Don't Feed the Rat! Page 21

  The uniformed policeman, who had kept watch over the tape, now started to roll it up. The path was clear and the allotments were free again.

  Emily crossed the road and entered the allotments. It was deserted, but for a few crime scene people that still hovered on Ian’s allotment. They ignored her. To keep an eye on them unseen, Emily entered the Jeffersons’ allotment across from Ian’s and Godric’s. Their garden hose was rolled out and the grass wet under her feet. Strange... They didn’t seem like the kind of people to leave a hose out.

  She shrugged and looked about her. There was a gap in the fence through which she had a nice view of the allotments of the two murdered men. Emily sat down on the grass and took her pet rats out of her pocket. They started exploring this new world, but stayed relatively close to her. Suddenly, two little brown rats appeared. Emily studied them.

  ‘Hey, you two look like wild rats to me,’ Emily said. The rats ignored her and started playing with her pet rats on the grass. Emily’s rats were a bit larger, but they played nicely together. Emily realised that if Priscilla could see her now, she’d claim she had her proof of Emily being a rat whisperer. Stupid woman.

  Two men came walking down the path. They were talking.

  ‘I saw her go in here, I swear.’

  ‘Does she have the brooch with her?’

  ‘I guess so.’

  Emily looked up. Brooch? Was that a coincidence? She peered through the hole in the fence and her blood ran cold. Clyde, the big browed henchman, was walking towards her with another man. He looked vaguely familiar, with his denim jacket and dark hair. She was sure she’d seen him somewhere before.

  Then she knew. Emily leant back from the hole. It was Ian Fraser’s brother, Doug. Why was he talking to one of the henchmen?

  ‘We need to be sure she has the brooch,’ Clyde said.

  ‘She had it in her hand the last time I saw her. Why would she give it to the professor?’

  The two men stopped outside the Jeffersons’ allotment. Emily tried to make herself as small as she could to hide behind the fence. This was not good.

  ‘The professor has been in our way the whole week.’

  ‘I know,’ Doug said. ‘Let’s just rule out the girl first and then decide what to do.’

  ‘You say she’s here somewhere?’

  ‘Yes.’

  ‘Let’s find her.’

  Suddenly Emily felt really exposed, hunkering against the fence. If the two men checked the allotment, they would spot her right away. She got up and, bent double, made her way to the Jeffersons’ shed. She hoped the fence would hide her movement.

  Just before she reached the shed, Emily quickly looked over her shoulder at Ian’s allotment. Drat, the crime scene people had all gone. There was no way of getting help now.

  One more step and she should be safe behind the shed. Her foot hit something metallic with a loud clang. It was a watering can. With arms outstretched Emily fell face down into the Jeffersons’ chrysanthemum plot. Some flowers crumpled under her weight.

  ‘There she is!’ Emily heard Doug’s triumphant yell. ‘Told you she was here.’

  As Emily scrambled up, Clyde and Doug were on top of her, pulling her up by the shoulders.

  ‘Let me go!’ Emily yelled. Her legs still free, she kicked Doug in the shins. It did her good to see him hop about in pain.

  ‘I will get you, you little monster.’ Doug dived for her legs and sat on them, while Clyde held Emily from behind. She could hardly move.

  With deft fingers Doug started searching Emily’s pockets.

  ‘Get... off... me,’ she said, squirming and out of breath.

  ‘Anything?’ Clyde said, his hot breath in her ear. Emily could smell the odour of stale cigarette smoke and recoiled.

  ‘Nothing,’ Doug said, holding Emily’s ankles with his hands. He glared at her, leaning forward, a crazed look in his eyes.

  ‘Where is the brooch, you nosy little girl? I know you have it!’ Doug’s face was only a foot from Emily’s. In the spur of the moment Emily spat at him in his face.

  Doug recoiled from her and wiped his cheek with his hand. ‘You little minx.’ He tried to grab her by the throat, but as soon as her ankles were free, Emily kicked him hard in the stomach. Doug bent double, clutching his belly and gasping for air.

  Before she could wriggle loose, Clyde tightened his grip around her neck and suddenly it was very hard to breathe. ‘Calm down, girly, or I will really hurt you.’ Before long Emily started seeing spots and scratched her nails over Clyde’s hands. He loosened his grip.

  Taking in several lungsful of air, Emily glared at Doug. ‘I don’t have the brooch.’

  Doug narrowed his eyes. ‘You’re lying. I need the brooch now, and the paintings! Give me the paintings.’

  Emily shook her head. ‘Paintings? What are you talking about?’

  ‘You’d better listen, love,’ came Clyde’s voice in her ear. ‘Tell us where the paintings are or the conversation will take a very different turn.’

  Emily struggled to get loose, but Clyde was too strong. Her mind was racing. What was he going to do if she didn’t say anything? But she didn’t know about any paintings.

  A sudden movement to her side broke Emily’s concentration. She saw a large butterfly net swoop down and scoop up the two wild rats and one of her pet rats that were still running about, oblivious to the drama that had unfolded.

  ‘Gotcha!’ Priscilla said. She triumphantly dumped the rats into a bucket and walked swiftly off.

  ‘What the—’ Clyde said and loosened his grip on Emily. Doug had also scrambled up and was staring at Priscilla’s retreating back.

  Emily wriggled away from Clyde and jumped up. She didn’t hesitate and picking up her remaining rat started running after Priscilla.

  ‘Hey! Come back here.’ Clyde was on his feet now and started running after Emily. Doug followed them out of the allotment.

  In front of Emily, Priscilla was making her way up the hill. She moved surprisingly fast for someone her age. Emily ran after her. What was Priscilla going to do to her rat?

  Slowly Emily gained on Priscilla. She looked over her shoulder to see that Clyde and Doug were lagging behind. She needed to escape them. But not without her rat! A few steps more and she was close enough to Priscilla to grab her by the arm.

  Priscilla stopped dead in her tracks. Both women panted.

  ‘Those men are following me and I want to escape them,’ Emily said, pointing at Clyde and Doug, struggling up the hill. ‘Give me my rat, so we can both get out of here in time. Help me!’

  Priscilla looked over Emily’s shoulder to the approaching men. Then she looked down her nose at Emily. ‘Why should I help you, rat whisperer? Your rats are mine now!’

  Emily tried to grab the bucket, but Priscilla held it aloft with a malicious smile.

  Then Clyde caught up with them. He was gasping for breath and couldn’t talk. Instead he pulled a gun out of the pocket of his coat. Emily and Priscilla both froze, staring at the weapon. Emily felt panic rise up inside her. There wasn’t supposed to be a gun!

  ‘What is the meaning of this?’ Priscilla said, glaring at Clyde. He pointed the gun at her and she closed her mouth.

  Doug now caught up with them as well. ‘Ah, your gun, good idea. Now they will talk!’ He stepped closer to Emily. ‘Where are my paintings?’

  Another man came walking up the hill. For a second Emily thought it was someone who could help them, but it turned out to be Clyde’s brother Hal. ‘If you have everything under control here, I will check the professor’s house for the brooch and paintings.’

  Clyde nodded his assent. ‘Divide and conquer. Those paintings have to be somewhere.’ He motioned with the gun for Emily and Priscilla to start walking. While Hal disappeared down the hill, the little group made its way further up.

  With Doug walking in front of them, and Clyde with the gun at the back, Emily pulled her mobile out of the pocket of her hoodie unseen. With quick fingers
she wrote a short text to Jacob. Help me!

  ‘Give me that,’ Doug said and snatched the mobile out of her hand, just as she pushed the send button. Before she could check if the text had gone through, Doug threw the phone over a bramble hedge on to an allotment.

  ‘That’ll teach you,’ he said with his face inches from hers.

  They continued walking up the hill, but Emily could only think of one thing: did the text go through?

  Deep in concentration Jacob startled as the mobile beeped at him. Not really wanting to take his eyes off the computer screen, he picked up the phone.

  It was a text message from Emily.

  Jacob clicked a button and the text appeared. Help me!

  Was she serious? Jacob sniggered and quickly typed a reply. Has a riot broken out?

  Pressing the send button, he put the phone down and returned to his computer. Let’s see what else he could find online. He started typing again, forgetting all about Emily’s message.

  * * *

  Paddy

  So now my two archenemies both had a serious axe to grind with us, and this didn’t make me feel any better.

  I paced up and down in front of my digs, where three pairs of eyes followed my every move. The plus side was that we were now all clean and dry again.

  ‘But you have to see that getting rid of Moe was a big victory,’ Vinnie said. ‘The first step in conquering Cecil and with him gone, Mad Maggie will calm down as well.’

  ‘Like an acorn rolling down a hill, gathering more acorns,’ Eddy said.

  I stopped pacing. ‘I know you guys are right, but at the moment all I can think about is Mad Maggie finishing cleaning her kitchen and putting things in motion to poison us all.’

  ‘You always were inclined towards negative thoughts, Paddy,’ Pete said. ‘Even when we were little.’ He turned around and started scurrying in the undergrowth.

  ‘What are you doing?’ Vinnie said.

  ‘Looking for something to eat.’

  We stared at him with open jaws.

  ‘But you just ate your way through Mad Maggie’s kitchen.’

  Pete shrugged. ‘That was a while ago. I’m feeling peckish.’

  Before we could react my sister Clara came walking on to the allotment. ‘I was hoping to find you here, Paddy.’ Her whiskers drooped and she took a few deep breaths to calm herself.

  ‘What’s the matter?’ I felt a tingling on my scalp. Something had happened.

  ‘Albie and Max are missing.’ Clara smoothed out the fur on her chest. ‘This is not like them. They promised me they would be back by midday so we could go hunting for food together.’

  ‘I’m certain my nephews are hanging about with Cecil and have forgotten the time.’

  Clara shook her head. ‘No, they don’t hang with Cecil as much any more. Lately they’ve gone roaming about on their own and now I can’t find them anywhere.’ She pawed her whiskers.

  I sighed. I was angry with myself and wished I had kept a closer eye on my nephews. I thought back to our last few encounters with Cecil and realised that Albie and Max hadn’t been in the posse. I hadn’t even noticed it as all the other events had simply taken over. But of course, they shouldn’t have. I stamped my paws on the ground. Family always came first. Great-grandma Arabella had drilled that into me as well, next to all the ratlore stories. I had let everyone down.

  I turned to Clara and patted her shoulder. ‘Don’t worry. We will find Albie and Max. You go back to your digs in case they show up.’

  We spread out to look for my nephews. Vinnie and I went down the hill and searched the bottom part of the allotments. Pete and Eddy the top part.

  I went in and out of allotments, called their names, looked behind compost bins and in sheds, but there was no sign of them. I met up with Oscar and Millicent, who had heard the story from Pete.

  ‘We’ll look at the school grounds,’ Millicent said. ‘They can’t be far away.’

  ‘School grounds?’ I looked at the row of oak trees dividing the allotments and the school. ‘But that would mean they traversed grey squirrel territory.’

  Millicent patted me on the shoulder. ‘I’m sure they’re fine, Paddy.’

  ‘I hope so.’ I watched them walk away and raised my voice. ‘Thanks, guys. I will continue looking down the hill.’

  It was pretty quiet on the bottom part of the allotments, considering what a lot of commotion there had been earlier in the day. Now just some two-leggeds were about, huddled together in little groups, looking over their shoulders. They never noticed me, however. Two-leggeds were weird.

  I searched all the bottom allotments, including the one where we had our victory over Moe, but Albie and Max were nowhere to be found. A sense of desperation slowly took hold of me, but I tried to push it back down. What if they were really hurt?

  I came to the large gate, which was the entrance to the hill. Vinnie came up to me. He also had no luck in finding my nephews. Together we looked across the road towards the green.

  ‘I hope they didn’t make their way to the green,’ I said. A cold fear grabbed me. If they had, that would be bad. The green was full of different dangers to the hill, dangers that my nephews knew nothing about. And then there was the crossing of the busy road.

  ‘Could they have been that stupid?’ I looked at Vinnie, who turned around and motioned with his head.

  ‘I suggest we keep looking on the hill first. It’s a long way down here. It’s more than likely they went to the top of the hill in search of adventure.’

