Catscape (15 page)

“Ah, the boy genius does it again,” declared Stein. “Yes I can see now. You’re the brains and he’s the enthusiasm,” nodding towards the screen which showed an unconscious Murdo.

Fergus looked back at the screen. The dentist’s chair. The illustration from MM’s book came back to him. “You’re going to scrub our memories too?” whispered Fergus in shock under his breath.

“Correct again. You see we can identify the most freshly used bits of your memory. That’s why I suggest you enjoy these last few hours because I’m afraid in terms of remembering it, it
will be a case of here today and gone tomorrow. I’ll be the only one with happy memories of the delightful time we’ve spent together. Now you really must excuse me for the moment as I have some business to attend to. The important launch of the country’s newest and soon-to-be most popular and fastest-selling cat food is only days away you know!”

With that Stein strode forward to Fergus and, before he knew what had happened, had handcuffed him to the arm of the seat.

“Don’t stray too far!” said Stein smirking at Fergus before turning and striding out of the Chamber.

The room fell silent and Fergus was alone again in the eerie blue glow. He pulled at the handcuffs only to find that there was little room for manoeuvre and no chance of getting out of them. He tried to relax and told himself that spending time thinking was the best thing he could do in the circumstances. His mind whizzed through all the things he had to do. He had to get those electrodes off Murdo who might already be missing chunks of his memory. He had to warn Jessie before Stein sent anyone to get her. He had to get that photo of the Chamber to the outside world yet here he was, handcuffed, with a deranged fishmonger intent on domination of the world of catfood.

Fergus glanced up at the monitor again. The screen that had shown Murdo was flicking through images from four cameras in sequence. Fergus concentrated on trying to see what situation his friend was in. The scenes changed between a view of Murdo in the chair, the gauges of the console that he was connected to, a sliding door in the wall similar to the one in the Chamber and a floor level view that allowed him to see Jock’s little body taking short shallow breaths in his cage. As the monitor flicked through each scene, Fergus was able to predict what would come next. There was little change each time they reappeared other than the digital readout on the control panel counting upwards ominously. It now showed that it was
eighty-two per cent complete. Murdo was minutes away from forgetting the last few hours.

Fergus closed his eyes with a heavy sigh and a feeling of doom just as a new image appeared on the screen. He blinked open again in an instant. The monitor continued to change in sequence and Fergus watched in amazement as a figure in a hooded top and jeans appeared, creeping into the room where Murdo sat unconscious in the chair.

Fergus realized that perhaps he had been right. There had been someone else both outside and then inside the loading bay, and they were in the vaults right now. What’s more it looked like they could be a useful ally. They were certainly tiptoeing around as if they weren’t supposed to be here.

He watched the person move towards Murdo and lean in, seemingly to check on how he was and on what the machine was doing that he was connected to. The screens continued to flick through, giving Fergus views of the person from the top of their hooded head to a full-length shot but their identity remained a mystery.

With the timeline now showing ninety per cent, Fergus wanted to shout instructions to the silent screen and words of encouragement to the mysterious helper but he knew that this would be futile. He didn’t even know what part of the building they were in.

The mysterious person bent in concentration at the console as if trying to work out what it did and what to do next. The readout was now up to ninety-six per cent complete and Murdo was seconds away from forgetting everything that had taken place in the recent past when Fergus watched the hooded figure hit a button which read “Process Cancellation.”

Fergus exhaled. He hadn’t even realized that he had been holding his breath as the timeline moved so close to the end.

The figure now moved over to the cage that Jock was in. From what Fergus could make out, Jock was semi-conscious
but made a half attempt to sniff at the person despite his sleep-induced state. Suddenly Fergus watched and heard Jock bark at the same time before the little dog slipped back into unconsciousness.

With the sound of Jock’s bark so close by, Fergus realized that the room he was looking at on the monitor must be next door. The sliding door on the screen must be connected to the one he was sitting close to.

“Of course,” he thought. “Deal with the cats memories in one room and then bring them next door to the Chamber to feed them!”

“In here! In here!” he shouted spontaneously. The figure on the monitor froze and then turned to the sliding door, hitting a touch pad to one side. Fergus saw on the screen and in front of him at the same time, the door in the Chamber wall sliding back to reveal the person who had just saved Murdo.

