Sally Bangle: Unexpected Detective

By Melinda Szymanik

Sally Bangle's sea faring dad was lost at sea seven years before. But is he really dead? When Sally is given a school project to research the very strange Professor Angstrom she turns up some interesting information about that fateful sea voyage. What really happened? Is that really the Professor wrapped up in bandages in St Olafs? Sally won't rest until she has figured out the mystery and she drags her best friend, her best friend's chauffer, her brother and the school bully along on a dangerous mission to discover the truth.

'Sally Bangle:Unexpected Detective' is a mystery novel for 8 to 11 year olds.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Melinda Szymanik
• Release date: Dec 6, 2012
• ISBN: 9780473233365

Melinda Szymanik

Melinda Szymanik is an award winning New Zealand author of smart, engaging fiction of all lengths for children of all ages focusing on family, the challenging and the unexpected - all with a little dash of magic. Previously published titles include picture books The Were-Nana (Scholastic, 2008), The House That Went to Sea (Duck Creek Press, 2011), Made with Love (Duck Creek Press, 2012) and While You Are Sleeping (Duck Creek Press, 2013) and middle grade novels Jack the Viking (Scholastic, 2008) and A Winter's Day in 1939.

Book preview

Sally Bangle

Unexpected Detective

MELINDA SZYMANIK

Published by Tale-Spin Media, 2012 at Smashwords

ISBN 978-0-473-23336-5

Copyright © 2012 Melinda Szymanik

SMASHWORDS EDITION, LICENCE NOTES

This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

Front Cover Design by Cheryl Rowe, Auckland, New Zealand

FOR ELORA

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

Chapter Ten

Acknowledgements

About the author

CHAPTER ONE

I don’t like you Vanessa. You’re a pain in the … in the … somewhere painful! It was the worst thing Sally could think of to say, and she could tell it wasn’t very bad. Rats.

Oh Sally, Vanessa teased, her mean lips curving up nastily as she towered over Sally. I’m so frightened. And she rolled her eyes and laughed a great, Ha, ha.

Hand it over then, she said.

Sally sighed. She pulled a small, tightly pinned hanky from inside the pocket of her school uniform. With great care she unclipped the safety pin that held the four corners of the hanky together. In the centre of the unfurled fabric sat three gold coins; her lunch money. She sighed again as she handed the money to Vanessa.

The big girl reached forward with her enormous hand like a baseball mitt and squeezed Sally’s face. Smile, she ordered.

Sally showed her teeth, which was the best she could do with her cheeks gripped so tightly.

You think this is bad? Vanessa said. Just you wait. She let Sally’s face go and laughed.

Sally said nothing.

You’re too nice, that’s your problem, Vanessa went on helpfully, wearing a grimace which Sally suspected was the big girl’s attempt at a smile. A smile Sally felt sure would frighten babies.

All through lunchtime at St Welt’s School for Perfect Young Girls, Sally’s stomach growled with hunger. She was small for her age and missing lunch didn’t help. Everything about her was delicate, from her wispy blond hair and her round, pale blue eyes, to her almost transparent skin. Like a downy feather, one puff of wind and Sally looked like she would be tossed helter-skelter along the pavement.

Sally’s best friend Abigail, who was quite Sally’s opposite with a ruddy complexion, masses of thick, brown, curly hair, and a definite robustness, gave her a crunch bar and a packet of raisins out of her lunch box. Knowing what a huge sacrifice it was for Abigail to give away any part of her lunch, Sally ate them even though she hated raisins. The gurgling faded to a small grumble, and Sally forgot her hunger long enough to play a lunchtime game of hopscotch with Abigail.

Afternoon lessons were torture. Sally couldn’t keep her mind on her schoolwork. Her tummy kept groaning and her brain felt tired and out of sorts. An image of Vanessa Blunt eating the hot, yummy meat pie that should have been Sally’s swam constantly before her eyes.

Sally Bangle! shrieked her teacher, Miss Venn, I cannot have children sighing all over their story writing. It will not do your writing any good. If you must sigh, try diary writing instead. That is how young girls deal with their feelings. They write it all down to an imaginary friend in their diaries and their troubles go away and all that dreadful sighing STOPS! Miss Venn brought her ruler down on Sally’s desk. WHACK!

Yes Miss Venn, Sally said. Before she could stop it, another sigh leaked out.

Miss Venn remained by Sally’s desk for several minutes, squinting menacingly at her.

After Miss Venn passed on down between the rows of desks, Abigail leaned across the aisle towards her friend.

Why don’t you tell Miss Venn what happened, she whispered, … with Vanessa.

Sally shook her head. Miss Venn didn’t like them to tell tales on each other. Perfect young girls didn’t tell tales. And anyway, Miss Venn did not see Vanessa Blunt the way the other perfect young girl students did. Sure enough, when Sally turned around, Vanessa’s large, flat, round face, like a dinner plate, was beaming up at Miss Venn as the teacher patted her favourite pupil on the top of her wiry head.

