Don't Feed the Rat!

by Annie Appleton

  Next to me, Vinnie gasped. I stabbed a finger at Cecil. ‘You’re not in a position to blackmail anyone. You’re caught in a cage and your posse is not running to help you.’

  I indicated at the still laughing posse.

  Cecil sulked and looked down at the ground. ‘But I want to be the boss.’

  ‘The boss of what?’ I gestured around me. ‘A bunch of teenage rats who laugh themselves silly when you make a mistake?’

  The posse suddenly became quiet as a large, handsome rat appeared on the scene. He walked up to Vinnie and me and looked me up and down.

  ‘Paddy.’

  ‘Ace.’

  Cecil grabbed the bars of the cage and looked at his stepfather, his ears erect. Ace looked at the cage, Cecil, and then the posse, who was now holding its breath. His brow wrinkled for a moment, then he burst out laughing.

  He pointed at Cecil. ‘I can’t believe you got yourself caught. How stupid is that!’ Ace rolled over the ground, holding his stomach, and laughed. The posse started laughing again as well.

  Cecil stared at Ace, mouth open. ‘But you told me this was the best prank ever.’

  ‘Not if you walk into it yourself, you stupid idiot.’ Ace gestured around him. ‘Look. Even your little posse friends know that.’ He shook his head. ‘No wonder you can’t find any friends your own age. They’re all much smarter than you and you would never be able to lord it over them.’

  Cecil had shrunk down into a little ball. His whiskers and ears drooped and there were tears in his eyes. If he hadn’t just tried to blackmail me, I might have felt sorry for him.

  Cecil made eye contact with me. I came closer to the cage.

  ‘Mad Maggie took them,’ he said under his breath.

  ‘Where.’

  ‘Up the hill.’

  Vinnie and I turned and ran up the hill, leaving Cecil to the mercy of Ace and the posse.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

  It was afternoon and Jacob made his way back on to the allotments after having spent the morning researching the name of the woman on the back of the photograph. There was a spring in his step. His online research had given him some interesting insights into Godric’s life and he was keen to tell Emily about it. She was going to keep an eye on the police, so she shouldn’t be too far away.

  Jacob saw there weren’t many people around. Almost as if the Hoes & Rakes tenants didn’t want to hang around too much, afraid of being ‘next’. And who could blame them after what happened in the past week.

  Ian’s allotment was still cordoned off with crime scene tape. Jacob glanced over the privet hedge as he walked past. He supressed a shudder, thinking about Ian lying between his carrots.

  Jacob did a quick round of the allotments closest to Ian’s. He’d expected Emily to be somewhere around here, where the action was, but there was no sign of her anywhere. Not on Godric’s allotment and not on the Jeffersons’.

  He quickly peeked over the fence into Georgie’s allotment, but ducked down when he saw her pottering about in her shed. Surely Emily wouldn’t be on Georgie’s allotment when Georgie was actually there. Not after what happened the other day.

  Was it possible that Emily made her way on to Ian’s allotment to look for clues? He walked back to Ian’s allotment and ducked under the crime scene tape. Reluctant to get too far on to the allotment Jacob hovered near the entrance, craning his neck to see if Emily was about. There was no sign of her.

  Jacob went back under the tape. Maybe Emily had made her way up to his own allotment after the police had gone to wait for his return.

  Jacob trudged up the hill. But his allotment and shed were deserted and there was no indication that Emily had been there. Jacob looked around. Maybe she was visiting Liz’s allotment. He crossed the path and entered the young woman’s allotment. Neither Liz nor Emily were there.

  There was some noise coming from Wilbur’s allotment. Jacob looked in and saw Wilbur hovering about, cleaning out his shed. He was sporting a black eye and two fingers of his right hand were strapped together with bandage.

  ‘Hey, Wilbur,’ Jacob said to attract his attention. ‘Have you seen Emily about?’

  Wilbur looked up and shook his head. ‘No, not since yesterday afternoon.’

  ‘Okay, thanks. I’m looking for her, but maybe she’s gone home for lunch.’

  ‘Well, the allotments were out of bounds most of the morning what with Ian’s murder,’ Wilbur said. He shrugged. ‘Perhaps she never even came here.’

  ‘Perhaps not. But do me a favour, will you? If you see her, can you tell her I’m looking for her?’

