Chapter thirteen

The Special Orders Room

Anna got home about ten o'clock. She turned on the radio and listened to the news. The Chairman of I.C.S. was dead and Mr Riseman was the new Chairman.

Anna did not sleep that night. She was thinking about Dave Slatin and the Special Orders. What were they? What was Dave Slatin doing in that room?

On Saturday morning she went to the shop. Dave said nothing to her. He was angry because Anna had not worked on Friday. He did not ask about her day off, and Anna did not tell him about it.

At eleven o'clock, Dave left the shop. He got in his car and drove off.

Anna was alone. This was her chance! She went to the back of the shop and turned the handle of the locked door.

But the Special Orders room was not locked! Dave had forgotten to lock it. Anna opened the door and went into the room.

It was a small room, dark and hot. Anna turned on the light, but it was not a very strong light.

She looked round the room. There was a small table, two old chairs and a lot of boxes. That was all. Special Orders? There were no order books, no papers, no pencils.

Anna walked round the table. It was difficult because there were a lot of boxes on the floor. Anna opened one of the boxes and looked inside. She found some old magazines and newspapers. Underneath, there were some dirty, old clothes.

But underneath the clothes she discovered some money.

Lots of money. British money. French money. American. German. There was money from all over the world. Anna was amazed. She had never seen so much money before.

She looked round again and found Mike Bailey's case. It was empty. Then she found Arthur Riseman's briefcase. That was empty too.

Then Anna looked into a bigger box. Inside it were some dolls with broken arms and legs. One of the dolls was very beautiful, but it had a broken arm. Anna put it on the table.

Then Anna found a book about football. Inside there were some pictures of footballers but the pictures were all torn. Anna put the book on the table.

Anna looked into the box again and found some little cars. Most of them were broken. She found a small model aeroplane. It was broken too.

Anna put all these things on the table. What a strange collection! There was the money, the broken doll, the toy cars, the model aeroplane. And there was the football book with the torn pictures. Anna looked at the things on the table. What were they for? Why did Dave Slatin keep them in this locked room?

Suddenly Anna jumped. There was a noise behind her. Someone was standing at the door.