Marvellous work Vanessa. What wonderful descriptions. We must enter this in the school essay competition.

Sally turned back to her desk. One large, hot, salty tear fell on the words at the top of the page in front of her. The ink swam to the edge of the drop of water, dissolving the words. Sally ripped the almost full page of writing off her lined pad, screwed it up and stared at the empty sheet beneath. She chewed the end of the pen for a second and then started writing … This is the Diary of Sally Bangle. 24 Fine Close, Lower Downs, Awkwood.

She used the end of the pen to push her wispy hair behind her ears. Then she wrote, My mother is Felicity Bangle (strict), My father is Captain William Bangle (lost) – she couldn’t bring herself to say dead, and anyway, no one was one hundred per cent sure that was true – My brother is a pain in the butt. She crossed out is a pain in the butt and put Malcolm Bangle instead. Then she couldn’t help adding, (annoying).

She started a new section. Favourite foods: ham and pineapple pizza, salt and vinegar chips, chocolate. Hate: Mum’s Tuna Surprise and asparagus. Best friend – Abigail Fray. Worst enemy – Vanessa Blunt (I wish we’d never met). Greatest wish: to have my dad back and go to a different school and never ever be bullied again.

Sally stared at what she’d just written. She sighed, and grasping the top edge of the page yanked it off the pad, crumpled it up and put it with the other ball of paper. She pulled her chair a little closer to her desk and bent over the pad

My father was the captain of a ship …’ she began.

As soon as she got home, Sally rushed straight to the biscuit jar on the kitchen bench. Her mother always kept it full to the brim. Sally’s hand hovered over the lid ready to yank it off and dive in. Her stomach twisted with hunger and she felt light headed.

Sally! her mother called from the lounge. No biscuits till after homework. You know the rule.

Sally felt sure her mother could hear a chip packet or lolly wrapper being opened from the other side of the planet. She sighed. Vague images of Vanessa danced around inside her head. She couldn’t think straight.

If you must eat now, have some celery, or a prune, her mother went on.

Sally sighed again. There was no choice. She wouldn’t be able to do her homework – finishing the essay on her father – on an empty stomach.

She was about to open the fridge door and reach in for the prunes, when her brother Malcolm walked in the back door. He flung his school bag onto the middle of the kitchen floor.

What’s wrong with you, nerd features? he said, lifting the lid off the jar and swiping a biscuit in less than a second. As he walked swiftly through the door into the hallway, their mother came in from the lounge.

Oh Sally, her mother scolded, looking at the biscuit jar lid sitting on the bench, the space where a biscuit had been obvious at the top of the jar. I just told you not to take a biscuit. No more food until dinnertime for you madam. And pick up that school bag.

Aargghhh! Sally screamed, bursting into tears.

As Sally lay face down on her bed after dinner, there came a knock at her bedroom door.

Sally, she heard her mother say. We should talk.

Perched on the corner of her daughter’s bed, her mother felt Sally’s forehead. Hmmm, she said. Sally said nothing. There was nothing to say. She couldn’t tell her mother about how Vanessa had bullied her yet again. And that today it had involved her lunch money. She’d told her mother about the bullying before, and her mother had spoken to Miss Venn and then Miss Venn had a long talk with Sally afterwards. Miss Venn had not called Sally a liar, but she had carefully explained to Sally’s mother how she couldn’t imagine a girl as well bred and important as Vanessa bullying anybody.

Her mother never said she must be jealous of you, or something equally soothing, like other mothers did. After all, there was nothing to be jealous of. Sally was small and pale like a whisper, and not very good at sports or dance or musical things. Sally’s mother had told her daughter to stand firm, and to tell Vanessa to leave her alone and to ignore her. She said she couldn’t understand what Sally was doing wrong. There was no point in saying anything about it. Vanessa would be there at school again tomorrow, as mean as ever. Sally would be there for her to torture as always. Nothing would be different.

But Sally was wrong. Things were about to change.

CHAPTER TWO

Ooooo, Sally moaned, and ohhhhhhhh, she griped the next morning, wrapping her arms over her stomach and bending forward over the kitchen table. Hunched over his bowl of cornflakes, Malcolm watched his sister with great interest.

Her mother felt her forehead. Mmmm, she said, looking at Sally, a frown on her face. You are a little warm, she said. And your eyes are shiny. You weren’t eating properly yesterday. And you were definitely not yourself yesterday afternoon.

Sally managed what she thought was a very sick person’s half smile.

But I don’t think you’re sick enough to stay home from school. And I have an important meeting at one o’clock so staying home would be out of the question anyway. She looked at her watch then back at her daughter. She sniffed, frowning as she touched her nose. It had better not be catching.

She turned away and briskly began clearing and wiping the table. She started rinsing dishes in the sink. Sally knew she would never fake a stomach ache again. Next time it would be the ’flu, or something horribly contagious, although she really did feel a little strange. She sighed.

Malcolm had his head down,