Mumbersons and The Blood Secret, The by Mike Crowl, Celia Crowl

children.
     
    ‘Haven’t got time, Grandma!’ said Billy. He grabbed the spare car key hanging up in the kitchen. ‘We’ll lose them if we don’t hurry.’ They raced out of the house, banging the front door behind them, and scrambled into the car. Mrs Mumberson got in the driver’s seat. ‘It’s automatic,’ she groaned. ‘I don’t know how to drive an automatic.’
     
    ‘I’ll show you,’ said Billy.
     
    ‘It’s easy, Mrs Mumberson,’ said Olivia, who’d got into the back with Stevedore. She leaned over to make sure Billy got things right.
     
    ‘Get your seat belt on,’ he said to her, and then to his grandmother, ‘Key goes in here. Start it up. Foot on the brake. Gear into reverse.’ His grandmother juddered out of the driveway, and swung around so that she was facing downhill, the way the police car had gone.
     
    ‘You drive, Mrs Mumberson,’ said Olivia, ‘I’ll watch where they’re going.’
     
    ‘Yes, dear.’ Near the end of the street they could see the police car turning towards the town centre.
     
    Olivia leaned forward between Billy and his grandmother. ‘They’re not going to the police station!’ Stevedore gave a loud woof of agreement that made them all jump.
     
    ‘Of course they aren’t,’ said Billy. ‘They’re going to the Factory!’ He gave his grandmother precise instructions for a back street shortcut to the Factory. She gripped the wheel as though it might escape, but managed to do what Billy said.
     
    ‘Do you think it’s a good idea to go back to the Factory, Billy?’ asked Olivia. Billy thought she sounded a tad anxious.
     
    ‘I don’t think we have a choice.’
     
    ‘What do you mean, Olivia?’ asked Mrs Mumberson.
     
    Olivia, who still hadn’t put her seatbelt on, shouted, ‘Hurry!’ in Mrs Mumberson’s ear, and didn’t answer her question.
     
    ‘I’m going as fast as I can!’ Nevertheless, she gave the accelerator a push and the car shot forward. ‘That’s more like it!’
     
    On the main road down below them, they could see the police car driving up Habitation Hill past the cable car tracks, scattering skateboarders in every direction.
     
    By using Billy’s shortcut they reached the Factory gates almost at the same time as the police car. ‘Don’t get too close, Grandma,’ said Billy. ‘We don’t want them to see us.’
     
    The police car had stopped at the main entrance. The gates began to open of their own accord, without anyone using an access card. And as the car went through the opening, an extraordinary thing happened. The car changed colour from white to green, and all the police markings slid off and vanished. It was a perfectly ordinary Holden Commodore again.

    ‘There must have been a time limit on the spell,’ said Olivia. She seemed not at all surprised at what had happened. ‘That’ll be why they were in such a hurry.’ Billy and his grandmother were still staring open-mouthed, wondering if what they’d seen had actually happened.
     
    ‘Drive round the right side of the wall, Grandma,’ said Billy. ‘We need to see where they’re taking Granddad.’
     
    ‘And your Dad ,’ said Olivia. Stevedore woofed loudly and enthusiastically, even though Jerry had called him a smelly mutt earlier on.
     
    ‘Is there another gate?’ asked Mrs Mumberson. ‘I can’t see one.’
     
    ‘We have to go through a special door, Grandma. But you’ll be too big to get through it.’
     
    ‘What on earth do you mean?’ said Mrs Mumberson. ‘I can’t let you go in there by yourselves. What am I going to do?’
     
    ‘You’re our getaway car,’ said Olivia. That didn’t make Mrs Mumberson any happier.
     
    They reached the clump of oaks with their skirt of bushes. Mrs Mumberson parked as near as she could without getting in the way of passing traffic. Olivia gave her the cellphone. ‘You’ll need this in case we have to contact you.’
     
    Mrs Mumberson sighed. ‘I hope I can remember what you taught