Eye Spy (4 page)

Now that we had finally found someone who was present at the scene of the crime, we couldn't afford to lose him. Fur Hat was already moving away from us across the square. We set off after him, keeping our distance so that it wouldn't be obvious we were following him. When he stopped at a stall selling vegetables, we stopped too and pretended to inspect the cakes on a baker's display until he moved on again. Once, he looked over his shoulder and we ducked behind a parked van until we saw his fur hat bobbing above the heads of the crowd again.

When he reached the far side of the square, he turned off down a side street, and we fell back a bit because there were fewer people around to shield us from his sight if he turned round.

“I wonder if he's heading for the Starship Café”, whispered Donna. The Starship Café was Holcombe Bay's newest meeting place. Lots of Lea Green pupils hung out there after school and at weekends, but we couldn't afford to spend time in places like that. We simply didn't get enough pocket money to pay for expensive cappuccinos. I couldn't see why Fur Hat would want to go there either. He was too old to be part of that crowd.

There was a motorbike parked outside the café. It was blue and silver and very flashy, with a large despatch box fixed to the back. Two people were standing next to it, chatting. One was a young man with short, spiky hair, wearing a black leather biker's jacket with lots of shiny silver studs. He was talking to a girl in a purple top printed with the Starship Café logo, who looked about sixteen. She had shiny waist-length black hair, a very pale face and bright scarlet lips and nails. Together they made the sort of couple you wouldn't forget in a hurry. As we watched, she shrugged herself into a leather jacket, zipped it up, and strapped a helmet onto her head. As Fur Hat crossed the road to the café, the girl looked up and saw him. “Hi, Sergei!” she called.

We ducked into an alleyway on the opposite side of the road from the café and peered cautiously around the corner, trying to hear what Sergei was saying to the girl. Just then a car turned into the narrow street, honking its horn to warn people to get out of the way, and the noise drowned out their voices. Then, as the car zoomed off down the street, we saw him hand her some money. She stuffed it into her pocket and in the sudden quiet we heard her say, “Wednesday it is, then.”

He put his hand on her arm as if to emphasise a point. “And this time you lock dog up safe, OK?”

She nodded. “OK. See you.” She climbed onto the back of the bike behind her friend. He revved the engine into action and they roared off up the street. Sergei turned and headed back towards the market square.

“He mentioned a dog!” hissed Donna as we fell in at a discreet distance behind him.

“That may not mean anything. We don't know if it was Kiki he was talking about.”

“I bet it was!” She was excited now, all fired up with enthusiasm and raring to go. Donna is unstoppable when she gets like that; she acts first and thinks later. I hoped she wouldn't do something rash and get us both into trouble.

Sergei was walking fast now, and it was difficult to keep up with him. He turned into the market square and headed along the north side past the cinema. He took the exit by the church, which brought him out onto Firbeck Street where the bus station is.

As Sergei joined a long queue of people waiting for the No. 9 bus, we slowed down and stopped in front of a second-hand book shop opposite the bus station.

“We've got a problem,” I said. “We can't follow him onto the bus. I spent all my money buying those biscuits for Kath.”

“We can't give up now! Hang on a minute…” Donna started to scrabble through her shoulder bag. It took her ages to open all the little zipped pockets and empty the contents onto a table piled high with old books, but she couldn't find any money. Then she noticed a couple of old bus tickets that she'd uncovered during the search. “Look! We should be able to fool the driver with these – they're returns. Let's go and join the queue.”

By this time there was a long line of people standing behind Sergei in the queue, including two families with little kids who were tired and grizzly. I prayed they'd cause a rumpus and distract the driver so he'd pay less attention to us. Donna looked as if she hadn't got a care on the world, but I was so nervous I could feel my palms starting to sweat.

When it came to our turn, Donna waved the two tickets briefly in the driver's face and turned to walk down the aisle. I thought we were going to get away with it, but then the driver grabbed the tickets from Donna. “Hold it, missy! These are two months old!”

Donna didn't bat an eyelid. “But we only got them this morning! The machine must have been faulty…”

“Nice try, missy, but you don't fool me. Off you get!”

The man behind us in the queue tried to push me out of the way. “What's the hold-up?” he growled. I started to panic. In a moment, Sergei would notice us too.

“Let's go!” I hissed at Donna.

She sighed. “OK, OK.”

We jumped off as the doors swung shut. We stood by the bus stop, staring at the retreating bus. I felt really frustrated. This could be the only chance we'd get to follow Fur Hat. Because we'd forgotten we might need money, we'd lost our quarry. Too late, we'd discovered why the PIs in detective stories always asked for expenses in advance.

On the way home we discussed what we'd found out so far. All we knew for certain was that just before Kiki disappeared, Mademoiselle Boudet had been approached by a man in a fur hat. It seemed likely that this was the same man we'd seen talking to a waitress and a biker outside the Starship Café, but we couldn't be sure. He
had
mentioned a dog and some arrangements for Wednesday, but that could just be a coincidence.

