rr (ON HOLD)

Chapter 1

Ruby was sitting on her bed, reading through her 600+ notebooks. It was a Sunday and she had nothing to do. No messages from Spectrum, no cases, no codes needing uncoding. She gave a yawn; she had barely slept. She was resting her head against the wall when she heard a rattle.
"Huh?" Ruby muttered, looking around. She raised an eyebrow as she saw a figure climb through the window.
"Hi, Clance," she said, as if it were a totally normal thing for a teenage boy to, technically speaking, break into your room. Clancy tripped and landed on the floor with an oof.
"Yikes," he said, brushing himself down. He glanced at her. "Hiya Rube, I was wondering if you wanted to meet with Del at Sunny's Diner?"
"Why can't Del ask me herself?"
"She's worried you might be mad at her."
"Why?"
"Well, she says you haven't been replying to her calls," Clancy explained. Ruby sighed.
"I haven't been replying to anyone's calls. I've been busy, you know that, Clance."
"Yeah, I do," he said, sitting down next to her. "I told her that you're still upset about - well, Hitch's death, sorry, and that she shouldn't worry. You've always been a bit anti-social, eh?" he nudged her shoulder.
"Buster, I've never been anti-social. You're the one who's anti-social."
Clancy noticed her heavy tone and frowned, looking at her with concern.
"Rube? You alright? You kinda snapped at me there."
Ruby gave another sigh and walked over to the window. She closed her eyes briefly.
"I'd like to meet with Del, but I'm just not in the mood. I know she's gonna be annoyed that I missed the basketball tournament last week, and I can't be bothered to listen to her rants." She shook her head. "Who am I kidding? I'm ranting myself. Excuse me, Clance; you've come all this way just to hear me moan."
The boy joined her near the window and put a comforting hand on her shoulder.
"You need to find some peace of mind. Maybe ask Hit- uh, Mrs Digby or someone, if you could take a trip to the mountains. Have a little time to yourself."
Ruby studied him closely with her emerald-green eyes. "You've been reading those weird psychological yoga books again, haven't you?"
"Maybe." Clancy gave a smile. "They're interesting, I'm telling you, you should try one."
"No thanks," said Ruby with a shudder. "Already had to see Dr Selgood a few weeks back. Spectrum thinks I'm having some sort of massive breakdown and trying to hide it."
Clancy stayed silent. He privately agreed with Spectrum; he knew his best pal well and he knew she was keeping all these emotions to herself. She hadn't gone out since Hitch's death - Ruby had closed off everyone and everything, including Clancy. He understood she needed space after what happened, but three months with barely any contact outside of her house? That wouldn't be good for anyone, surely.
"Well then," Ruby said after a minute, breaking the disdainful silence. "You better be going, Clance."
"Yeah..." Clancy trailed off. For once in his life, he didn't know what to say to Ruby. Scrunching up his face, he lifted up the window and climbed out, scaling down the ivy or whatever it was - Clancy was no nature expert. Once he was back on safe ground, he called up to her,
"Hey, Ruby! Meet me at Sunny's Diner tomorrow, OK? I've got something to tell you!"
"Sunny's Diner! You gone mad or something, Clance? Why can't you tell me now?" Ruby called back.
"It's a surprise," he replied, and then he was off on his bike, cycling down Cedarwood Drive. Ruby smiled and sat back down. She glanced at her most recent notebook; it was open and in block capitals was the million dollar question Ruby still hadn't found the answer to.
She shut it, her smile gone, and stood up. She reached for her phone and dialled in a number.
"Hi, Mrs Crew, when Clancy gets home, can you tell him to meet me at Sunny's Diner now, like ASAP, please?"
"Of course, Ruby."
"Thanks."

