Sewer Mayhem

by Annie Appleton

  Behind some cardboard boxes we had pushed together to hide behind, we had collected piles of rubber bands, paper clips of various sizes and a large number of nicely sharpened pencils.

  Although we hadn’t seen any more of them poking their heads out of the hole in the wall, there was no doubt in our minds that the Bambini would be back.

  ‘Now they know where we are, it’s only a matter of time,’ Gus said. He looked naked without his jewellery. It had taken a bit of persuasion, but we’d finally convinced him that it was better that all of his treasure disappeared from view. Pawing his favourite items, he had hidden them with the rest of his treasure under the kitchen sink.

  ‘I need something to eat,’ Leo said. He hadn’t mentioned food in over two hours, which was a record for him.

  ‘How can you think of food at a time like this,’ Gus said, staring at Leo as if he’d said something really outrageous. ‘I couldn’t eat a thing. I’m too anxious.’

  ‘I’m nervous too, but I’m hungry at the same time.’ Leo waved a paw. ‘I’m going for some chow.’

  The evening was getting on a bit and I realised that this would be a good time for the Bambini to attack us. Perhaps thinking that we were asleep.

  We waited in silence for Leo to return, while keeping an eye on the hole.

  ‘It’s so annoying that we all know something is going to happen,’ Gus said, plucking at the fur on his chest. ‘But when?’

  ‘The only thing we can do is be prepared and wait,’ Vinnie said. He looked at the large pile of ammunition we had collected. ‘And we’re definitely prepared.’

  There was a sound at the back door and Leo walked back in.

  ‘Look what I found in the car park,’ he said and Daisy appeared from around the corner. Her ears drooped from fatigue and a layer of dust covered her fur, but she perked up when she saw us.

  Gus ran towards her and pushed his nose against hers. Then he draped his tail around her back. ‘Look at the stuff we found since you left.’

  Leo meanwhile dropped two slices of pizza and a piece of fried fish in the middle of the room and started munching away. We all joined him. I was glad he’d gone out, as the rumbling in my stomach told me I’d been more hungry than I thought.

  ‘How did you get on, Daisy?’ Vinnie asked her through a mouthful of fish.

  ‘I found the way to Ratville and spoke to Charlie,’ she said, nibbling a pizza crust. ‘He’s putting together a strike team to help us out.’

  ‘I do hope they can be here soon,’ I said. ‘The Three Bambini aren’t going to stay away forever.’

  ‘I hope so too. But the problem at the moment is that most of the Rat Squad is not in Ratville right now. They have left for a raid against some grey squirrels down by the river. They might be a while.’ Her whiskers drooped a bit. ‘Sorry.’

  ‘Didn’t I tell you that squirrels are dangerous creatures,’ Gus said, looking smug.

  ‘Oh, shut up.’ Leo rolled his eyes. ‘You’ve never even seen one. How would you know how dangerous they are?’

  ‘I’ve seen squirrels!’

  ‘No, you haven’t!’

  ‘Yes, I have!’

  It was my turn to roll my eyes and shouted over the din of their squabbling. ‘Guys! The squirrels are the least of our problems right now.’ I turned to Daisy and gave her a nudge.

  ‘Don’t worry too much about the Rat Squad getting here,’ I said. ‘We are well prepared to fight the Mob. The Rat Squad helping out is just a precaution. I’m sure they will do their best to get here as soon as possible.’ I pointed at the large pile of stuff on the floor of the front room that we had collected.

  ‘This should help us keep them at bay for now. In the meantime, let’s keep our fingers crossed the Rat Squad arrives sooner than the Mafia.’

  ‘In any case, there’s five of us and only three of them,’ Leo said. He took another large bite out of his pizza.

  We kept eating like a pack of ravenous dogs, and I wondered what all this fatty food was doing to my waistline. I was sure I’d grown since arriving at Woolaston Road.

  After our midnight snack, it wasn’t long before first Daisy, then Gus and Leo nodded off. No wonder, after the day we’d had. We were all exhausted. Vinnie held out the longest, but then he fell asleep too, curled up next to a box of paper clips he had found on a shelf in the back room.

  I couldn’t sleep. At first I sat staring at the hole in the wall for a while, afraid that someone might come up from the sewer. Then I jumped up on the windowsill and looked out over Woolaston Road. All was quiet now. Just the occasional car or two-legged came by. Not one of them realised what was happening right under their feet and in the old building.

