The Lost Sapphire by Belinda Murrell

Author:Belinda Murrell
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Penguin Random House Australia
Published: 2016-08-28T04:00:00+00:00

13

Break In

Riversleigh, modern day

Marli parked her bike against the stone wall and went upstairs to knock on the door of Luca’s flat. The last few days it had been raining, so the two had spent hours researching old newspapers on the internet and exploring various websites that had revealed grainy photographs of Riversleigh and Hamilton’s Glove factory, snippets from social pages and gossip columns, and news reports of the house being given away. The local historical societies had websites with interviews from old residents who had worked at the glove factory and Ramsay’s tannery.

Luca and Marli had caught a tram to Victoria Street in Richmond to see the old red-brick building that had once been the glove factory and was now the slick offices of an advertising agency. They had made copious notes about the Hamilton family from what Didi had told them, their internet research and the material they had found in the scrapbook. They had also made popcorn, watched old movies and played endless card games. It had been fun.

Today was sunny again, so the two planned another adventure into the Riversleigh gardens. Marli had borrowed her dad’s camera again, but she hadn’t told him what for. She felt it should be a secret – a secret between Luca and her.

Luca came out and the two headed for the old blue double doors in the wall that led into the garden. Both of them looked around surreptitiously to make sure that no-one was watching before they pulled open the door and slid through. Marli locked the crossbar behind them. It was dark in the garage. Luca used the torch on his phone to light their way, stumbling through the piles of junk. Marli pulled an old hammer off the wall.

They stepped through the double doors at the other end of the garage and out into the rampant beauty of the sun-filled garden. White butterflies danced above the rose garden. The fairy wren swooped and flitted through the golden air, chasing his tiny brown mate. Hidden bellbirds tinkled their chimes from the shrubbery.

‘It’s so beautiful, but it looks so unloved,’ Marli said with a sigh.

Marli pulled out her dad’s camera from her backpack and shot off some photographs of the house, the garden and the garage.

‘My grandfather would be horrified,’ Luca said. ‘I was thinking that we could do some tidying up in the garden. I might be able to borrow Nonno’s brush-cutter and mow through the long grass. Then we won’t have to worry about snakes.’

Marli imagined what the gardens could be like with some care. ‘That’s a brilliant idea. And we could get rid of some weeds – I feel sorry for those beautiful roses all choked up.’

Luca nodded. ‘It could be a project to do while we research the family.’

Marli looked towards the old house, with its boarded-up windows and peeling paint. ‘What do you think?’ she asked, swinging the hammer in her hand. ‘Shall we explore? Maybe we can find a way inside the house.’

Luca looked at the hammer in dismay.

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