Kate Plays Detective

by Holly Bell

  Kate Plays Detective

  published in 2013 by

  Chirpy Bird, an imprint of Hardie Grant Egmont

  Ground Floor, Building 1, 658 Church Street

  Richmond, Victoria 3121, Australia

  www.hardiegrantegmont.com.au

  All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form by any means without the prior permission of the publishers and copyright owner.

  A CiP record for this title is available from the National Library of Australia.

  eISBN: 9781743580325

  Text and design copyright © 2013 Hardie Grant Egmont

  Illustration copyright © 2013 Forever Clover Pty Ltd

  With thanks to Fiona Harris.

  Illustrations by Elizabeth Botté

  Design by Julie Thompson

  Text design and typesetting by Ektavo

  Forever Clover is a registered trademark of Forever Clover Pty Ltd.

  www.foreverclover.com.au

  Contents

  Title Page

  Copyright Page

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  ‘Summer’s almost here,’ Kate said dreamily as she tickled her cat under his chin. Zac purred loudly. ‘Only a few more weeks before the water park is open!’

  ‘Oh no,’ Emma groaned from under her hat. ‘Last time we went there, my shoulders got sunburnt and I got an ear infection.’

  ‘That’s because you swam in the little kids’ pool,’ Kate told her bestie. ‘There could’ve been anything in that water.’

  ‘Eww!’ squealed Emma.

  The two girls were sitting on a rug by the big lake in the quarry. Emma’s dog Asha was splashing in the water, and the birds were chirping.

  The quarry was an old stone mine that had been abandoned a long time ago. Its huge walls were now surrounded by wild flowers, trees and lots of clover.

  One hot day, Kate and Emma and their friends had found a four-leaf clover at the quarry. A clover with four leaves is rare, and finding one made the girls feel lucky. The friends decided to wear a four-leaf clover charm as a symbol of their friendship. After all, best friends are like a four-leaf clover: hard to find and lucky to have. The quarry felt special to them from that moment on.

  The girls often joked about who saw the four-leaf clover first. But Kate was sure it had been her.

  Soon after, the girls had found an old miners’ shed hidden in the quarry. Kate, Olivia, Abbey, Maddie, Matilda and Emma were the only people who knew it was there. It became their secret clubhouse.

  ‘Hooray for Friday!’ Abbey yelled as she launched herself onto the clubhouse rug. Matilda, Olivia and Maddie followed close behind.

  ‘Are we still on for a sleepover at yours tomorrow, Matilda?’ Kate asked.

  ‘Of course!’ Matilda grinned. ‘My mum’s making us cupcakes.’

  Kate smiled. She loved Matilda’s mum’s baking. Then she realised she was no longer holding the ribbon she’d attached to her cat’s collar. ‘Where’s Zac gone?’ she gasped.

  ‘Over there,’ said Maddie.

  Zac was perched on his paws next to the lake. He swiped at a butterfly before bending down and gently lapping at the water.

  ‘Cats are so elegant,’ said Emma. ‘Look at Asha. She’s just klutzy!’

  The golden retriever was bounding around and splashing water everywhere. Zac kept glancing at Asha with disdain – or at least, that’s how it looked to Kate.

  Just at that moment, Kate’s cat tensed up and began to cough.

  ‘Has he got a fur ball?’ asked Olivia.

  Zac’s body arched. He started coughing up yucky green stuff.

  Kate jumped up in a panic. ‘Zac!’ she cried.

  Kate rushed over to Zac. His breathing was shallow and he was shivering. She gently stroked his soft chocolate-brown ears. ‘You OK, boy?’ she whispered.

  ‘He doesn’t look well,’ said Matilda.

  ‘I think I’d better take him home,’ Kate said. She picked him up gently and he hissed half-heartedly. That wasn’t like him at all. He looked so weak that Kate felt like bursting into tears.

  ‘Asha!’ she heard Emma cry out. Kate turned to see Asha retching on the grass.

  ‘What’s wrong, girl?’ Emma said. She patted Asha’s large sandy head. There were tears in Emma’s eyes.

  Suddenly, Emma swung around to face Kate. ‘Asha was fine before,’ she snapped. ‘She must’ve caught something from Zac.’