  Wilbur waved his bandaged hand. ‘Will do.’

  Jacob walked down the hill again. This was strange. Of course it was true that the allotments had been closed off this morning, but Emily should have been hovering about, keeping an eye on everything. Where was she?

  Several times on his way down, Jacob asked fellow tenants if they had seen her. One woman thought she might have seen a girl walking down the hill, but it turned out that this girl was about twelve and walking her dog. No one else had seen anything.

  Back on Milbury Road, Jacob ran into Dave.

  ‘Please tell me you have seen Emily? I can’t find her anywhere.’ Jacob took a deep breath in an effort to calm himself. ‘I’m getting worried.’

  ‘Well, she’s not at home,’ Dave said. ‘I just came from there.’ He clapped Jacob on the shoulder. ‘I’m sure she’ll be fine. You know she can be a bit impulsive at times.’

  ‘I hope you’re right.’ Jacob looked across the street at the green, seeing if she was lurking somewhere up there.

  ‘Wait a minute...’ Jacob scrambled to pull his phone out of his pocket. ‘She sent me a message earlier.’

  ‘A message?’

  Jacob held up his phone for Dave to read. Help me!

  ‘What?’ Dave grabbed Jacob’s phone. ‘When did she send this?’

  ‘Oh, about two hours ago.’ Jacob shrugged. ‘I thought it was a joke.’

  Dave flung the phone back. Jacob just about managed to catch it.

  ‘There is a murderer on the loose and you ignore a text that has come from a girl that has been trying to solve these crimes. A text that says help me?’ Dave glared at his friend. ‘How stupid can you be?’

  Jacob’s blood ran cold. Could Dave be right? If the murderer had found Emily he would never forgive himself. ‘But... I thought it was a joke.’

  Dave glared at him some more and pulled his own mobile out. ‘I’ll give her a ring.’

  The two men waited as the phone kept ringing on the other end without being answered.

  ‘This is not good,’ Dave said. ‘I’ll phone Peggy.’ He walked away from Jacob.

  Jacob half-listened as Dave talked to his sister. What if Emily had seen something on the allotments this morning and in her impulsiveness had taken action, without waiting for back-up? Why hadn’t he realised the message might be real?

  Dave returned. ‘She’s not at Posh Nosh and Peggy hasn’t seen her.’

  ‘I’m very worried now,’ Jacob said. He paced up and down.

  ‘So am I,’ Dave said. ‘And she wasn’t anywhere on the allotments?’

  Jacob shook his head and paced some more.

  ‘What if she went to visit Dot?’ Dave said. ‘Help her unpack now that she’s back in her own house?’

  ‘You’re grasping at straws now,’ Jacob said. ‘Emily wasn’t perhaps jumping up and down at the thought of keeping an eye on the police, but I’m sure she wouldn’t just abandon this project even if it was to spite me.’ He stopped pacing. ‘But maybe she did go to my house to see how I was doing with the research. Perhaps we just missed each other.’

  Jacob started walking, Dave followed him.

  They hadn’t gone very far when there was a shout from behind them.

  ‘Jacob!’ Georgie came walking up towards them. ‘I hear you’re looking for the girl?’

  Jacob nodded.

  ‘I don’t know if it
is any help to you, but I saw her running up the hill earlier. Two men were also running up the hill behind her. They looked a bit shady, but I didn’t think there was anything going on.’

  Jacob and Dave stared at her.

  Georgie continued. ‘One of the men was Ian Fraser’s brother Doug. I did think it a bit strange that he was running on the day his brother was murdered.’

  ‘Did you tell the police about this?’ Dave said.

  ‘No.’ Georgie shook her head. ‘I thought perhaps they were jogging.’

  Dave sighed. ‘When was this?’

  ‘Oh... about two hours ago.’

  ‘At the time of the text,’ Jacob said, now feeling weak in the knees. ‘Thanks, Georgie.’

  The two men walked back on to the allotments and made their way up the hill, in the direction that Georgie saw Emily running.

  ‘This doesn’t feel good,’ Dave said. ‘Do you think they were following Emily?’

  ‘Perhaps it was a coincidence,’ Jacob said, but didn’t believe it himself. ‘Who was the second man?’

  Once more they checked every allotment going up the hill. There was no sign of Emily.

