You and Me Against an Army

Chapter 4: Rufus and Rupert

Penny and Clare were being pushed out of the apartment that they lived in by their supervisors who were more than eager to be rid of them for the day. They trampled onto the bus and sat in the back. There were very few kids at the school and fewer even on this particular bus. Perhaps a total of 10 kids. When Penny and Clarence had settled into their seats, they looked out the window to see the fake smiles that Carlie and Kacey had plastered on their faces, waving with manicured hands.

The bus bumped away on the cracked and crushed asphalt of the roads of the small town. The bus stopped in front of a tea shop and two golden-haired boys appeared from behind the shop and they each hopped on the bus, made their way to the back, and sat down next to Penelope and Clare. They gave off a strong scent of mint and caramel. This was not an unusual scent for the Birmingham boys: Rufus and Rupert.

Rufus and Rupert were old friends of Clare and Penny for they had all known each other for quite a long time. Rufus and Rupert were 14-year-old twins who had grown up in the city, but had moved to Isle o' Pearl when their father's business failed. He decided to move to Isle o' Pearl when the pearl industry was at it's best. Their father worked to make beautiful jewelry that Isle o' Pearl prospered off of.

When the waters became so polluted that much of the animals died, their father was forced to find another way to make enough money to feed their family of three. Mr. Birmingham still had the skill of intricate handiwork that he had so long worked at. The tea shop was what he resorted to when other options failed him. Mrs. Birmingham had died at the twin's birth. Ever since then the Birmingham family had struggled with finding money to support themselves.

Rufus and Rupert had been accepting to Quincy and Penny from the moment that they had arrived even though they didn't exactly understand why the girls were there. The four eventually became close friends, trying to discover who the criminals where and what their motives were.

"So, have you read the newspaper yet?" asked Rufus, ruffling his overgrown hair.

"No, I have it here. We were sort of. . . rushed this morning." Penny pulled out the newspaper.

"So, Ms. Bailey is missing?" Clare read.

"More than that. It says it looks like a kidnapping. What do you think Madame Fitzroy is trying to get across? We couldn't find a code in it." Rupert said, pulling out the key.

"That's because it's not a code. This is all that's here. It's a kidnapping. Clarence and I were there." Penny looked at each of them in turn.

"You were there! Did you see anybody? I know it was rather foggy last night, but did you?" Rupert looked at Rufus, eyebrows raised.

"The only person we saw was Mrs. Bailey. So, no not anything helpful." Clare looked at them disappointedly.

"Now, we have to find Mrs. Bailey, and we have no evidence of who it was. I mean, we must know them. There isn't anybody who can get by in this town who doesn't know us." Rufus looked at the others. "Is there someone we know who seems suspicious? Willing to kidnap people and set houses alight and steal?"

"Rufus, we've tried this method of guess and check a million times. It won't work. This group of people, they're good at covering their tracks. They're good at keeping their true identities secret." Penny fingered her ring.

"Listen, I know I've suggested this before, but what if we looked at the patient list for the old mental illness hospital. Perhaps someone from there is still alive and this is how they . . . use their leisure time." Clare looked at the others.

Rufus, Rupert, and Penny exchanged looks and finally Rufus nodded, "Ok then."