“All right, Dr. Watson?” said Murdo’s sister, Heather.

Fergus felt his jaw drop uncontrollably.

“Wha … wha … how … wha …?”

“No time to explain,” said Heather briskly heading over to look at the handcuffs restraining Fergus. “That mad shop manager could be back at any time.”

Heather’s prediction was spot on. As she bent to look at Fergus’s hands the main door to the Chamber opened and Stein strode in. He looked momentarily amazed to see Heather and annoyed to see the sliding door in the wall open but he recovered his composure quickly.

“Ah, another intruder,” he said calmly. “Well, do join the queue. Your friends are just in front of you for a relaxing time in our special chair set aside for unexpected guests.” Stein smiled and gestured next door like a deranged waiter ready to show them to their seats.

“You might as well stop all of this now,” said Heather now standing behind Fergus’s chair. “I’ve called for help.”

“Oh, I hardly think so,” said Stein. “I’ve already been through that somewhat unbelievable scenario with your accomplice here.”

Fergus realized that he didn’t know if Heather was telling the truth or just bravely bluffing. She had sounded convincing to him but he couldn’t really imagine what form help was going to arrive in. He didn’t even know how Heather had got involved.

A scraping noise from far above their heads broke his thoughts and at the same time a shaft of light burst downwards into the Chamber, hitting the floor like a spotlight. Immediately the delicate conditions of the Chamber were disrupted again by
light, the ear-splitting siren began to sound for the second time in fifteen minutes. Instinctively Fergus, Heather and Stein looked up to find a dark shape hurtling towards them. Fergus realized in an instant that the circle of light that had appeared high above them came from the opening of the manhole cover. At the same time Stein realized that whatever was descending so rapidly was heading straight for him. He dived to one side to get out of the way and landed in a heap on the floor near to the control console as the siren wailed on.

At the last second there was a whizzing sound of glove on rope as the abseiling figure zipped down the last few feet of the long drop from the opening above and hit the floor in a hard but controlled landing.

“Oof! … I think I’m too old for this,” muttered the figure as it turned around.

Fergus’s jaw dropped for the second time in two minutes as he first saw a hint of pink cardigan and then saw Jessie gathering herself together. Relief flooded through him for a second until with a panic he cried, “Watch out, Jessie!”

Stein had launched himself from the floor with a snarl to attack this latest intruder but Jessie was seemingly still gathering herself together and checking that she was in one piece.

However, as Stein dived for her, Jessie swivelled, dipped low on one side and extended her right leg fully upwards, catching him perfectly on the chin. He was thrown back with the force of the unexpected karate kick and smashed back into the control console. Lights flashed uncontrollably and the siren volume increased. Stein shook his head to clear it. He looked up with a venomous stare and with a roar leapt up again with his arms outstretched, his fingers hooked like claws as he dived for Jessie’s throat. Jessie neatly sidestepped him and as he flew past her she brought her elbow down vertically between his shoulder blades.

“Ouch,” said Jessie rubbing her elbow as Stein crumpled to the floor groaning and only semi-conscious. “Now then,” she said heading for Stein and briskly checking his pockets. Moments later she had produced a set of keys, freed Fergus and trans-ferred the handcuffs to connect Stein firmly to a pipe running along the bottom of the wall. “That should prevent you hurting yourself again,” Jessie said in a kindly voice to a barely conscious Stein. Meanwhile, Fergus hurried over to the control console, spotted an “override alarm” button and returned the room to silence.

He then sprinted through to the other room where Murdo was groggily coming back to life in the dentist’s chair.

“What’s happening? … No fillings today? Great … Fergus what are you doing here? … Why have I got a helmet on?”

“What did we do this morning, Murdo?” asked Fergus, desperate to check that his friend was all right as he scanned the equipment surrounding him.

“This morning? This morning? Er … mmm … not sure really,” replied Murdo vaguely, clambering out of the chair.

“The van?” said Fergus hopefully.

“What van? Oh … Yes … yes … yes. The van, the cameras, the five buttons … Jock! Where’s Jock?!”