  ‘What did they do with her?’ Dave said.

  Both men stopped. They were halfway up the hill.

  Jacob pulled his phone out. ‘I’m going to call her again. Maybe she can answer this time.’

  They waited for the phone to start ringing at the other end, then heard a phone ringing on the other side of the bramble hedge. It was an Inspector Gadget ringtone.

  ‘That’s Emily’s phone,’ Dave said and started walking.

  ‘How would you know?’

  ‘She told me earlier in the week that she had this ringtone for you.’

  Jacob followed Dave on to the allotment. ‘Inspector Gadget? I don’t get it. I’m not an inspector.’

  Dave scoured the grass. ‘Help me look for the phone, will you?’

  With their noses to the ground the two men soon honed in on the sound.

  ‘There it is.’ Jacob bent down to pick it up. ‘What is it doing here?’

  Dave fiddled with it. He looked up at his friend. ‘Your return text was Has a riot broken out? Did you go mad?’

  Jacob snatched the phone back. ‘I thought she was joking!’

  Dave sighed. ‘Let’s check this allotment. Perhaps she was here.’

  Jacob checked the shed; Dave ducked behind it and rummaged through the undergrowth. There was no sign of Emily.

  ‘Doesn’t look like she was here,’ Jacob said, his worry returning.

  ‘I’ve had enough,’ Dave said. ‘I’m calling Abe.’

  Jacob listened as Dave explained the situation. He felt restless. What if they couldn’t find Emily? What if she was murdered and her body was dumped somewhere? He would never get over the guilt of not having taken her message seriously.

  ‘Abe’s coming right up,’ Dave said. ‘He was in the neighbourhood. Let’s get back to the path.’

  It wasn’t long before they saw the young policeman making his way up the hill.

  Jacob held out his phone for Abe to see when he arrived. ‘She sent me this and Georgie said she was followed.’

  Abe studied Emily’s text.

  ‘And we found this.’ Jacob put Emily’s phone into Abe’s hands.

  ‘This is all very worrying,’ Abe said. ‘Let me see if I can get some help up here.’

  As he pulled his phone out, DCI McDermott suddenly appeared out of nowhere.

  ‘So the girl is missing?’ the inspector said. He glared at Jacob with his arms crossed as if it was his fault. ‘I’m certain she’s just run away. Rebellious girls do that all the time. She will be back by nightfall.’

  Jacob stepped up to McDermott, ready to reply, but Abe stopped him. ‘Actually, sir, I don’t agree with you. She’s not a silly teenager any more. I would like permission to go and help with the search.’

  ‘Pffft.’ McDermott waved a hand at him. ‘You can do what you want, but make certain I also have your report on Ian Fraser’s murder on my desk today. And you’re on your own. No diversion of police resources to the futile search.’

  Abe turned red, but nodded. ‘Of course, sir.’

  As McDermott walked away, Abe glared at his back and stuck out his tongue. He turned to Jacob and Dave. ‘Let’s find Emily!’

  * * *

  Paddy

  We spent a long time looking all over the hill for Albie and Max, but there was no sign of them. Several times I wondered if Cecil had told me the truth, but Vinnie was convinced he had.

  ‘He had nothing more to lose,’ Vinnie said and I knew he was right.

  I now had a permanent knot in my stomach. Where could those two little’uns be? More rats had joined the search, but to no avail.

  ‘You have to give Clara an update,’ Vinnie said. ‘Good or bad.’

  ‘She’s going to kill me,’ I said, my whiskers drooping. ‘I want to do one more search before I face Clara.’

  Vinnie shrugged. ‘Suit yourself.’

  Pete and Eddy joined us on the path. ‘There must be something else we can do,’ Pete said. ‘They can’t have vanished into thin air.’

  ‘The worrying thing is that there is no sign of Mad Maggie either,’ I said. ‘Maybe she took Albie and Max somewhere secret to kill them and turn their pelts into a coat.’ I pulled my left ear twice and right ear once.

  ‘Stop doing that,’ Vinnie said. He slapped me around the ears. ‘Our Mad Maggie is not the creature from your stories. Have you ever seen her wear a rats’ pelt?’

  I glared at Vinnie. ‘No, but she has a shovel.’

  ‘So do all the two-leggeds on this hill.’

  I paced up and down. ‘What are the facts that we know?’

