Don't Feed the Rat!

by Annie Appleton

  Cecil glared at Pete, fur bristling.

  We walked off the allotment. Behind us Cecil stamped his feet. His posse secretly sniggered behind his back.

  Eddy looked at me. ‘Told you there would be trouble.’

  CHAPTER FOURTEEN

  Dave unfolded the drawing on top of his kitchen table. They all bent over to study it. It was a technical drawing of an apartment block in an undisclosed location.

  ‘Are you certain this is the right drawing?’ Jacob asked Dave. ‘It doesn’t look as if it has anything to do with the allotments.’

  ‘Yes, I’m certain. My colleague at the planning department told me that it was still all very hush-hush and that he was not actually supposed to show me. I had to promise him and his wife a posh lunch in return for a copy of the plans.’

  ‘Great.’ Emily smirked. ‘The first expenses for our detective business.’

  Jacob and Dave ignored her. They studied the drawing some more.

  Emily pointed at the corner. ‘It says the “Jorvik Construction Company” is going to build it.’ She looked up. ‘Wouldn’t it be Rupert’s “Fairclough Development” if he was involved?’

  ‘Must be a shell company,’ Jacob said. ‘Set up to hide Rupert’s involvement.’

  ‘He’s a clever man,’ Dave said.

  ‘But how can we ever prove that these plans have anything to do with Rupert?’ Emily asked. ‘And how do they prove he murdered Godric?’

  ‘Of course the plans don’t prove anything,’ Jacob said. ‘They don’t even prove his involvement in a scheme for the allotments. But we can show Rupert the plans and see how he reacts.’

  ‘But then Rupert will know we are still investigating him.’ Emily looked from Jacob to her uncle. ‘What if he hurts Jacob’s mum?’

  ‘I’ve actually made some enquiries into that,’ Dave said. He crossed his arms. ‘Dot has always looked after her house well and paid her rent on time every month. Because of that there is no possible way that Rupert can evict her just like that. He will have to follow legal procedures to get her out and it’s highly unlikely that he would succeed if he attempted to do so. He’s bluffing!’

  Jacob looked at his friend and smiled. ‘Thanks for looking into that.’

  ‘Don’t mention it.’ Dave slapped Jacob on the shoulder. ‘I’ve known Dot my whole life. She’s like a second mum to me. I would never let anyone hurt her.’

  Jacob studied the plans some more. ‘Do you want to come to Rupert’s with me tomorrow?’

  Dave nodded. ‘Of course I will. Show this idiot we’re on to him.’

  ‘It’s starting to look more and more like Georgie and Rupert are in cahoots for Godric’s murder,’ Jacob said. ‘They both had something to gain; Georgie the Chair and Rupert a possible new building site.’

  ‘We need some solid proof for a motive, though,’ Dave said. ‘I still have a hard time understanding why Georgie would give Rupert permission to build on part of Milbury Hill.’ He folded up the drawing and handed it to Jacob, smiling at his friend. ‘The sooner this is over, the sooner you can start focussing on your own project again.’

  ‘Talking about Jacob’s project,’ Emily said, ‘why is everyone keeping it a secret from me? Even Priscilla seems to know all about it.’

  The two men stared at Emily and then at each other. Jacob had hoped Emily wouldn’t mention it again for a while and wished Dave hadn’t brought it up.

  ‘Well... um,’ Dave said. ‘Sometimes things happen that are not so easy to deal with. And then people decide that it’s best not to talk about it.’

  Emily looked from her uncle to Jacob and back, absentmindedly petting one of her rats. ‘That doesn’t explain anything. What is this big secret? I don’t think it’s fair that everyone seems to know except me.’ She left the kitchen and stomped up the stairs to her room, leaving Jacob and Dave behind.

  Judith came into the kitchen to see what was going on.

  ‘I know it has nothing to do with me,’ Jacob said. ‘But isn’t it time she knew?’

  Dave started folding the plan. Judith grabbed him by the arm. ‘Jacob might be right. She’s twenty-three.’

  ‘Hmpf,’ Dave said. ‘Storming out like that, you’d think she was still a teenager.’

  ‘That’s not her fault. She’s still finding herself.’

  ‘I know.’ Dave sighed. ‘Perhaps it’s me that doesn’t want to have things stirred up.’

