The Sultan's Tigers Read Online Free

grandfather. I thought about my uncle. I told myself:
This is the way to be a real Trelawney. I don’t want to be the type of person who surrenders to fear. I’m not going to give up. I’m a Trelawney!
Sure, I was scared. Of course I was. This guy was probably planning to kill me. I just had to keep him talking, make him think I was going to give him the documents, and hope my folks hadn’t ordered another bottle of wine to toast Grandpa’s memory.
    We did the living room first, then the kitchen and the downstairs bathroom. Marko must have been through all that already, but he just stood back and watched me search again, opening drawers and cupboards, lifting carpets, tapping floorboards, hunting for hiding places. I could sense his eyes on me all the time.
    We went upstairs to Grandpa’s bedroom. Under the bed, I encountered three socks, a beer bottle, and an apple core so ancient that it crumbled into dust as I tried to pick it up, but no historical documents, nothing that could possibly be worth two thousand euros.
    There were two more rooms on that floor and an attic above, accessed by a shaky metal ladder. We went through everything, even pulling up loose floorboards and checking the water tank.
    We were walking downstairs again, heading for the garden and its mossy old shed, when I finally heard the noise that I’d been waiting for: a car pulling up outside. Marko hurried to the window. A second car was parking behind the first.
    Marko glanced at me.
    For a moment I thought he was going to pull out the knife and shut me up permanently. Or would he kidnap me, force me to go with him? Instead he said, “I need those letters, Tom. You’d better find them. I’ll be watching you.”
    Then he was gone, running down the stairs and leaving the house through the back door.

4
    A moment later there was a knock at the door. I opened it. My brother and sister were standing there, looking smug and well fed.
    â€œHi, bro,” said Jack.
    â€œHi.”
    â€œWe brought you a doggy bag.” Grace held up something wrapped in silver foil. “We thought you must be hungry.”
    â€œI’ve had lunch, thanks.”
    â€œWhat did you have?”
    â€œI found a can of soup.”
    â€œWas it delicious?”
    â€œIt was OK.”
    â€œOurs was delicious. I had smoked salmon, followed by lamb noisettes on a bed of creamed spinach, and a chocolate pudding for dessert.” Grace takes notes whenever she eats out. She wants to be a celebrity chef when she grows up.
    â€œI had steak and fries,” said my little brother.
    I got mugged by a guy with a knife
, I could have said. Instead, I thanked my sister for the doggy bag and scooted into the house before Mom and Dad arrived. I was surprised they hadn’t commented on my appearance. Didn’t I look like a guy who’d just been tied up, knocked over, and pushed around? Obviously I didn’t. I must have looked like just my normal self.
    Once I was safely inside the living room, I stood for a moment with my back against the door, waiting for my parents to come and bug me, but they must have decided to leave me alone. That was lucky. I needed some time to myself. I had to check out these historical documents, whatever they were. I wanted to know why they were worth two thousand euros.
    As soon as Marko started talking about them, I knew where they would be hidden.
    While he was interrogating me, I had tried to push the knowledge out of my mind, not wanting to give any sign that I’d solved his mystery for him.
    We didn’t visit Grandpa often. He lived three thousand miles away, but that wasn’t why. We wouldn’t have visited much even if he’d lived next door. He and Dad couldn’t spend more than a few minutes in the same room without arguing. But we once came to Ireland on vacation and stopped for lunch in Grandpa’s house. Mom, Dad, Grace, and Jack went for a walk in the afternoon,