Don't Feed the Rat! Read online

  I felt my blood pressure rising and glared at Eddy. This stupid squirrel just kept pushing my buttons today. Who did he think he was? ‘I remember very well that my plan backfired and don’t need reminding of that, thank you.’

  ‘Well, actually, that’s okay now,’ Pete said. He shrugged. ‘I’m not angry at Paddy any more for that. Who can stay angry after eating so many snails?’

  Vinnie burst out laughing. ‘I wish I had Pete’s simplistic view on life.’

  Pete grinned and wandered off. ‘I’m still hungry. I’m going to look for a snack.’

  I looked at his retreating backside. Even if Pete was talking to me again, I was still worried about everything that was happening on the hill at the moment. One of these days things might explode.

  CHAPTER TWENTY

  Jacob was just about to open the door of the Fox & Glove when he saw Emily coming down the street. As she neared she looked him up and down and smiled.

  ‘They got you good, didn’t they?’

  ‘It’s not funny.’ He fingered the burning red streaks on cheek where Georgie had scratched him.

  ‘Actually, it was quite funny to see you embroiled in the fight,’ Emily said with a grin.

  ‘Funny to you, maybe. You could have jumped in earlier to get me out.’

  ‘I like the way you’ve patched up your lab coat.’ Emily said, ignoring Jacob and pointing at his sleeve. It was reattached to his coat with duct tape. ‘How MythBusters of you.’

  Jacob shrugged. ‘It’s what I do.’ He opened the door and let her go into the pub first.

  ‘Listen,’ he continued. ‘I’m sorry for my strange behaviour earlier. I had some worries, but they seem to have disappeared now.’

  ‘That’s okay, professor,’ Emily said. ‘Just keep your phone on from now on.’

  ‘I promise.’

  As they walked through the pub to the bar, Jacob realised that now Rupert wasn’t the killer, he hopefully had less grounds to continue the blackmail. It would be a huge relief if things would just go back to normal without his friends being under threat from that arrogant and petty man.

  ‘I hope you’re not too sad about Wilbur turning out to be a bit of a philanderer,’ Jacob said, but regretted it the moment the words came out of his mouth.

  Emily’s face fell and she looked down at her hands. ‘Well, he seemed like a good guy.’

  ‘And so he probably is,’ Jacob said, trying to make amends. ‘Deep down.’

  Emily sat on a barstool and listened to Jacob and Uncle Dave discussing Godric’s murder. She wanted to join in, but wasn’t able to pay much attention to what they were saying. Jacob’s words had drilled it home again. She was gullible and too trusting at times. She dropped her chin on her chest and sighed. How could she have ever liked Wilbur so much? He really had seemed nice, but she now realised that like Rupert he was selfish and manipulative. She crossed her arms. She’d much rather never think of him again. In any case, that’s what Liz had told her to do before Emily came to the pub. Forget about Wilbur, her friend had said. He’s a loser. Handsome, but a loser. Don’t waste your time on him. You can do so much better. Liz was right of course. She needed to focus her attention somewhere else, and solving Godric’s murder was a good place to start.

  Emily turned her attention back to Jacob and Dave who were still talking about the murder.

  ‘If Georgie, Rupert and Wilbur didn’t have anything to do with Godric’s death, then who killed him?’ Jacob said. He picked up his pint and put it down again without taking a sip. ‘If McDermott finds out about this, he might renew his focus on me.’

  ‘McDermott is an idiot,’ Dave said. ‘I wouldn’t worry about him. There must be more people with a grudge against Godric than you.’

  They pondered this for a bit.

  ‘What about Ian Fraser?’ Dave said. ‘Every year he produces prize-winning vegetables. Maybe Godric found a way to compete with him?’

  Jacob shook his head. ‘No. Godric wasn’t a threat for Ian. He wasn’t a threat for anyone on the allotments in that regard. Godric was a very bad gardener who just prided himself in the neatness and tidiness of his own allotment.’

  ‘Perhaps the Jeffersons killed Godric?’ Emily said. ‘They like to know all that is happening. Maybe they found something out about Godric and were blackmailing him.’

  ‘But then they wouldn’t kill him, would they?’ Jacob said. ‘No, the Jeffersons are just nosy and old. And anyway, it doesn’t need to be someone from Hoes & Rakes.’