  I smiled at him. ‘I hope you’re right. But we don’t know the places they went as part of Cecil’s posse. For all we know they might already have been on the green, or at the school grounds and returned there for some more exploring.’

  ‘Let’s not assume the worst,’ Vinnie said. Together we walked back to the bottom allotments.

  Vinnie indicated. ‘I will go left, and you can go right.’ I nodded. Vinnie wandered off.

  Cecil materialised besides me. ‘I heard you’re looking for Albie and Max.’ He had an evil grin on his face and leant closer to me. ‘I know where they are, but will only tell you if you promise to give me free rein of the hill.’

  ‘What...?’ I stared at Cecil, my jaw almost touching the ground.

  ‘Give me free rein of the hill and I will tell you where your nephews are.’

  I looked Cecil in the eye. Was he joking? His face was serious, with an air of superiority. As if he realised he had finally found something that would get me off his back.

  Every single hair of my fur tingled with resentment. How dare this snooty two-year-old rat blackmail me like that? I pulled my lips back, baring my teeth. Blood was pounding in my ears. ‘Tell me where my nephews are.’

  ‘Will you give me free rein of the hill?’

  I looked at Cecil’s smug face. Adrenaline rushed through my body and my vision clouded over. ‘Tell me where my nephews are or I will give you a hiding you will never forget!’ I yelled.

  Not waiting for an answer I barrelled towards Cecil in a flash, screaming at the top of my lungs. For a split second I saw his startled look, then he turned around and ran. I chased him. From the corner of my eye I noticed Vinnie chasing as well.

  Cecil ran ahead of me, trying to get away. But I wasn’t going to let him escape this time. After all he had done to us, I needed revenge; to teach him a lesson. We ducked through several allotments and under bramble hedges. Cecil climbed up a fence. I followed and chased him along the length of it. Some two-leggeds looked up from their digging and screamed.

  Cecil jumped into an elder and from there to the roof of a shed. Still I was able to match him for speed and agility. Did this little furball think he was going to outrun me? I had been the most agile young rat on the hill in my day and some of it was still there in middle age.

  We dropped down into an allotment, ran along the edge of a pond, under another bramble hedge. The door of a garden shed stood open and we ran through it like a whirlwind. Tool
s, pots and little bags of seeds fell to the ground with a lot of clanging and shattering. In the distance I could hear a two-legged yell, but I only had eyes for my prey.

  We entered the allotment of my scarecrow experiment. The straw man still stood at an angle, hanging over the pond, his dismembered head lying on the ground against the hedge. Cecil climbed up the legs and from the neck made a giant leap over the hedge into the next allotment. I followed him up and taking a deep breath jumped with all my might. I flew over the hedge and saw Cecil running away from me. I followed him. Then I saw a contraption in the corner, surrounded by several young rats. I realised that this must be Cecil’s new prank, but I didn’t care. I just kept chasing Cecil along.

  The posse yelled as Cecil, like me, focussed on the chase, rather than on his prank, came closer and then ran headlong into the cage, which took centre stage in the prank. It snapped shut, trapping Cecil inside. I tried to slow down, but still bumped into the cage. I rubbed my head as Vinnie caught up and stood next to me, panting.

  Cecil grabbed the bars of the cage with his paws and shook with all his might. Of course they didn’t budge.

  ‘Look what you’ve done!’ he said. ‘You’ve made me walk into my own trap!’

  The posse burst out laughing. They pointed at Cecil. ‘He’s walked into his own trap!’ Some of the posse rolled around, laughing even louder.

  Cecil stared at them. For a moment his whiskers drooped, unable to believe that his own posse was making fun of him. Then he puffed up his fur. ‘Stop laughing and get me out! But the posse was unable to control itself and kept laughing and pointing at their silly boss. Cecil jumped up and down in frustration.

  Vinnie and I came closer to the cage.

  ‘Tell me where my nephews are,’ I said.

  Cecil scowled and looked me straight in the eye. Then he turned up his nose.

  I sighed and rubbed the fur on the back of my neck. ‘Are you telling me that you’d rather be trapped inside this cage than tell the truth?’

  ‘I told you. If you give me free rein of the hill, I will tell you where your nephews are.’