Mumbersons and The Blood Secret, The Read Online Free PDF

looked after themselves, and didn’t need gardeners to keep them tidy.
     
    Olivia had gone out of sight behind a green Holden when Billy bumped into a security guard. The guard, who seemed to have come out of nowhere, was more than six foot tall, with muscles that made his grey Triple W Sisters uniform look as if it was going to burst. He held a walkie talkie in his left hand. ‘What are you doing here?’
     
    ‘I’m meeting my Dad. Jerry Mumberson. He parks his car here.’
     
    ‘He’s not here. Hasn’t been here all day. I checked the list this morning.’
     
    ‘He was supposed to go and meet my mother. Out of town. But then he texted me half an hour ago. Look.’ He showed the man the text.
     
    The man clipped his walkie talkie to his sleeve, and took the phone. ‘He doesn’t say meet him inside the gates. He says meet him at the gates. Can’t you read?’ He thrust the mobile back at Billy. Then, without warning, he grabbed him by the shoulders and said, ‘You’re trespassing. I’m taking you inside. We’ll see what the boss says.’
     
    ‘I’m not trespassing. My Dad’ll tell you.’
     
    The man bent down into Billy’s face and sneered. ‘He’s not here to tell anyone anything, is he?’ He swivelled Billy around, and holding him firmly with both hands, pushed him between the parked cars towards the main building. ‘The boss’ll sort you out.’
     
    Billy stumbled along in front of the man, unable to get away from his grip on his jacket. He slipped the cellphone back in his pocket, and tried to see where Olivia was, but the man forced his head forward. He hoped she’d run back to his house and tell his grandparents. They’d come and sort things out if he was in trouble. He hoped.
     
    The guard hustled him up the three broad stone steps at the front of the building. When Billy stumbled on one, the guard hauled him up again and propelled him through the large glass revolving door towards a woman standing in the foyer. ‘I found him, Ms Nordal,’ he said to her.
     
    The woman wore a smart dark trouser suit with the Triple W Sisters logo embroidered on the left lapel. Her hair was long and black, held in place by a large hairpin that twinkled in the light from the candelabra above her . But the ring on her finger sparkled even more. It had an enormous cluster of white stones. She stared coldly at Billy, without any surprise, as if she was expecting him.
     
    ‘Hold him tight, Lavitch,’ she said. ‘I don’t want him escaping.’ She strolled around Billy, inspecting him. ‘Who’d have thought?’ she said. ‘A lanky eleven-year-old: the solution to all our problems. Not much of a specimen. I wonder if there’s even enough blood in him.’ She poked Billy in the arm, and then nodded at the guard. ‘Take him through. Don’t let him get away.’
     
    Billy didn’t like that mention of the word blood at all. He wriggled, trying to free himself. ‘What are you doing? I came to meet my Dad!’ The guard, holding him tight, as ordered, launched him forward. Neither he nor the woman said anything more. They moved quickly along a corridor between darkened offices. Neon lights above them buzzed and hummed. They pushed through a door marked Staff Only , into an area that hadn’t been modernised. Billy kept protesting as they headed down a flight of polished wooden steps, but the two adults ignored him.
     
    There was no one else in this part of the building, because the evening shift worked in the Extension, behind the old mansion. All the old doors down here were heavily padlocked. It was warm, almost too warm, and Billy felt sticky.
     
    The woman pushed open a door at the end of the corridor, marked Sick Bay. The room was brightly lit. A narrow hospital bed with wheels stood in the centre. A sheet was folded over it, and tucked in, and a flat pillow lay at one end. Two monitors on one wall both ran the same lazy screensaver, and opposite them a dozen squat cupboards, some of them