Skit: A Marlie Starr and Tommy Bell Investigation

By France Dot

They watched with their hearts in their mouths as the dinghy silently glided towards the beach in the moonlight. The man jumped ashore and dragged the dinghy up onto the sand, tying it to a log. He looked up and down the beach and then started softly calling.

 

It all started with a message in a bottle – a desperate plea for help – but how can a team of four kids unravel the clues to find the kidnapped man? And now they are dangerously close to being discovered! Tommy and Marlie know they would be in BIG trouble if Tommy's mum knew what they'd done – sneaking out at night was bad enough, but coming face to face with a kidnapper on a deserted beach? His mum would go NUTS!!!

For Cam and Dawn Portelli, this is not just an adventure, this is their future – SKIT must succeed!

• Language: English
• Publisher: France Dot
• Release date: Dec 13, 2021
• ISBN: 9780645278910

Book preview

SKIT

Skit: A Marlie Starr and Tommy Bell Investigation

First published in 2021 by France Dot • www.francedot.com.au

Text © 2021 France Dot • Illustrations © 2021 France Dot

The moral right of the author illustrator has been asserted. For quantity sales or media enquiries, please contact the publisher at the website address above.

Cataloguing-in-Publication entry is available from the National Library of Australia.

ISBN: 978-0-6452789-0-3 (paperback) • 978-0-6452789-1-0 (ebook)

Editing: Gareth Collinson

Cover design and interior layout: The Virtual Paintbrush

eBook adaptation: Luca Funari

Publishing Consultant: Linda Diggle

All rights reserved. Except as permitted under the Australian Copyright Act 1968 (for example, a fair dealing for the purposes of study, research, criticism or review), no part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, communicated or transmitted in any form or by means without written permission of the copyright owner, except for the use of quotations in a book review. All inquiries should be made to the publisher at the above address.

This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

To Dorothy and Jim (Mum and Dad).

I am so grateful that you were my parents. –FD

Table of Contents

Prologue

1 – The Find

2 – The Proposition

3 – The Portellis

4 – SKIT

5 – The Letter

6 – The List Narrows

7 – The Visit

8 – Marlie’s Dad

9 – Basti and Clarice

10 – A Spanner in the Works

11 – Marlie’s Big Surprise

12 – Coincidence or Connivance?

13 – Boat Watch

14 – Househunting

15 – The Secret Cupboard

16 – Lennie

17 – A Strange Pattern Emerges

18 – Pop in a Pickle

19 – Number 23

20 – The Suspect

21 – Spotty

22 – The Rat Trap is Set

23 – In the Drink

24 – Happy Reunions

25 – Questions Answered

Epilogue

Map of Port Phillip Bay

Prologue

With a start they realised the man was untying the dinghy. He was coming ashore! Marlie and Tommy quickly found a tree to hide behind and hoped the little dog would stay quiet.

They watched with horrified anticipation as the dinghy silently glided towards the beach in the moonlight. Desperately wanting to get a look at him, but terrified they would be seen, they pulled back even further behind the tree. The man jumped ashore and dragged the dinghy up onto the sand, tying it to a log. He looked up and down the beach and then started softly calling, ‘Spotty. Spotty. Here, boy.’

Spotty’s ears pricked up, but he wasn’t going anywhere. He buried himself further into Marlie’s jacket, seeming to know that he mustn’t make a sound.

The man kept calling for what seemed like ages, but eventually he walked up the beach towards the road. Marlie and Tommy held their breath as he came dangerously close to their hiding spot, but he kept walking straight ahead purposefully. With hearts pounding, they waited until he had passed before looking at each other triumphantly. They knew this was the kidnapper and now they knew for sure who he was!

Chapter One

The Find

EIGHT DAYS EARLIER – MONDAY 16 NOVEMBER

TOMMY

It was me who found it. We were walking home from school along the beach when I noticed a plastic drink bottle half-buried in the sand and it annoys me to see rubbish lying around. Really, how hard is it to put it in a bin? I didn’t want to touch it, germs and all that, but I noticed a rolled-up tube of paper inside. I called Marlie over to have a look.

‘So? Someone’s put their rubbish inside their rubbish!’ Marlie’s voice sounded like a great big grin.

‘Yeah, maybe, but it looks kind of strange.’

Marlie knelt down, picked it up and handed it to me.

‘Here you go,’ she said.

I unscrewed the lid and tipped the bottle upside down. The paper got stuck in the neck, but something else dropped out.

I leaned forward, but whatever it was had disappeared completely. Marlie grabbed the bottle and pulled the paper out. I heard her draw in her breath and then let out a long whistle.

