The Secret Key

First published in Great Britain by HarperCollins Children’s Books in 2018

Published in this ebook edition in 2018

HarperCollins Children’s Books is a division of HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd,

HarperCollins Publishers

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London SE1 9GF

The HarperCollins Children’s Books website address is

www.harpercollins.co.uk

Text copyright © Tibor Jones 2018

Cover design © HarperCollinsPublishers 2018

Cover illustration by Alba Filella

Tibor Jones asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work.

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this ebook onscreen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins.

Source ISBN: 9780008211837

Ebook Edition © July 2018 ISBN: 9780008211844

Version: 2018-04-12

For Kika and Mylo

Contents

Cover

Title Page

Copyright

Dedication

1. A Lesson in Chemistry

2. Hemlock and Foxglove

3. The Silver Tattoo

4. Run-in

5. The Red Slime

6. The Missing Plans

7. Breaking and Entering

8. Under the Weeping Tree

9. The Turning Eye

10. The Face of Tomorrow

11. A Vision of the Damned

12. The White Maze

13. Where No One Can Hear You Scream

14. Trapped

15. Epilogue

Acknowledgements

About the Publisher

‘This is the twelfth –’ the headmaster glances up from his notes – ‘no, let me correct that – the thirteenth time you’ve been in trouble this term, Agatha.’

We’re sitting in his office, the air sticky, and that’s not just because of the heatwave outside.

I look down at the floor. It’s true, and I don’t know what to say.

Dr Hargrave (Ronald Hargrave OBE, BPhil, MEd) likes to fill silences. He’s very good at that, and it’s best to wait until he’s done. He isn’t a doctor, as you and I think of them, but he likes to be called one. He has five liver spots in the shape of the constellation Cassiopeia on his forehead, and a steely glare, which I would say is a 4B on the eye-colour chart I have hanging in my bedroom.

He reads from his list:

‘One – you were found hiding in the ceiling space above the chemistry labs, because you believed Mr Stamp was stealing sulphuric acid to sell on eBay.’

This really happened – he was – but without evidence I had to drop my investigation. Plus, Dad grounded me.

‘Two – you tried to miss lessons by convincing the groundskeeper that you were an apprentice tree surgeon who needed to scale a tree near the boundary wall … and just so you could get out of school …’

I zone out. I’ve always found this easy – like switching channels on TV. If I want to watch something more interesting, I just imagine it. I call it my ‘Change Channel’ mechanism.

The headmaster’s desk is very shiny and if I look down I can see my own reflection in the caramel-coloured wood. I’m wearing my red beret – Dr Hargrave hasn’t even started lecturing me on this breach of uniform rules yet. My bob-cut hair frames my face, and my eyebrows are knitted together as though concentrating on his lecture. And, just like that, my reflection shimmers, shifts and becomes someone else. A small man in a hat and a bow tie looks back up at me. Smoothing out his moustache, he steps out of the desk, hops neatly to the floor and stands behind the headmaster.

‘How long do you think le docteur Hargrave will go on this time?’ he asks in a soft Belgian accent.

I zone back in to hear what my headmaster is saying now …

‘Four – you installed a listening device in the wall of the staffroom …’ – and then I glance back to where Hercule Poirot, famous detective, is looking at the clock.

‘Your headmaster has already been talking for twenty-two minutes.’ Poirot raises an eyebrow, as though daring me to do something about it. ‘He might break his record of twenty-seven, no?’

Actually, I reckon the headmaster is almost done – his stomach just rumbled, and it’s long after lunchtime. My eyes flicker around the room, details lighting up my mind like a pinball machine.

‘Twenty-four,’ I say out loud.

‘What?’ The headmaster looks up from his notes.

‘Nothing.’ I clear my throat.

Poirot nods in recognition – I have made my bet.

‘Are you listening to me, Agatha?’

‘Absolutely, sir. You were saying that impersonating a health inspector is a criminal offence.’

‘Yes, I was. Do you not take that seriously, Agatha?’

I nod seriously. ‘I do, Headmaster. I was just starting to worry.’

‘Worry? Worry about what?’ The headmaster’s eyebrows furrow.

‘That you’d be late for lunch with your wife.’

A look of confusion creases his face at the change of tack. ‘My … wife?’