“Sergei, the girl and the biker could all be in it together, couldn't they?” Donna said. “They could be a dog-napping gang, just like the ones on that website.”

“Yes, but we can't be sure. None of the witnesses saw anyone go off with the dog.”

“We've got to start somewhere. Let's assume she was stolen. Someone would have found Kiki by now if she'd just run off and got lost.”

We trudged along in silence for a while. Then Donna asked, “What do you think is going to happen on Wednesday?”

“Maybe they're planning to steal another dog.” I hoped I was wrong. We were having enough trouble finding Kiki without having to look for another dog as well.

Donna nodded. “Could be. Sergei told the girl to ‘keep the dog locked up'. Perhaps the first dog – Kiki – escaped?”

I thought about it for a moment, then rejected the idea. “No. If she had lost a valuable dog, he'd have been angry with her, and he wasn't, was he?”

“If she's the one who looks after the kidnapped dogs, maybe she's the real brains behind the gang.”

I shook my head. “She doesn't
look
like a master criminal.”

Donna snorted. “You're so
sexist
. Women can be master criminals just as easily as men.”

When we reached home half an hour later, tired, cold and ravenously hungry, we were still arguing about whether women could be as successful as men at committing crimes. I won the argument in the end because Donna couldn't think of any infamous women criminals. I told her she should read more crime novels.

As we drank hot chocolate and ate a plate of Nan's melt-in-the-mouth fairy cakes, I was beginning to realise that being a successful PI wasn''t as easy as I'd thought it would be. We were going to have to do better if we wanted to find Kiki.

First thing on Sunday morning, we discussed our plans for the day.

“What now?” Donna asked. “We haven't got much to go on.”

I frowned as I tried to make sense of what we knew. “Seems to me we've got three suspects: Sergei, Biker Girl, and her boyfriend. We saw all three of them outside the Starship Café, so maybe that's their regular meeting place. Why don't we start there?”

Donna couldn't think of any better suggestions, so, after telling Nan we had arranged to meet some friends in town and promising to be back by teatime, we headed off towards the Starship Café.

As we approached the café, the first thing we saw was a couple of motorbikes parked outside, including the flashy blue and silver one with the despatch box on the back that belonged to Biker Girl's boyfriend. We lingered in front of a shop opposite the café, which sold prints and posters, pretending to look at the window display as we tried to decide what our next move should be.

Seeing the bikes had given me an idea. “If they are the ones who took Kiki, maybe they hid her in the despatch box. She's small enough to fit in there.”

Donna sent me a scathing look. “They couldn't have taken the bike on the promenade. It's pedestrians only.”

“Yes, but they could have had it parked nearby and carried Kiki to it. It's much better than a car if you want to make a quick getaway. You can weave your way through slow traffic and speed ahead.”

Donna nodded slowly. “OK. You've got a point. But how can we prove it?”

While I stared unseeingly at a picture of a lady with two heads in the shop window, I tried to figure out what to do next. “We need to go inside, see if Sergei and Biker Girl are there and maybe see if we can eavesdrop the bikers' conversation.”

“No, we can't. We'd have to order something to eat or drink, and we've got no money, remember?”

I racked my brains for inspiration.

“All right. Why don't I go and ask if they've got any jobs going – washing up plates, that kind of thing. It'll give me a chance to look around and see who's there. And whilst I'm doing that, you can have a quick look at the despatch box on that bike and see if you think it's big enough to hold a small dog.”

We decided it would look suspicious if Donna hung around for too long outside the café, so we agreed that she would wait for me by the department store in the mall, and I would join her there as soon as I could.

The Starship Café is so popular that even on a cold Sunday morning in February there were plenty of customers. The walls were covered with huge photos of scenes from sci-fi films, and loud music blared out of the speakers. The menu advertised over the bar included ‘starburst smoothies', ‘galaxy wraps', and ‘cosmic cookies'. They all looked mouth-watering, but I knew my only hope of eating any of them was to find Kiki. Then I'd have enough money to gorge myself every day for a month.

As I entered the café I saw immediately that one of the waitresses delivering trays full of food and drink was Biker Girl. As I walked towards the counter at the back of the room, there was a roar of laughter from a nearby table. I sneaked a quick look and saw three young men in leather jackets. One was Biker Girl's boyfriend: the boy with the spiky hair.

The other waitress was behind the bar. She was chewing gum and tapping her fingers on the shiny metal countertop in time to the music. When I stopped in front of her, she paused her tapping and sighed. “If you want cigarettes, you'll have to go somewhere else. We don't sell them to people under sixteen.” I didn't like her tone. She was only a couple of years older than me, but she was behaving just like a teacher.

“Er… no. I was wondering… I mean, do you have any vacancies? Washer-up, that sort of thing.” My voice tailed off as she continued to stare at me.

“How old are you?”

“Fifteen,” I lied. I could feel my cheeks turning pink.

