Don't Feed the Rat!

by Annie Appleton

  Before it got there, we had already jumped off and made it to the safety of the allotment path. We ran across it and hid under the bramble hedge. Eddy joined us.

  ‘Told you it would work,’ I said.

  We watched as the dog walked up and down the wall for a bit, hesitating to jump off or not. Then it jumped off and immediately started looking for us, nose to the ground. We sat quietly under the brambles, holding our breaths, certain that it would be too big to follow us.

  All of a sudden the dog seemed to pick up a scent. Wrinkling his flat nose the dog made its way up the hill, not once looking back at us. We followed at a respectful distance.

  ‘I do hope he’s picked up Mad Maggie’s scent,’ Vinnie said.

  I nodded. ‘So do I.’

  We followed the dog to the top of the hill. So far Cecil’s words seemed true. All the way to the top the dog sniffed about for a bit and then entered an abandoned and overgrown allotment.

  ‘Did we check this allotment?’ I asked.

  ‘I don’t think so,’ Vinnie said.

  ‘Great-grandpa Reggie’s crazy brother Ambrose used to live here,’ Pete said.

  ‘What happened to him?’ Eddy said.

  ‘Apparently he made friends with a bunch of voles and then disappeared into thin air.’

  Eddy nodded. ‘I can believe that. Voles are rather untrustworthy creatures.’

  We all stared at Eddy.

  In the corner of the allotment stood a large shed. The dog walked through the high grass and stopped at the door, sniffing the ground. Then it started barking like mad.

  We watched from the entrance to the allotment, a bit hesitant to follow, in case it was a false alarm and the dog would turn around and spot us.

  ‘Do you think Mad Maggie is inside?’ Pete asked after the dog had barked for about a minute.

  I nodded. ‘Actually, I am certain of it.’ We crept through the high grass towards the shed. Eddy’s long fluffy tail sticking out above it. In a bit of a clearing we grouped together.

  ‘We must find a way to get in,’ I said. ‘Preferably without the dog seeing us. Let’s go that way.’ On our toes we neared the shed and without a sound, made our way to the side of it

  ‘Guys! There is a hole in the planking,’ Pete said, waving us closer. The dog still barked at the door. Now invisible to us around the corner.

  We looked at the hole. It was large enough to let us through.

  ‘Should we go inside?’ Vinnie said. ‘We have no idea what’s in there.’ He peered through the hole.

  ‘My nephews are in there.’ I pushed him aside. ‘Of course I’m going in!’

  I squirmed through the hole and entered the shed. Behind me Vinnie, Pete and Eddy followed. We stared at the scenery before us. Instead of just Mad Maggie, there were three more two-leggeds inside. One of them was Blue Hair. She and Mad Maggie were sitting on the floor against the back wall, seemingly unable to move. The two other two-leggeds stood near the door.

  ‘You have a look,’ the two-legged with a blue jacket said. ‘It might be vicious.’

  ‘I’m not opening the door to a vicious dog,’ the other two-legged said. He had huge eyebrows.

  Then Mad Maggie spotted us.

  ‘They’re here!’ she screamed, staring at us wide eyed and breathing fast. ‘Rats! They are going to kill us all!’

  The two male two-leggeds turned around.

  ‘Rats?’ Blue Jacket yelled. ‘I hate rats!’ He looked about him in a frantic way.

  Big Brows gave Blue Jacket a kick. ‘Don’t be silly.’ He peered at us. ‘It’s just some stupid rats. I’m certain these horrible allotments are crawling with them.’

  ‘Yes! Yes they are!’ Mad Maggie yelled. ‘There are hundreds of rats here and they have a plan! They want to kill us all!’ She thrashed about, trying to get up. I had never seen her that frantic.

  ‘Shut up!’ Big Brows said. ‘There’s not hundreds of rats in this shed. There’s just three of them and a little squirrel...’ He arched an eyebrow at Eddy, then shrugged.

  While the two-leggeds were screaming at each other, I had scanned the shed for my nephews. I couldn’t see them anywhere, but I knew they had to be here.

  ‘We need to find Albie and Max,’ I said. ‘They’re in here, I’m certain.’ I started to walk across the floor.

  Vinnie grabbed me by the fur. ‘Are you crazy? It’s too dangerous with all these two-leggeds.’

