‘If I knew, I would tell you, Jason. I’m working on it.’
He made me another cup of coffee and we set to work. By the time the first loaves emerged, I felt a little better. We inserted the Thursday olive bread, and I was just mixing the date scones when I laid down the wooden spoon and gasped.
‘Captain?’ Suddenly he was at my side. For some reason he reminded me irresistibly of my beautiful tabby cat Horatio. I have no idea what’s happening to you, he seemed to be saying, but I’m here, at your side, ready to repel boarders. I resisted the urge to stroke his hair and ears.
‘It’s all right, Jason. But staring at all this white bread dough has triggered my memory. I’ve remembered what I saw when I dragged down the ninja’s mask.’
‘What was it?’
‘There was no face under it.’
Jason’s mouth twisted at the corners. ‘Really no face?’
‘I assume he has a face in there somewhere. But all I saw was a pure white mask, with two eyeholes, and deep brown eyes glaring through them.’
‘Whoa! That’s really creepy.’
‘It certainly was. But that is how I come to be sporting a pair of black eyes. I dropped my guard because you just don’t expect someone to have another mask underneath their mask.’
‘No. I can see that. Let’s have some bread and honey,’ he suggested.
We had a moment or two to spare, so we did that, as dawn grew bright outside the louvre windows.
Shortly after dawn broke its bleary way through the somnolent fug of inner Melbourne, I heard scratching on the outer door. I looked up from my mixing bowl. ‘Midshipman? Go see who that is, will you? And if it’s Jordan again, dong him one with the ladle.’
As always, Jason took me completely at my word. ‘Aye-aye, Captain.’ He selected the largest ladle we had, and opened the door.
It was the Mouse Police, smelling of Japanese takeaways. Heckle and Jekyll were still licking their lips, but they had decided that they were better in than out this morning. I had no idea why they wanted in so early, but … whatever. I saw Jason look down, and then askance. It was the most completely askance look I’d seen in my vicinity all week, and we’d had a few.
‘Jason? What is it?’
He walked back inside, picked up a tea towel, bent down to pick something up in it, then walked back to me with a wild surmise in his eye. ‘Captain? Look what I found in the alley.’
I stared at it. Yep, that was the mask all right. The plain white one with two eyeholes and nothing else. I noted with approval that my redoubtable apprentice had not needed to be told to preserve the purity of the DNA samples that the Victoria Police were possibly going to extract from it. Assuming that Detective Senior Constable White did not simply wash her hands of me and my constant home invasions.
‘Well done, Midshipman. Box it up and we’ll hand it over when the cops get here.’ I watched with approval as he stowed the mask in a half-carton and sealed it up with masking tape.
I looked at the wall clock. (Analogue, not digital. I wanted one clock in my workspace that told the time using hands and angles. I don’t know why.) Nearly seven am. In an hour, it would be time to ring the police – again. Letty White might be expected to be at work by eight am. Just time to get the paprika and onion bread baked and ready – because it was Thursday, and Thursday was goulash day at Magyar Kitchen. But first, I had to get into my Meeting the Staff and Customers clothes. I had another quick wash upstairs, donned my summer trousers and a light blouse, and descended to the shop to see Kylie and Goss settling in to work. They gaped at me.
‘How was the bus?’ Kylie asked.
So much sympathy from my staff. ‘Long story, and I’ll tell you some other time. Exec summary: yes, I got burgled this time. Our persecutors are clearly equal opportunity crims and they thought it was my turn. Yes, the guy got me a beauty. But I’ve left several dents in him and with any luck he’ll remember me with a curse for the next few weeks. Time to sell some bread, ladies.’
At eight sharp I called Letitia White again and outlined my early-morning adventures. There was a long silence on the other end of the line, punctuated by heavy breathing. I believe there were muttered remarks addressed to her Maker, calling on Him to give her strength.
‘Again, Corinna?’
‘I’m afraid so. And no, I have no ideas. Oh, by the way, there was one other invasion I didn’t tell you about.’
The strangled yelp on the other end of the line suggested that Senior Constable White had been attacked by feral ducks. ‘What?! When was this?’
‘Yesterday, early. Look, I’m sorry. I just forgot, because Ma’ani dealt with it, and … it’s hard to keep count these days.’
‘Who the hell is Ma’ani?’
‘Maori enforcer for the Soup Run. You’ve probably come across him.’
‘Oh, him. Right. Six axe-handles across the shoulders; looks like he bench-presses Mack trucks. Okay, I’m on my way.’
The rest of my working day passed in a blur of faces. I tried to give Letty a reasonable account of myself. It didn’t help that she took one look at me and said, ‘What does the other bloke look like?’ But she made extensive notes, accepted Jason’s gift of the mask and told me that the SOCOs would be around, yet again, in due course and that I should keep my apartment locked until then.
Meroe came into the shop mid-morning to give me a quiet blessing and a quick but remarkably soothing hug before drifting out again in a waft of incense. Megan the courier came for the bread; customers came, went, shopped and slowly emptied my shop of comestibles; Kylie and Goss chattered of this and that, and more personal remarks were made about my multicoloured eye shadow. I allowed these to pass. Every time I passed a mirror my black eyes seemed to be more spectacular. In a brief lull I rang Daniel and apprised him of my misadventures.
There was a short, pregnant silence then he said, ‘I think I might go and see Uncle Solly. This is getting out of hand.’
Near closing time, Gossamer was adding up the day’s takings while Kylie, reunited with her phone, scanned it anxiously for any world-shattering news she might have missed. And apparently there was some. ‘Goss!’ she shrieked. ‘Come and look at this!’
At once, Gossamer was at her side, and they both began to coo like a pair of pigeons discovering an unexpected source of free grain.
‘What is it?’ I enquired.
Kylie showed me the phone and I read the following:
BEST FRIENDS REUNITED
Two years ago Geordie saved Alasdair’s patrol by barking furiously and causing the driver to stop just short of an IED buried in the middle of the road. Today they were reunited in Townsville, after Sinclair decided to settle in Australia after leaving the British Army. ‘I love Aussies,’ he said. ‘They’re great to have beside you in a scrap.’ Geordie was his sniffer dog in Afghanistan and was discharged along with his master. The pair will settle in Melbourne. ‘Geordie doesn’t like aeroplanes, so we’re going to drive there.’
Underneath was a photo with the caption: Returned soldier Alasdair Sinclair with his devoted canine Geordie.
I wondered for a moment whether I should tell Kylie and Goss that Alasdair and Geordie had since been parted, but decided against it. I love them both, but as far as they were concerned discretion was something that happened to other people, and the fewer people who knew about our lost dog the better. I noticed there was nothing in the article about the traumatic end to Alasdair’s tour of Afghanistan. The journalist had not discovered it, and presumably Alasdair didn’t want to talk about it. I smiled at the girls and contented myself with saying, ‘Very sweet.’