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Thankfully my musings were interrupted as the children climbed onto the stage. They looked cute, although they weren’t yet wearing their costumes – neither was Pickles, because he kept trying to eat the red nose – as they had said they’d save it for the night.

‘Rudolph the red-nosed reindeer …’ they trilled as they tried to get Pickles to do the dance they had taught him. Henry held a dog treat and Pickles went on his hind legs and danced in a circle on them. It was very cute but definitely more dog than reindeer, or so I thought, anyway.

‘He looks sweet,’ George said, showing a rare moment of fondness for Pickles.

‘He does. As do our children.’

Everyone clapped as the song came to an end and Pickles licked the stage.

‘Woof, woof, woof,’ he said, standing in the centre and looking pleased with himself.

‘Bravo,’ Claire shouted.

‘Great job, everyone,’ Aleksy said, taking his director role seriously.

‘And now, we have the Edgar Road singers,’ Connie said. As Vic and Heather led their group onto the stage, I sat down. This was too important to everyone, I justhad to find the culprit, there was absolutely no choice.

Chapter Twenty-Two

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The neighbourhood watch meeting was, luckily, being held at our house, which meant I could attend. It was Monday evening and a rare evening away from the show. We were no closer to finding out who had done the damage so far, but it was early days and thankfully nothing else had happened. Because some of the sets had been ruined, Tomasz and his crew were working late to re-do them all, so maybe the bad person just hadn’t had the opportunity to ruin anything else. Or maybe they had stopped. I could only hope that they’d stopped.

‘Right let’s get started,’ Vic said, clapping his hands. Claire and Jonathan were rushing around making drinks for everyone, and the living room was full, standing room only. The doorbell rang and Vic tutted loudly. He hated anyone being even one minute late.

Polly opened it and came back with Barbara.

‘So sorry I’m late,’ she said, with a big smile. ‘I’m here to help.’

I was unsure whether I believed her or not, but she sounded genuine. She didn’t even glare at me, so I thought perhaps she was actually becoming nice. Or nicer, at least.

I settled down in a good listening place, on Matt’s lap. He stroked me as he listened to Vic.

‘We will not let anyone ruin all our hard work,’ he was saying.

‘No, and also Edgar Road does not tolerate crime of any description,’ Heather added.

‘We will catch whoever it is and they will be sorry they messed with us,’ Vic shouted, making Matt jump.

I concentrated as they tried to come up with an action plan. Some of the ideas were immediately discounted. The first was to install cameras, but Jonathan vetoed that on the basis of the cost being too high, especially as they only needed it for a short time. Then Vic said they could arrange security to be at the hall at all times, but again this wasn’t practical.

‘I don’t see how it would work. We’ve got a fair few weeks until the show and everyone’s busy enough as it is,’ Jonathan replied.

‘I agree, it’s not feasible to have someone stationed at the hall at all times,’ Vic concluded.

Although it did give me an idea. If it came to it, maybe we cats could keep watch. Yes, that wasn’t a bad idea at all. Honestly, the cat neighbourhood watch could foil this before the human one did. But then, we usually did.

The meeting conclusion was a pretty woolly plan where everyone would keep their eyes and ears open and report anything suspicious… which was pretty much my, and my cat friends’, plan too. But it was still gratifying to see everyone firmly behind making the show a success and trying to stop anyone from doing it harm. Surely with us all working together, the show would be safe now.

‘Right, so we know what we’re all doing?’ Vic said, after a lot of waffle. I would have been surprised if anyone knew what they were doing.

‘Pretty much nothing,’ Jonathan muttered and Claire swatted him.

There was a bit more chatter before Jonathan finally managed to get everyone out. Matt and Polly stayed behind for a last drink and a debrief.

‘Do you think the person who did it was here?’ Polly asked, sipping her wine.

‘Probably. I would be, if it was me, to see what we knew,’ Matt replied.

‘I just don’t understand why anyone would try to sabotage the show,’ Polly said.

‘Me either,’ Claire agreed.

‘No one seems to know anything though; that’s the problem,’ Jonathan said.

‘True, and no one was acting in a suspicious manner,’ Claire said, which I agreed with, because I had been watching and I had very good intuition.

‘So maybe they weren’t here. What if they have nothing to do with the show but they just don’t want it to go ahead?’ Polly mused.

‘But why?’ Matt was as confused as I was.

‘Well, I’m pretty sure it can’t be about the charity. No one could object to supporting the homeless shelter, surely?’ Claire said.