  ‘We’re quicker than them. Come on!’ I resumed my way across the floor. Vinnie, Pete and Eddy followed.

  Blue Jacket jumped backwards as he saw us coming towards him. ‘Nooo, get away from me!’

  He looked about him again and grabbed a broom that was standing in the corner. He started swinging it wildly about him, nearly hitting Big Brows on the head.

  ‘Watch where you’re going with that, idiot!’

  We veered away from Blue Jacket, afraid of getting hit by the still wildly swinging broom.

  ‘Stop this,’ Big Brows yelled, grabbing the broom by the hairy end.

  Our new course took us closer to Mad Maggie, who panicked some more.

  ‘Rats!’ she screamed. ‘Get those rats away from me. They’re going to kill us!’

  Blue Jacket wrenched the broom away from Big Brow’s grip and the momentum smashed it through the glass of the little window. The broom was now stuck and Blue Jacket stumbled across the floor, in the process kicking over a bucket that was standing near Blue Hair. Three little rats flew out and landed in a heap on the floor.

  I watched one of them detach himself and make a beeline for Blue Hair, where it crawled into the pocket of her sweater. She had the biggest grin on her face.

  My nephews scrambled for safety. Not knowing where they were going, they crawled all over Mad Maggie instead.

  ‘Come down here,’ I yelled, but they didn’t listen. If I hadn’t known any better, I would have thought they were crawling over Mad Maggie on purpose.

  ‘Get them off!’ Mad Maggie yelled. ‘They want to kill me!’

  Vinnie, Pete, Eddy and I made our way back to the safety of the wall and watched as Albie and Max ran the length of Mad Maggie’s trouser leg.

  All the while the dog kept barking its head off at the door.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

  ‘Listen! What’s that noise?’ Jacob held up his hand and the three men stopped to listen. From the top of the hill came an assortment of noises, which were generally not heard on the allotments. There was the frantic barking of a dog, shattering glass and the high pitched screaming of a woman.

  ‘Something’s going on up there,’ Dave said.

  ‘Let’s check it out.’ Jacob led the way up the hill, following the sounds of the noise.

  They reached the top of the hill. Away from the main path, on the edge of the allotment society’s property there was a row of three abandoned and overgrown allotments. Here the soil was too dry and lean to grow much, however hard the tenants tried to make it work.

  Jacob, Dave and Abe walked along the narrow path that connected the three allotments. The noise was much louder here and seemed to emanate from the middle allotment. There wasn’t only a woman screaming, but also some men. The allotment was shielded from view by a huge overgrown bramble hedge.

  ‘Is there an allotment behind here?’ Abe asked.

  Dave nodded. ‘Yes. We just need to find the entrance.’ With care he pushed some of the branches to the side. ‘Should have brought some gloves.’

  With difficulty they found a small opening in the hedge, where the remnants of a fence were entwined with the bramble branches.

  ‘Careful,’ Dave said and walking backwards, pushed himself through. Jacob and Abe followed.

  ‘Ouch,’ Abe said, rubbing his cheek where a bramble branch scratched his face.

  A square allotment opened up in front of them. It was completely overgrown with grass and weeds, but something of a trail was trampled through the foot-long grass to a large shed in the corner.

&nbs
p; ‘Someone recently walked past here,’ Jacob said.

  A little French bulldog stood at the door of the shed, barking like mad.

  ‘Isn’t that Priscilla’s dog?’ Jacob asked.

  Dave nodded. ‘Looks like it.’

  The three men walked up to the shed, trying to make as little noise as possible. Although it probably wouldn’t have mattered if they had made a noise. Shouts and screams were still coming from inside the shed, masking every sound Jacob, Dave and Abe made.

  As they arrived at the door, the dog looked up at them for a second, then started barking again.

  ‘What do you want to do?’ Dave asked in a quiet voice.

  Jacob didn’t hesitate. ‘I’m going in!’

  ‘Maybe I should go in first,’ Abe said, but Jacob had already opened the door.

  Before Jacob could set a foot inside the shed, the dog wormed itself past him and ran inside in a flash. The shouting and screaming stopped.

  From inside the door opening, Jacob surveyed the situation. In the semi-darkness he saw Priscilla, who was now being licked by her frantic dog, and Emily tied up against the back wall. Closer to the door, two men stared back at him, mouths open and wide eyed. Jacob recognised the smaller man as Doug Fraser, the man he saw talking to Ian on his allotment a week ago.

