Zaiba patted her brother proudly on the head as she stared at the maze in the distance. When it came to solving the mystery of who let Roberto off his lead and why, what were their options? Ammi’s words were starting to make complete sense – it did feel as though they were in a maze!
“So who are our prime suspects, agents? We know it has to be someone who was in the room with Roberto during that press conference. I’m sure we can figure this out together!”
Ali suddenly shot upright. “Hey, I have a theory! What if it was just a mistake? One of the hotel staff let him off the lead and then threw away the lead when they realized what they’d done?”
“The staff seem to be afraid of Mr Ainsley,” Poppy agreed. “It would make sense that they’re too afraid to own up.”
Zaiba nodded slowly. “It’s a good theory, but I think it was done on purpose… We’ll need evidence before we can accuse anyone. What about the journalist, Damon? He was in the room during the interview and he seemed weirdly excited when he accused Maysoon of setting the whole thing up.”
“Also, I don’t trust anyone with eyebrows that dramatic.” Poppy wiggled her own eyebrows around in imitation.
Zaiba giggled and gazed out at the distant hedges of the maze. Out of the corner of her eye she saw a flash of something and her thoughts suddenly snapped into focus.
“Oh. My. Word,” she breathed.
She was certain she’d just seen a flash of grey near the centre of the maze. A flash of grey that could only be—
“Roberto!” Poppy shouted as she leaped up.
“Right.” Zaiba’s eyes narrowed as she felt an excited shiver pass over her. “We have to get that dog.” Hopefully that would make everything better for Sam and Maysoon. Then they’d try to uncover who had let Roberto off his lead. No dog should be allowed to roam around like that. It was totally irresponsible and he didn’t have his tweed jacket on. He might catch a cold!
“But what if someone comes looking for us?” Ali said.
“Let’s not worry about that now. Look, if we can catch Roberto, Maysoon will be happy again, and maybe she’ll agree to meet Sam and we can make her happy again, and then Dad won’t be angry with us and EVERYONE will be happy again!” Zaiba stopped for breath.
Ali and Poppy stared at her in shock.
“OK, I think we need to get that dog.” Poppy nodded.
“Or Zaiba might explode…” Ali muttered under his breath.
Zaiba stared at the door to their room. How would they get out unseen? She went over to it and peered out into the corridor. Two hotel porters were walking up and down the corridor, apparently on “high-alert” for any doggy sightings. There was no way the three of them could get past those porters without being spotted. She snuck back into the room and quietly shut the door behind her. She leaned her forehead against the polished wood, thinking. What would Aunt Fouzia do in a situation like this?
Ali whistled from where he was leaning over the balcony. “Zaiba, come here! I think I have an idea.”
He pointed at a wooden trellis, nailed to the hotel wall. “Each rung of this trellis is nine point six inches long. I know because I always carry a ruler with me.” He tapped his back pocket.
“Who carries a ruler around with them?” Poppy laughed.
“As I was saying,” Ali continued, ignoring her. “There are ten rungs of trellis to climb down each floor of the hotel and twelve inches in a foot, meaning each floor is eight-foot tall. We’re two floors up so it’s a sixteen-foot drop to the ground. We’re all between four and five feet, so that means it’s only just four times our body height to climb down.”
Zaiba was silent for a moment and she felt like the cogs in her brain were whizzing around in overdrive. “Are you saying we could do it?”
Ali smiled. “I’m saying we could definitely do it.”
Luckily it was quiet in the grounds below their balcony, so they should be able to climb down without being spotted.
Eden Lockett’s golden rule number five popped into Zabia’s head again: A good agent always ensures the safety of her friends. Zaiba took her time as she inspected the trellis, which was lit up by chandeliers burning bright inside the hotel. It was securely fastened to the wall – good. There were multiple handholds and places to balance their feet – perfect for climbing. They were only two floors up. If the worst came to the worst there was soft lawn below and a huge hydrangea bush to break their fall. If they fell… Zaiba winced. It was worth a shot.
“All right,” she said. “Let’s do it. Good thinking, Ali.” Her little brother pulled his shoulders back and grinned with pride.