  Emily pondered Jacob’s words. He was right. It didn’t need to be someone from the allotments. Her mind went to the loan shark’s henchmen.

  ‘What about those loan shark guys, Hal and Clyde?’ Emily said. She looked from Jacob to Dave. ‘They have been hanging about Milbury for a while and were keeping an eye on Godric’s allotment.’

  ‘Hmm... that’s right.’ Jacob nodded. ‘And I saw one of them at the funeral this afternoon.’

  ‘Not only that,’ Emily said. ‘You were following them this morning.’

  Jacob turned red and cleared his throat. ‘Um... I didn’t follow them.’

  ‘Yes you did!’ Emily stared at Jacob. Was he really going to deny it? ‘You sent Uncle Dave and me off to check on Georgie so you could keep an eye on Hal and Clyde yourself.’

  Jacob looked at Dave, who raised an eyebrow at him.

  ‘I... um... wanted to know where they were going because ... um...’ Jacob sighed deeply.

  ‘Is it because of the money?’ Emily said. ‘Did you borrow money from the loan shark and are Hal and Clyde harassing you about it?’

  ‘What? No...!’ Jacob looked at Emily, his mouth hanging open. ‘What money are you talking about?’

  Emily turned red. ‘I overheard you and Uncle Dave talking the other night, when you asked him to loan you three thousand pounds.’ She took a quick sip of her drink, not wanting to look Jacob in the eyes. ‘I thought maybe because Uncle Dave refused to lend you the money, you went to the loan shark instead. Your project seemed to depend on it.’

  Jacob bent closer to Emily. ‘Listen to me. When I asked your uncle for the money, that was the first and last time I ever asked anyone to lend me some money. I financed my whole project myself, and will keep doing so. I don’t want to be in debt to the likes of Jebediah Chase. That is the most stupid thing anyone could do.’

  Emily smiled. ‘So you’re not in trouble?’

  ‘You can rest assured I am not.’ Jacob thought for a moment. ‘Well, other than being a murder suspect...’

  ‘So why did you follow those henchmen?’ Dave said.

  ‘Well, I have this silly theory that McDermott wants to frame me for Godric’s murder and is using Hal and Clyde to accomplish that. That’s why I followed them this morning.’

  ‘But that’s crazy,’ Dave said. ‘I agree that McDermott doesn’t like you very much, but he would never do anything like that.’

  Jacob shrugged. ‘I guess not.’

  Dave gestured to Fred to get them another round of drinks.

  ‘In any case, I sent them packing this afternoon,’ he said. ‘They were parked in our street for no reason.’

  ‘Near your house?’ Jacob asked.

  ‘No a bit further down.’

  ‘Yes,’ Emily said. Her eyes gleaming, as if she was on a scent. ‘I saw them parked there this morning as well.’

  ‘That is strange,’ Jacob said. ‘Do you think they’re keeping an eye on you, Dave? After all, you’ve been haunting them a bit this week.’

  Dave nodded. ‘That’s true, but why would they keep an eye on me? Especially if they had something to do with Godric’s death? It doesn’t make sense.’

  Fred came with their drinks.

  ‘I know,’ Emily said. ‘Perhaps Hal and Clyde realised we were looking into Godric’s murder and wanted to keep up to date?’

  Dave shook his head. ‘I don’t know. This all sound pretty farfetched to me. Crazy, actually.’

  Emily sulked. Why
couldn’t her theory be true?

  ‘By the way,’ Jacob said. ‘You know who else is crazy? Priscilla. She completely flipped this afternoon at the cemetery.’

  ‘Did she? Remember she was always strange as a child?’ Dave said. ‘Always stalking us and trying to be better than you.’

  Jacob nodded. ‘Not the best memories I have of my childhood...’

  Emily looked at Jacob and her uncle. ‘I didn’t know you knew Priscilla from before.’

  ‘She actually lived next door to us when we were young,’ Jacob said. ‘A row of terraced houses on Lower Tile Street. I lived in the middle, with Dave on one side and Priscilla on the other.’

  Dave nodded. ‘So we did.’ He smiled at Jacob. ‘Isn’t it funny that Priscilla always made your life difficult, but that you turned out to be the smarter one at school? Remember how angry she was when you were allowed to skip ahead a class.’

