“Boys, I don’t want to appear like I’m telling you how to run the show, but I do think that there’s a lot you could be missing out on by not using a computer for your investigations. Now you are very welcome to use mine if you like and I can always help. I’ve reached Level 7 in Databases for Old Dears, you know,” she said winking at them.
Murdo grinned at Fergus. They both knew that they had not only acquired a new ally in their investigations but a serious piece of computer hardware into the bargain.
5. The Bait
Jessie and the boys spent the next couple of hours huddled around the computer, by the end of which they had achieved a number of things, or “followed up a number of lines of enquiry,” as Murdo preferred to describe it.
Firstly, Jessie reminded them that they had all met because of backwards watches and not missing cats, so they trooped out to the manhole cover and watched each of their watches go backwards. Back inside Jessie checked the internet for the company that manufactured DataBoys and sent a quick email off to Customer Services to enquire if they had ever had complaints about the watches going backwards before. She also clicked onto the “Frequently Asked Questions” page of the company website to check that there wasn’t a standard response to the slightly odd question, “Why does my watch go backwards when I stand on the manhole cover at the bottom of Comely Bank Avenue?” Perhaps, unsurprisingly, the three investigators found that this didn’t feature alongside questions about how to use some of the Twenty Funky Functions and how to buy replacement straps, which Murdo was delighted to see.
Next, Jessie suggested that they switch their attention to the cats. “Multi-tasking! Fantastic!” declared Murdo, delighted that they were now tackling both mysteries at the same time. The first step was an internet search using the words “lost,” “cats” and “Edinburgh.” This revealed everything from information about the Edinburgh Cat and Dog Home for lost pets, a couple of websites set up by owners of lost cats that Murdo recognized from his interviews, and even research into the eating habits of cats by an Edinburgh University student.
Although the boys didn’t feel they had come up with any more answers, it felt good to be covering a few new angles.
Finally, and in no time at all, Jessie set up a simple database where each missing cat’s name, description, contact details and the date, time and location of their disappearance could all be entered. The boys started by keying in Jasper’s details, followed by another dozen or so cats from Murdo’s file, and they promised to come back and complete the database over the next couple of days.
“I’m sure this will unlock some secrets for us,” said Jessie, patting the computer.
As Jessie waved the boys goodbye from her front door she called out, “I think that we’ll make a very good team working together.” Murdo looked pleased enough to pop.
Fergus returned home happy with the work of the previous few hours. As he unlocked the front door he could hear his mum chatting to someone.
“Fergus, can you come here for a minute,” she called from the living room.
As he walked into the room, Fergus nearly tripped over a large shiny, Siamese cat sitting on the floor. His mind immediately whirred into action as he wondered how one of the missing cats had magically appeared in the middle of the front room.
“It’s all right, she doesn’t bite,” said a smiling young woman with short hair and casual clothes.
Mrs. Speight spoke up. “Fergus, this is Narveen. You’ve probably seen her before. She lives at number 89. She’s going away for a long weekend and wants us to look in on Sasha while she’s away,” she said nodding towards the cat by the door. “I said that you and I could help. What do you think?”
Before Fergus had a chance to answer, Narveen chipped in, as if concerned that Fergus might be about to say no. “You just have to put out half a tin of food a couple of times a day and give her a wee bit of chat. She’s pretty independent really and she’ll spend a lot of time out and about.”
Fergus looked at the cat and broke into a huge smile. “Brilliant!” he said, his mind switching from the idea that this was a lost cat to the possibility of using it to find some of its missing friends. Then, as if remembering where he was, he added, “Eh yeah, we’d love to look after her.”
“There you go,” said Mrs. Speight to Narveen. “An enthusiastic new recruit!”
Narveen started to reply and although Fergus knew she was talking to him, he couldn’t help his mind racing off in another direction. He and Murdo had just been handed a cat on a plate. Cat bait! They could track this cat and see if it led them to the lost cats. It was perfect.
