Kidnap Island Read online

  Louisa looked around the messy room, and wondered how much had been caused by the intruders and how much simply by Eric’s presence during the hours that followed.

  “OK, let’s start in here then.” Jonny jumped up and started looking around the room.

  “But I’ve been in here most of the time since dad was taken,” argued Eric. “I’d have spotted anything unusual.”

  “Probably, but it won’t do any harm to look again,” said Jonny as he lifted up sleeping bags and clothes. “Look, what’s this?” He held up a baseball cap.

  “Er, that’s my dad’s,” grinned Eric.

  “OK, sorry. How about this, then? You and your dad aren’t into sailing, are you?” Jonny showed Eric a sailing glove.

  Eric looked surprised. “No, that’s not ours, isn’t it one of yours?”

  “No, look at the size of it, it’s an adult’s.” Jonny held the large neoprene glove against his small hand. “I reckon one of the men who took your dad dropped it.”

  “Maybe, but how does that help us?” Louisa wondered.

  “Dunno, but let’s hang onto it anyway.” Jonny put the glove into his pocket and carried on searching. However, all he discovered was an empty Pot Noodle pot and a pair of boxers, both of which Eric reluctantly admitted to.

  “So what shall we do now?” asked Eric in desperation. The stress and lack of sleep was showing on his young face.

  “Well, you can’t stay here alone,” said Louisa kindly. “Why don’t you come back with us? I’m sure my mum’ll let you stay at ours.”

  “I dunno. I really need to be here in case my Dad shows up, and to protect the house if those guys come back.”

  “I know,” exclaimed Jonny with a grin. “We’ll come and stay here with you. I’m sure my mum and dad will be happy if I say I’m going camping for a few days, what about yours, Louisa?”

  “Er, I don’t think my parents will like the idea of me camping with two boys I’ve only just met.”

  “Well, what if Will comes along too? He’s your cousin so they must know him!”

  “Of course they do. Will’s mum is my dad’s sister. We’ve hung out together since we were little kids. I can ask, but it would depend on Will being allowed to come.”

  ‘Right, that’s settled then.” Jonny jumped up from where he was sitting on the floor. “Let’s go back, talk to the olds and get some stuff packed. Eric, will you be ok until this evening?”

  “Yeah, sure I will. I’ve plenty of food here, thanks.”

  “OK, we’ll see you later. Keep your phone on. Come on Louisa, let’s go.”

  And with that, they left the house and returned to their boat for the short journey back to the mainland. Little did they know where Jonny’s plan would lead.

  Chapter Nine

  “Camping? On your own? But you’re only twelve and we don’t even know these new friends of yours, and I’m really not sure about you going with a girl.” Jonny’s mother was looking flustered as she battled to serve a rather burned lasagne – cooking was not her strong point.

  “Oh, they’ll be fine Angie,” claimed Brian Wild meekly. “I was always off camping with mates when I was his age. It’ll do him good to be independent. That Will was at the sailing club the other day, he seems a nice kid. Besides, Ainslie’ll keep an eye on them.”

  “And what about your new girlfriend?” Tom smirked. “Is she a nice girl?” Jonny thumped his brother hard on the arm.

  “That’s enough,” said Angie. “It’s nice you’ve got some new friends, you spend far too much time on your own. I’m happy for you to go camping so long as you pack plenty of warm clothes and take lots of food. Where are you going to go, anyway?”

  “Down in the woods behind the club where the visiting sailors camp when there’s an open meeting. I’ve checked and it’s OK.” Jonny was sort of telling the truth as he had previously chatted to Gladys in the club office about camping there.

  “OK, well after dinner you’d better start getting the camping gear out of the attic. Your dad’ll help you,” said Angie as she dumped a dubious-looking dinner in front of Jonny.

  Jonny knew he wouldn’t be needing a tent as he’d be staying in the house on the island, but he played along as his father passed him one down out of the attic, along with a sleeping mat, sleeping bag and camping stove. The Wilds were regular campers, as Angie didn’t approve of package holidays, which she said were ‘naff’, or flying, which ‘destroyed the planet’.

  The boy had already spoken with Will and Louisa and they’d both got permission to camp. Will, of course, was down the shops with his dad buying brand-new camping equipment, as they’d never camped before.

  Angie was busy making Jonny some brown-bread sandwiches and dispensing muesli into a plastic container which, together with some healthy snack bars, cartoons of fruit juice and dried dog food, she crammed into his rucksack. She’d been horrified when Jonny had suggested he just buy a few Pot Noodles: “Absolute rubbish food, you need to take something decent.” Jonny secretly thought a Pot Noodle tasted somewhat better than his mother’s earlier attempt at lasagne but he was too kind to say anything.