“Right here, right here, don’t worry, I think he’s okay,” said Fergus unlatching the cage containing the little dog and reaching in to feel that he was warm and breathing. He left the door open so that Jock could get out whenever he woke and turned to Murdo, “Come on through. Wait till you see what’s next door!”

Murdo followed Fergus through the door to the Chamber and stood open-mouthed at the sight of so many cats. He looked doubly shocked to find Jessie there and when he looked beyond her to find Stein handcuffed and his sister standing smiling at him, he was, for once, utterly speechless.

“Right, now that we seem to have things in order I have a
bone, in fact several bones to pick with you boys,” said Jessie looking sterner than they had ever seen her. “I told you very clearly not to do anything silly and you promised that you wouldn’t.”

“Erm … I planned to, but I changed my mind,” said Fergus looking away and without any good excuse. “I thought you’d gone away,” he said desperately trying to change the subject and keen to piece the missing bits of the story together.

“I planned to, but I changed my mind too,” said Jessie. “Fifteen minutes ago I heard that alarm go off when I was loading my bags into my friend’s car.”

“That must have been when I set it off with the camera,” said Fergus.

“At the same time,” she continued, “I got a text from Heather saying that you had just gone into The Chamber and set off an alarm. I realized that I was right above you so I decided it was time to blow the dust off my old climbing rope and attach it from the car to the manhole cover to speed things up a bit.”

“Wait a minute!” exploded Murdo now fully wakened and with no apparent memory problems. “You got a text from Heather?! What do you mean ‘a text from Heather?’” Murdo was gradually processing information but could not comprehend how his sister was involved in his own investigation without him knowing.

“Well, it was you boys who put me in touch with her without realizing it. You had been texting her from my old phone before I had,” said Jessie looking pointedly at Murdo who flushed red. “After the stakeout we worked out who each other was and we’ve been in touch ever since. I know you boys well enough to know that you aren’t the most obedient at times and can take matters into your own hands, so Heather was happy to become my back-up plan. I guessed as soon as you both left my flat that you would head straight here, so I immediately recruited her to
follow you and keep me up to date with what was happening.”

Murdo looked flabbergasted and extremely irritated that his sister had been spying on him.

“You really need to thank her,” said Jessie reprovingly. “Without her you could have forgotten about everything that happened down here by the looks of things,” she said with a glance at the next-door room.

Fergus noticed that Heather didn’t look at all smug, as he would have expected her to be in this situation. In fact she looked pleased to be in on the act and didn’t appear to be about to claim the glory.

“You two have been pretty amazing uncovering all of this,” she said looking around the Chamber and through to the dentist’s chair in the next room.

“Are you feeling all right?” said Murdo, now getting even more confused that his sister was saying something nice to him.

“Murdo, I’m sorry if I’ve given you a hard time. You can be an annoying little brother but I’m beginning to see that you do have your talents. Without you these cats would all be eating Stein’s cat food without even knowing what had happened to them.”

“Well,” said Murdo blushing, “it’s been an interesting investigation. When I think back to the early days when I started off …”

“Save it Sherlock, I’m not
that
interested,” said Heather.

“Hallo down there. Is that Mrs. Jenkins? Are you all right?”

The group all looked up to see a head silhouetted in the circle of light above them.

“Ah good,” said Jessie. “I called Gill Hall just before I headed down to join you. She didn’t seem too keen on my intentions, but I said that there was no time to lose.”

“Yes dear,” called Jessie upwards. “We’re all perfectly fine, but I think that you should join us here as soon as possible. I’m afraid we might just have added rather a lot to your ‘To Do’ list
for today.”

Within a minute, Gill Hall and two other police officers had unrolled a steel ladder and descended into the Chamber.

“I don’t fancy the way you came down,” said Gill looking at Jessie’s ropes before turning to survey the scene in the Chamber and the slumped figure of Stein. He still seemed unsure which bit of his body hurt most, let alone how he’d managed to be beaten up by an ageing ninja.

Jessie launched into as rapid and as simple an explanation as she could, with the boys chipping in some additional facts.

“Right,” said Gill to the other officers. “Call for more back-up and then arrest anyone else in the building on suspicion of involvement in theft. The multiple thefts of a few hundred cats by the looks of things. Also I want an arrest warrant issued for Maxine McDermott.”