“Fergus?” said his mum, getting slightly irritated that her son had switched off when a visitor was talking to him.
“What … er … yeah … great, yeah … love to, great,” he said.
“Thanks, Fergus,” said Narveen. “Do you like animals?”
“Yeah, my friend Murdo has a dog called Jock and he’s really cool. Murdo’s really interested in cats as well though. Would he be able to help us with Sasha?” said Fergus to both Narveen and his mum.
“Fergus and Murdo are thick as thieves at the moment,” Mrs. Speight said by way of explanation to Narveen, “I’m not sure what they’re up to half the time, but they seem happy.”
“Well, Sasha won’t know what’s happening if she starts to get lots of attention,” said Narveen. “I tend to leave her to her own devices, but I’m sure she’ll enjoy the change.”
Fergus looked at Sasha. She looked back at Fergus. Fergus could have sworn that the cat could tell what he was thinking and was saying through narrowed eyes, “Don’t bother me with your silly games, little boy.”
“I’ll be away from Thursday,” said Narveen bringing out a set of keys from her handbag. “I’ll leave tins of food in the kitchen, along with her bowl. There’ll be a note with my number and the emergency vet’s number, but I can’t imagine any reason why you’d need them. You’ll be fine, won’t you, snookums?” she said picking up the rather bored looking Siamese and nuzzling it.
Fergus might have felt enthusiastic about looking after the cat, but he couldn’t quite imagine himself getting that affectionate with it over the next few days. He would certainly be drawing the line at calling it “snookums.” Fergus concluded quietly that he would be quite happy if Sasha was always at arm’s length but led him to the location of another forty-three cats; forty-four now that they knew Jasper was missing too.
“Mum, can I go round to Murdo’s?” said Fergus suddenly desperate to do the next bit of planning at the Incident Room. Mrs. Speight gave a smile towards Narveen as if to say, “See what I mean?” and said, “Well okay, as long as you’re back for tea.” Narveen thanked Fergus again for helping out, before he sped off on his bike to launch another new line of enquiry.
Minutes later in the Incident Room, Murdo was pacing up and down. “What a gift! What an opportunity!” he said. “We have bait for seventy-two hours. If all goes well, this could crack the case. Imagine if this cat goes where the missing cats are and we’re right there on its tail!”
“Sasha won’t like that!” joked Fergus, forgetting that there was a time and a place for humour with Murdo, who was now glaring at him for bursting his bubble of enthusiasm.
Murdo shook his head briskly as if to get rid of the interruption. “So this neighbour of yours goes away on Thursday afternoon and the first feed is on Friday morning. We need to pack provisions for a day’s cat-tracking. Let’s start a list of what we need.”
Murdo began a typically frenetic session of equipment-gathering, but came across a hitch when he decided that one essential item was a street plan of the city.
“Mum, have you seen my city map?” he asked after they had exhausted their search of the Incident Room and most of the house.
“I think I might have seen it in Heather’s room,” said Mrs. Fraser. “She had it for some school project.”
Murdo paled and looked for a moment like he might reconsi
der just how essential this item actually was to the next stage of their investigations. However, after a deep breath he seemed to gather himself together. “We mustn’t let this jeopardize our research,” he said as they headed somewhat tentatively upstairs, with Jock following close behind.
Fergus wasn’t expecting to see a f lowery nameplate on Heather’s bedroom door and he wasn’t disappointed. The door sported a “No Entry” sign in the middle alongside official notices saying that not only were radioactive materials and corrosive products stored in the room, but also that safety helmets should be worn at all times. This helpful advice was capped off nicely by a large skull and crossbones. If the door wasn’t off-putting enough, the screaming guitars and anguished vocals of the music blaring through it suggested that Heather did not want to be interrupted.
Murdo took a deep breath and knocked firmly on the door. Silence. The music cut out as if the door was linked to the sound system.
He knocked again. Silence.
