Hide! The Tiger's Mouth is Open Wide! (7 page)

‘The thing is,’ Grandad said, ‘I can’t think of a single British animal that would leave teeth marks like that. Particularly not one that eats flowers
and
vegetables
and
ham sandwiches.’

‘Right then, Soph,’ said Tom. ‘We’ve got a new case.’

Sophie nodded. ‘Time to take a look at the evidence.’

Tom and Sophie were standing on the outside of the allotment fence. Sophie was running her finger along the teeth marks in the wood.

‘Could it have been a cat?’ Tom asked.

‘Not sure,’ said Sophie.

‘All cats have similar teeth, right?’ Tom said. ‘These teeth marks are like a smaller version of a tiger’s – a bit like our pet cats’, in fact. Two big holes for the canines, two smaller holes for the incisors.’

Tom felt the bottom of the fence.

‘A cat’s back teeth could have gnawed along the bottom here,’ he added.

Sophie didn’t agree. ‘These marks are too shallow and close together,’ she said. ‘A cat’s teeth are giant compared to whatever did this.’

‘If you say so,’ said Tom.

‘I do say so,’ said Sophie.

‘So how are we going to find out what broke into the allotment?’ Tom asked.

Sophie was silent for a few seconds.

‘If only we could make some kind of model of those teeth marks,’ Sophie said.

‘You mean like a set of fake teeth?’ Tom said. ‘Like those vampire fangs you can buy at Halloween.’

‘Exactly,’ Sophie said. ‘Then we could ask the keepers at the zoo if they recognise the teeth in the model. If they do, we’ll know which animal broke in.’

They were both silent for another few seconds, thinking.

‘Violet . . .’ whispered Tom.

‘What do you mean, Violet?’ Sophie asked.

‘Last time I went to the dentist,’ Tom said, ‘Dr Sharp had this model of a human being’s teeth. Made out of shiny white plastic or something. While he was telling me about my teeth, he was pointing to the teeth in the model.’

‘Yeah, he did that with me too. So?’ Sophie said.

‘He said that Violet had made the whole thing,’ said Tom, ‘and that she’d modelled it on her own teeth!’

‘Wow! Really?’ Sophie said.

‘I bet she could show us how to do it,’ Tom said.

Sophie pulled out her mobile phone and rang the dentist’s surgery. She apologised for disturbing Dr Sharp and Violet, but said this was an emergency.

Ten minutes later, Violet was crouching down next to Tom and Sophie, studying the teeth marks in the fence closely. She had her blue dentist’s case with her.

‘Luckily I finish early on Fridays,’ said Violet, ‘so we can take our time.’

She looked at the fence again.

‘So we’re going to make a dental cast, are we?’ Violet said. ‘Brilliant. First of all we need to find a nice clean set of bite marks. Both the upper and lower teeth. Here we are.’

She pointed to the underside of the fence.

‘Usually what I’d do is get the patient to bite down on a lump of wax-like material and then make the cast out of the impression they leave behind. But in this case I’ll make the cast directly from the marks in the wood.’

She poured some white powder into the teeth marks on one side of the fence. Tom and Sophie watched as she added water and other chemicals and, within a few minutes, there was a lump of wet clay-like material sitting on the wood.

‘While that’s drying, I’ll do the bottom set.’

She repeated the process.

‘Easy, eh?’ Violet said.

The cast for the top set of teeth was almost dry. She held it up.

‘Wow,’ said Tom, ‘look how sharp those canines are.’

‘I have to admit,’ said Violet, ‘I’m not entirely sure who these belong to.’

‘I thought they looked like a cat’s teeth, but now I think they look like Felicity’s,’ said Tom.

Violet looked blank, so he added, ‘Felicity is our ferret.’

‘Interesting,’ said Violet, ‘so we’re thinking – a relation of the ferret. What time is it?’

Sophie glanced down at her phone. ‘Four thirty.’

‘Great,’ said Violet, ‘the zoo’s still open for another hour. Let’s nip inside and do some more research.’

‘Cool!’ exclaimed Tom and Sophie.

