Shell Shocked (The Cosmic Carapace, #1) by Barnaby Yard

one.”
    “I was just wondering whether...”
    “Shut up and tell us your news.”
    Norbert took another glance at the donuts and sighed.
    “Colin’s been taken.”
    “What do you mean taken?”
    “Taken. You know, like someone nabbed ‘im. My mate Eric the Fed said ‘ee saw ‘im being taken into a warehouse at the docks.”
    “By who?” Asked Eva.
    Norbert had suddenly found something incredibly interesting on the floor to stare at. He took his battered purple hat from his head and started to pass it through his hands, so it turned slowly in front of him.
    “Oo took ‘im? Oh, you want to know who took ‘im do you? Ah well, yeah, I thought you might want to know that.” He fell into silence, still staring at the floor, hat slowly spinning in his hands.
    “Well, who was it Norbert?!” asked Esme.
    Norbert had now entered a full blown state of shiftiness. His eyes were darting left and right, the hat was spinning faster in his hands, and he had now added to this with some decidedly guilty shoe shuffling.
    “Well...” He said.
    “Norbert!” shouted both the twins at once, not only out loud, but deep in Norbert’s head at the same time. He jumped, his voice blurting out immediately.
    “Mr Pall!“ He covered his eyes with his hat and started muttering to himself.
    “Oh Gawd, oh blimey. I shouldn’t ‘ave, but I didn’t  know ‘ee would, oh gawd.“
    The twins looked at each other in confusion. They had never seen Norbert like this. He was always cocky, confident, always driving them bloody mad, but never this. Never scared. It was hard to think of anything Norbert would be scared of. If you dropped a large rock on his head, you would probably lift it up in a day or two to find him having a beer with a woodlouse and running a scam with an earthworm to defraud a couple of gullible beetles.
    Norbert reached into his hat and pulled a small, thin metal hip flask from the lining. He unscrewed the cap and took a deep pull.
    “What have you done?" asked Eva.
    Norbert, who was now tipping the hip flask upside down and jerking it violently in the hope of gaining a few more drops, turned to them. He looked like a puppy that had just had an accident on a brand new sofa.
    “I didn’t know it was ‘im see! I fought it was some fella who’d got in a bit of bother!"
    “Just tell us!" said Esme losing all patience now.
    “Well I’ve been sort of looking after some space for an acquaintance of mine."
    The twins exchanged glances at Norbert’s use of the word acquaintance, as though a pet goldfish had just turned to them and asked for a game of chess, but he ignored them and ploughed on.
    “And Mr Geeb asked me if I knew anywhere that he might use to store somefink for a while. And ‘im being an old friend, I known ‘im since school see, I said yeah, no problem. Then he comes back to me a couple of days later and says he needs someone who can take care of a little problem he ‘as. An' I said what sort of little problem, and ‘ee said ‘mind your own business’ and I said.."
    “GET ON WITH IT!" the twins shouted in unison, making Norbert physically jump backwards, his top hat toppling forward over his eyes. He pushed his hat back up and carried on more quietly.
    “'Ee asked me ‘oo I fort the baddest chap I’d ‘eard of was. Someone ‘oo would do anyfin for the right cash."
    “Ok... and what did you tell him?“ asked Esme, not impatient anymore, but with the hesitancy of fear.
    “I introduced ‘im to... to Mr Pall." As he said it he winced, and grimaced in a way that suggested he was waiting for a blow. Nothing came. He opened his eyes and saw the three of them staring back at him blankly.
    “So who’s that?" asked Eva.
    “You’ve never heard of Mr Pall?!" exclaimed Norbert, clearly in shock.
    “We don’t exactly move in the same circles you do Norbert," said Esme rolling her eyes.
    “Oh, right, well ‘ee’s a bad ‘un ‘ee is. Very bad.”
    ~~~~
    “W here are we going?" Spencer was