  ‘According to Cecil, Mad Maggie took them,’ Vinnie said.

  ‘Up the hill,’ Pete said.

  ‘We’ve looked everywhere but can’t find them,’ Eddy said.

  ‘Mad Maggie is gone as well,’ Vinnie said.

  They looked at me in silence.

  ‘That’s not much,’ I said and sighed deeply. It didn’t look good. ‘Let me tell you this. I’m sure that if we find Mad Maggie, we will find my nephews. And better sooner rather than later.’

  ‘Agreed,’ Vinnie said.

  In the distance a dog barked.

  ‘Perhaps we should go looking for Mad Maggie instead,’ I said. ‘She’s bigger and therefore should be easier to find.’

  ‘But we looked all over and haven’t found her either,’ Pete said.

  The dog barked again. I listened to the sound. ‘Wait a minute...’ An idea popped into my head. Suddenly things seemed a bit brighter again. ‘Mad Maggie’s dog can track her for us!’

  Vinnie, Pete and Eddy stared at me, mouths open.

  ‘Who’s to say the dog’s not with her?’ Pete said.

  I pointed at Mad Maggie’s house and listened again. The dog barked.

  ‘He’s not with her,’ I said. ‘He’s trapped inside the house.’

  We ran to the garden wall and climbed up. The barking of the dog got louder and sounded more frantic from here.

  ‘It’s simple,’ I said, a flutter of excitement in my stomach. ‘We let the dog out and it will lead us to Mad Maggie. Then we will also find Albie and Max.’

  Vinnie pressed his lips into a fine line. ‘Have you taken into account that the dog will kill us when we let it out?’

  ‘Besides that,’ Pete said, looking over his shoulder at the house, ‘it will be trapped in the garden between the walls. It still won’t be able to start searching for Mad Maggie.’

  I puffed up my chest, certain that my idea would work. ‘Not if one of us taunts it!’

  Vinnie scratched the back of his neck, without making eye contact. Pete chewed on his lip and Eddy looked at his paws.

  ‘Ugh, you non-believers,’ I said and started walking. ‘Just do as I say.’

  Behind me Pete whispered to Eddy, ‘This is the scarecrow all over again...’ />
  Vinnie, Pete and I watched as Eddy sneaked up to the kitchen window. Being a squirrel made Eddy perfect for this part of the plan, although it took some convincing from my side to get him to actually do it. He looked over his shoulder at us, wide eyed. I smiled and nodded at him in what I hoped was an encouraging way.

  The kitchen window was standing open a crack. Had Mad Maggie learnt nothing from this morning’s experience?

  Without a sound, Eddy jumped up onto the windowsill. He reached inside. I pulled my left ear in the hope that his arms weren’t too short. With difficulty Eddy pushed the window open further. It made an awful squeak. In a panic, Eddy hopped back on to the patio and took two large leaps to the side wall closest to the kitchen window. The dog showed his face at the window, just as Eddy disappeared into the neighbouring garden.

  We started jeering at the dog, taunting him to come out. ‘You will never catch us! You’re too slow! Rats are smarter than dogs!’

  Pete sat on the garden table close to the back wall and jumped up and down, waving his paws. Vinnie and I sat on the wall and did the same. The dog glared at us through the open kitchen window. It walked up and down on the counter, as if afraid to leap out.

  We jeered some more. ‘Stupid dog! You’re slow!’

  The dog snorted and barked his head off, jumping up and down in front of the open window.

  ‘Come and get us, you stupid creature,’ I yelled. Then he clambered out of the window and jumped on to the patio.

  ‘Yes, that’s it! Stupid dog!’

  We jumped up and down even more frantic and jeered even louder. The dog was seeing red now, barking at us from the patio.

  ‘We’re faster than you,’ Pete yelled, jumping up and down. The table wobbled under his weight.

  Then out of nowhere the dog took a run and with a big leap he jumped on to the garden table. Pete got out of the way just in time and with a rather inelegant scramble made his way to the top of the wall.

  I knew it was now only a question of time. We were so close to our goal.

  ‘Stupid, stupid dog!’ I said. ‘You’re not smart enough to catch us!’ The dog looked up and barked like mad. It tried to jump up the wall, but failed. Now furious at us, he jumped again and managed to claw its way up the ivy to the top of the wall.