  Finally, Jonny’s rucksack was neatly packed. Years of practice meant that the family was good at travelling light and Jonny had the bare minimum. Even so, the slight boy struggled to haul the rucksack onto his back before he headed off down the road.

  They’d arranged to meet at the sailing club and when he’d finally made the short walk there Jonny was beginning to wish he’d accepted his dad’s offer of a lift. He threw his rucksack down and dropped onto the grass for a well-earned rest.

  No sooner had he done so, though, then he heard a roar of an engine. It was Will’s dad’s Porsche tearing into the car park. “Hi Jonny,” called Will as he jumped out of the car. “Are you ready?”

  Jonny was astounded at how much equipment Will’s dad was unloading from the car’s small front boot. “We’re only going for a few days,” he said as he eyed two heavily loaded, and obviously brand-new, freezer boxes and wondered how they were going to get it all to the island.

  “Well, we didn’t get a tent as you said I could share yours,” said Will with a wink at Jonny. “But mum insisted I took loads of food and I figured we could never have too much grub!”

  The food, together with an expensive new and surprisingly compact sleeping bag, plus a similarly exotic lightweight rucksack, were piled up next to Jonny’s stuff.

  “Well, I’ve gotta rush, I’ve a meeting in 20 minutes. Have fun boys.” And with that, the slightly too-cool Rick roared off, the Porsche’s wheels spinning on the gravel.

  “Louisa should be here soon,” Will said. “Shall we get all this stuff to my boat? D’ya think it’ll all fit in?”

  “Dunno,’ replied Jonny doubtfully. “Let’s give it a go. We need to get off soon before it’s dark.”

  They lugged the gear down to the edge of the slipway and left it there while they fetched the boat and wheeled that down too. Jonny figured it would make sense to rig the dinghy and get it in the water before loading it up.

  There was a shout from the car park. “That’s Louisa,” grinned Jonny. “Let’s give her a hand.”

  Louisa was with her mum, a tall glamorous woman dressed in white trousers and a striped teeshirt. Jonny thought she looked like one of the yachties in the nearby marina and could see the resemblance to her brother, Will’s dad. “Hello, you must be Jonny. I’ve heard a lot about you. I’m Annie Jameson.”

  “Hi Annie,” said Jonny with a smile, rather in awe of this imposing woman.

  “I hope you have fun camping. I used to do it a lot when was a girl but we seem to have got out of the habit. I was tempted to come with you but Louisa was having none of it.”

  “Mum!” Louisa rolled her eyes. “You’d hate not having your bath and hairdryer, you know you would.”

  “Maybe. Well, do you need a hand with anything or are you OK? Is that your boat with the sails up, Will?”

  “Er, yes,” Wi
ll looked flustered.

  “It’s such a nice evening we thought we’d have a quick sail before setting up camp,” explained Jonny quickly before Will put his foot in it.”

  “What a good idea. Did Louisa tell you we have a yacht in the marina?”

  Jonny resisted grinning. “No, that sounds great.”

  “You must come out with us one day. We always need extra crew.”

  “I’d love too, thanks,” said Jonny with real enthusiasm. He rarely got a chance to sail yachts.

  “Well, I’ve leave you all to it. Have fun.” Annie gave her daughter a kiss on each cheek and then climbed in her car and drove off, leaving the three children alone.

  “Right, we’d better get a move on,” urged Jonny. “I rang Eric earlier and he’s expecting us. This’ll be fun!”

  Chapter Ten

  While his English friends were preparing to come and stay with him on Folney Island, Eric was having quite an adventure. After he’d seen the other three sail off, he returned to the house, wondering what he was going to do with himself. Like most twelve-year-old boys, he enjoyed passing the time playing computer games but didn’t have anything with him apart from a couple of lame games on the cheap phone his dad had bought him to use while they were in England.

  Eric threw himself down on the sleeping mat laid out on the living room floor and stared at the cracked ceiling, wishing he was back home in New York, with his Xbox and TV to keep him entertained. His thoughts then turned to his dad and what could be done to find him, and the boy struggled to fight back the tears. This wouldn’t do, he thought to himself and got up to find the other thing boys his age enjoyed – food.

  A rummage round the supermarket bags his dad had brought back before he was kidnapped revealed a Pot Noodle – Eric’s staple diet at the moment, which suited him as back home his mum never let have ‘Cup Noodles’ the American equivalent – a couple of bread rolls, a can of Coke and a large bar of chocolate. A lunch fit for a king and he was, he thought with a smile, King of Folney.