  Doug was the first to react. In a mad dash he leapt for the open door, pushing Jacob aside, who fell backwards. Trying to keep upright, Jacob grabbed on to the door frame, but the wood was so rotten that it came away in his hand. He landed on his backside in the grass, feet in the air in an undignified manner.

  Meanwhile Doug was halfway through the allotment, where he was chased by Dave. Running through the high grass, Doug suddenly fell forward and with a squelching sound, landed face first in the muddy remains of an old overgrown pond. Dave didn’t hesitate and jumped on top of him. Doug didn’t surrender that easily. He grabbed a handful of the stinking mud and flung it into Dave’s eyes.

  With Dave occupied wiping the mud off his face, Doug scrambled through the mud to the other side of the pond. Dave grabbed him by the legs, however, and together the two men rolled around in the mud, fighting for control.

  ‘Get off me,’ Doug said, flinging more mud at Dave.

  At the same time, Abe had helped Jacob up and the two men now stared at Clyde, who was still inside the shed and fumbling to pull something out of the pocket of his coat.

  ‘Watch out, he has a gun!’ Emily yelled.

  Jacob backed up a bit, but the warning wasn’t necessary. Clyde in his haste couldn’t manage to get the gun out of his pocket and instead decided to flee.

  With the door blocked by Jacob and Abe, Clyde flung himself at the only other opening in the shed, the window with the broken glass. With his elbows he pushed the remaining glass out and then hoisted himself up on to the windowsill.

  With his arms, head and shoulders through, he quickly got stuck when his belly proved too big for the small opening. Now going nowhere, he kicked his legs and grazed the skin of Abe’s knuckles, as the policeman tried to get him unstuck.

  ‘Ouch, stop that, will you!’ Abe said.

  ‘If you leave me be!’

  Jacob and Abe both grabbed the man by the belt and pulled him unceremoniously back into the shed, where he landed in a heap on the floor. Abe jumped on top of him, pulling handcuffs from his pocket at the same time.

  As Abe handcuffed the man, Jacob searched his pocket and pulled out the gun. He put it in the pocket of his lab coat.

  ‘I’m going to check if Dave needs some help,’ he said.

  Scanning the allotment, for a moment Jacob wondered if Dave and Doug had left through the bramble hedge. There was no sign of the two men, until Dave sat up from what looked like a pit, pulling Doug up with him.

  Jacob ran towards his friend. ‘What happened?’ He stared in disgust at the sticky stinking mud that covered both men.

  ‘Give me a hand, will you?’ Dave held out a muddy hand, but Jacob hesitated. ‘Now!’

  Doug squirmed, but Dave had him in a one-armed hold and he couldn’t go anywhere.

  Together Jacob and Dave pulled Doug out of the mud and dragged him along the grass to the shed, where they plonked him against the wall. Jacob found a piece of string in the shed and when Doug’s hands were bound the two men stood glaring down on him.

  Jacob wiped his hands on his hanky and looked at Dave. ‘You stink.’

  ‘Tell me about it.’ Dave sighed. ‘And it itches like mad.’

  Emily walked out of the shed, rubbing her wrists where the rope had dug into her skin. She stared at her uncle. ‘What happened to you?’

  ‘Are you okay?’ Dave said, ignoring Emily’s grin.

  ‘No harm done,’ she said. ‘I knew someone would come sooner or later. Didn’t realise it was going to be bogman.’

  Dave glared at her.

  Clyde emerged from the shed, being led by Abe, who pushed him down next to Doug. ‘I need to make some phone calls,’ he said and walked away.

  ‘Did you untie Priscilla?’ Jacob called after him.

  ‘He did, thanks for asking.’ Priscilla emerged from the shed, carrying her dog in her arms. She glared at Jacob. ‘Some rescue this is. There are rats everywhere.’

  Jacob watched as Priscilla stood rigid, clutching her dog and looking about her. She was never going to stop this rat nonsense!

  Fifteen minutes later, police reinforcements had arrived. Dave was cleaning his hands and face with some water they’d brought, while he and Jacob stood a bit to the side, listening to Emily’s story.

  ‘Then when we came here, they tied us up,’ Emily said. ‘Doug and Clyde kept asking me about the brooch and some paintings, but I didn’t tell them you had the brooch.’

