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‘So, she made the footprints, which means it was probably her who managed to damage the sets and stole Tomasz’s keys. But what do we do now we know?’ Snowball asked. It was all falling into place in my mind as Snowball spoke. She was at the meeting to hear of any plans to foil her. Was she doing this because she was annoyed that she didn’t get a bigger role in the show? Would a grown-up really do that? Or had her grief at losing her husband and having to move house made her slightly mad? It could happen. I knew from my own experience how grief could change you into a totally differentperson. However, regardless of her motives, one thing was certain: we had to stop her and I didn’t have long to come up with a plan. I needed to put my thinking cap on – and no, that wasn’t the one knitted by Doris.

‘So, here’s how it’s going to work,’ I said a bit later to my troops, who were lined up listening to me. I had gathered every cat I could get my paws on. Nellie, Elvis, Rocky, Oliver, Salmon as well as Snowball and George. ‘We will go to the perpetrator’s front garden. We will wait until one of our adults walks by – it’ll be either Claire or Sylvie, by my reckoning. When we see them, George, you will be our lookout and will give us the signal. The rest of us, from behind the bin, will push it with everything we’ve got so it tips over and reveals the shoes to our human.’ A brilliant, brilliant plan, if I did say so myself.

‘What’s the signal?’ Salmon asked.

‘Yowl as loudly as you can,’ I said.

‘Or I could be more creative, I could do my sheep impression?’ George said.

‘No, we won’t be able to see you, so just yowl and we will know it’s time,’ I said. I wanted to keep it as simple as possible.

‘What if Barbara sees us?’ Snowball asked.

‘Then we’ll have to abort our mission so hopefully she won’t. We’ll tuck behind the bin and if she comes out of the house George will give us a signal,’ I said.

‘What’s the signal?’ Salmon asked again.

‘Meow as loudly as you can.’

‘Right, let me get this straight,’ Rocky said. ‘He meows and we tip the bin, he yowls and we hide?’

‘No, the other way round.’ I went through the whole thing one more time. We had to get it right.

It was cold and had started to rain by the time we made it to Barbara’s flat. We took up our position behind the bin, with George out front, and waited.

‘Ow, I think someone stood on my tail,’ Nellie said.

‘Careful,’ I cautioned, although I think it may have been me.

‘Keep quiet, or we could blow this whole thing,’ Salmon said.

‘Imagine if Barbara finds us here, she’ll go mad.’

‘She won’t find us.’

Just as we were all getting on each other’s fur – we were soaking wet and also uncomfortable being crammed in together – we heard George.

‘YOWL.’

‘Is that push or Barbara?’ Rocky asked. I rolled my whiskers.

‘Push,’ I commanded. We all shoved the bin with all our strength and with the help of the wind it fell over with a crash.

‘Whatever is that?’ Sylvie said. Us cats made our way round to the front but tried to stay hidden in a bush. George and Sylvie stood by the bin. ‘How did this happen?’ she asked. She went to pick the bin up, putting the break on Theo’s pram first, and as she did I felt like mewing in despair. The bin was empty, which was probably why it had been pretty easy to push over. Sylvie picked it up and put it back in place, still looking perplexed, then she walked on. We all emerged from the bush.

‘Didn’t think about the fact it might have been emptied, did we?’ Salmon said.

‘No. Oh, how disappointing,’ I said, feeling dejected.

‘Oh Alfie, it was a very good plan, and it’s not your fault that the bin men must have just been.’

‘How could I be so stupid? I heard Claire reminding Jonathan to put the bins out earlier. I didn’t think.’

‘Never mind, there’s always another plan, Alfie,’ Nellie said.

She was right, there was.

‘I think that Salmon and I will have to try to catch her red-handed, as per the original plan. And now we know it’s her, we need to act quickly.’

‘But she tried to hurt you before, what if she does something now?’ Snowball asked.

‘OK, well, maybe we won’t confront her, but we have to stop her from ruining the show somehow. But just in case, George, if I am not at home when you wake up, come and find these guys – if you can make sure you come here in the morning everyone, and Snowball, if you can’t get away, someone will come to your house. Is that OK with everyone? Are we all clear?’ I was surprised to find that I was beginning to feel nervous.

‘Hold on, if she doesn’t come to the hall tonight, you might get locked in, anyway,’ Elvis pointed out.

‘Yes, which is why I need George to find someone to come get us out if that’s the case,’ I said. I thought I had explained my plan clearly, but still they had questions.

‘I should be coming with you,’ George said sulkily.

‘But son, I need you at home, in case you need to raise the alarm,’ I repeated.

‘Humph.’

‘OK, Alfie, but do you still need to do it now we know it’s her?’ Nellie asked.