Taking this as a cue for his next move, Murdo put his hand slowly towards the door handle as if it might electrocute him. Holding his breath he opened the door and entered the room. Jock stuck close to Murdo’s leg sensing that his master needed all the allies he could get. He began growling as menacingly as a small dog could.
Heather was sitting cross-legged on her bed surrounded by magazines, with the wall behind her covered in posters of grungy-looking bands. She didn’t look up as the door opened. “Did I say you could come in?”
“You didn’t actually say anything,” said Murdo trying to sound confident.
Heather looked at him. Fergus decided that this was probably quite a good start. She could have ignored him completely after all.
“I need my street map back,” said Murdo.
“Your street map,” said Heather.
“Yes,” said Murdo.
“Now why exactly would I want to give that to you?” asked Heather.
“Mainly because it’s mine,” said Murdo.
“What about you, Fergus, do you think I should give it to him?” said Heather turning her attention to Fergus.
“Er … well obviously it’s up to you, but we do need it,” said Fergus.
“Oh, so polite,” said Heather sweetly. “What do you need to use it for, Dr. Watson? Still helping Sherlock with the big case?”
Murdo fired a warning glance at Fergus.
“We only need it for the day,” said Fergus, feeling pleased that he had managed to deflect the question.
At this point a phone rang and Heather made a dive for a mobile buried beneath the magazines on her bed. “Hi … yeah …, nothing much, what about you?” she said to someone who was obviously far more interesting to her than the boys. Spotting his opportunity Murdo moved quickly and grabbed the street map, which he had seen sticking out of a pile of schoolbooks. Seconds later, the boys were charging down the stairs feeling like they had pulled off a successful mission into enemy territory.
“Saved by the bell!” laughed Murdo jumping the last three stairs and making the house rock as he landed.
“She is seriously scary,” said Fergus hot on his heels. “Has she always been like that?”
“Mum says it’s a teenage thing. Do you think we’ll get like that too?” said Murdo with genuine concern in his voice.
On Friday morning, Fergus was just going into Narveen’s flat with his mum when Murdo appeared in typical fashion, zooming down the hill on his scooter, his rucksack bursting at the seams. For once there was no sign of Jock as Murdo had decided wisely that following a cat from a distance might be too much of a challenge for him.
Mrs. Speight felt forced to comment on Murdo’s habit of carting so much equipment around with him as she unlocked Narveen’s front door, “I’m surprised you don’t topple over with that weight on. Are you sure you have enough things with you?” she said jokingly.
As serious as ever, Murdo replied, “Well I do hope so. I’ve planned for a full day’s work.” Fergus smiled at his mum. She in turn raised an eyebrow and smiled. They both liked Fergus’s new and slightly eccentric friend.
“So what are you two going to do today?” asked Mrs. Speight as she emptied half a tin of cat food into Sasha’s bowl.
“Murdo is doing a project on cat behaviour,” said Fergus quickly. “We’re going to spend the day tracking Sasha — you know, see where she goes and what she gets up to.”
“Well, good luck, but she could well be faster than you … especially if you’re carrying all that extra baggage with you,” Mrs. Speight said smiling at Murdo.
“So what have you got in there?” asked Fergus later, pointing to the rucksack as the boys sat on the doorstep. The start of their exciting day’s tracking had proved not to be very exciting at all as Sasha was sitting on the front step of number 89 soaking up the sun, with no apparent intention of going anywhere.
“Binoculars, file of missing cats, filofax, money, notebook, packed lunch, pencils, pens, street plan, toolkit, torch.” said Murdo in one breath and in worryingly accurate alphabetical order.
Fergus nodded slowly. “You missed the kitchen sink,” he said.
“Better over-prepared than under-prepared, Fergus,” said Murdo in a superior voice. There were times when Fergus was with Murdo that he wanted to glance at someone and roll his eyes, but unfortunately someone wasn’t always available. He looked over at Sasha instead.