“Who’ll go first?” Poppy said, peering down at the lawn uncertainly.
Thinking of Eden Lockett’s fifth golden rule again, Zaiba bravely volunteered to lead the way. She perched on the wide balcony railing to find her balance. Then she reached out a foot to the trellis and tested it with her weight. It was nice and steady. She reached out a hand, then the other, then her other foot and … she was climbing! Slowly but surely she made her way down, even passing by Aunt Fouzia’s window on the way. Aunt Fouzia had requested a room on the ground floor because she found it difficult to walk up stairs after her famous case of 1986. It had involved an international football player, an attempt to steal antique jewellery and a life-or-death chase through the National Museum of Pakistan!
Zaiba froze for a second as she saw her auntie’s outline through the net curtain, but she had her back to the window and was busy looking in a mirror. What’s she doing in her room? Zaiba wondered. She must have gone to freshen up… Don’t turn round, don’t turn round! Zaiba wished silently. After a moment, her aunt wandered into the bathroom, humming to herself. Phew! Onwards Zaiba went, or rather downwards, leaping safely on to the lawn. She craned her head back and circled a hand through the air, beckoning Poppy down after her.
She watched her best friend, who had changed into leggings, make her way down. Poppy kept her eyes fixed firmly on the wall in front of her, clearly terrified even though she was now only eight feet above the ground. She moved ever so slowly and Zaiba began to wonder if Poppy would ever make it. But finally her best friend jumped softly to the ground beside her. Zaiba cheered and gave her a high five – Poppy had shown the bravery of a true agent.
Immediately Ali nimbly climbed down the trellis, moving like Spider-Man down the wall, descending much more quickly than either Zaiba or Poppy. Zaiba felt a twinge of jealousy. “I wish I was that fast,” she muttered to Poppy. Ali jumped the last bit, before straightening up and coolly brushing down his shirt.
“That was so quick, Ali! A very useful detective skill. You’re really coming on,” Zaiba praised Ali. “Now let’s hurry. There’s no time to lose.”
She turned towards the maze at the far end of the garden. The three of them ran over the manicured lawns, avoiding the lit garden paths where they might be seen, until they made it to the entrance of the maze.
Zaiba glanced over at the function hall. She could see figures moving about in the patio windows, bobbing and swaying as they danced. Up on the stage she could just make out Sam sitting miserably with Tanvir holding her hand. Zaiba’s fists clenched in determination – she had to make her cousin smile again.
She glanced up at the hotel. A window shone like a beacon with a shining chandelier hanging from the ceiling – it was Maysoon’s suite. A solitary figure stood silhouetted at the window, gazing down over the garden.
“We’ll get your doggie for you, don’t worry!” Zaiba whispered into the air.
“Are you talking to yourself?” Ali asked. “You know that’s the first sign of—”
“Genius!” Poppy slapped her hand across Ali’s mouth and pulled him to her, tussling his hair. “Stop teasing your sister!” He wriggled and groaned until she let him go, then he stood up, pushing the hair out of his eyes.
“What now?” he asked, peering into the first path of the maze. Luckily the hotel had also laced the hedges of the maze with fairy lights, l
ighting the path for them in an array of dancing colours.
“Now,” Zaiba said. “We find Roberto.” Above the music from the hotel, they heard a small yip. “He’s definitely in there. This way, come on!”
Zaiba raced forwards, leading Poppy and Ali beneath an arch of leaves that marked the entrance to the maze. As they plunged inside, the hedges that had seemed so small from the balcony suddenly towered all around them.
Zaiba stumbled to a halt to make another voice recording. “We have entered the hotel maze, visibility is poor, we are short for time … but I’m sure we’ll find Roberto soon,” she said, smiling as hopefully as she could at her team.
“Yeah, maybe if we were giants,” Ali said, reaching up on tiptoe, trying to peer over one of the hedges. No hope – it was twice as tall as him.
