The Cat Who Came in Off the Roof Read Online Free Page B

It had been the Church Cat, Ecumenica. And she herself had found the pot of old coins while scratching in the churchyard for simple toiletry reasons. Tibble had gone straight to the verger and told him. And then he’d written an article about it.
    “Keep it up, Tibble,” his boss said. “You don’t seem to be shy at all any more.”
    Tibble blushed. It wasn’t true… unfortunately. He was still as shy as ever. The news all came from the cats and he only needed to write it up. Although… he did often need to check that the things he’d heard were actually true. But usually a single phone call was enough to take care of that. “Excuse me, Mr Whatever, I heard that so-and-so did this or that, is that true?” Up till now it had always been true. The cats hadn’t told him any fibs.
    And there were so many cats in Killenthorn. Every building had at least one. Now, at this very moment, there was one sitting on the window sill in the Editor’s office.
    It was the Editorial Cat. He blinked at Tibble.
    That cat listens to everything, Tibble thought. I hope he doesn’t tell nasty stories about me.
    “And so,” the Editor continued, “I’ve been thinking of increasing your salary at the end of the month.”
    “Thank you, sir, great,” Tibble said. He snuck a glance at the Editorial Cat and felt himself blushing again. There was a hint of cold contempt in the cat’s eyes. He probably thought Tibble was grovelling.
    A little later, out on the street, where the sun was shining, Tibble felt a tremendous urge to run and skip; he was that relieved.
    And when he saw someone he knew, he shouted out “Hello” at the top of his voice.
    It was Bibi, a little girl who lived nearby and sometimes visited him in his attic.
    “Would you like an ice cream?” Tibble asked. “Come on, I’ll buy you an extra-large one.”
    Bibi was in Mr Smith’s class at school and told Tibble that they were having a drawing competition. She was going to do a really big picture.
    “What are you going to draw?” Tibble asked.
    “A cat,” Bibi said.
    “Do you like cats?”
    “I love all animals.” She licked her big pink ice cream.
    “When you’ve finished your drawing, come and show it to me,” Tibble said and went home.
    Minou had been living in his attic for a week now and all things considered it wasn’t too bad. What it actually came down to was that he now had two cats instead of just one.
    Minou slept in the box. And she did most of her sleeping inthe daytime. At night she’d go out through the kitchen window, then wander over the rooftops and through the back gardens, talking to the many cats in the surrounding area and not coming home to her box until early in the morning.
    The most important thing was that she provided him with news. The first few days it had been Fluff who had busied himself searching for the latest stories. But Fluff wasn’t a real news cat.
    He mostly came back with gossip about cat fights, or boasting about a rat he’d smelt near the docks or a fish head he’d found somewhere. He wasn’t really interested in human rumours.
    No, the great source of news was the Tatter Cat. She knew everything.
    That was mainly because she was a stray who swiped her meat scraps from all layers of society. And because she had an extensive family.
    The Tatter Cat had children and grandchildren all over town.
    Minou met her at night on the roof of the Social Security Building and always took a small bag of fish for her.
    “Thanks,” the Tatter Cat would say. “My daughter, the Council Cat, is waiting for you at the Town Hall. She’s sitting on one of the marble lions out the front and she’s got some news for you…”
    Or “The Butcher’s Cat wanted to tell you something. He’s in the third garden on the left after the chestnut…”
    That same night Minou went down the Social Security fire escape, slunk over a courtyard and slipped through a rear gate into an alley. And from there to the prearranged spot where