  Every now and then I threw a glance over my shoulder at the hole in the wall. I realised that we didn’t know what was going on in the sewers either. What if the Bambini were coming up through the pipes right now? Hopefully, the advanced warning trap we’d set up in the pipes would alert us, but would it give us enough time to react?

  Feeling more and more nervous, I came to the conclusion that I wanted to know what Victor was doing right now. I needed to go down into the sewer! Forget the danger of walking into the Bambini, our safety came first!

  I looked at my sleeping companions. Should I wake Vinnie up? No, I would do this expedition by myself.

  Careful not to wake anyone, I made my way through the hole in the wall. About two feet in I ducked under the advance warning trap we’d set near the hole, making sure I didn’t make the little Christmas tree bells tingle that we’d strung across the pipe on a bit of rubber band.

  There was no sign of Victor or his cronies, so I silently moved further down towards the sewer, holding my breath as I went along. Coming closer to the main sewer, I could hear voices in the distance and I crept closer, carefully poking my nose around a corner.

  ‘This is going to be a piece of cake, tomorrow,’ Victor said to Dino and Sal, as he paced up and down in front of them. ‘Those runty rats upstairs are pushovers. We’ll have them out of the old building in no time and take their jewellery. Scrawny little Englishmen.’ Dino and Sal sniggered and flexed their muscles in anticipation.

  Then Dino wrinkled his brow. ‘But Vic, don’t you think we should attack them right now? They’ll be asleep and not expecting us.’

  Victor shook his head, making his paper clip necklace jingle. ‘What have I told you idiot, about thinking for yourself?’ He gave Dino a slap across the ears. ‘I’m the smart one here.’

  He paced up and down a bit more, with Dino and Sal squinting at him. ‘I know my cousins. They’re not going anywhere tonight. We’ll get a good bit of shut eye tonight and tomorrow morning, we’ll steamroll them.’

  Victor waved a paw at Dino and Sal and together the three brothers moved off in the direction of Gus and Leo’s old digs.

  I started breathing again and watched their retreating tails. Pushovers indeed! The Three Bambini were in for a surprise! Wait till they set one paw in the old building!

  Glad to be able to go back and get some sleep myself, my eye fell on the egg that was still stuck to the roof of the sewer. It had bulged out a lot more now and filled about half the tunnel. Could the egg have grown that fast? Was this normal? The fur on my back tingled. Did this mean the baby alligator was about to burst from its shell? I pulled my right ear twice, then my left to ward off that scary thought, not caring that I wasn’t supposed to be superstitious any more.

  Then I realised that perhaps it wasn’t an egg at all. What if Leo had been wrong and it was just a harmless thing that grew out of the walls of the sewer? But why hadn’t he seen anything like that grow before?

  I turned my back on the thing and started my ascent through the pipes. I should ask Gus and Leo about it some time, but tomorrow there probably wouldn’t be an opportunity. Tomorrow we would be defending our turf! It would be an interesting day. At least we were ready for it!

  CHAPTER FOURTEEN

  As always on Thursday the entrance to
the alleyway was blocked by wheelie bins, scattered about the pavement ready for the rubbish collection. Emily pushed one aside with her arm. It was covered in muck and a cloud of flies hovered around the lid. The overwhelming smell of two-day-old fish and chips hung around it, making her almost gag.

  She entered the alleyway and picking her way through the puddles, arrived at the back door of Posh Nosh. She hadn’t realised it had rained last night.

  Peggy appeared on the other end of the alleyway and parked her bicycle near the back door.

  ‘Good morning,’ Emily said, quickly shoving her bag in front of the bulge in her sweater, where Trevor and Mike huddled together. She shouldn’t have bothered as Peggy only had eyes for the back door, which Emily now noticed, stood slightly ajar.

  ‘Hey, Emily,’ Peggy said. ‘What has happened here?’ She opened the door and studied the lock. There was a large dent in the wood of the door frame and the lock was all bent out of shape.

  The hairs on the back of Emily’s neck stood out. ‘Don’t tell me the shop has been burgled.’

  Peggy pressed her lips together. ‘It better not.’

  The two women entered. Someone had been inside.