Zaiba was getting frustrated. She turned off her phone. “Come on. From the balcony it looked like Roberto was in the centre of the maze. We can’t give up at the first hurdle.” Zaiba marched round the first bend of the maze. But as they turned the corner, the path immediately forked in two directions! She glanced around for any sign of a tiny dog, but … nothing.
“What about the second hurdle?” Ali groaned.
Poppy’s head bobbed as she looked between the two paths. “Which should we take? It’s so confusing!”
“It’s meant to be confusing,” Zaiba replied. “It’s a maze! Remember that Eden Lockett mystery – I think it was number eight.”
Poppy’s eyes lit up. “It was number seven – The Mystery of Grey Gardens! Eden tracked down…” She bit her lip, thinking hard. “A ghost in a maze!”
“That’s right. And how did she do it?” Zaiba asked. The two friends often tested each other on Lockett facts. It was a good way to help them become the best agents they could be.
“It’s in chapter five,” Zaiba gently prompted her best friend. “When Eden found the centre of the maze by keeping her left hand on the hedge …”
“… and only taking left turns!” Poppy’s face lit up.
“But—” Ali started to say something, when an excited yip! came from the heart of the maze.
“Shh, Ali. Roberto’s in there! We need to get going!” Zaiba cut him off.
“Fine. We’ll try it your way,” Ali muttered.
Zaiba ignored him and reached out her left hand, following the path to their left. Poppy copied Zaiba and set off after her, giving Ali a stern look to follow.
“Why does no one ever listen to me?” Zaiba heard her brother whisper.
The three of them traced their fingertips over the left hedge, the bright green leaves releasing a sweet scent. They walked round and round, taking a left at each bend in the path. Luckily the small lanterns that lit the maze were still on, so they could make out their shadowy surroundings.
“If we weren’t in the middle of a doggy disaster, this could be fun,” Poppy said, revelling in the excitement of a maze in the dark. The sound of the wedding party drifted over from the function room’s open patio doors. Beyond that, Zaiba felt certain she could hear the quiet sobbing of a celebrity whose dog was missing.
“We have to stay focused, Poppy,” Zaiba reminded her friend. “This could be life or death!”
“Whose death?” Ali grumbled.
“Shush, Ali!” Poppy and Zaiba said in unison. Then Zaiba felt bad – Ali was only trying to help. She put a hand in her pocket and passed him a sticky laddu that she had cleverly wrapped in yellow paper. “Here, we need to keep our energy up.”
They kept going left, left and left again. Eventually, Zaiba broke out into a run as she heard a yowl of despair from further into the maze. But so many twists and turns were starting to make her feel dizzy, and then … wait.
“Am I seeing double or does this all look a bit familiar?” she asked, stumbling to a halt.
“Of course it looks familiar!” Ali cried through a mouthful of laddu. “We’re back where we started.”
Zaiba looked around frantically. He was right! They were at the entrance to the maze – again. She kicked a pile of leaves in frustration. They had wasted time and Roberto might run off at any second.
“I tried to tell you,” Ali said.
From somewhere in the distance they heard a muffled bark. Roberto! He must have sensed people nearby and wanted to play.
“All right, Mr Smarty-pants,” Zaiba grumbled, pacing up and down the path. “We should have listened. So, why didn’t it work?”
Ali grinned. He picked up a twig and began sketching a rough outline of the maze in the dirt. “Because this isn’t a maze … it’s a labyrinth.”
Poppy and Zaiba shared an impressed glance. Zaiba really should listen to her brother more often.
“I noticed from the balcony, and with the note your ammi wrote in the margin, it just made sense,” Ali explained. “With a labyrinth it isn’t about left or right. It’s about working out which is the one path that leads to the centre.”
“And how do we do that?” asked Poppy.
“Every time we reach a dead end, we need to make a mark,” said Ali, as Zaiba and Poppy watched him draw diagrams in the dirt. “Eventually there will be only one path without a mark on it – the path that leads to Roberto!” An excited yip rang out from a little dog who had just heard his name.
“Wow!” Poppy exclaimed. “I’m impressed, Ali.”
