Friday Barnes 2 Read Online Free Page B

garden.’
    â€˜He didn’t escape,’ said Sergeant Crowley. ‘He was released.’
    â€˜Well, that is just a sad reflection on the incompetence of the parole board,’ said Mrs Knox.
    Friday looked closely at the windowsill. ‘Did you find any fingerprints?’ she asked.
    â€˜Only from Mrs Knox,’ said Sergeant Crowley. ‘But that is consistent. He wouldn’t need to leave fingerprints to pick up a necklace. Besides, it wascold this morning and he had gloves in his pocket. Maybe he was wearing those.’
    â€˜Mrs Knox,’ said Friday, ‘could you describe the bracelet for me, please?’
    â€˜It was a sapphire bracelet,’ said Mrs Knox. ‘It had a platinum chain setting and nine brilliant blue sapphires.’
    â€˜Hmm, I see,’ said Friday as she looked out across the backyard. ‘Give me a boost, Uncle Bernie.’
    â€˜All right,’ said Uncle Bernie, interlacing his fingers and holding them for Friday to step into, then boosting her up so she could clamber onto the window frame.
    â€˜Do you mind?!’ exclaimed Mrs Knox, before turning on the sergeant. ‘How dare you bring a pre-teen into my home and allow her to stand on my paintwork!’
    Sergeant Crowley rubbed his forehead. What with the terrorist false alarm and now this, he was not having a good day.
    Friday grabbed hold of the top of the window frame and awkwardly stood up on the windowsill. Because she was taller than the window was high,her  head was outside the wall of the house, which meant she was precariously balanced.
    â€˜What is she doing now?’ demanded Mrs Knox.
    â€˜If you want your bracelet back,’ said Uncle Bernie, ‘you’d best just leave her alone. She’s good at this type of thing.’
    â€˜What, irritating people?’ asked Mrs Knox.
    â€˜Yes, but also solving mysteries,’ explained Uncle Bernie.
    Friday stood on the windowsill for some time, scanning first left to right, and back again. Then she ducked her head back inside. ‘Mrs Knox, have those acacia bushes behind your pool house been there for long?’
    â€˜What, those green bushes? Yes, I suppose so,’ said Mrs Knox. ‘The gardener planted them the year before last.’
    â€˜I know where the bracelet is,’ said Friday, with which she leapt out of the window and landed heavily on the damp lawn. ‘Ow!’
    â€˜Friday!’ exclaimed Uncle Bernie. ‘Are you okay?’
    â€˜Yes,’ said Friday. ‘The ground was just a little bit further away than I thought.’
    â€˜Depth perception is not a great strength in her family,’ Uncle Bernie explained to the others.
    Friday hurried down the garden, around the pool, behind the pool house and disappeared into the acacia hedge.
    â€˜One forgets how insufferable children are,’ said Mrs Knox. ‘This is precisely why Mr  Knox and I decided to have none of our own.’
    Sergeant Crowley, Uncle Bernie, Malcolm and Mrs Knox hurried out of the house, in the more conventional manner, by using the back door.
    When they got down to the acacia bushes, Friday was waiting for them impatiently. ‘Hurry up,’ she said,  ‘this is exciting. Like a pirate treasure hunt. Come on.’ She pushed aside two branches and disappeared into the hedge.
    â€˜She can’t seriously expect us to follow her,’ said Mrs Knox. ‘What will my hairdresser say if he finds out I have literally been dragging myself through a hedge?’
    â€˜I’ve found it!’ called Friday from the far side of the branches.
    With which Mrs Knox leapt into the bushes like a ninja. ‘Where?’ she demanded.
    A moment later they were all crouched on the ground around a circle of dry grass and twigs covered in blue milk-bottle tops, blue clothes pegs, blue pens and one blue sapphire necklace.
    â€˜It’s a bowerbird’s nest,’ explained Friday.