‘Who would do this?’ Aleksy asked. I was shocked. The stage was a mass of bright yellow footprints, as though someone had danced across it. Would this ruin the show?
I put a paw in the paint and found it was dry.‘Meow,’ I said to draw their attention. Claire bent down and put her finger in.
‘It’s dry, so it was done a while ago,’ she said. ‘OK, the sets were being done last night, so it must have happened then? Aleksy, I’ll call your dad and ask if he saw anything.’
Claire walked up to the stage and pulled out her mobile.
‘It’s going to ruin things,’ Connie said, turning to Aleksy.
‘No, it won’t. We just have to get it sorted.’ However, he looked confused and upset as he hugged Connie. I took a closer look. They were large footprints, with the tread of a boot or shoe. It was a lot of paint, but who would have done this? What a mystery.
‘Your dad is coming down here,’ Claire said as she hung up the phone. ‘He was here last night and locked the door himself, and he said that they definitely weren’t there then.’
‘That’s so weird,’ Connie said. ‘Do you think someone stood in the paint by mistake and didn’t realise?’
‘I think they’d have noticed, don’t you? It’s bright yellow so even if it was dark …’ Claire ran her fingers through her hair. ‘And it’s all over the stage; it’s a total wreck.’ Her voice was full of emotion. I understood. We had worked so hard on the show so far, and it meant so much to everyone. We didn’t need this.
‘It makes no sense,’ Aleksy said.
I agreed with him. I tried to see if I could find any clues, but there were none. All we knew was that there were footprints, which were from large feet– bigger than Claire, Aleksy or Connie’s – which suggested a man. The footprints weren’t here when Tomasz left last night so it must have been done after. It had to have been, because otherwise the paint would still be wet. Curiouser and curiouser. I looked forward to chatting it over with George to see what he thought.
Tomasz arrived and he was as baffled as the rest of us.
‘There were about five of us here, and we all left at the same time, around nine o’clock last night. They definitely weren’t there then and when we left the hall was empty.’
‘And no one else has keys?’ Aleksy asked.
‘No, just me, Claire, and the vicar,’ Tomasz said.
‘What if the vicar did it by accident?’ Connie asked.
‘I’m pretty sure it’s not Ralph,’ Claire said. ‘But I’ll call him.’ She went off to do so.
‘It doesn’t make any sense,’ Tomasz said and we were back to square one.
‘Dad, the stage is ruined, what are we going to do?’ Aleksy said, trying to focus on the only issue we could solve at this point.
‘Don’t worry son, I’ll get it sorted.’ Tomasz put his arm around his son, and I nuzzled his leg. I knew Tomasz would fix this, he was that kind of man.
‘Ralph hasn’t been here, he had no idea,’ Claire said, coming off the phone. ‘Can we get some white spirit and clean it off?’ she asked.
We were all examining it closely.
‘Honestly, it’s pretty thick. I think we’re better off sanding it down and then re-varnishing the stage. The paint won’t come off easily and it will still probably leave a stain. We have someone who sands all the restaurant floors for us so I’ll give him a call. I’m sure he’ll do it for a good cause.’
‘But it’ll put the stage out of action for a while,’ Connie pointed out.
‘What about rehearsals?’
I ran to the back of the room. They could clear a space and do it here.
‘MEOW,’ I shouted.
‘Ah, yes, we can use the back of the room, just for now,’ Aleksy said. ‘Good idea, Alfie.’
‘And we’ll get the floor done really quickly.’ Tomasz was already on his phone.
‘But still, how on earth did it happen?’ Claire asked again. We kept coming back to that.
I thought about it. Someone must have got in last night when no one else was here. I knew it wasn’t Tomasz or Claire and it was ridiculous to think that the vicar would ruin his own hall, especially as he was a big supporter of the shelter and the show. I tried to come up with the answer, but my brain was getting tired. Then I saw Tomasz walking behind the stage to the back of the hall. I vaguely remembered seeing another door there, didn’t I? I followed him out back, brushed past him as he talked on the phone and … yes, therewas another door, although it was off on the side, so not obvious. In fact, I wasn’t sure it led to the outside but it was worth a try and, from what I could see, it had a bolt on the inside, which didn’t seem to be across. I nudged the door with my head, it moved a bit. It was open! Ah-ha! I had my answer.
‘Yowl,’ I said at the top of my lungs. ‘Yowl, yowl, yowl.’ Finally Tomasz came to see what the noise was and I nudged the door again.
‘Come, quick,’ he shouted to the others, and they all joined us. ‘Look, Alfie found another door and it’s unlocked,’ he said, pushing it.
‘Oh no, it looks as if it needs to be locked from inside, I didn’t even realise it was there,’ Claire said.
‘Me either,’ Aleksy agreed.
‘At least we know how whoever it was got in,’ Connie added. Tomasz slipped the bolt across and pushed the door, which didn’t budge.
‘So that mystery’s solved,’ Claire said. ‘And now we can make sure it’s always locked.’
‘I didn’t know, otherwise I would have checked, sorry,’ Tomasz said.
‘Hey, it’s not your fault, we didn’t know the door was even here,’ Claire reassured.
‘Well done, Alfie,’ Aleksy said, rubbing my head. ‘But it doesn’t solve who did it,’ he pointed out.
Goodness, I wish I knew, but I couldn’t perform miracles. I had figured out how they got in, but it would take me longer to figure out who. But we were looking for someone with very big feet and so at least I had my first clue. So, if I looked at everyone’s feet when they came to work on the show, I might be able to crack it. I was hopeful.
‘Let’s hope it was an accident and a one off,’ Tomasz said as we checked that there was no other way into the hall.
‘Yes, probably was,’ Claire agreed as we shut the lights off and locked the hall, checking it more than once. Aleksy and Tomasz went off to their house, and Claire carried me as she and Connie went back to Edgar Road with a new mystery to solve.
Chapter Twenty
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It was time for our first proper rehearsal of the Nativity. The stage wasn’t yet ready so, in the meantime, a space had been set up at the back of the hall for rehearsals, as per my suggestion. George had been working us quite hard, leaving very little time for trying to solve the paint mystery, seeing my friends, or anything not sheep related. I had managed to steal abit of alone time with Snowball, and also a few short visits with Elvis, Nellie, and Rocky – and sometimes Oliver and Salmon – but really, our time was taken up with learning how to be sheep.
When we first got given the part I was indignant because I was pretty sure that it was too easy– not to add beneath me – but actually, according to director George, doing it properly was a lot harder than I ever thought it would be. He was a strict taskmaster.
‘Try to be more convincing,’ he kept shouting at us. ‘Call yourself a sheep?’ was another of his favourite phrases. Even Hana, who was the sweetest cat ever, lost her temper a couple of times. When faced with rebellion, George would just say: ‘It’s show business, deal with it.’ Half the time I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry.