drop out of the ceiling.
It was bad enough seeing the wretched cat. Not seeing it was worse.
He scurried out and shut the door quickly, then went back into the house.
He probably ought to tell someone official. The trolley belonged to Mrs Tachyon (actually, it probably belonged to Mr Tesco or Mr Safeway) so it might be stealing if he kept it.
As he went back inside, the phone rang. There were two ways he could tell. Firstly, the phonerang. Then his grandfather shouted âPhone!â, because he never answered the phone if he thought there was a chance it could be answered by someone else.
Johnny picked it up.
âCan I speak toââ said Yo-less, in his Speaking to Parents voice.
âItâs me, Yo-less,â said Johnny.
âHey, you know Mrs Tachyon?â
âOf course Iââ
âWell, my mum was on duty at the hospital last night. Sheâs got horrible bruises and everything. Mrs Tachyon, I mean, not my mum. Someone really had a go at her, she said. My mum, not Mrs Tachyon. She said we ought to tell the police.â
âWhat for?â
âWe might have seen something. Anyway ⦠er ⦠someone might think it was ⦠us â¦â
â Us? But we called the ambulance!â
âI know that. Er ⦠and youâve got her stuff â¦â
âWell, we couldnât just leave it there!â
â I know that. But ⦠well, we did have Bigmac with us â¦â
And that was it, really. It wasnât that Bigmac was actually evil . Heâd happily fire imaginary nuclear missiles at people but he wouldnât hurt a fly, unless perhaps it was a real hard biker fly whichâd given him serious grief. However, he did have a problemwith cars, especially big fast ones with the keys still in the ignition. And he was a skinhead. His boots were so big that it was quite hard for him to fall over.
According to Sergeant Comely of Blackbury police station, Bigmac was guilty of every unsolved crime in the town, whereas in real life he was probably only guilty of ten per cent, maximum. He looked like trouble. No one looking at Bigmac would think he was innocent of anything .
âAnd Wobbler, too,â Yo-less added.
And Wobbler would admit to anything if you got him frightened enough. All the great unsolved mysteries of the world â the Bermuda Triangle, the Marie Celeste, the Loch Ness Monster â could be sorted out in about half an hour if you leaned a bit on Wobbler.
âIâll go by myself, then,â said Johnny. âSimpler that way.â
Yo-less sighed with relief. âThanks.â
The phone rang just as Johnny put it down again.
It started saying âHello? Hello?â before he got it to his ear.
âEr ⦠hello?â he said.
âIs that you ?â said a female voice. It wasnât exactly an unpleasant one, but it had a sharp, penetrating quality. It seemed to be saying that if you werenât you, then it was your fault. Johnny recognized it instantly. It was the voice of someone who dialled wrong numbers and then complained that the phone was answered by people she didnât want to speak to.
âYes. Er ⦠yes. Hello, Kirsty.â
âItâs Kasandra, actually.â
âOh. Right,â said Johnny. Heâd have to make a note. Kirsty changed her name about as often as she changed her clothes, although at least these days she was sticking to ones beginning with K.
âHave you heard about old Mrs Tachyon?â
âI think so,â said Johnny, guardedly.
âApparently a gang of yobs beat her up last night. She looked as though a bombâd hit her. Hello? Hello? Hello?â
âIâm still here,â said Johnny. Someone had filled his stomach with ice.
âDonât you think thatâs shameful?â
âEr. Yes.â
âOne of them was black.â
Johnny nodded dismally at the phone. Yo-less had explained about this sort of