‘It’s a note!’ Marlie whispered. ‘It was written about six weeks ago according to the date at the top. Listen to this!’ She started to read:

Please help me, I’ve been kidnapped!

I’m being held prisoner on a boat somewhere on Port Phillip Bay. My wife is in danger, she was taken too but I don’t know where she is. Please take this note and my wedding ring to the police.

Wayne Portelli, 43 Mandilian Crescent, McCrae.

As soon as I heard ‘wedding ring’, I started frantically digging in the sand. Marlie dropped down too. We must have looked like a pair of marsupial moles: bums up, heads down, madly burrowing. Finally, my fingers felt something small, smooth and heavy. Triumphantly I held it up.

‘Wow.’ Marlie stared in amazement at the gold ring lying gleaming in my hand.

‘Wow again!’ I said. ‘This is for real. We’ve got to help – we’d better go straight to the police station!’

‘Okay. We’ll go past home and get the dogs,’ Marlie replied.

I quickly looked around, making a mental note of where I’d found the bottle and realised it was right where the shipwreck was meant to have been. We learnt all about it in school because that’s how our town, Rosebud, got its European name. I reckon all the kids in the area have had a go at digging for treasure here, but this was our first find and it sure wasn’t from the Schooner Rosebud!

We raced along the beach then headed straight up Third Avenue.

My name is Thomas Albany Bell, but most people call me Tommy. I turned eleven last month on October thirteenth. Marlena Crystal Starr, known as Marlie, is my best friend and she turned eleven on November second. Next year we’ll be in year six at school – can’t wait – but we have to finish year five first!

My mum and dad split up when I was three and I live with my mum, but I visit my dad whenever I can, which isn’t all that often because he lives overseas.

When Marlie was two her mum died, and she doesn’t have a dad. She lives with her pop, but my mum looks out for her too.

Marlie and I have just had the most amazing adventure, but before I let you get back to it, I want to tell you what we look like. We’re both tall for our age and pretty skinny, but apart from that, we’re really different. Marlie has dark olive skin, reddish-brown curly hair, dark brown eyes and a really cheeky face. I have fair skin, long scruffy blond hair, freckles and green eyes. Marlie is lots of fun and has no fear; she makes everyone laugh, but I’m a bit shy and I worry a lot … Now back to our adventure!

We reached my place first and raced inside, yelling out for my mum. ‘Look what we found!’ I said, waving the bottle around madly.

‘Where did you get that?’ She looked at it suspiciously.

‘We found it on the beach. Open it,’ I said, putting it on the table.

Marlie and I were bubbling with excitement, so my mum gingerly picked up the bottle. After reading the note and turning the ring over in her hand, she stared at us in disbelief. ‘This can’t be real,’ she said doubtfully, looking again at the note.

‘What about the ring?’ Marlie piped up.

‘That, I can’t explain. Perhaps you’d better take it to the police and let them figure it out.’

‘That’s what we thought. We’re just going to saddle up the dogs and we’ll be off,’ I said.

‘You two be careful and make sure you stay off the roads!’ My mum’s a worrier too.

‘I’ll go get Herman and the board and meet you out the front of my place,’ Marlie yelled as she disappeared through the house.

I whistled and Mandy looked up at me with her big brown eyes. She didn’t move from her spot under the table, but her tail started thumping madly.

‘Didn’t I say hello to you? I’m sorry, girl.’ I dropped to the ground and patted Mandy’s thick curly coat. ‘Do you want to come for a run?’ At that, Mandy jumped up. I reached for her harness and snapped it on. ‘There you go! See you later, Mum, won’t be long.’

‘Wait a minute; don’t you want a quick snack before you go?’ My mum was always thinking of my tummy.

‘I am a bit hungry, but we don’t really have time.’

‘Take a couple of bananas and make sure you come straight home afterwards.’

I grabbed the bananas from the fruit bowl, filled up my water bottle and shoved everything into my backpack along with the mystery bottle. So, with the skateboard under my arm and a parting ‘Bye’ I was off.

As soon as I got to the footpath at the front of my house, I dropped the skateboard to the ground, took hold of the reins, jumped on the board and whistled for Mandy to go. Marlie was waiting at the front of her house. She immediately jumped onto her board and matched my pace. The two dogs leaped ahead with a brief acknowledgement to each other.

It would have been completely obvious to anyone watching that all four of us were having a great time. The two dogs were running at full pelt – ears flying behind them, tongues hanging out and eyes sparkling. Mandy and Herman came from the same litter and love each