We huddled together on the blanket.
‘What if we never get rescued?’ George asked. I wanted to tell him that that was why I didn’t want him here but knew that wouldn’t be helpful.
‘As much as I’m angry you brought Pickles – and don’t say hospital again – at least with him here they’ll look for us more quickly.’
However, as more and more time passed, hope began to fade.
We stayed huddled together for what felt like forever, then Pickles moved and I had to as well, as my paw had gone to sleep.
‘This is silly, I’m going to rehearse,’ George said. ‘I’m bored.’
‘I’m bored and hungry,’ Pickles added.
I raised my whiskers at Salmon, as if to say:‘See what I have to put up with?’ He gave me a sympathetic smile.
What if they didn’t think to come here until the next rehearsal? We had hours to go until daytime and hours more until evening when the rehearsals were held. Thankfully someone rehearsed almost every evening and, if they didn’t, people came to work backstage. Still, we would have so long to wait. And Pickles, who was already complaining about being hungry, would be unbearable. What would we do? I felt panic rising. George was prancing around being a sheep now, but how long before he got scared? I lay down again. This had not gone according to plan at all and Barbara needed to be stopped. But more than that, we needed to be rescued.
‘Shush,’ I said, as George was mid sheep.
‘Don’t shush me,’ he said.
‘No, I can hear something,’ I said.
‘Me too, voices,’ Salmon said.
‘Wait, and when they get closer we all make as much noise as we can. And that includes you, Pickles,’ I said. We waited and when we could clearly hear Claire and Jonathan we all started crying out.
‘Yowl.’
‘Meow.’
‘Mew, mew, mew.’
‘Woof, woof, woof, woof.’
The door swung open and I blinked as Jonathan put the light on.
‘What the hell?’ he started.
‘How did you all end up in here?’ Claire asked.
‘Is that the Goodwins’ cat?’ Jonathan was scratching his head as usual.
‘I am so sorry,’ Barbara said.
‘Hiss.’
‘Alfie, stop it,’ Claire chastised. ‘Barbara, it’s not your fault, you couldn’t know they were here. And thanks for coming down with us; you didn’t need to, I’ve got keys.’
‘Oh, well, I wanted to check they were alright. If I had known they were here I would never have shut the door, they must have been hiding.’
I looked at Salmon.
‘YOWL,’ he said at the top of his voice.
‘MEOW,’ I shouted.
‘WOOFWOOFWOOF,’ Pickles added.
‘HISS,’ George said.
‘Oh goodness they must be so distressed from being shut in,’ Claire said, missing our point entirely.
‘Right, let’s get them home,’ Jonathan said, putting the lead on Pickles and scooping George up.
‘What on earth?’ Claire was asking. I glanced at Salmon. We would have to do much more because they weren’t even remotely suspicious of Barbara.
‘How did you know they were here?’ Barbara asked.
‘We checked everywhere else, so we thought we would give it a try. They have been coming to rehearsals, and hanging around here, so I thought it was worth a shot before we had to call the police. It was Pickles that was the real worry. He’s not allowed out without one of us,’ Claire explained.
‘They somehow always manage to go to places they’re not supposed to be,’ Jonathan added.
‘But we are so glad we’ve found them safe and sound,’ Claire said. ‘Thanks again, Barbara.’
‘Of course. Oh and Claire? You can have the keys that Polly lent me; you’ll see her before me no doubt.’ She smiled innocently. Oh she was good. She was very, very good. But even so, she was no match for this cat.
Chapter Twenty-Six
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We were in the dog house. Not literally, unless you counted Pickles. Claire and Jonathan were furious that we had stowed away, as they called it, in the hall and got ourselves locked in. As if it was our fault. We were doing it for them, but did they appreciate that? No, no matter how much noise we made, they simply wouldn’t listen to us. We slunk home and the only saving grace from the evening was that Salmon had been very sensible, and that we knew, without a whisker of a doubt, that Barbara was the culprit. And she was, despite Jonathan’s thoughts, a very good actor. Because the way she was with Claire and Jonathan when they found us, and the way she spoke kindly to us as we walked home, was so convincing. I almost forgot she was a crazy woman trying to ruin our show. But not quite, because I knew that we would have to stake out the hall again the following night. Now, though, Barbara didn’t have keysso how would she get in? Part of me hoped she wouldn’t, but part of me knew she would. She was clever and there was no way she didn’t have a plan.
I was so tired and hungry when we got home that I ate my supper under a cloud as Claire kept on about how we had to be more careful, especially with Pickles. As if it was my fault he had come with us. Even George felt bad enough to apologise, but I was too tired to chastise him, so I ate, cleaned up and went to bed. My sleep was restless though, full of nightmares about what Barbara might do next. And that dark, dusty prop room wasn’t much fun, I can tell you.
The following day, George slunk out early to see Hana, and probably to get away from me. Claire took the children to school, with Pickles, and although she was still a bit cross with me– Claire could certainly hold a grudge – I was too tired to be upset. Jonathan was at home, which was unusual, but he explained that he was working from home today, in order to get something called admin done. He rarely worked from home so it was a treat to have him here. I sat next to him in the kitchen as he finished his coffee. Thankfully, he stroked me and relaxed into it.
‘Why exactly were you at the hall last night?’ he asked. Ah, good, someone was thinking about it in the right way.
‘Meow!’
‘I know, I talked to Claire about it and I said I was sure you were trying to tell us something, but what?’
‘Yowl.’ If only I could talk, and tell him everything. It would save me a lot of effort, that was for sure!
Jonathan sighed.‘If only I could talk cat.’ He stood up and went upstairs and I was pretty sure there was no way I could get him to understand right now.
I had to see everyone, obviously, and Snowball was my first stop. Luckily it was Harold’s senior centre day so she was free.
‘I am so tired,’ I said as I explained what had happened last night. She listened, horrified at first, then amused.
‘So, it went wrong?’ she said.
‘Well, you could look at it like that. Or you could say that we have successfully fulfilled phase one, which we would have done a little more successfully without George and Pickles, but still …’
‘Right, but Alfie we already knew who it was, and now you have to get her caught,’ Snowball pointed out.
‘Yes and I am working on it. Salmon and I are going to watch the hall every night until we do catch her.’ I bristled. I was trying to stay positive but Snowball wasn’t helping.
‘But how are you going to do that?’ she pushed.
‘I am going to discuss that with Salmon,’ I replied, a little snappily. I was still tired.
‘OK, so you and your new best friend,’ she teased, and I relented and grinned.
‘Sorry, I am still tired and grumpy. We were in that dusty room for ages before Claire and Jonathan found us.’
‘It must have been awful. Let’s go and find the others and start working on the next part of the plan,’ she said.
We made our way to the recreation ground, happy to find Nellie, Elvis, Rocky, and Salmon there.
‘Has Salmon filled you in?’ I asked.
‘He has, and Alfie we told you it could be dangerous.’