  In the back passage, which was a bit of a storage area for miscellaneous items, everything was strewn about as if someone had been looking for something. Brooms and other cleaning aids were pushed over, a household ladder thrown on its side and two cardboard boxes with tote bags bearing the Posh Nosh logo turned upside down, the bags all in one large unruly pile.

  ‘The bastards,’ Peggy said, picking up one of the tote bags. It was covered in dust.

  Emily stepped into the kitchen, where the mess was even greater.

  Kitchen cabinets were opened, the contents thrown out, stored items from the shelves in the corner lay scattered over the floor. Even the doors of the freezer stood open, its content spilling out and defrosting into puddles all over everything else.

  Peggy looked around with tears in her eyes. ‘Who does something like this?’

  ‘I don’t know,’ Emily said. She squeezed her aunt’s arm. ‘You stay here.’

  As Emily walked into the shop her heart sank. The floor was strewn with items carelessly swiped off the shelves. It was a mess. Aunt Peggy didn’t deserve this. She had built this shop up from the ground and it was her whole life, her baby.

  She walked back into the kitchen. ‘We’d better call the police. Let them take some pictures and fingerprints or something and then get everything cleared up as soon as possible.’

  Peggy looked at Emily with a watery smile. ‘You’re a good girl. I know that.’ She gave Emily a quick hug. Trevor and Mike wriggled in the sweater pocket. Peggy broke free and stared at the bulge.

  ‘You brought your rats to the shop?’ She glared at Emily, her nostrils flaring. ‘Are you out of your mind?’

  Emily felt the blood rush to her face. ‘They’ve only ever been by the back door.’ It sounded feeble even in her own ears.

  ‘You’ve brought them before?’

  Emily’s shoulders slumped and she looked at the floor. ‘I thought it would be okay, but that was stupid of me. I know that now. I will take them back home right now.’

  Peggy sighed deeply and looked at Emily in silence, her arms crossed on her chest. ‘I need you here right now. Just put them by the back door.’ She walked to the little office that was off to the side in one corner of the kitchen. ‘I’m going to phone the police, but don’t think you’ve got away with it. We will discuss this later.’

  Emily put her sweater on the hook by the back door. She had never felt this guilty in her life. She could kick herself. Why had she brought Trevor and Mike to the shop? Now Aunt Peggy would never trust her again.

  Emily walked back through the kitchen and into the shop. She surveyed the mess again. It would be hard to find out if anything was missing. Luckily, Aunt Peggy never left any money in the shop overnight.

  The police arrived in the shape of Inspector McDermott and Abe Monday. Emily let them in through the front door.

  ‘That’s quick,’ Emily said. ‘We hadn’t expected the police for a while yet.’

  McDermott glared at her. ‘We were in the neighbourhood.’ He looked around and sighed. ‘Anything missing?’

  ‘Hard to say. Perhaps when we sort things out a bit it will be clearer.’

  McDermott stepped over the merchandise that lay scattered over the floor. ‘I can’t believe this burglar keeps eluding me. We had extra patrols out and everything last night.’

  ‘What makes you think this was done by the same person who broke into Nate’s shop?’ Emily said. ‘Food and jewellery are two different things. Perhaps it was someone else.’

  ‘You wouldn’t understand,’ McDermott said, looking down his nose at her. ‘My guts tell me that this burglar is the same that broke into Nate’s shop and murdered him.’

  Emily shook her head. ‘That doesn’t make any sense. Why risk being caught by coming back?’

  McDermott turned red, his breathing shallow.

  ‘Stop interfering,’ he said. ‘Or I’ll arrest you.’

  Emily and McDermott looked daggers at each other.

  ‘Er… how did the burglar get in?’ Abe said. He pulled out his phone and started taking pictures of the mess.

  ‘The back door was forced open,’ Peggy said. She’d been watching from the kitchen. ‘I’ll show you.’ She took McDermott through to the back.

  ‘Stop riling him,’ Abe said. ‘You’ll only make it worse.’

  ‘I wasn’t riling him. Just asking some plain questions.’ Emily looked over her shoulder at the kitchen door. ‘He’s an idiot in any case.’

  ‘He can and will make things awkward for you,’ Abe said. ‘Keep that in mind.’ He walked off to take some pictures behind the counter and Emily stuck her tongue out at him.