Ruby arrived outside Sunny's Diner in little more than fifteen, twenty minutes.
Maybe twenty-five.
Or thirty.
Possibly forty.
But, it wasn't her fault that Bug had tripped her up, causing her to smash her glasses, which meant she had to put those damned contact lenses on.
She entered the diner and looked for Clancy; she saw the boy sitting in a corner, checking his watch. She walked over to him and pulled out a chair.
"Hiya."
"Rube, I've been waiting for ten minutes. What were you doing?"
"Awh, c'mon Clance, lighten up; so what'd ya want to talk about?"
"Nothing, really, you just haven't been out much and I was getting worried," admitted Clancy. "By the way, did you ever get your Bradley Baker watch back?"
Ruby shook her head. "Nah, everyone kinda forgot about that."
"I suppose LB's pretty annoyed about it."
"She doesn't know. And I don't plan for her to know," added Ruby, raising an eyebrow.
"At least she's still got her Paris paperweight," offered the boy. "Oh yeah, what about your parents? Where were they when everything was taking place? 'Cause, you know - uh, Kaina, she mentioned to you that they weren't there when she technically broke into your house."
Ruby tried not to wince when Kaina's name was mentioned. She gave a shrug. "Spectrum wouldn't tell me."
"You think the Count took them?"
"Maybe. Hitch always said he might one day. But my mum and dad seem fine, not shaken up at all."
"Did you actually ask them about where they were, though?" asked Clancy.
"No."
Clancy suddenly looked quite excited.
"Then you gotta ask them, bozo!"
"Hey, watch who you're calling bozo, bozo!"
"If I had a dime for every time you said that sentence," laughed Clancy. Ruby smiled at him appreciatively. She nudged him on the shoulder.
"Thanks, you know, Clancy, for always cheering me up. You're one in a million."
He stared at her, sort of blushing.
"Anytime," he said slowly, mumbling. Then he gave another look to his watch. "I better go, Mom wanted me to do something with Olive later. Well, see ya around, Rube." He stood up, and shrugging on his coat, left the diner, waving goodbye to Ruby. She waved back.
"I'll ask my parents tonight!" she yelled. Clancy laughed and nodded. Ruby was about to pay the bill and leave herself when a young man approached her.
"Excuse me, ma'am," he said. Something in his expression shifted when he caught a good look at her. He suddenly seemed to have forgot what he was going to say.
"Well?" asked Ruby, a little impatiently. It was getting late and she wanted to head home.
The man shook his head, seeming composed again. "I was just wondering, do you know anyone by the name of Kaina von Leyden?"
Ruby froze.
"I - I'm sorry?" she croaked. "Who's asking?"
"I'm an old friend. Or, I was. It's been a long time since we were in touch, but a friend of mine got in contact with me recently, said Kaina needed help... she and my brother were always very close."
"And who - who's your brother?" said Ruby, dreading the answer, though she was unsure why.
"His name was Cyril." The man looked at her sadly. "He was assassinated a few days ago."
"Oh, I'm sorry to hear that," she said awkwardly. "Um, did they catch the killers?"
"Yeah, they were assassins for hire or s'm'thing, said they didn't know who exactly had ordered them to kill my brother, only that it was a tall man in a long black coat, looked a bit like Dracula, apparently."
Ruby felt the hairs on the back of her neck stand up.
There was only one person she knew who fitted that description, one person so deadly that she hoped she'd never lay eyes on the monster of the man again.
Victor von Leyden, a.k.a Count von Viscount.
The guy looked at her again, this time in concern.
"Hey, are you alright? You look really pale."
"This man, did he - did he say anything? Did he give a reason to why he wanted your brother dead?"
"No, I'm afraid. I guess we just got a lot of loonies here. I'm Terrador, by the way," he added. Ruby shook his hand.
"Ruby Redfort."
"Well," the man gave a sort of uncomfortable smile. "I don't want to seem rude, but back to my question; d'ya know someone called Kaina von Leyden?"
"Do you know her father?"
Terrador gave her a strange look.
"No, why would I? She never mentioned him when she was with Cyril or me. We both just thought she was homeless or something."
"OK. So, who was your friend who alerted you?"
"Why do you want to know?" snapped Terrador. "Why all these questions? Look, do you know something about Kaina or what happened to Cyril?"
"Kind of," said Ruby slowly. "How do I know I can trust you?"
"How do I know I can trust you?" he retorted. He glanced at the clock on the diner's wall, and gave a reluctant sigh. "I have to meet with someone, nice meeting you, Ruby Redfort." He turned on his heel and left the diner, his pace hurried. Only after he had gone Ruby realised what his accent was.
Australian.