‘It’s been a long day, already,’ Snowball said as we made our way to the restaurant yard in the freezing cold. It was as though she could read my mind.
‘God, it has, and if we don’t get this sorted, every day might be long from now on.’ I wanted to time our visit for after school so I could get a sense of whether it possibly could have been Tommy.
‘At least we’ll get some food when we get there,’ she said, suddenly cheering. Oh yes, we had definitely earned some treats, as we’d been working so very hard.
‘Ah, I thought we might see you,’ Dustbin said as we greeted him. ‘And I think you are just in time.’ He gestured to the yard behind Tomasz and Franceska’s house, where Aleksy and Tommy were stood, staring at each other.
‘You did it,’ Aleksy was shouting, his face red. Uh oh, it wasn’t just Jonathan that thought Tommy could be our culprit.
‘No, I did not.’
‘You said you’re helping with the show but you still call it stupid and now look what’s happened.’
‘It is stupid but that doesn’t mean I did it.’ Tommy and Aleksy were standing quite close together. I ran to get in the middle.
‘Meow,’ I said loudly.
‘Alfie, Tommy is the one ruining our show,’ Aleksy said.
‘Yowl.’ I really don’t think he is.
‘I’m not,’ Tommy shouted back. Thankfully, Franceska appeared.
‘What is all the shouting about?’
‘Tommy won’t admit that he’s the one messing up the show.’
‘Aleksy, your brother wouldn’t do that; right, Tommy?’
‘I didn’t, Mum. Look, I may not have been as supportive as I should have been but I am trying, and I wouldn’t do anything to ruin it for the shelter. I’m not a monster.’
‘You are a monster,’ Aleksy shot back.
‘Aleksy, stop it. Listen to me, if Tommy says he didn’t do it then that’s good enough. And last night he was definitely here all evening, so it couldn’t have been him.’
‘See,’ Tommy said.
‘Yes, but Tommy you have to see that your behaviour has been so bad lately that people might suspect you, and for that you only have yourself to blame,’ she added.
‘Right.’ Tommy looked at the ground.
‘Can we try to stop this? Christmas is coming soon and the show needs you and Charlie for the social media. He has been doing a good job so far, hasn’t he, Aleksy?’ I was glad that Franceska was able to remain so calm.
‘He has,’ Aleksy said grudgingly.
‘So can we agree that Tommy, you’ll make more effort, and Aleksy, you give your brother another chance.’
‘I am sorry, Aleksy, but I really didn’t do it and I wouldn’t hurt the show.’ Tommy sounded sincere.
‘OK, I’m sorry I accused you, but maybe you could stop taking the mickey out of me now and just get on with it?’
‘Deal.’
The boys shook hands and I felt we had made a real breakthrough. But then, if it wasn’t Tommy, we still didn’t know who was the show wrecker in our midst.
That night at rehearsals, it all seemed normal as I patrolled the backstage area. I was so tired from the day’s adventures but as George kept saying ‘the show must go on’. No one seemed hostile, no one was acting suspiciously. Tomasz still hadn’t found his keys and he asked if anyone had seen them – they had not. But then, if someone had taken them they wouldn’t say, would they? Polly was ranting about the damage, and how it was taking money from people who already had less than nothing – how you could have less than nothing I wasn’t sure – but again, I looked for reactions, but no one looked guilty. The only conclusion was that either the person wasn’t here tonight, or they werevery good at acting. Oh boy, that gave me an idea. I went to find George.
‘George,’ I hissed.
‘What?’ I ushered him into the corner. I would have rounded up Hana and Snowball as well but Harold was holding them both, one in each arm, so I couldn’t tell them yet.
‘You know I’ve been looking for clues and I discovered that no one showed any guilt backstage, which means that the culprit either isn’t here or is a very good actor.’
‘And what does that mean?’
‘It means that we are looking for someone with big feet who is also a good actor.’
‘But apart from me we don’t have anyone that good in the show,’ George pointed out.
‘Well, yes, OK, but we need to look closely at the people in the Nativity. Not Matt and Tomasz of course, but the men we don’t know. So, our first step, pardon the pun, is to look at everyone’s feet and pick out those who have the biggest.’
‘What do you mean, about the pun?’ George eyed me as if I was a little mad.
‘Never mind, just keep your eyes open for a big-footed actor.’ How hard could he be to find? It wasn’t as if we had a cast of thousands.
Thankfully my musings were interrupted as the children climbed onto the stage. They looked cute, although they weren’t yet wearing their costumes – neither was Pickles, because he kept trying to eat the red nose – as they had said they’d save it for the night.
‘Rudolph the red-nosed reindeer …’ they trilled as they tried to get Pickles to do the dance they had taught him. Henry held a dog treat and Pickles went on his hind legs and danced in a circle on them. It was very cute but definitely more dog than reindeer, or so I thought, anyway.
‘He looks sweet,’ George said, showing a rare moment of fondness for Pickles.
‘He does. As do our children.’
Everyone clapped as the song came to an end and Pickles licked the stage.
‘Woof, woof, woof,’ he said, standing in the centre and looking pleased with himself.
‘Bravo,’ Claire shouted.
‘Great job, everyone,’ Aleksy said, taking his director role seriously.
‘And now, we have the Edgar Road singers,’ Connie said. As Vic and Heather led their group onto the stage, I sat down. This was too important to everyone, I justhad to find the culprit, there was absolutely no choice.
Chapter Twenty-Two
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The neighbourhood watch meeting was, luckily, being held at our house, which meant I could attend. It was Monday evening and a rare evening away from the show. We were no closer to finding out who had done the damage so far, but it was early days and thankfully nothing else had happened. Because some of the sets had been ruined, Tomasz and his crew were working late to re-do them all, so maybe the bad person just hadn’t had the opportunity to ruin anything else. Or maybe they had stopped. I could only hope that they’d stopped.
‘Right let’s get started,’ Vic said, clapping his hands. Claire and Jonathan were rushing around making drinks for everyone, and the living room was full, standing room only. The doorbell rang and Vic tutted loudly. He hated anyone being even one minute late.
Polly opened it and came back with Barbara.
‘So sorry I’m late,’ she said, with a big smile. ‘I’m here to help.’
I was unsure whether I believed her or not, but she sounded genuine. She didn’t even glare at me, so I thought perhaps she was actually becoming nice. Or nicer, at least.
I settled down in a good listening place, on Matt’s lap. He stroked me as he listened to Vic.
‘We will not let anyone ruin all our hard work,’ he was saying.
‘No, and also Edgar Road does not tolerate crime of any description,’ Heather added.
‘We will catch whoever it is and they will be sorry they messed with us,’ Vic shouted, making Matt jump.
I concentrated as they tried to come up with an action plan. Some of the ideas were immediately discounted. The first was to install cameras, but Jonathan vetoed that on the basis of the cost being too high, especially as they only needed it for a short time. Then Vic said they could arrange security to be at the hall at all times, but again this wasn’t practical.