  Judith gave him a kiss on the cheek and then filled the kettle with water. ‘Well, perhaps it’s time things were stirred up.’

  Jacob nodded. Judith might be right.

  * * *

  2 April 1972

  Jacob had made it into the alleyway this time. Bad as he felt about Robbie’s disappearance, he’d fled the house in the hope not to be reminded of it for a little while. His mother had been crying a lot in the last five days and blamed herself for Robbie being gone. But of course it wasn’t her fault. She had told Dave and him to look after Robbie and they had let her down.

  He picked up a stick and smashed the ivy that grew on the brick wall. Leaves fluttered down to the ground. He should have paid better attention that afternoon and seen something!

  In a fit of rage Jacob threw the stick over the wall. A yell came from the other side. Without thinking he started running. Behind him the garden door opened.

  ‘I saw that!’ It was old Mrs Hastings. She shook her fist at him. ‘You streaked my clean sheets, you hooligan. I will tell your mum!’

  Mum wouldn’t be interested, Jacob thought. She was only thinking of Robbie these days. He rounded the corner of the alleyway. Tears stung in his eyes. He didn’t see Priscilla barring his way and almost bumped into her.

  ‘Aww, little Jacob is crying. What’s the matter?’ she said in mock pity. ‘Afraid of some spiders you unearthed?’

  Jacob tried to push past her, but Priscilla was taller than him. She grabbed his arm and with one movement twisted it on to his back. Jacob fell to his knees. It hurt as he hit a sharp pebble.

  ‘Are you trying to be clever?’ she said, her breath hot in his ear. Then she laughed and pushed him down on to the ground. He heard her moving off, still laughing. He slowly got up and brushed the muck off his knees, throwing Priscilla a dirty glance. Why did she always manage to be around when he least wanted to see her?

  Then he saw that the pebble he had fallen on wasn’t a pebble at all. He bent down and picked it up. It was a button. Jacob studied it, turning it around. The copper gleamed in the light. It seemed that it was roughly torn off from a garment; the threads with which it had been fastened still clung to it.

  Butterflies danced in his stomach. He recognised the button as coming from Robbie’s jacket. It was the first sign of the boy since he disappeared. Jacob looked around the alleyway. There were no other traces of Robbie. No scuffmarks, nothing. What had happened that the button had come off?

  Suddenly a dark shadow came near. Jacob looked up and saw a policeman walking up to him, hands behind his back. He looked down at Jacob. ‘What are you doing here, boy?’

  Jacob held up the button. ‘I found this.’

  The policeman looked at it with little interest. ‘It’s just a button.’ He grabbed Jacob by the shoulder. ‘Now go back home to your mother and let us do our job. You’re only in the way.’

  Jacob made his way to the exit of the alleyway, throwing a glance over his shoulder at the policeman. The man was sauntering in the other direction, hands behind his back again. Why didn’t the policeman recognise the significance of his find? He carefully wrapped the button in his handkerchief and put it in his pocket. Even if the police didn’t care about Robbie, he did. And he would find out what happened. No matter what!

  * * *

  Paddy

  ‘Here, look what I found you.’ I held out some chips and a piece of fish that I found in a discarded newspaper. ‘It’s your favourite.’ Vinnie looked uninterested. I couldn’t blame him really. If I still had a headache, I wouldn’t want
anything to eat either, least of all a piece of fish. I wrinkled my nose at the smell.

  ‘Your stupid behaviour got us into this situation,’ Vinnie said. He rubbed his head with his paws. ‘Your obsession with Mad Maggie is getting out of control and making Cecil behave worse. And have you forgotten how he’s taken in your nephews?’

  ‘Of course I’ve not forgotten about my nephews.’ My voice was shrill. I didn’t want reminding of my failure to keep them under control. Why hadn’t I managed to keep them away from Cecil? Some uncle I was. But of course the situation with Mad Maggie had taken over somewhat. Vinnie was right about Mad Maggie, but I didn’t know why I couldn’t control my fear of her.

  ‘Please eat some fish,’ I said. ‘I’m sorry my actions got you hurt. I will try to do better in the future. In fact, I will do something about it right away.’

  Vinnie smiled and took a bite of the fish. ‘Do whatever you want. I’m going to take a nap.’