“She’s off!” he shouted, realizing that the cat had suddenly picked herself up from her slumbering position on the front step and was heading off down Comely Bank Avenue.
In one move, Murdo threw on his rucksack and had the time of this first development noted neatly down in his notebook. The tracking had begun and the boys headed off at a fast pace to keep up with the Siamese, who was padding purposefully away from the flat.
Almost immediately the boys were faced with their first problem. They had not bargained on the fact that Sasha had no respect for property or privacy. It wasn’t long before she was sniffing in gardens and the boys found themselves hanging around outside people’s houses for longer than they felt was really acceptable. The memory of being challenged by Jessie was still fresh in their minds, even though that encounter had turned out for the best.
At the bottom of Comely Bank Avenue they found themselves loitering close to Jessie’s flat as Sasha nosed around in a nearby front garden, and the boys agreed it would be good to keep her informed of their latest approach to solving the mystery. Fergus ran over and rang her bell, anxiously looking back to check that he wasn’t missing a sudden change in direction by Sasha.
“Ah, Fergus! What a lovely surprise.”
Fergus turned back to find Jessie at the door with a drill in her hand and a pencil tucked behind her ear. Despite wearing overalls Fergus noticed that she still had her pink cardigan on. He didn’t have to say anything as the expression on his face clearly asked, “What on earth are you doing?!”
“Just putting up a shelf,” she said by way of explanation.
“Well, I’m just letting you know that we’re tracking a neighbour’s cat to see if that gives us any new leads,” said Fergus.
“Good thinking. Keep me posted and give me a call if there’s anything I can help with,” Jessie said cheerily.
“Quick, Fergus,” shouted Murdo in the distance. “She’s getting away!”
The Siamese had suddenly picked up speed and seconds later she shot across the road, dodging a moped and two cars, and completely ignoring the red man on the pedestrian crossing. The boys came to an abrupt halt at the edge of the pavement, weighing up the traffic rather more carefully than Sasha had done, and deciding that the cat was more of a risk-taker than they were. They craned their necks around the passing cars to try to see her. She seemed to have slowed to a saunter again on the far side of road as if she were toying with the boys.
“I’ve heard of playing cat and mouse but this is ridiculous,” said Fergus, as they finally got a green man to cross the road and were able to co
ntinue their pursuit of the mischievous cat who was now heading for the nearby park.
“It should be nice and easy to keep a track of her here,” said Murdo confidently, “Lots of open spaces.” As if to deliberately prove him wrong, Sasha leapt up on a high wall running along one side of the park, walked along a section of it, looked back at the boys and then jumped down the other side disappearing completely from view. Fergus closed his eyes slowly and shook his head in disbelief. The day looked like being over before it had even begun.
“This will not stop us!” said Murdo with a sudden shout of determination. “Quick, Fergus, let me get up on your shoulders! We need to see where she’s gone.”
“Er … no disrespect, but wouldn’t it be easier the other way around?” asked Fergus, weighing up the options and deciding that he did not want to be underneath Murdo.
Murdo mumbled a bit and squatted down saying, “Come on then! Hurry up! There’s no time to waste, she could be getting away!”
Fergus climbed gingerly on to Murdo’s shoulders and began to straighten up, feeling his way up the wall as Murdo puffed and panted and tried to stand up. Fergus eventually managed to get his hands onto the top, although this was more to do with how light he was rather than how strong Murdo was. It was a very high wall and in order to see over it, Fergus had to haul himself up the last few inches, finishing with his elbows on top of the wall and his feet dangling just above Murdo’s shoulders. He peered into a well-kept garden.
“Oi, what are you doing?” said a man emerging from a greenhouse. “Right, this is the last time. Marjory, call the police!”
“Wh … What?!” said Fergus.
“Every week, kids like you come climbing over our walls and chucking stones at my greenhouse. The police told us just to call them, so that’s exactly what I’m going to do … Marjory!” He was bawling in the direction of the house and Fergus could see movement behind one of the windows.
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