“Good work!” Zaiba beamed. She spotted a pile of short bamboo canes bundled at the maze’s entrance. The hotel gardener must have left them there for the evening. “We can use these to mark the paths that have dead ends.”
They each grabbed a handful of canes and hastily set off, following one path after the other. They worked quickly – each time they hit a dead end, they left a couple of sticks in a “X” and quickly ran back to make their way to the next path.
Eventually there was only one path left.
“This must be it!” Zaiba cried breathlessly.
They grabbed each other’s hands and ran down the winding path towards the sound of a snuffling nose, until finally…
“Roberto!” all three of them cheered at the same time.
The little Italian greyhound jumped up from where he’d being lying and ran over to them, his tail wagging so hard that it looked like a blur of grey fur. He jumped up and scrambled at their legs until Zaiba scooped him up in a big hug. His whole body was trembling with excitement and he arched his head to give Zaiba a big lick on the cheek.
“Well, Roberto, have you finished your tour of the hotel grounds?” Ali said.
“Wait,” Zaiba gasped as she stroked Roberto’s neck. “His collar. It’s gone!”
“You mean the diamond collar?” Poppy’s eyes grew wide.
Zaiba clicked her fingers. “Of course. It wasn’t Roberto someone was trying to steal, it was his bling!”
Out of the corner of her eye, Zaiba noticed Ali crouching down by the birdbath that marked the centre of the maze.
“Uh, Zaiba…” He cocked his head to one side. “Do fancy hotels usually leave plates of grilled steak and sausages out in the grounds?”
Zaiba carefully put Roberto down and ran over to where Ali was standing and sure enough, there on the floor was a large dinner plate adorned with a prime steak and a string of juicy sausages! There were bite marks and chunks taken out of the meat and Zaiba saw Roberto licking his lips.
“I suppose you aren’t vegetarian by choice,” Poppy muttered, stroking the dog’s head.
Zaiba leaned back on her feet, staring up at Poppy and Ali. “You know what this means, don’t you?”
“Roberto came out here for a secret meat feast?” Ali suggested.
Zaiba nodded. “Sort of. Someone intended to lure Roberto here. When we left the balcony door open, we accidently helped them. Once he had escaped, it could have taken him a while to make it here but they must have known that eventually the smell of the meat would draw him out. Then they could steal his collar! The Mehndi party was a distraction but their plan worked.”
“
Poor Roberto.” Poppy cuddled the pup who looked exhausted from all the excitement and his big meal. “He probably hadn’t had meat in so long that the smell was irresistible, even from so far away!”
Zaiba started taking pictures of the crime scene with her phone. “We have to leave it exactly as it is so the police can eventually search the area properly. But I’ve got these snaps just in case it gets disturbed.”
She looked up at the dark sky and took a deep breath, her head spinning. “First we went on our mission to find out the identity of a mystery celebrity.”
“Tick!” Poppy excitedly drew an invisible tick in the air with a finger.
“Then we began our search for a missing dog!”
“TICK!” Poppy drew another, even bigger invisible tick in the air. Ali was looking at the two of them as though they had eaten way too much sugar. He knelt down to hold Roberto and stop him from trembling.
Zaiba gazed down at her brother and the dog. “And now we have to find out who let him off the lead and has taken the diamond collar.” She could feel her own eyes growing as big as saucers. “Team, this is officially a full-blown detective case! We’ve gone from mission, to hunt, to investigation!”
Ali gazed into the dog’s eyes. “Can you tell us who stole your collar, little guy?” Roberto gave a small whine and Ali ruffled his fur. “Thought not.” He got to his feet. “So what do we do now, oh great detective?”
Zaiba started to think. “OK, let’s stay calm. First things first, we need to get Roberto back to Maysoon, diamond collar or not.”
“Agreed.” Poppy nodded.
Zaiba hastily made a voice recording. “Subject secured, we will now head back to the celebrity’s room.”
She went to pick up Roberto but he darted from her grip – he thought this was another fun game. Zaiba made another grasp for him but this time he wriggled free and started running around in circles, chasing his tail.
“Did you say subject secured?” Ali giggled.
The Missing Diamonds Page 6