  Once he’d boiled some water on the little camping stove for the Pot Noodle, Eric returned to his makeshift bed with his feast, which he soon made short work of. He finished off the last of the Coke with a burp and was about to head into the garden for a pee when he heard men’s voices coming through the woods. Could it be the kidnappers returning again? He had to hide but where? He racked his brains – ah, the attic! His dad had been poking around up there the other day and there was an access hatch in the ceiling of one of the bedrooms.

  Eric slipped silently into the bedroom and climbed onto a chest of drawers which was conveniently placed below the hatch. He pushed up the wooden panel and it hinged up into the loft, falling back with what seemed like a loud crash. Had the men heard it? Eric didn’t wait to find out but pulled himself up into the space above just as he heard the men enter the house. He quietly shut the lid and crouched still in the dark attic that smelt of damp and decay.

  “He must still be here, we took their boat with us, so there’s no way off the island,” Eric heard one man say in a gruff voice.

  “Yes, but where? Look, he’s obviously been around here recently, this kettle’s still warm.” The other man was better spoken. “He’s either in the house or the woods, we’ll find him quickly enough, come on.”

  Eric listened with bated breath as the men looked around the house, which didn’t take them long as it was only small with a few rooms, one or two built-in cupboards and not a lot of furniture. Surely they’d spot the trapdoor into the attic? He thought about moving away from the entrance to a hidden corner of the attic but he couldn’t see a thing and was afraid he’d fall right through the ceiling onto the enemies’ heads. That wouldn’t be good! Instead he stayed where he was, wishing he’d not drunk all the Coke in one go. A tear ran down his cheek. He wasn’t enjoying his inheritance one bit.

  “He’s obviously not here, let’s look outside,” came the voice of the well-spoken man, who seemed to be in charge. The tiled roof of the house wasn’t felted so Eric could still clearly hear the intruders as they rummaged noisily around the overgrown grounds.

  “He’s not here,” complained the gruff-voiced man.

  “Well where the heck is he, then?” He must be around here somewhere.”

  “Maybe he tried to swim to the shore.”

  “Good grief, I hope not, he’d never manage that.” Eric was pleased to hear the concerned note in the well-spoken man’s voice. “Anyway, we’d have heard if a body had been discovered in the harbour.”

  “If it had been discovered, the tide could have carried it out into the open sea and it may not be found for weeks, if ever.”

  “Umm, well we don’t want to get involved in any deaths if we can help it, that’d just complicate matters even more.” Eric now wondered if the man’s concern was purely selfish and nothing to do the boy’s wellbeing, a thought that didn’t did make him feel any more comfortable. Not that he was feeling at all comfortable, being stuck in a dark smelly attic, desperate for the bathroom.

  After what seemed like hours, although Eric could see from his phone he’d only been hiding about 30 minutes, the men finally gave up their search.

  “I reckon you’re right, he tried to swim to shore, poor kid,” said the well-spoken man.

  “Stupid kid, more like,” grunted the other. “Either that or he phoned for help, in which case we’re in trouble. Come on, let’s get back and check on Goldsmith, we don’t want him going missing too.”

  “Not much chance of that. No one’s going to find him on the boat, and there’s no way he can escape from it.”

  Eric’s ears pricked up at this. So his father was safe and being kept on a boat. At last they had a clue as to his whereabouts. He stayed in his hiding place until he heard the men walk away through the woods and the sound of their motorboat disappear off into the distance. He then dropped down out of the attic and dashed outside to relieve himself. Too desperate to use his usual tree in the wood, he stood just outside the front door and was just starting to water the weeds when he heard voices. It was the other children coming up the path through the woods. “Can’t a guy have a moment’s privacy?” he thought to himself just as Jonny’s cheery face appeared through the trees.”

  “Eric! Put it away, there are girls present. Well, Louisa and Will, at least.” Eric, his face red, turned his back just before Louisa appeared.

  “Sorry, guys, I was desperate.”

  “Well, that’s one way to kill the weeds,” laughed Will.

  “Eric, are you OK?” Louisa had spotted the boy’s grubby, tearstained face and dusty hair. “What have you been doing?”

  “Er, it’s a long story. Say, are you guys actually staying with me?” Eric had noticed the children’s rucksacks and a big grin spread over his face, transforming his appearance.

  “No, we’re just passing through on a hike,” said Will with a smile. “Come on, let’s go inside and have some food, I’m starving.” Eric was pleased to hear Will being more friendly and led the way into the house. “Come on, then, it’s getting on for dinnertime and I’ve some Pot Noodles we could have. Did you bring food too? That’s great, I’m always hungry!”

  Chapter Eleven

  An hour later, they were sitting on the living room floor, feeling bloated after stuffing themselves with the sort of food their mothers would be horrified by but they didn’t care, they were more interested in hearing the story of Eric’s attic adventure, and most amused at the thought of him being stuck up there while desperate for ‘the bathroom’, as he put it.