  ‘By the way,’ she said. ‘Uncle Dave told me about the mysterious money in the Nate’s shop accounts. Did you have a chance yet to talk to Kenneth?’

  ‘No, I haven’t, but I heard that Kenneth used to be the ASBOW treasurer, so I’m thinking of checking their accounts as well.’

  ‘Good idea.’

  Peggy and McDermott came back in.

  ‘I think we’re done here,’ McDermott said. He turned to Peggy. ‘Make sure you come to the station to report the break-in. And let us know if you discover anything is missing.’

  After McDermott and Abe had gone, Emily and Peggy set to work clearing everything up. It took them about half an hour to get the shop back in some sort of order, during which Emily discovered that they were missing a large box of chocolates.

  ‘A burglar with a sweet tooth,’ she said. ‘Make sure you tell McDermott to keep a lookout for a bad guy with rotting teeth.’

  Peggy smiled for the first time since the police had left. ‘I will go this afternoon, when it’s not as busy.’ She glanced around the shop. ‘Almost back to normal again. If you just stack those bags of pasta on the shelves, it’s all done.’

  As Emily pulled a large cardboard box with pasta over to the shelves, the shop bell tingled and Sam walked in.

  ‘Can I talk to you for a minute?’ she said.

  Emily nodded. ‘What’s up?’

  ‘Patrizia came by the restaurant last evening and told me something interesting.’ Sam looked over her shoulder at Peggy, who was refilling the bowls on the counter with olives. ‘Apparently she had realised that she had seen Colleen before. In Italy, years ago.’

  ‘What?’

  ‘It seems Patrizia had forgotten all about that encounter, but suddenly remembered.’

  ‘So Colleen has a connection with your family?’

  ‘It looks that way, but none of us have ever seen her before.’ Sam hugged herself. ‘I asked Lorenzo and Gianni, but they don’t know anything about it. And even if Colleen ever had a connection with my family, I’m not interested. She’s weirding me out.’

  ‘Not just you,’ Emily said. ‘Thanks for letting me know. Jacob
and I will deal with this, don’t you worry.’

  ‘I don’t pay you to talk, Emily,’ Peggy said as she materialised next to the two girls. She looked at Sam. ‘If you’re not going to buy anything, then please stop bothering my staff. Out.’

  With a small smile at Emily, Sam left, closing the door behind her.

  Emily continued stacking the shelves, wondering what the connection could be between the Bandonis and Colleen. What was she planning to do? Perhaps they should talk to Patrizia about it.

  * * *

  ‘Look what I found on my doormat this morning,’ Jacob said, handing Dave an opened envelope. ‘It’s an anonymous letter. No stamp, so someone shoved it through my letter box.’

  ‘An anonymous letter?’ Dave got up from behind his desk and peered at the envelope, holding it at almost arm’s length.

  Jacob took his reading glasses from the breast pocket of his lab coat. ‘Here, let me.’ He took the letter out of the envelope. ‘It says, “Colleen is not who she says she is”. Nothing else.’

  ‘Colleen?’ Dave’s brow wrinkled. ‘What does she have to do with you?’

  ‘I don’t know. She’s also a teacher, perhaps that’s it.’

  Dave took the envelope back. Jacob’s name was printed on an address label stuck to the front of it. ‘Is the letter printed on the computer as well?’

  Jacob nodded. ‘Yes, on an otherwise blank sheet of A4 paper.’

  ‘So the person who wrote this has access to a computer and printer.’

  ‘But why send it to me? I hardly know the woman.’

  Dave shrugged. ‘The person who wrote this clearly thought you could do something with this information, otherwise they would have sent it to someone else.’ He wrinkled his brow. ‘Could she have anything to do with Nate’s murder?’

  ‘Nate’s murder? Why would you think that?’

  ‘Because you and Emily are looking into that. And people are aware of it.’

  ‘Well, not that many people, I hope.’ Jacob shoved his hands in his pockets. ‘We’ve been pretty covert about it all.’ His mind skipped past all the people who knew, or could know about their somewhat haphazard investigation. Abe, Dave, Peggy, Sam, Patrizia, Gianni, Lorenzo Jr. Not that many really. His stomach tightened a bit. But four of them were members of the Bandoni family, a family in which Colleen seemed to have taken an exceptional interest and one of whom was friends with the victim.