of sitting cross-legged on the rug, he unhooked his feet and stretched
out, accidently kicking Ruby. ‘Sorry,’ he said, patting Ruby on the knee. This prompted
a barrage of smooching noises from Millicent and Gretchen.
    ‘Thank you, ladies. That will do,’ Miss Davenport said. She looked at Gerald. ‘Please,
go on.’
    Gerald gave a curt nod. ‘My name is Gerald Wilkins,’ he said, ‘and I’m—’
    ‘The richest kid in the world!’ Kobe could not restrain himself. He was bouncing
with excitement. ‘He inherited twenty billion pounds from his great aunt who was
killed on the orders of Sir Mason Green, not that Green was ever convicted because
he faked his own death right in the witness box at the Old Bailey and escaped, but
then Gerald caught him again in Greece and he was locked up in jail, but he escaped
again and was involved in the kidnapping of a whole bunch of people from the British
Museum and the theft of some ancient document that once belonged to an old European
emperor and supposedly had the recipe for a cure-all medicine that required someone
to rip out Ruby’s heart, but she got away by stabbing a guy in the head with his
own nose!’ Kobe paused to take a breath. He looked at Gerald with wide eyes. ‘Did
I miss anything?’
    Gerald chewed his bottom lip for a moment. ‘You forgot the Indian death cult and
the woman with the poison blowgun, but apart from that I think you pretty much got
it all.’ He looked at Miss Davenport. ‘Is that enough?’
    ‘Is all that true?’ she asked, her eyes bulging in their sockets.
    Gerald shrugged. ‘Yeah,’ he said. ‘I guess it is.’
    ‘Of course it is,’ Kobe said. ‘See? That’s why you’ve gotta read the papers. To stay
informed.’
    Then another voice chimed in.
    ‘So how is your friend from the museum? The professor who went missing. Have you
heard from him?’
    Gerald looked across to Alex Baranov, who was eyeing him intently. In one term and
one week at St Cuthbert’s, that might have been the first time