  Kate couldn’t believe it. ‘It’s not Zac’s fault!’ she said indignantly. ‘Zac and Asha weren’t even playing near each other.’

  ‘I don’t think it was Zac who made Asha sick, Emma,’ Olivia said quietly.

  ‘Maybe there’s a bug going around,’ suggested Matilda.

  ‘Then Zac must have passed it on to Asha,’ Emma said, crossing her arms.

  Kate hugged Zac close and turned to walk away. Her eyes felt hot and prickly. She had never argued with Emma before.

  ‘Where are you going?’ Maddie called.

  ‘I need to take Zac home,’ Kate said. ‘He’s sick. Mum will know what to do.’

  Kate stroked Zac. He wasn’t purring like he usually did, or even hissing anymore.

  Kate sniffed and a tear rolled down her cheek. It was bad enough that Zac was sick, but Emma being angry with her made it so much worse.

  Half an hour later, Kate carried Zac into Dr Silver’s office. Dr Silver was the Davey’s Bay vet. He’d given Zac his shots as a kitten and taught Kate how to look after him.

  Kate knew that that Dr Silver would do everything he could to help Zac get better.

  Luckily, there were no other animals waiting to be seen, so Kate and her mum carried Zac straight to the exam room.

  Dr Silver lay Zac down on his metal table. Usually Zac wriggled around, but today he just lay there wearily.

  Dr Silver frowned with concentration as he examined Zac. ‘What was Zac eating or drinking just before he got sick?’ he asked.

  ‘He had dry food at home,’ said Kate. ‘Then he drank some water from the lake at the quarry.’

  ‘I don’t remember a lake at the quarry,’ Dr Silver said, frowning. ‘But it’s been years since I was down there.’

  Kate bit her lip as Dr Silver prodded Zac’s tummy. ‘Is he going to be OK?’ she asked.

  ‘Zac will be fine. He’s just got a stomach upset from something he’s eaten,’ Dr Silver said. He took a small medicine bottle out of the cupboard and handed it to Kate’s mum. ‘This will flush his system out.’

  Kate heard the bell ring in the waiting room. Emma’s voice drifted through the doorway.

  Kate wasn’t sure that she wanted to see her best friend right now. She was still upset about Emma blaming Zac.

  Just then, the receptionist opened the door and Kate could see Emma with her Mum and Asha. They were waiting at the front desk and Emma looked miserable.

  ‘Can you squeeze Asha in before we close?’ the receptionist asked Dr Silver.

  ‘Oh, you have to see Asha!’ Kate blurted out. ‘She was with us at the lake in the quarry. She got sick like Zac did.’

  ‘I see. It’s probably good that you’re all here together, then,’ Dr Silver said. ‘Now, let’s see if we can figure out what the cause of this is.’

  Kate was feeling a little nervous. She thought Emma might ignore her, which would be just awful. But Emma walked straight over to Kate and gave her a big hug.

  ‘I’m sorry for being grumpy before,’ said Emma softly. ‘I was worried about Asha, but I s
houldn’t have yelled at you.’

  ‘It’s OK,’ said Kate, relieved that her best friend wasn’t angry with her anymore. ‘It was scary when Asha collapsed like that.’

  Emma and her mum described Asha’s symptoms to Dr Silver.

  ‘It sounds like both animals were sick after drinking from the lake,’ he said. ‘I’ll give Asha some medicine too, but leave them at home from now on, OK? And you girls should avoid the lake too.’

  Dr Silver explained to each girl how much medicine to give their pets, and how often. Kate paid close attention to everything he said. She wanted to do it right so Zac would get better as soon as possible.

  While their mums were talking, Kate pulled Emma into the corner of the room. ‘Something in that lake has poisoned our pets,’ she whispered.

  ‘I know,’ Emma said. ‘But what?’

  ‘I don’t know,’ Kate said. ‘But we have to find out so this doesn’t happen again!’

  ‘What are we going to do about the lake, Mum?’ Kate asked on the drive home from the vet. Zac was curled up in her arms.

  ‘Let’s go to the quarry tomorrow and get some water samples from the lake,’ Kate’s mum suggested. ‘Your dad’s working in the school lab over the weekend anyway, so he can run some tests on the water while he’s there. That will show us if there are any nasty bugs in there.’