“Green Mazda, registration number MM2,” chipped in Fergus.

“You’ll find a photo of her on the desk in the office upstairs if you want something to identify her with,” said Jessie looking at Stein with a grin.

At that moment Jock wobbled over towards them. Murdo bent to check him out. The little dog looked very woozy but immediately licked Murdo on both cheeks. “Well he’s not forgotten how to do that at least!” said Fergus.

Over by the wall, Stein had gathered himself together although he was still a far cry from the smooth-suited manager they had seen cruising in and out of the shop during the stakeout. Fergus noticed, however, that he seemed to have retained some of his superior air and there was still a hint of his old sneering smile. Eventually Stein couldn’t hold himself back from speaking.

“You think you’re so clever don’t you, but you’ve not worked it all out you know. You’re missing someone. In fact you’re missing the main man!”

“What do you mean?” said Fergus.

“It doesn’t just stop with me you know. I can exclusively reveal that you still don’t know all the facts, but I would be happy to supply them … in return for some acknowledgement of how helpful I’ve been.” Stein seemed happy to be in a bargaining position as he spoke to the group.

“Stein, you snivelling coward!”

The voice echoed around the room taking them all completely by surprise.

Only Stein sat with a smirk on his face. “If they get me I’m making damn sure they get you too,” he shouted backed at the voice, seemingly speaking into thin air.

“You pathetic specimen.” It was the voice again. “I should have known that you would blow it.”

Fergus knew the voice was familiar but couldn’t initially place it or tell where it was coming from.

Jessie spoke next, head cocked to one side as if tuning her ear into whoever they were listening to.

“Bob Crockett?”

Stein smiled in silent satisfaction.

“Yes, Bob Crockett,” snapped the voice, “and don’t give me any of that ‘I’d have thought better of you’ rubbish.”

“Now, now, temper, temper,” said Jessie.

Fergus could picture the bald clock shop owner, his eyes almost popping through his glasses, given how angry he sounded.

“Where is he speaking from?” asked Heather turning slowly around and trying to trace the source of the voice.

“His grandfather’s lair, deep in the vaults,” said Stein.

“Stein, you scumbag, you maggot, you turncoat!” screeched Crockett’s voice.

But Stein carried on regardless. “There’s a bizarre system of tubes that allows him to speak into any of the vaults. Another of his grandfather’s great inventions that never quite saw the light
of day. Although you’ll find that some of them have had their uses recently.”

Everyone looked blankly at Stein until Fergus broke the silence. “The van!”

“Ah yes, the van …” said Stein.

“What about the van?” asked Murdo.

“Do you remember when Crockett told us about a few of his grandfather’s inventions?” said Fergus.

“Yeah, what was there again?” said Murdo screwing up his face to remember. “Spring-loaded bookends and a marmalade dispensing gun?”

“The telescopic table leg?” offered Jessie.

“And a vibrating mixing bowl,” said Fergus.

“So where does the van fit in?” asked Gill Hall.

“Well if you look underneath, those gadgets are all used in some form or other to catch cats. The table legs drop down to form the Capture Plate, the dispensing gun fires fish pellets, there are vibrating plates to stroke the cats and there’s a variation on the bookends that form walls to close in and catch them. Would that stand up in court, Gill?” asked Fergus with a grin.

“Oh, I think so. All we need is the accused now,” she replied.

“Go to the end of the corridor and lift the trapdoor in the middle of the flagstones,” said Stein. “It looks like it’s just a small storage space but you can lift another trapdoor in the floor to get into Grandfather Crockett’s old workshop. That’s where he is.”

“STEIN, YOU TRAITOR!” roared Crockett as Gill Hall spoke into her radio and passed instructions to her officers on where to find the irate clock shop owner.

“Well surely that wraps things up now?” said Jessie.

Fergus picked up a folder lying next to the control console and began to flick through the pages one by one. He found that the
cats in each numbered case were listed along with the street that they’d been picked up in. This showed that the plan was to release them back home, albeit with a new food fad. Wherever owners had given them collar tags, their names were listed too and Fergus recognized one or two from their file of posters. After running his finger down the list for a few pages he found what he was looking for.