  I left Vinnie in peace to enjoy the quiet of the evening and together with Pete and Eddy went in search of Cecil.

  ‘What are we going to do when we find him?’ Pete asked.

  ‘Tell him he should grow up,’ I said.

  We found Cecil at the allotment where this afternoon I destroyed his prank.

  ‘You stay away from here,’ he said when he spotted us coming. His posse materialised around him from nowhere. I was disappointed to see Albie and Max among them, but I had to press on. I was on a mission.

  I faced Cecil. ‘It’s time that you became a more responsible rat within our community.’ He glared at me, his ears bent forward. I continued. ‘You’re already two years old and could be a great role model for the young rats in your posse.’

  Cecil laughed and his posse followed his lead. ‘I am a role model and a responsible rat in the community. I make them all laugh and have fun!’ He looked over his shoulder at his posse. ‘Don’t I, guys?’ The posse cheered. I couldn’t believe how mindlessly they all followed him.

  Pete stepped forward. ‘You misunderstand, Paddy,’ he said. ‘Of course having fun is important. I’m all for that. But if you anger the two-leggeds in the process, you endanger us all. I haven’t had bird food to eat in two days!’

  Cecil rolled his eyes. ‘Your problem is that you only think about food. And two-leggeds? Pfft, who needs them? We can have fun without them.’

  Patch suddenly jumped forward towards Pete. ‘Boo,’ he said and Pete flinched. All the posse laughed.

  ‘See? They’re having fun without the two-leggeds,’ Cecil said.

  I got hot under my fur. ‘Shouting boo is very mature.’

  Cecil laughed. ‘You’re a superstitious old fuzz ball.’ He raised his paws and his posse started to jeer, ‘Fuzz ball... fuzz ball...’

  The fur on my scalp pricked, but I tried not to show how I felt. Then I saw Albie and Max chanting as well. Blood suddenly rushed to my face.

  ‘Stop it!’ I screamed, hopping up and down in frustration. ‘Don’t you see he’s tricking you all into exhibiting this mindless behaviour?’

  Cecil laughed. Some spittle flew in my direction. ‘They don’t listen to you. You’re old.’

  He sighed. ‘I’m getting bored of this.’ He looked over his shoulder. ‘Moe! Come here a minute, will you?’

  From out of nowhere the giant cat appeared. He stepped around the buckets that were still scattered about and took us all in with one glance. Eddy gasped and Pete tried to make himself look smaller.

  ‘Do me a favour and get rid of those idiots,’ Cecil said, waving a lazy paw at us.

  With a huge leap Moe jumped over the posse and landed right between Cecil and me. My heart pounded in my chest. What could I do?

  Then Moe crouched down, wriggling his rear end. I’d seen enough of cat behaviour to know that this wasn’t good.

  Pete grabbed my arm. ‘Come on, Paddy. He’s going to pounce.’

  In a flash we’d all turned around and started running. I knew there was little chance of outrunning Moe but hoped for the best. As we ran off the allotment, I quickly looked over my shoulder. Moe was in hot pursuit, with Cecil and the posse trying to keep up.

  As fast as we could we made our way down the hill, gathering momentum as we went. Unfortunately, so did Moe and he swiped a paw at Pete, who was lagging. We needed another strategy.

  ‘This way, guys!’ I yelled over my shoulder and as fast as I could I clambered on to the garden wall. Eddy and Pete followed my lead. We ran along the top of the wall, jumping over branches of shrubs that hung over the wall and making our way through tunnels of ivy.

  Moe couldn’t clamber up the wall like we did, he had to stop and aim a jump. This put us in the lead again, but once Moe had elegantly landed on the top of the wall, he lost no time in catching up.

  I heard Cecil yell behind Moe. ‘Get them!’

  As we ran along the top of the wall, we were rather exposed and it wasn’t long before the odd two-legged would yell at us from their back gardens, where they were sitting, enjoying the pleasant evening. No doubt they were startled to see two rats, a squirrel, a giant cat and another bunch of rats run past their garden with lightning speed.

  Then we came to the bottom of the hill. We jumped off the wall, followed by Moe.

  ‘What... do... we... do... now...?’ Pete was so out of breath I thought he would keel over.

  ‘To that allotment,’ I said and pointed at a fence, behind which a garden shed appeared.

  We ran across the path.