She snorted. “Who are you kidding, Shorty?” I tried not to cringe. I'm very sensitive about my height because Donna's already an inch taller than me. The girl turned away and called out to someone behind me, “Hey, Atlanta, come here.” I turned round and found myself face to face with Biker Girl.

Close up, she looked even more striking than she had from a distance. Her coal-black hair and scarlet lipstick made her fair skin look even paler. She reminded me of a character in a fantasy computer game. I couldn't take my eyes off her.

Atlanta looked amused, but at least she didn't call me Shorty. “The manager's out. You can leave your name and number in case he's interested, but don't hold your breath.” She peeled a piece of paper off her pad and pushed it towards me together with a pencil. I wrote down an imaginary name and number and handed her the paper. Then I mumbled “Thanks”, and made a bolt for the door.

As I walked up the street towards the market square, my cheeks were still burning. I realised I'd forgotten to try and eavesdrop the bikers' conversation, but there was no way I was going to go back and face Atlanta and her gum-chewing friend again. If we needed to check out the Starship Café in future, then Donna would have to be the one to do it.

I found Donna waiting outside the department store in the mall and stamping her feet to keep warm.

“You took your time!” she said. “I checked out the despatch box. I reckon you could get a small dog in there if you wanted to, but there are no air holes, so she couldn't stay in there for long. What happened at the café?”

“There was no sign of Sergei, but the waitress and her boyfriend were there. She's called Atlanta.”

I paused, and Donna stared at me as if she expected me to say something more. “Is that it? Is that all you found out? Didn't you even overhear anything interesting?”

The last thing I needed just then was Donna criticising me. “OK, you go back and see if you can do better!” We glared at each other.

Just then we saw Emerald approaching. She waved and came over to join us.

“Are you going in?” she asked Donna. “I want to buy some new jeans.”

Before I could open my mouth to protest, Donna said, “Great! Come on, Alex, you can help us choose,” and propelled me into the shop.

What is it with girls and shopping? They can spend all day trying on clothes and not buy anything at the end of it. Twenty minutes later, Donna and Em were still in the changing room, trying on a whole pile of clothes. I could hear them giggling and chattering from where I stood, surrounded by bras and thongs and wispy little nightdresses. Some of the customers were giving me odd looks and I was beginning to feel like a pervert. Eventually, I left them to it and wandered out into the mall again.

I browsed the computer games in the games shop and had a look at the newest detective novels in the bookshop. As I came out of the bookshop, I noticed Kath in the distance, sitting on her favourite bench. She had the pram full of black bags with her, but there was no sign of Rockerfeller.

We hadn't managed to get much information out of her the day before, but perhaps I could do better on my own. Maybe we hadn't asked the right questions. One thing I've learned from reading detective stories is that you have to ask the right questions to get the right answers.

As I walked over to the bench, Kath was muttering to herself under her breath. She was in a world of her own, but she looked up eventually and saw me. She gave me a gap-toothed grin. “Hallo, deary. How you doin'?”

“Fine, thanks. Where's Rockerfeller?”

“He's feeling his age, poor old fellow. Like his owner.” She sighed heavily. “I left him with a friend today so he could have a good rest.”

So Kath had at least one friend. I wondered who it could be. “D'you miss him when he's not around?” I asked.

“'Course I do. He's my best mate, is Rocky.”

I saw my opportunity. “That lady we told you about yesterday misses her dog too. She's very upset.”

Kath frowned. She kept opening her mouth to speak and then shutting it again. Finally, she said, “'ow upset?”

It took me a moment to work out what she meant, then I understood. She was talking about money.

“She's offering a large reward,” I said. “If you can remember anything at all that could help us find Kiki, we'll make sure you get some of the reward.”

A whole series of emotions passed over Kath's face one after another: anxiety, confusion, frustration. In the end, she shook her head. “Nah. Can't help. Sorry.”

“Well, if you do remember anything, you can ring us on this number,” I said, and I handed her one of the Eye Spy cards. She took it in grimy fingers and stuffed it in one of her large pockets.

“I've got to go now,” I said, getting up from the bench. “Don't forget to let us know if you think of anything.” Kath nodded. She was still frowning.

When I got back to the department store, Donna was waiting in the doorway looking cross. She was alone. “Where have you been?” she grumbled. “Em had to go home, and I've been standing here for ten minutes, while two idiot boys and an old man tried to chat me up. You'd better have a good excuse.”

“You can talk! Unlike you, I've been doing something useful. I had another chat with Kath, and I'm sure she knows something.”

I explained what had happened, and we agreed that we'd give her a few days to think about the reward and then, if she hadn't got in touch, we'd talk to her again.

It was almost four o'clock and the shops were starting to pull their shutters down and lock up. It was time we headed home. As we walked through the big glass doors of the mall into the market square and headed towards the Promenade, Donna said, “D'you really think they're a dog-napping gang?”

“I dunno, but we might as well follow them up since we haven't got any other leads.” As I mulled over everything we'd done in the last two days, I couldn't help thinking gloomily to myself that we were no further forward than we had been the day before. We'd have to try and do better tomorrow.