As they trotted away from the allotment, Grandad called out, ‘Have you solved the case yet?’

‘Almost!’ Tom called back, ‘Just heading for the zoo. We’ve got a new lead!’

When they reached the zoo, Violet asked Tom and Sophie to think about any animals that might have the same body type or the same diet as a ferret.

‘The meerkats!’ exclaimed Tom.

‘The mongooses!’ suggested Sophie.

‘The otters!’ declared Tom.

So they looked at the meerkats and the mongooses in Animal Adventure and the otters next to the Rainforest Lookout. Finally they examined all the rodents in the Nightzone. None of them matched.

‘All the animals have similar teeth,’ said Violet, holding up the dental cast, ‘but none of them are exactly the same.’

‘Well, they’ve got to belong to
something
,’ said Tom, looking puzzled.

As they went to leave, Terry the Nightzone Keeper was coming in.

‘Hello, you two,’ he said. ‘Come to see how the rats are doing?’

‘Hi, Terry,’ said Tom and Sophie. ‘This is Violet.’

Sophie explained what they were doing.

‘Let’s have a look,’ he said, taking the dental cast and peering closely at it.

‘It’s not a cat or a ferret or a mongoose,’ Tom said.

Terry shook his head, ‘No, it isn’t.’

‘We thought it looked like a mini-tiger,’ said Sophie, ‘with canines like that.’

‘You’re not far off,’ said Terry.

‘You mean, you know what it is?’ Violet said.

‘I think so,’ said Terry. ‘I reckon it’s a polecat.’

‘So it
is
a cat,’ Tom said.

‘No, a polecat’s not a cat,’ said Terry. ‘In fact, it’s closely related to your pet ferret. There used to be hardly any left in the wild, but there are more and more these days. I didn’t realise they’d got as far south as London, but it seems they have.’

‘But why would a polecat be on Grandad’s allotment?’ asked Tom. ‘They don’t eat vegetables, do they?’

‘Definitely not. Look at these teeth again,’ said Terry. ‘A polecat is a pure predator. Its skull is only about four centimetres deep, so these teeth are huge compared to the size of its head. And feel, these canines are like knives.’

Tom ran his finger over the cast and felt the two top canine teeth.

‘Like a tiger, a polecat uses its canines to deliver the killer blow at the base of its victim’s neck,’ said Terry. ‘And like a tiger, the sharpness of these teeth means that it can take on prey that is much bigger than itself. Rabbits, chickens, even geese. One bite and it’s over. And it can use its teeth more cleverly too.’

‘What do you mean?’ Sophie asked.

‘If there’s lots of prey about,’ said Terry, ‘and it can’t possibly eat them all, it just paralyses them.’

‘How?’ Tom asked.

‘It bites into its victim’s brain, but not enough to kill it. Then it drags the body back to its den to eat later. But because it’s still technically alive, it stays fresh.’

‘That is brilliant,’ said Tom, impressed.

‘So it attacks everything and anything,’ said Sophie, ‘even when it’s not particularly hungry.’

Terry nodded and glanced at the dental cast again.

‘And this one is young and healthy,’ said Terry. ‘No nicked or broken teeth, very little decay.’

‘Then it’s obvious what happened,’ said Sophie.

‘Is it?’ Violet and Tom said at the same time.

‘Well, there’s no way the polecat would have wanted to eat the vegetables in the allotment,’ said Sophie, ‘not with teeth like that.’

‘What then?’ asked Tom.

‘There must have been another animal in the allotment,’ said Sophie. ‘Another animal was eating the vegetables. And the polecat wanted to eat that other animal.’

Tom nodded and said, ‘Yes . . .’

‘Wow, aren’t you clever!’ Violet added.

‘But how did that
other
animal get in?’ Tom asked.

‘THAT’s what we’ve got to find out,’ said Sophie. ‘Come on, back to the allotment.’

She sped off, calling out, ‘Thanks, Terry,’ over her shoulder.

‘Yeah, thanks, Terry,’ Tom called too, following his sister.

‘Let me know when you solve the case!’ Terry exclaimed.

‘We will!’ the children replied, their voices echoing in the cold evening air.