  Jacob smiled. ‘You did well,’ he said. ‘I just don’t understand what they mean by paintings.’

  ‘They kept going on about the paintings.’ Emily shrugged. ‘They even thought Priscilla and I were in cahoots at one point. She didn’t like that very much.’

  Jacob glanced at Priscilla. She was standing apart, still holding her dog in her arms. Every now and then she looked over her shoulder to an old rain barrel, giving a slight shiver with her shoulders.

  ‘Were there rats in the shed?’ Jacob asked Emily under his breath.

  ‘Actually, there were.’ Emily glanced at Priscilla as well. ‘And a squirrel.’

  Jacob raised an eyebrow. ‘In any case, I owe you an apology. I ignored your text and that was wrong of me.’

  ‘That’s okay, professor,’ Emily said. ‘Everything went so fast. Even if you had come running, we would have been hidden here before you arrived.’ She patted his arm.

  There was some cursing from the opening in the bramble hedge as DCI McDermott wormed his way through the thorny branches. ‘Get some secateurs and widen this opening,’ he said to one of the policemen in his wake.

  Priscilla took some hasty strides and met McDermott halfway down the allotment. ‘There are rats here and they tried to kill me and my dog.’ Her nostrils flared and she turned around to point at Emily. ‘She has two rats as well and can’t control them. That rat whisperer summoned the rats to the shed and they attacked me.’

  McDermott looked Priscilla up and down, his jaw tight. ‘First things first,’ he said and pushed her aside.

  Priscilla stared at him, mouth open. ‘But... wait...’

  McDermott walked towards Abe and looked down at the two captives. ‘So these are the two men that kidnapped Miss Norton and Ms Spratt?’

  ‘They are, sir. They held them captive for about five hours.’

  He looked from Doug to Clyde, hands on his hips. ‘Why is this man covered in mud?’

  ‘Well, sir, he tried to escape and fell in an old muddy pond.’ Abe indicated to Dave. ‘It was Dave who captured him in the end.’

  McDermott looked Dave up and down as well, a smirk all but appearing on his face. He turned back to Abe. ‘Okay then. Let’s take these two men to the station.’


  Jacob stepped forward. ‘Excuse me, Inspector. If I may I would like to say something.’ He looked down at the two men. ‘They are indeed the kidnappers of Emily and Priscilla. But one of them did more than that. One of them is the killer of Godric Ainsworth and Ian Fraser.’

  Everyone stared at Jacob.

  McDermott crossed his arms in front of his chest and glared at Jacob. ‘Do you have proof of that?’

  ‘I do indeed.’

  Jacob pointed at Clyde. ‘Clyde and his brother Hal have been hanging around Milbury since before Godric was murdered. It seemed they were looking for this.’ He pulled the brooch out of the pocket of his lab coat. Clyde and Doug both gasped.

  ‘Emily and I found it under the hedge of Ian’s allotment after he was murdered. We learned that Clyde took it to the jeweller on Woolaston Road. This was after Godric was murdered, and we thought it was quite a coincidence. Especially after I remembered seeing the brooch before in connection with Godric.’

  ‘Wait a minute.’ McDermott’s eyes were cold as steel. ‘You took something from a crime scene?’ He held out his hand. ‘Give me the brooch.’

  ‘Not yet,’ Jacob said and he put it back in his pocket. McDermott fumed.

  ‘Who is to say that it was part of the crime scene?’ Jacob continued. ‘Maybe Clyde just dropped it on one of his visits to the allotments, something he and Hal had been doing quite a lot lately. Maybe they even dropped it before Ian was murdered and realising they’d lost it started searching and breaking into different allotment sheds, thinking it was hidden there.’

  Jacob looked at McDermott. ‘I must admit that for a while I even thought that you told Clyde and Hal to break into the sheds, so that you could blame me for it. I saw you talking to the two henchmen of a well-known loan shark who had suddenly appeared in Milbury, just at the time you were desperately searching for evidence that I had killed Godric.’

  A tendon in McDermott’s neck started bulging. ‘How dare you say I have no integrity! I could arrest you for insulting a police officer on duty.’ He clenched and unclenched his fists.

  Jacob, outwardly unmoved by McDermott’s threat continued. ‘I now realise you were probably talking to Clyde and Hal to find out what they were doing in Milbury. Just like Dave had run-ins with them all week, so did you. But they were not here for the brooch. At least not initially.’