  Kate’s dad was the Davey’s Bay High School science teacher.

  Her mum patted her leg. ‘Don’t worry, sweetie. If there’s something wrong with the lake, we’ll soon figure out what it is, and Zac will be right as rain in no time.’

  I hope so, Kate thought, glancing down at her cat. I really hope so.

  The next morning, Kate and her mum walked down to the lake. Her mum had three sterilised bottles in her pocket, which they filled with water from the lake.

  While Kate was putting the cap back onto her bottle, she saw something small and shiny on the lake bank nearby. It was a fish. A very dead fish.

  ‘Look, Mum,’ Kate said, pointing. ‘I’ve never seen dead fish up on the bank before.’

  Her mum frowned. ‘Neither have I. Come on, let’s go to the school and see what your dad can tell us from these samples.’

  As she walked through the empty corridors of Davey’s Bay High School, Kate tried to imagine going there with her friends. It was still a few years away, but Kate was excited at the thought of it. Although she had to admit that she was a tiny bit nervous, too. It’s so big here! she thought.

  They found Kate’s dad bent over some paperwork in the lab. ‘Hey,’ he said as they walked in. ‘Is that the water from the lake?’

  Kate nodded, handing him the bottles.

  ‘Let’s see if there’s anything in there that shouldn’t be, shall we?’ Kate’s dad said as he started setting up the tests.

  Kate watched as her dad squeezed some drops of the water into a small shallow dish. Then he examined the drops under a black microscope.

  He beckoned Kate over. ‘Would you like to run a little test for me?’

  Kate nodded. ‘Of course!’

  Her dad gave her a test tube and told her to pour some drops of liquid into a conical flask. When Kate did that, the liquid in the flask turned blue.

  Her dad shook his head. ‘That’s a bad sign,’ he said. ‘It means there’s probably some bad bacteria in the water.’

  Kate was feeling even more worried now. Her dad noticed her frown.

  ‘Don’t worry, honey,’ he added. ‘I’ll run some more tests and figure out what it is. Why don’t you head off and I’ll bring the test results home later?’

  Kate gave him a big kiss on the cheek. ‘Thanks, Dad,’ she said. ‘And Zac says thanks too!’

  The thought of Zac made Kate want to rush home to take care of him. She and her mum walked back through the corridors to the car park.

  ‘Come on, Mum,’ Kate said. ‘Walk faster!’

  ‘Hold on, sweetie,’ her mum said. ‘I need to do some shopping for dinner, so why don’t I drop you off at Emma’s for a bit? You can see how Asha’s doing.’

  Kate considered that. ‘I guess Zac doesn’t need any more medicine yet,’ she said. And she did want to tell Emma about the water going blue. ‘OK, Mum. To Emma’s!’

  ‘She looks a bit better,’ Kate said as she squatted down in Emma’s garden to give Asha a big hug.

  ‘That medicine seems to be helping, but she’s still not back to normal,’ Emma said, looking at her dog sadly. ‘What else did your dad say about the water going blue?’

  ‘He’ll know more tonight,’ Kate replied. ‘But there’s definitely something wrong.’

  ‘I guess we’ll just have to wait, then,’ Emma sighed.

  ‘Actually, I have a better idea,’ Kate said slowly. ‘Can we use your phone? Let’s get the others to meet us at the clubhouse. It’s time for some detective work, Forever Clover style!’

  Kate and Emma met Matilda, Maddie, Olivia, and Abbey outside the clubhouse.

  ‘What’s the plan, Kate?’ asked Maddie.

  ‘I think we should do some investigating ourselves,’ Kate said. ‘Maybe we can figure out what’s poisoning the lake while we wait for my dad’s lab results.’

  ‘Sounds good,’ said Abbey. ‘But what kind of investigating, exactly?’

  ‘We need to look around the quarry for anything unusual or suspicious,’ Kate said. ‘So keep your eyes open.’

  ‘Got it!’ Matilda said.

  The girls began searching the quarry. They looked around the lake near the clubhouse first. Then they followed the path to the other side of the quarry.

  Besides the dead fish, the only unusual things they found were an old ball of Asha’s and some fast-food rubbish. Kate picked up the rubbish to throw away later.