  Jacob smiled. ‘Yes, that definitely felt good.’ He clinked his pint to the one Dave held up.

  Dave put his glass down and twirled it around. It left a wet streak on the bar. ‘That old man of hers certainly was a nasty piece of work, wasn’t he?’

  ‘Yeah, Jim Spratt.’ Jacob nodded. ‘Did you know he picked a fight with my father once?’

  ‘Did he?’

  ‘At the brickworks,’ Jacob said. ‘This was after your father had died and Jim made some derogatory comment about him. My father got really angry. They had to pull him off Jim.’

  ‘Huh, I didn’t know that.’

  Emily listened to the men reminisce about their childhoods and suddenly felt left out. She carefully took a rat out of her pocket and, keeping it hidden under the bar, started stroking its back. How little she knew about her own family. Why had her mother never told her about her childhood in Milbury? She would have loved to hear about a crazy neighbour like Priscilla, but her mother was always more interested in shopping.

  Emily looked at her uncle and Jacob as they laughed at a shared memory.

  Emily cleared her throat. ‘So what happened in the past, when that boy disappeared?’

  The two men abruptly stopped laughing.

  Dave looked at Emily, then at Jacob. ‘I told you before that sometimes people decide not to talk about things, as that is easier.’

  Emily glared at him. Was her uncle really going to go that way again? ‘But no one ever told me anything about Milbury at all. Not my mum, no one. Don’t you think that’s strange?’

  ‘Well, you didn’t grow up here, so she probably thought you weren’t interested.’

  ‘Alice told me that Grandma was sometimes really sad,’ Emily said. ‘So how come that my sister knows things that I don’t.’

  Dave sighed. ‘Alice doesn’t know anything either. She’s just older than you, so she remembers things better.’

  ‘Then tell me about it!’

  Jacob shrugged. ‘Just tell her, Dave.’

  Dave looked at Emily for a while, twirling a coaster in his hands. ‘Okay. Jacob and I were both ten years old when my youngest brother Robbie went missing. Till this day we don’t know where he is or even if he is still alive.’

  Emily got a cold feeling in her stomach. She stared at her uncle. She hadn’t realised the boy that went missing was part of her own family. Her uncle, in fact.

  ‘How old was he?’

  ‘Four.’

  ‘And you have no idea what happened to him?’

  ‘Nothing whatsoever.’

  Emily looked down at her rat. It had nestled itself in the crook of her arm. ‘That must have been a horrible thing to have happened.’

  Dave nodded. ‘It did not only affect our family, but also Jacob’s as Dot was babysitting Robbie at the time.’

  ‘She still feels guilty,’ Jacob said. ‘Still hopes he will return some day.’

  ‘Your mother took it really hard,’ Dave said to Emily. ‘She loved her little brother, so she’s tried to block his disappearance out ever since. I guess that’s why she never talks about Milbury.’

  Emily nodded. ‘I understand.’ She put her rat back in her pocket, then looked at her uncle. ‘Is that why you named your son Rob?’ she said. Emily suddenly found it difficult to hold back her tears.

  Dave smiled, and gave her a quick hug. ‘Yes, that is why.’

  They sat in silence for a little while. Then Emily remembered something. ‘And Jacob’s computer project? Has that got anything to do with it?’

  Jacob nodded. ‘I’m trying to get it calculating the different scenarios of what could have happened to Robbie. Perhaps one day we will learn the truth.’

  ‘Is it working?

  ‘It’s too early to tell, but the project is nearing its completion.’

  ‘I hope it will work,’ Emily said and smiled at him. ‘But first we need to catch the killer to get you off the hook!’

  * * *

  Paddy

  I was being chased by Moe, all the way up to the top of the headless scarecrow. Pete sat at the edge of the pond, grinning maliciously, yelling that it was now my turn to get wet. I vaguely realised that although he said he wasn’t mad any more, he still seem to hold a grudge. How very unlike Pete. I looked down and saw that Cecil and his posse were sneaking up on Pete. I tried to warn him, but suddenly Eddy was there next to me, stuffing his fluffy red tail into my mouth. Then with a loud snap the leg of the scarecrow broke and both of us tumbled down on to the ground, where I landed on top of Cecil, knocking him out cold.

  With a shock I startled awake from my nap, staring about me to see if Cecil and Moe were still near. My heart pounded in my throat. But instead of my archenemies, I saw a groggy Vinnie, also just awake and looking about him as well. ‘What was that sound?’

