Labradoodle on the Loose (4 page)

‘But who actually took her?' said the woman.

And before we could answer the big one snapped, ‘Out with it – which one of you is the kidnapper?'

What was he talking about? There was no kidnapper. And no kidnapped. I had a crazy thought.
Maybe they weren't police at all. Maybe they were nutters in fancy dress
. I snuck a peek at the uniforms to see if they looked real. They did. And I had seen the cop cars with my own eyes. (I said it was a crazy idea.)

The lady spoke again. ‘We know it was one of you, so you'd better tell us. The sooner we know what happened, the sooner it gets put right.'

If they'd asked me to confess to the dog-killing I'd have blurted it out no problem, but kidnapping? Nope. Not me.

Rose made a mewing sound. (If she wanted more cake all she had to do was lick her face.) Fifty went to pick her up but the big policeman stepped over to the rug and said, ‘We'll leave her there, I think.'

Fifty didn't like that. ‘If I want to pick up my own sister, I will.'

‘She's quite happy where she is.' You could tell by the way the policeman spoke that what he really meant was DO AS I SAY! But Fifty either didn't get it or didn't care, because he bent over and picked up Rose anyway. And that's when he repeated what he'd said to me at our biscuit breakfast.

‘I don't know why you're here, but if you upset Probably Rose, you'll have
me
to deal with.'

The policeman didn't like Fifty's tone. He was about to be mashed. Luckily the policewoman stepped between the two of them before anything happened. ‘Let's calm this down.'

‘I am calm,' said Fifty. (Red face, gritted teeth.)

Unlike Fifty, I
was
actually calm, but only because I knew no Triber was ever going to be a kidnapper. I mean, we're kids. It was all a mistake.

‘You're going to have to confess in the end, but for now why don't I tell you something?' said the policewoman. ‘A little girl has been reported missing. She was in the play area with a lot of other children from the Blue Skies Nursery. They were about to head back when they noticed she wasn't there. A missing child is a
very
serious incident.'

As I heard the words and strung them together to hear them again in my head I couldn't believe that I'd been so stupid. There was a kidnap. And a kidnapper. And I knew
exactly
who he was.

‘I didn't kidnap her. You can't kidnap your own sister,' shouted Fifty.

‘You took her from the play area without permission when she was in the care of the nursery,' said the police-woman. ‘That's kidnap. On top of which you've caused a lot of distress, and wasted our time.'

‘It was Rose who was distressed. And if they were looking after her, how come I walked into the play area and chatted to her and brought her out here without anyone noticing?' Fifty, my small friend who usually avoids trouble, stared straight up at the two police officers. ‘How come?'

It just shows you how much he loves his sister. Nothing else would have made him so brave, or reckless, or completely and utterly mental. I held my breath, waiting for
the handcuffs. Copper Pie put his head in his hands. The Tribe picnic really wasn't going that well – a lost dog, a Triber about to be arrested, Probably Rose drowning in chocolate mush, and Bee and Jonno scouring the streets for Doodle (I assumed that's where they were).

‘I don't like your attitude, laddie.' The big one stepped round the policewoman to be closer to Fifty.

‘I don't care. You're not taking my sister.'

Watching Fifty being ruder and ruder made me realise I had to do something before he was thrown in the back of the cop car and never seen again. Fifty's just not logical when it comes to Rose. I took a deep breath, but I was still full of the last one so I coughed, and accidentally spat out some cake – a bit of brown sludge landed on the big policeman's black trousers.

‘Fifty, they won't take Rose anywhere. Just tell them what you did. Tell them . . .' I forgot for a second that I was trying to get him out of trouble and let rip. ‘. . . tell them that you're a complete idiot and you should never have taken Rose from the play area. I bet she wasn't even upset – you just didn't want her to go back to Blue Skies. It's not normal to make such a fuss about a toddler going to nursery. We all went.' I stopped. Even though I hadn't meant to say what I really thought, it seemed to work. Fifty didn't look mad any more, he looked . . . wobbly, like he might cry or faint or wail.

‘She did look a
bit
sad,' he said quietly, eyes firmly fixed
on the ground. ‘She was sitting on the grass doing nothing.' I didn't point out that there's not an awful lot you can do when you're not even two years old. She was hardly going to be reading the paper or playing Mario on her DS.

The third policeman appeared from the direction of the play area. ‘So, here's the missing Rose, I see.' He smiled. He was obviously the nice cop in the good cop/bad cop routine. It must have been him that the policewoman bleeped with her radio when she saw Rose with her Blue Skies polo shirt on. ‘You gave those nursery girls a fright. They thought they'd lost her. Searched the playground, then called us. They're all in tears, even though it's all over. Good job we bumped into your friends or there'd have been a whole heap of trouble.' That didn't make any sense to me. Or to Copper Pie.

‘But we didn't know Rose was missing,' he said. ‘We thought you were looking for the missing dog.'

‘Yes, but when I asked you who else you were with,' the policeman stared straight at Copper Pie, ‘one of the names you said was “Thomas Baines”.' It was odd hearing Fifty's real name. No one uses it.

‘And the missing girl was Rose Baines,' I said, working it out aloud.

‘So we thought the missing girl just
might
be with her brother.'

Everyone looked at Fifty, who had stopped looking like an angry pit bull terrier and now looked more like a lost
puppy. (I wished I hadn't had that thought. It reminded me about Doodle.)

‘I'm very sorry,' he said. ‘And I suppose . . . nursery wasn't really that bad.'

‘Am I in big, big trouble?' said Fifty with his best puppy-dog eyes.

We waited to hear what the three police officers would say.

‘Shall we leave it to you, Sarge?' said the policewoman.

‘Yes,' said the nice one. ‘I can handle this lot.'

‘We'll be off then,' said the scary one.
Phew!
‘Try and keep out of trouble, you lot. We don't want to see you again. Do you hear?'

The three of us nodded. Rose noticed, so she did it too. That would normally have made Fifty go over the top about how great she is, but he stayed quiet.
Good move
.

‘OK.' Our nice policeman sat down on the rug. ‘I'm Sergeant Farrow. Or Rob as most people call me, except the ones in handcuffs.' He laughed. I wanted to laugh too but didn't think I should. ‘Looks tasty,' he said, looking at what was left on the picnic rug.

‘Would you like a cake?' said Fifty.

‘I would.' He reached out and took the last one. Rose mewed again.

‘She's a cute little bundle,' said Sergeant Farrow.

‘She's really clever,' said Fifty.

‘Doesn't take after her brother, then.' He winked.

‘I didn't think,' said Fifty. ‘I never would have taken her if I'd thought they'd call the police.'

Idiot
, I thought.
They were hardly going to go back to the Blue Skies Nursery minus one child, were they?

‘Well, you and I had better take Rose over to the play area so she can go back to the nursery with the others.'

Fifty nodded. Maybe he was in the clear – not arrested, not even a warning. It was brilliant that Rose was found, not that we knew she was missing, but what about Doodle? I needed a genie to grant me a wish.