Truly Tan Baffled

I grab the phone from Dad and bolt outside and up the ladder to World Headquarters. Urgent phone calls have to be taken in private, in a place you are sure is not bugged. World Headquarters is definitely bug free. I have seen to that. I flick on the battery-operated fairy lights that are draped all around the walls of HQ. I also turn on the torch-lamp that dangles from the roof. I shiver. HQ is like Antarctica tonight. I bet there are icicles growing somewhere in here. I sincerely wish HQ had central heating. But first it would need electricity and Dad still refuses to wire it up. I would like a fireplace too. But only in a perfect world could you have a fireplace in a tree house and live to tell the story. I sit on the corner of the desk. I look exactly like a TV detective. ‘Breaker, breaker?’ I say. ‘Identify yourself.’ ‘The purple duck flies backward at dawn,’ says a quiet voice.

7