  The girls walked towards the old dirt road at the very edge of the quarry. Kate spotted the giant garbage bags as soon as they stepped out of the foliage.

  ‘Pooh,’ said Matilda, screwing up her nose. ‘That stinks!’

  ‘There’s heaps of it!’ Olivia said.

  ‘Look at those containers over there,’ said Abbey, pointing. ‘Doesn’t that label mean “dangerous”?’

  Kate’s heart sank. Abbey was right! The containers were tipped over and liquid was trickling out of them towards the lake. They were stamped with the toxic danger symbol that Kate had seen on her mum’s cleaning products.

  ‘No wonder Zac and Asha got sick if that stuff was in the water!’ said Emma.

  ‘No-one in Davey’s Bay would dump rubbish down here, would they?’ asked Emma, wide-eyed.

  The girls looked at each other. Kate knew they were thinking the same thing. Their town was small and they knew nearly everyone. Could someone they knew have done such a terrible thing?

  Kate burst into the kitchen through the back door of her house. Her mum and dad were at the table, drinking tea. Zac was in his basket in the corner. He lifted his head in surprise when Kate barged in.

  ‘Oh! Sorry, Zac,’ she said, stroking him gently. ‘I didn’t mean to wake you.’

  Zac blinked at her, then closed his eyes. Kate felt a lump in her throat. Poor Zac, she thought. He looks so miserable.

  ‘Don’t worry, Zaccy. We’ll find out who did this to you,’ she whispered to him, before turning to her parents.

  ‘Dad, did you find out what was in those samples you tested?’ she asked. ‘Was it dangerous chemicals?’

  ‘Yes, actually,’ her dad said, looking surprised. ‘That’s exactly what it was.’

  ‘How’d you know that, Kate?’ asked her mum.

  Kate told them about the rubbish in the quarry, and the containers with the toxic symbol. When she described how the liquid was leaking into the lake, her mum slammed her tea-cup down on the table.

  ‘Whoever is dumping that rubbish has to be stopped,’ her mum said angrily. ‘And I don’t want you and the girls going down to the quarry until it’s cleaned up.’

  ‘Absolutely,’ her dad agreed. ‘It’s not safe for pets or people
at the moment. I’m going to ask the police to put up no-entry signs around the quarry today. OK, sweetie?’

  Kate was stunned. She never thought they might be banned from going to their clubhouse!

  Her parents were still looking at her, so she nodded miserably.

  ‘Why don’t you go pack your things for the sleepover?’ her mum asked gently. ‘It’s nearly time to drop you off at Matilda’s.’

  ‘OK,’ said Kate quietly. How on earth was she going to break the bad news to her friends?

  ‘What do you mean, no-one can go down there?’ Abbey demanded, staring at Kate. ‘Not even us?’

  ‘But what about our clubhouse?’ Emma said, crushed. ‘Can’t we still go there?’

  ‘No,’ Kate said, shaking her head sadly. She sat on Matilda’s bed beside Emma and Abbey. Maddie, Olivia and Matilda were all cross-legged on the floor, staring up at her. ‘Mum and Dad said it’s too dangerous.’

  ‘I can’t believe someone would do that,’ Maddie said.

  Kate was thinking the same thing when she had an idea. ‘Hey, Matilda,’ she said. ‘Your top paddock looks over where that rubbish was dumped, doesn’t it?’

  ‘Yep,’ said Matilda. ‘How come?’

  ‘Well, why don’t we see if anyone’s there now?’ Kate suggested.

  ‘Great idea, Kate. Let’s go!’ said Abbey.

  The top paddock wasn’t far from the house. From the edge of it, they could see down to the dirt road in the quarry.

  ‘There’s even more rubbish than before!’ Maddie cried. ‘They must have come again already.’

  Kate couldn’t believe her eyes.

  ‘The dirty pigs!’ Abbey muttered.

  ‘That’s insulting to pigs,’ said Matilda. ‘Whoever did this is a dirty human being!’

  Out of nowhere, Kate knew exactly what they had to do. ‘Matilda, would your mum let us camp in the paddock tonight?’

  ‘Sure!’ said Matilda.

  ‘Good,’ Kate said. ‘This person has dumped rubbish twice, so they might do it again. But this time we’ll catch them!’