  In my hurry to escape Moe, I hadn’t seen the young two-legged and the big yellow dog sauntering up the hill. We ran right under their noses, and the dog started barking like mad.

  ‘Stop it, Charlie!’ The young two-legged tried to keep the dog in check, but to no avail. Especially when the dog spotted Moe, who was still focussed on us, he became so enthusiastic that the two-legged had no choice but to let go of the lead.

  Once freed, the dog made a beeline for Moe, who looked at the dog once, then with incredible agility changed course and ran back up the hill.

  The two-legged ran up the hill as well, trying to get hold of his dog. In the commotion, Cecil and his posse didn’t notice that we ducked through the slats in the fence and scrambled for the shed, where we squeezed under the door.

  As we collapsed on the floor of the shed, I heard Cecil yell, ‘Moe! Come back! Where did those old fuzz balls go?’

  We hid, catching our breaths and our wits, hoping Cecil’s posse wouldn’t find us. They now spread out along the path, looking for us.

  ‘It seems they’ve escaped, boss,’ Patch said. I watched through a crack in the boards and saw Cecil hopping up and down in frustration. He swatted Patch across the ear. ‘How could they have escaped so quickly?’

  Patch shrugged. ‘I don’t know, boss.’

  The sounds of the dog barking became louder again. The young two-legged had managed to grab hold of the dog and together they walked past the allotment.

  ‘Bad dog,’ the two-legged said. ‘I thought I told you never to run after cats? It’s your own fault for getting scratched across the nose.’

  Cecil, Patch and the posse kept quiet and let the two-legged get past.

  ‘Maybe we should check if Moe’s okay,’ Patch said.

  Cecil hesitated. ‘But I want to find those annoying old guys. They destroyed my prank and now they’ve escaped. It’s not fair.’

  ‘But, boss. If we don’t look after Moe, he could turn on us. We’d better make some fuss and tell him he’s wonderful.’ Patch looked at Cecil and I hoped the stupid rat would listen. I was sick of being chased and just wanted to get back to my digs.

  ‘All right then,’ Cecil said. He sighed. ‘We will get those old fleabags some other day.’

  We watched as Cecil and the posse trooped back up the hill.

  ‘That nasty little critter,’ I said. ‘Sending the cat after us. This isn’t over.’

  ‘Too right,’ Pete said. He plonked down on his back, paws outstretched, stil
l trying to catch his breath. ‘What do we do now?’

  ‘I don’t really want to go back up and run the risk of meeting them again,’ Eddy said. ‘Maybe we should wait until it gets dark.’

  Pete nodded. ‘Good idea. We could see if there’s something to eat here.’

  I didn’t like the idea of slinking back up the hill under the cover of darkness. I was fuming. But at the same time I was exhausted. I hated being middle-aged and not being able to run up and down the hill any more like I used to when I was young.

  ‘Let’s wait for a bit and then go back up,’ I said.

  While we waited for the sun to go down, I brooded on a plan to get back at Cecil. Things were getting out of hand. He needed to be stopped.

  CHAPTER FIFTEEN

  At nine the following morning Jacob stood again on the pavement in front of Rupert’s office building. This time the two burly men were nowhere in sight, at least for now. Jacob had no idea how this meeting would go, but he was determined to get some answers from Rupert.

  Dave stood next to Jacob and craned his neck to look up at the building. ‘He’s on the eighth floor, you said?’

  ‘Yes.’ Jacob pointed up. ‘I think it’s on that corner there. It probably has a magnificent view over York.’

  ‘You think?’ Dave frowned at his friend.

  ‘Well, I haven’t actually been in his office yet, just in the reception area, but I’m curious to find out if it’s true.’

  They walked inside and rode the elevator up to the top.

  ‘Nervous?’ Dave said, as Jacob tapped his foot impatiently.

  Jacob shook his head. ‘Determined.’

  ‘I wonder if Emily is okay keeping an eye on Georgie.’

  ‘I’m sure she is.’

  The doors swished open and the two men stepped into the reception area.

  The secretary saw them coming. Her eyes widened as she recognised Jacob and she stood up behind her desk. Perhaps hoping this would give her more power to stop them. ‘I can’t allow you to walk on,’ she said. ‘If you just wait here, I will see if Mr Fairclough is available.’