Alice Éclair, Spy Extraordinaire! by Sarah Todd Taylor

Author:Sarah Todd Taylor
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Nosy Crow
Published: 2023-01-15T00:00:00+00:00

Alice pushed open the door to the director’s room gingerly, hoping that the palace maids, who she sometimes saw dashing around tidying up after the film crew, were not inside seeing to the fire or changing the bedding. Glen Carmine’s room was plain in comparison to many of the rooms in the palace. The walls were smooth and white, and the floor was black and white chequered tiles, giving it the air of a chessboard. Against one wall, the bed stood swathed in cream curtains, pulled back so that it looked as though it was set into an alcove. The only other furniture was a table in front of a floor-length mirror, and a small stool.

Alice scanned the room. The director’s luggage was out of sight and there was no sign of a wardrobe.

Perhaps there is a hidden door, she thought, and, placing her hand on the blank wall opposite the bed, she began to feel for a latch in the panelling. She had reached the third whitewashed panel before she felt something graze her fingertip. It was a tiny lever. Alice pressed it. There was a click and the panel popped open to reveal a wardrobe full of coats and shirts. There were two large packing cases on the floor, pushed to the back of the space.

Alice dropped to her knees, opened the first case and was disappointed to find it empty except for a pair of shoes. She felt around the heels to see if there was a secret compartment in them like the pair she had at home for hiding keys and microfilms in, but they were just ordinary shoes.

The second case was locked. She slipped a hand into her pocket, drew out her trusty lockpick set, and in a matter of minutes she had sprung the lock. Rolls of paper, notebooks and sketches spilled out. Alice dragged them towards her and began to root through them. There were sketches of the palace, maps of the gardens marked up with where the sets would be built, lists of supplies and props, a letter from an actress complaining about the casting of Catrine, and drawing after drawing of costumes. At the bottom, Alice found a sketch of the lake. Each of the statutes round it were numbered one to nine and curving lines had been drawn between them, lines that would look like the marks of ice skates. But hadn’t Glen Carmine said that he’d only just had the idea for the skating scene? It looked very much as though he had it all planned out already. Alice sat back on her heels and wondered. Why would he lie about such a thing? Lies usually meant something. She rolled the sketch up, slipped it into her pocket and looked back into the case. In the corner sat a long slim box. She picked it up and opened it. Inside was a carved wooden fountain pen engraved with six letters.

“J.C.T.C.M.C.”

Alice stared at it. Was this a code? But why

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.