  ‘What sound?’

  ‘A snap, like one of Vole Guy’s traps shutting, but then louder.’

  ‘I don’t know.’ I shook my head to clear my thoughts. ‘I was dreaming.’

  Pete’s voice floated towards us from not too far away. ‘Hey guys, look what’s happened to me!’

  We ran down the hill and followed the sound of Pete’s voice. He was two allotments down, inside a large cage. Eddy had made it there before us. He hopped around the cage, giving it a shake every now and then.

  Vinnie and I ran up to the cage. ‘What happened?’ I said.

  Pete shrugged. ‘I really don’t know. I was walking about, looking for something to eat, when I smelled something delicious.’ Vinnie rolled his eyes. Pete ignored him. ‘It turned out to be a large chunk of cheese and it was placed inside this cage. When I went in to grab it, the cage suddenly closed and here I am.’ He looked from me to Vinnie. ‘And thanks for asking how I am, guys.’

  Now it was my turn to roll my eyes. ‘How are you, Pete?’

  ‘Oh, I’m fine.’

  I walked around the cage. ‘What is this thing?’ I gave it a shake. It was very sturdy. ‘Is this one of Cecil’s pranks?’

  Vinnie looked around. ‘There’s no Cecil in sight.’ He sniffed the cage and bit one of the bars with his teeth.

  I scratched my fur. ‘Even for Cecil this would be a rather elaborate prank to play. For one, where would he find a cage?’

  ‘Vole Guy has cages,’ Pete said.

  ‘Nah, they are much smaller,’ I said. ‘This one easily fits you.’

  I circled the cage some more. ‘Could this be Mad Maggie’s doing? After all, she’s been thwarting us for a while now.’

  ‘Why would she do that?’ Vinnie asked. ‘What would be her motive?’

  I shrugged. ‘That’s simple. To stop us from walking about.’ I turned to Pete. ‘Can you get out?’

  Pete shook his head. ‘I don’t think so.’ He tried to push the little door.

  ‘I think it opens the other way,’ Vinnie said.

  Together Vinnie, Eddy and I started pushing against the door, while Pete pulled. It didn’t budge. Pete was stuck.

  I scratched my fur again. ‘How are we going to get you out?’

  Pete laughed. ‘Don
’t worry I’m certain there is a way to get out.’ He tried to give me a nudge with his elbow through the bars. ‘At least I’m safe from your pranks here, Paddy.’ I pretended to smile.

  We examined every inch of the cage in the hope of finding another opening. There wasn’t one. By now it was getting dark.

  Pete sighed. ‘Seems like I’ll be stuck here for the night.’ He stretched out along the bottom of the cage.

  I patted his paw. ‘Don’t worry, maybe daylight will bring a solution. Just hope Cecil doesn’t spot you in the meantime.’

  Pete looked at me with big eyes. ‘Why?’

  ‘He might see it as an opportunity to tease you,’ Vinnie said, also patting Pete’s paw. ‘But I wouldn’t worry too much. We will stay here to guard you.’

  ‘Thanks, guys,’ Pete said.

  Vinnie, Eddy and I curled up next to the cage to keep Pete company. I really hoped that Cecil wouldn’t come, as no doubt he would pester Pete until he was blue in the face. And Moe! What would Moe do?

  ‘By the way,’ Eddy said. ‘What happened to the cheese?’

  ‘I ate it, of course,’ Pete said.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

  Jacob had been tossing and turning all night. It had been a strange evening in the pub, with Emily thinking he was being harassed by the henchmen and Dave telling Emily about what happened all those years ago. He hoped she wasn’t going to get fixated on it, though. It was already bad enough that he himself had spent most of his life obsessing about Robbie. He wouldn’t wish that on her as well.

  It was also very annoying that they were still no further finding Godric’s killer. And what was the relationship between Hal and Clyde and McDermott? Was it true that the inspector was hiring them to spy on him, or was Dave right when he said that was a very unlikely theory? Perhaps they were following him or Dave around to find out about the murderer. If so, why?

  He looked at the illuminated hands of his watch. Six fifteen. He might as well get up and do some stuff. Perhaps he could go to Godric’s allotment to see if they’d missed anything. It was already light, after all.